It's one of those weeks—the kind where you wake up hating everything, and it's hard to decipher exactly why. Maybe it's a combination of things—perhaps it's the weird teen angst hangover of your early 20's, or you're missing somebody, or maybe you took the comments section of a blog post too personally, or maybe it's none of that and you're just sad because people have feelings, and that's okay. Tears build up like a raging river, held back by the dam that is your eyelids. You continue your day by wallowing, writing a sad letter, sitting amongst unfolded laundry, and unfinished crafts. Then, as soon as you think it's all starting to feel better, something else happens and your face becomes Niagara Falls. And it's nothing that hugs and nice words can mend because your feelings are serious business. But maybe next week will be better. You can only hope.
Here are some songs to accompany a sad day/mad day/bad day, which will probably only make you more upset, but sometimes it's what we need, right?
I have now been here for exactly a month, and we're finally getting consistently beautiful weather. I'm glad that person who said the weather would be literally perfect after July 4th wasn't lying. But really. The ten-day forecast predicts sun every single day with a 0% chance of rain. You heard me correctly, 0% chance. Portland, I see what y'all have been looking forward to. I sure as heck wouldn't want to be boiling in the heatwave in the mid-Atlantic right now. That is not what the precious pomp on my head needs. Nooooo, thank you.
So, now that things are getting hot 'n' sweaty, you need to be geared up, right? Sun block, check. Muscle tee, check. Cut-off shorts, check. Phresh summer haircut, check. Comfy dancing shoes, check. Cuties to dance with... wait, did I say geared up? I meant queered up. Here's a bunch of jams by some super fun queer folx who will help you get yr Portland (or wherever you are) summer officially rollin'. Hey, and some of these steamy queers are playing this summer in a town maybe near you! Yay!
Listening to What We Saw from the Cheap Seats, the sixth studio album from real-life Manic Pixie Dream Girl Regina Spektor, is a pretty philosophical experience. Spektor has done a lot of changing. Her music has changed, her career has changed (read: exploded), her audience has changed (read: used to be some people, is now ALL OF THE PEOPLE). But she's also done a fair amount of staying exactly the same. This isn't going to be a wistful post from a longtime fan, bemoaning the loss of an indie darling to the riptide of the mainstream. I promise. But Cheap Seats, as it turns out, are where you get the best view of the big picture.
Water! It's pretty important and beautiful and easy to use as a metaphor, so it turns out there are a lot of great songs about it. This mix features songs from Rae Spoon, Your Heart Breaks, Kimya Dawson, and Mos Def. Enjoy!
Sometime between White Lung’s first record, It’s the Evil, and their second, Sorry, the band blew up. Maybe it’s because of the rock writing of singer Mish Way, who proves that not all Vice writers are raging douchebags. Maybe it’s how Way sweats off things like a broken face. But really, it’s probably the fact that Sorry rips like few other punk records this year, and, lucky you, you can stream it right here.
Girls Rock Camp summer showcase season is back! Since 2001 in Portland, OR, Girls Rock Camps have been empowering girls and women through music creation in cities and towns across North America and Europe, with a total of 37 camps in the international GRC network, Girls Rock Camp Alliance. GRC Summer Camp is a week-long program where girls and women ages 8-18 learn a new instrument, form bands, and collaborate to create an original song performed live complete with screaming fans and camper-designed band t-shirts. This BitchTapes is a sampling of songs written and performed by campers from Girls Rock Camps across North America and Europe. Check out a camp showcase this summer at a GRC near you!
JD Samson is certainly no stranger to Bitch; a significant voice in the Riot Grrrl movement, and a more than prominent queer and feminist icon, it only makes sense to let you know what she's up to this summer. Last week, while attempting to figure out exactly what to write for this post (because leaving you with just a list of tour dates would be boring), a dear friend deemed me a “JD Samson connoisseur.” While I gladly accepted this title, there's definitely a bit of a difference between knowing a lot about someone and having a mild obsession* with (read: giant crush on) that person, and you can probably guess where I stand within this spectrum of connoisseurship. Though, with this giant crush, comes a great deal of respect and admiration for JD as both an artist and an activist.
The word “forward” keeps popping up in my sphere. Wisconsinites wielded it during their recent recall election (it’s their state motto). Obama has chosen it as his new campaign slogan.
I’ve decided to adapt it as my personal slogan as well. My life has gone in about a million different directions over the last year—I finished school, went through a major break-up, threw stability to the wind and moved halfway across the country. I know I’m not alone in feeling uncertain about the direction my life will take from here (it is graduation season after all), but that doesn’t make moving forward any easier.
So, to those of you who aren’t sure where you’re going either: I made this “forward”-themed mix for you. Track list after the jump!
I've been here for less than a week, and this Pacific Northwest weather is not quite clicking with my system yet. I wake up in the morning, birds are chirping at my window, the sun is gleaming on my face, and it appears to be beautiful, then I step outside and it's cold. There's a giant grey cloud looming overhead, but it's sunny across the street, and just when you think the weather is going to be fine, it starts to rain? Someone tell me this changes soon. All I'm hearing is that summers here are the best, but I feel like I'm being lied to.
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