This is Required Listening our weekly blog crush-a-thon wherein we laud praise and adoration upon the things that have been relentlessly streaming into our earholes, dilating our pupils and causing surges of fanboy/girl love bliss. Here’s what we’re in love with this week:
Whistling Dixie With Angus Stone
Gotta love a good whistle and Aussie Angus Stone’s is right up there with Edward Sharpe and those Peter, Bjorn and John boys in my estimation. Angus recently came in second on our weekly music video poll The Freshmen and his video for “Wooden Chair” has been in rotation on my computer ever since. Not only is it a great folk rock song but the clip has a 16mm sugary nostalgic vibe that hooks me every time. Fireworks shooting off of cars as they do doughnuts, babes floating on rafts, kitty cat masks. Give me more. And seriously, watch Angus Stones “Wooden Chair” below (for the impatient the whistling commences @ 01:13) THEN watch Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros “Home”, THEN watch Peter, Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks” to experience a whistling trifecta the likes of which you’ve probably never seen before. You can thank me later.
Wish I Could Swim (Naked) With Breathe Owl Breathe (Just Kidding On The Naked Part) (Just Lying On The Kidding Part)
Ahh, the buttery voices, that floating synth line, those lyrics and that drummer wearing a snorkel. Listening to this performance of “Swimming” by Michigan folk band Breathe Owl Breathe is like skinny dipping under the glow of a full moon while gazing at aurora’s as someone reads you Dr. Seuss or something. Whatever, it’s hard to explain. Just relax and fall into it. Ok, the end part where they hold hands. That may be a bit much. Then again maybe not, because I’m pretty convinced they mean it. Anyways, Breathe Owl Breathe, if you’re out there “You can splash me if you want to.”
Also can’t avoid making splendid lyrical/spiritual connections between this song and Loudon Wainwright III’s “The Swimming Song” of which San Francisco band Vetiver has a great cover of on their 08 album Thing Of The Past. You should listen to that right here.
Riff Raff’s Mouth Full Of Metal And Ice Blue Eyes
If you don’t already know Riff Raff, he is a braided white rapper with a mouth full of metal, ice blue eyes and a unique Houston drawl that spits some totally off the wall poesy. His videos have been exploding on youtube and the clip for “TiME” below is particularly righteous in all it’s feet in face glory. But We fell in love with him after catching him running the game on the VMA Red Carpet for MTV Hive’s show Weird Vibes. The dude is one of those people who is so incredibly good at being his unique self it inspires others to do the same. So shout out to Riff Raff, hope you find someone “to cook for you” (watch the video) and peace.
Also if you look up Riff Raff on wikipedia you get this: Riffraff is a term for the common people or hoi polloi, but with negative connotations. The term is derived from Old French ‘rif et raf’ meaning ‘one and all, every bit’
The dude is deep man.
