Category Archives: Music

The Civil Wars

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I recently discovered this duo after watching this number on SYTYCD:

Can I just digress for awhile and talk about how much I love this show? Not only is it home to many of my TV boyfriends, it also features plenty of gorgeous routines, and has introduced me to a lot of really good singers/bands that I would not have heard of otherwise (Sia, Stars, The Irrepressibles etc).

Which leads me back to the band.

The Civil Wars is such a beautiful pairing and they make me have all these feelings listening to them. Along with Angus & Julia Stone, and Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová, it makes me want to find my own Damien Rice to my Lisa Hannigan. Minus the whole break-up bit. And I’m not saying I sound anything remotely like Lisa Hannigan, but y’know what I mean. Anyway.

Here’s my favourite track from their debut album:

The title track is good too:

And, of course, here’s the one that started it all:

You’re welcome. :p

Just a bit of Musical Mania

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Oh why do we have to love musicals this much? We could have saved it all for shopping. Too frivolous? Okay, we could have saved.

With our air tickets and accommodation settled, Dia and I decided it was time to book our tickets for the musicals so we could work the rest of our itinerary around it. And because we wanted the certainty of having good seats, we decided not to go the way of TKTS, and booked everything online. No, that was not the collective sound of our pockets burning up. Or, was it?

Fresh from its Tony win, we heard that tickets for The Book of Mormon were running fast despite soaring prices. But we knew we had to catch it. Convinced it’ll never hit Singy, we bit our lips as we clicked on “Submit” and saw my credit card being charged an exorbitant amount of money. The most we’ve ever paid for any musical.

We didn’t care that we’d already watched Wicked in London mostly because we have MAD LOVE for it. And even though it’s coming to Singy this December (and we’re likely to watch it then, too), we both agreed we had to catch the Broadway cast in the famed Gershwin Theatre. We were sure we’d majorly regret it if we didn’t. Like I said. MAD LOVE.

Our last musical on Broadway is a feel-good one, with songs we were already familiar with. Having watched Grease in London the last time, we figured it might be fun to watch a musical with songs that we could sing along to. Besides, the musical-loving cousin kept raving about Jersey Boys, so we were pretty much sold.

So there you have it. Three musicals in the span of eight days. Crazy? Nope. Just how we like to get it done in NYC. ;)

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Song of the Day

If I Die Young, by The Band Perry

From Tonight Tonight to Gucci Gucci

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I used to get really excited about the VMAs. Also, it used to be the 90s.

Back in ’96, when I was still an impressionable 14-year-old, I remember watching my first VMAs in my parents’ room. Alanis Morissette was big that year, so were the Foo Fighters and the Smashing Pumpkins. My dad walked in to the room, saw Billy Corgan all made up in Tonight, Tonight, and wondered what kinda “druggie music” I was listening to.

Oh Dad, trust me, music then was MUCH BETTER.

15 years on, I am amazed at how much MTV and the VMAs have evolved. For example, did you know that MTV is now all about reality TV programming (How the heck is Jersey Shore still on?!), and other programmes that appeal to their teen demographic? Which loosely translates into: it’s so full of crappy shows that it doesn’t really play music videos any more. And today, while I sat down to watch the second half of the VMAs, I realised that heaps of music videos (and even the VMAs) today are all about the spectacle, and have almost ceased to tell stories/enhance the actual piece of music itself. It was a very disappointing moment for me.

Don’t even get me started on popular music today.

And after that disaster of a song I just put you through, I won’t.

At least the Beasties are still recognised for making hilarious videos.

/rantover