show review: walk off the earth at the paradise

over the past three years, some of you might have heard me raving about walk off the earth, a canadian indie band that became famous with a youtube cover of gotye's "somebody that i used to know" that featured all five band members playing one guitar. while it was undoubtedly amazing, it was their back catalog of innovative cover videos that launched me into full-blown obsession mode for a few months. like this reggae-fied rendition of wiz khalifa's "roll up:"



i had the pleasure of seeing them live in orlando back in 2012, and they put on a killer show, so i was really stoked about the chance to see them last night in boston as they toured in front of their upcoming album, sing it all away. it was fantastic!

they played a perfect mix of original songs from their last album REVO, cover tunes -- including pharrell's "happy" and madonna's "material girl" -- and of course, tracks from the new record. as this is their second major-label release, i was curious if and how their sound would change. i was pleasantly surprised to find that while they've certainly gotten a little more adventurous with melodies and tempo, they still have that buoyant, exciting energy that i love.

most of all, you can feel the passion that WOTE has for playing music, and get the sense that they'd be just as happy playing on a street corner as they would to a completely packed rock club. plus, the entire band just oozes talent, and all of the members switched instruments throughout the night with ease. sidenote: gianni and sarah, two of the lead vocalists, are kind of the cutest rock 'n roll couple ever, and i love them. also, sarah is super-pregnant with baby #2, and she rocked the hell out of this little black number. get it, girl!

my favorite part of the evening, without a doubt, was the encore. of course, they had to reenact the performance that got them their big break. but halfway through the song, they switched into a flawless medley of covers, including miley cyrus' "wrecking ball," "rude" by magic!, and avicii's "wake me up."

following that, they launched into a perfectly sunny song from their last album, called "summer vibe." beach balls were tossed into the crowd, random people came up onstage to dance, and general merriment ensued.

basically, a walk off the earth concert is like a giant beach party where everyone is singing and dancing and smiling and just feelin' fine. i haven't had that much fun at a show in forever. if you like music and happiness, go see them!

my top 10 songs of 2013!

i started this tradition last year since my attention span is usually too short to deal with full albums unless they're completely amazing. what were your favorites from 2013?

p.s. you can enjoy all of these in playlist form right here.

honorable mention: wavves - "sail to the sun," driver friendly - "ghosts," smallpools - "mason jar," walk the moon - "tête-à-tête""

10. macklemore & ryan lewis f/ ray dalton - "can't hold us"



so this song was technically released all the way back in 2011, but let's be real -- were any of you cool enough to hear it back then? me neither. plus, it was re-released this year, so i'm counting it. i know everyone hates it now, but the first 20 or so times i listened to it were magic. ALRIGHT, OKAY!

9. parquet courts - "stoned & starving"


so early '90s/pavement-ish and i love it. simple. catchy. undeniably awesome bare-bones rock 'n roll.

8. fitz & the tantrums - "the walker"



every year-end song list has to have a tune that includes whistling, right? this one was in heavy rotation for me over the summer. it's just a ton of fun and has a great retro vibe. and so. much. soul!

7. the neighbourhood - "sweater weather"



proof that a song can be really hot without being vulgar. i mean, i appreciate the vulgarity too, don't get me wrong, but this is the most subtly sexy song i've heard in a long time. plus, it's the only one i know of that gives a shoutout to high-waisted shorts, aka my favorite item of clothing.

6. bass drum of death - "way out"



i'd been jamming out to BDOD's second album since he released it this past june, but actually didn't get into this song until i saw him perform it live a few months ago. kind of grungy, kind of psychedelic, kind of haunting, and totally delicious to my ears.

5. new politics - "harlem"



oh, this song deserved so much more than a taco bell commercial. i kept waiting for it to blow up and it just ... kind of never did. not really sure why, because you can't help but want to dance when that chorus hits.

4. queens of the stone age - "i sat by the ocean"



i'mma let you in on a secret. if you want me to do anything or go anywhere, just have josh homme sing the request to me. sigh. it's no "how to handle a rope," but it's a killer track nonetheless.

3. one direction - "kiss you"



1D keeps sneaking onto my list every year. how did they make it into the top five?! whatever, it's not my fault that this song is basically the perfect pop nugget and sounds like a choir of angels serenading you on a mountain made of gumdrops and skittles.

2. walk off the earth - "red hands"



basically just in love with WOTE and everything they do. from the lady of the band, sarah, helping my friend and i get into their sold-out show last year, to lead singer gianni complimenting my blog post about said show, these guys are not only super-talented, they're super-sweet, too. of course, there's also the incredible one-take video for this song that still blows my mind.

