love.

blue-oo-oo

haunting and precious.

don't stop!

crazy (:

It's hard to dislike Blogotheque videos... I love the casual settings and the style of filming and editing. They really make me miss playing music with friends. A jamming session is much needed (birthday present, anybody?)!

I like this video because it's so ridiculous that they're carrying a synthesizer through the streets, in Istanbul of all places too.

great song, great video

This is the music video for "Rabbit Song" by the Aussie group Boy and Bear.

And I have to say it is awesome! Even better because it was filmed in Sydney CBD.



Thanks to my friend Pete for the link

a moment of musical insanity

Sometimes I feel so hungry for music, I'm overwhelmed with a desire to listen to many, many artists at once. Names and songs rush madly through my head, like a freight train running late to its next destination. I want to sing. I want to close my eyes and listen. I want to dance. I want to sit still and absorb. I want to feel the music flowing through me. At times like these I wish my body could be a giant musical sponge - if I could just pour the songs, like paint, into a giant tray, letting all the colours mix and mingle... then I would dive in, letting the sounds, the emotions, the textures seep through every pore of my being. Such an intense desire, and at times like these I feel as though there isn't enough time to satisfy the cravings. While I'm listening to one song, I'm already thinking about another song that I desperately want to listen to.

I don't know what it is that brings about these bouts of craziness. But it's clear that music is a deep part of who I am and what I desire to maintain in my life.

Ben Harper - Skin Thin

This is a great, great song, and now there's an equally wonderful music video to accompany it.

Watching and listening to the song made me realise how long it's been since I've had a proper listen to the music of Ben Harper, and it reminded of why I fell in love with his sound in the first place. Definitely one to watch on full-screen with the volume cranked up.

Let the calm resonate in your room...



Notes from the Ben Harper subscription email (11 May 2010):
Friend and filmmaker Daniel Stessen was so inspired by the track "Skin Thin" off Ben Harper & Relentless7's latest album, White Lies for Dark Times, that he decided to make a mini film to tell a story of this moving song. The film was shot mainly in Fulton, NY, about an hour north of his hometown of Syracuse.

Filming the piece was a unique adventure in itself. Stessen describes the places they shot as "the type of places where you have to have three beers with anyone for them to trust you." He arrived blindly to each location with only the story in mind, shaking hands and making new friends along the way, and crafting the film with what was available - only staging the actions. The lead character was based on Stessen's best friend, who lives and works in the places shown in the film. The female lead was discovered working behind the counter at a pizza shop where the director had lunch just before filming began.

MOVITS! - Fel Del Av Gården

For the record, they're singing/rapping in Swedish.

The little dance number at around 2:50 is unreal. I lurrrrve this style of music and dance!



Thanks to my Melbournian mate Nathan for sharing this

i'm gonna make your toes curl tonight...

Discovered thanks to a post from Drawn!

a bit of magic

Out Of A Forest from Tobias Gundorff Boesen on Vimeo.

I always have a soft spot for a good stop-motion animation. I've just discovered this one but it's an immediate favourite. The characters are well designed and visually very lovable, and the music and the story put me in a reflective mood.

---
Thanks to the Drawn! blog for the original post: http://drawn.ca/2010/02/16/out-of-a-forest/

dreams

Music moves me in a way that is hard to describe. Sometimes it relaxes me, or it makes me want to dance, sing or jump around. I usually can't concentrate on anything else when I'm listening to music that really grabs my soul; other times, I use it to block out the distractions around me.

Some songs help me believe that my dreams will become a reality one day.

As I was listening to the song in the video above, I relaxed, I let go of the stress and the tensions that have been consuming my mind lately, and all I could do was picture the future, and how I would dearly like it to be.

More than anything, I'd like to travel the world. If I had the time, the money and the superhuman ability to achieve it, I would visit every single town in every single country to help me understand humanity, to discover the similarities and the differences between people all over the world, and to discover what it is in life that is truly worth cherishing.

yearning for freedom

So I randomly decided to search for Donny Hathaway on Facebook so I could become a fan, and then I decided to try YouTube for live footage of the man in performance, but I came across a musician who performs a cover of Hathaway's "Someday We'll All Be Free".

Post-blog edit: YouTube video has since been deleted :(

A bit more research on the fellow indicates that Raul Midon was born blind. There is a Stevie Wonder-esque feel to him in the video, and Midon certainly has a great soul sound in his voice, so I'm definitely going to have a listen to his original material when I get a chance.

And from that, I found this. The first big wail in this video literally gave me chills. What a beautiful voice. (Oddly enough it was earlier today that I was thinking about A.Keys in the shower and how I hadn't listened to her music in a while because I'd 'grown tired' of her).



You definitely need to get your hands on a copy of the recording by Donny Hathaway, so you can appreciate the original in all its retro glory.

simply amazing

Words can't describe how beautiful this sounds to me.

how funny!

Last night, while I was waiting for a friend to pick me up on the way to a 21st, I was watching the Eurovision song contest.

#06, Norway really caught my eyes and ears.

The song was quite catchy in melody and lyrical content, and I couldn't stop tapping my foot in time with the music. I probably only saw 3 or 4 songs but this was my definite favourite.

