I've been moving so quickly for what feels like forever, really it's been about a week. Everything over the past week feels blurry... from the speed or the tears I'm not really sure.
The wedding was beautiful. I met some lovely people and ate some good cheese. [: I've spent the last 4 nights camped out at Starbucks til closing with Grace editing and putting together a little 10 minute film of the wedding. It's been so fun working with her. I'm so happy with the what we've put together.
I still have an overwhelming amount of photos to work through and I'm loving every sleepless moment. I just woke up from a 30 minute power nap and hopefully it'll carry me through my long night ahead.
The deadline for all of this to be finished is so short because my friend and her husband leave the country next week. Rather than risking sending something in the mail that will either take forever or never get there I'm pushing through and getting everything done in record time. I took today and tomorrow off of my office job so I could spend time working on everything.
I've had a disposable camera hanging around for about a month now and finally used up all the photos over the weekend. Mostly just some fun shots...
Jesse - The Wife
Phil - The Husband
Me
Austin, Texas
The Head & The Heart at Stubb's in Austin, Texas
Me and my cousin Kristen... I guess I lost my eyes.
I'm working on a crazy short deadline for the wedding I filmed/photographed last weekend so this post is going to be so very short. But I didn't want to drop it completely...
26 June Releases:
Overexposed by Maroon 5 Mindy Smith by Mindy Smith Invisible Stars by Everclear
Emma Louise has such a beautiful voice... I love her music. She has an EP out called, Full Hearts & Empty Rooms.
I love this song/video. And her hair? lovely...
Daniel Radcliffe in a Slow Club video...
What are you listening to these days?
Sorry! That's all I've got... back to editing wedding photos!
my best friend is getting married tomorrow. I'm photographing and shooting video and doing other things too. I'm basically documenting the entire event... and have been since Wednesday and I love it all. I'm completely exhausted and so happy.
My lovely friend/photographer, Grace is coming along to help me out... I'm stoked to work with her. She is currently working on a 52 week project, click the link and check it out. I love her work .
The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do by Fiona Apple: full stream.
Bon Iver iTunes Session
Fiona Apple's new album drops today and I don't think it's possible to say the title in one breath. She's so wonderfully eccentric. The video for the sinlge, "Every Single Night" is so trippy, I love it... there's an octopus on her head! The song is pretty good too.
Of Monsters & Men are so cool and fresh. I blogged about them a while ago now, but I was browsing the music portion of NPR's website and came across this; beautiful band, beautiful location.
I thought this was pretty neat. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have Chris Thile play a house show? I don't even know the song they're singing, but it sounds very pretty.
I'm still jamming The Church of the Good Thief by RAGC pretty much constantly. I fall asleep to it most nights... it's definitely my favorite of the trilogy. Andy Hull is so good at stirring emotion with his lyrics and his voice. I'm convinced the man could sing the small world song and still make me cry. [;
I came across the Jay-Z remix of Rehab by Amy Winehouse and I love it. I'd heard it before, but for some reasons it's just been playing on a loop in my head and I don't mind at all.
The other artist that has me completely captivated right now is Paul Simon. The man can see into my soul I'm pretty sure. "You Can Call Me Al", "Crazy Love, Vol II", "Mother and Child Reunion", and "Graceland" are some of my favorites. I've always loved Simon and Garfunkel, but never took too much time on Paul Simon as a solo artist... I've been missing out for a lot of years.
Today was the longest day ever... but five and a half hours later I have a driver's license again; I'm legal. Remind me never to lose my license again... it's a pain to get back. I spent a good portion of my time in line at the DPS listening to The Church of the Good Thief by Right Away, Great Captain! and reading The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. Both very good... a lot to think about.
Here are a few more photos from The Rocketboys' show last week:
Firstly... I saw The Head And The Heart Sunday night at Stubb's in Austin and it was so beautiful! Totally worth only functioning on 4 hours of sleep at work yesterday. I loved their album before I saw them, but my appreciation for it grew so much once I saw them live. They put on such an emotional, energetic show... I just swayed and danced all night. They played a few new songs as well and now I just can't wait for them to get in and then out of the studio so I can get my hands on some of it. I know it's not a new release or a new find, but seriously serious if you haven't heard their self titled album... give it a chance.
