Category: Collection

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Music

Voight-Kampff

I make music sometimes! This was one I put together for a class, my Intro to Music Technology class that I just wrapped up recently.

From the program notes I wrote:

This was composed for the Introduction to Music Technology class, as the first major project, with a focus on the style of synthesizers that were first popularized in the 1980s. It’s a collaboration between myself and my roommate Ehren – I set up the session with the synthesizers and harmonic structure I wanted, and then left the room. This gave it a bit of an improvisatory feel – though I did move one or two of the notes around afterwards, to keep it from going from ‘improvisatory’ to ‘unsure.’
The end result reminded me of the dark, gritty science fiction movies that were popular in the 1980s. I think of Blade Runner as the authoritative piece of dark, gritty 1980s science fiction, so I chose a name from the lore of the film: the Voight-Kampff Test is what’s administered to find out if the subject is a human or replicant.

Categories
Photography United States

Los Angeles Against the Mountains

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, I’m doing a bit of traveling this summer. The first trip was down to Los Angeles, because that’s the only place where you can go to get an Austrian Visa-D, if you live on the West Coast.1

Anyhow, while I was there I was able to meet up with a family friend and take some pictures out in Santa Monica. There’s a conference center there, the Serra Retreat Center, and it’s got some awesome views. Take a look, and feel free to click on any of these pictures to see them in a larger size:

One of the things I wanted to do while I was in LA was look at the mountains. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do since I read the essay after which I titled this post: Los Angeles Against the Mountains.

I read the essay for an English class I took, fully expecting to hate it – I have an inherent dislike of anything that’s intended to be ‘literature.’ I was wrong: the essay was a fascinating look at an aspect of Los Angeles that I’d never considered. Long story made incredibly short, the mountains over LA are unstable, and the city has to deal with flooding that gets turned into pseudo-pyroclastic flows by the amount of rubble put out by the mountains. It’s a wonderful read, and I highly recommend it.

  1. Because heaven forbid we be able to turn in a stack of paperwork and get our fingerprints taken anywhere less than a thousand miles from home. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: April 2016

Oh man I need there to have been more of April, I’m not done with things yet.
5AM – Amber Run
I Need My Girl – The National
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky1
On Your Knees – Matthew Mayfield
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield
Midnight – Lane 8
You Can’t Save Me – Johnny Stimson
But Now A Warm Feel Is Running – Fhin
House for You – LOYAL
Maps For the Getaway – Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
I Feel The Weight – Miike Snow
Smoke Filled Room (Acoustic) – Mako
Afterlife – XYLØ
SCRAM – Mogwai
Run – TOURIST
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea – XYLØ
Fat Man – Mogwai
America – XYLØ
Lou Lou – Albin Lee Meldau
Communicate – The Dunwells
Black and White Movies – Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
Tangle Formations – Explosions In The Sky2
Disintegration Anxiety Explosions In The Sky
I’m Not Right – XY&O
Hallucinations – dvsn
Logic of a Dream – Explosions In The Sky
Flare Gun – Woodkid
Dusk Talks – Woodkid
Sorry – LISS3
Tracker – Woodkid
Que Te Mate el Desierto – Woodkid
Weak Force – Mogwai
The Infidelity of Language – Steve Benjamins4
Solitude – M83
Infinite Orbit – Explosions In The Sky
Are You a Dancer? – Mogwai
Land of All – Woodkid5
I’ve Fallen For You – Tom Redwood
Wilderness – Explosions In the Sky
Jump – Woodkid
The Ecstatics – Explosions In the Sky
Bitterness Centrifuge – Mogwai
Shoot Them Down – Woodkid
We Know Where You Go – Blue October
SWORD – ΔUGUST6
Hey Now – The Dunwells
Break Ground – Blue October
Driver – Blue October
Heart Go Bang – Blue October
Houston Heights – Blue October
Home (Tim Palmer Mix) – Blue October7
Jericho – Westerman8
Cara Mia Addio – Aperture Science Psychoacoustics Laboratory910

  1. The “Friday Night Lights” variant. ↩
  2. Oh man I am so happy about this album ↩
  3. Note: this link is to the explicit version. ↩
  4. I just really love that name for a song. ↩
  5. This whole soundtrack is pretty great, actually. ↩
  6. This was hilariously hard to find the Amazon link to – their database apparently isn’t unicode-safe. Weird. ↩
  7. I’d call this my favorite song off of the album so far, but I am so excited about this album. I love Blue October. ↩
  8. Soundcloud link, as I couldn’t find it on Amazon. Which I’m not happy about – Soundcloud doesn’t allow artists to monetize very easily, while Amazon is just like “sure, we’ll sell your stuff for a small cut.” ↩
  9. I wrote a paper about this song for a class – might publish that here, actually, it was pretty interesting. And it’s just a delightfully weird song! ↩
  10. This one’s free to download – you can get the entire soundtrack off their site! ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: March 2016

I’ve decided that, for some of these things, I’m going to include links to buy the songs1 – make it a bit easier for y’all to find the songs, if you’re interested, and throw a bit of support to the artists.2
5AM – Amber Run
Shiver – Amber Run
I Need My Girl – The National
Forgiven – Millesim Remix – Wolf Colony3
Trusty And True – Damien Rice
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky
Hymn for the Weekend – Coldplay
Just My Soul Responding – Amber Run
Elysium – Mendum
On Your Knees – Matthew Mayfield
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield4
Midnight – Lane 85
Summer Heart – Pretty Haze
Fire – Jack Garratt
You Can’t Save Me – Johnny Stimson
Ghost ft. Patrick Baker (Lane 8 Remix) – Lane 8
But Now A Warm Feel Is Running – Fhin
Haven, Mass (B-Side) – Bon Iver
Canyon Moon – Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
House for You – LOYAL
Maps For The Getaway – Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness6
Animal – The Dunwells
Your Call – Duck House
In the Air – Star Slinger Remix – Ten Fé
We Were Happy Once (feat. Bess Rogers) – Anya Marina7
Man Of Lies – Blueneck
Broken Fingers – Blueneck
Father, Sister – Blueneck
I Feel The Weight – Miike Snow
Back Of The Car – Miike Snow
Monster – Mumford & Sons
I Will Wait – Mumford & Sons
Hopeless Wanderer – Mumford & Sons
Little Lion Man – Mumford & Sons
Ghost feat. Patrick Baker (Lane 8 Remix) – Lane 88
Smoke Filled Room (Acoustic) – Mako9
Klara (Theo Kottis Remix) – Lane 8
Afterlife – XYLØ10
SCRAM – Mogwai11
Run – TOURIST
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea – XYLØ
Fat Man – Mogwai
America – XYLØ12
Lou Lou – Albin Lee Meldau13
Communicate – The Dunwells14
BLK CLD – XYLØ
Lucky Ones – The Dunwells15
LA Love Song – XYLØ
She Whispers – The Dunwells
Tzar – Mogwai
Smoke Signals – Hotel Garuda16
MERCURY – YATES17
U-235 – Mogwai18
Will You Wait For Me – The Dunwells
Sunlight (Jody Wisternoff Remix) – Lane 8
Ether – Mogwai

