Rilo Kiley Redeems

"Silver Lining," the second song released from Rilo Kiley's upcoming release Under the Blacklight, has got me smitten. The first song they released, "The Moneymaker," was both shocking and terrifying but "Silver Lining" is redemption. The bass, followed by the handclaps, followed by the cheery guitar chirp. And then Jenny's voice. You had me at "Hello." If I could squeal via blog, I would. It's verses are almost too short, launching and re-launching into the simple yet poignant chorus of hooray's.

"Hooray, hooray / I'm your silver lining / Hooray, hooray / But now I'm gold."

I could speculate on the lyrics but I won't, because hey, that'd be embarrassing. Listen to the entire album streaming on Rilo Kiley's MySpace and more importantly, buy it from a local record store on August 21st.

Download "Silver Lining" by Rilo Kiley.

Pre-order Under the Blacklight here.

TMC Apologizes for Neglect

I regret to say that both Kate and I have neglected the TMC blog for the entire summer. I blame my failure on my indentured servitude to M Street retail and Kate's on the miscellaneous diseases she contracted from her internship in the sex industry. I noticed today that a Portuguese-speaker commented on one of our posts! The comment reads:

"Oi, achei teu blog pelo google tá bem interessante gostei desse post. Quando der dá uma passada pelo meu blog, é sobre camisetas personalizadas, mostra passo a passo como criar uma camiseta personalizada bem maneira. Até mais."

Besides for recognizing it as Portuguese, I obviously had no idea what it said. With some google-ing, or shoudl I say blackle-ing, of translation sites, it roughly translates to:

"Oi, I found yours blog for google tá well interesting I liked this post. When to give gives passed for mine blog, is on personalized t-shirts, shows step by step as to create a well personalized t-shirt way. Until more."

I believe our fine friend is giving us some tips for blogging? And also trying to entice us to hire him to make TMC t-shirts. Well, we might not be ready for personalized t-shirts, but perhaps daily blogging is back in our futures. Music and I have been somewhat estranged for the summer. Luckily for me, the Helly Hansen Itunes is stocked with music I have never bothered to look at or have even heard of and it, rather than Hype Machine or any other mp3 blog, has provided me with new music this summer. At this moment, I'm so infatuated with Etta James that I'm attempted to add her to my facebook music favorites (huggggggggge deal, kidding kind of). Here's "Anything To Say You're Mine" that somewhat echoes the feelings of our unexplained absence from blogger (and others).

Download "Anything To Say You're Mine" by Etta James.

Buy the album At Last here.

Edit: Clearly this post is insane, for some reason. Well get on it.

And Now For Something Completely Different . . .

For once, a post not complaining about Lauren's aversion to the 21st century or Kate's disappearing antics. Jess, who has mastered every other technical intricacy known to mankind has somehow managed to let her blogger name become muddled . . . inquiring minds hope that the lameness will soon come to an end.

Edit: All is well.

Black is Beautiful

We've made it this far into the summer without any major blackouts, and we have to be honest, the violently retro side of TMC was getting a bit nostalgic for the Summer of the Son of Sam, so we're bringing the blackout to you . . .

Blackle. Go. Now. You'll be glad you did.

Others will make points about the environmental edge of the site, but in light of some tech-geeky challenges to these claims we will only say that:

1. It looks so very very chic
2. Its much more fun to say. C'mon. Try it.

And now . . . we will perform amazing feats of blogging acrobatics to somehow make this musical (actually, we've just been looking for any excuse to post these songs for quite some time)


The Paint It Black Progression

1. "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones. NOT the original, actually. Based on a soul song we can't find at the moment.
Buy Aftermath here.

2. "Thirteen" by Big Star. References #1, is awesome, and covered well by Wilco, etc.
Buy No. 1 Record/Radio City here.

3. "Falling Slowly" by Glen Hansard of the Frames. Its in here too, you just have to listen a little harder.
Buy the Once soundtrack here.

Find Back to Black for yourselves - we're a bit Amy-Winehoused-out just at the moment.

Mr. Lee Takes Photos, Is a Cat

This is completely unrelated to music, but I ran into it while sifting through blog entries for work at FMC. The owner of Mr. Lee, a cat in Germany, attached a camera to his collar and posted the pictures of Mr. Lee's adventures on his website. It's artsy and reminds me of those shots into sunlight that I remember from The Virgin Suicides combined with the digital flavor of The Blair Witch Project. See more pictures by Mr. Lee here.

In other cat news, lolcats consume 30% of Wordpress' bandwidth (read full story here).

In honor of cats, I give you "Tom Cat Blues" by Cliff Carlisle. It's a fun little country ditty from the 1930s with just the right amount of yodel and sexual connotation. Buy more by Cliff Carlisle here.

. . . Twice, Three Times a Lady

After a forced march to the mall in the summer heat and an accidental visit to the National Memorial Day Parade, 2/3 of the ladies of TMC plus Katy (2/3TMC+K) were losing hope . . .

The E Street Cinema came to the rescue; roughly 20 seconds after feeling the air-conditioned blast of its doors, we were seeing Once, the reinvented musical with Glen Hansard of The Frames and sometime-collaborator Marketa Irglova. Everyone else is saying really more than enough about this movie, so we will say just a few things.

1. It is lovely and amazing, but to be honest, we were a little more impressed when we thought the two leads were just the best singer/actor finds of the last 20 years, instead of establishments in their own right.

2. This isn't Hansard's first foray into movie-making; he was also one of the stars ofThe Commitments - - - sweet sweet soul music and all.

3. We fell in love with the duet on Falling Slowly, we moved by All The Way Down . . . blah, blah, blah. Really, all you need to know is that when Hansard and Irglova have some back-of-bus bonding (a la Before Sunrise) and Hansard pulls out his guitar, its a moment that even Richard Linklater must envy.

. . . And here it is: Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy by Glen Hansard. Buy the Once Soundtrack here.

No Protests, Yet. We'll Keep You Posted.

5 people moved in 4 hours? We deserve a short post.

This is about how we feel:
Summer in the City by Regina Spektor.

Buy it here. Or better yet, help us move. And save us from our sweaty selves.