iShuffle.

Put your ipod on shuffle. List the first ten songs that play.



1.) the Smiths - Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
2.) Sean Lennon - Tomorrow
3.) Minus The Bear - Pachuca Sunrise
4.) Timbaland - Boardmeeting (ft. Magoo)
5.) Metric - Collect Call
6.) She & Him - Me and You
7.) RENT - Light My Candle (Rosario Dawson, Adam Pascal)
8.) Hoobastank - Right Before Your Eyes
9.) Stars - On Peak Hill
10.)My American Heart - Hiding Inside The Horrible Weather

(image via Threadless - "Disc Jockey")

What are the odds?!

This was a magical moment. I love these moments. These MAE-filled moments, haha.

I was at Starbucks on Sunday after class at studiochicago. I had on a MAE t-shirt on, the one I had just got in the mail with the design for the (a)fternoon EP. The barista at Starbucks was taking my order and he said "I actually designed some t-shirts for that band." And I was like.. "WHAAA? THIS BAND?! OMG." He responded, "Yeah, back in the day." And of course, I'm all like, "Which ones?! I have almost every t-shirt!". Turns out this guy designed my FAVORITE design ever. The t-shirt with the powerlines and the birds mapped out like music notes, I've loved this t-shirt since HIGH SCHOOL and have always thought this t-shirt design was one of the best designs I've ever seen and I loved it so much. I literally BANGED on the counter and said, "SHUT UP. THAT IS MY FAVORITE DESIGN EVAR." like an idiot, and started saying shit like "I can't believe I'm meeting you, I wish I had my t-shirt here, I would have you sign it..." blah blah blah like the giddy fan I am. He told me he was a freelancer designer for some record company and they hired him for some designs and said that he had the opportunity to design some stuff for the Everglow album (he called it the "Afterglow", haha) but at the last minute his designs weren't used. I just kept screaming "WHAT ARE THE ODDS?! WHAT ARE THE ODDS!" so loud in the Starbucks, it was kind of embarrassing, especially for my friend Zain who was with me at the moment, I'm pretty sure he just pretended not to know me, haha.

But seriously? So awesome. What are the odds that the designer of my favorite t-shirt of my favorite band would be in Chicago making me a tea latte. WHAT ARE THE ODDS?! It was a magical moment. :)

New Renditions of the "Mixtape"

This is sort of a follow up to my last blog entry, which was written like a million years ago. Haha, it's usually easier to blog during the school year for some reason. During the summer I have no reason to procrastinate :) Anyway, to the zero readers out there reading this...last entry I wrote all about making mixes for someone and the significance of the "mixtape". Well since then, I've found some awesome new versions of the mixtape for the avid 21st century music / technology user. Take a look:


|Mixtape USB Drive |
I was shopping around Urban Outfitters when I caught this little gadget in the corner of my eye. How awesome is this thing?! Instead of just burning a CD, or even recording songs onto tape one by one, you can just put it on this flash drive. The flash drive fits perfectly into a cassette template and you can even write on the flap what songs you put on the drive, and why they remind you of your special person. I thought this was the cutest thing. I was about to buy it, but it was kind of pricey for being a one time use 64 MB drive and I kind of don't have a significant other to give it to yet. But in my own time, I think I may find myself buying this for my significant other. It's such a clever version of the mixtape and it makes for such an original gift. And it could be a great flashback for those who used to record songs off the radio in order to create the perfect mixtape, without having the convenience of a computer to download music off of.

| Muxtape | http://www.muxtape.com
I discovered this site while browsing around an old classmate's facebook. Signing up for it is 100% free and easy. Kind of like a blog, you just create your url and it gives you your own webpage to upload (up to 12) songs according to your liking. The webpage can be themed toward a certain person or it could just be a mix of songs that you're fond of. The webpage mixtape is made public and can be seen by anyone really. Other muxtape users can also claim themselves fans of your mix. One of the reasons I really like muxtape is that not only are the tracks listed on your webpage, but you can listen to the tracks as well. The streaming is very quick and you can basically just go on other peoples' muxtape pages and discover new music. I've already made my own muxtape, and it was kind of a funny experience making one. One drunken night a couple months ago, in the midst of discovering that I was in love with someone that I couldn't have, I came home and signed up for this muxtape thing and uploaded some random songs. The next day, all hung over, I looked at the songs I uploaded, and each song was actually perfect in portraying how i felt about him. I thought that was funny that even when intoxicated, we are still capable of choosing the melodies that correspond to our heart's desire. Maybe I'll save that for another post of this blog.

http://www.gr0uch.muxtape.com
My Drunken Muxtape. Haha.

Again, I encourage everyone who gives this blog a passing glance, to try out the mixtape... maybe even trying out the new kinds of mixtapes I chose to share with you. You'll be surprised, just like I was, in how much you discover about your own feelings just within the songs your heart chooses.

There are surprisingly no words.

