Earlier this week, I had a whirlwind 6 hours in New York city. I took the train into Grand Central and then walked (ok, ran) a solid 5 miles amongst the sun, crowds, farmers’ markets and freshly pressed Autumn collections. I stopped for lunch in Korea town, browsed Mario Batali’s food wonderland at Eataly, tried on perfumes and necklaces at ABC carpet, bought some vegetables in Union Square, and then headed to Soho for my customary stops at the IF Boutique, Morgane le Fay, Loopy Mango, Isabel Marant, Rag & Bone, Barbara Bui and Shoe. It was an incredible treat to be in the city the day before Fashion Night Out– when the store managers are dressing their windows and enjoying a brief, semi-peaceful creative jaunt before the madness. It was a great time to chat up employees about the season’s trends, their favorite garments and best-styled looks.

Armed with an iPhone camera and very comfy biker boots, I snapped 81 photos all over the city.
Here are some of my favorites:

Lunch (Junu Bimbombop) at Kum Gang San

Matta's Fall/Winter Collection at ABC Carpet

Closeup of Matta's Kantha-Inspired Dresses at ABC Carpet

More of Matta's exquisite quilted silks. I couldn't resist!

Entryway at Blooming Affairs florist. Just incredible.

Gourmet Cheeses at Eataly

Bakery sign on 6th Avenue

Gorgeous Loaves of Bread at Eataly

Fresh Herbs at the Union Square Farmers' Market

Concord Grapes & Yellow Tomatoes at the Union Square Farmers' Market

This barrel of purple and yellow wax beans was as pretty as a painting

Massive Stack of Radishes and Carrots at the Farmer's Market

Yes, I really do have a weakness for colorful, stacked vegetables

Lineup of White Dresses at Morgane le Fay

Morgane le Fay Showroom on Wooster Street

My favorite look from Morgane le Fay's new collection

Colorful draped coat by Ivan Grundhal at the IF Boutique in Soho

Plaid Taffeta Vest & Crinoline Skirt by Ivan Grundhal at the IF Boutique in Soho

Palette for Gary Graham's Fall Collection

Skirt in Hand-Dyed Floral Textile from Gary Graham's 2012 Collection

Metallic Hand-Threaded Ankle Boots by Elena Dawson (former apprentice of Paul Harnden)

I took a gaggle of photos at Gary Graham but sadly, almost none of them have the clarity or lighting to show off his incredible fabric techniques. I found the following images via Worthwhile, an  unparalleled clothing boutique in Charleston, South Carolina. Peruse and drool!
All of the following garments are for sale on their site. 

Gary Graham's Silk Quilt Print Dress, Fall/Winter 2012

Closeup of Gary Graham's Silk Quilt Print Dress

Asymmetrical Stripe Pullover Dress by Gary Graham

Egyptian Scarlet Dress by Gary Graham, Fall/Winter 2012

Felted Wool Deconstructed Vest by Gary Graham, Fall/Winter 2012

Qajar Jacquard Coat by Gary Graham, Fall/Winter 2012

Closeup of Qajar Jacquard Coat by Gary Graham

Blue Floral Hexagon Dress by Gary Graham, Fall/Winter 2012

Closeup of Fabric on Gary Graham's Floral Hexagon Dress

Good morning everyone! Happy Tuesday!

As a music lover, Tuesday is the happiest day of the week because it’s the day that new music is officially released in the US (via Itunes and Amazon).
In case you’re wondering— Wednesday is the second happiest day, because it’s the day that you get to re-listen to every bit of wonderment that you discovered on — you guessed it — Tuesday!

This post is part of a weekly series that features my top album releases of the week, both well-known albums and stuff I’ve dug up through my daily prowling of the interwebs. 

Admittedly, I’ve complained a lot this week about the music industry— the burden of increasingly low barriers to entry and the competition that arises from this: the need for artists to exist as a multi-hat, low-overhead business operation, nimbly playing “the booker,” “the tour manager,” “the PR rep,” “the videographer,” “the promoter,” “the web designer,” and a dozen or so other roles that are so incompatible with making art, it gives me the willies to think about.

Please understand. I’m not proposing an alternate paradigm. That’s not what this is about. I’m just bringing attention to fact that aside from the sales, the analytics, the publishing, distribution, labels and managers, and on and on at nauseum… under it all, there needs to be room for a wholesome, creative process. And the musician needs to be allowed to honor this creative process: to cocoon and wiggle and thoughtfully grow in a way that manifests/fosters art.

