Mad For Muffins: Cinnamon Sugar
It’s muffin time again! Last time I chose Raspberry Cheesecake muffins, so this time I chose Cinnamon Sugar muffins. They are one of my favorites and go well with milk or my favorite, hot espresso. Cinnamon Sugar muffins are sweet and very fattening, so if you are on a diet you may want to stay away from these delicious nommy treats.
CC Love: Innocent Bandits
The band Innocent Bandits is comprised of brother and sister duo Jeremy and Ashley Macachor. I would place them under experimental pop/lo-fi, but on their first studio album Ceremonies & Spells, released under the net label Headphonica, there are elements of electronica, and at times even folk. I found myself listening to the album from beginning to end upon discovering them, and after listening to other tracks out of order, I found that listening to the album from start to finish is best to really get Jeremy and Ashley’s style.
Don’t get me wrong: each track can be listened on it’s own, but I just loved listening to the album in the background. It was interesting, relaxing, and just a comfortable listen. While this is their first album attempt, I would say it has it’s moments of greatness. Some tracks could have been longer and one I found some of the added elements were a little too much, but overall it’s a nice find among a lot of attempts in the same genre.
Tagged: Creative Commons, Downloads, Duo, Electronica, Experimental Pop, Folk, Freebies, Indie, lo-fi, Netlabel, Pop
Goddamn, I Miss That Girl
Losing a friend is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to experience. When you are born into this world, you have your family, but your friends are the family you choose. I’m not very close to my family and I cherish each and every one of the people who have come into my life and became part of my found family. When you lose anyone, it hurts, but as a part of life you expect the inevitability of witnessing your family die. You believe your friends will be around until you grow old. In my 29 years, I’ve learned the hard way that this isn’t always the case multiple times over, and last week I lost another friend who died before their time.
I met my friend Carol in 1999, when I was dating a mutual friend. She was spunky, outgoing, and had a great sense of humor. Over the years we spent time together as friends and had a lot of fond memories, but not all of them were great. Carol liked to live on the edge, and this included drugs. When Carol was high, she was driving a fast car to nowhere.
10 Essential WordPress Plugins For Musicians
Every band or musician needs a web presence. Nothing says professional like an official site and it will do wonders for getting your music noticed. If you are a band or musician and are thinking of or already using WordPress, these plugins are essential for your site. From SEO purposes to posting upcoming gigs and displaying galleries of images from recent concerts, these plugins will help you get on the right track… pun intended.
Tagged: Design, Digg, Gigs, Last.fm, Musicians, Plugins, Podcast, Podcasting, SEO, Social Networking, Twitter, Web Design, Wordpress, YouTube
Raver’s Delight
I’ve been going through a lot of my old mix CD’s lately and I started reminiscing on the days when I used to be a raver. In the 90′s, I not only frequented raves, but I promoted them as well. I could be found wearing baggy pants and funny tees, with my pacifier and glow sticks in hand, dancing to the some of the best breakbeats, jungle, trance, and house that was around. When you were lost in the music – and possibly on drugs – you were literally in another world.
I decided to make a mixtape via 8tracks with some of the top songs I remember sweating my ass off to in clubs across South Florida and still enjoy today. Coming in at 20 tracks, this is a mix that not only delivers classic rave songs, but takes me back to a place where I have some of the best memories as well as some of the worst. With that being said, it’s a time in my life that I will never forget and these songs are just as memorable.
For all you reformed ravers, this mix will bring you back. If you never were a raver but enjoyed electronic music from the 90′s and early 2000′s, this mixtape will hopefully give you something to jam to.
Track listing:
Time’s Up (The Bomb Remix) – Trip Theory
Busy Child – Crystal Method
Rock The Funky Beat - Natural Born Chillers
Renegade Master (Fatboy Slim Old Skool Edit) – Wildchild
Sugar Is Sweeter – CJ Bolland
The Freaks – Überzone
City Of Groove - DJ Icey
Smack My Bitch Up (DJ Hype Remix) – The Prodigy
You’re Not Alone (Ganga Kru Remix) – Olive
O.B.E. – Rabbit In The Moon
Fever – George Acosta
Beachball (DJ Icey Remix) – Nalin & Kane
Miracle Whip (Breakbeat Mix) – Fragma
I’ll Hide You (Acapella Intro) – Kosheen
Stay In Love (12 Inch Hot House) – MON a Q
Rollin’ With The Chillers – Natural Born Chillers
Bad Ass – Micky Finn & Aphrodite
Pepper Spray – DJ Baby Anne
Feels So Good – Sonique
Fine Night - DJ R Fresh
If you like any of the songs listed above, support the artist by purchasing them.
Image courtesy of Astro Marus
Love Lockdown? More Like Jaw Lockdown…
Ever have one of those days where everything seems to be going wrong? I’ve been going through a bit of that this week. I suffer from TMJ pain and I somehow strained a muscle by my jaw, causing the right side of my face to swell. I could barely move my jaw at all, and I was getting nerve pain sent up the side of my face to my head.
After a visit to the hospital to find out what was going on, in case my jaw locked open or shut, I was given anti-inflammatory medicine as well as painkillers with orders to rest until I could eat solid food again and talk without being in pain. I’ll be posting as soon as I’m feeling better. Until then, rock on!