  1. From iTunes or Amazon Music, as those are the two stores I ever use- I used to use Google Play, but haven’t since I switched to iPhone. And I’ve got a Thing against Spotify. ↩
  2. The exact metric by which I’ll decide which ones to link is “randomness with a bias in favor of less-popular groups.” And a good bit towards “new to these lists,” as well. ↩
  3. Fun story: while trying to verify that this was the correct version of the song to link to, I accidentally hit ‘play’ and iTunes started playing a totally different song while the Amazon sample was playing. “This is not at all the right remix,” I thought, before realizing what I’d done. ↩
  4. “I’d normally never listen to Lorde, but I’d listen to an album of you doing Lorde covers.” – someone complimenting me when they heard me singing along to this. Thanks, friend! ↩
  5. This song is so calm, it’s up there with “Your Hand In Mine” in my favorite songs to listen to when I need to defuse a bad mood. Or diffuse it. Either way. ↩
  6. The first few times I listened to this song, I was biking, and what with the wind and all that I couldn’t quite hear the lyrics right, so I spent a while thinking this song was about planning a heist. ↩
  7. For some reason, this song reminds me of a lullaby that I’d listen to as a child. Which is weird, considering how depressing it is. ↩
  8. Why yes, this is the second time this song is on here – one version is the Soundcloud rip (sorry!), and one version is from the actual album. ↩
  9. Another one my roommate gave me, I love this song. ↩
  10. Things I’ve learned today: how to type an uppercase Ø. Shift+option+o, for those wondering. Leaving out the shift gets you the lowercase ø.
    Interesting note about this: you can’t type that character into the Amazon search field. ↩
  11. This whole album is all ‘nuclear history’ references and it makes me so happy ↩
  12. Why yes, I am linking to multiple songs off this album. I’d’ve linked to ‘Afterlife’, as well, but Amazon only has the explicit version and I have very strange ideas about what level of censorship it’s necessary for me to have on this here blog. ↩
  13. The only thing I don’t like about this song is how dang short it is. I want mooooore. ↩
  14. This song is basically how I respond whenever my friends complain to me about their relationship problems. “JUST COMMUNICATE” ↩
  15. For some reason, my laptop saw fit to change ‘Lucky’ to ‘Luckyy.’ … Okay? ↩
  16. This one reminds me of that song. “If our love is tragedy,” yadda yadda. If you lived through, what, 2012? Yeah, I think that was the year. Anyways, if you lived through that year, you know this song. ↩
  17. WHY ARE WE SHOUTING ↩
  18. Get it, because uranium isotopes? heh, I have a weird sense of humor. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: February 2016

How did February go past so quickly, when did that even happen? Weird.
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
All I Want – Kodaline
Fast Car – Navarra
I Found – Amber Run
5AM – Amber Run
Shiver – Amber Run
I Need My Girl – The National
Homegrown – Mahama Remix – Haux
Forgiven – Millesim Remix – Wolf Colony
Trusty and True – Damien Rice1
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky
Hymn for the Weekend – Coldplay2
Spark – Amber Run
Just My Soul Responding – Amber Run
The Hanging Tree – James Newton Howard
Elysium – Mendum
Ghosts – BANNERS
Start a Riot – BANNERS
Shine a Light – BANNERS
Back When We Had Nothing -BANNERS
On Your Knees – Matthew Mayfield
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield3
Midnight – Lane 8
Summer Heart – Pretty Haze
Fire – Jack Garratt
You Can’t Save Me – Johnny Stimson
Ghost ft. Patrick Baker (Lane 8 Rework) – Lane 84
But Now A Warm Feel Is Running – Fhin5
Haven, Mass (B-Side) – Bon Iver
Canyon Moon – Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness6
House for You – LOYAL

That’s it for this month – I’ve been so busy with the choir tour and the start of classes7 that I haven’t had a whole lot of time for messing around with my playlists. Hopefully next month’s will be a bit longer.

  1. I did a bit of digging into my old playlists at one point, this one came up. ↩
  2. I didn’t watch the Halftime Show while it was going on – I was actually on a bus, driving away from San Francisco at the time – but I did watch it about a week later. Impressive. ↩
  3. One of the best compliments I got this month was as I was singing along to this- someone told me “I’d never listen to Lorde, but if you did a cover of Lorde I’d listen to that.” Flattering, in a weird way. ↩
  4. Lane 8 was probably my top find for this month, even though it’s only these two songs by them that I actually enjoy. I’m subscribed on Soundcloud, hopefully they’ll release more stuff in this vein. ↩
  5. This is listed as “Deep House” but on name alone I think it deserves honorary standing as “Post-Rock” ↩
  6. Anecdote time: I wound up with this song because I was editing a video for a class and it needed to have some sort of upbeat song playing in the background. But this is me, I don’t have happy music, the closest I get is, like, energetically depressed. I asked Chase if he had any, and this was the only upbeat song he had. We have similar taste in music. ↩
  7. And the various extracurricular nonsense that I choose to get myself embroiled in. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: January 2016

How is this month already over? I’m still writing ‘2014’ on my papers sometimes, good lord.1
Slow It Down – The Lumineers
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
All I Want – Kodaline
Fast Car – Navarra
I Found – Amber Run
5AM – Amber Run
Shiver – Amber Run2
I Need My Girl – The National
Safe & Sound (feat. The Civil Wars) – Taylor Swift
Thru – Vallis Alps
Arcadia – Great States
West Egg – Great States
Homegrown – Mahama Remix – Haux
Forgiven – Millesim Remix – Wolf Colony
Trusty and True – Damien Rice
Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde
All My Love (feat. Ariana Grande) – Major Lazer
Atlas – Coldplay
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky3
Just for Now – Pentatonix
The Birds Are Chirping – Beware of Safety
Hymn for the Weekend – Coldplay4
Amazing Day – Coldplay
Spectre – Radiohead
Spark – Amber Run
Just My Soul Responding – Amber Run
Heaven – Amber Run
Kites – Amber Run
Breathe In – Frou Frou
The Hanging Tree – James Newton Howard5
Elysium – Mendum
Valentine’s Day – Linkin Park
Ghosts – BANNERS6
Start a Riot – BANNERS
Shine a Light – BANNERS
Back When We Had Nothing – BANNERS
On Your Knees – Matthew Mayfield7
Team (Lorde Cover) – Matthew Mayfield8
Gold Dust – BANNERS
Midnight – Lane 8

And that’s 2016 begun. A shorter list than the rest, but I’ve been keeping a strange schedule and not gotten a whole lot of new music this month, so oh well.

