Ray LaMontagne

My roommate always says that I like to listen to depressing music… I tell her that she has n0 clue what she is talking about. And of course, I am right.

I may prefer slow acoustic-sounding music over super electronic and I listen to Bon Iver 5,000,000,000 times more often than Avicii, but there is nothing depressing about it!

For today, I am going to share one of my favorite  slow-music artists, Ray LaMontagne.

The first time I heard this song, Jolene, I was sitting on a beach last summer under the stars  listening to my friend sing and play the guitar. Needless to say, this song sparks memories for me that are far from depressing!

 

Some of my other favorites include:

Trouble

 

and Hold You in My Arms

 

I hope you enjoy! These are great songs for a laid-back Thursday night of homework and fun!! wooo hooo  because that is what I will be doing!

Happy Thursday! Be Safe and Have Fun!

xoxo, Lanie

Take Away Shows: Can I go too?

Last week I was skyping with a friend. He is kind of my music guru and always lets me know about new bands he is into and more often than not I like them too. This friend is also an aspiring musician and he was letting me know what was going on in his life as far as his own writing and recording. That is when he told me “My life will be complete when I get to play a take away show.”

Of course I had no idea what a take away show was so he got silent and told me to immediately go to youtube and check it out. So did, then I looked at another, and another, and pretty soon I was no longer skyping with him but instead off in a whole other world thinking of these pop-up concerts.

Since 2006 a man named Vincent Moon has been filming what he calls “take away shows and putting them up on his youtube channel La Blogothéque. Pretty much these shows spring up out of nowhere catching people off guard. Some people see the musicians and have no idea who they are and just walk right by but then there are also many shows that will gather a huge crowd.

Watching these videos I just got that “I want to be there” feeling and I found myself getting super excited.

These are why I love music.

Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago

(best part of this one: look at Justin Vernon’s sweater in the back)

Phoenix: 1901

Beirut: Nantes

Fleet Foxes: Blue Ridge Mountains

The Kooks: Ooh La

I hope you all enjoy these as much as I did. There are about one hundred more out there if you go to the youtube channel!

AND TONIGHT:

BLUE SCHOLARS LIVE AT BU CENTRAL!

I have been waiting all semester for this, I am so excited. Doors open at 8:30, show starts at 9! I hope you all can make it!

Love always,

Lanie Pearl

Weekend of Leaks: Drake, Childish Gambino, AND Birdy!

I’m not sure about all y’all, but the world of music was very kind to me over the weekend. THREE of my most anticipated albums of the year leaked, giving me a ton of new tracks to keep me patient for at least another week or so.

It’s been over a year since Drake released his last offering, Thank Me Later, and his follow-up album is certainly something to get excited about. I’ve only listened through it a couple times so far, and the major standout for me is the sexy title track with Rihanna, “Take Care.”

Childish Gambino is Community star Donald Glover‘s rap project and he’s finally releasing his debut album after a string of mixtapes and EPs. Camp has Glover constantly testing out new genres to accomodate his hilarious and poignant raps. “Heartbeat” goes hard with a legit electronic beat and is definitely worth a listen.

Birdy is a 15-year old British phenom that y’all clearly need to know about. She grabbed major attention last year with her cover of Bon Iver‘s “Skinny Love” and she continues that trend of fascinating covers on her debut album (all tracks except for one are covers). My favorite, a beautiful version of The National‘s “Terrible Love,” was nowhere on YouTube, but I was able to find her equally beautiful rendition of The xx‘s “Shelter.”

That’s it for this week, hope y’all enjoyed the tracks!

Josh

Embrace the Heartbreak: Two new covers to reduce you to tears

This might already be obvious to those who have read my previous posts, but I have a serious thing for covers. In keeping with that, I nearly burst into tears upon checking out this beautifully harmonic cover of Bon Iver‘s “Blindsided.”

I can’t say I’m too familiar with Jose Vanders (who takes lead vocals on this) and Luke Leighfield, two relatively obscure British singer-songwriters, but apparently the two have been working on a joint project for some time. I’ve yet to explore either’s solo works, but color me interested if any of it can live up to this brilliance.

Next, yet another cover that may or may not reduce you to tears.

Coeur de Pirate, a Canadian pop singer who mainly sings in French, is one of my personal faves and this here cover of The Weeknd‘s “Wicked Game” breaks my heart in a million and one little pieces. Therefore, I love love love it. Sue me, I’m a masochist.

That’s it for this week. Keep checking the blog for new posts from my fellow coworkers, yeah?

Josh

Guest Post From New Staffer Lanie Padbury

Hey everybody!

I’m Lanie and I’m the newest member of the BU Central staff! I thought that for my first blogpost I would share some of my favorite music and let you all know a little bit about myself.

Ever since their new album came out earlier this summer, I have been listening to the new Bon Iver album on repeat over and over again. Because of this I am sure you can all understand the gargantuan amount of excitement I had when the video for Holocene was released last month.

This video, as surprised as I was while watching it for the first time, makes total sense when paired with the song. The beautiful natural images of Iceland and the little boy running makes my heart drop.

So here it is! I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do, and I encourage you all to go check out Bon Iver’s new album Bon Iver. You will love it!!!

-Lanie

Introducing… Mree, your new favorite YouTube artist!

YouTube functions as a haven for aspiring musicians, that is to be sure,  but the level on talent exhibited on there is oftentimes very questionable. Once in a while, though, I’ll find someone absolutely brilliant.

Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to be stunned by the beautiful perfection that is Marie Hsiao‘s voice. Performing under the name Mree on her YouTube channel, she frequently releases videos showcasing covers and original songs. It was this flawless Bon Iver medley posted below that first caught my attention.

As further proof of Mree‘s brilliance, here goes her immaculate cover of the Elvis Presley classic, “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

All of her videos can be checked out  at
http://www.youtube.com/user/mreebee3

It’s Unusual Instrument Day!

It’s blog time!

I have torn myself away from my gap.com shopping cart to blog and such…so here you go:

Lucky for everyone down here in BUC right now, while an infomercial for the “WonderFILE” plays on the big screen, I do not have the TV volume on.  I’m playing a playlist! Right now, it’s pretty chill: Alexi Murdoch’s “All My Days” (it’s on the “Away We Go” soundtrack).  He looks pretty chipper here, but his voice is really soft and I’m pretty sure he’s got some maracas* rocking out in the background of this track, along with some really earthy-nature-y chords on his guitar.  Very chill.

I like his hair.

Also, this:

It’s adorable.  I like Bon Iver. Probably will post more Bon Iver.  Also probably more Lykke Li.  She’s adorable.  This entire thing is adorable.  I’m pretty sure there’s somebody playing the spoons* in there. And Lykke Li plays an itty bitty trumpet*.  And she dances a little like Shakira in Waka Waka.

I like to keep these posts short, so I’ll end with this one:

“Giants”, performed by Ben Karis (with Olivia Karis-Nix in the background?). Ben is pretty talented in general (he is also super crafty…somewhere there’s a video of him silkscreening posters for his band…what? Rad.), as is Olivia.  They’re great.  Listen to the lyrics. And the banjo.* I photographed their wedding, and they did a duet, which was stellar.  Anyways, Ben is great–I’ll probably post more from him in the next few weeks.

From their wedding. Presh.

That’s it. The Gap calls to me.

Just kidding.

-Reese

*See title of post. Get it? Haha. Ha.