XYZ is for... The End

I seriously don't have a single song by an artist whose name begins with X or Z... I know of a few, but since they're not part of my iTunes collection, they don't count. Thankfully, I have a few Y artists! More than I anticipated actually... But I'll leave you with a few videos to round out the collection...

When that music starts to play don't forget to... BUST A MOVE!


Look for the future...


And never forget the past and the memories we made :)


For more on Young MC, Yellowcard, or Yes, check out their websites.

W is for Weird Al Yankovic

Yeah, I'm cheating again with the whole last names thing. WHO CARES? I do what I want.

It's Wednesday, which means that it's mid-week, which means we're still not at the weekend yet. UGH, right? But that's why I picked Weird Al for W, instead of Wolfmother, Weezer, Westlife, Will Smith, or even the Who. Weird Al is all about the laughs, and that's what we all need by the time Wednesday hits to keep us motivated until the weekend is back again. Plus, I'm pretty sure he would approve of it being hump day :p

When's your birthday? Wanna trade fates?


To this day, whenever I hear "American Pie" I start singing the Weird Al version. Sorry, but Star Wars is just BETTER!


Admittedly white and nerdy. WHOOPS haha...


Totally going to save my allowance for a bubble dress! Thank god that isn't his real body, because that would be disturbing >.<

V is for Velvet Revolver

Velvet Revolver may have been a rather blip band (which is exactly what happens when you're an amalgamation group and your leader singer has... issues), but they put out some pretty good tracks during their 15 minutes of fame. "Fall to Pieces" may have been their big single off of Contraband, but I much prefer "Slither." "Fall to Pieces" is an artfully written song (surprise I know), which is why it got all the attention, but the dirty bass line from "Slither" is what made me start listening to the band in the first place. And did I mention Scott Weiland's skin-tight silver pants? I would totally rock those. Maybe not in public, but they're awesome either way. Just browsing around the web I stumbled upon a collection for English Laundry that Scott Weiland actually designed. It's full of oddly patterned dress shirts, and retro-fitted pants that I can't see most people wearing unless they're specifically trying to dress like Weiland. But props to him for branching out!

U is for U2

How fortuitous is it that I had planned on posting about U2, and it just so happened that the letter U was scheduled for a Sunday!



Happy Sunday everyone! This musical alphabet thing will be over soon (yay!) and I'll be back to regular fashion posts asap! I have some awesome things planned for October, so stay tuned :)

T is for Tiësto

Bonus points for anyone who can identify  which British boy band Christian Burns was a member of without having to look it up :)

For more info on Tiësto check out his website! He's got some mad crazy tracks out this year (helloooo one of the world's biggest DJs), so it's definitely worth a look through his recent discography.

S is for Savage Garden

A song that defined a moment in my life: "I Want You" (sorry for the double post, but it's awesome)



A song that inspires me: "Affirmation"



A remix by another one of my favourite artists: "Truly Madly Deeply" by Cascada

A quick fact: they're called Savage Garden after a phrase that Anne Rice uses to describe the vampire world in the Vampire Chronicles. I thought it was just coincidence, but the band fully admits to being inspired by Rice and her vampires! Now you know!

For more about Savage Garden, check out their website.

R is for Robyn

One of my all time favourite tracks on the Muchdance 1997 album was a little track by Robyn called "Do You Know (What it Takes)." Along with Hanson's "Mmmbop," Savage Garden's "I Want You," and BSB's "Quit Playin' Games (With My Heart)" it became one of the songs to define one of the best summers of my life. Spending endless days at the beach, tubing on the river (yay our dad's were obsessed with boating), dance parties on the front lawn, and all the while singing these songs with my two BFFs (you know who you are ladies ♥). Robyn may have taken her music to the next level (check out her latest album Bodytalk), and I do love her new stuff, but I gotta admit I have a soft spot for her classics.

Q is for Queen

Obviously Queen was the logical band to choose for the Q post. Seriously they are awesome, and if you think otherwise then you don't know what you're talking about! I'm not even going to go into reasons why, I'll just share a video with you, and then get into the other stuff I wanted to talk about. Just try to ignore their terrible British teeth and strange fashion style and enjoy the music!



So life has been pretty hectic recently. Moving across the country (literally coast to coast in less than 6 months) will cause stress even if the most organized people like me. But I'm settling in now that my wardrobe and shoes have safely found their way home, and have been organized into their new places in my new apartment.

