Don't treat me like a tourist

My my, life has been busy recently, I just got back from Paris where I had a lovely time with my girl Normandie, we saw the AWESOME of Montreal play on Friday night.  The floor was bouncing so much from people dancing it made me feel sea sick! I had the most un French weekend ever, we had burritos and vegan cupcakes, and did an insane amount of thrift store shopping, it was so much fun!

Earlier in the week I saw Kishi Bashi play his first show in London, Kishi Bashi plays violin in of Montreal, so on their break from touring he played a special solo show at The Waiting Room in Stoke Newington.  His record has been one of my favourites of this year, beautifully crafted orchestral pop music, with yes hella violins.  His live show is kinda bonkers, he onlys plays violin and sings and uses a looping pedal and effects to manipulate the sound. See for yourself...


Check out his latest pop video featuring a bunch of Kay's of Montreal band mates, apparently some of the people who helped with this video work on that show The Walking Dead too, though sadly Egg from This Life was not in it (he'll always be Egg even with that southern accent).



And yes, also buy his record, cause it is bloody brilliant, ok?

Now, we've talked about Yo Gabba Gabba on this blog before, but I can't really finish this post without mentioning of Montreal's catchy contribution to the show's musical output (and the show's striking similarities to the band's colourful live performance!).  Check out the following videos...
Brush your teeth!


Eat your healthy food!


Wow, of Montreal are full of really good advice!

Now please let me talk TV for a bit...

OMG last week's Parks and Recreation was one of my favourites, when Leslie gave the speech at the end I almost cried, I am such a loser.  Paul Rudd was great in it too, he plays Leslie's political rival and is such a dunce.  As well as the show I am also enjoying these Parks and Rec and Ben Wyatt gifs.  You can never have too many animated gifs in your life.

Also check out Paul Scheer's (The League, NTSF:SD SUV, Human Giant) Breaking Bad animated gif's site.

"Apparently I’m stepping on toes. But haters going hate and I’m going to GIF create!" Paul Scheer 

Hell yeah!

There should be more animated gifs involving pizza juggling.

I am so loving the show "Girls" too, I just watched episode 3, and I like how it's going. It's been interesting reading the backlash against the program, but with all that hype, there are always going to be some people who want to take them down.  I am in awe of Lena Dunham!

I'm also enjoying "Don't Trust The Bitch in Apartment 23" too, it's great to see Krysten Ritter having a lead role, I loved her in Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls, I'm not sure about the blonde girl, but I guess her character is meant to be whiney and annoying?

Apart form Michelle Williams, I never liked Dawson's Creek, but James Van Der Beek is pretty funny in it, as he plays himself and makes a ton of Dawson's Creek jokes. Come to think about it, he was pretty funny in "How I Met Your Mother" too. Maybe he's actually all right it's just that Dawson's Creek was so awful?

Well I best go, but if you're about in London town next Monday, why not come to this show and see my band Cosines play, I mean what else are you going to do right? (OK don't answer that)

See ya
Alicexx

On a ferris wheel looking out on Coney Island

Firstly, I'm so sorry for being rubbish and not updating this website for ages. And yes I also apologise for apologising, it is some kinda cliche to begin a blog post by apologising for not posting. I've been busy trying to find a job and then also working for very little money. I guess I'm technically unemployed but I think I've had the least amount of spare time I've ever had, even when I was working! My band The Loves have been playing some shows, we went to Spain which an insane awesome party, and also to Nottingham which wasn't such an insane party, just involved a lot of shouting about 'Withnail and I' and watching "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia".

Of course as ever, I've found the time to watch all my favourite telly programs, though am slightly disappointed with the lack of indie music references, what is going on in the world? I guess it's still early days though, Gossip Girl had a slightly pointless Robyn appearance (and Rachel Zoe got covered in chocolate! Yess!) and I'm sure it's only a matter of time until they wheel out another 90's indierock star soon. Why can't The Walking Dead have a popstar in it like The Stand did, so that he can batter a zombie with a flying v and then sing a song over their bloody corpse? Instead we have to listen to Egg from This Life's bad bad southern accent? (I like the program though, apart from the accent...) Have I not been watching the right tv programs? Or are people not interested in minor indie celebrities any more?

I did see two really cool documentaries though which you should try and see if you get the chance. The first is the awesome "Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields" which is a total must for fans of The Magnetic Fields, the film tells the story of the band in a very fitting manner, aswell of having lots of funny little interviews and some hilarious photos of Stephin Merritt and Claudia Gonson looking very 80s goth! It's touring the world at the mo, become a fan on the old Facebook to find out when it's next in yr city. After watching the film, I stood next to Stephin (too indie to say anything to him apart from a squeeky "hi" and that was after three glasses of wine) and listened to him have a good grump about someone's baby in the bar, I feel like I've had the Merritt experience now!



And I also saw a cool documentary about Le Tigre at Ladyfest Ten just before MEN (JD Samson's new band!) headlined the Saturday night. The film documents the bands last tour and is mainly on the road footage and live shots, there are some funny bits like when they met Slipknot! Check out the Le Tigre blog for details of screening and whatnot

Oh yeah, you may remember a while back I talked about Chris Packham quoting The Smiths on Springwatch? Well he only went and did it again in 2010 by name dropping Cure song titles, man he's so indie! Check out this interview with him, where he talks about his love of the Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins and his collection of 2000 punk vinyl singles.

There's also this playlist (and moody aging indie boy photo) on his website. Who thought this guy from The Really Wild Show was that cool?(apart from Snow Patrol, of course)


If he didn't have such bad hair maybe I'd fancy him.

I really enjoyed season 2 of Bored To Death, I LOVE Jason Schwartzman (go short people!) and would like to have a hug from Zak Galifianakis. It was the season finale last week, and they ended the series with this awesome song by Yo La Tengo I've had it in my head all week, I found this lovely live version of the song so you can too! Watch enjoy!
Until next time, which I promise will be sooner
Alicexx