Category: Uncategorized

“Wrapped in Piano Strings” by Radical Face

I completely forgot about this song until this week when a friend of mine played a mix CD that had this song.

“Wrapped in Piano Strings” by Radical Face is a song that will always remind me of her. It’s one of the songs that she used to have on constant repeat on her mix CDs when we were first starting to get to know each other. She has to make mix CDs because she bought her car just one year before auxiliary inputs became standard in cars.

I also was so strangely attracted to the fact that she always found all this new music without even trying, but then again she’s always been the type of person who doesn’t even have to try at anything – she’s just so casually and easily awesome.

I won’t lie. I was so infatuated with her when we first met. She was always – and to be honest still is – my unicorn. I know this song because of her and that its style also just reminds me of her. And it just makes me think of her so much and those times when we would talk about things like love or our lives or whenever she would talk about her confusion about what to do with life sometimes. It was just so unusual for me to see this side of someone so beautiful – seeing a side of vulnerability in someone so confident. It was in those moments that I kept falling for her.

The Night I Met Kitten

Little college-aged me met Kitten at their Bottom of the Hill show in San Francisco in April 2010. I was so excited because I fell in love with the first incarnation of their song “Kill the Light” when my friend Sharon recommended them that March. I then had the “difficult” choice of staying in all night working on a paper for Media Studies 10 or going to the concert and then pulling an all-nighter to finish my paper.

I’ll never regret my choice of putting my paper off to go to the show. (Sorry Professor Levina!) Kitten was opening for a band (forgot which one 🙁  ). Very intimate setting.

Bottom of  the Hill is a 21+ venue, and I wasn’t 21 yet. However, that was the ONLY Bay Area show Kitten was playing. So I came to the venue early with a Sharpie and practically pleaded my case to the bartender and venue owner. I said that I’m a huge fan and that this was Kitten’s only Bay Area show in their tour and can you PLEASEEEEE let me see the show and I’ll even put big, huge Xes on my hands with my own Sharpie. And…

THEY LET ME!!! They just said that I couldn’t hang around the venue until the show started and that they better not catch me with any alcohol. I went to this pub-style restaurant down the street and ate some fish and chips. Then a bit before the show, I got bored, so I just stood around outside the venue waiting in what would be the line area. I saw these kids around my age hanging out near a van. I thought at first that maybe they were there for the show, too. Then I thought “van… WAIT! WHAT IF THEY’RE IN A BAND.. WHAT IF THEY’RE KITTEN?”

I thought “Fuck it” and walked up to them and asked “Hey! Are you guys.. in a band?” They said “yeah! We’re Kitten.” And my jaw practically dropped. I told them all about how excited I was to go to their show and how even more excited I was to actually get to meet them! Chloe said she liked my outfit, and I felt like the coolest person ever. They let me hang out in their tour van with them and let me take pictures and showed me their XBOX set up in the back! We hung out for a bit more before the show. It was so cool!

That was seriously the coolest moment ever for this little music blogger!

Right before performing “Kill the Light,” Chloe gave me a shout out because I told her it’s my favorite!

After the show, I got to take this awesome photo with all of them outside the venue. We tried doing this thing where we all jumped as the picture was taken. That didn’t work out that great in terms of jumping, but the photo turned out pretty awesome. I don’t think I’ve looked happier in a photo.

Image

Anyway, with that little reminiscence chronicled, I’d like to move forward to today and to the future.

Today – I want to remind you that Kitten has released two songs from their upcoming “Cut It Out” EP! You can check them out on the Kitten band site.

Future – They’re coming back to Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco on June 13!! Buy your tickets here! LA friends, be sure to catch them on June 25 at the Bootleg Theater for free!

Finally, you can check out more awesome photos from when I met Kitten here!

I <3 Kitten!

“Red Light District” by Midi Matilda

Today, I can’t stop listening to “Red Light District” by Midi Matilda.

I found out about them when I was checking out some upcoming concerts at local San Francisco venues, specifically the Rickshaw Stop. They’re playing a Popscene night on June 7. Anyway, they have a bunch of their songs available on a “Name Your Own Price” basis on their Bandcamp page, which is how I ended up having “Red Light District” shuffle on this morning.

