CHARMING NOISE | MORE NEW MUSIC NEWS

I don't seem to be inspired to write about much other than new music lately. Luckily the music Gods have been kind to us so far this year.

   

I love this Pee-Wee's Playhouse-inspired video from Tune-Yards, who are going to be at (the recently announced) Austin City Limits Music Festival this year! I saw her at Fun Fun Fun Fest a few years ago, and she was great. She's definitely one of the most unique sounds in music right now.

I posted a preview last week of a clip of a new song from Robyn and Röyksopp, and there are now two full songs being streamed on Pop On and On. It's all the electronic-dancey goodness that I wanted it to be.

As previously mentioned, the Austin City Limits Music Festival lineup was announced yesterday! Upon first look, it was a bit of a letdown. I mean, I don't care about Eminem, I just don't, and while I like Outkast, there's no way that I would ever deal with that crowd to see them. But the further down that I got on the list, the better I felt. The Replacements, Spoon, Interpol, Chvrches, St. Vincent, Phantogram, Jenny Lewis, Real Estate, Tune-Yards, Jagwar Ma, Mac Demarco, and Poliça. Not too shabby at all. Plus, smaller bands mean smaller crowds. Always a plus at a ridiculously hot and crowded festival. Much excitement. 

CHARMING NOISE | NEW TUNES

This new clip from the upcoming Robyn and Röyksopp collaboration (how had I not even heard about this?!) is an electronic-dance dream.

 

Don't hate me for being totally into this Lana Del Rey song. Yes, I am one of those indie-music fans who can't help but liking Lana Del Rey. I fully acknowledge that she is a pop culture construct, but whoever is writing her music/managing her career is on top of it. Plus, I think Lana is a lot cleverer than people give her credit for. She is famous for a reason people.

CHARMING NOISE | GRAB BAG

I'm not going to lie, this is kind of a half-assed post. Half-assed in that I didn't put a lot of effort into it, but not in the way that I genuinely really like everything that I'm posting. This week has been busy so far. I'm in the final steps of interviewing for a job that I'd really like to get and I'm getting ready to head to Austin on Sunday for SXSW 2014 and some sunshine (I swear to god if there is ice on the ground or highs below the 60s, I will lose it). Anyhow, here's a grab bag of musicy goodness. If you're lucky I just might even manage to do a post about who I'd like to see at SXSW this year. Maybe.

Wild Beasts' made an oddly captivating music video.

The first single off of the upcoming Sharon Van Etten record!

Been liking what I've heard off of the new Real Estate album.

How can you not love this video?

CHARMING NOISE | ANGEL OLSEN

2014 is off to a pretty good start—at least musically. Old standbys like St. Vincent and Beck both just released fantastic albums, and Angel Olsen released a beautiful album, Burn Your Fire for No Witness, last week. I somehow have completely missed her debut album—who knows, maybe I didn't think that somebody with the name Angel was going to win me over—but Olsen has a stunning voice, and creates the kind of muted, melancholy folk songs that I love. Her overall sound reminds me of Sharon Van Etten, which of course means that I can't get enough. She'll be at SXSW this year, and luckily, so will I, so here's hoping that I'll be able to catch one of her shows.

Buy the album and check out her NPR Tiny Desk concert below.

TWENTY//FOURTEEN//

//image from my iPhone//

I've been putting off writing this post because I'm not really sure what to say. 2013 was a pretty weird year, full of huge, wonderful steps forward, and quite a few back. I was hoping to get that magical feeling of somebody pushing "reset" when I woke up in 2014, but somehow things didn't miraculously come into focus overnight. 

I guess that the best that I can say is that I hope in 2014 I take more steps forward than I do backward. I hope that I learn some new things about myself. I hope I eat lots of good food and maybe even eat a little healthier. I hope that I manage to get off of my butt occasionally to be active. I hope to read a lot of good books.  I hope to make more friends. I hope to travel. I hope to drink a lot of good coffee. More than anything, I just want to be good to myself, doing whatever that may encompass. I'd like my resolutions not to be about me beating myself up over what I believe to be my own inadequacies, but more about me taking care of myself and pushing myself to do things that are good for me, without getting down on myself when they don't work out right away. 

And with that all said, cheers to another year.