Rivers and roads, rivers 'til I reach you.
The Moondoggies were one of the openers for The Head And The Heart Sunday night. They have this cool southern bluesy feel (why do I put a "y" at the end of everything?). I was watching them play the other night and I kept thinking how they were playing music in the wrong era... for about 30 minutes I pretended it was 197-something. They have a cool classic rock vibe that was really fun. Since then I've come home and listened to more of their stuff and their album, Tidelands is pretty good. It doesn't compare their live show, but I'm still digging it. It's such a bummer when you come across a band that released an album like two years ago, and they're on the last bit of tours before they hit the studio again. Because I hear all the new material, but I can't find it anywhere! Anyway... their newest album is pretty good, but I don't feel like it has the songs I heard live that I liked best. Doesn't really matter cause it's hard not to love bearded Seattle men.
Today: There's No Leaving Now by The Tallest Man On Earth
I've listened through this album twice now and I wasn't really blown away. Kristian Matsson (he is The Tallest Man On Earth) doesn't stray too far from his 2010 release The Wild Hunt. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because he's great at what he does. It's just "Leaving Now" is not much a risk or stretch in a new direction. Listening to his music does make me feel so nostalgic and a bit sad. He's good at that... My absolute favorite track on the album is "Little Brother". I really like the title track, "There's No Leaving Now", as well. Matsson switches it up a bit on this track by dropping the guitar and driving the track with piano instead.
I love Matsson's voice and songwriting so I'll probably have it on repeat for a while, just like I did with Wild Hunt.
Today: The Church of the Good Thief by Right Away, Great Captain!
Right Away, Great Captain! is a solo project by Manchester Orchestra frontman, Andy Hull. Thief is the final installment in Andy's trilogy. The albums tell the story of a 17th century sailor, about his time at sea and his wife committing adultery with his own brother. Andy started this project six years ago as a writing exercise, he said he never intended for it to be a trilogy or anything much. Andy Hull is such a wonderful songwriter; he deserves a serious high five for having the patience and determination to finish a six year long project like this. There's more back story on the album and history of RAGC on the facebook page: here. I'm so in love with this music and with the structure of the albums and how the whole thing has come together. Be sure to listen to all three albums, The Bitter End, The Eventually Home, and now The Church of the Good Thief.
other June 12th Releases:
Go by Motion City Soundtrack - entire stream here.
The Lion The Beast The Beat by Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
I saw The Rocketboys at Sam's Burger Joint in San Antonio this past Thursday. It was a great show. There were some technical difficulties with the bass amp, but I didn't mind. While they were fixing the problem the lead singer, Brandon Kinder, played "Nineteen Twenty Nine". It's one of my very favorites from them. They sounded wonderful and I've had the new album, Build Anyway, on repeat for days.
The lights bouncing off the floor of the venue were so pretty... I filmed a bit of what I saw and put it together in a little video thing. It's not much, but I just loved the shadows...
I'm off to see another show tonight in Austin. My cousin and I are seeing The Head And The Heart at Stubb's. She very kindly offered me a ticket. I'm stoked...
I got a new lens last week... 50mm 1.8. I wanted the 1.4, but it wasn't in my budget. However, compared to what I was working with the 1.8 is a HUGE step up. It's brilliant and magical and I'm in love with it.
Here are some of my first shots with it from this past weekend...
Lili
I'm so proud of the person my littlest sister is becoming. She is overflowing with life and joy and beauty. She's an inspiration.
More...
These are all fairly random, but I just love what this lens can do and I love working with it. I feel like I've opened a completely new world. There's so much to discover here.
The Rocketboys: Justin Wiseman, Brandon Kinder and Josh Campbell
My best friend told me about the The Rocketboys a few years ago, at that time they went by Homer Hiccolm & the Rocketboys. They eventually moved from Abilene, Texas to Austin, dropped 'Homer Hiccolm' from their name and have since lost three members.
