music and sounds

“For heaven I’m a failure, for earth I’m as good as anyone else.”

~ Katy Kelleher ~ 3 Comments

TakagiHaruyamaTwo things today:

1. My Bubba is a fan-freaking-tastic musical duo composed of two girls—one Swedish, one Icelandic—who make the kind of dreamy yet down-to-earth music that my heart is currently craving. Do you like smart, poetic lyrics with haunting vocals? Well, then you’ll dig these ladies. Start here. Fall down the NPR rabbit hole. Enjoy.

2. I’ve been reading a lot of mythology lately and one of my favorite stories comes from Japanese folklore. It’s about the moon-rabbit, a mythological creature that lives in the sky. There are so many different stories about the moon, but this one has stuck with me. Wild rabbits (like bears) show up in my dreams fairly often, and I feel a weird kinship with those scattered, scared creatures. Anyway, if you’re not familiar with the story, here it is….

Continue reading →

This song by Lady Lamb the Beekeeper makes me so happy.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

I fall in love with strangers all the time. Here’s a song by the inimitable Lady Lamb the Beekeeper about that—about people and connecting, and I think, also about missing someone and being overwhelmed by the world. And catching trains. And eating mountains, which is a dream of mine (actually, to be the best afterlife would be one where I became an indigo mountain somewhere lonely and wild).

I also keep finishing that one great sentence—”the kind of high I like is when…”—in my head over and over with different things.

The kind of high I like is when I stay up all night with someone and we’re exhausted in the morning and we still can’t stop talking even though we’re so tired that the world feels a little unreal and we look like hell and just don’t care.

The kind of high I like is when I see someone I was waiting for and they look at me and I get so nervous and I realize again that I really, really like them and I don’t care at all that they made me wait.

The kind of high I like is when I’m almost crying and something strange and funny makes me laugh and I keep laughing until it hurts.

The kind of high I like is when I hear a really great song and it gives me goosebumps on my arms and I play it over and over and soon I don’t get goosebumps anymore but instead I feel it nestle down into my bones and the sound that someone else made becomes mine and it feels so sweet.

My favorite album of the year.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

Waxahatchee-Cerulean-SaltI know it’s a bit early to be naming albums of the year, but I don’t care—Cerulean Salt is so, so good. Waxahatchee is the solo project of Katie Crutchfield, who has been writing and performing her own songs since her early teens. And it shows! She’s so talented. I can never listen to an album from start to finish (hello, ADD America reference) but I did listen to this, again and again. Her sound is a bit grungy, lo-fi, with echos of punk. Some songs are slow and rather sweet, which is nice because it showcases her vocal range, since she so often growls out lyrics, scratches them on your eardrums. In a good way though, because that sounds painful and it’s not.

Reviewers often describe music as “for fans of Band X and Band Y” and I know some people find that cheesy, but I actually like it a lot. I like it when Netflix tells me what I enjoy (gritty crime dramas with a strong female lead, or suspenseful supernatural thrillers with a strong female lead) and I love it when Amazon suggests books. So I’m going to do it too. If you like Best Coast, 90’s Liz Phair, or Cat Power, you’ll like Waxahatchee.

 

Playlist: Snowy Monday

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

Today was the first day of spring, yet it snowed all day long.  I’ve been stuck in bed with a horrible cold (or possibly the flu, though I don’t really know the difference) and have nothing to do but work and feel generally despondent. Hence: the new Playlist.  Perfect for lazing around.

Playlist: Boy Crazy

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

Earlier this week, I decided to make a playlist called Boy Crazy (or, on my iTunes OMGIMBOYCRAZY!!!).  When asked by the boyfriend what inspired this particular collection of songs, I told him quite honestly: “well, after downloading that Best Coast song, I realized I have about a million songs about boy crazy girls and the resulting obsessiveness.”  In retrospect, what I should have said is “I’m just soooooo crazy about you!” or something sweeter. Oh, well.

Anyway, since I’m far too lazy to actually type out each song, here’s a screenshot of my totally rad collection of heteronormative love songs (I kid, but not really).  Some of them are really awesome songs (if I were ever to pull a Lloyd Dobler, my boom box would be blaring ‘Flower’) while others are just kind of fun to whip my hair around to (if I believed in guilty pleasures, Taylor Swift would be my number two [Nickleback’s number one]).  So yeah, enjoy.