i’m partial to the night sky. i’m vaguely attracted to rooftops. and i love Freelance Whales.
Freelance Whales is a random group i stumbled upon (where else) on XMU. they kinda reminded me of favorites Postal Service or even stupid Owl City (not a fan) at first, but now i’ve found they are much deeper shades of awesome. they’ve been getting a lot of internet hype and have even been called an “artist to watch” by NPR. the first song i heard of theirs was “Hannah,” where the above phrases about night skies and rooftops come from. great song, fun lyrics, really catchy. check it!
Freelance Whales, “Hannah,” from youtube
Freelance Whales are definitely a new favorite. they are a pretty young band based out of Brooklyn, not surprisingly, where a lot great music (and great dads! *shoutout*) come from. they spent a lot of time playing on subway platforms (how awesome would it be to stumble upon peeps so great in the subway?!) but now they’re on the same label (Frenchkiss) as a lot of my favorites (Passion Pit, Phoenix, Local Natives) and movin’ on up. their sound is eclectic yet pop-y, using a variety of fun random instruments in the same vein as Sufjan Stevens or Arcade Fire (where are these people getting their glockenspiels from?! want one!).
if you’re a fan of any of those guys and like fun, feel-good-yet-almost-always-love-sick music, check out Freelance Whales. they’ve got a Daytrotter session that you can download and enjoy on your own time, or you can listen to a few songs via YouTube that i’ve picked out for you below. you’re gonna love it! you can also listen to their album from their own website here.
Freelance Whales, “Generator First Floor,” tiny sxsw concert via NPR, from youtube
Freelance Whales, “Starring,” from youtube
hope you enjoyed that little taste of fun. follow FW on twitter, “like” them on Facebook, and you can be a real-life fan too. more TOWYN fun new music for you soon! happy tuesday.
peace,
james
hola, people of the world! how’s it goin? been a while. missed ya! i made an interesting observation the other day about myself… one that appears to make perfect sense and frankly, is kinda scary. and kinda cool.
i just realized that i am dating music.
what else can explain it? who else do i turn to when life seems just completely effing wrong? or absolutely perfect? the first thing i thought of when i had this strange, strange epiphany was erykah badu‘s song “love of my life.” you know that one? ode to hip hop? yeah. pretty much a love song to music. my story. apparently music is my one and only… for right now 
i mean, i hope we don’t have to break up when i find a real boy that i like… nah, that won’t happen.
what it comes down to is this: music is the first thing i hear in the morning (besides my effing alarm) and it’s what puts me to sleep at night. it’s with me throughout the day (when i walk, i’m kinda just dancing along to whatever song is in my head). i can’t drive without music. i have to have it when i go for walks, when i’m in the shower, when i’m in the OR. i’m always discovering new bands and artists that make my heart happy. this must be why i love the world of indie so much… there’s always something new, some new group i’ve never heard of. opens up my heart. i guess it helps that a lot of my favorite musicians are super hottt 
real-life dating can be tough, but dating music doesn’t have to be. i go on dates with music as often as i can. maybe not every week, sometimes 3-4 times a week… we even go on weekend trips together a few times a year. the past year and a half or so that we’ve really been together have been fabulous. at the beginning, i was calling it The Year of Music, but it seems to have stretched into more than that. we’ve evolved into a comfortable friendship that will go on as long as i have the resources (and the time) to support it. one day, i’ll meet a real guy that will eventually take up more of my time than going to shows can. i can only hope this guy will love music as much as i do and support my passions.
i’ve got another long run of shows & trips to see shows coming up soon. i thought “concert season” had a beginning and an end date, like mid-spring through fall? guess not, as more and more shows are popping up my calender into november. *sigh* in the words of jeff buckley... “it’s never over.”
so just thought i’d share my latest fling with y’all. i plan on bringing back the TOWYN full speed here soon… Freelance Whales later today. but for the moment, just thought i’d say hi. y’all have a great day.
peace,
james
it’s birthday week! oh, happiness! my favorite week of the year. i can’t even focus on anything, it’s like i’m on vacay. but that’s not til next week… so, what’s been going on? how’s life? couple things for you today. hope you enjoy them.
.::my local natives, remixed::.
my lovely favorites Local Natives came through atlanta at the beginning of may and did an awesome show in-store at criminal records and then later that night at the masquerade. they are so so great and you know that i love them. their openers, The Suckers, i did NOT love. not at all. maybe because we waited so effing long for them to come on (there was another show upstairs that was too loud for our show to start) or maybe because i was tired, but i thought the suckers sucked, that day. everyone else thought they were fine, and fun, and whatever. i didn’t think another thing about them until the other day, when i heard this on sirius xmu, my indie rock station. those of you who don’t like to click on links while they’re reading stuff (like me) might be wondering, what is “this” she speaks of? i will explain.
the suckers did a remix of “wide eyes” and it’s pretty much the best thing ever! i don’t know what i missed when i was tuning out the suckers in concert, but they did an awesome job with the local natives song and made me really wonder if i underestimated them. huh. i love “wide eyes” — really i do — but this remix? i may like it better than the original. strange, right? ok, if you didn’t already click the link above, you should do it now and listen to the song while you read the rest of the post. enjoy that.
