Music Monday - Jack Johnson

Oh Jack Johnson, how you soothe my soul! And you are so absolutely gorgeous to look at. I've now seen him twice, and each time I failed to bring my camera along. Boo. Luckily the second time, iPhones had been invented so I could at least have some photographic evidence.

The first time I went with a bunch of friends and were so excited because we were young enough that we hadn't been to many concerts and we were still excited by the overpriced food, long toilet queues and sweaty mosh-pits. It was a magical night made better by the earth hour tribute they did complete with an acoustic set and candles. Awesome!

 Dodgy phone picture numero uno.

And the other.

The second time was thanks to some wicked good free tickets with my sister and her friends which was also an awesome time. We loitered more at the back of the pack and were able to actually semi-dance (or in my case, attempt to sway in time to the music which is the extent of my dancing abilities). Jack has an incredible talent that is better portrayed in a live setting. I would love to see him doing an acoustic set in a more intimate environment one day. I shall dream!

I tried to upload a video I took of his song 'Flake' but I am too new to Blogger to figure out how to do it properly so instead, here is a good ole' youtube clip of it.

Music Monday - Cat Stevens

I have decided that this blog needs a little more structure. I am an organisational freak and it's starting to irk me a little that my posts are willy nilly (nope? You don't use that saying?) so I hereby present Music Mondays, the super original concept of posting something music related on Mondays. Whoa! 

Do you remember/know Cat Stevens? In my family, he has been with us (or at least his music has) for so many family memories.

My first memory of him is his album, Remember Cat Stevens: The Ultimate Collection. It seemed to play and play in our blue Toyota Landcruiser as we travelled across the extent of Australia. This is a 4000km (2485 mile) journey so having some music is a pretty good idea. Our family did this trip several times and this song is one of my strongest memories. By the end of the trip I'm fairly sure we all knew every single word to every single song.

My mum also has a terrible condition whereby she is incapable of remembering which band/singer is responsible for singing a song. One of her better moments is when she was convinced that 'I am a rock' by  Simon and Garfunkel was by Cat Stevens. It took a lot of convincing aided by youtube videos to convince her otherwise.

I still have some of Dad's original records of Cat Stevens that we all enjoy listening to on my recently purchased record player from time to time.

Finally, there used to be this little greek cafe down the road from us called kafeneon. Mum, Dad and I would often go down there for a coffee, or babycino, before or after work and school. One day when we were down there, a musician wielding a guitar was singing in the corner. He started playing 'Father and Son' by Cat Stevens and I went up to him and said I loved Cat Stevens. He nearly fell off his chair when he saw that I was a six year old who knew Cat Stevens.

I love Cat Stevens and that beautiful, unique voice of his. And to end this post, I shall leave you with 'Father & Son'. Bliss.

What I'm Listening to Now.

Lana Del Rey. Seems to have cropped out of nowhere with this amazing tune, Video Games. Seen on people's face books, blogs and twitters - it's time it made it here.

The Wine Song by The Cat Empire will forever remain one of my favourite songs. I recently went to one of their performances for the fourth time, but more on that later! Anyway this song was on the first album I bought, was at the first concert I went to and reminds me of holidays down south with friends. Lush!

And this song from the freaking awesome new movie, Crazy Stupid Love has got me falling in love. Here is Oh oh oh oh oh oh etc by Say Hi. 

And finally some new-ish Feist. How Come You Never Go There?

Enjoy your weekend peeps! And enjoy the reemergence of my regular posting because exams finished today! Hurrah!

Pete Murray at The Breakwater

A few weeks ago, I went and saw Pete Murray with my friend and my sister. It was a nice intimate gig with about 50 listeners from the radio station where my sister works, nova 937. I saw Pete perform at Southbound a few years ago and he is just the same but so totally different now. I don't know whether it's just because I was closer to him, but he just seems to be getting better looking with age. Yum! And I hear he is currently single and ready to mingle? Yes, Pete Murray you can serenade me to sleep whenever you like.

(ps - sorry about the shitty quality of the images! That's what an iPhone can do to you)

He definitely suited the smaller crowd and I don't want to toot my own horn but I think we were a totally rad audience as he trialed his new album out on us.

Ooh moody and mysterious picture. He performed at The Breakwater in Hillarys which has just been done up and is oh so lush right now. Word of warning though: the hand dryers in the bathrooms blow wind on to your hands of hurricane proportions! We actually had fun making rips in our hands and may have pretending we were skydiving at one point..

The guitarist was pretty fine too. He kind of looked like an ex-rugby player who left the game through injury and began soul-seeking with his guitar in hand. Not that my friend and I were speculating or anything..

Apart from the pretty dodgy free house white wine they were giving us, which came straight from a goon bag no doubt, it was a really good night. It was nice to travel a bit out of our usual pub going radius and awesome to see such a good performer in such close quarters. Hopefully I will be able to uncover my photo with him soonish!