Winning A Battle, Losing A War. The MEGA Post.

i believe erland oye (the great dancer/napoleon dynamite lookalike) is one of the most brilliant songwriters of the 21st century. and thats saying a lot coming from me. Everything from the folky kings of convenience, to the beutiful soft electro of the whitest boy alive, to his solo work is all nothing short of brilliant. If you haven't heard the kings of convenience remix album, "versus" you really are missing out. a truly great work.
so i decided to stay in tonight, largely because this is an insane weekend for me in general. So its nice to just sit at home and take in everything that is going on...starting to get stuff ready for my cruise next week. I am sooo incredibly excited, out of any of the past 5 years, where i have taken at least one vacation (niceee) this year, i need one the most. This year has been so...strange i guess i would say. Some things bad, some things good, but definitely an experience nonetheless.
Okay so tomorrow is my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. How cute is that? 60 years....thats unbelievable. One day i hope i will find a girl i want to be with every single day for the rest of my life....in due time i guess. So its a big celebration at my aunt's house tomorrow night, which is fun, all of my cousins and family from across the country will be there, my cousin from colorado, my cousin from france, so it'll be nice to see everyone.
And sunday, my mom has this what she calls "graduation" which celebrates the ending of these classes she has been taking to be in charge of this ministry, we are going for taps brunch, yummmm and then its time for me and my best girl-friend to head to downtown la for the sweetest event of the year, the annual American Apparel Party. Which has made a huge improvement from last year, because not only is it a flea market sale with a tonnn of stuff for a buck, but this year its an all out, all night party, with Sebastien Tellier dj'ing (who has provided one of the most impressive French dance albums of the year). So that should be fun, i'll be there all night, so if you are going, let me know! Everyone by now knows by complete obsession with aa clothing, strange the first time i bought regular aa clothes, i was buying large, and now i'm buying smalls, but xs fit well too! crazy!
thennn monday is the wonderful kele and bloc party, with another band i saw at coachella this year, "does it offend you, yeah?" Who i don't really care for to be honest with you, but still a worthy opener. So that show is at the glass house, which is amazing enough that a band of such high stature like bp is playing such a small venue. But then i looked at the calender of future shows, and OMG! CUT COPY playing there in oct? Vamp Weekend playing there as well? What the hell is going on? What happened to the days of the el rey and the mayan? perhaps the troubadour and the roxy? Or the fonda and the hob? No, lets play a little place in ghetto pomona guys! alright! Whatev. saves me on parking and gas.
so nothing much has changed in the past week, just continuing to be very busy. i don't know if i'll have time to post again before i leave on friday, but we'll see.
sorry i just have to do a couple quick record reviews. 2 that have constantly been on my mind

the dodos - visitor
this honestly, may be my favorite album of 2008 so far. A truly brilliant album. I have not stopped listening to it, really. The style ranges from beautiful acoustic ballads (below) to ambient klaxon-esque stuff. I cannot recommend this album enough, it is so different, yet so accepting and familiar. This song is one of the most beautiful, yet simple songs i've heard so far this year, sounds like it'd be on the juno soundtrack.
9.4/10
the dodos - undeclared

black kids - partie traumatic
as spin so elequently said, "no band has received this much hype since vampire weekend." And i'd have to agree, i have been hearing about them pretty much every week for months and months, and this week the group finally released their long awaited debut, and it does not disappoint. As spin also says, no lyricist has possessed such songwriting ability since morrissey, or stephen merritt (a la magnetic fields) arguably, and in my opinion, two of the best songwriters ever. But back to the album, it truly is great, mixing the go team! shouting vocals with beautiful vampire weekend melodies. A great debut.
8.5/10
black kids - hit the heartbrakes

wow, a lot of music today! i also have two, amazinggg covers for you. first, is a great australian singer, lenka, covering one of my favorite modest mouse songs, "gravity rides everything." A very interesting take on the song. And the other is a cover/remix of the greatttt 80's hit "take on me," where the singer sounds like ben gibbard, like a lot! enjoy everyone. I hope to post one more time before fridayyyy. Thug Lifeee.