  1. It takes me a long time to adjust, okay? ↩
  2. I’ve gotta say, Amber Run was probably one of my best finds for all of 2015. ↩
  3. This is the variant off the Friday Night Lights soundtrack. I still haven’t watched that show, actually – the quality of the soundtrack wavers back and forth between being enough to cancel out the fact that football bores me. ↩
  4. I just saw the music video for this one the other day. I liked it! ↩
  5. I believe he’s actually the composer, and that it’s Jennifer Lawrence singing, but that’s how the soundtrack shows up in iTunes, so whatever. ↩
  6. Actually a different version of it than what I had, since he finally released his EP so that I could replace the Soundcloud rip. ↩
  7. I really wasn’t sure that I was going to like this one, and then practically overnight it became the song that I’d skip past a bunch of others to get to. ↩
  8. I’ve never heard the Lorde version. I should probably look that up at some point, if only for comparison. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: December 2015

This one is a bit weird, because for a good chunk of the month I wasn’t actually listening to this list – I was going back through the rest of my playlists for the year, in chronological order. Still, it was pretty fun! Anyhow, here’s the December list:
Pacific – Sleeping At Last
Slow It Down – The Lumineers
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
All I Want – Kodaline
Fast Car – Navarra
Ghosts – BANNERS
I Found – Amber Run1
5AM – Amber Run
Shiver – Amber Run
Not Alone – Linking Park
I Need My Girl – The National
Yellow (acoustic version from Jo Whiley’s Lunchtime Social) – Coldplay
King Nine – Blueneck
See You Soon – Coldplay2
Controlled Burn – Tall Heights
Fireproof – The National
Safe & Sound (feat. The Civil Wars) – Taylor Swift
Thru – Vallis Alps
The Running of the Bulls – Tall Heights
Careful Where You Stand – Coldplay3
Woods – Bon Iver
White Winter Hymnal – Pentatonix4
Sleigh Ride – Pentatonix
That’s Christmas To Me – Pentatonix5
Mary, Did You Know? – Pentatonix6
Silent Night – Pentatonix
D to E – MOGWAI
Earth Division – MOGWAI
Arcadia – Great States
West Egg – Great States
Homegrown – Mahama Remix – Haux
Forgiven – Millesim Remix – Wolf Colony
Petals – Biblio
Heart Beats Slow – Angus & Julia Stone
Stay With Me – Angus & Julia Stone7
Driving Home for Christmas – Blueneck
Strong Hand – CHVRCHES
Trusty And True – Damien Rice
Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde
All My Love (feat. Ariana Grande) – Major Lazer
Scream My Name – Tove Lo
Set The Fire To The Third Bar – Snow Patrol
Atlas – Coldplay
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky8
Mary, Did You Know? (feat. The String Mob) – Pentatonix9
Just for Now – Pentatonix
The Birds Are Chirping – Beware of Safety
Rug – Sleeping Lion
Hymn for the Weekend – Coldplay10
Army of One – Coldplay11
A Head Full of Dreams – Coldplay
Start A Riot – BANNERS
Joy to the World – Pentatonix
Amazing Day – Coldplay
Birds – Coldplay
Mi (Soul Channel Rework) – Nils Frahm
808s & birthdaycakes – Tim Legend
La (Sebastian Freij Rework) – Nils Frahm
Re (Helios Rework) – Nils Frahm12
Spectre – Radiohead

That’s all for the year, folks! I’ve now got an entire year of consistently making a playlist for each month!
Well, okay, I had that as of August, but now I’ve got a calendar year.

  1. I’m supposed to be learning this song for voice lessons, but I keep singing one of the low harmonies instead of the melody. I can’t help it, they’re nice harmonies! hashtag-choir-kid-problems ↩
  2. Acoustic version. ↩
  3. Acoustic version. ↩
  4. It wouldn’t be Christmas without a bunch of acapella christmas music. ↩
  5. This song is a lot harder to sing than you’d think. ↩
  6. This one is… pretty much exactly as hard to sing as you’d think. I have a mental block against learning my part. ↩
  7. This song and the one before it are off the Spotify Sessions ↩
  8. This is the 4:11 version off the Friday Night Lights soundtrack. ↩
  9. I keep forgetting I’ve got both versions of this song – with strings and without – in this playlist, and I get confused whenever this version comes on because it’s got more sounds than what I’m expecting. ↩
  10. Me, singing along: “I’m feeling drunk and high, so high, so high…”
    My mom, sitting beside me in the car: “Nice song.” ↩
  11. I really feel like this is two different songs that just happen to share the same lyrics – the bridge in the middle should’ve been a track break. ↩
  12. The fact that ‘Helios’ is in the name keeps making me think of the album cover from the same-titled album by The Fray. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: November 2015

I’m writing this one up on the 29th, but I’m not going to have any free time until the 5th, so doing it a bit early won’t hurt much.1 Here goes:
Pacific – Sleeping At Last
Slow It Down – The Lumineers2
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
All I Want – Kodaline
Thousand Eyes – Of Monsters And Men
Talk – Kodaline
I Of The Storm – Of Monsters And Men
Indian Summer – Blood Cultures
Fast Car – Navarra
Ghosts – BANNERS3
Man of Lies (live acoustic) – Blueneck
I Found – Amber Run
5AM – Amber Run
Skinny Love (VANIC Remix) – VANIC
I Love You (Quintet Version) – Woodkid
Silver Linings – Leo Kalyan
Shiver – Amber Run
Little Ghost – Amber Run
Not Alone – Linkin Park4
I Need My Girl – The National
Pools – Harrison Brome
Yellow (acoustic version from Jo Whiley’s Lunchtime Social) – Coldplay
Father, Sister – Blueneck
King Nine – Blueneck
Sparks – Coldplay (acoustic version)
See You Soon – Coldplay (acoustic version)5
Controlled Burn – Tall Heights
Fireproof – The National
Safe & Sound (feat. The Civil Wars) – Taylor Swift6
Thru – Vallis Alps
The Running of the Bulls – Tall Heights7
Everything – Zuke Duhon8
Do Not Resuscitate – Tall Heights
Careful Where You Stand – Coldplay (acoustic version)9
Bleed – Tender
Creepy – Oyster Kids10
Never Let You Down (feat. Lykke Li) – Woodkid
Woods – Bon Iver11
White Winter Hymnal – Pentatonix12
Sleigh Ride – Pentatonix
That’s Christmas To Me – Pentatonix
Mary, Did You Know? – Pentatonix13
Silent Night – Pentatonix
D to E – MOGWAI
My Father My King – MOGWAI
The Sun Smells Too Loud – MOGWAI
Earth Division – MOGWAI
We’re No Here – MOGWAI
Adventure of a Lifetime – Coldplay14
Arcadia – Great States
West Egg – Great States
Christmas Steps – MOGWAI
Mexican Grand Prix – MOGWAI15
Arrows (feat. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis) – Fences
Harder Without You – Deutsch Duke
Travel Is Dangerous – MOGWAI
Remurdered – MOGWAI
Friend of the Night – MOGWAI
Homegrown – Mahama Remix – Haux
Auto Rock – MOGWAI
Take Me Somewhere Nice – MOGWAI16
Hasenheide – MOGWAI
Rano Pano – MOGWAI
Hungry Face – MOGWAI
Shadowplay (Album Verison) – The Saint Johns
Burn Girl Prom Queen – MOGWAI
I Know You Are But What Am I? – MOGWAI
Carraway – Great States
Forgiven – Millesimal Remix – Wolf Colony
Petals – Biblio
The Lord is Out of Control – MOGWAI
Heart Beats Slow – Angus & Julia Stone17
Stay With Me – Angus & Julia Stone
Little Whiskey – Angus & Julia Stone
All This Love – Angus & Julia Stone18
Everglow – Coldplay
Driving Home for Christmas – Blueneck19
Strong Hand – CHVRCHES
Trusty And True – Damien Rice20
Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde
All My Love (feat. Ariana Grande) Major Lazer
Scream My Name – Tove Lo
Set The Fire To The Third Bar – Snow Patrol
Atlas – Coldplay21
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky22

That’s the playlist for this month. Now I’m going to go investigate some of the concerningly strange emails I got while I was writing this whole thing, that’ll be fun. Happy holidays, everyone!

