New Music Monday 8/30/2010 'Stars'

August is on its way out, folks! Fall is on its way in!!! The latest 'Stars' album titled 'Five Ghosts' came out back in June, but I haven't had the chance to give it a proper review until now. One of my favorite albums of all time was 'Set Yourself On Fire' by Stars. I always get all nervous when a band I love comes out with something new because I am worried it will suck and I will hate it. Thankfully that was not the case with this new record!!!



'Stars' is an indie band out of Toronto. They are also members of the band 'Broken Social Scene' which just happens to be my brother's favorite band ever. And one of the other members of Broken Social Scene just happens to be Emily Haines from the band 'Metric' which just happens to be my favorite band ever. So I do love Stars because of their relation to BSS and Metric, but I really just love them because they are so great.



This is Stars' fifth studio album and it is everything I love about them and more. Pitchfork gave it a pretty lame review - called it boring and claimed that all the songs sound the same. I couldn't disagree more! This album is anything but boring and I think the way the record is mixed is genious. Each song flows effortlessly into the next. I mean, to each his own but shame on you, pitchfork with your crabby review. Stars has still got it going on in all the right places. They've still got that amazing, layered electro pop thing going on. Amy Millan's voice is just as beautiful as ever - in my opinion one of the best female vocalists around right now. Stars is one of the coolest bands around. Sadly, they are also one of the most underappreciated bands around. While their records have been highly regarded by lots of critics, their fanbase has remained small. Sad face!! You people don't know what you're missing out on!!! Listen up.....

'I Died So I Could Haunt You' Sheer musical genious.... lyrically and musically - I love this one!!!


'Wasted Daylight' - :)


'We Don't Want Your Body' - references to drugs and sex, but I think the deeper meaning is less literal.... like, propaganda - we don't want what you're selling...


'Dead Hearts' - reflection on people who have meant so much who have now moved on and are "dead" to her.... or so she thinks....


'Fixed'


'He Dreams He's Awake'


'How Much More'


'The Passenger'


'Changes' could have written this myself


If you've never heard 'Stars' before, this would be the album to start with in my opinion. 'Five Ghosts' is perfect for this time of year. I mean, with Halloween on the horizon how could you go wrong with a title like that? Trick or Treat??? :)

Paint It Black

I love fall. I love everything about it. The food, the sweaters, the football playing in the background, the cooler weather, the trick-or-treating, etc. There's just something about fall and the change of seasons that makes me want to renovate. We've been doing a bit of sprucing up around the outside of the house and it's really coming together! One thing almost always leads to another when it comes to home renovations as far as I'm concerned. So this weekend while painting the trim around the front door, I decided it was time to take off that old screen door. It's nice to be able to open the door and let in the fresh air, but honestly the door was toast. It was faded, broken and we've never had a key for it since we bought this house on foreclosure. So off it came!!! It looks a lot better.

Door without fugly screen door... before I painted it a new color.....




I have been needing to paint the front door for awhile - it's dirty, scratched and faded - plus I am kind of over its color. My mom suggested a black door which I thought would look pretty great! So I picked up some paint at Menard's today and painted it black after we were done with school. The paint color is called "gargoyle shadow" and I absolutely adore it. It isn't quite black black, but more of a grayish black with just enough brown so that it compliments our hardware and the colors in the brick. I will also be painting the faded poo brown shutters to match the door. Crappy thing is that I can't get them off the house - the screws won't budge. Minor detail. I will just have to get on a ladder to do it. So ya..... I will be sure to post pictures when it's all finished!! For now here are the "during" photos.


I love this color!! It's Dutchboy's new "maxbond" paint and primer in one and it's called 'gargoyle shadow.' Love!!!


From afar - don't mind my paint mess.... you can see I have one shutter done on the right. It looks so much better! I knew they were faded, but yowza!


