Feliz Año Nuevo a Todos

How the hell did it come to be December 30th already? I simply can't figure out where the time goes anymore. It passes far too quickly. Tomorrow is New Years Eve already and as usual in Virginia a 20 yr old doesn't have many options for going out (Philly, I miss you). It's OK though. I plan on watching the ball drop with a few close friends, hopefully eating some Chinese takeout because I haven't had that in months and laying low. The New Year never feels any different but this time I think it will be unique. Not only are we entering a new decade, but I plan on personally turning over a new leaf; not in a new- year's -resolution- type way because we all know those are bullshit, but in a way where I plan to correct a lot of the mistakes I have made this past year and move on to change the way I think about certain things. But enough of this nonsense. New Year's is a time for celebrating and being with people you care about (not to mention the consumption factor). Here are some of my fave songs that make me think of the New Year:

"New Years"- Asobi Seksu (In Japanese but...well just listen)
"The New Year"- Death Cab for Cutie (Death Cab, as always emotion evoking)
"Forever Young"- Youth Group (One of my all time favorites)
"Turn Into" and "Maps"- Yeah Yeah Yeahs
"Bittersweet Symphony"- The Verve
"21st Century Life"- Sam Sparro (Upbeat, good dance song)
"It's a New Day"- Will.I.Am
"After Hours"- We Are Scientists ("Time means nothing")
"Xavia"- The Submarines
"Crystal Ball" and "Perfect Symmetry"- Keane
"Such Great Heights" and "Brand New Colony"- The Postal Service
"Run"- Snow Patrol (Turn up the chorus: Light up, light up...I'll be right beside you dear)
"Time After Time"- Cyndi Lauper (Always appropriate in my opinion)
"In My Place"- Coldplay


Over the past year or so I have created a playlist which in my mind is so great it doesn't even have a title. We refer to it only as "THE UNTITLED PLAYLIST." And yes, it is in all caps. The songs on the list are a medley of popular dance songs, electronica, indie alt, etc. I'm always changing it and adding more to it, but in the spirit of the holidays (gag me) and the New Year rapidly approaching, I think I'll share. Listen in good health. It's my pride and joy (Screw babies; I have playlists).

