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Tunesday Spotlight: The Wallflowers

Let’s just call this throwback Tuesday, shall we? There are two men I thoroughly enjoy in this life that aren’t my father or my husband…… and that’s Bob and little Jakey Dylan. My mom is a huge Bob Dylan fan, and when I was younger I will admit I would rather pull all of my hair out than listen to one of his songs. Fast forward 18 to 20 years later and what’s one of my absolute favorite, top 3 songs of all time? Isis by Bob Dylan, of course. (If you haven’t heard it, listen to it! It’s about 8 minutes long but undeniably an amazing song). A lot of people find that Bob can kind of be a hard pill to swallow because his voice is so…. “unique” but he is one of the best songwriters that ever lived. Disagree? I’ll fight you on it, swear. What I love most about his songs is that you can almost imagine some of them as movies they’re so descriptive and imaginative. For instance, Tangled up in Blue, Hurricane (Which did become a movie, duh!), Isis, Desolation Row…. so many to choose from. However, this is not a Bob Dylan song we’re going to listen to today.

The great thing about Bob Dylan is that he created Jacob Dylan… a watered down version of his father for my generation. Kudos, Bob, kudos. Jacob and the Wallflowers were the gateway drug I used to get into Bob I think. Although the two sound completely different, Jacob’s most recent solo album, Seeing Things, sounds like it could have been written and recorded by his father, so I’m guessing Bob has played a bigger role in Jacob’s life as a musician than he wanted to admit in earlier years, hmmm? Anyway. This song is a classic and always puts me in a good mood. Enjoy.

 

The Wallflowers – One Headlight

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Tunesday Spotlight: The Gay Blades

Top of the morning to ya. I’ve posted about these guys before, The Gay Blades. I used to work with Quinn, (the drummer) many, many moons ago, and since the beginning of time (not really) he’s been in other bands with this guy James (singer/guitar player). When I first met Quinn they were in this band called Cleverhans, and then they morphed into a band called Hello Lovely, and alas, they have settled into The Gay Blades, kicking out every other member of the band, ha. For just the two guys they have phenomenal energy and they’re just so fun to see live. I’ve been a big fan of all their bands, but The Gay Blades are something completely different. This is one of my favorite songs, funky and fun, so I hope your ears are ready!

The Gay Blades – O Shot

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Tunesday Spotlight: Train

Good morning! Happy Tunesday. Let’s get right down to it. I love Train. I think everything about this band is just pure perfection, especially Pat Monahan. I was lucky enough to see them last summer at The Arts Center and they were just so good. And this is their new song that I’m also currently loving. For your listening pleasure… here is Train with Drive By. Enjoy. :]

 

 

ALSO! Great news… the hubs, The Dude, Baby R, and I are all moved in to our new abode and thanks to Pinterest I’ve gotten crafty with some of our space so I’m gonna post some pictures and whatnot later for all ya’ll. In the meantime, enjoy some Train and have a wonderful Tuesday. Byee.

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Tunesday Spotlight x2: Thomas Nicholas Band

I know I already posted a song this week, and I’ll probably forget to post one next week, but I just had share this with everyone. I think we, as a species, can agree that there is nothing more annoying than actors turned musicians. Or Fly Girls turned “artists,” (hi J. Lo). Fortunately, every once in a while, an actor or actress comes along that kind of… surprises us; refreshing! A while back on Twitter I was followed by Thomas Ian Nicholas. THE Thomas Ian Nicholas, who we all know and love from American Pie. (He was my personal favorite, I know all the girls swooned over… what was his name? Chris Klein? But not me, I thought ‘Kevin’ was just the cutest!) So when I saw that this was the real Thomas Ian Nicholas, I about lost my shiz. And then I discovered that this was his band’s Twitter account, even cooler!

His band, appropriately titled Thomas Nicholas Band, is basically the love child of maybe, let’s say, the Wallflowers and LIT. Instant 90’s headache, in a good way, a really good way! He plays guitar, he sings, and get this world….. he’s GOOD! Hallelujah. I love me some real talent in this world of techno migraines and house beat headaches. So please check them out! And let’s all take comfort in the fact that Thomas is just as adorable now as he was in American Pie!

Thomas Nicholas Band – Wasting My Time …… dig it :]

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Tunesday Spotlight: Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars

Why did I not know that Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars had a song out together until like… literally 5 minutes ago? I am totttaaallly digging this song and I’m glad I didn’t post a song yesterday because then I’d have to wait a full week to share it with everyone else. I posted Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars a couple weeks ago, which you can watch here. I’m a big fan of theirs so their teaming up with T. Swift makes me super happy! I feel like even though this song is pretty much completely sang by Taylor, it should be listed as The Civil Wars featuring Taylor Swift because it’s totally their vibe. I love hearing this side of Taylor, the song itself is eerie and creepy and haunting and the video only makes it worse, haha. Apparently it’s being featured in The Hunger Games, which based on the one preview I’ve seen for that movie 100 times in the past 3 days, it makes perfect sense. It’s a breath of fresh air to hear something completely different from Taylor Swift. Don’t get me wrong, Mean and You Belong with Me are like, 2 of my favorite songs ever, but we know she can do bubble gummy pop country. This song is by no means the same. So here is Taylor Swift along with my personal faves, The Civil Wars. Enjoy!

Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars – Safe and Sound

PS – Can we just talk about something else real quick that’s irritating me? The Moonshine Bandits… My Kind of Country or something or other… what in god’s name is that awfulness? Two horribly over weight red necks singing the same lyrics over and over hitting the right note every so often? Really country music? You consider that good? Proof that all you have to do is mention how you hate war and love your country and you can make it big in country music. I’m thinking about coming out with a country record called Proud to be an American. It’s an instant classic already. I am pretty much tone deaf, but who cares, I love my country. Phew, ok. That’s just my angry rant of the day haha. Thanks for listening. And in all seriousness, I hope you liked this T. Swift & Civil Wars diddy cause I am loving it.

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Tunesday Spotlight; The Civil Wars

Almost forgot it was Tunesday again! This week I was totally torn between the kind of music I wanted to post… do I do something mushy and cute because it’s Valentine’s Day… or do I just post a song I’m loving right now? I’m skipping over the mushy romantic music because if you don’t have a Valentine this year, you don’t wanna hear it, I’m sure. I went for a song that I’m digging right now. The general public probably discovered this band over the weekend during the Grammy’s; they “opened” for T. Swift. I found them a while back and was instantly drawn to their sound. One of my favorite movies is O, Brother Where Art Thou? and this song sounded like it could have been plucked right off of their sound track. And let’s be honest, this guy has a certain Johny Depp’esque quality that we all adore. These are the Civil Wars. Enjoy!

The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow

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Tunesday Spotlight: Foo Fighters

Let’s just pretend that it’s Tuesday and I didn’t forget to post a song of the week this week… :\ It’s no secret that I love the Foo Fighters. I’ve had a mini crush on this band ever since I heard Matt and his best friend Billy play an awkwardly high rendition of Everlong at our middle school’s variety show when I was in 5th grade. I’m embarrassed to say that was my first taste of the band, and surprisingly the boys didn’t scare me off with their Chipmunk impressions, and I’ve been a big fan of them ever since. When their new CD Wasting Light came out I was ecstatic! My favorite song off their new album is Arlandria, which you can also watch here. We got to see them perform their whole new CD at their record release party at the Ed Sullivan theater in NY. I apologize, the quality isn’t the greatest, but it was taken on my digital camera 9 rows back, so deal with it.

My featured song this week is their new release These Days. Like I said, Arlandria is my absolute favorite song off their new album but this is a very, very close second. Every time I play this song the baby starts moving around like crazy. I can only imagine her in there singing and dancing along to the music. She’s a big Foo fan already. 😉 We’ve been training her. haha. I love the message in this song and the video was so well done to portray it. When he has to leave his family in the beginning… kind of tugs on your heart strings a little bit! ::tear::

Enjoy! This is Foo Fighters – These Days

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Tunesday Spotlight: Rage Against the Machine

This is definitely one of the more random songs I’ve posted. The beginning of this song makes me feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone, especially when listening to it on my iPod through Bose headphones when you can hear every single detail.

I like to rock out to a little Rage every time I’m feeling….. enraged 😉 Today is not one of those days, I’m in a fantastic mood today! But it came on my iPod and now I feel the need to share. Turn the volume way up and listen to the beginning , it’s so cray cray to me I can’t listen to it before I go to bed for fear Alfred Hitchcock may pop out from inside my closet. haha Enjoy. <3

Rage Against the Machine – No Shelter

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Tunesday Spotlight: Rage Against the Machine

This is definitely one of the more random songs I’ve posted. The beginning of this song makes me feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone, especially when listening to it on my iPod through Bose headphones when you can hear every single detail.

I like to rock out to a little Rage every time I’m feeling….. enraged 😉 Today is not one of those days, I’m in a fantastic mood today! But it came on my iPod and now I feel the need to share. Turn the volume way up and listen to the beginning , it’s so cray cray to me I can’t listen to it before I go to bed for fear Alfred Hitchcock may pop out from inside my closet. haha Enjoy. <3

Rage Against the Machine – No Shelter

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Tunesday Spotlight: Cowboy Junkies

So I actually heard this song for the first time while I was flipping through the channels and landed on one of HBO’s random movie channels. This movie Lost and Delirious was playing. I had never seen it before, never even heard of it before. But after Coyote Ugly I have a deep love for Piper Perabo and she just so happened to be the first thing I saw so I thought I’d stop and take a gander for a minute. The movie itself, much like the title, is just weird. And this actually happens to be like, the only scene I watched. What really captivated me was this song playing throughout the entire scene. The voice is beautiful and the lyrics remind me of some fantasy life I would love to live. This is the exact clip I watched, so you’ll see what I saw for the first time. Unless, of course, you’ve already seen this movie before. These are my favorite lyrics from the song:
All that I know to be true is the touch of your hand on my skin.
One look from you can so easily soothe all this turmoil within.
As we dance cheek to cheek with our feet so completely locked in a time all our own,
I stark to speak, and you gently keep me moving in time to the song.
And in a voice that is sloppy with gin, you say, “let the world spin.” 

 

Enjoy!

The Cowboy Junkies: River Waltz.