Brightwash

Last month Mike and I went to DC for a few days, mainly to see Iron Maiden but also to do DC things and sleep in a giant hotel bed. Despite living so close, I’ve never spent much time in DC outside of seeing bands, so it was mostly all new to me. We went to the Spy Museum, the Sculpture Garden, the Natural History Museum, and Ben’s Chili Bowl. The Spy museum was really neat, and much bigger than you’d expect – well worth the admission. The natural history museum highlight: giant octopus in preservative, very cool – lowlight: the hope diamond, small/stupid, who cares! We also went to Ikea on a weekday, so weird, so empty. It’s a shame we need nothing forever since merging apartments (I did get this recently though).

Iron Maiden was fantastic, that’s coming from someone who doesn’t even listen to them (Mike <3 them). I’ve never seen such a big spectacle type show like that, they had limitless energy for such ancient guys, and there was tailgating. I may have been the only person not wearing an Iron Maiden shirt.

Did you know Iron Maiden has it’s own jet that their singer, Bruce Dickinson – a pilot (and fencer!), flies them around in?

Here’s some songs I’ve been listening to. It’s finally almost summer, I know this because I saw a firefly tonight. I have yet to swim in anything.

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Avi Buffalo - What’s In It For

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Matt & Kim - Daylight

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Beach House - Used To Be

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Jay-Z - Young Forever

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Atlas Sound (w/ Panda Bear) - “Walkabout”

I am very excited to see Heart this weekend at the American Music Festival. I haven’t been feeling well this week, hopefully #1 it is not swine flu, #2 I will be better by Saturday.

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I finally gave the God Help the Girl album a listen and I loved it. It’s so pretty. God Help the Girl is a group (or one off project?) of lady singers put together by Stuart Murdoch. I believe he wrote all the songs, he sings on a few, and there are even some Belle and Sebastian covers thrown in. It’s like having a new Belle and Sebastian album! Catherine Ireton (pictured above), has an especially nice voice.

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And! Cornershop has an album out for the first time in many years, it’s pretty fun. I have always been a sucker for sitar. Two tracks I enjoyed:

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…he’s got Swine Flu!

This weekend I did notable(?) stuff. Friday night I got to go see Girl Talk at the Norva with Mike, wasn’t sure what to expect but it was great! My shoe broke as soon as we got inside and I had to hobble about, but it’s ok I’m no dancer. Saturday we made sushi for the first time and it worked! Our fillings were salmon, asparagus, avocado and cucumber. We also had sake and it tasted like rubbing alcohol. Next time I am going to try to make it with the rice on the outside. Annie and Flza came down for the evening and we watched Slumdog Millionaire against Flza’s will. I was underwhelmed.

The Ruby Suns do a cover of one of my favorite songs, Palmitos Park. I don’t think it tops the original song by El Guincho – but it is nice in a different way and interesting to hear the lyrics in English. This cover got me thinking about The Ruby Suns again and how good (and psychedelic) they are. I recommend their entire album, Sea Lion!

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The Ruby Suns Palmitos Park

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The Ruby Suns Kenya Dig It?

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El Guincho Palmitos Park

Liam’s was not worth posting, Noel FTW. via goldenfiddle

I found this blog, motel de moka, on accident and it is so great. This blog has such a wide range of playlists, coupled with nice photography and is really well designed. They also have a list of best indie albums throughout the decades, a lot of stuff I’ve never heard of.

handsome!

Here are some tracks I like today:

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M. Ward Never Had Nobody Like You

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Franz Ferdinand No You Girls

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The Magnetic Fields The Nun’s Litany

At first I didn’t believe the cover art for Merriweather Post Pavilion, I think I’ve seen this optical illusion floating around the web since my Netscape days (like this one). Also, this one is called Shimmering Dots.

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Animal Collective Summertime Clothes

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Animal Collective My Girls

Finally, got to see Jens Lekman! He played an acoustic show this weekend w/ Bill Wells at William & Mary. This is the first time he’s come closer than DC, and on a weekend no less! He was wonderful, his “intimacy” makes me uncomfortable. I stepped in dog poop on the walk from the car and spent the better part of the evening offending myself and friends with my odor.

Also, in attempts to find me “something to look forward to” Anna-Claire discovered both Oasis (with Ryan Adams & The Cardinals) and CSS are playing in DC on December 20th… also a Saturday. Naturally I would prefer Oasis, but isn’t $52-$72 ridiculous? They think they are Madonna.

This month at work we created the promotional materials for the American Music Festival. This is the big labor day event so we got to do not just a poster, but a ton of ads, a billboard, brochure, even 20ft high banners for the actual event. It was really fun to work on and we got to see Billy Idol! I had hoped to meet him and get an awesome photo, that didn’t happen – he was awesome though, wouldn’t have believed he was 52. Also, his hair was not blonde.

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Billy Idol Dancing With Myself

Looks as if Muxtape is over and done, here is something new! Simplify Media is an application that allows up to 30 friends streaming access to your Itunes, including playlists. There aren’t a whole lot of options, you share the whole library or nothing at all. My username is aliciatheduffhome if you’d like to try it out and add me.