Cold Shoulder	Adele
My Girls	Animal Collective
Boom	Anjulie
Energy	The Apples In Stereo
One Heavy February	Architecture in Helsinki
Jailer	Asa
Around The Bend	The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
The Sun Ain't Shining No More	The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
Always coming back home to you	Atmosphere
Delivery	Babyshambles
The National Grid	Bachelorette
I Know What I Am	Band of Skulls
Mr. Hurricane	Beast
You Don't Know Me (feat Regina Spektor)	Ben Folds
I Hate Camera	The Bird And The Bee
Anyway You Choose To Give It	The Black Ghosts
I Want Nothing	The Black Ghosts
Jique	Brazilian Girls
Break The Ice	Britney Spears
Ain't No Rest for the Wicked	Cage the Elephant
The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth	Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!
Nighttiming	Coconut Records
Universal Mind Control (Ft. Pharrell)	Common
Drivin' Me Wild	Common Ft. Lily Allen
Andrew	Crystal Antlers
Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex	CSS
Lights And Music	Cut Copy
Sexy Bitch	David Guetta ft.Akon
Lover	Devendra Banhart
I Want You Back	Discovery
That Look You Give That Guy	Eels
Jungle Drum	Emiliana Torrini
We Are The People	Empire Of The Sun
Walking On A Dream	Empire Of The Sun
Rabbit Heart	Florence + The Machine
Lovesick	Friendly Fires
Collarbone	Fujiya & Miyagi
O Shot	The Gay Blades
Beatific	Glass Candy
Ultraviolence	Heartsrevolution
Sea Within a Sea	The Horrors
Ready for the Floor	Hot Chip
They	Jem
11th Dimension	Julian Casablancas
We Are Your Friends	Justice vs. Simian
Bang Bang (feat. Adam Levine)	K'naan
Fire	Kasabian
Foundations	Kate Nash
Day N' Night	Kid Cudi
Human	The Killers
In Your Eyes	Kylie Minogue
Come Into My World	Kylie Minogue
Bulletproof	La Roux
In for the Kill (Skream's Let's Get Ravey Remix)	La Roux
My Delirium	Ladyhawke
Dusk Till Dawn	Ladyhawke
Young Bridge	Land Of Talk
Tribulations	LCD Soundsystem
Smile	Lily Allen
The Fear	Lily Allen
Not Fair	Lily Allen
Who'd Have Known	Lily Allen
Self-taught Learner	Lissy Trullie
Meddle (Ebola Remix)	Little Boots
The World Should Revolve Around Me	Little Jackie
The End	Lo-Fi-Fnk
I'm Good, I'm Gone	Lykke Li
Boyz	M.I.A.
Paper Planes	M.I.A.
Beggin (Original version)	Madcon
Love's a Game	The Magic Numbers
Public Enemy	Mapei
Valerie	Mark Ronson Ft. Amy Winehouse
Good Ol' Fashion Nightmare	Matt & Kim
Daylight	Matt & Kim
Next In Line	Meese
Electric Feel	MGMT
Weekend Wars	MGMT
Kids	MGMT
Say Hey (I Love You)	Michael Franti & Spearhead
Sugarbaby	Morningwood
Golden Star	My Brightest Diamond
The Bomb	New Young Pony Club
Fireflies	Owl City
Young Adult Friction	The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Little Secrets	Passion Pit
To Kingdom Come	Passion Pit
I've Got Your Number	Passion Pit
Accident And Emergency	Patrick Wolf
Relator	Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
Young Folks	Peter Bjorn And John
Dropped (Album Version)	Phantom Planet
Consolation Prizes	Phoenix
Hi	Psapp
Too Too Too Fast	Ra Ra Riot
15 Step	Radiohead
House Of Jealous Lovers	The Rapture
21st Century Life	Sam Sparro
Black & Gold (Marcussen Album Version)	Sam Sparro
Say Aha	Santigold
You'll Find A Way (Switch and Sinden Remix)	Santigold
L.E.S. Artistes	Santigold
November Was White, December Was Grey	Say Hi
Sweet Sweet Heartkiller	Say Hi To Your Mom
I Don't Feel Like Dancing	Scissor Sisters
Dancehall	Sean Bones
La Loba	Shakira
Bright Side	The Soft Pack
Ghetto Love	Spinnerette
The Strangers	St. Vincent
Reptilia	The Strokes
It Gets Your Body Movin'	Suckers
Coast Of Carolina	Telekinesis!
Tokyo	Telekinesis!
Drown In The Now feat. Matisyahu	The Crystal Method
Riot Radio	The Dead 60s
Fables	The Dodos
Take A Chance	The Magic Numbers
Burning	The Whitest Boy Alive
Jerk It	Thunderheist
Skeletons	Tiny Masters of Today
In A Cave	Tokyo Police Club
Mama's Room	Under The Influence of Giants
Horchata	Vampire Weekend
A-Punk	Vampire Weekend
Delirious	Vistoso Bosses
Pale Bride	The Von Bondies
Chillin'	Wale Feat. Lady Gaga
Death (Crystal Castles Remix)	White Lies
It's A New Day	Will.I.Am
Heartbreaker	Will.I.Am
Ce jeu	Yelle

http://www.dustytunes.com/user/alyssa513.php

And if you are hungry for more music but as cheap as I am (aka a broke ass) there are plenty of lovely, obliging sites with free music right now...
Urban Outfitters, Spin Magazine (thanks Sab), Nylon- check them out. There is a list on each website that you can download. The only one I had an issue with was the Spin list because it saves a zip file.

Anywho, Merry Belated X-mas and enjoy the tuneage..

Chau, Alyssa

Tik Tok on the clock indeed

When I recently got back to the states from Argentina, I was a little behind on my "club tunes." Now thanks to Z104 and Hot 100.5, I am acutely aware of Ke$ha and her bottle of Jack. Who the hell signs these people?? I can't lie.Tik Tok has an undeniably catchy beat, but her voice makes me want to take pencils and push them deep into my ears until I am officially deaf.
A couple things about this chick:
a)She spells her name with a dollar sign, instantly putting her on my bad side.
b) She is 22 but has the sound maturity of a middle-school era Miley Cyrus with considerably more of a potty mouth.
c) Her voice spasms make me feel good about my own voice. (Maybe that's actually a good point?)
d) This is posted on her web page about her role as a "storyteller:"
"There’s a song about the time Ke$ha threw up in a closet during a party at Paris Hilton’s pad (“Party at a Rich Dude’s House”), and one she says is about the time “some dumb bitch fronted like she was my friend but then secretly tried to bring me down” (“Backstabber”)"-
Sounds like a winner.