  1. Watch the new Coldplay album drop on the 30th and me be proven horribly wrong. Oh well. ↩
  2. This is one of those songs that I couldn’t figure out where it came from until I remembered that a friend had made me a “rainy day” playlist, and all the songs in there got swept into my ‘unrated songs’ playlist. ↩
  3. BANNERS had a new song featured on an episode of The Royals but it isn’t out anywhere yet and I’m really upset about it. ↩
  4. No, computer, I don’t mean ‘Linking Park,’ but thank you for helping. ↩
  5. Note to self: apparently I only have to type the word ‘acoustic’ twice before it stops sounding like a word. ↩
  6. During Thanksgiving Break my sister and I binge-watched the entire Hunger Games movie series. Good lord that’s some good soundtrack there. And the scene with “the hanging tree”? Goddamn, that’s a tear-jerker. ↩
  7. This song is so much fun to sing along to. ↩
  8. Do you ever see a picture of an artist for the first time and you’re like “that is not at all what I expected them to look like”? Yeah, that’s what I did with Zeke Duhon. Somehow I’d avoided seeing the album cover for, like, months. ↩
  9. Acoustic. A-cou-stic. Acous-tic. Ugh, this is worse than “vacuum.” ↩
  10. Having these two songs in a row always entertains me, for some reason. ↩
  11. I mostly know Bon Iver from “Holocene” and let me tell you this is an entirely different sound. Still so good, though. ↩
  12. Yes, the Christmas music has begun. I’m a choir kid, Christmas music starts in October. ↩
  13. This is the Best Christmas Song, folks. This one right here. ↩
  14. I don’t actually keep up to date on when people are releasing new albums or anything, so it’s always the most incredible surprise when it happens. ↩
  15. I swear, all post-rock bands are in a secret competition to come up with the weirdest name for a song. ↩
  16. I hadn’t realized how much Mogwai was in this playlist. No wonder I keep getting chunks of three or four Mogwai songs in a row, even on shuffle. ↩
  17. This was originally “Angus And Julia Stone” but I changed it to an ampersand because I want everything to line up right in my iTunes Library, c’mon. ↩
  18. My only problem with these four songs is that they’re live recordings and people feel the need to leave the crowd’s applause on those things. Eventually I’m gonna get annoyed enough at these and use iTunes settings to get rid of that. ↩
  19. Because, y’know, I feel like Christmas music should sound like the desolate wastes of Siberia. ↩
  20. I managed to typo this one as “Trust7 And True” which would’ve been a completely different song. ↩
  21. Why yes, I am on a Hunger Games kick. That series is the most beautifully depressing thing ever. ↩
  22. It’s back! And, for reference, this is the Friday Night Lights version, not the album version. I switch those out at random. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: October 2015

I almost did this write-up last weekend before realizing there was another week of the month left. Whoops.
Anyways, hope y’all weren’t expecting anything too spooky – the only ‘themed’ stuff any of my playlists ever get is a little bit of Christmas music in November/December.
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay
All I Want – Kodaline
Kingdom Hearts – Dearly Beloved – Vitamin String Quartet1
The Fault In Our Stars (MMXIV) – Troye Sivan
Wolves Without Teeth – Of Monsters And Men
Thousand Eyes – Of Monsters And Men
Talk – Kodaline
I Of The Storm – Of Monsters And Men
Everybody Knows – RAEKO feat. Mating Ritual
Fly Away For A Summer (Achtaban Remix) = FLAUSEN feat. Ben Cocks
Indian Summer – Blood Cultures
Fast Car – Navarra2
Ghosts – BANNERS
Man of Lies (live acoustic) – Blueneck3
The Knife – Deprival
I Found – Amber Run
5AM – Amber Run
Skinny Love (VANIC Remix) – VANIC
I Love You (Quintet Version) – Woodkid
Silver Linings – Leo Kalyan
Good Morning – Amber Run
Shiver – Amber Run
Little Ghost – Amber Run
Hurricane – Amber Run
Don’t Wanna Fight – Amber Run4
Not Alone – LINKIN PARK
I Need My Girl – The National
Don’t Swallow The Cap – The National
Heavenfaced – The National
Pink Rabbits – The National5
Pools – Harrison Brome
Harbor – Tropics
You’re Beautiful – James Blunt6
Shine A Light – BANNERS
Demons – The National
Yellow (acoustic version from Jo Whiley’s Lunchtime Special) – Coldplay
Father, Sister – Blueneck
King Nine – Blueneck
Sparks – Coldplay (acoustic version)
Gravity (Time To Run) Zeke Duhon
See You Soon – Coldplay (acoustic version)
Controlled Burn – Tall Heights
Fireproof – The National
Calypso – Sarah Kirkland Snider7
Safe & Sound (feat. The Civil Wars – Taylor Swift
Downtown – Majical Cloudz
Hell and High Water – Tall Heights
Thru – Vallis Alps
The Running of the Bulls – Tall Heights
Everything – Zeke Duhon
Do Not Resuscitate – Tall Heights
Careful Where You Stand – Coldplay (acoustic version)
Bleed – Tender
Creepy – Oyster Kids8
Three Strikes (feat. Jack McManus) – Afrojack
Never Let You Down (feat. Lykke Li) – Woodkid
Iron – Woodkid9
Auto Rock – Mogwai
Man of Stone – Tall Heights
Woods – Bon Iver10
D to E – Mogwai11
My Father My King – Mogwai

And that’s October! Looking forward to putting together my November list now. And, come February, you’ll have a full year’s worth of my playlists to read through. I might have to make an infographic or something.