1. kurt vile - "never run away"



I. LOVE. THIS. SONG. there really wasn't any hesitation about choosing this as my #1 when making this list, and my spotify year-end thing confirmed that, in fact, mr. vile was my most-listened-to artist. from the yearning chorus to the "hey hey hey hey hey hey maaaan" and lush instrumental, it's basically perfect. he made a legit video for it, but i much prefer this one due to his intense leg-crossing, awkward air guitar motions, and adoooorable daughter.

the top 15 songs of 2012!

i started out with 20, and thought that was a bit much. then i tried to narrow it down to 10 and just. couldn't. do it. so 15 seemed like a nice in-between number. without further ado, my 15 most favorite ditties of 2k12. i also made a playlist for your easier-listening pleasure (minus bass drum of death because...SPOTIFYYY!).

honorable mentions: tyga - "rack city," sleeper agent - "get burned," justin bieber- "boyfriend," nicki minaj - "va va voom," walk off the earth - "red hands"

15.  one direction - "what makes you beautiful"

my boys barely cracked the list (why did i just call potentially underage lads "my boys"? god i'm pathetic), but they had to make an appearance. a soaring chorus, slight british accents and a generally shiny-happy vibe made this one the clear winner from them, though "kiss you" from their new album was also a contender. i mean, what? kidding. i don't know any other one direction songs.

14. FIDLAR - "got no money"

and now for something COMPLETELY different, because FIDLAR might be the anti boy-band. i say this because one of the lyrics to this song is "i got no money for speed." a fun ode to beavis-and-butthead-style slackerdom, that begins with a quote by a surfer from a local news story that went viral.

13. taylor swift - "we are never ever getting back together"

oh, swifty. i really despise you and your slutty songwriting ways, but ya done good, girl. i still mostly just enjoyed this track because every time i heard it, i entertained the possibility that it was about john mayer. which for some reason is really amusing to me. 

12. electric guest - "this head i hold"

a delicious, retro indie pop nugget with a sorta cabaret vibe that i'm guessing you'd either love or hate. "sit back, don't think. get high, take drink." sounds good to me! 

11. walk off the earth - "somebody i used to know" (gotye cover)

at least 5 times better than the original. possibly 10, IMO. every member's part adds something special to this rendition, and i much prefer gianni's voice to gotye's (the one who looks like jesus and sings the chorus). also, BEARD GUY!

10. bass drum of death - "white fright"/"i wanna be forgotten"

i cheated a liiiil' bit with this one, but i just couldn't decide between the two singles that one-man-band BDOD released this year. pure lo-fi, garagey goodness with ridiculous hooks. i can't wait to hear the full-length he's planning on releasing next year. 

9. superchunk- "this summer"

superchunk can do no wrong in my eyes, but their last album left me a little disappointed. so when they released this perfectly-timed single that quite honestly could have been put out in 1993, i was STOKED! i'd missed you, superchunk.

8. bruno mars - "locked out of heaven"

this had to make the list, solely for being the first and only bruno mars song that i actually liked. and i more than liked it. is this guy's voice real life? oh yeah yeah yeah yeahhhh!

7. natural child - "baby"

these dudes released not one, but TWO full-length albums this year, so i had plenty of pickins when it came to their amazing brand of pure rock 'n roll. i kept coming back to this one, though...just about two minutes of smoky, '70s-style goodness. and i found a great live version!

6. pujol - "mission from god"

the first time i heard this song, i think i jumped up and ran around at hyper-speed like kevin mccallister in that home alone scene when he first realizes that he made his family disappear. by the end, i was almost definitely jumping on my bed and eating popcorn, shouting "i gotta know about youuuuu!"

5. the cadillac black - "tennessee mojo"

without a doubt, the cadillac black is one the best bands you've never heard of (unless you know me, that is). while their entire self-titled debut album is full of down-home, toe-tapping tunes that are perfect for drinking whiskey and donning cowboy boots, this one rose to the top of the heap for me. i want to marry the lead singer's voice. it's like sexy, southern-fried butter. couldn't find a video of the album track, but this live acoustic version might be even better. can i be from tennessee so i can get this mojo, please?

4. the mowgli's - "san francisco"

i didn't hear this one until november (after seeing the mowgli's live), but it was quickly thrown into heavyheavyheavy rotation on my ipod. like, i think i commuted back and forth to school for two weeks straight without listening to anything else. DO YOU FEEL THE LOVE? 

3. carly rae jepsen - "call me maybe"

as i noted in a previous post, i still contend that this is the best pop song of all time. what's to say that's not already been said? this was one of those little earworms that you just couldn't avoid this year, no matter how you tried. but why would you want to? as my favorite writer, rob sheffield, said about this one: "This song once made me loiter two hours at an Arby's in Queens, nursing my curly fries, waiting for it to come on the radio. I could have just plugged in my iPod, but I wanted to hear it blast out loud and light up the room."