And just then, I discovered that Norway had won the competition! How fantastic!

I don't normally watch Eurovision, but this year's stage in Russia looked pretty good, and I'm going to try and source an mp3 for this song. :)

Update: Found the mp3, yay! But the Eurovision clips are fun to watch.

just before midnight.

Tired because I've been trying to do my tax assignment for most of the day. Just before I hit the metaphorical hay, I thought I had better post my angel card divinations from the last two days at work:

Thursday
- Emerging
- Daniel: "I am the Angel of Marriage, and I am assisting you right now."
- Aeracura: Blossoming. "You are just getting started, so have patience with yourself and the process, and do not give up."
- Positive Expectations

Well I'm not getting married anytime soon, but I did find out the next day that a couple we know got engaged on Tuesday.. so maybe I was tapping into that somehow. The other cards I took as positive signs for the weekend ahead, as I've been stressed about the tax assignment and its completion.

Friday
- Azure: "Your desired outcome will occur in the very near future. Have patience and faith, and don't try to force it to happen."
- Athena: Inner Wisdom. "You know what to do. Trust your inner wisdom, and take appropriate action without delay."
- Friendship
- Make Music

Oddly enough I haven't made any music yet - unless you count the rapping I've been doing the last couple of nights. I've been trying to learn the rap parts from two favourite songs of mine - Turn Your Lights Down Low by Lauryn Hill feat. Bob Marley and Got Til Its Gone by Janet Jackson feat. Q-Tip - and I also discovered that I know almost all of the rap to another favourite song (I thought I only knew a couple of lines), Rock the House by Gorillaz, once I heard the song playing on iTunes.

Anyways, time for some sleep so I can finish off my tax assignment tomorrow. Can't wait until it's all done!

time for some soul.

I love the music of Al Green. This is a fantastic song, plenty of smooth groove and beautiful singing.

Let's stay together

I, I'm so in love with you
Whatever you want to do
Is all right with me
'Cause you make me feel so brand new
And I want to spend my life with you

Do you say the same baby
Since, since we've been together
Loving you forever
Is what I need
Let me be the one you come running to
I'll never be untrue

Ooh baby
Let's, let's stay together
Lovin' you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad

Wooooooo
Whether times are good or bad, happy or sad

Why, somebody
Why people break up
Then turn around and make up
I just can't see
But you'd never do that to me (would you, baby)
Staying around you is all I see
Here's what I want us to do

Let's, we oughta stay together
Loving you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad
Come on
Let's, let's stay together
Loving you whether, times are good or bad, happy or sad


Here's Guy Sebastian performing a cover:




And now, the original.. Al Green himself. There's something really sexy about guys who can sing like this.

jack johnson.

The first time I ever heard Jack Johnson was when the (pop-)world didn't know who he was. I think I was listening to Triple J, and there was a groovy song with odd lyrics. I listened to the end of the song, and discovered the title to be "The Horizon Has Been Defeated", by Jack Johnson. I thought it was the strangest song title at the time. Admittedly I still think it's strange, but now Jack Johnson is world famous.

In the last year or so I went through a phase where I thought all his songs sounded the same, and so I didn't really pay attention to any albums after the release of Curious George. I haven't listened to his music in a long time.. until today.

I was playing guitar during my lunch break (today is meant to be a day full of study.. I'm trying to make it work), and having exhausted a couple of Bic Runga, Colbie Caillat and Priscilla Ahn songs, I decided to search Jack Johnson. I couldn't remember how some of the melodies went, so I searched the songs on YouTube.. and then I ended up watching the music videos for Taylor and Upside Down, as well as The Horizon Has Been Defeated. I was reminded of how I first discovered Jack Johnson, and I wanted to write about it, hence this post. :)

today's angel cards

- Astara: "You deserve the best! Reach for the stars with your dreams and desires, and don't compromise!"

- Maat: Fairness. "This situation will be handled in a fair and just manner."

- Feeling Safe

- Abundance


What does this all mean? Perhaps I should believe in myself more, and have faith that things will right themselves. Who knows.

Today I was listening to John Legend's first album "Get Lifted". It is definitely a fantastic album full of good beats and melodies. I used to be obsessed about the album, and having not heard the album for a long time now, today I remembered why. His second album "Once Again" is quite good too, but it has a completely different feel. I haven't really listened properly to his third album "Evolver", but from what I recall it's a lot clubbier. Nowhere near as impressive as the first record.

today is officially music heaven.

Everything I listen to today seems to be extra specially awesome.

What have I been listening to?

- Ayo's latest album, Gravity at Last (which reminds me of the concert I went to on Sunday night);

- Two of Ben Harper's old albums, The Will to Live and Burn to Shine (I haven't some of these songs in ages and they're so different to his more recent material); and

- The soundtrack to Sister Act 2 (some great Motown-y gospel and 90s pop R&B tunes).

And now I'm currently listening to the Step Up soundtrack. I was clubbing and krumping in my room to the first track, and got so puffed out that I decided to sit down and try to study French again.

I've been cranking through the musical genres.. a bit of alternative/reggae, then some roots, and then some Motown/gospel, and then some hip-hop. I don't usually appreciate all styles in one day, like I have today. It's bizarre but it's fantastic!