Being post-punk myself, I am a sucker for a good post-punk revival sound. The fact that these guys are from New Zeland only makes me love them more.
The Young and Famous has been flitting across my background playlists for about two years, and it seemed like every time I lifted my head to see who sang a song I was really digging it was them. The feel of this song seems to sum up the exuberance of youth for me. Driving down the Pacific Coast highway with the windows down, staring at the clouds while your bff turns the volume up and starts singing behind the wheel, no ponytail holder, but not caring how tangled your hair gets because it just feels so good to feel young and alive and free.
Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a signed copy of Nidhi Chanani’s book Everyday Love. Giveaway closes Monday at 9:00pm PST. Click here for how to enter.
image courtesy of weheartit.com
Oh, I had to.
We saw it last night with a group of friends after enjoying Hunger Games-themed appetizers and beverages. Because we are fangeek dorks.
Abraham’s Daughter played over the closing credits, and is probably the best known song on the soundtrack aside from Taylor Swift’s collaboration with The Civil Wars. It’s definitely one of Arcade Fire‘s most haunting and spooky releases to date, with a driving beat and an other-worldly, almost childish vocal track. I listened to the soundtrack before seeing the movie, and thought the songs chosen fit the mood set by the Hunger Games books perfectly. Having seen the movie, even though I love the soundtrack, it definitely took a backseat to the overall brilliance of the score and sound engineering in the film (beautiful uses of silence and white noise). I’m not going to hype it up too much more except to say listen to the song and go see the movie because, as any fan of the book knows, the greatness of both speaks for themselves.
Today’s Saturday Soundtrack is a quickie, because I’m heading out to try to make it through two hours of classes at the gym. Cross your fingers for me that I don’t die.
image from stereogum.com
I’ve loved Wolf Parade since the release of their first album Apologies to the Queen Mary. Still, their single from that album, I’ll Believe in Anything will always and forever remind me of my littlest sister, The Child, as we almost always listen to it when she’s around.
For fans of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Modest Mouse, and Arcade Fire.
I’ll Believe in Anything by Wolf Parade on Apologies to the Queen Mary (2005)
My mom and I are in SoCal visiting my littlest sister, The Child, this weekend. Originally being from here, Southern CA has my heart. We’ve been having gorgeous (albeit windy) weather all over the state this week, the kind of weather that makes you want to rent a convertible and drive for hours with the top down, singing at the top of your lungs.
This Saturday Soundtrack is a little different, because instead of highlighting a particular artist and their song, I’m sharing three versions of what I think of as the ultimate song for taking a road trip down the California Coast.
Don Henley‘s original version of The Boys of Summer came out the year after I was born. In high school it became the soundtrack of my summers spent in Huntington beach with my family. It’s the most melancholy of the versions, and made me feel nostalgic for childhood even when I was 17. It’s got a banging music video that it everything I love about the 80’s, and is, by far, my favorite version.
DJ Sammy came out with his version the year after I graduated high school. The Boys of Summer along with Heaven were played on repeat as I drove my closest girl cousins around Arizona the summer I went to visit them. I felt worldly and cool as the oldest cousin, the only one graduated from high school and the only one with a drivers license. They sang along with the radio while I added harmony, and we all felt young and wild and free.
The Ataris came out with their version as I was moving out of my all-black and fishnet stocking punk phase. I still dug the music, but was starting to add color to my wardrobe to combat the grey skies in San Francisco. I got so angry when I heard they changed the lyric “I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac,” to “I saw a Black Flag Sticker on a Cadillac.” They said they did it to be more relevant, I saw it as violating a classic and a sell-out move to appear more punk than they were. Still, the awesomeness of the song won my heart in the end, and the driving, almost angry beats of this version are what I turned to as I turned twenty and had to face the reality of not being a teenager with an endless summer of possibilities ahead of me for the first time.
So pick your version, click on a link below the title for Don Henley and DJ Sammy, as dailymotion doesn’t like to let you embed videos directly. I recommend listening to your favorite while driving down a windy road next to the beach with someone you love.
For fans of summer, nostalgia, and feeling young and free.
When I was in high school, my color guard instructor came in to practice one day and said, “Girls, this is the best song I’ve ever heard. You’re going to freak out.” She popped The Next Best Thing‘s soundtrack into the cd player (high school, people. iPod was still in its first generation and nanos had just come out.) telling us how amazing Madonna looked in the movie as she did yoga to the song that would become our new warm up music. Ever since then, Boom Boom Ba by Métisse has been my companion whenever I feel like moving, dancing, working, or just plain feeling good. It’s the only song I’ve ever played over and over on repeat, and it was the first song A saw me dance to. I picked it for today’s Saturday Soundtrack because after a nine-year hiatus, today is the day I re-take up yoga. And just like Madonna, this song makes me want to stretch it out.
Métisse blends the Irish and African influences band members Aida and Skully bring to the table for a perfectly balanced Soul/Electronica sound. This harmonious blend of sound and cultures inspired the name Metisse, which is the French word for ‘mixture.’ Somehow the music comes out as music that infuses me with energy and makes me swing my hips at the same time that it makes me feel inexplicably peaceful
My Fault, Métisse’s inaugural album was released in 2000, and they have had one other album since: Nomah’s Land (2007). Their website’s brief about page leaves fans with this simple teaser:
“So, where do Métisse go from here? The important thing for Skully and Aida is always to do what they do best..make beautiful, intelligent and modern music that comes from the heart.”
As one who has had their beautiful, intelligent, modern music playing as the soundtrack to some of my best memories, I truly hope they continue to do what they do best.
Bigger in Real Life 