I've got some great post ideas in store for this blog. I've been pretty busy with school work since the semester is winding down, but I'll be able to post a lot more soon. I've been experiencing so much more with music and have been more aware of how important of a role music has had lately, and it's giving me a lot more to say and also giving me a lot more to feel. Did that make sense? Ah well, I just wanted to write a short post today.

Have you ever put together a mix for someone before? I personally think the "mixed tape" (now CD or even a zip file...) is one of the best utilizations of music. What better way to "send a feeling"to someone than with a compilation of all the songs that spark that same feeling in you! It's taken a while and it's also taken a lot of music to collect but I've gotten pretty good at making mixes for myself and for other people. Making a mix is one of my favorite things to do. Last Christmas, I managed to pull off not spending a lot of money for Christmas gifts because I made everyone different mix CD's of Christmas songs instead :) I think one thing that helps me create the best mix for someone is two things: 1) you gotta know them personally and what they want to listen to, and 2) i try not only to concentrate on arranging mixes lyrically but also musically. I make sure that there's a perfect flow from one song to the next, from when the song fades out to the next song fades in.

Well, I was making a mix for someone I care a lot about the other day. And I don't have a significant other (yet) so I don't do this very often. I was thinking about... what if we didn't have lyrics? Back in the day of Mozart and Beethoven, music still expressed great emotion and story but they did it though using different instruments and harmonies, different volumes and different tempos. If they wanted to express a feeling... they didn't write words, they wrote notes and symbols. Amazing isn't it? There are some bands I know of now which are strictly entirely or mostly instrumental (you've probably heard of Explosions in the Sky and Ratatat) and I have just the most heightened respect for them because they have so much characterization in each song, yet have no words. I feel so much love within "Your Hand in Mine" by Explosions when there is no "I love you" to sing along with. That is just how strong music can move.

if you would like to listen to it, here is a link:
Explosions in the Sky | Your Hand in Mine

So as a challenge for myself, and I invite others to do the same.. I'm going to try and make the perfect mix CD for someone with strictly instrumental music and NO lyrics. I'm actually going to try and make two: a classical mix CD ( love oriented, I guess) and just a general instrumental mixed CD. I have a person in mind I want to do this for... a boy who yeah, I like a lot. But I encourage anyone who is reading this to do this for anybody, not just their significant other. I think instrumental music won't portray a serenade or a statement like other mix CDs sort of portray... but it will be more similar to that of an embrace to someone you love so much. There are never really words to say during a really good hug....you just find yourself listening to sounds all around you... and you save the energy that you would use to say something and instead use it to hold on tight to that person and to the feeling they give you.

(Pictures by Katie Muth Original Prints via KatieMuth.com)

every direction leads me this way..

The Foo Fighters have been one of my favorite alternative for a long time. I remember seeing their "Learn to Fly" video for the first time on The Box channel, and following that, "Everlong" was the first song I had ever learned on the guitar. The Foo Fighters have been around for a
very long time and have been very definitive in keeping the 90's alternative sound alive, but
they also enjoy creating the soft acoustic / piano / folk-ish (for lack of a better word) stuff... there were bits of it in "The Colour and the Shape", they filled a whole 2nd disc with it in "In Your Honor" and they did some in the new album "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace" as well. Recently, one track in particular stood out to me on this album...

Foo Fighters | Home

A couple days ago, in the midst of procrastination, confusion and disappointment, I posted on the LJ about feeling really homesick for the first time and how I just longed for something familiar. Well, we went home this weekend... and just getting off I-57 and onto I90-94....we get this beautiful
view of the Chicago skyline with the backdrop of an amazing sunset. Just as we approach this view.... the shuffle on my ipod chooses to play this song.

The song itself is just singer Dave Grohl solo on the piano, with a cello, drums, bass and guitar to join him later on in the song. But in this song, two things are different and they create this emotional, fragile atmosphere. I've never heard Dave's this vulnerable and transparent before and I've also seen his lyrics so cut out simple before, and it makes this song so beautiful.

It's amazing how detached from yourself you can feel you're taken from the one place you can call home. I felt as vulnerable as Grohl sounds in this song... as unsure of myself as his lyrics portrayed. But as soon as I saw that skyline... I felt whole again. I could feel myself coming together and I had never felt so sure to where home was.

Echoes and Patience, Silence and Grace
All of these moments, I'll never replace
No fear of my heart, no absence of faith
And all I want.. Is to be home.

(photo by VersonPhoto via interfaceLIFT)

An attempt at a modest intro.

Just somewhere to share some thoughts, observations and possibly some media. I don't necessarily want to make this a music blog where people would go to steal countless numbers of zip files or anything... but I listen to endless amounts of music. Probably 89 percent of my day has something playing in the background and there are so many songs and albums out there that give me a surreal experience and make me stop my routine and realize how beautiful sound really can be. Just this feeling puts me in a state of awe at how music has the ability to stir emotion and to put you in a state of purity and clarity. So I guess I'll be posting whatever song or artist or album I feel is keeping me in sync at a given moment and I'll hope that whoever reads and listens will be slightly enlightened as well. :D