Universo Ao Meu Redor

Marisa Monte's 2006 album Universo Ao Meu Redor is really hitting the spot right now.

It's probably some of the best music for a relaxing morning, night... pretty much anytime you just want to sit back and enjoy the day. Aside from its relaxing qualities, the music is pretty wonderful. Her vocals are nothing over the top which is great, and they really set the mood of the album. My only problem is I don't understand the lyrics (Portuguese) and I really wish I could :(

So it's overall a nice treat. Not to mention the cool album cover. 

Something to look at...

I came across these really fantastic photographs of Beck along with some I had not seen before. They're really really neat, the photographer is Piper Ferguson who has just become one of my favorite people.

More Beck AND the work of Piper here: http://piperferguson.com/

Tailor-Made

Daedelus looking cool as usual. This is from an interview with L.A. Record, kind of a dated one (end of April) but still relevant and interesting.

 http://larecord.com/interviews/2011/04/21/daedelus-all-of-music-is-a-failure

Travelling...

Just came back from Kernville last night. Soooo worn out, I can't really begin to explain how tiring it was to sit in a car for so long.

The trip was great, though! My family and I stayed at a beautiful little place called the River View Lodge. As the name suggests, it's right by the river and it's basically in the middle of the town. So I got to do a lot which was great.

I also got the chance to see the Sequoia trees. I'd seen them once before, but never so up close and personal. We went on the trail for the 100 giants and we were alone for a good 20 minutes. It was quiet, the only sounds I heard were the hidden animals in the forest and the few cars driving by the road. So peaceful. Before arriving, there were some fires but it was safe to drive along the roads. So I got to see everything me and my family wanted to. Overall, a very great weekend.  

The trees were numbered which I thought was cute.

They were big. It was neat.

Bacherolette

Pan Am

I'm very excited to start watching Pan Am with the lovely Christina Ricci.

I've heard some pretty negative comments regarding it, but I hope it's not as bad as the public makes it out to be. Creator Jack Orman has worked on some fairly good tv shows, so I have hope that this will be a good one as well!

From the July 28th show at the Troubadour.

S+B

So Beck has been doing a lot this year, but one thing I can say he has done very well is the production on Mirror Traffic by Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks. The album came out August 23rd, and it's definitely one of my favorite albums right now. The sound is great, the lyrics are very good and it doesn't lose you near the end at all like many albums do. I really hope they collaborate again sometime. 

You can listen to the whole thing here: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/14/138957392/first-listen-stephen-malkmus-and-the-jicks-mirror-traffic

Beck does Gainsbourg

Got to see the amazing Serge Gainsbourg tribute at the Hollywood Bowl last Sunday. Saw Beck and many wonderful talents perform songs by Serge Gainsbourg. Here's Beck performing Teenie-Weenie Boppie.