Let's Be Teenagers Again

Today, while channel-surfing, I desperately landed on mtvU—a channel aimed towards college students. There were just playing a two hour block of music. Most of the time they'll play things I actually like. I left it on for a while…until this video came up.



I remember listening to American Football when I was in high school; in the early 2000s. This single was released in 1999. Their record company, Polyvinyl just released a deluxe edition of this album a couple of months ago. I don't know if it was their way of celebrating the 15th anniversary or not, but it sure made me feel old. It made me wonder, "Do college students actually listen to this stuff?"

Song of the Week: "This is Love (Feels Alright)" – Camera Obscura

Song of the Week: "Razzle Dazzle Rose" – Camera Obscura

This week has been a bit laid back. I'm currently in between freelance projects so I'm trying to use up all my free time to concentrate on stuff for Renegade Craft. I've mostly been listening to a lot of Camera Obscura's new album Desire Lines while I work. But I've recently fallen in love with "Razzle Dazzle Rose" off of their 2006 album Let's Get Out of This Country. The sound just makes me feel like hopping in a car and taking a road trip up the Pacific Northwest. But I know right now is not the time for me to be taking a vacation with everything that's been going on. Hopefully, I'll get to take a trip soon.

Song of the Week: "Do It Again" – Camera Obscura

This week, Camera Obscura released their new single "Do It Again". It's a great upbeat number that makes me super excited for the new album out June 4th (June 3rd in the UK). I've had this on repeat all week!

Current Tunes: "Out of My League" – Fitz and The Tantrums

I have never been a fan of Fitz and The Tantrums, but their latest single "Out of My League" is too catchy to pass up. I think it also helps that when I first heard this, it didn't sound like them. To me, this track kinda sounds like a mix between The Bravery, The Killers, and maybe The Rosebuds? In some ways, it reminds me of David Bowie's "Modern Love"…if it was slower.

This week has been pretty busy. Early in the week, I got a wholesale order from Rare Device in San Francisco. I'm so happy and excited that they want to carry my journals in store. So I had to quickly make a batch of 25 journals, each made by hand. Hopefully, this is a good beginning to a future list of great stockists. Then yesterday I got a call from a new client who was referred to me by my friend Leanna, so now I have that project on my plate as well. But luckily, the order for Rare Device is being shipped tomorrow. 

This track has been the perfect track to leave playing in the background. It's catchy and upbeat enough to keep me going, but repetitive enough that I can ignore it. It's easily one of the least memorable songs I've ever heard in my life. Honestly, once it stops playing I can't even remember what it sounds like. A that's a weird phenomenon that's never really happened with any other song for me.

Day Four

I don't think I've shut up about how excited I am for the new Bloc Party album due out later this month. Here's "Day Four" off of their upcoming album Four. It's in the same vein as "Sunday" (off of A Weekend in the City) and "Rhodedendrons" (b-side). It's one of the softer songs off the album to contrast the harder/faster sounds of the album. In some ways, it's a bit like "So Here We Are" off of Silent Alarm…it's a nice break from the noise.

Eight Years Later…

Back in the Fall of 2004, I started my freshman year of college. Both of my best friends went away to Northern California; one to SF State, and the other to Berkeley. We used to spend lots of time on Livejournal…these were the days before Twitter, and Facebook barely existed. We were never much for talking on the phone and when we did talk, it was mostly on the weekends. But we spent a lot of our time in between classes chatting on AIM. I remember one day my friend Nisa came back from class and told me about how she got handed some random flyer on the way back to her dorm. It was of the photocopied on neon paper variety. Sure, it was like every other random flyer you get handed but for some reason there was something about it that made her want to Google the band that was on the flyer. And as soon as she did, she sent me this video:

This was the video that made us fall in love with Bloc Party. We played "Little Thoughts" to death and we got our hands on all the singles we could from their EPs. But I think we mostly rejoiced in believing we were on to something that no one else knew about just yet. Then about 3 months later (March 2005), we saw them at the Glass House just a month after the release their first album, Silent Alarm. I remember picking up a shirt that read "God Bless Bloc Party" that was printed on an American Apparel tee. To this day, that night is still one of the best/favorite concerts of my life.

Now Bloc Party is about to release their fourth album, appropriately titled Four with the first single "Octopus". Although their sound has changed over the years, I feel like they somehow seem to always align with the changes in my life. It's been about two months since I've graduated from college and I feel like Four has come at a good time.

There are many elements of this video that bring back memories of "Little Thoughts"; From the bright colors to the punchiness, it's like they've come full circle. I love everything about this video. And it's full of the energy and bravado that the first album had but with more confidence. With this album due out next month, I have really high hopes for it and I can't wait to hear what else they've been working on.

Happy Birthday America!

I know this song really has nothing to do with Independence Day but when I was growing up, this song reminded me of quintessential American life even though I didn't really know what it was about back then. Being the first generation American in my family, there was always a huge culture clash in our household. I wanted the "American dream "(minus the 2.5 kids), but my parents wanted me to live the "Vietnamese way of life" although I strongly disagreed with them. In a weird way, this song was always a reminder of how different I was from my parents.

I finally saw The Graduate later on when I was older and the visuals were exactly how I imagined it: skinny ties, tailored clothes, nice cars, nice architecture…Southern California in the 60s. For being a child of the 80s, my style pulls a lot of inspiration from the 60s. I just love all things mid-century modern, especially California architecture from that period. Every time I see a young Dustin Hoffman, I think to myself "I'd date a guy like that."

RIP MCA/Adam Yauch

Yesterday, we lost MCA of the Beastie Boys. Growing up I wasn't allowed to listen to Rap. As I got older, my taste in music became much more eclectic. But I never really got into Hip Hop or Rap…that is except for the Beastie Boys. There was just something about their sound that had just the right about of rock in it for me to love it. It makes me sad that we've lost another great person to cancer. He was only 47 years old; the same age as my brother.

Super Sound of Smiths

This has been circulating all around the interwebs today and it's just so perfect. I never thought how awesome "This Charming Man" would sound to the beat of 8-bit.

Song of the Week: Why Don't You Find Out for Yourself

Just a day or two ago, my best friend Nisa messaged me just to let me know that she had been listening to Morrissey all day. She said it was bumming her out, but she couldn't stop listening. We laughed although we felt like we were laughing at something that shouldn't be funny. We reminisced about our high school years and how 8 years later, not much has changed. We're still chasing our ideals and looking far & wide for some deeper meaning to life knowing that we may never find it…and we're ok with that.

Song of the Week: Sweet Darlin' – She & Him