Image Source: Tumblr
Twitter + Music + Monday = #musicmonday
Every Monday on Twitter, you will see “#musicmonday” as a trending topic. This meme is a popular one, which makes me happy because you know how I love music! Everyone who participates in “#musicmonday” shares music within a tweet using different services that allow you to share music on Twitter. The tweet is then appended with the #musicmonday hashtag so you can see what everyone is listening to and hopefully find new music that you never existed. Every Monday I share as well as find something new.
Today I sharing my music within this post, and guess what the theme is? Why Monday, of course! All the songs I’m sharing have the word Monday in the title. I’ve included some classics, some covers, and even managed to fit in a mashup.
Mad For Muffins: Raspberry Cheesecake
I absolutely love muffins. Besides the fact that my site is named after something from Urban Dictionary, I am a dork and I love muffins. I am going to post a muffin recipe for all you foodies out there (and fellow dork muffins) who share the same muffin love.
CC Love: Micoland & Holly Bretton
The electronic/trip-hop/dubstep duo Micoland & Holly Bretton are siblings who have released their first album together titled Traverse. Currently signed with Dead Channel, this duo knows how to crank out the tunes and is worthy of being on any electronica playlist. If you like Massive Attack, Portishead, or Lamb, you will love Micoland & Holly.
Tagged: Creative Commons, Downloads, Downtempo, Dubstep, Electronic, Electronica, Freebies, Trip-Hop
Love Is A Battlefield
The title of this post is a song by Pat Benatar, but you won’t find her on this mixtape. Featuring an eclectic mix of female singers, my latest mixtape has a little bit of folk and a little bit of electronica, but it’s all about labia majora.
All the songs on this mixtape are by female singer-songwriters, but that is about all they have in common. Between Laura Marling and The Blow to Mirah and Julie Doiron, this mix is a great showcase of female singers who break the mold and stand out in their own genres. Kick back, relax, and get ready to think about falling in love or out; it all depends on where the song goes.
Track listing:
Swan Pond – Julie Doiron
Love Affair – Regina Spektor
Ghosts - Laura Marling
Fuck Was I – Jenny Owens Young
Gestation Of The Sacred Beetle – Mirah and The Spectratone International
Tore My Heart – Oona
The Garden – Mirah
True Affection – The Blow
Sunday – Sia
My Party Is Better Than Yours – Emmy The Great
If you like any 0f the songs listed above, support the artist by purchasing them.
Image courtesy of manganite via Flickr
Tagged: Electronica, Female, Folk, Indie, Mix, Pop, Rock, Singer-Songwriter
Edgar Allen Poe – The Black Cat
If you didn’t know already, I love photographs and art. I use different sites to find collect images I find around the internet that speak to me in some form or another. Rather than post images on this site and create clutter, I recently started a Posterous blog that allows me to share pictures I like and add a quote or song lyric that I think of when I see the image. It also helps that I can quickly post from my iPhone via email.
Recently, I came across an image that reminded me of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Black Cat. Now, I wanted to share this on Posterous, but if you hadn’t read the story you wouldn’t understand why I chose The Black Cat to quote from unless you are familiar with it. Since The Black Cat is in the public domain, I decided to post it here in it’s entirety so you can read the story yourself, if you so choose.
Tagged: Classic, Death, Horror, Irony, Literature, Metaphors, Painting, Pets, Photo, Photography, Poet, Short Story
The Right Track: Tunes To TargetCancer
Today a new charity is launching to help raise awareness and find cures for rare and underfunded forms of cancer. With the support of the music community, TargetCancer is using donations from music lovers to fund their cause. To achieve this, musicians have and will continue to donate unreleased music for you to download with all proceeds going to TargetCancer. The charity also will be holding concerts and events.
Every month there will be new music from different artists for you to check out and with the help of your purchase of a track, you do a small part to help something that has affected or will affect us at some time in our lives, whether it be a loved one or even yourself. I know first hand how cancer can destroy a family. Cancer goes beyond being a disease in one person; it touches everyone around it in a profound way once it has made it’s presence in a life known, a life that once may have only known innocence will now know sadness, anger, and tragedy.
Because of my personal experience with cancer and dealing with the loss of family and friends who were afflicted, I am supporting TargetCancer and getting the word out today that there is something that everyone can do. Even if you think downloading one song for less than a dollar is insignificant, if we can get the word out, that one song could be added to the thousands or millions of songs downloaded by people who hear about this organization. Remember, 100% of all proceeds go straight to TargetCancer. We CAN make a difference. Will you help?
To help TargetCancer, please check out the following links:
TargetCancer Official: http://www.targetcancer.info
The Right Track: http://www.righttracktunes.org
Twitter: TargetCancer / RightTrackTunes
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/targetcancer
Songs Currently Available from ‘The Right Track: Tunes To Target Cancer’
Weezer – “The Rat Race”
Ween – “DC Won’t Do You No Good”
The Donnas – “Can’t Keep It a Secret”
Cowboy Junkies – “In My Time of Need” (Ryan Adams cover)
Dean and Britta – “International Velvet Theme” (Caledonia Mix)
Buffalo Tom – “Thrown” (Live From Somerville Theater)
Linda Thompson – “Never the Bride”
Mike Viola – “This is Love, This is Life”
Drug Rug – “Coffee In the Morning” (Alternate Version)
The Gravel Pit – “Yellow Light Purple”
Happy Ending – “Through Your Eyes”
You can preview the track and you have the choice of downloading the flac or mp3 file of each song. Each song is less than a dollar but you can donate anything above that if you can, even if it’s just a few more cents.
Please help make a difference today and spread the word.
Cancer kills. Let’s kill cancer with music.
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