There are plenty of albums made in 3 days in a studio that sound raw and perfect and shouldn’t have been made any other way. Likewise, there are albums for which someone needs to hole themselves up in a cabin in Wisconsin for 2 years; they need to feel the earth and the seasons shifting around them; to have an existence slow and quiet enough to hear the ghosts of their life bubbling about under their fingernails.

Here’s the truth. Most times, you cannot tell the difference between an album that was made in 3 days and an album that was made in 2 years (I have favorite albums that I’ll gladly send you from both of these categories). You CAN however, hear the difference between an album that was allowed to become what it wanted to become and an album that feels like it was, umm, the only word that comes to mind is “chiseled.” Molded and checklisted and clipped to plan. And if you want a “hit song” that’s as formulaicly perfect as a bonsai tree, this is an OK way to go. But music-making. Real, honest, twisted music making requires space; the freedom to — after all of the air, and water and attention in the world —look wild and unruly. To look like a shriveled, gangly cactus, if that makes sense. Because afterall, if the artist’s heart feels like that cactus, then amen. Box those 12 songs up and lemme at them. It’s probably a fine, fine creation.

 Of course, this is a long rant that has nothing to do with it being Tuesday. I does however, have to do with the top releases of the day.

For the past few weeks, I’ve gotten in the habit of writing full introductions to each body of work; talking about who made it, what it sounds like, how it makes me feel and why you should buy it. There are 3 albums I’m buzzing about today and I’ve a week’s worth of thoughts for each of them. 9 whole draft posts that I’ve deleted in favor of simply saying:

These albums needed to be made, and they needed to grow in the slow, beautiful way they did. They’re albums to fill yourself with anytime you’re feeling sleepy about this whole, rugged industry, and need some propping up. (That last sentence is so true for me that I’m almost tempted to double up on it.)

It’s a medical fact that we feel weary when we don’t get enough oxygen to our brain and heart; this is why we involuntarily yawn— to force-fill our lungs and get air to the parts of the body that need it to keep going. There’s a breathing trick that my mother, a yoga teacher, taught me: to feel more alert, you gasp hearty breaths in rapid sequence, as though you’re starving and can’t get enough of the world around you.

The songs and videos below are like said air: something my body needed, and almost involuntarily, asks for repeatedly. Flowing through, they make the cogs of my mind spin around and pray together. They make me believe.

Robert Francis: Stranger in the First Place

Here’s Robert Francis talking about the process of writing and making the album:

Cold Specks: I Predict a Graceful Expulsion

I dare for you to watch the video for “Holland” and not be changed. Not to feel like the world is bigger and more violently beautiful than it was when you started watching. Do it. For more about Cold Specks and the song “Holland,” I urge you to read FuelFriend’s impossibly brilliant post about it. (Heather, thanks for writing this with such spirit and eloquence.) 

JBM (Jesse Marchant): Stray Ashes

JBM performing new song “Moonwatcher” at Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia last week. 

Lyrics for Moonwatcher, by JBM:

The wind blew down
Through the cracks of the home
And the frozen sides of it creaked
One day I’d of liked to see you come
Stay the night and fill me warm
With your sunlight
I just don’t feel right

You sift through the trash
They’ve thrown in your lap
You’re sailing past your feelings
But you can’t ignore ‘em
They’ll again come around
I can see you drowning
In your orders assigned
In the falling in line
I wish for you not a window to crack
But for all of the sun and ground
For your feeling well

Stay your leave
The way you’ve turned isn’t real
But I see it in your eyes
When you’re calm
There’s a leap in you
Face the blast
For all that you’ve been
What do you stand to keep
From running out the field?
There’s only one way out
They’ll wonder how it feels
When you wander out

Excuses, excuses. Stop for 30 seconds and take a deep breath. Be amazed.

“You Deserve…” is a photography series featuring 30 seconds of beauty at a time.

You may now go about your day. 

Good morning everyone! Happy Tuesday!

As a music lover, Tuesday is the happiest day of the week because it’s the day that new music is officially released in the US (via Itunes and Amazon).
In case you’re wondering— Wednesday is the second happiest day, because it’s the day that you get to re-listen to every bit of wonderment that you discovered on — you guessed it — Tuesday!

