Currently Listening: Jason Isbell

We have been listening to this album a lot recently!  I have seen Jason twice.  Both times he was opening for other people but I loved it.  I am hoping to get to see him again someday soon.

 

Midyear Concert Roundup

If you've been following along, you may have noticed that this spring and summer has been jam packed with tons of live music for us.  Here's a quick recap of everything.  I have seen 24 bands since March in eight different venues.  Here is my rundown on my favorites so far.

Set: My Morning Jacket (Forecastle Festival)

This is actually very, very difficult for me to decide because there have been so many great ones.  Thinking back there were so many that I was so impressed with but if I had to choose just one to win out as my favorite, I would choose My Morning Jacket at Forecastle.  It was two and half hours of dancing and fun in the Great Lawn of Waterfront Park.

Runner Up: Death Cab for Cutie, Andrew McMahon, San Fermin, the Rolling Stones

Venue: Chicago Theatre

image via

We saw Death Cab for Cutie at the Chicago Theatre in April and it was my first time to the venue.  It was absolutely stunning inside.  I couldn't get over how beautiful it is.  I also really enjoy the smaller theatres like this one where every seat seems to be a decent seat.

Song Performed: Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism

This is my favorite Death Cab for Cutie song.  They played a great rendition to close out their show when we saw them in Chicago back in April.

Runners up: Andrew McMahon - Mixed Tape, My Morning Jacket - Off the Record, and San Fermin - Jackrabbit


Experience: Andrew McMahon (92.3 WTTS Private Show at Tin Roof)

92.3 WTTS had a private show for Andrew McMahon and I was lucky enough to win tickets to the event.  I took Wyatt as my plus one because I was dying for him to get to see Andy live.  Andrew has been my favorite artist since I was in junior high through all of his musical incarnations.  I jumped at the chance to win tickets for this show.  It was small, about 300-400 people I would say.  We were in the 4th row.  Andrew and Zac played for an hour and played some of my faves from all of Andrew's bands.

Here are Wyatt's picks because he was by my side at almost all of these with the exception of Elenowen and Ben Kweller at Musician's Corner in Nashville.

Set: My Morning Jacket at Forecastle.  Runner up goes to Murder by Death.
Venue: Chicago Theatre
Song: Voodoo Child as performed by Kenny Wayne Shepherd at the Star Plaza

Forecastle Festival 2015 Day 2

Allison joined us in Louisville for the day on Saturday.  We started off by grabbing lunch at Feast BBQ and checking out some of our favorite shops in NuLu.

Revelry Boutique

We headed into the festival for day 2 and first checked out the Bourbon Lodge since we all had memberships.  It was air conditioned (although, it was still quite warm inside).  I got a Kentucky Mule and Allison got a Mint Julep with Maker's Mark and Wyatt tried a flight of Michter's.

We settled in for the day at the main stage. We saw Desaparecidos, the Word, and the War on Drugs all leading up to the festival headliner and Louisville natives, My Morning Jacket.  MMJ was so good!  They had some members of the Louisville Symphony play accompaniments on several of the songs.  We even get to see Conor Oberst come out and sing a song with them!

❤️🎶 #mymorningjacket #forecastle #GetOnboard

A video posted by Amanda Condra 🍍🎀💄 (@ascondra) on Jul 19, 2015 at 8:23am PDT

Currently on Repeat

I cannot stop listening to this Third Eye Blind cover of Beyoncé's 'Mine'.  I hope you enjoy it too.

Music Monday: Ray LaMontagne

Wyatt and I went down to Indianapolis for a concert at the Lawn on Friday night.  We had dinner with Allison at Yats and then headed over to the venue for Ray LaMontagne.  It was my first concert of the summer (and sadly the only planned thus far).  We could not ask for a prettier night or better weather.  After listening to Ray for the last ten years, I finally got to see him in person.  He did not disappoint.  

They played a lot off the new album but my favorite part of the set was when only him and his bassist played a few songs from the first album.  

Currently Listening: Songs from PLL

I have mentioned before that I am addicted to the television show, Pretty Little Liars. This season is starting to really heat up.  Of course the implied hints and cliffhangers are starting to get better and better because we're nearing the summer break. 

Lately I have been noticing how great the show's creators have been at pairing music selections with scenes.  Literally almost perfect pairings.  Little known fact about me: I used to want to work in the industry pairing songs with tv shows, movies, commercials, etc.  I have quickly found a purchased several songs over the course of this season.  Here are some of my favorites.

Click the playlist to open in Spotify

Freight Train might be my favorite song placement so far this season. It played as Hanna was packing her mom's court clothes and seemed to convey the exact emotions the writers wanted Ashley to portray in Hanna's character through the mood and lyrics of the song and sound o the music. 