Lenka - Gravity Rides Everything (Modest Mouse Cover)
Karl Kling - Take On Me (A-Ha Cover/RAC Remix)

Mixed Emotions

i <3> the rolling stones. Having their albums just gave me so much more significant respect for them. And this song is honestly, my favorite song of the entire 1960's. Omg. i just typed all of this and it all erasedddd.... ahhhh. Okay whatever.
Well, my life is changing constantly, i always think i know what i want and then something happens and everything changes...As mentioned last week , i thought i maybe wanted to stay here, but Urban doesn't want to pay me enough money, so i now am more sure then ever that i will be leaving. So thats exciting...
Well exactly two weeks from tonight, i will be on a ship in the caribbean with family and friends. No doubt, i will be in my standard cut offs, super v and fedora haha. seriously, i haven't worn jeans in a month...and i've cut up like 10 pairs of pants...and i'm thinking of doing more...hey maybe i'll post pictures of me in the caribbean with a martini in my hand or me parasailing? Or maybe not...
Last night i saw the dark knight at midnight. Going into it, i was hesitant because i didn't really care for the first one, and considering this one was 2 1/2 hours long, but this movie was truly brilliant. Heath Ledger gives one of the best acting performances i've ever seen, very well done. go see it.
Okay... so in commemoration of seeing them in a little over a week for like the 30th time, here is THE NEW bloc party single, "mercury" its like low carb strawberry beer, its okay. so as i mentioned, i love the rolling stones, and this soulwax remix of one of their hits is no exception, very well done. And last is the very fun original version of possibly the best justice song, and also in commemoration of the fabulous new black ghosts album, and also the upcoming new simian mobile disco release. Its the "we are your friends" original, "never be alone" by simian. Fun fact about the justice "we are your friends" remix, justice, before they were big, made that remix for a local french contest, where dj's entered their remix of "never be alone." The funny thing is, justice's remake, came in SECOND place. I have been trying religiously to find the first place finisher, but with no avail. I just found that funny because the justice version is one of the most widely used remixes i've ever heard, not to mention the most amazinggg.
nothing but love.

Bloc Party - Mercury
The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want (Soulwax Remix)
Simian - Never Be Alone

Robot-Phobia

daft punk - alive 2007. without a doubt the best live album i have ever heard. absolutely incredible, its been on repeat in my car for weeks!
wow! i haven't posted in two weeks! crazy. i guess so much is going on i don't really have time to post. Well, so much has happened in the past couple weeks, i may have made a complete 180 in my idea of where i'm headed...well ultimately i will end up in the same place, it will just take me a little longer. So okay...as you know i was having trouble finding a math class so i could transfer schools in enough time. Well i finally found a class, but there's a problem. the class doesn't end till aug 19th and i start school on aug 25th. So with sending transcripts and everything, that is reallyyyyy cutting it close. And i spoke to my advisor and she said that i would get dropped from all my classes, and when they got my transcripts i would have to try and add them all again...which sucks. not to mention housing problems, so i've really been stressing about this whole thing....but i skipped school on wed, and went up there for orientation, and it was 70 deg! and when i came back to corona that night it was like 100 haha. Ahh! sooo amazing. So i figured i would just deal with the stress and hope for the best. But then something happened...
a part of me has always wanted to stay here till january, because then i could test for my 4th degree black belt in december and i wouldn't have to deal with all this crap, but i was still set on leaving...until the one job that would make me stay offered me an amazing opportunity. Well its no secret i LOVE urban outfitters, and they called me and offered me a great job, the catch is, i would have to stay here. But if i stayed here until jan, i could transfer to the store near my new school. I would choose urban over nordstrom any day...mainly because i loveee everyone i'm working with, and the store is just that amazing.
so now i'm really struggling with the confrontation between the two....what shall i do????
Summer school has been okay...but i much rather be doing nothing haha.
RAGING WATERS tomorrow!!! omg i haven't been in so long...this is exciting!
i can't wait...i leave for the caribbean in three weeks and three days before i leave...BLOC PARTY!!! yet again...oh kele, i will be so close to you i hope you don't mind my homosexual remarks towards you. haha.
wow. its strange. i guess more people read my blog then i thought. i kid you not, on my last post i mentioned the university of phoenix, and a couple days later i got an email from someone from the school asking me about what i was planning to do...wtf??? hahaha
i really do enjoy posting. i hope to continue this until i change my blog completely....
someday soon...
two great songs. the first is from a guy who i have grown to like probably more then any one single performer in the world, beirut. throughout the past 6 months or so, i have constantly gone back to his albums and continue to fall more in love with them. so here is a greattttt cover of hallelujah, with that great 20 year old beirut spin on it. And the other is a great acoustic version of a great electronic song from an amazing australian electronic band, its "road to recovery," acoustic, from midnight juggernauts.
nothing but lovee.

Beirut - Hallelujah
Midnight Juggernauts - Road To Recovery (Acoustic)