This post is part of a weekly series that features my top album releases of the week, both well-known albums and stuff I’ve dug up through my daily prowling of the interwebs.
Disclaimer: As much as I try to keep up with things, there are tons of great albums that sneak through the cracks, and I need your help to put a stop to that ridiculousness. If there’s an amazing album that I’ve missed, please send me a link (in the form below this monstrous posting) and I promise I’ll check it out. I’ll also try to talk about it in some fashion, maybe on my “third favorite day,” Saturday. 

Without further ado, here’s the list of stuff that is totally worth falling in love with:

Beach House: Bloom

Think of the possessions you had when you were very little: maybe an action figurine, some drawing paper or an epic collection of crayons and pencils. At a young age, this is the extent of our understanding of “ownership.” Our younger selves pay no attention to such substantial items as a house, furniture or food, or  how our elders acquire them. Perhaps the couch in my parents’ living room was built by dinosaurs and occupied that particular floor space since the beginning of time. Perhaps the orange, cheesy noodles on my plate came from an “orange noodle tree” and the family Subaru was given in trade for a giant GI Joe collection. 

One June, when I was 6 or 7, I received my first sand pail; a yellow, shiny, plastic miracle. And, even at this young age, I can remember the joy in knowing I was the new owner of something  important: a tool with which I could carry or build anything in the world. I could I sit on it and instantly declare that I “made a chair.” I could spill sand from its mouth and declare that I “made a castle.” I could gather water and Rhode Island periwinkles and announce that I “made them a home.”

Only in hindsight can I appreciate what an empty pail and beach house meant to my growing, curious mind. To have a full season for popsicle drippings and planting watermelon trees in my belly; for staring at cloud animals and feeling as though the whole, blue universe smelled like possibility. The assurance that every morning, the tide would give me a new, sandy slate on which to rewrite the world.

When I was 16, in the span of a sunny 3 months, I experienced my first “real” date, first real love and my first breakup. I remember the beginning: a day at the beach, a sunset perch atop a rocky cliff; feeling too warm to hold someone’s hand but doing so anyway. The sensation that suddenly, this lovely thing that had happened to everyone around me was no longer happening around me, but to me and within me. Finally, I was aware the size of my heart — an empty, pink landscape that I could fill with whatever and whoever I wanted to. If I had enough time, I could build a castle.

As we age, there are fewer and fewer “firsts.” We have to work harder to marvel at empty spaces; to replicate that tingly-belly feeling that happened to us when the final, closing school bell sounded.
The song “Myth,” by Beach House rings through me in this way. It flushes watermelon juice through my veins and makes my hands feel too warm to grab onto anything. It gobs SPF50 on my heart to keep the world from burning it.

Today, I will set “Myth” to repeat and let it play steady through September. When the first leaves begin to turn, I’ll walk this song into the woods and let it play to the forest. I’ll make sure it reverbs warmth through everything threatening to grow old. I’ll fool the pine needles.

Listen to “Myth” by Beach House

Beach House is a Baltimore-based band composed of Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand, and Daniel j Franz. Their fourth full-length album Bloom was released this morning.

 Ren Harvieu: Through the Night

Ren Harvieu is sorcerous. Her voice casts spells on my ears, dizzies my eyes and dries my tongue so that it cracks when words try to happen.

Just four months ago, Ren experienced a terrifying near-death accident and doctors declared that she’s never walk again. Laying in the hospital with a metal spine and pins holding her together, Ren received a call from her childhood hero Johnny Marr. He’d heard her songs, wanted to meet her and make music together.

With support from family and friends, Ren recovered enough to record her debut album Through the Night. It became available yesterday in the UK. Ren performed her song “Open Up Your Arms” on Later with Jools Holland earlier this week. If I weren’t so speechless, I’d try to tell you how spectacular it is. Umm, just watch it. 

This meal happened beautifully and simply. So simply that I’m inclined to only use one or two syllable words to describe it. Oh darn, I already broke my own rule. Well, you get the idea.

It was late Sunday afternoon. I walked through the grocery store, empty-headed, grazing the vegetables, waving to random strangers in line at the meat counter, sampling pastries. I bought a coffee and did at least 4 laps around the store before I remembered that I had a purpose for being there. The store was alive with list making and late weekend conversations. I wanted to take everything in.

Somehow, mid-wandering, the colors for this meal found my eyes. Somehow, my fingers grabbed the items and my brain agreed with them. The flavors developed later— much later, like at the exact second I poured a bucket of soy sauce over the steak. Yep, that’s pretty much when the idea for soy sauce “happened.”

