Breezy’s Blog

I went to see She & Him at Mercy Lounge last month when my sister and her friend Stacey visited. First of all let me say it took me a while to get into them. My sister ranted and raved about how good they were but I just didn’t get it. After a few listens I had decided they were boring and not my cup of tea. But I decided to give them multiple tries and listened to them in the car, at work and at home almost every day for a few weeks and I slowly began to appreciate the stripped-down old-fashioned sound, the catchy, adorable lyrics and the way listening to them made me feel like I had discovered an old forgotten band from the early 70’s… one that never aged, haha.

So for those not cool enough to know, She & Him is actually fronted by the actress Zooey Deschanel. One of my favorite comedies is “Elf” where she stars along side Will Ferrell and saves Christmas by singing carols to spread cheer. What’s ironic is in the movie she loves singing but is afraid of singing in public. Well, in person Zooey is probably the most timid and shy performer I have ever seen live. She sounded and looked amazing, even played some piano, tambourine and made horn/trumpet noises with her mouth which was awesome… but overall she pretty much just stood there looking like a deer in headlights. She did start jumping around at the end which was very cute.

Oh and if you go to a She & Him show, save yourself a lot of trouble and ridicule and leave your camera at home. At one point in the show Matt Ward (the “Him” part of She & Him) even dedicated a song to “all of you not taking pictures” ouch. Zooey made a couple anti picture announcements as well… seems they are not a fan of the camera.

So, going against their wishes I still took around 250 pictures. Oops. My bad… here is my fav:

Rock those bangs Zooey!

Relevant TV came back online today, and I got to catch up on some of the music videos I’ve missed since its been down. I don’t watch TV, so I haven’t watched any music videos in months.

The feature video was Weezer’s “Pork and Beans”, which made my day… all the viral video stars together for an awesome Weezer video. At first I thought it was just showing clips from the popular videos, but then I realized they were all lip-synching to the Weezer song and couldn’t believe it. I was never crazy about Weezer until today. I can’t believe I didn’t catch this video earlier somehow.

Um, who else is worried about WWIII? I think it’s closer than we all think…

I’ve been downloading and listening to more music than ever before. I have over 600 new songs in my iTunes added in the past 3 months which is really weird for me because I’m very picky with music… I don’t care if I payed for it, I delete it if I don’t really enjoy listening to it.

Some of the highlights of the past few months of new music: the new Family Force 5 (”Dance or Die”)… I’m really digging the new dance direction. I did love the old “crunk rock” sound of the first album and I’m hoping the resurrect it one day, but overall I think this was an excellent release and the tunes are infectious and get stuck in my head all day long.

After Edmund’s “Hello” was also a surprisingly awesome album. I saw these guys almost a year ago now at a Shout Fest in Jacksonville, FL and I don’t remember leaving with any distinct impression about them… and after listening to this album the first time I thought it was just OK… but after multiple listens, I have come to really enjoy the sound and respect the musicianship behind it… especially the very interesting and complex instrumental breaks strung throughout the album and the tie in song “Go Oboe!”… absolutely haunting piano and strings… wow.