  1. One of my choir kids (and yes, I’m aware that habitually claiming ownership of them is a bit strange, but I’ve done it for years and I’m not going to start now) was playing this song (not the VSQ version, just the original) on the piano, and I was rather proud of myself for recognizing it. ↩
  2. I’ve noticed that this version has neatly eclipsed the original as my favorite. Hmm. ↩
  3. The rate at which my interest in Blueneck is going, I might wind up having another huge appearance of them in December. Maybe winter just makes me feel like listening to exactly this kind of ‘desolate’ music? ↩
  4. Hmm, I wonder if I like Amber Run or not. They’ve only been present in huge amounts for a couple months… \</sarcasm> ↩
  5. Big blobs of a single artist like this don’t tend to bug me, mostly because my phone has been on ‘shuffle’ since I got it a year-and-change ago. ↩
  6. This is the explicit version. My roommate got mortally offended by the simple existence of the censored version. ↩
  7. That’s the composer, not the actual performer(s), but I don’t know who performed it and I do know who composed it. I pulled this from her website. ↩
  8. Okay, this song and the one before it are slightly in tune with Halloween, but whatever. ↩
  9. I had a fun and confusing conversation about this song when it started playing and the other person in the room went “wait, you listen to Kendrick?” and I went “who?”
    Long story short, Kendrick Lamar sampled this song for one of his songs. ↩
  10. I was really confused as to how this wound up in my iTunes library before I realized that it was from the “rainy days” mixtape that my friend made for me. I’m still waiting for a good sitting-indoors-reading rainy day to listen to the whole thing. Today was supposed to be rainy, but mostly it’s just clouds and wind. C’mon, weather, step it up. ↩
  11. Even if I didn’t like this song I’d probably have it in this playlist just because we’ve been talking about modulations a lot lately in my music theory classes. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: September 2015

Gonna be honest, almost forgot I had to do this – that’s why I’ve got a repeating reminder set up. Without the variety of apps that remind me when I have to do stuff, I’d forget to eat.1
Anyhow, here’s September:
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
Running Up That Hill – Track & Field
A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay
All I Want – Kodaline
Kingdom Hearts – Dearly Beloved – Vitamin String Quartet
Vetus Memoria – God Is An Astronaut
The Fault In Our Stars (MMXIV) – Troye Sivan
Wolves Without Teeth – Of Monsters And Men
Black Water – Of Monsters And Men
Thousand Eyes – Of Monsters And Men
Talk – Kodaline
We Sink [explicit] – Of Monsters And Men
I Of The Storm – Of Monsters And Men
Human – Of Monsters And Men
Crystals – Of Monsters And Men
She Is In The Air – Green River Ordinance
The Arsonist – Tyler Stenson
This Too Shall Pass – Tyler Stenson
Everybody Knows – RAEKO feat. Mating Ritual
Fly Away For A Summer (Achtabahn Mix) – FLAUSEN feat. Ben Cocks
Cheerleader – Pentatonix
Indian Summer – Blood Cultures
Fast Car – Navarra
Ghosts – BANNERS
Man of Lies (live acoustic) – Blueneck
The Knife – Deprival
I Found – Amber Run
5AM – Amber Run
Skinny Love (VANIC Remix) – VANIC
I Love You (Quintet Version) – Woodkid
Silver Linings – Leo Kalyan
Good Morning – Amber Run
Shiver – Amber Run
Little Vessels – The Lighthouse and the Whaler
In the Open – The Lighthouse and the Whaler
Say No More – Tyler Stenson
Little Ghost – Amber Run
Big Hearts (Remix) – Tyler Stenson
Hurricane – Amber Run
Don’t Wanna Fight – Amber Run
Not Alone – Linking Park
I Need My Girl – The National
Lightning Strikes (bonus) – Dawn And Hawkes
Twine – Lowland Hum
Don’t Swallow The Cap – The National
Heavenfaced – The National
Pink Rabbits – The National
Pools – Harrison Brome
Harbor – Tropics
Quietly – Dawn And Hawkes
Silly Things – Wild Child
Ten Leap Years – Dawn And Hawkes
Hard To Find – The National
White Stone – Lowland Hum
War Is Over – Lowland Hum
You’re Beautiful [explicit] – James Blunt
Trusty And True – Damien Rice
Shine A Light – BANNERS
Demons – The National
Faith And Hope – Zeke Duhon
This Is The Last Time – The National
Always Is Now – Zeke Duhon
Fireproof – The National
When The World Sleeps – Lowland Hum
Yellow (acoustic version from Jo Whiley’s Lunchtime Special) – Coldplay2
Somewhere I Believe – Tall Heights
Father, Sister – Blueneck
King Nine – Blueneck
Sparks – Coldplay3
Gravity (Time To Run) – Zeke Duhon
See You Soon – Coldplay
Controlled Burn – Tall Heights
To Be Young – Tall Heights4

Normally I write these before I start the new playlist, but I did it in the reverse order this time, so I’ve got a bit of foreknowledge when I pick the Big Winners this month, since I can just flip to the October list and see what I already put in there. Still, I’ll go for it:
The National’s I Need My Girl was the reason I got the entire album – my roommate was playing it one day, and I just said “I need this.”
My favorite song for the month is a toss-up between Amber Run’s I Found and BANNERS’ Ghosts – both of those were incredible, and the reason that I picked up Amber Run’s album and downloaded every bit of music from BANNERS that I could find.
It was a good month for the more acoustic sounding folk, Tyler Stenson, Lowland Hum, Dawn And Hawkes, etcetera, but that’s ending: October started off with a bias towards the more-produced sounds of BANNERS and Amber Run and Blueneck. It’s one of those back-and-forth motions of history, I suppose, where two influences never quite balance out. We’ll see.
Anyhow, that’s it for this month. Hope y’all find some music you enjoy from these lists, and be sure to send some love towards the artists!

  1. Originally I said ‘forget to breathe,’ which was actually a joke, but I do legitimately forget to eat sometimes. I’m very absent-minded. ↩
  2. My roommate tracked down a copy of Coldplay’s ‘Acoustic’ album and gave it to me for my birthday – it’s a bit of a rarity, since it was a limited production run and none of the songs were sold digitally, as far as I could tell. Either way, I’ve got the album now and I love it. ↩
  3. This, and the one other Coldplay song to follow, are the versions off the Acoustic album. ↩
  4. A quick note about Tall Heights: I saw them live in concert, and it was a very interesting experience – I was one of the sound techs for the event, actually, so I had the excuse to look at their setup, and let me tell you, their cellist had some fancy stuff going on. The cello was on a shoulder strap, so he could play standing up, and he had it hooked up to a full pedalboard like you see with electric guitars. He produced some incredible sounds like that, and I was honestly disappointed when the album didn’t feature more of that sort of thing. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: August 2015