.::BIRP!::.
so i use limewire to download a lot of the new music i get, right? sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. it can be fickle like that. but, some time last year i began to notice that a lot of the songs i would look up and/or download would be from an album called “blalock’s indie rock playlist.” i didn’t pay much attention at first until i noticed the trend… and at that point i decided to do a search on the playlist, and i found a treasure trove of songs! i have looked it up from time to time since then, but it was only a couple weeks ago that i discovered a whole new world attached to BIRP.
apparently, this blalock guy has been making awesome playlists every month for a while now with all kinds of new great indie rock music. just my thing, right? not only does he make these lists, but on his site he makes them available for you (yes you!) to download for your very own listening pleasure. awesome, yeah? i downloaded the july playlist just last week and, though i haven’t made it even a quarter of the way through (busy), it’s already opened my eyes to some great music. anyway, if you’re more mainstream indie than not, i’d maybe go through and check out some of the playlists from last year. you’ll probably recognize a lot of stuff. i’m just about as excited about this site as i was to discover daytrotter! so yeah. find some new music. like them on facebook. follow them on twitter. enjoy.
that’s it for today kids… probably more music than you can handle, anyway have a wonderful week, and look for more posts to come soon (i told you i have a lot to talk about). cheers!
peace,
james
(oh snap! TOWYN making a rogue appearance on a (gasp) thursday! what what!)
oh hi. sooooo the problem with taking some time off from blogging is that i have so much to say… wait, maybe that’s a good thing. i won’t throw it all in one post, just take it a little at a time. sound good, little effs? hope so, cause that’s where we’re headed. in other (awesome)(random) news, it’s officially Birthday Month. your friendly little james came into this world thirty years ago on the eleventh of this great month. not only am i prone to celebrating anything, at any given time, but birthdays are the best.
but enough about my national holiday. first things first. what the eff have i been listening to? oh, soooo much new music. i can barely keep up. you know how, when you download a bunch of new stuff you can never really listen to all of it, in depth, without neglecting the rest of the stuff? i usually find something in the batch of new music i download each month and get hooked on it, listening to it over and over again. the top three albums i’ve been obsessing over since we last spoke are The Black Keys, The National, and The XX. yes, this must be the time of bands starting with ‘The.’ they’re everywhere! and they’re oh so hot right now.
.::The Black Keys::.
they’re everyone’s darlings right now, they look nothing like their music (well ok maybe the one guy does), and they’ve got soul for miles. they’ve been around for almost a decade doing kind of a bluesy rock that, i’ll admit, i’m not a huge fan of . i actually wasn’t even interested in their music until i heard the first single, “Tighten Up,” from their newly released album Brothers. that song is awesome. the video is even better. and the rest of the album went so far above my expectations that i listen to it at least every other day. the blues-rock thing grew on me, and the album itself is a great one to chill by. there are some other awesome songs that i love, “Sinister Kid” and “Howlin’ For You” being my other faves. in other Keys’ news, guess what?! they’ll be opening up for favorites Kings of Leon this summer (can’t wait to see them in september!) AND they have a song on the new Twilight soundtrack for the movie Eclipse. (which was awesome by they way. more on that & the music for it in a later post okay!!) so, right on! check out “Tighten Up” for real though, you’ll love the video (so cute). and you’ll dance. promise.
.::The National::.
and now for something completely different… i don’t know much about The National. but i like them. and they’ve got a lotttttt of hype. they’ve also been around for a decade or more, making great music just below the radar. i had no idea who they were up until a few months ago, and when i first heard them i didn’t really care one way or the other. their fans, though, made me want to get to know them better. i downloaded their latest release, High Violet, and i was pleasantly surprised. the music somewhat sounds the same, but in a great way. the lead singer has a really deep voice that kind of draws you in. it’s a great album to listen to in full, with great (though somewhat melancholy) melodies. check out these two songs and see what you think.
.::The XX::.
i think i’ve talked a little about these guys before, but even when i did, i didn’t like them half as much as i do now. i’m tellin’ y’all, The XX has really grown on me. this group has a lot of hype too, and i only knew one of their songs, “Crystallized,” before i saw them live at Coachella. the show, and the music overall, was pretty good– mellow, but good. shanayhay hated it. some people were all about it, some people could care less. after bonnaroo (didn’t go see their set there), i actually downloaded the rest of their album and really listened to it. you guys, i’m hooked! i absolutely LOVE it. yes, it’s mellow. yes, it’s really chill. but it’s wistful, it’s dreamy, it’s awesome. i love that the lead singers overlap on their lyrics. i love that you can hear their accents when they sing. i love it all! if you’re into chillwave type stuff, check them out, or if you’ve been there/done that/hated it, give them a second chance. i’m so glad i did and they’re def gonna be a priority for me in august at Austin City Limits. Listen to these tracks that i’ve dubbed favorites and lemme know what you think.
hope you enjoyed all that. til next time… hopefully sooner than later…
peace,
james
