Having my top 5 reach more than 30 plays each is quite exceptional but it’s explained by the fact I spent a lot of time working on articles and sleeping too little.

The xx were already present last week but they top the charts with their ambient, wonderfully soothing album simply entitled xx. Whether it’s the guitar lines, the underlining bass, the soft percussions or the duetting voices everything sounds extremely good together and I can’t help but listen to it all on repeat.

Shelter :

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The rest of the top has been mentioned before except for Rachael Cantu who’s having a fundraiser for her upcoming album. If you buy her latest EP, all the money is used to produced the full length, it’s pretty cool since it comes signed and personalized. The music is sweet folkish pop and addictive. My favorite is Genius and a Wizard and you can listen to it right here :

mel :: Aug.19.2009 :: Florence and the Machine, Gossip, Krystle Brieger, Rachael Cantu, The xx, last.fm :: No Comments »

About a month ago, Krystle Brieger released the first of the three songs she had planned to release before September 19, release day for her new EP, Picture Not Perfect.

The second song was supposed to be revealed mid-August, which is now, but the good news is that it’s not just one song but two! Actually, one was made available a couple of weeks ago and the second a week or so ago. Since I’ve been listening to them non stop, I thought I’d share the petillant electro sounds.

Five Month Ago :

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Do You Want What I Want Too? :

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A quick reminder for the lucky ones living around Calgary : the release party for new EP Picture Not Perfect is set for September 19th at Vern’s Tavern. Plus you could win a free remixes/covers album! (if only I lived on the West Coast of the right continent…)

mel :: Aug.16.2009 :: Do You Want What I Want Too?, Five Months Ago, Krystle Brieger, Picture Not Perfect EP, Song of the Day :: No Comments »

I believe I never came around to writing about Brandi Carlile and her wonderful folk sounds.

After Brandi Carlile in 2005 and The Story in 2007, Give Up The Ghost will be Brandi’s third studio album and will be released this fall. The first single off the new LP was added to the player on her official website, it’s entitled Dreams and it’s a pretty good song! Don’t click away, it’s here too :

mel :: Aug.14.2009 :: Brandi Carlile, Dreams, Give Up The Ghost :: No Comments »

A lot of folk-ish artists make their way to my top this week. The fact that it’s more than a Top 5 is to prove that I listen to Vermillion Lies and to both the Boekbinder sisters’ solo efforts without privileging one over the other. La Roux shares #3 place with French favs Moriarty and new favs The xx and their ambient sounds.

Here’s Basic Space by The xx :

For the record, here are the charts I failed to post and comment on :

I listen to less and less music as weeks go by. Not a good sign.

mel :: Aug.10.2009 :: Basic Space, Kim Boekbinder, La Roux, Moriarty, The xx, Vermillion Lies, Zoe Boekbinder, last.fm :: No Comments »

I hate technology.

There, it’s said – ironically typed in a wordpress blog.

This week at work, an instrument that was showing non fatal error messages for weeks decided to die on my watch.

My internet connection has been acting funky for 3 days straight now.

A blog I read (and was asked to write for some months ago) was hacked by Russian Hippies.

And best of all : my Twitter account was hacked last night and is now suspended for spamming issues.

You may call this tough luck or bad karma depending on your own beliefs but this is annoying me to no end. I especially don’t understand the motivation behind hacking accounts/blogs. To show you can do it? Sure. Then what? Do hackers get a medal for every site they manage to take control of? Many questions but in fact, I don’t care. I only care about being able to surf the internet without having to constantly watch my back, change passwords every week and forget what I chose last, check my followers on Twitter daily because spammers don’t send a “new follower notification”, update my anti-virus several times a day to make sure no new infection can get through or avoid clicking on links in emails because they lead to URLs with only numbers in them.

I’m fed up with this. It used to be fun to be connected; now it’s all just paranoia galore.

Something web 2.0 made me smile today though. Juno kudos to my friend Jules for this tweet:

Dear Twitter, bring back @thealmightymel’s account!

May you be heard soon.

mel :: Aug.07.2009 :: Random, Website news :: No Comments »

this was a spontaneous video made on july 1, 2009 in hermosa beach (los angeles, CA).
amanda had gathered a bunch of folks by announcing a “ninja beach gig” on her blog & twitter. lots of people came, amanda played ukulele for a while, there was a big gorup shotoshoot….then amanda decided it was a fine day for a music video. here’s what we did.

Sometimes I get scared of technology and our strange habit of relying on it so much but this video proves how sweet technology can be, especially Twitter.
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Watch this and be 732% happier.
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performer: Amanda Palmer
song written by: Cat Stevens
cinematographer and editor: Danna Kinsky
photographer: Lindsey Byrnes
assistant director: Kirsten Vangsness
sound design: Jaron Luksa
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There’s no need to state it again but anyway : I ADORE Amanda Palmer for this and everything else she’s created.
It also makes me happy Kirsten Vangsness was involved in this, despite the typo in her name in the video.

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Punk Cabaret Is Freedom!

mel :: Aug.01.2009 :: Amanda Palmer, Video :: No Comments »

Gossip premiered their video for second single off Music For Men, Love Long Distance on myspace today. (the reason why they chose myspace is beyond my understanding since I had to battle many hours to be able to actually watch the video)

Giant ballon headed people skate throughout the video. Conceptual. Does it bother anyone else that they chose to picture the band but didn’t pay attention to the fact that Hannah’s left-handed and the drummer in this mini film isn’t? It’s fiction, you say? Alright.

It’s still a fun video.

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mel :: Aug.01.2009 :: Gossip, Love Long Distance, Video :: No Comments »