I’m pretty sure that this is about a prostitute or a metaphor about a woman loving you the way a prostitute does. [Wow, great job at such low-level analysis… Right?]

Anyway, the singer initially sounded like the guy from the Arctic Monkeys, and the sound was very contradictorily simultaneously mellow and upbeat (the singing is slow tempoed and echo-y while the drum beats are are quick but not New Order quick) and layered with instruments’ tempos in between similar to Malbec or “Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap.

I was hooked by the tempo and Malbec-indie-electro-rock style, but then I fell in love with the “I can be a lover. Hold me until the next one, at least. Love me when the ___ goes” part. [I hate that my favorite part of the song isn’t even listed in the lyrics.]

Then again, [MEDIA STUDIES GEEK ANALYSIS WARNING] it might be all biased because of what’s currently on my mind right now: rebound flings. And then we end up in this situation where you have to consider your state as a human being (history, knowledge, emotions, life experiences acquired,  experiences with other similar media texts, sobriety,etc.) when you “have a conversation with” (as Levina would say) a media text and then how your interpretations would have been different if you had experienced that same exact media text in some other point of your life. I think it might’ve been a Barthes or a Baudrillard text that mentions how you never experience a text the same exact way because of developments and changes in your life – therefore, your interpretations really change between readings and therefore there can be and are almost an infinite number of interpretations and meanings within a text. Please correct me if I’m wrong. That was a very quickly written and basic explanation of what the theorist wrote, so please forgive me fro any inaccuracies.

As my friend Lara (or was it Rochelle???) would say, Sparknotes Version: Listen to Midi Matilda’s “Red Light District” and check them out on June 7 if you’re in the Bay Area because they’re pretty awesome.

5/29/12 – Correction: After checking some sites, I found out from Music is What Feelings Sound Like, that the lyrics I referenced are “I could be your lover; hold me till the next one at least. Love me when the rains come.” THANK YOU FOR CLEARING THAT UP! I’m glad I mostly heard that right and finally know what that blank was. Makes the song even better 🙂

Also – I haven’t been able to read many posts on  the Music is What Feelings Sound Like blog yet, but I’m excited to read more because I really think his/her/their (?) mission of “recreating” that “amazing feeling you felt the last time you heard a new song that changed your life” for all their readers is really awesome! I like his/her/their analyses and am excited to find out about a lot of new bands and tracks from their blog!

Kitten To Release EP “Cut It Out” – Provides Free Downloads!

Long-time readers of BoxSpeaker Music Blog – and some long-time enough that they even remember BoxSpeaker when it was MusicStarved – know that I love love love LOVEEEEE a band from my old stomping grounds of LA called Kitten.

From its initial incarnation as a more garage, lofi styled band to its evolution toward a more electro-rock or electro-inspired rock, Kitten has always been a favorite. And it continues to as it works toward releasing its Cut It Out EP! They’ve even been awesome enough to make two tracks on their EP available for free!

Download two songs and keep on the lookout for when their EP is available!

Friday I’m in Love Song: “Two Weeks” by Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear’s songs used to just be really cute to me. I didn’t initially connect with them enough for them to be Friday I’m in Love songs.

That changed when I saw Blue Valentine. Grizzly Bear composed almost all of the music for the movie.

At the time, I was watching my own relationship fall apart in much the same way as in the movie. The girl I was dating at the time, like Michelle Williams’s character, felt like I wasn’t good enough for her. She didn’t like that I was broke (granted, I was just a sophomore in college working at a bakery and an internship) and that I was so young (I was 20-21 at the time). (She eventually left me for an older, well-off computer programmer.) And I, like Ryan Gosling’s character, tried my best to fix things but would just keep ending up a sometimes angry but mostly sad, pathetic drunk in the process… So that movie and all the music really hit home. That’s why I dusted off my external hard drive, uploaded all my Grizzly Bear songs to my laptop, hit “Repeat,” and pretty much had a good cry for a week.

Two Weeks

“We Talk Like Machines” by Savoir Adore

Savoir Adore’s been around for a long time (“We Talk Like Machines” is actually from a 2009 EP of theirs and their “latest” record is from 2010), but they’re finally gaining much-deserved fame!

As you may have begun to realize from my previous posts, I really love robots. That’s why this song has a special place in my capacitor of a heart deep in my chest.

