For Keeps

For Keeps is one of my favorite albums ever. It is the album I want to fall asleep to all the time and every time I take a nap I play it. It's so good for a million reasons. I love The Field Mice, I really do. And I thought about writing a post just about them, but I think it's better if I break it down a little more.

I like it even if it's the last Field Mice album. It isn't the fuzzed out pop that first made me love them, it isn't all those perfect songs on Emma's House, but it is still pretty fucking perfect. And I can't say that it's my favorite Field Mice album because that would be a lie, since I can never choose my favorite anything, but I am really in love with it.

A month ago my friend Maggie asked me for some Field Mice stuff while we were at Burger Friday. Apparently, I am really weird about giving people my music because I thought it was a good idea to only give Maggie Emma's House and For Keeps even though I definitely have more of their stuff. The thing is that we trade music almost every Burger Friday, and I figured I could just give her more later. I didn't realize how sort of terrible and selfish that ended up coming off as. I am just really silly. Anyway, I will say that I'm glad I gave her this album first because I really love it so much and I knew she'd really love it.

My favorite song on the album is "And Before the First Kiss" which is kind of predictable. It has such a great Field Mice title, and is so horribly depressing, I think. But it is also really sweet and don't you want to listen to a song that is both really sweet and really sad? I do. There's also "Think of These Things" which I like because I think everyone has sort of felt that way about someone. And it sounds really horrible to just say, but sounds less terrifying in a pop song. Also, can we talk about how perfect Annemari Davies is on these songs? Her voice is so good. It's perfect in "Five Moments" which starts off the album, but it's just as good on "Willow" which has such a heartbreaking little chorus. And when she sings "When I said them I meant them" I know I've been listening to this song that's about to be over but is still about to make me cry. "Tilting At the Windmills" is a really good track that makes me feel a little scared in the best kind of way. "This Is Not Here" has typical Field Mice lyrics that are all about lovelovelove and being sadsadsad. Oh my. The last song on the album, "Freezing Point" is loud and noisy and makes me feel a little better about all the sappy songs I just listened to.

This album sounds so sad! And it really is so I'm not gonna lie to you and say it's not. But wait, there's "Coach Station Reunion" and that song is just so very cute that it makes me smile a little through the rest of the album. "Smiles and kisses there will be, tomorrow/I'll hold you tight, I'll look into your eyes" UM, HOW CUTE IS THAT? Pretty cute, right? Plus it's all about being really excited to see someone, and that is so precious!

I know that the album was re-released in 2005 with extra singles on it, but as much as I want new Field Mice songs, I like the way it works with just these ten. If you want to listen to a bunch of sappy sweet pop songs this is perfect. If you don't, then I don't have very many suggestions for you.

Love, María

jj

I really like everything that jj has released so far. Lately, I'd been listening to a lot of the same stuff, but before last week, before I decided to only listen to Spanish pop music, I'd been listening to a lot of jj.

So since jj is so ultra-mysterious and everyone has already made a blogpost about them, I've been trying to figure out what I am gonna say. Here it is, I like them all the time, I like everything by them, I like them, like them, like them, a lot lot lot. Wow, that "sentence" was way more annoying than I thought it would be.

I think I first realized jj existed because they're on Sincerely Yours, and I love a lot of the music that comes from that label/Gothenburg in general. Everyone fell in love with Air France earlier this year/last year, but I just wasn't so into that. I really love their other labelmates, the Honeydrips, and well, at some point, I think we all sort of fell in love with The Tough Alliance. But I don't think I really fell in love with all of Sincerely Yours, until I found jj.

My favorite song on jj n° 2 is definitely "are you still in vallda?" just because of how perfectly sad it is. It just makes me feel like I can have a really good cry and be really peaceful. Isn't that strange? Maybe that's how I feel about the whole album. A lot of people have complained that they are too spacey or that they sound too much like TTA and Air France but just not as good. I don't agree. I like how spacey and empty and achey everything sounds. "ecstasy" is a lot of people's favorite song, and even though it's not mine, I still like every bit of it. I love "me & dean" where it's like "if you tell it to my heart/where would you start/with a truth we shared/or the lies that drove us apart" How could you not love that? I have been listening to "things will never be the same" over and over again, and that is much less spacey, but still really great. "my love" makes me feel kind of like I am listening to a Taken by Trees track, and that's not a bad thing. "masterplan" is very TTA, I won't deny that. "from africa to málaga" is another song that almost makes me cry, "my hopes and dreams" makes me a little anxious and I'm not really sure why. I am just so in love with jj, and I have been for awhile.I also really like jj n° 1, but I can never choose which I like more "my swag, my life" or "my life, my swag"

Everyone always wants to find out who is actually a part of this project, but I honestly don't care. I just want to keep listening.