I'm going to share some photos of my new place at some point, but I'm not quite done buying furniture, so my living room is still rather empty. By mid-October it should be all together, so look forward to some pictures of my fabulous new living space then! The themes are Andy Warhol-inspired pop art, and a style that I like to call "glamorous minimalism." Pretty much stellar opposites on the design spectrum, but I'm quite excited about how it's going to turn out :) The newest addition to my place is a "real person sized" bed (queen in normal people lingo), and I am deleriously happy with it. Super cushy extra plush mattress, fluffy new duvet, and 300 thread count sheets. My idea of heaven!

I've pretty much got the shopping scene down in this city, and it's pretty basic. They have some neat stores, but it's pretty much the same old stuff. I have high hopes for the consignment stores, but so far I'm too busy finding perfect furniture to really clothing shop. And my wardrobe is so saturated with fabulous things that I don't feel that I need anything new at the moment. Though I may treat myself to a new pair of shoes at the beginning of October to celebrate the one year anniversary of this blog (OMG an entire year I know!).

As for school I made it through orientation week without wanting to maim anyone. We all know how I react to forced group bonding... Pretty sure I offended a bunch of the girls one day one by saying that sarcasm is my second language, and I honestly don't care what people say. I'm sure I'll make friends eventually, but I've got other things to deal with at the moment. Three of the people from my program are on my Facebook friends list (I don't add people, they add me haha), and I've had some interesting conversations with the one of them who lives in my building (it's a small world), so I guess that's a start!

Well, I should probably get back to doing some more tedious readings, or work on some papers (seriously I have one due next Monday already...), so more later! Have an awesome week everyone, and I hope that you aren't getting overwhelmed by school just yet. And if so, then suck it up! We choose to go to school, so we have to deal with the consequences! Love you bitches <3

P is for Pat Benatar

So technically Pat Benatar is cheating for P, since it's her first name instead of her last, but whatever. I do what I want! I also felt bad because most of the bands I've featured have been from the electronic genre, and I actually do listen to other stuff! Pat is definitely part of the classic rock genre, so yay for branching out! I'll be doing it again tomorrow (I bet you can all guess which band it is too...), just to solidify that I'm not totally obsessed with electronica!

Most people have heard at least one Pat Benatar song (even if they don't know it), and she's penned some pretty decent classics. "Love is a Battlefield,""The Warrior," and "Hit me with your Best Shot" are all awesome songs, but totally not my favourite Benatar tune. Instead I'm really into "Hot Child in the City" because it reminds me of an awesome episode of Sex and the City where Carrie realizes that some guys don't want to grow up (ever), but it's always nice to just chill out with your girlfriends and relive our teenage years.

photo from here

O is for OAR

Love and Memories


Lovely, you're always lovely
A vision
You were the one
Now I am stuck inside a memory
You forgot about our destiny
You buried me
Didn't you?
Didn't you?

Love me faster than the devil
Run me straight into the ground
Drowning deep inside your water
Drowning deep inside your sound

You're always floating
A vapor
That I couldn't see
Here I am stuck inside a yesterday
Everything has given way
You fell from me
Didn't you?
Didn't you?

Love me faster than the devil
Run me straight into the ground
Drowning deep inside your water
Drowning deep inside your sound
Love me faster than the devil
Run me straight into the ground
Drowning deep inside your water
Drown in love and memories

Maybe I am a crowded mind
I watch your eyes glaze over
Stared down at the floor
You were amazing to me
I was amazing to you
But here we go again

Didn't you
Love me faster than the devil
Run me straight into the ground
Drowning deep inside your water
Drowning deep inside your sound
Love me faster than the devil
Run me straight into the ground
Drowning deep inside your water
Drowning deep inside your sound

Love me faster than the devil
Run me straight into the ground
Drowning deep inside your water
Drown in love and memories


~ OAR (Of a Revolution)

N is for Nickelback

JUST KIDDING. I would never do that to you darlings. Everyone knows how much I despise those greasy, clichéd, country-playing sellouts.

Instead I'm going to introduce you to a band that by talent-rights should be far more well known than the unmentionable N, but for some reason aren't: Narcotic Thrust. Possibly their own fault for not releasing actual studio EPs, and only singles, but I think a large part of it has to do with the fact that they hit the pop-electronica mash-up style a few years ahead of the mainstream, so they didn't get any airplay. I'm sure they're super popular in a bunch of little European countries, since the genre has been going far stronger over there than in North America, but it would have been nice to see more Narcotic Thrust in general.

I first heard their song "When the Dawn Breaks" in grade 12 when my BFF Aina had it on an album in her car. Because of this, the song will forever remind me of the two of us skipping class (study period for me and drama for her, so no big academic loss don't worry) to go shopping for shoes and get slushies. Yes, if you're wondering, this was when my shoe and fashion addiction got started, so you can all thank Aina for that! But memories aside, the song is amazing. It's not too electronic, it's not too pop, and it has just enough distinctive guitar to classify as touching on the rock genre (my version is a little more guitar heavy than the video for some reason). Every single person that I've ever made listen to the song has really liked it, unless they don't like electronica of course, so I'm telling you to go listen to it! Ignore the slutty dancing girls in the video, just listen to the song!