Summer Saturday Morning Playlist

the Lumineers - Morning Song
Of Monsters & Men - Love Love Love
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Over the Rainbow/What A Wonderful Life
Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy, Jr
Rusted Root - Send Me On My Way
White Stripes - We're Going To Be Friends
Of Monsters & Men - Sloom
Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Follow You Into the Dark
Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds - #41 (Live at Luther College)
Modest Mouse - Float On
Coldplay - Trouble
The XX - Intro
MGMT - Time To Pretend
Pheonix - Lasso
Mumford & Sons - Not Without Haste
Death Cab For Cutie - Soul Meets Body
Greg Laswell - Comes and Goes In Waves
Band of Horses - The Funeral
David Gray - Kathleen
Joshua Radin - No Envy No Fear
Eric Hutchinson - Breakdown More
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
Spoon - Don't You Evah
Mumford & Sons - The Banjolin Song

Just a little playlist for an easy-going morning with good tunes to start the weekend.  I started mine at work with this playlist.  Looking forward to a very cute little two year old's party this evening and a special day to celebrate my mom's retirement tomorrow in Bloomington with my family.

Stephen Kellogg & Sixers: Start the Day Early

"Start the Day Early" - Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers by foundations

For some reason I cannot stop listening to this song and this whole album really.  I forgot how much I loved it and Stephen.  This song is the perfect song for a summer drive.  Last fall his band decided to go on a hiatus.  In the meantime he has put together another album on his own that will be release in just a couple of weeks, June 18.  I love how he explains how the record came about in his personally written biography on his page (link above).  I love the new song, "Crosses," and cannot wait to hear the rest of the album!

Forecastle X: July 13-15, 2012

Back in July I made the trip down to Louisville for my second Forecastle Festival with Allison. This time my parents and Wyatt also joined.  This year marked the festival's 10th Anniversary.  Wyatt and I went down on Friday after I got off work and managed to see Beach House (bottom right in picture above), Sleigh Bells, Lucero and Bassnectar.  After the festival, we walked over to 4th Street Live for some dinner.  Allison met on Saturday morning in time for lunch at Smashburger.  Unfortunately it started to rain while we were at lunch.  Since our plans had been to walk around before we headed over to the festival grounds, we decided to stay dry by getting drinks Gordon Biersch.  The festival had times pushed back due to rain and when we finally made it over there, the rains held off for the rest of the day/night.  We met up with my parents before walking around and letting Allison check things out.  We saw Dr. Dog, Galactic, Andrew Bird and My Morning Jacket on Saturday.  On Sunday, Wyatt and I had lunch downtown before we went over Bardstown Road and did some shopping.  We met up with my parents at the festival and managed to see Deer Tick, Fruit Bats, Beats Antique, and Wilco.  Luckily we managed to escape the rain all weekend.  It was a great weekend full of great music.  Click through the jump below to see more pictures from the weekend.

Listen, now.

I'm so glad someone told me about this band now and not later.  Loving this album. 

Led Zeppelin: Going to California

 

Wilco @ Merriweather Post Pavilion

Listen now!  NPR is streaming the concert! My goodness it makes me miss these guys! So sad I missed the Indy show last week! I need to see them again soon!

Happy Listening,

Florence and The Machine - Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) (The Lionheart Mix)

Florence and The Machine - Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) (The Lionheart Mix)

So good.

Ryan Adams - When the Stars Go Blue by Cristiano ayoub

Hello, high school.  I found this mix the other day.  It took me right back to senior year of high school!  Man I loved this one. This makes me want to listen to so many of my cds.  This would happen two weeks after my cd player bit the dust. This is not a good development for someone like me who actually still finds something special about actual physically tangible cds.

1. The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
2. Rilo Kiley - Science vs. Romance
3. Death Cab For Cutie - Title and Registration
4. Bright Eyes - Lover I Don’t Have To Love
5. Belle and Sebastian - Seeing Other People
6. Cursive - The Great Decay
7. Elliott Smith - Question Mark
8. Snow Patrol - Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking
9. Desaparecidos - Man and Wife, The Former
10. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1
11. the Get Up Kids - I’m A Loner Dottie, A Rebel
12. Son Ambulance - Paper Snowflakes
13. The Black Keys - 10 A.M. Automatic
14. The Faint - Hypnotised
15. RX Bandits - Overcome (Recapitulation)
16. Ugly Casanova - Things I Don’t Remember
17. DCFC - The Sound of Settling
18. The Flaming Lips - Vaseline
19. Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty
20. LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations
21. Built to Spill - Still Flat

And yes, each of these towers is alphabetized.