Love, María

Tuca Tuca

Because I am sad that my pilates class got canceled, and because I need to do something to take my attention away from the giant and terrifying bug that is currently smashed under one of my favorite shoes that I am afraid to move (the whole story is too terrifying for this blog and made me freak out in a way that is reminiscent of the time that my dog chased a squirrel into my house), I am going to make a post about this adorable video for a song I already kind of wrote about!

In my Pink Martini post, I mentioned that one of their songs in Italian was this precious song called "Tuca Tuca." Well, at that point, I had only really listened to it once or twice, and I hadn't really listened to the lyrics or fully appreciated its adorableness. But now I have! I did a little bit of research, and found that it is actually a cover of a Raffaella Carrà song with the same name and there is a dance that goes with it! Basically, the song is about a dance that was made up to go with the song (confusing).

Doing the "Tuca Tuca" ("Toca Toca" in standard Italian, or "Touch Touch" in English) dance requires you kind of tap the person you're dancing with on their knees, waist, shoulders, and face, and it is supposed to mimic the way you would kind of randomly touch someone that you have a crush on. But, wait, it is even more precious with the lyrics. Basically what the chorus says about the dance is, "It's called 'Tuca Tuca'--I made it up myself so that I could tell you that I like you!" ISN'T THAT THE CUTEST SWEETEST MOST ADORABLE THING EVER?! I obviously think so. Watch Raffaella sing/dance "Tuca Tuca," and see for yourself!



Love, Jillian

The Honeydrips

I've been trying to finish up a post about another Sincerely Yours band for awhile now, but I thought writing this post would be easier.



I've loved The Honeydrips since I first heard the song "(Lack of) Love Will Tear Us Apart" because it really is that good. I am prone to playing one song over and over if I like it, which annoys a lot of people. I can't help it. According to iTunes, I've already played it 24 times just today. Sick.

The Honeydrips is Mikael Carlsson's solo project. That first song I heard by him has Hanna on vocals and that's part of why I like it so much. The album Here Comes the Future was released in 2007. That's forever ago! I didn't find it until sometime early last year. He's on Gothenburg's Sincerely Yours label, which most people know of because of TTA or Air France. Sometimes, I think I might like the Honeydrips better, seriously.

I've seen this album described as a little St. Etienne and a little like the Field Mice. But it is just so perfect for listening to all the time that I love it. I think that "I Wouldn't Know What to Do" always ends up being my favorite song on the album. I can't help it. I also really like "Wait for the Grief to Come" There's also a song that's not on the album, "Åh Karolin" which I really like. Normally, I have tons to say about the things I post on here. But I really don't know what else to say other than I think you should just go listen to the album. Seriously.

Love, María

Pink Martini & Splendor in the Grass

A few days ago, Pink Martini's new album Splendor in the Grass came out, and I finally bought it! Of course, it is super precious in the same way that everything by Pink Martini is.


I remember when someone bought my dad Hang on Little Tomato when I was in high school and I immediately fell in love with all of the cheesy, showy, over-the-top-ness of all of their songs. I don't know how else to describe their music. It is kind of jazzy, kind of lounge-y, kind of film-noir-y amazingness in a bunch of different languages, which just makes it extra cute! It always makes me happy to listen to music that isn't in English, especially when I can understand it! Even before I learned Italian, "Una Notte a Napoli" was one of my favorite songs of theirs, and even though I don't know Japanese or Croatian, I really love "Kikuchiyo to Mohshimasu" and "U Plavu Zoru."


I am listening to Splendor in the Grass right now, and it is definitely everything I could possibly want/expect from a Pink Martini album. "Ninna Nanna" and "Tuca Tuca" are in Italian (!!!), and the title track is just extra perfect. "Ou est ma tete?" is also precious, and if I keep going, I will probably just end up listing every song on the album.

Now it is time for me to finish my reading that I didn't finish because I fell asleep in the middle of it last night, and then I have to go to my meeting at the Career Development Office so that I can maybe be in Minneapolis in January (I will freeze to death, I am insane)!

Love, Jillian

Hey Jude

I know I haven't posted in a while because I have been too busy avoiding homework and acting like an idiot at Halloween parties, so I am going to post a precious video to tide everyone over until I have time to make a real post! It is basically the most precious thing ever. A small child + a guitar + "Hey Jude" = an incredibly cute video! You have to watch the whole thing, though, because when the kid gets to the part of the song that goes "better, better, better," it is SO CUTE and hilarious.



Love, Jillian

Día de los Muertos

Halloween is over guys! But wait, Día de los Muertos has just begun! Okay, I kept asking Jillian if it was okay for me to even write this post, and we decided it is. Because I really like Día de los Muertos. I can't wait until I have my own apartment so that I can make real ofrendas for my grandfather and my great grandparents every year. I'm not joking, I really love them.


