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Obituary for January 18, 2013

Another one bites the dust. One of my favorite record stores is closing this month because of steeply increasing rent in a near downtown Seattle neighborhood. So this is my call to the world wide interweb... buy some damn records, CD's and tapes at your local record store because it may not be there tomorrow.

The Easy Street records in Queen Anne Seattle is closing January 18th. There will, however, be one final in-store performance by none other than Yo La Tengo. So if you are in Seattle go check that out and send Easy Street off with a bang! I myself purchased a fare share of CD's and records there and even caught one in store (shout out to Joe, Zeb and Leah!) Luckily there is a second location in West Seattle that has a great selection of new and used vinyl and CD's plus a cool cafe.

Hopefully record store closures do not become a trend though this is not the first and probably not the last.

-Earl

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Zach's Song of The Day

Christmas break of 2006 my sister and I embarked on what would become the 2nd worst driving experience of my life (the 1st was Christmas break 2010). On our way home to Oklahoma from Rexburg, Idaho an ice storm hit Nebraska. Ice so thick it not only covered the road completely, but our car too. Besides sliding all over I-80, we also almost ran out gas and then a few hundred miles later we almost hit an elk. It is a road trip that will go down in infamy.

 Okay. . . The drive home was awful, but that doesn't mean it was all bad. The one good thing that happened on that trip is my sister putting in an album (Sun, Sun, Sun) by a band called the Elected. I fell in love with that album. For over a year I probably listened to it everyday. It got me through a lonely time in Jackson Hole, WY. It got me through a break up. It got me through a lot. I will forever be indebted to our near death experiences driving home from college at Christmas time listening to the Elected.

The song of the day isn't from Sun, Sun, Sun, but from The first Elected Album, Me First. The song is Go On. Enjoy.





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Not music.


I read a lot of great books this year. I feel like I really perfected the art of choosing great books to read. Way to go, Me! The latest best book ever that I read is called The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I read another of his books, Looking for Alaska, when I was in high school, and I loved it. I would have called it one of the best books I read then. 
The Fault in Our Stars has it all. It has love, but it isn’t a cheesy or generic or cliched kind of love. It has a lot of sadness, but it’s the kind of sadness that occurs in normal life. It has weird teenagers, but they are the cool kind of weird. It has a fictional book that I really wanted to read. It has a drunk and disappointing hero. A few days after I read this book, I heard someone in a podcast say, “Never meet your idols.” That’s just the kind of great disappointment that this book contains. 
It makes your heart swell, or whatever cliched phrase you prefer (although a swelling heart sounds pretty dangerous). This book is about cancer, but it isn’t about cancer. I think it’s just about coming out of your shell or getting to a place where you feel a little more confident in yourself. 
Five stars, hear hear, hip hip hooray.



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Xtina's Song of the Day

Because nothing feels better than driving in my car while singing along to Full Collapse (except, of course, watching it live, which I got to experience in 2011).

"Understanding in a Car Crash"-- Thursday



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Zach's Song of the Day

When I think of Cat Power I think of lounge music or slow quiet rainy day with the covers over your head music, both of which I love. When I found out Chan Marshall (Cat Power) was putting out a new album I was beyond excited. . . . Until I listened to it.
This was a different Cat Power. A dancy electronic Cat Power. What! Cat Power making music you can move your hips to. "No thank you", I thought.
Well that's what I thought anyway. This is a more upbeat album than I wanted, but there are some really great songs on here. It just took more than one listen and an open mind to realize it.
The album is Sun, the song is Cherokee and it's my song of the day.

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Zach's Song of the Day

A few years ago I heard about Sharon Van Etten from All Songs Considered. I immediately loved her. Her music is hard for me to compare to anyone else (maybe Mazzy Star?). All I can say is that it's great. 'One Day' was the first song that I really connected with and it is also my song of the day.




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Overlooked in 2012



Every year there are always a few albums I overlook. This year I tried to keep track of everything, but there were still a few albums that I either forgot about that I listened to earlier in the year or that I didn't listen to until this month.
One album I forgot about was The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy by Nada Surf. I bought this album the day it came out last January and loved every song, but for some reason I never listened to it after January. Last week on the All Songs Considered blog I saw that one of the editors, Stephen Thompson, put it in his top ten albums of the year. I went back and listened to it and fell in love with it all over again. It's a really great album. I think I can consider Nada Surf one of my favorite bands. They get better with every new release. 
The other two bands that didn't make my list are Japandroids and Jack White. Both of these albums (Celebration Rock & Blunderbuss) are incredible. I bought them both in December. I had heard them on Spotify but its really hard for me to get into an album unless I can listen to it in the car or at work. Both albums would have made my top albums list. 
If you haven't listened to any of these albums I highly recommend them. Here are my favorite songs from all three albums. Enjoy. 


               Japandroids pictured below 

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