I snagged Body Talk, Pt. 1 from Amazon on Tuesday while it was still on sale for $5 and i’m pretty much in love with it already. Robyn is a Swedish singer/songwriter whom you may recognize for a couple of pop hits she had in the late ’90s, namely Show Me Love and Do You Know (What It Takes). Since those days her style has evolved from pop into more of a hip-hop/electropop infusion. (“Infusion” is one of our favorite words lately, by the way.) I’m already excited for Body Talk Pt. 2 to come out, and i’m also going to get her last album (self-titled, c. 2007) A.S.A.P. Take a listen to Dancing On My Own, a track that’s less on the hip-hop side and more dance-y.
I don’t actually own Two Door Cinema Club’s debut full-length album Tourist History yet (because i’m waiting for it to go on sale on amazon) but you can listen to the entire thing on myspace here, so that’s what i’ve been doing. They’re a cute little band of Irish boys who are just reaching that age where they can drink legally when they tour the U.S., and they make really, really catchy music. So check out this weird video and if you like it, listen to the whole darn album.
I was going to write two separate posts about my birthday and the Iowa State Fair, but once again i’ve procrastinated too long and so i’m just going to post photos and talk a little bit about them.
For my birthday Nathan got me tickets to three different shows that happened here in Des Moines right around my birthday: Rooney, Phoenix and Tegan & Sara. Rooney was first, and it was a really fun little show in an intimate venue, and it was early in the day which turned out to be nice for us working types. Phoenix was the very next day, and their show was a little too loud and a little too packed and a little too blinding as far as the light show, but it was still fun.
Next came my actual b-day, which i spent trying on wedding dresses, watching Eat, Pray, Love and playing Apples to Apples with a handful of my lovely friends.
A few days later we saw Tegan & Sara, which was definitely an interesting show. They performed at Hoyt Sherman which is a really lovely old venue here in Des Moines. There was no opening band, and T&S played two sets: an acoustic set and one with the full band. During the first set they did some Q&A sessions which got to be a little long-winded, but they’re funny people so it was interesting to hear them talk about some adventures they’ve had both in the recording studio and on the road. We had to cut out of the second set a little early, but i still got to hear all of my favorite T&S songs.
Nathan’s gifts (comic books & concert tickets!)
First thing i saw when i got to work Monday. Love it.
The day after Tegan & Sara, we went to the Iowa State Fair. If you haven’t been to our fair, it’s pretty much the best one in the country. And i say that because i think Martha Stewart said it, or something. It’s all about excess: who grows the fattest pig, the biggest pumpkin, the most enormous stalk of corn; how many calories can we pack into a single $6 fried-on-a-stick commodity; how many big ol’ corn-fed Iowans can you pack into a few hundred acres? I used to absolutely hate it and now i think it’s great fun.
I really wanted to steal a little chickie. They’re SO CUTE.
Our famous Butter Cow. Life-size, all butter.
The biggest pumpkin weighed over 1,000 lbs.
So *that’s* why they call it eggplant.
That cabbage in the back was the size of a beach ball.
…And these were tiny! I like photographing produce…
A sampling of the many, many pretty quilts
This year we ate: mini doughnuts, some rootbeer, a couple of exorbitantly priced brewskis, fried cheese curds (a must), i had 2/3 of a tenderloin (it took a while to find one that wasn’t the size of a dinner plate), and a turkey leg which we took home and made stock with. Have i mentioned that we’re getting really into the whole “domestic” thing?
This album isn’t actually new; it’s from last year, but for whatever reason it has just recently gained a lot of popularity. In fact, a lot of you are probably already familiar with La Roux, but just in case you aren’t, here. You should be.
This is the video for the song Bulletproof, just one of many catchy and dance-able tracks from the fantastic self-titled album (which you can get for $5 on amazon mp3 right now):
After this week i’m going to start doing this on Fridays, because Calee does hers on Thursdays and she’s been doing it longer, so this way if we want to blog about the same band she gets the credit and/or i can change mine.
This week i’m going to talk about The National. Their new album High Violet came out earlier this year, and while i don’t think it’s quite as good as Boxer it’s been steadily growing on me and i think it’s a really solid album. I discovered The National at pretty much the same time and in the same manner that i discovered Stars. I still don’t have their older albums, but i’m working on that.
Evidently The National doesn’t really “do” music videos, so here’s a live rendition of the track “Terrible Love” off of High Violet. There’s a little flub in the beginning, but keep watching. 