Port of Morrow

James Mercer is back, at his finest...in my favorite Portland based band--The Shins. In 2007 I winced every night away with the Shins, and now with the completed 4th studio album, I am hoping to create a new soundtrack for 2012. 'Simple Song' is the first single of the much anticipated album, and it has a little bit of the 60's nostalgia, mixed with the classic Shins pop aesthetic.

Hear it here first:


Album Release Date: March 20th, stream it on ITunes starting March 13th

I feel so CLOSE to you right now, it's a force field...

...I wear my heart up on my sleeve like a big deal.
I am notorious for wearing my emotions in plain sight. This heart on your sleeve mentality, has it's good and bad quality's. It shows people utter joy, and also despair. It's one part of my personality that sometimes I wish I could turn off, but it's also the part of me...that I love the most. There is simply no questioning where I am at moment to moment, and I know that freaks a lot of people out.
Like an open book, you can read the exact page I am...and in this moment I am head over heels made about the new Calvin Harris song, 'Feel so Close". Yes, you heard it here first. I am crazy, mad about...a dance song.
Remember the good times in your life, and grab the one you feel close too...and don't let them go!

Now, that the damage is done...I never miss it at all.

Time seems to slip away before we even have a second to grasp it. Along with all the music I have been, indulging in a lot of meditating. I've been focusing on 'ego', and all the crazy self-centered emotions that come along with it. Letting go of all the hurt, jealousy, and everything that falls into that category is so difficult to let go of. Time seems infinite, and letting go of it is taking a little more time than I am wanting.
While I am waiting, I will keep meditating...and these amazing podcasts are helping me along the way...
Download for free on Itunes
Temple Buddist Center at Unity Temple-By Janet Taylor

All my friends tell me I should move on, I'm lying in the ocean singing your song

In my newly found 'dark paradise', Lana Del Rey's "Born to Die" has been my soundtrack in this jungle. With each honest word, the moments seem brighter. I look back on the last year, and I feel like I am drowning. If each artist that I admire so much, can shine a creative light on the negative in their lives...than why can't I?
I am going to use the moments where it seems like the world is spinning, to focus on my creativity. Rediscover the every corner of my heart and mind.
Here we go..
LITTLE THINGS..
Now Playing:
"Bridges Burned" Seeker Lover Keeper http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0nz5QBJ3Io
"Dark Paradise" Lana Del Rey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLS8YGWC2iA
"The Daylight" Andrew Belle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw4vrqPljW4

All We Know Is Falling

There are a lot of things in life, that make us tick. Music is the constant tick-tock that I hear in my head. As of late, I can't hear anything ticking.

 I see my record player sitting in my living room, covered with dust. The records on the shelves perfectly preserved in plastic, untouched. CD's stacked and scratched unable to be played even if I wanted to. A computer filled with years of music, that has lost all power to start.

I've lost the passion for the HUNT. The ever ending quest to discover the latest and greatest. Instead I find myself distracted, my head clouded with the sounds of mediocre pop music. It haunts me in my day to day, as it blares through the speakers at work. I am always asking, could this really be it? Have my musical tastes fizzled out and faded away. Is it a curse of my surroundings, in combination with my lack of passion for the chase?

Maybe.


Today I found myself searching...falling back on my laurels if you will.
Tonight, I am gonna open up that record player...pull some records off the shelves, and remember how I fell in love this "hobby" in the first place. The places, the people, the music...if only I could relive all those "perfect" moments all over again. Maybe the playlist is a little embarrassing, but nostalgia always is...

"I fear I might break, I fear can't take it. Tonight I'll lie awake, feeling empty."

Grow up, and blow away.

Like every angst filled teen, I longed for the day that I could finally get a tattoo. It was something that I was definitely NOT supposed to do. In good teenage FASHION, I just had to do it (you know exactly what I am talking about). It was sure to be my stamp that I was a "rebel without a cause", a real big middle finger to the "man"(my parents, of course). Not something too big, but not too small...indiscrete enough so my Mom wouldn't see it, this train of eternal age of teenage wisdom could only lead to a "TRAMP STAMP".  It seemed so genius in the moment, a music note.

I am sure we all have a phrase that our parents never let us live down. The day that my Mother found that treble clef in the small of my back is that day for me. I can remember it vividly. In fact, it almost seems like yesterday. She was furious and asked me WHAT WAS ON MY BACK, and I screamed with rebellion..."MUSIC IS MY LIFE MOM!" In my 18 year old mind, it was...and in my 26 year old mind it still is. I just don't know that at my current age, I would get a tattoo to "symbolize" my musical rebellion.

As the years have progressed from 18 to 26, a lot of things about me have changed. My love for music, is one passion that has resonated in me through out time. Though I have had my romances with certain genre's here and there, one band has always stood out for me--METRIC.


Emily Haines, and not to sound the slightest bit crazy, has the voice of an ANGEL. Yep, I said it. I first heard of Metric, from the girls I worked with at my first MAC counter. At the time I would have never admitted my obsession with Haines, as I was far too "hardcore" for my own good. Old World Underground--got me hooked. It was from that moment on that my secret obsession with Haines began. Old World Underground would find itself on my constant rotation until 2005, when Live It Up and then their debut album re-release Grow up, and Blow Away in 2007.

In 2009, I finally got to see Emily face to face. Fantasies had just been released a couple months before, and I had noticed a distinct change in the musical direction of my favorite band. She was standing on the stage covered in silver sequins, strobe lights bouncing back and forth off the dress, singing my favorite song DEAD DISCO. Even though Fantasies didn't hold the tiniest candle to the passion I felt for OLD WORLD UNDERGROUND, I realized that standing before me was my favorite band, and all of the sudden I fell in love with Fantasies. That concert, will always be one of my favorite memories. The energy, and the passion she exudes makes me love the band even more. Haines will always be my favorite singer, and Metric is STILL my favorite band, and guess what? MUSIC IS STILL MY LIFE.

Sidenote...if you haven't listened to Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton, you should do that NOW.

One Day, We're gonna live in Paris...I PROMISE, I'M ON IT.

Just when I think I am having a bad day...something totally random and unexpected starts blaring through the speakers of my computer. It sends me right back to the moment I first heard it--Covered in plaid, feeling as if the floor was moving beneath my feet, completely entranced my every energetic moment in the song-even though it was pouring rain outside, I had this strong instinct to "Jump in the Pool".

When I bought the Friendly Fires album in the weeks to follow, I don't think I took it out of my car for months. I would turn it on before I went to work, as I was getting ready for my nights out, when I was aimlessly driving around in my car trying to find "the meaning of life".



I think I have always loved music as much as I do, for the soundtrack it creates for your life. Songs bring me back to specific moments, and the feelings that I felt in them. They are my own nostalgia, and all it takes is the first few seconds to remember a world that I have forgotten.

I am finding a harmony in the intense electronic beats again, meaning behind the words..."you and me in the photobooth..." and I still just want to "Jump in the Pool.."

Jump In the Pool by namiks