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Tag Archives: Music

I blame Mark Twain

11 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by Agnes in Leftovers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Alexander, mp3, Music, Pickwick, The Decemberists

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow. ~ Mark Twain

This is advice that sadly, I follow to the letter.

Today I’m throwing open windows and putting fresh sheets on the bed.

I am washing clothes and posting letters and taking photos of my breakfast.

I am deleting emails and returning library books and talking on the phone to my sister.

I am procrastinating. My kitchen is an eyesore.

I am houseproud but strangely unwilling to do the work that results in that happy emotion.

Sigh.

Time to crank up the tunes and bloody well just get on with it.

Blackout – Pickwick | myspace | bandcamp | Love this. Best served loud.

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/09-blackout.mp3

Truth – Alexander | website | Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes side project. Strangely eerie.

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/truth.mp3

The Crane Wife 3 – The Decemberists | website | Last night’s shower song. I let the echoey tiles and water spray trick me into thinking I sounded all kinds of wonderful as I sang along. Apologies to my neighbours.

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/dece.mp3

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Give away love and give it for free

09 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by Agnes in Leftovers

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Gotye, mp3, Music

I received three red roses yesterday. They were waiting for me when I got home.

Due to a snafu at the florist’s they were delivered two days early but having just had a fairly blahhhh start to the day, the timing could not have been more perfect.

I am a ridiculously girly girl this week. I am smiling at strangers and helping people work out how the hell the bloody parking meters in our town operate and offering my newspapers to my neighbour to save her a trip to the newsagent. I am grinning at babies and patting passing dogs and not even caring that it’s been raining on and off for two days now. Today, I don’t hate the rain.

Learnalilgivinanlovin – Gotye

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/06-learnalilgivinanlovin.mp3

Hang your holiday rainbow lights in the garden

30 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by Agnes in Leftovers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

journals, mp3, Music, Okkervil River, The National

More journal pages. Okkervil River and The National. It had to be done.

A Stone – Okkervil River

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/okkervil-river-a-stone.mp3

Gospel – The National

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/the_national_-_gospel.mp3

And there’s gold falling from the ceiling of this world

29 Saturday Oct 2011

Posted by Agnes in Leftovers

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Angus & Julia Stone, art journal, mp3, Music

Have suddenly discovered art journals, via the magic (and serious time sucker) Pinterest. Check these out willya? Wow.

Inspired, today I thought I’d give it a go, and splurged on some new stationery. This is something I try not to do too often because I bloody love the stuff, but I was quite restrained today. I came away with new fine liners, some funky textas and some watercolour pencils. Nothing too fancy or out there, and more than capable of carrying out my fairly modest artistic ambitions!

I’ve started two different journals today, and one of them I think might be a lyrics based one. I know, what a surprise!

Here’s how the first page came out

I know it won’t win any awards, but it was fun and I think it’s cute, and I reckon that’s all that matters!

And The Boys – Angus & Julia Stone

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/07-and-the-boys.mp3

Some art journal love:

Balzer Designs

Judy Wise

Teesha’s Circus

And if you too are a sucker for Pinterest, come find me!

This

26 Wednesday Oct 2011

Posted by Agnes in Leftovers

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Tags

Blitzen Trapper, Family Band, mp3, Music, Radical Face, Widowspeak

I could tell you all about my uneventful yet totally lovely morning

OR

I could just post a few of the tunes that soundtracked it.

All unashamedly nicked from Captain Obvious, and all unashamedly wonderful.

Marie (Jack Nitzsche Cover) – Family Band I was deep in study when this came on, but it pulled me right out

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/marie-jack-nitzsche-cover.mp3

Love The Way You Walk Away – Blitzen Trapper Just the right amount of twang

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/blitzen-trapper-love-the-way-you-walk-away.mp3

All Is Well (Goodbye Goodbye) – Radical Face Lovely

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/radical-face-all-is-well-goodbye-goodbye.mp3

Gun Shy – Widowspeak She sounds a little bored – love this

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/widowspeak-gun-shy.mp3

It’s a cruel and beautiful world. Study notwithstanding.

14 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by Agnes in Leftovers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Grouplove, mp3, Music, study

Spent an hour today studying. That was enough. Had forgotten just how blahhhhhh study can be. I’ve been procrastinating long enough though – I was awarded a grant to complete this course almost a year ago and I’ve only just started the damn thing today. Sigh. Self motivation has never been my strong point.

