i haven't changed a bit

Man, being a real adult is hard, y'all.

I've been driving all over Memphis these past weeks, which combined with constant road work on 240/I-55, has given me ample time for listening to some newly acquired tunes. Here are some current favorites of mine:

Settle Down/No Doubt:
Wait a Minute/The Hives
King and Lionheart/Of Monsters and Men
Flowers in Your Hair/The Lumineers
National Anthem/Lana Del Ray
Bad Religion/Frank Ocean
Out on the Town/Fun.
Help, I'm Alive/Metric
Amazing Eyes/Good Old War
Same Mistakes/The Echo Friendly
Ships/Lady Danville


Some are not quite so new, but newly obsessed over by me. To my delight, my recent discovery of The Lumineers has also coincided with a show announcement in Oxford at the Lyric, (which is dominating right now--Passion Pit is playing there too!).

As you know, I generally listen to music that reflects my current state of emotions, but this list is a definite exception. I just really like these songs, and I have no real connection to them other than that. Sort of. Yet.

Flowers in Your Hair:
So, now I think that I could love you back, and I hope it's not too late, 'cause you're attractive. And the way you move, I won't close my eyes. It takes a man to live. It takes a woman to make him compromise.


Be in my eyes, be in my heart.


Really, this is silly, picking out a favorite. I also love Classy Girls, Stubborn Love, and Ho Hey. I foresee a post dedicated entirely to The Lumineers by the time I see them in Oxford. They're simply delightful.


National Anthem:
Money is the anthem, of success, so put on mascara and your party dress


There is just something about this song. I cannot get enough of it. I seriously had it on repeat the entire way to work one morning. The video is also...interesting. You should check it out if you haven't already done yourself that favor. I know her album has been out a while, but I just now really started getting into it. I am also in love with Born to Die


Bad Religion:
If it brings me to my knees, It's a bad religion


This unrequited love, to me it's nothing but a one man cult and cyanide in my styrofoam cup. I could never make him love me, never make him love me, no, no.

This song is just so powerful. His voice is full of real pain, and it pulls you in, makes you hurt with him, feel his vulnerability. Unrequited love is one of the worst feelings, though it's one that many people, including myself, feel, and he really captures it in this song. I am meh about the rest of the album thus far, but a few more listens could change that.

Amazing Eyes:

You're a little bit broken and I'm a little bit broken. When we put ourselves together, my oh my. And you may not understand it, but something here is working. So, I don't mind, I don't mind, 'cause you're mine...you're mine.

I am in love with this band right now. Every song is just so beautiful. I heard this one, and I was immediately swept off of my feet. Do these men actually exist, that speak so affectionately about women? Even if they are few and far between, it gives me hope that maybe I can be someone's amazing eyes, (okay, that was my one sappy moment of the post--moving on).

Same Mistakes:

My friends are all a drag. They think I'm such a flake. They want to go to bed, I want to stay up late, walking the streets alone, thinking of you 'til dawn. I make the same mistakes

I heard this for the first time on the HBO show Girls (it has the BEST music). It's simple, to the point, and so incredibly real. We all make mistakes, but it seems there are some that I refuse to learn from, no matter how much I say I have or want to. I'd like to think that other 20 somethings trying to find their place in the universe do the same. 

So, those are the newest additions to my "Current Loves" playlist on iTunes. I'm always looking for new music, so if you think there's something you're listening to that I'd like, please share!

If we're still alive, then my regrets are few. If my life is mine, what shouldn't I do?

Taking Back Sunday Sunday

I never made a scene (well, they came to me).

It's that time again, kids! My trek to work these past few weeks has given me ample time for listening to music, and due to that, I've recently listened to Where You Want to Be from start to finish. I've never listened to one of their albums (minus New Again--yikes) in its entirety and thought, "well that was a let down." It's quite the opposite; I tend to fall in love with them all over again. 

Set Phasers to Stun

We paint our sins on the ceiling, I keep them glued to my chest. It keeps me close like a promise kept

I remember getting this CD back in high school, and I could not get enough of it. I listened to it over and over and over. As a result, the lyrics are ingrained in me. I couldn't forget them if I wanted to, (and  I don't). I guarantee I'll be the 90 year old lady trying to mic swing like Adam from my wheelchair, belting out these songs that helped get me through high school, (I envision being in trouble a lot in this home). I've already posted about them changing my life. That was a for real thing.

Bonus Mosh Pt. 2

(It's love, it's love) I wanted you for nothing more, (make it hurt; I deserve it), than hating you for what you were

There is something about that line that brings a Grinch-style smirk to my lips. 

A Decade Under the Influence

Anyone will do tonight, anyone will do tonight. Close your eyes, just settle, settle

I waited for what seemed like years for that music video to premier, and remember this is "back in the day" when I had no idea how to pirate anything, and I had to actually wait for these things to hear anything new from my favorite bands. 

This Photograph is Proof (I Know You Know)

So we're talking forever, and you almost feel better, but better's no excuse for tonight. You see it's never bad enough to just leave or give up, but it's never good enough to feel right.

New American Classic

See the months they don't matter, it's the days I can't take, when the hours move to minutes and I'm seconds away. 

Such a tragically beautiful song. To my sheer delight, my brother would sometimes play it on his guitar,and I've always imagined walking down the aisle, (if ever), to an instrumental version of it, (SN: Vitamin String Quartet's cover of TBS is phenomenal). 

