Isabella Of Castille by Starfucker

No Color by The Dodos

I saw The Dodos perform live for the 1st time in August 2009 at Outside Lands in San Franciso. I barely knew any of their material back then but now I'm a huge fan. The Dodos have an extremely unique & beautiful sound & they put on a fantastic live show. No Color is definitely one of the best new albums I've heard in 2011 so far! I can't wait to see The Dodos again next Friday 4/8 at El Rey Theater in LA!

When Will You Go

Good

Companions

Going Under

Heavy Boots by Nicole Atkins

I saw Nicole Atkins open for The Black Keys at The Hollywood Palladium on 9/30/10 &, at the time, I had no idea who she was. It turned out she was/is a super hot brunette with a beautifully soulful voice who did a fabulous job warming up the Keys' audience. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing her again live!

Toro Y Moi @ The Troubadour - 3/23/11

I'm SO happy I managed to snag a pair of tickets to Toro Y Moi's sold out show at The Troubadour last night! Many thanks to the kind Craigslister who hooked me up with 2 tickets! I included all 3 of my blog postings about Toro Y Moi in my CL ad seeking tickets &, apparently, that's what prompted her to contact me &, more importantly, NOT rip me off. I was offering $50 for 2 tix & the seller said she'd just take $40! When does that happen?!? I told her she was pretty much the nicest Craigslister ever.

I brought a friend to the show who had never heard a single TYM song & he LOVED the entire set! I felt like I did him a huge favor. I actually kinda did because Chazwick Bundick (aka Toro Y Moi) is definitely gonna blow up & SOON!

And, although we missed Cloud Nothings (the 1st opening act), the 2nd opener, Braids, really impressed me. I'm definitely looking forward to hearing more from them.

Elise

Got Blinded

The Raconteurs

The Raconteurs f*ckin ROCK & will always hold a special place in my heart because I met my roommate Stephanie at The Raconteurs & The Kills show at The Greek Theater in Los Angeles back in September 2008. I'm pretty sure it was during that particular tour when Jack White & Allison Mosshart started collaborating & creating Jack's 3rd brilliant project, The Dead Weather. Stephanie & I were dancing right next to each other (after I snuck up from Section C to steal a better seat in Section B) & we bonded over our mutual love for Jack White. We like to tell people that Jack White brought us together :-)

Top Yourself

You Don't Understand Me

Windows by Broken Bells

I can't wait to hear the other 3 songs on Broken Bells' upcoming 4-track EP Meyrin Fields on March 29th!

Windows

Angles by The Strokes

The Strokes were an unexpected highlight for me at Outside Lands in San Francisco last August &, now after hearing & thoroughly enjoying their latest album Angles, I'm extra pumped to see them headline alongside Kanye West on Sunday at Coachella 2011! I don't really care if they all actually get along or not as long as they put on a good show!

P.S. This is my 200th post!!! Please help me blow up by becoming a FOLLOWER today! :-)

Machu Picchu


Games


You're So Right

Underneath The Pine by Toro Y Moi

New Beat

Still Sound

Elise

The Doobie Brothers @ The Center For Performing Arts in Downtown San Jose - 3/12/11

I love getting all dolled up once a year to attend Santa Clara University's Board of Fellows' black tie charity event Golden Circle with my entire extended family & a ton of my close old friends from San Jose. Every year, we begin the evening at 6pm with a live show at The Center For Performing Arts in Downtown San Jose. In years past, I've been lucky enough to see Huey Lewis & The News, Gladys Knight, The Pointer Sisters, Smokey Robinson & even Kenny Loggins! You KNOW you're jealous about Kenny...haha. Then, 2,000+ people dressed in tuxedos & fancy dresses block traffic for at least 10-15 minutes while walking from the CPA to the Fairmont Hotel for a cocktail hour, a gourmet sit-down meal & dancing until midnight or later. It kinda ends up feeling like a wedding & it's an absolute blast every year. The all-you-can drink wine is just the icing on the cake ;-)

Lykke Li @ El Rey Theatre - 3/9/11

When one of my most trusted concert buddies asked me on Tuesday if I'd be down to try snagging some last minute tickets to the sold out Lykke Li show at the El Rey Theatre on Wednesday, I did not hesitate to immediately cancel my Wednesday night plans & dedicate myself to tracking down tickets...ideally costing no more than $50-60 per ticket despite the fact evil Craigslist scalpers were trying to sell the $35-40 face value tickets for as much as $90-100 a pop.

It was a close call but, after spending all of Wednesday sending Emails to strangers begging them to sell their tickets for less money & even posting our own Craigslist ads trying to be witty & cute in the hopes someone would take pity on us, we got SUPER lucky around 5:30pm when we found a kind-hearted dude who was willing to sell us 2 tickets for $110 total if we'd just pick them up in Venice Beach. By 7pm, we had our tickets in hand & were finally able to relax.

I had been planning on wearing the shortest skirt I owned in order to work the corner outside the venue looking for tickets so I was relieved to no longer have to worry about that. I still ended up wearing a short skirt though just because Lykke is always sporting short shorts or no pants at all & I thought it'd be appropriate :-)

In the end, everything worked out perfectly & Lykke Li blew my f*ckin mind! The 24-year-old Swedish hottie is beyond talented. Her voice is incredibly unique & she is SO charismatic on stage that I seriously forgot where I was a few times. I was completely mesmerized. ALL of my focus was on Lykke & nothing else mattered.

Love Out Of Lust

Robotanists @ Satellite in Silverlake - 3/7/11

Club Spaceland is officially now called Satellite &, every Monday night, there is NO cover!

Bands like Robotanists are definitely worth paying for :-)

NEW SINGLE: Will Do by TV On The Radio!!!

I am SO stoked for TV On The Radio's new album Nine Types of Light to be released on April 12th! I almost bought tickets this morning for their May 2nd show in San Diego but, because it's at 8pm on a Monday right around when my sister's first baby is due, I thought it'd probably be best for me to just wait until they play in LA. Hopefully they won't take TOO long to come back to California!

I LOVE TVOTR!!!

HEARTBEATS

2 very different versions of the same AMAZING song:

The original version by The Knife
Heartbeats - The Knife - Unofficial music video from Guy Collins on Vimeo.

Jose Gonzalez's cover

Wild Nothing & Abe Vigoda @ The Natural History Museum - 3/4/11

SHOW ALERT!!! Wild Nothing & Abe Vigoda TONIGHT @ First Fridays @ The Natural History Musuem!!!

Quiet Hours

Throwing Shade

Muppets Dancing Themselves Clean :-)

Coolest. Muppets. EVER!!! I will always <3 LCD Soundsystem!