Proof that you CAN paint just about anything. Kevin was all worried about painting the shutters since they're vinyl, but this paint is supposed to stick to any surface and it seems to so far..... shutter on the left is painted, shutter on the right hasn't been painted. See the difference???

So that project is coming along just fine. Other things on the agenda are staining the concrete out front, getting new house numbers, maybe painting the garage door and planting some sort of flowers in a big awesome pot next to the front door. Not sure if it's too early for fall foliage or not, but I'm gonna check it out today!! :) Fall. It's on.

New Music Monday 8/23/2010 'Pomplamoose'

Holy busy Monday!!! I wasn't sure I was even going to have time to blog about this amazing new(ish) band. We started school today (in case you don't know, we homeschool). We were all ready to start, but the first couple of weeks of getting back into a routine are always a big adjustment. Ethan's doing fifth grade curriculum, Abby's doing 2nd and some 3rd and this will be Olivia's first year of preschool! Talk about being a little overwhelmed!! On top of it all, Abby has had a fever/headache thing going on the past couple of days. Ethan's allergies are so terrible he wants to peel his face off. And Lulu has croup and so many bugbites on her face that she looks like the elephant man. If you don't know who the elephant man is, google it... it's not pretty.

So, Monday has been interesting to say the least!! But it's all good in the hood - kids are in bed and I have a few minutes before I work out (gawd, I don't want to) to make sure that you all get to know a sweet little duo called 'Pomplamoose.' It's very important because I love them.



Pomplamoose (which just so happens to be the french word for grapefruit) is Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn. They are a fan-freaking-tastic indie jazz duo!! I first heard them at the salon!! My amazing stylist Kat (who just got married, Congrats!!!!!) doesn't just have style when it comes to hair. She is responsible for my current obsession with Pomplamoose. A thousand thanks to Kat!!! Anyways, Jack and Nataly are what you would call "multi-instrumentalists", meaning they play all sorts of different things. But not just your normal things - I'm talking kid sized piano's, wine bottles, spatulas and other oddities. They have secured a pretty solid fan base as internet musicians and people LOVE their videos. They are so cute and they make me smile. With Pomplamoose, what you see is what you hear: no lip-syncing. If you hear it, you see it. There are no hidden sounds. They've recorded all of their videosongs in this so-called "glitz-free" manner. Nothing fancy, just music. I fell in love with their cover songs, but their original tracks are just as lovable! Take a look/listen for yourself!

The covers.........
'September' - seriously, this song is MY HEART!


'Single Ladies' Awwwww, yeahhhh!!!


'Beat It' - yes, they went there.... and I happen to love it!


'I Don't Want To Miss A Thing' tee hee!


'Telephone' Lady Gaga!!!!! LOVE this!




The orginal tracks......

'Little Things'


'Beat the Horse'


'If You Think You Need Some Lovin' :)


'Expiration Date'


'Twice As Nice'


'Centrifuge'


There is a lot more amazingness to be heard/seen as far as Pomplamoose is concerned, so check out their youtube channel and then head over to itunes or amazon and buy their albums!!! Fill your ears and your heart with the goodness that is Pomplamoose. Oh, you're welcome!!

psssttttt!! In order to listen to/watch the vids, just mute or turn down the playlist - the volume is on the far right corner......

Making It Happen

So summer is pretty much over. Boo. Hiss. But, I have to admit I'm sort of ready to get on with it. We're starting school over here next Monday. I can't believe how fast our summer break went! I always freak out trying to get things packed into the last couple weeks of August because I never feel like I got everything done that I wanted to do. But looking back, I think we really made it happen around here! We did lots of fun family trips, spent time with lots of great people and I even got one project finished - Ethan's room. (I won't tell you how things many I started that aren't finished!!) But at least I can say that his room is officially done. I guess if you don't count the fact that I have to do the quarter round.... but ya, it's done in my book!!

