Natasha Khan

She is an ethereal superhuman.

I don't know how Fly Hunniez went so long without acknowledging her beauty.

I think it's because it goes without saying.

Jeff Pianki

For the most part I'm not a big fan of guys my age who play acoustic guitar. It starts earnestly but quickly descends into the depths of cheap John Mayer (who is already mediocre) knockoffs like this God-awful travesty. A few diamonds in the penny mine are able to transcend the AE-wearin', Owl City-listenin', Adam Brody-lookin' cliché.

An exception to this acoustic hellhole: Jeff Pianki.

Sugarplum Bear posted this video on the wall of Dutchess Dragonmane and I was immediately on board with this guy. I triple dog dare you not to giggle when you watch it.

His music, like Sugarplum says, "makes my heart smile." Sure, sometimes it does start sliding into the realm of guitar-boy stereotype-land, but there's something, I don't know what, but something that keeps it genuine.

Is it that he's Michigan-born and Midwest is best?

Or that he's a freckled redhead?

Or that his blog shows how he's just a normal, nice dude?

I don't know. What I do know is he's talented and my auditory nerves enjoy what he does.

Jazzy Jeff's Last FM has a gaggle of his songs available for free download. And his Youtube account features a bunch of originals, covers, and collaborations including another with his precious sister that may just be cuter than Say Hello.

I'll let you find it.

Here's a hint:

"O Brother Where Art Thou" (the soundtrack)

Oh Lordy. The Hunniez have been busy lately. But obviously not with this. Never fear, dear readers, never fear. We are so back.

Yeah so, I've been spending an inordinate amount of time listening to the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack. The relationship between a film and a soundtrack can be a complicated thing, especially when you're dealing with a reimagination of a Greek epic poem (in this case, The Odyssey, just in case you didn't know) and a powerful Americana musical setting.

With voices like Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris among a host of others rooting the film in the cultural traditions of Appalachia.

If you haven't seen it, watch it. If you haven't heard it, listen.

Here's a clip. And the soundtrack itself, I guess.

Music That Sounds Like Summer

As August marches relentlessly on, the end of summer's freedom draws closer and closer. The Fly Hunniez will officially walk the hallowed halls of our university once again on September 2nd (the effervescent H. Boldt on crutches).

But some songs will carry a hint of sun and sand and warm breezes with them through the fall...

Here are some of my "songs of the summer"...

Freeway - Kurt Vile

Beach Comber - Real Estate

French Navy - Camera Obscura

Contender - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

Glad - Glasser

Warm Heart of Africa (feat. Ezra Koenig) - The Very Best

things will never be the same again -jj

Deadbeat Summer - Neon Indian

Seasun - Delorean

What are yours?

Variations on the Wedding Entrance

My parents have given me permission to do this at my wedding.

Will I? Probably not.
You never know with an open bar though. Something like that might happen spontaneously.

Englishman

Part of being a Fly Hunnie is recognizing when things are awesome.

Though we all have excellent taste and are able to discover good, new music without help, sometimes it takes a little push in the right direction to listen to something that may have otherwise been missed.

Case in point: Englishman.

I can take no credit for knowing about this band, but they are excellent.

I think the immediate draw they have is the fact that they are able to embrace some of the most appealing aspects of current indie releases while not conforming to expected sound. They are lyrically solid, and the vocals are stellar and easy on the ear, 

which seems to be a trait found less and less in "authentic" music.

(By the way, I hate when people say things are authentic. Really? Really?)

I might not be able to take credit for all kinds of being aware of the emerging music scene and knowing what's going to be getting big, but thanks to other people noticing that this great little band is opening for Deer Tick, Elf Power, and Bonnie "Prince" Billy. and playing for Daytrotter, I'm going to agree that Englishman is going places.

And hello, they played at Transylvania University. That is awesome. And in Kentucky, but whatever.

Illegal Download of the EP "Taxidermy"

Grapple with morality on your own terms.

Benoît Pioulard

Curled in a chair in the Union during the time when Brigid and I thought it would be possible to bring a certain songstress to the Terrace, I was browsing my iTunes Library to find a fitting opener and I came across a Stereogum download by Praveen and Benoît that I had forgotten about.
Upon a relisten, I ventured into the depths of Benoît Pioulard's work and never looked back.
Don't be intimidated by the French name. He's really just a Tom from Michigan who makes music that perfectly suits a lazy spring afternoon.


Listen:
Ahn

Schwinntonation

With a name like "Schwinntonation" can you really go wrong at all?
Schwinntonation could be some kind of bike gang of white boys that releases bad rap mixtapes, and with a name like that, I'd still probably defend them to people.

Even better, though, is that Schwinntonation is actually awesome. I've been describing the sound as "ambient sound experimentation made using bikes," but that sounds ridiculous and pretentious, so let's see what the Schwinntonation MySpace has to say.

