hello, mr. awesome

Can someone PLEASE make a play/start video like this?

candise’s top choices of 2011

FAVORITE ALBUM OF 2011

1. Robyn – Body Talk

Okay, I know Body Talk came out in 2010, but Robyn has been all over 2011 promoting this album, so I think it counts. Touring with Katy Perry, showing up on Ellen and SNL, doing that CRAZY AWESOME dance for “Call Your Girlfriend”, and stealing my heart with her elfish face and 1990s style.

2. Glasvegas – Euphoric Heartbreak

Do you know how it feels to listen to an ENTIRE album start to finish, and each piece feels like small but vital key to understanding something really important? That is Euphoric Heartbreak. This is a haunting concept album, one that manipulates your emotions. When I listen to this album, rather than singing along unabashedly, I find myself listening to my own heartbeat and noticing every beat, ting and sound on the track.

Runner Up: Austra – Feel It Break

TOP SONGS OF 2011

1. Adele – “Rolling in the Deep”

I know everyone is all about “Someone Like You”, but seriously, “Rolling in the Deep” made me love mainstream music again. With its simple but powerful driving drum beat and nostalgic girl group sound (which I am always a sucker for), even though it was totally overplayed on the radio, I can still listen to this on repeat. Plus, the video is really cool.

2. YACHT – “Dystopia (The Earth is On Fire)”

3. Britney Spears – “Till the World Ends”

Britney-haters: Eat it. Femme Fatale is an awesome album, and “Till the World Ends” is one of the best dance songs of the year. There is a brilliant breakdown two-thirds into the song where the song gets muted; I imagine a queer kid standing outside a club, listening to the muffled sounds inside and working up the courage to go in. Then the music breaks out just like you opened the club door, and everything is just as bright and scary and beautiful as you thought it would be.

Extra trivia: Ke$ha wrote this song specifically for Britney.

leslie’s top choices of 2011

TOP 5 ALBUMS OF 2011

1. St Vincent – Strange Mercy

Okay. St Vincent. So amazing. The songs are beautiful and she’s a guitar / gear nerd. In love. (Also, check out the Harmony Bobkat in this video that I would like to have for my birthday present! OKAY THANKS!)

2. YACHT – Shangri-La

Umm, this song will make your brain feel weird. Try it five times in a row. I love it. And the bass line KICKS ASS.

3. Washed Out – Within and Without

Sweet and mellow. This has been a large part of the soundtrack to my winter.

4. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

Sometimes, you fall in love with an artist in and you have pictures of her in your locker when you’re in high school. Then, other times, you have an obsession with this artist and scare your college roommate because you have too many pictures of this artist on your walls. Sometimes.

5. The Kills – Blood Pressures

Dirty. Good.

6. 90′s GRUNGE. I know this isn’t technically okay for a top list of 2011, but my playlist was HEAVY on the 90′s grunge this year. So, I am adding a #6 for that.

Also, I really loved the Exquisite Corpse EP by Warpaint. Close runners-up include Austra, Little Dragon, Tune-Yards, Palo Verde.

2012 east coast summer tour!

We will be tearing up the east coast this summer with the awesome Brooklyn / DC band, Noon:30, whom we met after being featured on the same episode of Homoground. We’ll be hashing the details out this weekend and let you know the tour itinerary soon, but in the meantime, check out the podcast episode that brought us together:

i can’t stop watching this

http://youtu.be/x11BgVbN_yY

Bridesmaids was a movie long overdue—-a film that presents strong female leads, comedy that is not based on sexism (for the entirety) and characters that transcend stereotypical femininity—-also it’s seriously hilarious.

The representation of female masculinity in the character of Megan (Melissa McCarthy) was particularly interesting to me because I can’t recall ever having seen this gender representation portrayed in mainstream media. I might not go so far as to say her character is radical, but I WILL say that it was refreshing on a few fronts:

1. She presents masculine-recognized behaviors and language (donning a golfer’s hat and saying “I’m gonna take a whiz”) but is not an offensive portrayal of a butch lesbian meant to be grotesque to a heterosexual male audience.

2. She is a confident character NOT on the butt-end of jokes from the other characters

3. She is sexual, and although her sexual activity is portrayed as comedy, she is not de-sexualized

4. She is not another “Pat.” She makes the audience laugh at her quirkiness (stealing 9 puppies for example) but not at her gender, per se.

Where else do we see female masculinity in a fully developed character?

words to live by

http://www.designworklife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/dominiquefalla_weareallapart_01.jpg

just because

 

 

Madam X – High In High School (Official Music Video)

halloween just passed and unfortunately play/start did not dress as Madam X. Next year though, we are on it (i just need to convince the other three that we have enough hair among us to pull this off!)

I mean, High in HighSchool??!?!?!?!  amazing. A truly timeless sentiment sculpted into a lyrical artistic illusion.

Follow us on twitter

We now have a Twitter account! Check us out @playstartmusic. Word.

gut grabbing visceral art-making

Candise has been rocking out on her new synth pedal and it is inspiring me to explore new sounds on my acoustic drum kit. Andrew Diamond (aka Duracell) is featured in this video embodying exactly how i feel when i am behind my kit. If you’ve seen play/start live, you’ve seen my basest instincts. For me, this is what it means to make art.

For a long time I steered away from electronic drum elements because I didn’t feel a creative connection to them but Duracell has re-inspired me. Can I  incorporate drum triggers in play/start music and experience the same intensity? We will be spending more time in our practice space over the next two months to find out. By the way, give this video a chance; it gets really awesome about 30 seconds in!

Two shows left…

We have two upcoming shows that we are pretty excited about. First up is this coming Saturday, September 24th, at Mississippi Pizza with Old Wars, who we’ve been wanting to set up a show with for quite some time. In case you haven’t heard of Old Wars, they are a super awesome two piece consisting of Jen Moon (the Jen Moon) and Kathy Mendonca (formerly of The Gossip). https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=259571467397548

After that is an all-ages show on October 7th at Backspace, with Glitter Express and AM Exchange. We’ve been told by no less than three people (including a Backspace employee) that we should play a show with Glitter Express, so I expect this show should be a blast. https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=178142808927936

These will be the last two shows we play for a while. We want to write new music and get a jump start on planning for next year’s tour. We will be debuting a new song we’ve been working on and are very stoked about, so come hang out with us, have a drink (alcoholic or not), and dance your ass off.

Tschüs,

-PLAY/START