The band almost called it quits after the last two guys left. During the in between time lead singer Brandon Kinder released a solo project, The Wealthy West (fantastic by the way). The three remaining dudes decided to keep going and the new album, Build Anyway, drops today.
Well, no surprise I love it. (I mean... I probably wouldn't be writing all this if I didn't love it.) Brandon's voice has been one of my favorites for a long time. I guess you could classify their music as indie pop... which some would say is way too common and maybe overrated? It's hard to say either one of those things when the music/songwriting is just so good. This album is just so smooth in my ears. That's probably a silly thing to say but I can't think of another way to say it... it flows so nicely from one ear to the other. For me it has a lot to do with how piano drive it the songs are.
"Bloodlines" soars and I like all the "oh"'s. There's a line in "Carry Me" I can't get out of my head... "If all of my troubles are hurricanes, then I'm seeing circling clouds." The lyrics to "Carry Me" are so relatable, I mean the whole album is, but I think that's what got me. Whether they come from a super personal experience or not I don't know (I'm assuming, yes) but I made them personal to myself.
Side note: It's hard to discuss the lyrical side of music sometimes, because I obviously don't know these people personally. I find myself just concluding certain things from an artists songs and then I subconsciously decide that it's fact. But sometimes it's not... sometimes it's just a story or a pondering of "what if?" and I think I should remember that before placing judgement or drawing conclusions about the writer. hmmm... just thoughts. This might be just a me problem.
Another track that stood out to me immediately is "These Are Hard Times"... which, the more I listen, the more I feel this is a prominent theme throughout the album.
The entire album is streaming on Past Magazine's website. If your budget is tight like mine, listen to it there and then decide for yourself. Let me know what you think... I hope you like this one! They are having a CD release party in Austin and one in San Antonio. I will be at the San Antonio show with two of my sisters. So that'll be fun. It's at Sam's Burger Joint on Thursday, 7th June more info here and it should be pretty fun. Come out and support some really good music.
I've seen The Rocket Summer live three times and besides Mute Math it's probably the most fun I've had at a show ever. There was even confetti at one I went to a few years ago... I think I still have some taped into a journal somewhere.
Bryce Avery's music is so energetic and full of life. The passion he infuses into each track is infectious. I'm sure I've provided a few solid laughs to people I've driven by while jamming to Bryce Avery's music. It's so hard to keep still... [: Life Will Write The Words is the first album released on Avery's own record label Aviate Records.
This album is out today and it's the strongest he's released so far. He doesn't fall into the cheesy pop as much as he has on his previous efforts. He's doing a good job of growing up in this genre. Most people have their moment and die off or get too old.
In recent years I've been consumed with more folk inspired music and bands like The Rocket Summer have fallen out of my regular rotation. The reason I haven't completely broken away is because of his songwriting and his passion. I don't think I'll ever love this genre the way I did in high school, but it's hard to leave behind music that has such deep meaning and purpose.
One of my favorite things about his live show is his obvious love for Jesus. It's powerful to watch him worship Jesus among a crowd that might not believe the same things he does. I respect his conviction. "Circa '46" and "The Rescuing Type" are my two favorite tracks off the album. It's definitely worth listening to, but I think it will be one of those albums that doesn't get too much play time on my iPod. Purevolume is streaming the album so check it out there.
Daughter is my newest obsession. Elena Tonra, Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilella are the members of Daughter and they have created some very beautiful music. They have two EPs out right now: The Wild Youth and His Young Heart. I've had them on repeat for days now... I can't seem to get enough of Elena's voice. My favorite tracks right now are "Landfill" and "Youth".
My mind was blown last Thursday night when I saw this...
Lennon is 12 and Maisy is 8... it's just so beautiful I tear up every time. I guess I'm just a huge sap and these girls are just so adorable. They do make me feel extremely untalented. [; I'm sure we'll be seeing them on Ellen sometime soon.
What are you listening to today? Any releases you're stoked about?