I’m writing this one up on August 30th, a little bit early, but classes start on Monday and I don’t want to assume I’ll have a lot of free time. Here goes:
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
Dream – Imagine Dragons
Running Up That Hill – Track & Field
A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay
England Skies – Shake Shake Go
Like a River – Will Young
All I Want – Kodaline
Love Like This – Kodaline
The Soul Serene – Villagers
All Comes Down – Kodaline
Work for Me – Pfarmers
Make Peace – Howie Day
Kingdom Hearts – Dearly Beloved – Vitamin String Quartet
Vetus Memoria – God Is An Astronaut
no – Gordon’s Tsunami Weekend
The Fault In Our Stars (MMXIV) – Troye Sivan
Slow Life – Of Monsters And Men
Wolves Without Teeth – Of Monsters And Men
Black Water – Of Monsters And Men
Third Eye – Florence + The Machine
Thousand Eyes – Of Monsters And Men
Backyard – Of Monsters And Men
Talk – Kodaline
I Don’t Want To Change You – Damien Rice
Which Witch (Demo) – Florence + The Machine
Winter Sound – Of Monsters And Men
Tonight – Magic Man
Princess of China (Acoustic) – Coldplay & Rihanna
We Sink1 – Of Monsters And Men
I Of The Storm – Of Monsters And Men
Human – Of Monsters And Men
Crystals – Of Monsters And Men
Honeymoon – Lana Del Rey
As the Crow Flies – Tyler Stenson
She Is In The Air – Green River Ordinance
The Arsonist – Tyler Stenson
This Too Shall Pass – Tyler Stenson
Everybody Knows – RAEKO feat. Mating Ritual
Mind Over Mater (RAEKO Remix) – RAEKO2
The Purge – Explosions In The Sky
A Strange World – Explosions In The Sky
Hold Me Together (b-side) – Green River Ordinance
Ain’t Afraid Of Dying – Green River Ordinance3
Cheerleader – Pentatonix
Indian Summer – Blood Cultures
Fast Car – Navarra4
Fool For You – Green River Ordinance
Original Script – Derrival
In Motion – The Lighthouse and the Whaler
Go – Down Time
Cannery River – Green River Ordinance
Romanticized – Derrival
Ghosts – BANNERS
Man of Lies (live acoustic) – Blueneck
The Knife – Derrival
Best Laid Plans – Tyler Stenson
I Found – Amber Run
5AM – Amber Run
Canvas – Derrival
Skinny Love (VANIC Remix) – VANIC5
Just My Soul Responding – Amber Run
Kites – Amber Run
Heaven – Amber Run
Noah – Amber Run
Brothers – The Lighthouse and the Whaler
Silver Linings – Leo Kalyan
I Love You (Quintet Version) – Woodkid
Shoes Grow Smaller – Derrival

Big winners this month: Of Monsters And Men, Green River Ordinance, Tyler Stenson, Amber Run. OMM to such a degree that, since we also moved into a new town this month, I’ll probably associate their new album with the new town for a long time.
Anyhow, until next time. Go listen to some good music.

  1. In iTunes, this is actually called “We Sink [explicit]” because it’s explicit, something I need to know for when I hook my phone up to the sound system at work, and because iTunes won’t let you add the little red ‘E’ to stuff manually. ↩
  2. Original song by Young the Giant. ↩
  3. Every time I type this name, it comes out as ‘ORdinance’ for some reason. ↩
  4. Original song by Tracy Chapman. ↩
  5. Using the Birdie cover of the song by Bon Iver. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: December 2014

Prepare yourselves for some Christmas music, folks, I’m writing up one of my older playlists.1 Without further ado, December 2014:
The Fault In Our Stars (MMXIV) – Troye Sivan
A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
Fast Car – Tracy Chapman
Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky
Running Up That Hill – Track & Field
Ignition – Casa Murilo
Ritual – Tunturia
Mary, Did You Know?2 – Pentatonix
Let It Go – Pentatonix
Final Masquerade – LINKIN PARK
Giving Up – HAERTS3
Safe & Sound (feat. The Civil Wars) – Taylor Swift4
Atlas – Coldplay
I Don’t Want To Change You – Damien Rice
Long Long Way – Damien Rice
The One Moment – OK Go
It Takes A Lot To Know A Man – Damien Rice
I’m Not Through – OK Go
Congratulations – Blue October/Imogen Heap
Look After You – The Fray
Abraham’s Daughter – Arcade Fire
Set The Fire To The Third Bar – Snow Patrol
Animal – XOV
Father, Sister – Blueneck
Scream My Name – Tove Lo
Kingdom (feat. Simon Le Bon) – Charli XCX
The Leap – Tinashé
Ladder Song – Lorde
Shut Up and Dance – WALK THE MOON
Man Of Lies – Blueneck
Oceans (Live At E-Werk, Cologne) – Coldplay
The Box – Damien Rice
Lost Souls – Raury
Flicker (Kanye West Rework) – Lorde
Let It Go – Saint Saviour
King Nine – Blueneck
Sirens – Blueneck5
Lesser Oceans – Fences
Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde
All My Love (feat. Ariana Grande) – Major Lazer
Dead Air – CHVRCHES
O (Live At Royce Hall, Los Angeles) – Coldplay
Be the One – HAERTS
White Winter Hymnal – Pentatonix
Silent Night – Pentatonix6
Re-Remurdered (Blanck Mass Remix) – Mogwai
First Began – Beta Radio
Pyres of Varanasi – THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS
Hurricane – 30 Seconds to Mars7
Night of the Hunter – 30 Seconds to Mars
Vox Populi – 30 Seconds to Mars
Lake Song – The Decemberists8
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Linfield College Concert Choir
Running Off The Gods9 – Fences
Adrift – Tarwater
Trusty And True – Damien Rice
Strong Hand – CHVRCHES
Unfair – The Neighbourhood
Under the Tide [Single Version] – CHVRCHES
Torn Apart, Pt II (Bastille Vs. Grades Vs. Lizzo)(Crossfaded Version) – Bastille
Silver – The Neighbourhood
Recover [KDA Remix] – CHVRCHES10
Cavalry Captain – The Decemberists
Another’s Arms (Live At the Beacon Theatre, New York) – Coldplay
Mutatis – Blueneck
Sunburns – Fences
The Days – Avicii
The Singer Addresses His Audience11 – The Decemberists
The Driver (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille
I Am Mine – Beta Radio
Teenage Exorcists12 – Mogwai
Bad_News (Bastille Vs. Mnek) (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille
Counting Out – Blueneck
The Lake – Fences
True Love (Live At the Enmore Theatre, Sydney) – Coldplay
The Lord is Out of Control (Nils Frahm Remix) – Mogwai
Axe To Grind (Bastille Vs. Tyde Vs. Rationale) (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille
Carolina Low – The Decemberists
Pretty Tough – Little Boots
Coconut Signal – Tarwater
Fall Into Your Arms (Bastille Vs. The Gemma Sharples Quartet) (Crossfaded Version) – Bastille
The Nights – Avicii
HMP Shaun William Ryder – Mogwai
Better Not Wake the Baby – The Decemberists
No Medicine For Regret (Pye Corner Audio Mix) – Mogwai
Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Linfield College Concert Choir
My Mountain Is Cold – Fences
What Child is This? – Linfield College Concert Choir
Miracles – Coldplay
Driving Home for Christmas – Blueneck13
Eric Colson – Totorro
White Christmas – Blueneck
2013 – Daniel Kim14
Plastic Covered Furniture – Have Mercy
Broken Fingers – Blueneck

And we’re done! Enjoy this oddly-depressing Christmas playlist!
I am bad at holidays.

