Gemini Rising

Hi. Been awhile. This post is inspired by the yearly email a good friend sends around, prodding his community of music-lovers to “Break Out The Lists”. Instead of simply naming the artists & albums I listened to the most in 2012, I parceled out a playlist on each of the streaming services in the hopes you will press play wherever you do your music-listening. 

The general flow to my mix is a little all over the place, but all of it is considerably vibey + indie; where some tracks are dancy, others are super folky. Not a ton of straight-ahead rock songs for me this year. Which is fine. I’m aware some obvious suspects are missing from my list: Tame Impala, Frank Ocean, Alt-J. It’s always a real chore to fit in every album/artist/song I loved over the course of the year.

Maybe you’ll find some new tunes to love you otherwise wouldn’t have. Check it out.

2012 BESTS by Michele:

• RDIO: http://on.rdio.com/Y0cUdE
• MOG: http://bit.ly/michele2012mog
• SPOTIFY: http://spoti.fi/Tg4oan
• YOUTUBE: http://bit.ly/Michele2012YT

Offering up a breakdown of artist name, album name (whr the track comes from) & the label (if ya care):

1) Twin Shadow - Confess (4AD): I’m utterly obsessed with this music. Being a child of the 80’s, I really resonate with the dark, synthy color to all Twin Shadow songs. If that has a ring to it, you must listen.

2) Yeasayer - Fragrant World (Secretly Canadian): Again, into the semi-80’s dance/synth-rock. Great, high energy tunes.

3) Grizzly Bear - Shields (Warp Records): Listened to this album A TON and find it very easy to listen to. Nothing too fancy or complicated on my ears. These tunes are just right. Lush and beautiful.

4) Bat For Lashes - The Haunted Man (Capitol): Pretty obsessed with this album. Might be too dramatic and moody for most but that is what I liked about it. The songs are GORGEOUS but you def have to be in the right mood for it. I listened to this a ton in a short time. 

5) Father John Misty - Fear Fun (Sub Pop): Easy favorite album this year. The whole record is amazing. Noticed it at the top of many of my music-loving friend’s lists. It’s pretty perfect music, if you are inclined to love acoustic, folk vibes. 

6) Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action At A Distance (kranky): Had no idea this was Deerhunter-related before falling hard for this album, then it all made sense. GREAT ALBUM.

7) Chris Robinson Brotherhood - Big Moon Ritual (Silver Arrow): I can’t say enough about the spirit & energy of this group, fellas who played over 200 shows in less than 2 years. For fans of California-psychedelic-folk-rock. If that isn’t your vibe, as much as it pains me to say, you’ll want to fast-forward past this gem.

8) Beachwood Sparks - The Tarnished Gold (Sub Pop): Another group of great friends who play music that is perfect in my mind. Lofty, beautiful, easy folk-rock. 

9) Jessie Baylin - Little Spark (Blonde Rat): I discovered this early in the year from a stranger I follow on Twitter (@johnpstrohm) & was thrilled to learn of this album. This gal has a great voice and I seriously love all the songs on this release. 

10) Wild Nothing - Nocturne (Captured Tracks): Another pleasant, “easy-listening” album that got tons of plays for me this year. Very pretty tunes.

11) Kindness - World, You Need a Change of Mind (Casablanca): Saw this music described on the web as “dislocated disco”, which totally works for me. I looove the groove on this release. Fun record.

12) Band of Skulls - Sweet Sour (Vagrant U.S.): Felt proud to enjoy this heavier rock album since I didn’t find it abrasive (like I find most heavy rock). 

13) Tennis - Young & Old (Fat Possum): Another fun little pleasant record & discovery for 2012. 

Both personally & professionally, it felt like there were multiple years stuffed into all of 2012. In just the last year, I blazed through more experience serving independent music artists such as The Mother Hips and Nicki Bluhm, then worked on Topspin campaigns including Soundgarden, Amanda Palmer, Sigur Ros, & Yeasayer (to name a few) and now with the creative agency The Uprising Creative, working with Local Natives, Justin Timberlake, LL Cool J and countless other impressive clients.

I am pinching myself and thanking my lucky stars that I’ve had the persistence and stubbornness to stick to the goal I set in April 2009, to serve the music industry community. And I love working in the digital/tech space specifically. Excited to get some rest over these holidays, then seriously cannot wait to kick tons of ass in 2013!!

In the words of Clark Griswold…

yaaaaay

downtownlobby:

Last night when “Sun Hands” popped on the iPod while I was driving home, the first thing I asked myself was when are Local Natives going to release a new album? That question was answered today! The band have announced that they will release a new full-length on January 9th called “Hummingbird”. In support of the new album, the band have also have a new tour schedule to go with it. There is a Los Angeles date listed on there and you can see Local Natives when they take the stage on Tuesday, January 29th at the El Rey Theatre. The full tour schedule can be seen after the jump below.

No word yet on to when tickets for their show at the El Rey will go on sale or how much they’ll go for. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for that info when it is released in the near future. Take a listen to one of Local Natives’ new tracks “Breakers” below and don’t miss out on the return of one of our favorite local bands in January!

UPDATE: Tickets will go on sale starting on Friday, October 26th at 10am through Ticketmaster. No ticket prices have been released. 

Purchase: Tickets for Local Natives at El Rey on 1/29

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Over the last couple years, I’ve been cooking mung beans and having a real blast getting to know how many different ways I can love their taste with whatever I have in my kitchen. There are so many variations and I don’t actually use a recipe. But when I made this recent batch, I took a moment to measure out what I was doing so I could share the magic: 

1. Soaked 3/4 cup mung beans for 12 hours, rinsing along the way (turned into almost 2 cups after soak).
2. Sauteed 2 cups onions, 1.5 cups celery, 1 cup carrots with small amt of olive oil then threw in 1/2 cup red cabbage before the mung beans.
3. Added mung beans with mix of both 1 cup light and 1 cup regular coconut milk (the light is too light, regular too thick - I like the mix!) + 1 cup water.
4. Added pinches of curry powder, turmeric, cayenne (prob could have used more of all 3 but it was my first time using them in this so I treaded lightly).
5. Added 4 smashed garlic cloves + 2.5 inches minced ginger root.
6. Cooked for an hour or more.
7. Added small amts of each: soy sauce, mirin, toasted sesame oil.

Deeeelish. You can substitute broth for either coconut milk or the water. Keep it vegan… or not. Use chicken broth. Or butter/ghee/coconut oil if you feel like it. Use whatever veggies you have around in place of carrots and red cabbage. Use this ‘recipe’ as you wish!