This meal is delicious, no doubt. If pressed, I’d call it a modern take on Korean-Japanese fusion. But, I’m really not in the mood for titles.

 I work hard, as I assume that most of you who are reading this do too. I sit at a desk, staring down a computer screen with, at any given time, 30-40 Chrome tabs open and about 6 different jockeying Word documents. I’m not complaining. I know that I’m lucky to have a place to go every day that needs me, and I need it. I do. But there’s a gloss that wears down on my eyes by the end of a long Friday; a slump in my back that takes a whole 48 hours and a bottle of wine to jiggle free.

 This meal happened because it had to happen. Because I told myself that I needed to find something beautiful and make it a part of me. I needed to play, and walk foolishly around an aisle of fruit letting the weird hues talk to me.

 I ate this elegant meal while sitting cross-legged in my favorite pajamas. I swallowed it down with the last can of beer in the refrigerator and talked about it, while chewing across from the one man who doesn’t care when there’s seaweed hanging off my forehead.

I was restored.

Ingredients:
 

For the Steak:
2lbs flank steak
1 cup rice vinegar
2 tbsp. sugar
1 red chili, chopped
1 sliced garlic glove
½ cup chopped scallions
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup sesame oil

For the Seaweed:
1 2oz package dried wakame seaweed
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cups soy sauce
¼ cup sesame oil
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp. sesame seeds
1 tbsp. finely grated ginger

For mushrooms:
1lb portabella mushrooms, finely sliced
1/2 cup cooking sake
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp diced ginger
1/2 stick melted butter
freshly ground black pepper

For pickle:
1 cup diced star fruit
1/2 cup diced Asian pear
2/3 cup rice vinegar
2 tbsp. sliced gingers
½ cup sugar
1 tsp Korean chili flakes
salt, to taste

Directions:

Combine all steak marinade ingredients in a large zip lock bag. Marinate steak in bag at least 8 hours, turning every 2 hours. Yeah, I know, that sounds like a major project. It’s worth it though. Essentially, you’re curing the meat, so it only needs to be cooked slightly. When you eat it, it’ll be packed with flavor and super tender. 

About an hour and a half before you’re ready to eat:
Heat the oven to 350°. Carefully wash the mushrooms, then place them in a small, shallow, oven-proof dish. Combine the sake, soy sauce, butter and ginger, and pour over top so the liquid covers the mushrooms. Dust with ground pepper. Bake for 1.5 hours, then drain the mushrooms from their braising liquid and set aside.

Reconstitute the seaweed according to package instructions (bathe, drain, rinse, etc.) Combine all seaweed ingredients into a bowl, adding more soy sauce to taste. 

Combine the starfruit and pear in a large mixing bowl. Add all remaining ingredients, cover and chill for 1 hour before serving.

Remove steak from the bag, pour off the marinade and lay it in a shallow baking dish. Broil for 5 minutes on each side. Slice thinly.

To serve: make a blanket of seaweed on the plate, top with the sliced steak, scatter with the mushrooms, and mound the pickles fruit on top (squeezing out the pickling liquid as you go). Optionally, garnish with sliced scallions. This dish can be served warm, at room temperature, and as I found out the following evening, cold. 

Original recipe, written in purple crayon, by Bre Goldsmith

Well, it’s Tuesday again, the happiest day of the week for U.S. music lovers. And, if this were a ‘normal’ Tuesday, the space below would be filled with lengthy verbal applause, music videos, sneak peek tracks, etc. In other words, I’d have something more inspiring to say about the today’s releases than “Hey, two of them have the word ‘magic’ in their titles!”

Today, with apologies, I need to take a brief break from the Tuesday tradition— not because there aren’t great releases today (there ARE), but because I’ve had a fever on/off since Sunday and have the attention span of a Golden Retriever puppy.

And now for The Longest Metaphor Explanation in the History of This Site:

An owner throws a tennis ball, the puppy chases it and runs back immediately, ball in mouth. The owner tosses it again. The puppy (who we’ll call “Bre” for the sake of this story) gets super excited, bounds around all drooley-faced, chanting “Ball! Ball! I love you ball!” The owner throws the tennis ball a third time and the puppy dashes off. It seems like this could go on forever. And yet, halfway through the third retrieval, the puppy discards the ball without warning and begins to wriggle her fluffy belly around in the grass. “Grass! Grass! I love you grass!”