And, as I tend to divulge not just my artistic appreciations of music a la media studies analyses and fangirl-style posts but also my reasons for personal attachments to songs, I will state this:

Another reason I love this song is that it makes me feel stupid romantic happy feelings because it reminds me of a girl I really like. Yeah, stupid, right? But she’s really cute and doesn’t mind my obsession with robots and accidental tactlessness that she, thankfully, interprets as a “sense of humor.”

Without further ado, here’s “We Talk Like Machines” by Savoir Adore:

We Talk Like Machines

Metric Previews New Single “Youth Without Youth” – The Love Affair Continues

Metric is a BoxSpeaker perennial favorite – extending from middle school dalliances because of a homeroom BFF, throughout high school because of three electro indie enthusiast buddies, on constant repeat in college, and still forever in all my hard drives (solid state and otherwise) to this day.

Basically, I love Metric.

That’s why BoxSpeaker is excited to present Metric’s new single “Youth Without Youth,” which premiered is previewed today via Metric’s site and SoundCloud account. Their newest album comes out tomorrow, May 1 in June!

CORRECTIONS: The new single OFFICIALLY comes out tomorrow (Tuesday, May 1), and the album comes out in June! I totally jumped the gun on that because I was super excited about their new upcoming songs. 🙁

“Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye ft. Kimbra (Miami Nights 1984 Remix)

Big shout-out to my buddy @GeOhMetro for sharing the Miami Nights 1984 remix of Gotye‘s “Somebody That I Used to Know.”

I love the totally 80s feel of it (well, duh, it’s called a “1984 remix”). This remix is yet another example of what I’d like to deem “newtro.” (Remember my ramblings about how current/new artists are creating music in the same new wave stylings that are considered “retro” now? How I couldn’t decide if it should be a new new wave, neu wave, neu new wave, etc etc.?)

Anyway, this remix totally has that Charlie XCX and Kavinsky kind of modern appropriation of Duran Duran stylings. (MEDIA STUDIES GEEK OUT TIME.)

In fact, last I was talking about the unique ability of new wave (and new wave-influenced) music to make songs whose lyrics and topics are sad sound happy – or at least dancey. Hana and Gracie were bouncing their heads side-to-side when the original Gotye version came on and explained to me that that’s their “Somebody That I Used to Know” dance because it’s got such a cute dancey melody and beat despite its depressing lyrics. I commented that that’s just like almost all New Order songs, especially “1963,” which is super upbeat despite being sung from the perspective of a Marilyn Monroe supposedly about to be murdered by JFK’s guys.

“Obsessions” by Marina and the Diamonds (oOoOO Remix)

when what is heard is now felt

wires entangle my neck, my hair, my ears,
my entire body in a mess of rubber-encased wiring
electricity pulsing through these thin metal strips in rhythm with
what I think is what you would call a heart

The pulses of an encoded heart.

My heart.

when what is heard is now felt

these deep vibrations
pulsating,
mixed from right to left
and back and forth
a wave of electricity
hertz
it’s hertz
it hurts

I’m wrapped in the arms of the only thing that loves me
A machine connected to machine after machine
Replaced one by one.
Something shiny and new comes along.

A sleek, glass screen.

When what is heard is now felt.

The auditory embodiment of those lights pulsing.

Cold metal to my skin when all I want is your warmth.

Vinyl encasing my ears

when all I want is your warmth

Pulses

I do not know what is my pulse, the pulse

when what is heard is now felt.

I just want to feel your pulse.

Chiddy Bang’s Remix of “Under the Sheets” by Ellie Goulding

As my older followers (those who followed me since back when I was MusicStarved) know, I LOVE ELLIE GOULDING.

I also love anything by and remixed by Chiddy Bang.

Well, this song brings both together. Chiddy Bang is just such an awesome duo like The Knocks in that both take awesome songs and make them even cooler by adding their personal touch. In this case, Chiddy Bang took most of “Under the Sheets” and then added in their own vocals.

Two of my favorite lines:

“And if you look at me, I bet I have you starry eyed” and “I make her give me one on the cheek and she ain’t over me yet, so I put her under the sheets.”

Yeah… Don’t hate me, but this totally deserves what is coming next….

#SWAG

hahahaha

Happy listening!