 

M is for Maroon 5

When they released their first album, Songs About Jane, I was not a fan of Maroon 5. I wasn't really into the whole "love song thing" that dominated most of the album, since it was a bit too "soft" for my tastes. Sure they had talent, but I just wasn't into what they were singing. Until they started releasing tracks off of their sophmore album, It Won't be Soon Before Long. "Wake Up Call" was totally my kind of song. Delicious guitar, a deep bassline, and lyrics that made me want to sing along. And of course Adam Levine being his gorgeous self in the music video. I bought the album and was delighted to find other such gems as "If I Never See Your Face Again" and "Not Falling Apart" (which were later remixed into even more amazing songs with Rihanna and Tiësto respectively). And then came a really long break. Like WAY too long. For a while I eagerly awaited their new EP, but it wasn't forthcoming, and for a long time I forgot about them. But then I heard that Adam Levine was going to be featured on The Voice as one of the judges/voice coaches and I was super excited! His contestant, Javier Colone, won the competition (hello talent), but the real highlight of the show was finding out that they had a new album out (Hands all Over), and hearing their latest track "Moves Like Jagger" which features Christina Aguilera (one of the other superstar talents from The Voice). I'm probably not the first to say that Adam did some pretty good chanelling of the Rolling Stones frontman, but it bears repeating. Just go watch the video, and you'll see what everyone is talking about :)

L is for lmfao

When lmfao first exploded onto the musical mainstream, I must admit I was not a fan. Words could not describe how much their song "Shots" annoyed me. I got to know their music a little bit more when they had a spot on The Real World: Cancun, and one of TRW cast starred in their video for the song "La La La," which I actually didn't mind. But then I heard "Party Rock Anthem." Like the dance-zombies in the video I was infected by the beat, and I couldn't stop shufflin'. Truth: I can't shuffle worth shit, and I would never be caught dead wearing the fashion crimes from the video, but I still love the song.

K is for Kaskade

Over the years I've purchased quite a few trance/electronica/house/techno compilation cds, but it wasn't until electronic music started becoming more mainstream (and the artists' albums started being sold for more reasonable prices) that I began purchasing single artists' EPs. Of course I had a handful of Paul Oakenfold, Tiësto, and Basshunter albums in my collection since they were some of the biggest names in electronic music, but the first album that I can remember as a distinct move into artist specific buying was Kaskade's album Dynasty. I had heard (and loved) the track "Fire in Your New Shoes" featuring Dragonette, and I thought that the album cover was interesting so I decided to take a risk and grab it. I am SO GLAD that I did, since from start to finish it's a beautiful album. Each track has smooth, but energetic sound (I'm sure this is specific to some genre of electronica, but I don't care to define it), and gorgeous vocals from a variety of sirens.

J is for Jet

Reasons why I love Jet (in no particular order):

-       Their song “Are you Gonna be my Girl” was in one of the original Apple iPod commercials.

-       They were inspired by the art of the Beatles album Revolver for the video of “Are you Gonna be my Girl,” which combines my love of stark b&w-chairoscuro art styling, and my favourite musical band of all time.

-       “Cold Hard Bitch” is totally my theme song, and it doesn’t offend me that my friends used to sing it at karaoke for me. I am a cold, hard bitch, and if you can’t deal with that then go f*** yourself!

-       Their sound is very retro (classic rock), but is definitely unique.

-       Their latest album Shaka Rock is slightly addictive. I couldn’t stop listening to “She’s a Genius” for like 2 months.

-    I like their twist on the “love song.” They sing about girls, but they sing about girls being bitches, girls who are smarter than them, and girls who play the game better than them, and they seem to do it without being ironic. Apparently there are guys out there who like the confusing, demanding, intelligent, and bitchy girls! YESSSS!

I is for Infernal

Does everyone remember this song? Totally a one hit wonder band, but it has some significant memories attached. Mostly of being in grade 12, and being excited to party, and one of the girls in our grad class joking that if no one nominated a grad theme song she was going to nominate this one... I can't rememer what our grad song actually was (just that it was by Aerosmith), but Infernal's song will never leave my iPod, so maybe this would have been a more fitting song?

I is for Interruption

I'm leaving on a jet plane in a few hours time, and I'm not sure when I'll have internet in my new place, so who knows when the next blogpost will be... But hopefully I won't be internet deficient for too long!