  1. It’s an effort to build up a backlog of posts so that when I go on vacation somewhere without internet (presumably happening as you’re reading this post) this blog’ll still be updating. ↩
  2. One of my favorite Christmas songs, and one of my default songs for when I want something to sing. Throughout the year. I annoy my coworkers a lot. ↩
  3. Two ALL CAPS groups in a row! I like the all-lowercase crew from the internet better – facebook, twitter, tumblr, etc. ↩
  4. This song is my only concession to T-Swift’s unending fame. ↩
  5. Y’know, I distinctly remember playing some Blueneck on Family Christmas Day – held within a week of the actual Christmas Day – and being amused by the contrast between the downright dystopian sound of the music and the cheer going on around me. ↩
  6. All of the Pentatonix christmas music is incredible. ↩
  7. I choose to believe that the ’30 Seconds to Mars/THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS’ difference is just the least effective rebranding ever. ↩
  8. Don’t mind me, I’m just giggling about listening to The Decemberists in December. ↩
  9. I keep reading this as ‘running of the gods’ and imagining Zeus running around in Spain, occasionally turning into a bull just to confuse people. ↩
  10. For once I didn’t have to undo the autocorrect to CHURCHES ↩
  11. This song is delightfully meta. ↩
  12. … so, the Scooby-Doo gang? ↩
  13. This album makes for the most delightfully dejected-sounding Christmas music ever and I love it. ↩
  14. Pop Danthologies are wonderful, and all free on YouTube. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: July 2015

Alright, first time actually doing one of these when it’s timely, rather than catching up.
Airplanes And Airwaves – Aftermath
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
Cough Syrup – Young the Giant
Dream – Imagine Dragons
Hold My Hand – The Fray
Piss Crowns Are Trebled – Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Running Up That Hill – Track & Field
Sacrifice – Zella Day
Should Have Known Better – Sufjan Stevens
A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay
Smoke And Mirrors – Imagine Dragons
All of You – Hinkstep
The Weight of Living – Logan Mays
England Skies – Shake Shake Go
Lanterns – Howie Day
Like a River – Will Young
All I Want – Kodaline
Everything’s A Ceiling – Death Cab for Cutie
A Heartbreak (Active Child Remix) – Angus & Julia Stone
St Jude – Florence + The Machine
Out of Mind – Magic Man
One Day – Kodaline
Fade – Logan Mays
Paris – Magic Man
Love Like This – Kodaline
The Soul Serene – Villagers
All Comes Down – Kodaline
Work for Me – Pfarmers
Chicagoland – Magic Man
Make Peace – Howie Day
Transatlanticism – Death Cab for Cutie
Soul Meets Body – Death Cab for Cutie
Little Wanderer – Death Cab for Cutie
It All Starts Here – Magic Man
Kingdom Hearts – Dearly Beloved1 – Vitamin String Quartet
Which Witch (Demo)2 – Florence + The Machine
High Hopes – Kodaline
Vetus Memoria – God Is An Astronaut
Make Up Your Mind – Florence + The Machine
no – Gordon’s Tsunami Week
The Game – Priest
Lets Meet In Our Dreams Tonight – The Best Pessimist
Close to Heaven – Breaking Benjamin
Pig Powder3 – God Is An Astronaut
The Fault In Our Stars (MMXIV) – Troye Sivan
Happy Little Pill – Troye Sivan
Fun – Troye Sivan
Slow Life – Of Monsters and Men4
Honey – Magic Man
What Kind Of Man – Florence + The Machine
Wolves Without Teeth5 – Of Monsters and Men
Black Water6 – Of Monsters and Men
Dark – Breaking Benjamin
Finem Solis – God Is An Astronaut
Third Eye – Florence + The Machine
particular7 – Gordon’s Tsunami Week
Dawn – Breaking Benjamin
Catherine – Magic Man
Thousand Eyes8 – Of Monsters and Men
Backyard – Of Monsters and Men
Talk – Kodaline
Texas – Magic Man
Pray – Kodaline
After The Fall – Kodaline
Apollo – Magic Man
Obscura Somnia9 – God Is An Astronaut
Thunderhearts – Cold War Kids
I Don’t Want To Change You – Damien Rice
The Lord is Out of Control (Nils Frahm Remix) – Mogwai
Shadow and a Dancer – The Fray
Same As You – The Fray

There we go folks, July all done. I’ve already started on my August list, don’t even worry.
Big winners this month – Florence + The Machine, Of Monsters and Men, Kodaline, and the genre of post-rock10 in general.
I’m hoping people enjoy some of the music off of these – ideally, someone finds some song that they really love by reading one of these lists, that’s basically my goal here.

  1. I just love the violin part in this, it’s so… sweet, I suppose? I don’t even know what exactly about it I love, it’s just wonderful. ↩
  2. The line “who’s a heretic now?” made me love this song. ↩
  3. One of two songs on this album with a name in English, and it’s… this. Post-Rock, man. ↩
  4. Of Monsters and Men is one of those bands that I discovered because one of my choir friends sang a song by them and I loved it. There’s at least two other bands like that on this list that I can think of – Coldplay and Kodaline. Oh, three: Death Cab for Cutie. ↩
  5. One of my top two songs off the new album. ↩
  6. There’s two versions of this song in the list and Shuffle keeps playing them back-to-back, but I don’t really notice and just think the song is, like, ten minutes long. ↩
  7. There was probably something clever with the order of songs and their one-word names, but iTunes just kinda threw the album in there in whatever order, so I didn’t get the joke. Welp. ↩
  8. My other ‘top 2’ song off the album. ↩
  9. My Latin (and my literary knowledge) isn’t quite good enough for me to say for sure that it’s ironic that this song is in my ‘sleep’ mix, but I think it might be. ↩
  10. I flip back and forth between ‘post-rock’ and ‘post rock’ in how I prefer this spelled, and every time I switch I go into my iTunes library and change every song I’ve got in the genre to my currently-preferred spelling. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: June 2015

Almost caught up!