We actually moved Ethan into Olivia's old room. His old room is now Abby's new room and Abby's old room is now Olivia's new room. Make sense? Ya, it doesn't to me either. I still go into the wrong rooms!!! But it did make sense as far as changing them around. Now Ethan has the biggest room. His old room was a sort of primary colored pirate theme - very cute, but not really grown up enough for a ten year old kid. So we decided to go with a music/skateboarding theme this time. It turned out really well I think!!!

Here are the before pics of what it looked like when it was Olivia's room - we sold everything we didn't need anymore on Craigslist or Ebay....







Here is what it looks like now! Quite different!!!


bought the curtains and 'I Am Music' wall art from Target...


bedding is from Target and the loft bed and full bed are from Walmart - we got a great deal on them with site to store shipping...


dresser is the 'Malm' series from IKEA....


found the sweet skateboarder wall decal at our local Menards - you can also see that I painted the ceiling the same color as the trim & doors....


wall color is called 'Quiksilver' and it's by Olympic paints for Lowe's.... I had originally bought another trim color which turned out to be a nightmarish, bad prom dress teal. It's amazing how different colors can look in the store compared to at home!! The second color turned out to be just right...


Ethan got this shelf from my mom for his birthday from PB Teen....


I also painted the inside of his walk in closet the same color as the walls, but it's always messy so we keep the door closed! The mirrors were originally in my brother's old room and are from IKEA....

Phew! One room is technically done and I feel good about it. And Ethan loves his room!! Win!!! We also love the fact that it can sleep all three of the kids at once because that leaves other beds for when we have overnight guests. They also have frequent sleepovers in there just because. Especially during storms!!! :) I hope to be able to cross some of the other projects off the list soon. I will post pictures of the girls' rooms once I feel like I can call them done. So goodbye to summer and hello there, fall!! Here's to making it happen some more!!!!

New Music Monday 8/9/2010 'Jeremy Keen'

Wow, what a weekend!! Rarely, I have the opportunity to hear good music. I mean, really good stand out music. Even more rarely, I know the person making it! I am lucky to know the talented man behind the music of 'Jeremy Keen and the False Starts'. I am actually pretty tight with his wife!! NBD :)



This past Friday was the cd release show for Jeremy Keen's new album titled 'Lock and Key.' Kevin and I drove into the city to Subterranean (very cool venue) with a couple of other friends to watch the show. And what a great show it was! Andrea Dawn was an amazing opening act - actually Andrea's voice is beyond amazing. Think Fiona Apple meets Carol King. After that, Jeremy and his band took no time at all setting up and hitting the stage. Their stage presence was relaxed and flawless.... like they'd been doing shows all their lives. Really, I guess they kind of have been!!

'Jeremy Keen and the False Starts' is an indie folk rock band that started with Jeremy. He began writing music in junior high and has played in a lot of different bands since then. The band consists of Zach Goforth (bass, background vocals), Charissa Motley (keys), Brendan McCormick (drums), and of course Jeremy on guitar and vocals. Jeremy wrote all of the songs himself over the past few years and the recording itself was quite a labor of love for him. 'Lock & Key' was recorded in several different locations (a basement, a garage, an office....) on a portable rig and then pieced together at a studio in Villa Park. What came out of all that is an incredible masterpiece.



What makes 'Lock & Key' stand out from other albums is the fact that it isn't like anything else you've ever heard before. It isn't over-produced. It isn't the same old stuff. It's raw and urgent and beautiful. This record covers it all lyrically. Songs like 'Sad' and 'Brother' tackle difficult subjects like depression and an estranged relationship. 'Barnburner' takes you back to the 90s with its alternative rock feel. If I had to pick, I think 'Save Me' and 'Too Late' are my own personal favorites.

In summary, 'Lock & Key' is one of the most enjoyable, consistent yet diverse albums I've heard in quite awhile. Hands down. If you like good music, you will love 'Lock & Key.' You can get it on itunes or here at amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lock-Key/dp/B003VXHWPO/ref=mb_oe_o Happy downloading!!!!!