Ran 4 k’s this morning. Want food but am not actually hungry. Have to work in an hour. Listening to Grouplove’s 2010 self titled EP. Really like ‘Colours’ and ‘Naked Kids’, but ‘Cruel and Beautiful’ has stolen my heart this afternoon. Big love.

Cruel and Beautfiul – Grouplove

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/03-cruel-and-beautfiul.mp3

Find out more about these American indie rock kids here.

On time & writing & change

20 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by Agnes in Leftovers

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Music, time, writing

Ah, blog. Hello again.

I have a lot of time on my hands lately. Earlier in the year I found myself working around 50 hours a week for nowhere near enough money, despite promising myself this time last year to slow down, to not work so much because for some reason I’m just not wired to work standard full time hours (let alone an extra 10 on top of that). Somehow I forgot this around February, and before I knew it I’d signed a full time contract, was working extra hours in a second casual job as well, and my life was suddenly running at a pace that would inevitably prove to be way too fast.

Sure enough, around June, things got a little hard to handle. My job was more stressful than it perhaps should have been, and the long hours I was keeping did nothing but add to the pressure. This isn’t really the point of this post though – it’s just a lead in to the fact I ended up extricating myself from this job and am now working a lot less. Sometimes I only work 5 or 6 hours a day, and quite often these are split shifts, so I’m out of the house early, back home around 10 or 11am and don’t have to work again until later in the afternoon.

Which suits me just fine. Well, apart from the fact that money can be tight sometimes, but that’s another issue altogether. The point is that I’m no longer stressed outta my mind, I’m sleeping well at night again, and I’m less inclined to bite the heads off my near and dear.

The biggest bonus is getting all this time back again. I don’t have to rush madly around at the end of the day trying to get tea ready, to pay bills, to do all those boring houseworky things that are a right royal drag but still have to be done. Every day I have a long stretch of uninterrupted hours in which I can tackle all these odd jobs and still have time to do whatever I like.

Before I continue I should add that I live alone and have no children, so I recognise that all this extra time is a luxury that many people don’t have. I also realise that there will probably come a time when this is not the case – I will have responsibilities that may include kids and mortgages and loan repayments and all that other grown up stuff.

Which is why I can’t help but think I should be making the most of all this extra time. I shouldn’t be spending it all on the couch watching DVD’s (guilty) and faffing about on the internet (you know you do it too) and turning on the telly in the middle of the day because I just HAD to see Ellen and Colin Farrell scaring people in a public toilet (I did it once, ok… gees. The watching, that is. Not the scaring).

I reckon it took me a couple of months to go from “it’s so awesome having the time to just kick back and veg out” to “seriously? this is how you choose to spend your days?”

In the last couple of weeks I’ve noticed my habits slowly changing. I’ve always exercised fairly regularly, but I’m knocking off from my morning shift and heading straight out for a run two or three times a week now. I’m going to the gym at least one night a week, often two. I’m playing netball every week and walking every day. This sounds really simplistic, but somehow it makes me feel like I’m doing SOMETHING, I’m not being totally slack.

I’m hardly turning the TV on at all now either. I’ve always been a big reader, and I’ve been getting through heaps of books lately – my sisters have informed me that I’ve turned into a big fat dork actually, because I read book recommendations online and in the paper and then hop on my local library’s website and put books on hold over the net and wait for them to email me and tell me they’re in. According to them this is really nerdy but I just think it’s efficient! And the resource is there to be used, why not use it?

Something else that I’ve noticed lately is that my listening habits have changed this year. I’ve spent the last two or three years eagerly following music blogs and downloading new songs and listening to a power of different tracks every week. Somewhere along the way though, I’ve become stuck. Or not stuck exactly, I think there are two things going on here.

The first is that I think I’ve found my little musical niche. When I began It All Started I was searching for new music, for new ideas. I’d never really heard of blogs until a month or two before I started my own and the first few that I read were music blogs and they opened my eyes to music that was well outside my little comfort range of Top 40 plus a little Triple J every now and then. Now I know what I like, and while my tastes encompass a fairly wide range of music, I’m feeling less inclined to want to extend my musical library.

The second thing is that I no longer feel the need to ACTIVELY seek new music. I often stumble across music that I like, usually via the radio or via friends, but I’m no longer keeping track of all the blogs I used to visit or checking out the latest releases or visiting Hype to Elbows to see what’s going on. I’m happy for the music to find me for a change.

So what does this mean for It All Started then?