Again according to her website, when she was starting out, she paid off a gardener to let her through the gates to Prince's house to slip him her demo CD. Before being removed from his iconically purple, velvet chair, Ke$ha (I'm angry just typing that dollar sign) left the disc gift-wrapped with purple ribbon for Prince to listen to. Apparently she never heard anything back. Hmmm, maybe a sign?? Seriously, I realize the girl isn't too hard on the eyes (except for on her album cover; who decided on glitterfying her lips?), but come on. I also get that a ton of money is being made off this debaucherous new diva, but COME ON!

Now the Tik Tok video. Yes, I watched it. Just looking at her I see a less talented , but equally cracked out looking Amy Winehouse. Not only does she apparently have mutliple phones the boys are all blowing up looking to get up on her junk, but she also appears to influence a group of young children. This worries me exceedingly. The poor children don't even know what's hit them. One minute they're playing with their wagon and the next Ke$ha's singing at them about fighting until the morning light...oy vey...

Ok, I need to leave this alone now because my I.Q. is dropping just thinking about this disaster. One last point of horror: In the video, an American flag pops up and shortly thereafter a sign that says, "Money." If this isn't an example of the American dream. I don't know what the hell is. Power to ya hon. Maybe I'm being too harsh. I mean this is what the music industry is. What makes money is that crap that's influencing my 14 yr old skating students to pop beers and wear push up bras. Sometimes even I, as cynical as I am, like to listen to it because it's fun. But the difference is I know it's ridiculous, whereas a lot of younger girls don't get that. It is what it is, but I continue my boycott on this one. I'll save my guilty pleasures for a little Jay Sean or some Britney Spears.

Guilty:
Sexy Bitch- David Guetta and Akon
Do You Remember- Jay Sean and Sean Paul
Down- Jay Sean
3- Britney Spears (Holy crap this song is dirty)
Replay- Iyaz
Carry Out- Timbaland and Justin Timberlake
Whatcha Say- Jason Derulo

Oh lawd, here we go...

Ok, so if you know me, you know that I frequently become obsessed with certain spontaneous ideas that come into my head and that I never actually get around to fulfilling them because I'm such a scatterbrain. Hold your breath, but this time I think I've found something I can stick to. If you know me, you also know how much I loathe computers and have probably witnessed me slap mine around a time or two, but no matter. I'm going to give this a go.

I decided to start a blog about the thing that keeps me happiest: music.

I'm not here to preach, but if you like that pick-up truck loving, hound-dog owning, achy- breaky heart shit, hit "back" now. No, really. I mean it. However, folk-lovers, you are welcome to stay. Anyway, on to the plan. I'll be posting about really anything and everything; my favorites old and new, the crap I find on the radio, music news, photos from shows (when I actually find anything to go to), and just whatever pops into my ridiculous mind, music related or otherwise.

Aside from my aforementioned resistance to country, I'm really an open book when it comes to music. I love most everything: Alternative, Pop, Folk, Rock, Electronic, Classical/Opera (no, I'm not joking), Hip/Hop, Jazz, Reggaeton, Freak-Folk, ; basically as long as you're not whining or screaming at me, I'll probably give you a shot. I listen to this myriad of genres for many different reasons. Sometimes for the lyrics, sometimes for the voice (I love weird voices), or sometimes it's just for that short progression of notes that can take grasp of your senses. I don't have a song for every mood, but whenever I get upset because I feel like I'm missing out on something, or that the future seems immeasurably overwhelming, I listen to "Vienna," by Billy Joel. Aside from the obviously pertinent lyrics ("Slow down you crazy child...You're so ambitious for a juvenile") There's something in the melody that has an instant calming effect on me. It's like my own sort of musical therapy (which I feel I could use a lot of these days- musical or otherwise). If I want to laugh maybe I'll put on Lily Allen or in certain cases even Mickey Avalon (Oh Mickey, you are not so fine).

Who I can't stand, are the people that stick to a certain sound or two and refuse to open their minds to anything else. Of course we all have our preferences, and at certain times you want to hear certain things, but music is art, and isn't it owed to the artist to at least give it a chance? The beautiful thing about music is that it can evoke emotions we may not even realize we are feeling. A simple melody,a rhythm, a rhyme- can open your mind and your heart in a way nothing else can. Whether we're sad or elated, angry or relaxed, there's some piece of poetry that can explain these emotions and make you feel like someone understands. God, I hope that didn't sound too emo... On that note, I'll say adieu and leave you with open minds to find your own musical therapy.


Now playing:
Take Off Your Cool- Outkast & Norah Jones, (surprisingly cohesive combo)
On the Radio- Regina Spektor (love ginaaa)
Tú y Yo- Pilar Díaz,
November Was White, December Was Grey- Say Hi (just nice..listen.)