2. japandroids - "fire's highway"

words that come to mind when i hear this song: LIFE!!! YEAH!! WHOAAAAAAH! YEAH!! LIFE!! WOW!

...just listen and you'll see what i mean.

1. walk the moon - anna sun

this song has all the hallmarks of a truly great tune, in my opinion: it makes me smile, it makes me tear up, it makes me want to dance, and most importantly, it makes me want to sing along. YES! check out the lead singer's moves at 1:53. love.

what were your favorite songs from this year?!

show review: walk off the earth at the social

last night was SO MUCH FUN! as some of you probably recall, upon discovering the viral youtube sensation that was walk off the earth's cover of gotye's "somebody that i used to know" in january of this year, i went through a few-week-long obsession where i pretty much watched it and their other amazing videos all day, err'day. i've since calmed down a bit, but i was able to see WOTE at their sold-out show show here in orlando, and it was legit so magical, guys.

stuff!

1. i had gotten my ticket, but my friend didn't get a chance to get hers before the show sold out. i had posted on the band's facebook page to see if a fellow fan had an extra ticket, and the super-sweet lady in the band, sarah blackwood, responded and told me to email her. she put me on the guest list (!) and i gave my friend my ticket. SO NICE!

2. the opening band, the mowgli's (above), are my new favorites despite the grammatical incorrectness of their name. they were all fabulous california flower children and i'm sensing that they're ones to watch. great energy and i had total crushes on all the boys in the band. loving their song, "san francisco," which you can check out below.

3. julia nunes followed. i had never heard her music before, and she had a phenomenal voice. she was pretty amusing on stage and sang a song about pizza burning her mouth. in between her set and WOTE's, the dude from the mowgli's came into the crowd and serenaded a birthday girl with an acoustic version of say anything's "alive with the glory of love" (a song about the holocaust, so that was weird).

4. walk off the earth was fanfriggintastic. they played a great mix of their originals & covers,
which included rihanna's "man down," B.o.B.'s "magic," fun.'s "some nights" with julia nunes, and a live re-creation of their video for "the backin' up song." there were confetti and beach balls and balloons released into the audience at several points (loving the chaotic photo i captured of that madness), more than one sing-along, a panoramic crowd shot with the band, and plenty of instrument tossing.

pictures!!

below is the mind-blowing video for their fantastic first major-label single, "red hands," which was shot in one take, and directed by a kid i went to emerson with. the unedited version is worth a watch, too, and basically made my brain explode! i have also been digging their cover of nirvana's "polly," so i threw that on here as well.

100 things to do in 2012: month in review

hey, y'all! hope 2012 is off to a great start...i know i'm loving it already. i got to knock off at least a few items from my list, so hooray for that:

23. go to tampa & st. petersburg: PARTIALLY COMPLETED.

i took a trip to tampa last weekend to see my dear friend alissa and attend what is basically a pirate mardi gras known as gasparilla (pictures here). this was my first trip to tampa, and it was so much fun. especially since swashbucklers were roaming freely, i discovered the brilliance that is a dirty shirley, i got like 10 billion beads, and a man giving out free hugs told me i was a good hugger. success!

29: watch 26 new movies, one for each letter of the alphabet: STARTED.

the help, happythankyoumoreplease, something borrowed, and new year's eve. only 22 more to go!

75. laugh so hard i cry: COMPLETED.

i can always count on this youtube diva to crack me up, and i randomly decided to watch this video a few weeks ago. TEARS, child....tears rolling down my face the entire time. i seriously can't handle the genius of qaadir howard. enjoy!

77. find one new song i like each week: COMPLETED.

among them:

panic at the disco - "ready to go"

drake - "the motto"

breathe carolina - "blackout"

walk off the earth's cover of gotye's "somebody that i used to know" (in my previous post)

WOTE was definitely my best discovery and i'm kind of a little bit obsessed with them now. but i mean, how can you not love a band that does ridiculous covers of LMFAO and rihanna? also, i may or may not be in love with the long-haired singer who kind of looks like jesus. watch and LOVE!

96. eat at a hibachi steakhouse: COMPLETED.

my friend amy is moving to israel for 5 months(!) and just happened to have her going away dinner at a great hibachi place here in orlando. i don't think i'd been to one since i was like, 8, so it was a ton of fun. the chef pretended to throw an egg at me and we all chowed down on steak/chicken/shrimp/pasta/veggies. good times!

random round-up!

1. i made a lil' spotify mix for your (and my own) enjoyment.

2. this video is badass:

3. i want to have like 10,000 of shemar moore's babies:

4. i also want to live in this apartment.

5. i walked 7 miles this past weekend on cady way trail and saw a mini-orange tree. a MINI-ORANGE TREE! just fantastic.