I Am Fred Astaire

Well, I flipped every switch that I could find on my way out just to upset you more (just to keep you busy), just to make you angry, (just because you were right).

One-Eighty by Summer

Go on just say it; you need me like a bad habit, one that leaves you defenseless, dependent and alone

For a long time, those words were part of the running theme song of my dating life. It seems silly now, but then, I would sing scream them at the top of my lungs, (because if you do that, the person you're screaming them at will hear you and finally understand their idiocy...pause not). Oh, who am I kidding? I still do this. 

Number Five with a Bullet

It's a long way back south, to where I belong. Well, you've been there once or twice and you still don't like it. I say you just never gave it a chance, (give me a chance, give me a chance).

Little Devotional

I calm the crowd by keeping quiet, move like a shadow up to your mattress. Gentlemen don't ask questions. We could pay attention

I could never truly pick a favorite from this album, but I know that I was constantly going back and forth between this song and the next for such a title. 

...Slowdance on the Inside

Well, cross my heart and hope to...I'm lying just to keep you here

This glass house is burning down. You light the match; I'll stick around

There are so many good lines in that song that I might as well have posted the whole thing. If you've never heard it, you should treat yourself and change that tonight. In fact, you should really just give them all a listen. 

So, at some point a song called Follow the Format was released, and I don't know exactly which album it belongs to, but most references point to Where You Want to Be. Either way, I didn't hear until right before Louder Now came out, but it's my absolute favorite Taking Back Sunday song, without a doubt. 

Make a big scene. Make this glass house my coffin. You missed the big picture, well it's the words that you're coughing out on your sleeve, so forge my sins here in song. I'm telling you now what you've known all along. And it's tired, so true, more subtle than you. There's a lull in the stereo; it's calling for you, (calling for you).

It's not a lie if you believe it; it's no mistake if it's always repeated

That's it. I've decided that I'm relistening to this CD when I run my errands tomorrow. I honestly don't think I could ever get tired of them, especially as each album is so different from the others, but all are equally as good (to me). As always, it depends on my mood, and just how nostalgic I'm feeling as to which album I'm going to focus my energies on. Where You Want to Be and Tell All Your Friends pretty much dictated my life from 2002-2006 (high school), whereas Louder Now trickled over in to college. New Again  actually never happened in my mind, and Taking Back Sunday is still currently being attached to new memories and people, though it does have some faint hints of last summer. 

Well, that's it for this episode of Taking Back Sunday Sunday. 

Tonight won't make a difference

hummingbird heartbeat

Okay, so I promise I am going to get better at updating, because I know how much you're dying to read this blog bored you are at work.

I've been trying to catch up on all of these summer movies that have come out, but every weekend four more that I want to see premier. Thus far, I've seen Magic Mike, (overrated and a little boring), Moonrise Kingdom, (best Wes Anderson film to date), and Katy Perry: Part of Me. Yeah, yeah, chuckle all you want, but I left that movie with a smile stretched all the way across my face, and have subsequently been listening to Ms. Perry nonstop.

I know that I blog about a lot of bands that aren't the most "mainstream," but I can appreciate good pop music just like the rest of middle America, and Katy Perry is fantastic pop music. Are her lyrics comparable to that of Bright Eyes in terms of poetry and irony and blah, blah, blah? No, but they are real, and they are something so many girls (women?) my age can relate to: giddiness of new love,  memories of old ones, the disintegration of relationships, and then not letting anything break her. It's every emotion I've ever felt. With every song, I can find a situation in my life to which it applies. And I can dance to them in my living room alone for hours. That's what I like to call a win, win, win.

Here are some favorites (sans real life examples):

Lost: Is there a light at the end of the road? I'm pushing everyone away, 'cause I can't feel this anymore.


Not Like the Movies: 'Cause I know you're out there, and you're, you're looking for me, oooh. It's a crazy idea that you were made perfectly for me; you'll see.


Thinking of You: He kissed my lips; I taste your mouth. He pulled me in; I was disgusted with myself.


I'm Still Breathing: So, as I write this letter and shed my last tear, it's all for the better that we end this here. Let's close this chapter, say one last prayer, but don't say that you loved me.

Part of Me: You ripped me off, your love was cheap, was always tearing at the seams. I fell deep, you let me down, but that was then and this is now.

Hummingbird Heartbeat: I see the sun rise in your eyes, your eyes. We've got a future full of blue skies, blue skies.


Wide Awake: I am born again, out of the lion's den, don't need to pretend. And it's too late; this story's over now: the end.


The movie is full of fun performances and adorable fan meet and greets, but also shows the toll that touring for a year had on Katy, most notably her marriage. I nearly broke down in tears at one point. It was so real, her heartbreak, and so familiar. I just wanted to give her a hug and tell her it would all be okay. This would be wasted because she already knows this. And that's why I loved the movie. She continues to have fun and live her life on her terms for her dreams. She has her sad moments, then takes them and learns from them and MOVES ON. It's pretty amazing. If I had to pick one adjective to describe this movie going experience, it would be uplifting.

I will own this movie, and if I have ever have a really bad day, I am going to pop it in, dance around my living room, and turn that day around.



You don't have to feel like a wasted space. You're original, cannot be replaced. If you only knew what the future holds: after a hurricane comes a rainbow.






boom, boom, boom, even brighter than the moon, moon, moon