Well… I’m still not sure. I love writing and there’s something so fantastic and absorbing about sitting at my desk with my laptop and tinkering with words, searching for that perfect combination of rhythm and sound and ideas. But I don’t think I want to write about music any more. It’s still a big part of my life and there’s not a day that goes by without me popping on the headphones or turning the radio up loud in the car, but I don’t seem to have the passion for blogging about it any more.

I have so many other ideas though that are not music related that I reckon are worth writing about and with all this time that I blathered on about before, it seems pretty silly not to be making the most of it.

So I guess my question is, do I keep It All Started, but use it to write about other non-music related things? Or do I start a new blog altogether?

There is no other voice I want to hear but yours

18 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by Agnes in Leftovers

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr, Hey Marseilles, mp3, Music

Fuck, it’s cold this winter. I use the expletive because it really is bloody fucking cold here this year.

I know this because I bought a new coat last year that I reckon I only wore three times. This year that beautiful gorgeous smoky-grey fitted lifeline has never left my side. Or my back.

I need sunshine and warmth and blue sky and usually in this neck of the woods the days may start frosty but burst into full sun by 10am. This winter though the heavens remain stubbornly grey and gloomy.  And the wind! It’s the kind that rips right through you and lets you know without a doubt that somewhere out there it’s snowing like nobody’s business. Whatever that means.

So the antidote to all this wintry woe? Lots of couch time with a hot water bottle and one of the quilts that Mum made me. And tons of books – I read seven books last week! I had a couple of days off which explains a little of the excess reading time, but I tell you what, it was just what I needed.

This summery mix from I Am Fuel, You Are Friends has also gone a long way towards taking my mind off the yucky weather lurking outside my window. The whole thing is available for download here, and I especially love the two tracks you see available for download below.

I absolutely adore ‘Rio’ by Hey Marseilles. There’s a kinda hypnotic rhythm to the lyrics that I love and there are horns and strings and tempo changes and it’s all wonderful stuff. Listen!

Silhouette seasons and far-away reasons are all I have now
Borders can keep me if Rio will have me to dance and to drown
Take to the harbor like sails to set
Sleep for the evening in failed regret
Hold on to skylines of pale and coal
Clouds on horizons and love to grow old

On the way I will go 
Where the days left to breathe
Are not gone, are still long
I am traveling on

Love is a hazard in lower Manhattan
You cannot escape, and musn’t be saddened
By men who abandon your eyes for another’s
There are always Brazilian boys to discover….

Rio – Hey Marseilles

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/04-rio.mp3

‘Vocal Chords’ by Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr (yes… it’s a strange name) is another favourite. It’s the chorus I think, the way the vocals rise at the end of each line. I don’t know why but that just totally works for me and I find myself singing it over and over again, for days sometimes. And this bit – –

I am your love
There is no other voice
I want to hear but yours
Whispering vocal chords

Is a tad soppy I guess, but I don’t care. Love it.

Vocal Chords – Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/07-vocal-chords.mp3

What are you looking forward to?

13 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by Agnes in Leftovers

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Tags

Bon Iver, mp3, Music

Not a fan of the first album. Didn’t get the hype.

Heard this off the new record. Smitten.

Perth – Bon Iver

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/bon-iver-perth.mp3

Ordered album online. Planning an afternoon on couch, with headphones.

Hurry up, postman.

part of you pours out of me in these lines from time to time

02 Thursday Jun 2011

Posted by Agnes in Leftovers

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Coverage, James Blake, Joni Mitchell, mp3, Music

I don’t know a lot of Joni Mitchell stuff, but I’ve been all over ‘A Case Of You’ since I came across it via I Am Fuel, You Are Friends.

What a beautiful song. Sad, yes. But sadness has its own special brand of beauty, doesn’t it?

A Case Of You – Joni Mitchell

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/09-a-case-of-you.mp3

Just before our love got lost you said
“I am as constant as a northern star”
and I said “constantly in the darkness
where’s that at?
if you want me I’ll be in the bar…”

On the back of a cartoon coaster, in the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada, O Canada
with your face sketched on it twice
oh you’re in my blood like holy wine
you taste so bitter and so sweet
oh I could drink a case of you, darling
and I would still be on my feet
oh I would still be on my feet

And then — there’s the James Blake cover version. Wow. Just… wow. Adore it. I love the slightly fuzzy piano and that voice. Can’t get enough. What a gorgeous rendition.

A Case Of You (Joni Mitchell Cover) – James Blake

https://itallstarted.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/a-case-of-you-joni-mitchell-cover.mp3

Check out that picture up there too – is he old enough to own such a voice?

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