MUSICAL MOMENT: DR. DOG
In honor of my sweetie’s graduation from college this weekend, today’s musical moment features his favorite Dr. Dog song, “Heart It Races.” Congratulations, Eric! You’re the coolest engineer around!
MUSICAL MOMENT: JACK PEÑATE
This song always makes me want to dance (and do some excessive head nodding) no matter where I am. On the bus I’ll do a little seat dance and head shake. On my walk I’ll sashay down the street. In the kitchen, where I’m currently preparing breakfast, I am dancing with my spatula (french toast baby!). Oh Jack, you make me so happy! Let’s groove!
MUSICAL MOMENT: ROGUE WAVE
It’s a ”Lake Michigan” (by Rogue Wave) kind of day. Slightly overcast, threatening rain, medium heat. I guess that’s what “Lake Michigan” feels like to me!
Just a note: it’s a bad idea for a fearful-of-the-sea type person (e.g. me) to search “Rogue Wave” in Google images without adding band. So many frightening pictures of waves and wrecked ships! #aquaphobiareachespeaklevels
MUSICAL MOMENT
My housemate introduced me to Wye Oak, her very favorite band, a few weeks ago and I haven’t been able to stop listening since. The talented duo, Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner, hail from B-More and are clearly very cool. Fun fact: Wye Oak is the Maryland state tree. Who knew?! Here’s a little rhyme to get you ready for listening: if you like indie folk rock as much as I do, then Wye Oak is just for you. And even if you don’t, you might just dig this.
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MUSICAL MOMENT
Dar Williams was the first (and to date only) live show I attended by myself. Her tour came to town at the height of my feminist music listening days (2008). Ani DiFranco, India.Arie, Holly Near, and, of course, Dar, were constantly crooning from my boombox speakers. I had just taken Intro to Women’s Studies. I felt powerful, free, confident, and ready to join a room full of middle-aged Santa Cruz women alone. Dar played all my favorites (one, two, three) and I remember feeling as though I could fly home.
Dar’s newest album, In the Time of Gods, is set to release in two days and I’m very excited! You can listen to Storm King (my favorite track on the new album) here (it’s the last track). If you’re super down with her music you can pre-order the album here.
Image sans words via Kirk Stauffer.
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MUSICAL MOMENT
Last week I heard the group kindlewood for the first time and fell head over heels in love with their sound. Ross Condit of In Your Speakers says of the band (which consists of high school sweethearts Kelci and Galen Smith and Jamison Lyman of A Tale Of),
“If Joanna Newsom and Leo Kotke got together and had a baby, it would be Kindlewood. The band combines Newsom-like vocals, with the virtuosic guitar style of Kotke for an interesting indie/alt folk sound.”
I’d amend that to say if Anaïs Mitchell’s vocals got together with Kotke’s guitar you’d have kindlewood. They are wonderful! After you listen to This House check out Dangerous is the Sound, my other kindlewood super fave. And don’t forget to listen to their new album Desiderium! You shan’t regret it!
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MUSICAL MOMENT
Well, the gals that brought us this amazing cover of the Fleet Foxes tune, Tiger Mountain Peasant Song, are all grown up and touring the U.S.! I’m not yet sure if I’ll get to see them in Philly next week, I’m attending a conference outside the city, but you should go if you get the chance! They are wonderful.
MUSICAL MOMENT
I recently discovered The Head and The Heart and boy are they cool! Couer d’Alene is one of my faves, but if you’re looking for something a little slower they’ve got that too! Check out Sounds Like Hallelujah (thanks Rache!) and Lost in My Mind, the latter of which you can actually download for free here! Also, if you really like what you hear, check out their tour dates! They might just be coming to a city near you!
P.S. There are so many cute photos of these guys floating around the interwebs, it was super hard to pick just one! In case you’re crazy curious, these were my other favorites: April Brimer, Hey Reverb, and SPhotos.
(photo sans words via Mid by Northwest)
FEBRUARY MIX: MONTH OF LOVE
A mix for the beautiful February, a Month of Love (and Snow). Celebrate Valentine’s Day and the deepest of winter with tracks by The Morning Benders, She & Him, and Mariah Carey…because it wouldn’t be a Month of Love mix without Mariah.
MONTH OF LOVE, listen to it here. Playlist:
- Excuses – The Morning Benders
- Fresh Feeling – Eels
- Hysteric – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- I Don’t Know – Lisa Hannigan
- Lovers In A Dangerous Time – Barenaked Ladies
- Midnight At The Lazarus Pit – Quiet Company
- Shadow People – Dr. Dog
- Grow Old With Me – Mason Jennings
- Sweet Darlin’ – She & Him
- Always Be My Baby – Mariah Carey
The Alumni Relationship
Last weekend I began reflecting in earnest upon my new relationship with my college, my alma mater. Starting Thursday night my school held their annual Alumni Weekend and folks from as early as the class of 1933 made the trek back to campus to celebrate going to our college.
This year the class of 1961 held their 50th reunion and demonstrated that, even at seventy, alums can still party hard in good Olde Club and Paces spirit (and still enjoy, of course, the free-flowing booze oft provided at our college events).
As a student worker I spent Thursday through Sunday driving the ‘61ers, and their peers from other years, to the various events around campus. Yes, I had the very coveted role of golf cart driver and truly relished my task of navigating the arboretum paths with my sage alums in tow.
No doubt the best part about this role (aside from feeling the wind in my hair) was having the opportunity to interact with alums fifty-plus years out of college who had fascinating stories to tell of their time here. Apparently the college had a kickin’ folk scene to which many of the class members of ‘40-‘70 were active members. Annual folk festivals were held on campus for many years with guests from Pete Seeger to Doc Watson.
Unfortunately, the college disbanded these festivals due to excessive student drug use and public sex. After hearing some of the graphic stories relayed to me by members of the class of ’41, I have determined that Worthstock and the other college “large-scale events” are wholly mild in comparison to what the college used to put on (Crunkfest not included).
Thanks to the plethora of folky alums that attended this weekend, a hootenanny went on late into the night Thursday. We sang Amazing Grace, Dona Nobis Pacem, and many a song from Rise Up Singing. On Friday evening Doc Watson performed in the LPAC theatre to a full house. Though this blind folk legend is now eighty-eight years old, he still inspired great applause from his audience (which included my woot-wooing) with his not-at-all diminished talent for plucking the guitar strings.
In addition to the college’s folk scene, it appears that the campus’ physical features have also changed a great deal since the graduation of many of its students. As we drove by campus buildings and monuments my passengers noted the major differences between the college today and the college when they were students. Where LPAC stands there used to be a pool; Old Tarble was once a library; the dining hall used to be housed in Parrish; and Tarble was referred to as Clothier.
Fifty or sixty years down the line, will I look at Sharples and tell the student worker I am chatting with that it used to be our dining hall; that McCabe was once my library; that the dorm that I’m housed in for the weekend used to be a field? Will I be the alum with a walker or will I be the alum who refuses all golf carting services, still able to navigate the campus without the aid of a motorized vehicle?
No doubt my relationship to my college will grow and change just as it has for all of its alumni. At least I can take comfort in the knowledge that come Alumni Weekend, I will get to sit in the big white chair on Parrish beach and feel like I’m home again for a little while.
♥ Kylin