So here's a little list of things I love about Día de los muertos. I love the little sugary calaveritas. They are so cute and when I was little we'd always get some and I was a little afraid of eating them. I don't really like the way they taste because I don't love sweet things, but I still think they are precious.


Of course I love ofrendas, I just said so. But seriously, they are so beautiful. In Chicago, we used to go on field trips to the Mexican Fine Arts Museum, which is now called the National Museum of Mexican Art, to go look at ofrendas. They were amazing, seriously. We never really made ofrendas but my mother made one when I was around ten. It was tiny but really pretty, and it's just such a nice idea. It's more than just about looking nice, it's the whole thought behind it. It's such a nice tradition, I just really love it.


Pan de Muertos, I really like it. I don't know what else to say about it except that when I was little I thought it was made from the bones of the dead and so I was scared to eat it. When I quickly realized that wasn't the case, I was all about eating it. It's bread, I love bread. Period.


I also really love cempásuchil. They are such pretty flowers! They are orange and yellowish and just so nice. They're marigolds, and I think they are some of my favorite flowers. When I was little I also thought that cempásuchil was the same as flor de calabaza, which are squash blossoms. I got really scared because cempásuchil was associated with Day of the Dead and I thought it was creepy that we were eating that. Again, I was wrong, and this made me really happy. Because I love squash blossom soup and squash blossom quesadillas so much that I would've been a really sad kid if I couldn't eat them anymore.

I could probably keep going with all the things I love about this holiday, but I won't. I will say that my mom used to read me this book about Day of the Dead when I was little and it was one of my favorites. I like the idea of writing little poems for people, and going to the cemetery to visit their graves, and it's just all so pretty, really. And I don't know if people really understand it a lot of the time, and I was afraid of making this post because I didn't want people to think I was saying it was just some silly little holiday that was cute, because it's not.

I almost made an ofrenda this year but I didn't think I had anywhere to put it. Maybe I'll just light some candles tomorrow night though. We'll see. Día de los muertos is always a little sad, but it also makes me smile.

Love, María

2NE1

Hey guys, it's HALLOWEEN! Kewl. I am really not very excited because I don't have a real costume. But, if I could be anything for Halloween, I'd want to be CL from 2NE1. Seriously. I love this band. All I listened to while writing my really horrible Spanish Senior Sem paper last week was 2NE1. I love K-Pop! Okay, maybe I just love select K-Pop.

But, guys, these girls are so cute! Seriously. Jillian wrote about their song "Lollipop" but there are so many other gems on that album. So basically these 4 girls just make some of the cutest songs ever. They are upbeat and catchy and sometimes they have really intense lyrics that I can't actually understand until I watch videos with subtitles. Maybe I should start learning Korean.


All the girls in 2NE1 are super cute, but CL is definitely my favorite. When I first watched the video for "Lollipop" I thought Bom was my favorite because she always wear the cutesiest things but CL is so sassy. That's why I know I like CL best. She can also speak Japanese, Korean, French and English fluently! She is so cute but still super sassy and I wish I were her and not just for Halloween. Melissa really likes MinJi, and I can't deny how super precious she is. She's also only 15! I wish I had been in a cool girl group when I was 15! They all wear super precious things that only look super precious because they're the ones wearing them. Dara is the only person who could pull off that weird hairstyle from the "Lollipop" video, and only CL could wear a weird leotard paired with a vest and tights and look cool. Seriously though, yesterday, our friend Michelle taught us the word for cute in Korean and if I could remember what it was I would use it to describe 2NE1.


I really like all the songs on their mini-album. Plus, I wish I lived in Korea so that I could've bought the actual album because it comes in this really cool case. I've been listening to their songs over and over to see if I can choose favorites, but it is really hard. I originally wanted the album so that I could listen to "Lollipop" but after I got it, I realized that there are so many other good songs on it. "I Don't Care" has really upsetting lyrics, but it is such a good song. Plus, since I can't actually understand Korean, I don't have to pay attention to how sad they are all the time. "Fire" is SO good. Plus they do this really cute dance in the videos for the song. I also really like "Let's Go Party" but I guess my least favorite is "In the Club" It's just not as good. I'm still not sure how I feel about "Stay Together" but I'm gonna keep listening to it and figure it out.

Basically, this mini-album is really good and I can't wait until they release a full-length album next year. I know that I love twee and indie pop but lately I can't listen to it all the time because sometimes those songs are really cute but also really heartbreaking. So I just keep listening to 2NE1 because it is just catchy and I can think about how cute they are and don't have to deal with understanding how sad the lyrics are. That sounds kinda stupid, but it's not! Anyway, I have been at Haffner for way too long now. I think it's time to end this post and finally leave.

Love, María