"I need the smell of summer I need its noises in my ears!"

TOP THREE (AKA the ones I will insistently force people to listen to against their will):

1. I Will Play My Game Beneath the Spin Light - Brand New

My secrets for a buck.

Watch me as I cut myself wide open

on this stage.

Yes, I am paid

to spill my guts.

I won't see home till spring.

Oh, I would kill for the Atlantic,

but I am paid to make girls panic

while I sing.

..

We are quiet and losing control.

More Rock than Pop. And deep, not vain. Like most oh-i-am-a-super-rockstar-that-tours-across-the-country-and-have-groupies-on-the-backseat-of-my-van songs. And by the best band, ever. Seriously, like ever. My favorite band for as long as I've cared about music. The reason why I even care: Brand New. I'll remember to write only about them in one of these posts sometime.

2. Warmest Part of the Winter - Voxtrot

Come inside you are hungry for sleep
You are the warmest part of the winter
When I was young I made a plan
That I would never break myself
Lift the shade and let some light in the room
We don't see the sun anymore
I've been told I gave my soul to live the days for someone else

The first thing I found amazing about this song without even listening to it, was the title. How can winter be warm? If it's the warmest part of the winter then it's like the writer of this song sees this other person as somebody he can be warm with even if it's winter. So, I thought that was cool. But then I listened to it, and to me, it isn't a love song. It's a song about a person living like someone else, but during winter, he can look for this person and just be him. It's amazing.

3. Blue Lips - Regina Spektor

He stumbled into faith and thought
"God, there is all there is"
The pictures in his mind arose
And began to breathe
And all the gods and all the worlds
Began colliding on a backdrop of blue

Blue lips, blue veins

He took a step but then felt tired
He said I'll rest a little while
But when he tried to walk again
He wasn't a child
And all the people hurried fast, real fast
And no one ever smiled

I just think it is a really pretty song. By pretty I mean the piano is very good and it tells a story or a fairytale like most of Regina Spektor's songs. Her songs are mostly very bizarre because you do not know what the heck she's talking about. But when you listen to it real hard, and you go beyond, it is so sad. The man in this tale was a child and he became old and not only he couldn't walk even though he tried, but people wouldn't smile at him, so he went blue. In other words, he kicked the bucket. See? Bizarre. But the really soft melody makes up for it.

ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS AND OVERRATED, BUT INEVITABLY ADDICTIVE:

1. Sweet Caroline (Neil Diamond Cover) - Glee Cast

This song is not ridiculous and overrated, but Glee is. It is my guilty pleasure. Glee is pure win.

2. A White Demon Love Song - The Killers

Let us be in love

Let's do old and gray

I won't make you cry

I will never stray

White demon, widen your heart's scope

White demon, who let your friends go?

This isn't ridiculous and overrated, but New Moon is (I'll get to that later). New Moon's soundtrack is so, so UNDERrated. Just because people judge crazy fangirls who fight over who will marry the guy who plays Jacob once he's of age (even crazy 40 year-olds who plan on leaving their husbands). But this is not my point. My point is, New Moon's soundtrack is beyond amazing. It is beyond the books and beyond the box-office. New Moon's soundtrack beats seeing Taylor Lautner's abs for almost two hours. I would have gladly only listened to parts of this movie, because the songs were just breath-taking and most likely underrated because of their "weirdness" and because most of the artists on this soundtrack weren't very famous at all. This song isn't my favorite on the soundtrack, but I think it is the first one you should listen to if you want to give the whole album a chance.

* CD Mixes

* Brand New

* Discoveries

Throwing pebbles at windows, dancing in the rain in her best dress, it's 2 am, his beautiful eyes, a prince and a princess, etc..