"The project that is Schwinntonation takes the various sounds that bicycles can make and turns it into music."

Does that sound like something that could be bad? Does this look like something that could be bad?


I don't think so and neither should you.

These dudes are from Chicago, and I think they're going to be at the Bicycle Film Festival in Minneapolis the summer, so hopefully I'll be able to head up to that with Brenna&co. in a few months.

They released their album for free, so I'm going to share it with you in it's entirety, guilt-free.

Her Morning Elegance

There is something about this video and song combination by Oren Lavie that just gets me.

The song is honest and poetic in my favorite way - the most is said between the lines, in what gets left unsaid. This is sounding super pretentious, especially because it's not some ground breaking musical or lyrical work. It's just a good song with an intriguing video.

The video, which is really the reason for this post, is striking and simple, complementing the song and actually adding quite a bit to it.

I'm not articulating within this post very well, but hey, I've been pretty verbose in the last few, so I will just leave you with a link to full details on the video from Oren Lavie's MySpace. I read them for you first, and I would say they are worth your 5 minutes.

Then be like me and spend a significant amount of time watching the video.
Again.
And again.
And again.

Here's the song: Her Morning Elegance - Oren Lavie.

Passion Pit - Sleepyhead

Over winter break, not only did I reach absolute zero, I also journeyed to the center of the Earth. No, I don't have photographic evidence because technology gets funky in those sorts of conditions.

I had to decide on where I want to go for spring break (read: SPRING BREAK 2009 WOOOHOOO!). Space exploration was out of the question because I'm not of age to get rental vehicles. Out of body experiences are so 1950s Twilight Zone/Contact. And I've already been to Hogwarts like a gazillion times.

So, what's a girl to do?

Clearly, I have to time travel. Since the future is right now and now and now and now, I figure going into the past would be the best option.

And yes, I'm going solely to frolic with dinosaurs. That's it. Why else would anyone time travel?
Before I hop into my DeLorean and get my Jurassic Park on for the next week, I leave you with not one, but two presents to hold you over until my return, faithful readers (read: Intensity).

Passion Pit - Sleepy Head
Passion Pit - Sleepyhead (Wallpaper. Dio Remix)
Such a good song. Such a good remix.

Get busy to it, commoners. I'm off to ride a Gigantosaurus!

Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)- Vertical Horizon

A blast from the past, this oh-so excellent song came up on random on my iTunes.



Although the cheesy lyrics proved moving during my freshman year of high school, they still manage to make me think, mostly of my awkward nerdy years. Those were the days. At least I had better musical tastes than all of the other kids in my school. I am slightly ashamed that I had such a fondness for this song, however, it could have been much much worse ie Insane Clown Posse or Dashboard Confessional.

Cheers.

Panasonic RP-HTX7 Headphones

You really don't know what you're missing until you use a real pair of headphones to listen to your jock jams.

Brigid and I are both fans of the Panasonic RP-HTX7. Affordable, good sound quality, comfortable, and badass.
I have the red pair, Brigid has pink. If Hannah got a white pair, her headphones and my headphones could make Brigid's headphones.
Yes, I passed kindergarten art with flying colors. (PUN!)

Of course, I wouldn't mind owning a pair of Bose headphones, but I'm a real human being and cannot drop three Benjamins on noise-cancelling alien technology. Plus, they are always upgrading their stuff so it's hard to keep up with the times.

I mean, are Bose antler headphones still popular?

Peter Gabriel

A couple weeks ago, after finally downloading "Down to Earth" (you know, the song from the Wall-E credits), I got to thinking about Peter Gabriel.

At the time, I came to the conclusion that Peter Gabriel is experiencing a renaissance. Think about it, Vampire Weekend name-dropped him last year in one of the catchiest songs of 2008 - and better yet, Gabriel covered it himself. With Hot Chip. There was his so-so cover of The Magnetic Fields' "Book Of Love" for some terrible movie with Richard Gere, but I'm going to choose to ignore that. And of course, the previously mentioned song from the Wall-E credits.

And, lest we forget to give Say Anything credit for the most famous Peter Gabriel moment of all time, Ione Skye pulled an awesome and slightly cougar move and married Ben Lee. Not totally relevant, but come on, the being-wooed-by-John Cusack-with-a-boombox-playing-"In Your Eyes" thing? Can't ignore that.

(because FOX is a brat, I can't share that epic 80's film moment with you, so I'm going to settle with a live version without a boombox but with some sweet threads.)



But I thought about it some more, and I don't think Peter Gabriel ever went away.
Genesis might have gone away, taking Phil Collins with it (thank God. Collins can stay away forever.) But Gabriel. Oh, Peter Gabriel. He stuck around, stuck it out through the long, hungry winter.

And he's here to stay.