Thursday 18 February 2010

Lazy Saturday music

Saturdays at our house are usually pretty lazy (the 2 kiddos up as always since 7am (when will they realise that weekends = sleep in late?!), a tired Huzz back from yet another business trip and different time zone, and me recovering from another week home alone with kiddos).  There's a lot hanging around, drinking coffee, me just pottering about, Huzz and Luca on iTunes checking out the latest movie trailers, Ruby ransacking the kitchen cupboards for "more cookie".

Not as lazy as they used to be pre-kiddos of course.  Whose are?

In those days, Huzz and I would get up late (after a late night in town trying out new bars or restaurants).  We'd drink coffee and eat piles of warm toast with Marmite, and then wander (or cycle) into town.  We'd do a little shopping and I'd try to find a new favourite shop in this new town (having been spoilt by London stores, this was really difficult) and then Huzz would head to the best music store in town "Bullit Records".  One of his favourite things to do was listen to the "new music recommendations" at Bullit.  Being away, from the UK he felt a little lost / left behind on the new music scene, and having always loved to hear about new bands "Bullit" was the perfect place to find something different.  They'd have recommendations of the week to try out whilst seated at bar stools with huge cool headphones on.  Huzz would quite happily pass an hour or so checking out new bands from across the world and we ended up with some music we'd never have come across elsewhere.  Sadly, Bullit is now closed - high rents pushed the private owner out.  Then at a Christmas party a month or so back (yep we're already more than halfway through Feb - how did that happen?) we were introduced to the host's friend, a dutchman, and during conversation he turned out to be the founder and owner of Bullit.  It was great to find out who had tracked down all those greats bands we had bought cds of and here all his stories of the shop and the music etc.

Anyhow, our new music discoveries are these days found via the MTV New Music channel.  This week I heard a new song that caught my attention  immediately.  More surprising was that one of the duet was the actress Scarlett Johansen.  I had no idea she was a recording artist too.  I'd seen some of her movies and her modelling for Dolce en Gabanna perfume, but I'd never heard anything about her singing.  The song is 'Relator' and recorded with Pete Yorn, and turns out they have recorded an album too.

Pete Yorn (if you didn't already know, like me) is a major recording artist and has performed alongside Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Crowded House, REM, Weezer, The Dixie Chicks, Semi-Sonic, Dave Matthews Band - all on our iTunes.  He's also scored tracks for some big box office movies - Shrek, Me Myself & Irene, My Sister's Keeper, Spider Man and also plenty of tv soundtracks.  Why haven't I heard about him before - ah yes, we're not sitting in Bullit records on Saturdays these days!

Here is 'Relator' by Pete and Scarlett .....  what do you think?  I really like her voice on this track.



I'd love to hear any music recommendations from you.  Anything and everything.  It would be good to hear what music you are listening to in your part of the world - it might end up playing in our living room on our lazy Saturdays.

9 comments:

  1. I've never heard of him or her before but i love this, she has a wonderful voice!

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  2. I didn't know him but her I never expected her to have that sort of voice! I really like it, very nice thank you for sharing :)
    I am sorry but I can't recommend much these days, I have lost touch with music and I love it, that's so sad... OK from now on I am going to make sure I find new artists regularly or at least listen to radio more often. I'd quite like a place like bullit around here, especially one that bans children and makes coffee, that would be my Saturdays sorted :)
    BTW thank you for the bday message for E x

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  3. I can SO identify! Sometimes I find myself longing for the days when we could just be us and sleep... okay, so mostly I miss the sleep! But I don't know what I would do without our little tribesmen... besides sleep more! :-)

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  4. whoa! i haven't listened to pete yorn in probably seven years...thanks for this trip down memory lane! i'll have to find more of his "new" stuff. why did i ever stop listening to him?!!!

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  5. Wow! I love her voice. She is so stunning and talented.

    I use Spotify to listen to new music. I don't know if you'd be able to access it over there, though. One other thing I like to do is listen to internet radio stations, my favourite being LA K Jazz - jazz station I discovered on a trip to LA. I can discover new jazz and pretend i'm driving the streets of LA - perfect!

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  6. she has a fabulous voice. thanks for the introduction.

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  7. What a great place Bullit sounds and too bad it closed. But what luck you met the founder. My husband is the real music buff in our house - buys loads of CDs, has stacks of vinyl, reads up on it. I have to really like something before I'll buy it but I am beginning to download stuff onto my iPod as tasters. I like jazz, old things like Talking Heads, Kate Bush etc, plus Vampire Weekend, Bjork,Edwyn Collins, then soul classics, Corinne Bailey Rae. Great post!

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  8. That is very sad about Bullit- sounds like it was a great little place. I am always really quite upset when an independent music or book shop closes and I genuinely do try to use book shops as much as I can. Independent music shops in London can be harder- I do use them for what they sell but sometimes if you just need something it has to be HMV- but at least that is a physical shop too.

    I haven't listened to Scarlett Johansen's stuff so I will (when I'm at home!) I really like Zooey Deschanel's music and wasn't sure if that would just be an actress with a vanity project but she surprised me and I adore She and Him.

    I wish Scarlett would get back to the cool films she used to do- Ghostworld and Lost in Translation type stuff- and away from mainstream stuff.

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