Adventures In Solitude – The New Pornographers
Airplanes And Airwaves – Aftermath
Arcadia – The Kite String Tangle
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
Congratulations – Blue October/Imogen Heap
Cough Syrup – Young the Giant
Daft Punk – Pentatonix
Die Young1 – Ke$ha
Dream – Imagine Dragons
Hold My Hand – The Fray
Holocene – Bon Iver
Into the Ocean – Blue October
Jimmy Gets High – Daniel Powter
Magic – Coldplay
On My Way Home – Pentatonix
Paris – Magic Man
Piss Crowns Are Trebled – Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Run – Snow Patrol
Run to You – Pentatonix
Running Up That Hill – Track & Field
Sacrifice – Zella Day
Should Have Known Better – Sufjan Stevens
A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay
Smoke And Mirrors – Imagine Dragons
White Blank Page – Mumford & Sons
X Amount of Words – Blue October
Papaoutai – Pentatonix
All Of You – Hinkstep
Dream Again – Hinkstep
I Saw Everything – Howie Day
From The Stalls (Fever 105 Remix) – Angus & Julia Stone
A Heartbreak (RAC Remix) – Angus & Julia Stone
Heart Beats Slow – Simian Ghost2
Wilder Mind – Mumford & Sons
The Weight of Living – Logan Mays
Screw Up (Ft. Megan Michele of The Resistance) – Logan Mays
Tompkins Square Park – Live – Mumford & Sons
England Skies – Shake Shake Go
Portal – Still Alive – Vitamin String Quartet
A Heartbreak (Ten Ven Remix) – Angus & Julia Stone
Lanterns – Howie Day
My Forest Queen – Hinkstep
Like A River – Will Young
My Long Goodbye – The Best Pessimist
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + The Machine
Riptide (String Quartet Tribute to Vance Joy) – Vitamin String Quartet
Delilah – Florence + The Machine
All I Want – Kodaline
Hearts – The Best Pessimist
Feathers & Wax – Vicktor Taiwó
Way Back When – Kodaline
Sea of Trees – God Is An Astronaut
Big Bad World – Kodaline
She Wolf – Matt Skiba and the Sekrets

And, with that, we’re up-to-date. Go team!

  1. Deconstructed, obviously. ↩
  2. Off of the album Angus & Julia Stone: The Remixes ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: May 2015

I keep mentioning that I’ve only got a couple of these left, but it’s getting close to when I’ll have to add another playlist to the end of the list. Welp.
This one appears to be sorted by artist, so that’ll be fun.

Airplanes And Airwaves – Aftermath
Grizzly Bear (Thom from Alt-J Remix) – Angus & Julia Stone
A Heartbreak (Odesza Remix) – Angus & Julia Stone
A Heartbreak (Ten Ven Remix) – Angus & Julia Stone
A Heartbreak (RAC Remix) – Angus & Julia Stone
From The Stalls (Fever 105 Remix) – Angus & Julia Stone
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
Let Me Love – ARCHIS
Into the Ocean – Blue October
Hate Me – Blue October
X Amount of Words – Blue October
Congratulations – Blue October/Imogen Heap
Holocene – Bon Iver
Magic – Coldplay
A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay
Atlas – Coldplay
Talk – Coldplay
Jimmy Gets High – Daniel Powter
No Room In Frame – Death Cab for Cutie
Little Wanderer – Death Cab for Cutie
Hold No Guns – Death Cab for Cutie
Good Help (Is So Hard to Find) – Death Cab for Cutie
El Dorado – Death Cab for Cutie
Die Young In The Cave (Bootie Edit) – DJ MikeA
Your Hand In Mine (Album version) – Explosions In The Sky
Your Hand In Mine (Friday Night Lights version) – Explosions In The Sky
Hold My Hand – The Fray
Falling Slowly – Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
Asunder, Sweet – Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Piss Crowns Are Trebled1 – Godspeed You! Black Emperor
All of You – Hinkstep
Dream Again – Hinkstep
Not Dead Just Forgotten – Hinkstep
My Forest Queen – Hinkstep
Favorite Song – Howie Day
Medicine Ball – Howie Day
Lanterns – Howie Day
I Saw Everything – Howie Day
Take Me to Church – Hozier
Smoke And Mirrors – Imagine Dragons
Dream – Imagine Dragons
Second Chances – Imagine Dragons
Black Cherry Pie – JEFF the Brotherhood
Die Young2 – Ke$ha
Arcadia – The Kite String Tangle
If… – Logan Mays
Little Things – Logan Mays
Screw Up (Ft. Megan Michele of The Resistance) – Logan Mays
The Superhero Song – Logan Mays
Waiting for Angels – Logan Mays
The Weight of Living – Logan Mays
Paris – Magic Man
White Blank Page – Mumford & Sons
Tompkins Square Park – Mumford & Sons
Believe – Mumford & Sons
The Wolf – Mumford & Sons
Wilder Mind – Mumford & Sons
Monster – Mumford & Sons
Snake Eyes – Mumford & Sons
Broad-Shouldered Beasts – Mumford & Sons
Only Love – Mumford & Sons
Hot Gates – Mumford & Sons
Tompkins Square Park – Live – Mumford & Sons
Exile Vilify – The National
Think You Can Wait (From the Film “Win Win”) – The National
Adventures In Solitude – The New Pornographers
Daft Punk – Pentatonix
On My Way Home – Pentatonix
Papaoutai3 – Pentatonix
Standing By – Pentatonix
I Need Your Love – Pentatonix
Say Something – Pentatonix
Run to You – Pentatonix
England Skies – Shake Shake Go
Heart Beats Slow – Simian Ghost4
Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol
Run – Snow Patrol
Carry Me Home – Sohn
Should Have Known Better – Sufjan Stevens
The Real You5 – Three Days Grace
Running Up That Hill – Track & Field
The Freshmen – The Verve Pipe
Birdhouse In Your Soul – Vitamin String Quartet6
Portal – Still Alive7 – Vitamin String Quartet
Star Wars – The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme) – Vitamin String Quartet
Centuries8 – Vitamin String Quartet
Rather Be – Vitamin String Quartet
Blank Space – Vitamin String Quartet
Take Me to Church – Vitamin String Quartet
Cool Kids – Vitamin String Quartet
Habits – Vitamin String Quartet
All About That Bass – Vitamin String Quartet
Yellow Flicker Beat – Vitamin String Quartet
Maps – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Cough Syrup – Young the Giant
Sacrifice – Zella Day

The big winner for this month is pretty obvious, I should think: Vitamin String Quartet. Not present is their cover of “Riptide,” but don’t worry, it’ll show up soon, because it’s wonderful. We’ve also got a strong showing from Mumford & Sons, plus Angus & Julia Stone, Death Cab for Cutie, and Logan Mays.9

  1. I’m gonna be honest, I think this one only stayed in my playlists as long as it did because of how great the name is. ↩
  2. Deconstructed, of course. ↩
  3. I found out way after I first heard their cover of this song that it’s French rap, I believe? Either way, it sounds cool. ↩
  4. Found on the album Angus & Julia Stone: The Remixes. ↩
  5. I think it’s a rule that I’ve got to have one ‘hard rock’ song on my playlist. ↩
  6. There’s a whole lot of VSQ in here. Probably something to do with the fact that I was, in a bygone era, a violinist, and I’ve still got a place in my heart for string instruments. ↩
  7. Fun fact: my aunt really likes this song, and was very surprised when she found out it’s a cover of a song from a video game. ↩
  8. Every song off VSQ Performs the Hits of 2014, Vol. 3 has “(String Quartet Tribute to [Original Artist])” at the end, but I’m going to leave that off of these. Just know that the rest of the VSQ on this list is all off of Hits of 2014, Volume 3, and you’ll be able to find them, no problem. ↩
  9. None of the others get a link because I’m too lazy to look their websites up: Logan’s, I know off the top of my head, because it’s running off of my server. ↩