This is a Taylor Swift post. To start, I'd like to state that I have Taylor Swift on my ipod. In fact, I'm pretty sure one of her songs is on my Top 25 Most Played. No, I do not dislike her. But I do have strong opinions on her music and how it is all the-freaking-same. It is all about boys, high school crushes, Romeo, her multiple boyfriends, etc.. Taylor Swift is a role-model to girls aged 10-16 approximately. And she is telling these girls that her whole teenage years revolved around boys and how to get them and stalking them and avenging them. It's ridiculous how the only thoughts she had during her teenage years (Taylor Swift is now twenty years old) weren't otherwise occupied by things other than boys she could've written songs about. How about her dreams of becoming a country-star? Or what inspired her to follow this dream? Or how one day she wanted to find the cure to cancer? But, no. Taylor Swift is tossing rocks at Stephen's door and waiting out there in the cold until he comes outside, kisses her senseless, realizes she is the girl of his dreams and *insert random chick-flick moment*. Not that it isn't awesome or normal to have crushes. It would be abnormal not to. It's ok when it's 1, 2, maybe 3 songs about the same thing, with the same lyrics, and the same sound. What's not cool, is a whole album that is the same. But, still, you can't not love Taylor Swift's cheesy and predictable songs, they are what made her Taylor Swift in her teens. But Taylor Swift is twenty.

"Where others float, you and I crash land."

OCEANSIZE

I discovered Oceansize through my brother, who recommends to me all the time what he calls "good" music and whose taste ranges from Pink Floyd to Radiohead. In other words, my brother is not a big fan of Miley Cyrus, or her alter ego for that matter. My twelve year-old self found all the music her brother recommended to her, to be depressing and weird. And after months of forcing myself to listen to Thom Yorke's voice telling me he was a creep and some of their other wacky songs, I finally had it. I would not give in to my brother's musical taste, even if it meant "I had no culture" in his words. So I happily recommenced my obsession with happy and cheery pop songs. Not long after I turned thirteen, my brother sent one of his "DUDE! Check out this band! Now." emails. I had been steadily ignoring them for the past few months, but because of fate or reasons unknown , this one I did check out. And then, Oceansize entered my life. Recently I'd been evolving from pop, to pop-rock, to alternative rock, so maybe I was a bit more open to different sounds. But I still hadn't forgotten Thom Yorke's wailing voice, so I can't say I wasn't hesitant. But Savant changed it all.

I don't know what it was but I just immediately liked this song. I just thought, "Wouldn't it be great if there were other songs just like this, like this kind of music? They must exist!" So I downloaded more Oceansize and I was fascinated and I couldn't stop.

The Frame

Music For A Nurse

It was then when I deleted Britney and Hilary from my ipod shamefully, realizing there was actually good music out there. Oceansize was my first experience out of my pop bubble and even though it was only one of the first, it's still one of the best. Eventually I listened to Radiohead again with no fear. They are now one of my favorite bands. And I love Thom's voice, I have no idea what my twelve year old self was talking about. Maybe things change when you are no longer twelve or maybe I needed hearing aid or something. Now I worship these weird, creepy bands my brother forced upon me, that I will probably write about later on this blog.

"Sorrow drips into your heart through a pinhole, just like a faucet that leaks and there is comfort in the sound."

Plans is Death Cab for Cutie's fifth studio album, sounding different compared to their previous album, Transatlanticism. Transatlanticism was Death Cab's first moderately successful record, and it marked the band's growing fanbase. To me, Transatlanticism was impossible to dethrone: the album was just the perfect compilation of beautiful verses complemented with the right sound, but when I finally listened to Plans, I realized I liked them both as much. I picked the songs that I liked the most and that I consider my personal favorites out of the album.

Marching Bands Of Manhattan

I wish we could open our eyes
To see in all directions at the same time
Oh what a beautiful view
If you were never aware of what was around you
And it is true what you said
That I live like a hermit in my own head
But when the sun shines again
I'll pull the curtains and blinds to let the light in.

Like getting a letter on how to be.

Brothers On A Hotel Bed

You may tire of me as our December sun is setting because I'm not who I used to be

No longer easy on the eyes but these wrinkles masterfully disguise...
But now he lives inside someone he does not recognize
When he catches his reflection on accident.

A nostalgic story telling us what happens when you get old and it was too late to change who you became.

What Sarah Said

And it came to me then

that every plan
is a tiny prayer to father time.

What Sarah Said is my absolute favorite song out of this album and probably one of my favorite songs, ever. What it's saying is that for every plan you make, you are praying for more time to be able to live it. It's as if the listener were being told not to waste time planning when you could be living it, right now.