Soon after, she’s picking at some tree bark; she’s peeing on the deck; she’s eating a rock; she’s chasing the shadow of her own ears.

A half hour later, she finds a round, fuzzy, fluorescent green item in the yard. She stares at it with glossy, brown, bewildered eyes. “Hmm, I wonder what this thing does?”

In my lucid moments, I’ve thought a lot about the following lyrics from “How Do I Know” from Brooklyn-based Here We Go Magic.

How do I know I love you?
When I sure like your bread
The way that you tucker and straighten your bed
But how do I know if I love you? 

How do I know if I know you?
When you come out clean from the shower
You squeak to the touch and you smell like a flower
How do I know if I know you?… 

How do I know if I love you?
When all these things come and go?
You can’t stand them together in a neat little row?
So how do I know, how do I know, how do I know?

Surely, this song was written about a person; a person who does things like eating bread, and showering, and walking about. But, since I’m straight off a lengthy email correspondence on the subject of “song love,” I’m going to take a little creative freedom with the meaning of these lyrics. Please give me some rope…

Music journalists listen to A TON of music. It’s exhausting, and admittedly, at times, enough to make me want to just power my ears down for a couple days and “accidentally” leave my laptop some place I can’t find it. When I choose to write about a song—one song, out of the hundred I may have listened to that week— it’s because I’ve fallen in love with it. Maybe not head over heels every time, but certainly a noteworthy crush. This crush is a prerequisite for any words to appear, let alone a full post.

In select, very special instances, there’s such extreme love that words or documentation are a disservice. Like the crush in “How Do I Know,” it’s simply unquantifiable. There is no method for stacking the reasons why last week, I listened to a single track for 5 full hours every morning; for why I spent ½ of my waking energy with the same lovely best friend. There just isn’t.

 There’s a pile of songs released today that plenty of well-meaning people have told me I should love. And, let’s say about another 5 albums that MOG, Spotify and FB advertising have swept my way. Today, I’ve listened to the better part of ALL of these. I write “the better part” simply because there were A LOT of tennis balls and tree shadows that were vying for my attention. To all of these songs: “I’m glad you were made. And, even if I don’t quite hear the reasons why, I’m glad you’re making my friends happy.”

 To the select group of songs below, I say, “For whatever reason, you have been, and will continue to be perfect to me. When I trudged home and hung my coat after this long, feverish day, I wanted so badly to shut out the world. And yet, in my weariness, I still wanted you be with me… So, thank you for being the “sounds” I needed, at the moment when I felt like cursing off all sounds. Thank you for being the words I needed, when I was tired of every syllable. Thank you for being the warmth I needed when the blankets and tea weren’t enough.” 

“Big Apple,” by Shayna & The Catch

I’ve been waiting to own this song since I heard it live at SXSW 2011. That’s all I’m sayin’

How Do I Know, by Here We Go Magic

“Blood Mary (Nerve Endings)” by Silversun Pickups

“Two Angels” by S.Carey

Good morning everyone! Happy Tuesday!

As a music lover, Tuesday is the happiest day of the week because it’s the day that new music is officially released in the US (via Itunes and Amazon).
In case you’re wondering— Wednesday is the second happiest day, because it’s the day that you get to re-listen to every bit of wonderment that you discovered on — you guessed it — Tuesday!

This post is part of a weekly series that features my top album releases of the week, both well-known albums and stuff I’ve dug up through my daily prowling of the interwebs.
Disclaimer: As much as I try to keep up with things, there are tons of great albums that sneak through the cracks, and I need your help to put a stop to that ridiculousness. If there’s an amazing album that I’ve missed, please send me a link (in the form below this monstrous posting) and I promise I’ll check it out. I’ll also try to talk about it in some fashion, maybe on my “third favorite day,” Saturday. 

Without further ado, here’s the list of stuff that is totally worth falling in love with:

Hope For Agoldensummer: Life Inside the Body

Hope For Agoldensummer is an Athens, Georgia-based indie-folk trio composed of sisters Claire & Page Campbell, and bandmate / engineer Suny Lyons. Their debut album Life Inside the Body comes out today.
I discovered this band through Bruce @ SomeVelvet earlier in the year and immediately began searching the internet for more information about them. The first eight times I typed their band name into the search bar, I did so incorrectly. As a former Communications major, I’m incapable of morphing three words into one frankenstein creation. To do so, I literally have to place a sweater or similar barrier over the space key and then whistle loudly enough to distract my left temporal lobe from normal function (just kidding. I totally can’t whistle.)

