A little bit of mood music on the way to a delicious brunch at Bread & Porridge last Sunday..

I haven't made a mix in a long time. So I thought I would throw together some sweet little diddy's. I like swiffering to this mix or cooking in the kitchen. It's also suitable for the beach or BBQ type settings . You'll hear some fun tracks from Miike Snow, Daedalus, The Dirty Projectors , and more! Enjoy!

I LOVE RA RA RIOT.

RaRaRiot - Dying is fine - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Ra Ra Riot - Oh la - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

It is another spectacular day at work. Back to the grind after spending the weekend with my parents. They came into town which meant some good quality time and tasty meals. There has been a good amount of sweet tunes coming my way lately but one band I am really digging on is Discovery. They are off the Xl label and features members from Vampire Weekend, Ra Ra Riot, and the Dirty Projectors. 3 bands I really like! So it was a definite sign I was going to enjoy the LP at least a bit.

My weekend was very fun. I am still a bit worn out by all the activity. Nice dinners, late nights and some good sleeping in. I also set up the new TV and stand this weekend. Just in time for game 3 of the NBA Finals. That damn thing had been sitting in the box for weeks. 

I feel bad. I haven't posted in a while now and I know that my 4 readers might be a little bummed. I have been crazy busy at work and my usual bouts of downtime have not been existent for a couple weeks. I'm praying for a mega millions win tonight.

I feel like I have been falling behind on recent music releases. It's a terrible shame for an owner and operator of a music-centric blog. You know that thing you do with your friend who also happens to be into music where you go back and forth naming bands and new albums? " Oh have you listened to the new this yet?!" " No, but I hear it's pretty good" " Oh yeah it's amazing. You have to listen to it!"..." Oh there's this remix of that MGMT song that is fantastic" " Oh I think my friend sent me that but I haven't gotten around to listening to it yet". That happened to me yesterday and it was quite embarrassing because I kept having to say I hadn't heard any of it yet. 

My buddy passed me this link to a song that was 90% comprised of sounds from the movie Alice in Wonderland. The result is this beautiful and trippy collage of sounds that bring to mind something Bjork would do. The weird url below is the link to the same song but with trippy visuals. ENJOY!

What is better than coming home to a turkey club, a milkshake and a sweet lady ( Cue: Tyrese's  song 'Sweet Lady") after a long long day? Not too many things; maybe stacks of $100 bills that touch my ceiling. Maybe a Snuggie filled with golden pirate treasure. Maybe the cast of 30 Rock sitting on my couch playing drinking games.  Ok but other than those things...my situation can't be beat.

Hi there. It was an okay day. Had a really good night last night. Although we never found a place to get a milkshake and mashed potatoes which would have been the amazing. It was a late night but worth it. But now I am tired and am going to attempt to exercise and then play in a softball game. Over ambitious? Maybe. But I think I can do it.  

The weekend was too short again. I keep hoping that one Monday I wake up and for some reason everyone is snowed in and work is canceled. The problem is that it doesn't snow in LA. It is constantly sunny and unfortunately I have never heard of work being cancelled because it was too sunny. 

Last night was my sister's birthday. We ordered in for some Thai food  instead of going out because I had to work later than I thought. Of course we had to have noodles because in our house we always had noodles for birthday's to bring good luck. So some pad thai was definitely in order!

I am close to leaving work now. I am very excited about it. I wanted to post some music that a friend of mine wrote. He is a singer/songwriter out of LA named Joey Ryan. He just released his EP called "As It Must Be" which I highly enjoy.

Happy Thursday everyone! I woke up feeling especially good today. I had a massage last night and played in a company softball game. I had a little old asian lady stomp and tear my back apart for an hour and then attempted to muster up some strength and play softball. I guess it's a bit counterintuitive to get a massage then try to rev up and play competitive sports shortly after but I had promised to play. It was annoying that the other team was taking walks, which is despicable in my book. I think maybe a movie and some wine would have been a bit more in tune but oh well.


This music video is for the song "Abandon" off the French Kick's last album "Swimming". This was one of my favorite albums of the year. I can still listen to it front to back like it was brand new to me. It's perfect for lazy summer days and nice drives on non-traffic filled days.


So I am not sure what to think of this video. I do like it but it seems at times like a little bit too much of a friend love fest i.e the individual segments with the lip synching large black guy and the random mega crying chick. The colored balls and balloons coming down the stairs are reminiscent of the Sony Bravia commercial with the Jose Gonzalez 'Heartbeats" track on it. Which is a nicely matched visual for a track like this. I like the hula hooping girl. Something oddly mesmerizing about watching someone hula hoop especially with that nice soft lighting and colored streamers everywhere. She is attractive too so that helps.


So you may not love the video but the song is great and the rest of the album is too. Check out the track "Over the World" from the same album. It is an amazing song as well.

This week has been pretty rough. There were a lot of lay offs at my work;  many of whom were not just co-workers but friends of mine. Luckily I was able to keep my job. So I am happy it is the weekend now and that I am going home to see my family to spend Easter with them. I know I mentioned a spring mix tape to download last week which I originally intended to be chock full of dancey little numbers but in light of this week the mix has taken a slighter more low key turn. It's definitely still upbeat though so no worries. 

Hope you all a wonderful weekend. The weather was beautiful in LA and you could tell by the amount of people walking around in their summer gear . I am sure a lot of you went hiking or hit the beach. I spent this weekend outdoors as well but in a different sense. I moved into a new place this weekend which meant packing our old house into a 26 ft. Uhaul and driving it across town. My version of being outside meant a nice farmer's tan and neck tan. Our house will be all unpacked and set up soon and then I will get to really enjoy the outdoors. So glad it's over though. Now just to unpack get settled.


I hope your Monday is sailing by smoothly. It's always nice to ease into the week. Here is a song by a band I saw open for Ra Ra Riot a month or so ago that I really dig. It's one of those great songs you can imagine having a nice drive to.

Telekinesis- Coast of Carolina

So I was basically combing through my usual music blogs and came across this awesome loungy cover of The Killer's "When You Were Young" by a band called the Noisettes . Shingai Shoniwa the lead singer takes this song to new heights and really adds a soul to it. The song really takes on a new life when you hear it delivered this way with the backing singers and string section adding layer upon intricate layer. Shingai alters some of the lyrics to really turn the corner and make this song her own. Even if you are too cool for school and think The Killers songs are lame well you need to take off your indie snob hat for a couple minutes and take a listen/gander at this.

My good friend Mike is a mad genius and here is the proof. This is what would happen if Kevin Jonas from the Jonas Brothers went solo......You got to admit he looks like KJ quite a bit. Please watch this if you enjoy enhancing your life. This is one of the funniest things I have seen in a while. KJ OUT.

It's raining as all hell today. The walk from my front door to my car across the street left me soaked. I have to learn to not park my car under the tree outside my house. It always gets covered in a blanket of little baby leaves that don't seem to come off very easily.

The good news about it being Wednesday is that we are half way through the week. It has been going quite fast which is always a nice thing. I went to go see Ra Ra Riot play at the El Rey last Saturday which was a great great show minus the fact that my original date couldn't make it and I went to the show by myself. Loner style. The band that played before RRR was called Cut Off Your Hands. I had never heard of them before but they seemed to be pretty good. Although I didn't get a clear idea of what they were going for sonically; there were a few good cuts in there. You can check out one of their songs below...Let me know what you think..Kind of sounds like the guitars from The Smiths "