You gots Musik

So I have not done a post about music in absolutely ages but I have come across some music that I think is definitely worth writing about. Just listen to it.

Cognac and Kinda Slow Aaron Lipsett and Fion

These two videos below are by Aaron Lipsett, the second being a collaboration with Fion.

Now I will admit I do not have any particularly outstanding knowledge or opinion of music but I know what I like and I know what I don't like, and this most definitely falls into the former category.

Cognac is the kind of song that is as smooth as its namesake and packs an equal punch. It knows what it's going to say and it says it. There is no muddling, no pretensions and no gimmicks. 

Kinda Slow on the other hand is a different kind of cool altogether. In fact I don't think I could do it justice. READ HERE instead as it definitely gives a better summation of it than my feeble knowledge of music ever could. I do however challenge you to find anything like it, anything that attempts to pull off what it attempts - and succeeds in so elegantly - in terms of sound and theme. 

On top of all of this I am seriously proud to say that I know these guys. Well I haven't seen them in ages but hey if they get famous I can be like oh ya those guys used to come to parties in my house. Future claim to fame. 

God, I'm a loser. 

212 Azealia Banks

Now for more music. I am not quite sure what I make of this song. I features the C word a lot (hey I'm actually a seventy year old woman) but there is so much more to it than that. Y'know some songs make you tap your feet or bob your head, well this one makes my shoulders and neck do weird things. Seriously it's really strange. I haven't been out in ages but I know that the next time I'm out in a nightclub or something and this comes on, everyone will probably think I am having some kind of weird repetitive stroke.

A lot of people I hear are likening her to Nicki Minja of whom I am not a fan - I think death would be the only possible way to be more indifferent to her - but to be honest I'm not really into comparing people who I don't even really think sound very similar but just like to curse and stuff in their music. What I will say though is that this song - I haven't actually listened to any others song by Azealia Banks - gets into your head and you probably won't even be able to think of the whole tune later so you'll just have to listen to it again. I don't really know what the message here is but it sure as hell make me do funny things with my shoulders.

White Nights Oh Land

Next up is something a little more girly girly and pretty pretty and generally a whole lot sweeter.

HBO's Girls lead me to this (that is a comment that you will definitely see on Youtube - not written by me but it seems like it led a lot of people there). There is something kind of Florence Welch-y about the video and almost (but not quite because FW is a lyrical genius) about the lyrics too. Also yer wan is a ringer for January Jones (oh yes this is me judging musicans on their vocal talents not looks). It is a sweet song and there is a Lykke Li quality to the rest of her music but with a bit of glitter and sparkle to them too. She is nice for sunny days. Well worth a listen.

Weekend Class Actress

Now for something altogether more 80s.

Now I cannot remember where I first heard Weekend by Class Actress - which is a great name I think - but I know it was definitely recently as I haven't even downloaded it yet. I still have it on my little Song List in Notes on my phone. For the record, it's not actually from the 1980s but last year. It does however sound very eighties-ish which I do like. A lot.

Guantanamera Joan Baez

Next is a female that might make a few brows furrow in confusion but Joan Baez and I are having a bit of a love-in at the moment since my dad pulled this song up on Youtube a few months ago. 

This song make me wish that four years of studying Spanish had actually made me good at it. Cue an overwhelming need to mumble along words in pseudo-Spanish just like I do with singing in most foreign languages! Her cover of No Woman No Cry is also strangely enchanting. 

Look Sébastien Tellier

Now for the pièce de résistance...

This is currently my favourite walking-down-the-street song (yeah 'cause I'm cool like that) and this video (which I was going to post but didn't because it is strangle hypnotic) is kind of the reason behind that. 

Now Sébastien Tellier has been on the scene for over ten years and the first time I heard him was back in 2009 on Ugly Betty and I downloaded some of his stuff (the fact that I had it labelled Ugly Betty Soundtrack and the Date Added thing on iTunes helped jog my memory) but I guess I must have forgotten about it because when Look shuffled it's way onto my iTunes the other day I could have sworn I'd never heard anything so entrancing. Look is definitely my favourite song out of all of his stuff (thanks to Grooveshark I had a good listen to a lot of it) as it reminds me a little of Kavinsky's Nightcall which is one of my top five absolute favourite songs (okay so I only heard it a year ago but it takes a very special song to get into my top five). When you listen to the two of them, you won't be like wow that's the same song or anything like that but you might get where I'm coming from.  

So that's all for today folks.

Cheers for reading,

Jane

All videos via YouTube.com (click for Playlist)

Damn, Girl: Mia Wasikowska

So I am doing a seriously lazy Damn Girl piece today that basically just includes Mia Wasikowska's interview in this month's Vogue UK (Sept '12). I wouldn't declare myself to be a massive fan of her or anything but I do think she is an immensely talented young woman and the interview is a very good one. 

Also she photographs beautifully and Bruce Weber does capture her quiet eccentricity so that's why I think this feature warrants a place in my Damn Girl series. 

Two of my favourite Youtube series are Lynn Hirschberg's screentests for W Magazine (there are 59 videos - do not start watching this if you have something important to do, before you know it two hours will have passed!) and The New York Times' Touch of Evil, both of which feature Wasikowska so I figured I'd include them too. 

So that was a fairly lazy post but I am working on some pretty special ones that will hopefully be up soon enough. 

Cheers for reading,

Jane

images from HERE, videos from HERE