At the end of the end of my search, I found “Daniel Bloom,” a song that feels as dusty and hopeful as an August lantern light; fragile as a lover’s face, or the last golden, flicker of oil. This song has beautiful, heavy eyes and a simplicity that makes me want to write the rest of this post using only tiny, undercase letters. 

after the tenth listen, it occurred to me that in the splendid, folky, universe of this song, it’s possible that all summers are, in fact, golden. hmm… i write, once again, “agoldensummer” feeling very formal, as though i’m calling the season by it’s first and last name.
just for extra practice, I write “iloveyou.”

Here’s a short performance of “Hold Me Close,” followed by “Daniel Bloom”

 Daniel Bloom Lyrics:

this is a love letter because we all need them
and they come. they come so rarely
i want to know can i love you the same
as before my heart strayed out of loneliness
oh and my days are too long
oh and my nights are too serious
 
daniel won’t you come by my school
daniel won’t you come by my school
I want to educate you
I want to educate you 

mister bloom, i’ve made some room
in my mind for thoughts of you
how i like the way your hair does curl
like the way the leaves do twirl
as they fall through our hands

 oh daniel
oh daniel
oh damn i will hold out
hold out
hold out

oh will you come for me
oh will you come for me

 Rufus Wainwright: Out of the Game

Rufus Wainwright‘s 7th studio album, Out of the Game comes out today via Polydor. The album, produced by Mark Ronson, features his sister Martha Wainwright, drummer Andy Burrows, members of the Dap-Kings, Sean Lennon and Wilco’s Nels Cline. The project has already received such notorious press that in late 2011, several publications declared Out of the Game on their advanced lists of “most anticipated releases for 2012.” Woah!

Here’s a video preview for “Out of the Game,” featuring Helena Bonham Carter. Ahem, those last 3 words should be more than enough to get you to click on this. That woman has irresistible swagger. 

 Reptar: Body Faucet

Athens, Georgia-based Reptar releases their debut full-length album Body Faucet  today via Vagrant Records. Start to finish, it’s a sunny punk, electro, psychedelic, Island and Afro-beat wonderland— maybe even another planet. No joke.

Before you click on “Sebastian” (below) let me just warn you that this track caused quite a “rager” during my drive home yesterday. Somehow, just 2 minutes into both the song and my daily commute, I was surrounded by imaginary streamers, bongos, maracas, finger paints and, honestly, the most colorful rum concoctions I’ve ever seen! As far as imaginary parties go, this one was a dizzy, fluorescent affair, and it stripped the long workday so thoroughly from my mind that I wondered if it had happened in the first place. 

Do it NOW.

Additional Links:

Band profile by Project Rhythm Seed 

Sea of Bees: Orangefarben 

New York-based Sea of Bees, aka: Julie Ann Bee, releases her second full-length record Orangefarben today. A fan of her work since 2010, it wasn’t until this morning that I started pondering the metaphorical relevance of her moniker. Yes, her music is swarming at times, even lyrically stinging, but it’s the concept of a sea that really intrigues me.

Julie is one voice, and the sole instrumentalist in this work. And yet she makes music that swells, that sweeps powerfully and carries you away with it. One person, indeed, but a grand emotional orchestrator, the maker of tidals. 
In nearly every song, there is a quiet, sparkling quality to her opening lines. The layering happens organically, expertly. Synthesizers rise, piano keys fill, and bass lines float and surge. And at once, there’s dark matter all around you; you’re swimming in something both exquisite and crippling. 

“Orangefarben, the second Sea of Bees full-length, is a beautiful and striving work that finds the young songwriter applying the same intrepid lyrical spirit that marked Ravens to an unblinking exploration of the unfolding and dissolution of her first love.” —Sea os Bees’ biography

Listen to “Wizbot,” my most-listened-to track from her first release:

Watch the video for new track “Broke”

If you’ve read/listened to this point in the post: Congratulations. Your Tuesday is officially going to be EXTRA happy.
If for any reason, you’re not happy enough yet or are still in the mood to procrastinate, go check out:

Father John Misty’s Fear Fun

Norah Jones’ latest album: Little Broken Hearts

Santigold’s Master of My Make Believe

Nick Waterhouse’ Time’s All Gone