Driving Music

Dear Abby-

In response to the cool jams post that you wrote a few days back, I have decided to compile a list of my favorite summer jams of the moment, particularly "Cool Summer Jams Driving Music". miss you. these are just randomly picked jams and there are lotz more to come (most that you haven't heard, because the ones below you probably already know. oopz)

LOVE,

SAS

Since I've been back in Jersey for the past 2 weeks, i've been swimming in a sea of mix cd's i've made since my ipod doesn't work in the car i'm using here. Like a true lazy person, none of these CDs are titled and out of the 6 i made, i never can tell which one is which. I just put in the disc and hope for the best. Each CD is obviously filled to the brim with Jams that Are Cool but there is always that guaranteed song on there that ignites a O_o face. Like a Faith Evans song that I randomly threw in or a vintage R.Kelly slow jam. What joke is that supposed to be? A joke with myself? Am I supposed to chuckle at the irony of "Bump & Grind" coming on after a Pavement song with myself? The answer to that is yes because I am without my little sidekick this summer. That sidekick, being Abby obvz.

One thing that rules about New Jersey, driving and listening to music (yes, all at the same time. a threesome, if you will) is the drive that we have dubbed "The route" (dude, that's what we call it right? i'm being all Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants official about it but im 98% sure that's what we've named it). This so-called "Route" is a beautiful drive that begins in Red Bank on West Front Street, all the way through Fair Haven, Rumson, over the bridge, through Navesink River road and down to 35 in Middletown. Make sense? Get it now? U Gun Find us Now?

Anyway- no route trip is complete without a great soundtrack, amiright? This is something that I believe firmly in. This belief is that driving music is essential to life! Driving is a way for me to clear my head, and so is music so WHAM, the two of them colliding is just necessary. I will pass this philosophy along to my future children along with "always wear mascara, never trust men who speed/have racer-type cars, beware of girls with bad eyebrows because they are usually tramps, kiss a french guy at least twice in your life & don't wear two sports-bras to make it look like you're flat chested when you're 12 like i did".

Sadly, Abby is not with me during these drives to scream with, dance, yell and ask "DUDE HOW GOOD IS THIS SONG RIGHT NOW WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SO GOOD?". So, I will give a little list of my favorite songs of the moment and a little blurb about why I believe that these Jams Rank High on the Chart of the Cool.

Alright, let me apologize in advance for how shitty and weird Youtube videos can be. The selection for songs/music videos are always awful and limited. A pure example of this? The video above. You'd think some bozo would make a fan video for good Otis Redding songs but no. I need to resort to a video that is a ..recording..of.a..video..game?

This song rules and reminds me of driving to Vermont with Abby last summer. We had just left Boston after a whirlwind of crazy (think the Kelly Bensimon breakdown island episode of Real Housewives of NYC. that's all i'm saying) and we set out on the road to Burlington, VT. I had never been to Vermont and the trip there was gorgeous. The beautiful green mountains that were as tall as can be, with an Otis Redding soundtrack. I love singing this song and I know every word.

You know how music effects your mood and how you tend to feel in that very moment? Well, today I was driving around, kind of sulking and let's face it: crying. Yes, crying! Isn't that such a sad girl thing to write about on a blog? What a wuss! But really. It was kind of a happy, mostly frustrated cry. Life is weirdy but also awesome sometimes (another Abby/Sarah mantra).

Anywho, i was just doin' ma thang, letting my emotions loose and I think the fact that 'crying' kind of music like "Impossible Germany" by Wilco was playing made it more dramatic than it should have been. Then this Peaches gem came on and UM, how do you fucking cry or sulk when this song comes on? The answer is: you just don't. You turn into a crazy person and instantly start smiling and dancing inside your body/or even outside your body and feelin the beat. This beat is something that will Be Felt Whether You Want to Feel It Or Not. You can't feel sorry for yourself when Peaches comes on. She kicks you in the face while throwing you onto the caboose of her Strong Bitch Train and I'd have it no other way.

I've been a huge Deerhunter fan for the past year but never really gave Atlas Sound a listen. This song is heartbreakingly great and romantic although it's talking about dying. Eesh, dying. Bradford Cox would. Good thing i'm a morbid bitch, cause i'm into it. I'm really trying to write this without talking about how spooky looking he is. Oh, there I go. I guess I couldn't accomplish trying not to bring it up. Dude, it's hard! I know he can't help it. I'm not hating on it. (just google image him, arite?) I'm in full support of it because it adds to the whole mystical and mysterious attitude that Deerhunter/Atlas Sound puts out. If he was dressed up to the nines lookin' like Zac Efron, I doubt I'd listen.

Imagine if one day I didn't like Wilco? That's kind of a nightmare of mine. I love Mermaid Avenue (one of the albums by Billy Bragg & Wilco) but this song in particular just kills me. It's so beautiful and dreamy. Doesn't it make you want to put some sort of a heart-print sundress on and run around nature with some beardy hot person that thinks you're so cool? I think that scenario is a dream that Abby and I both share and fills our heads on the daily. That along with salty foods, obese babies and beautiful old floral-y thingz.


This will most likely bring the LOLs, but really dude this song kind of rules! Say Anything makes me want to put on checkered vans, a studded belt, eyeliner and make out with boys in cars! It just reminds me of YOUTH! Youth that was only a mere 4 years ago but feels like forever. Don't even try to tell me this song doesn't rule. okay you can try to tell me, and i will most likely laugh and agree with you but c'mon bro. feel it. the beat? a little? kissing boys in cars? ......vans? its fine.
Abby, Florence +The Machine will always remind me of you & Ireland. It took me awhile to get aboard the F+TM train but now that I am safely buckled in & in my seat, i am so ready for it. And although I texted you this just a few days ago, I will repeat myself: it is the best music to put your soul into while singing, pointing your finger all over the place in a sassy Mariah Carey esque way. So much ATTITUDE in it yet it is still so precious and fairy-like.

It will also forever remind me of that guy in Ireland who was an angel but a little "out of the loop" who would ask "Is this Florence + The Machine?" when it was, in reality, a Donna Summer song or something playing on the radio. He just wanted to ride that train also and hopefully he has caught up with it like I have. I'll save him a seat, just in case. I know he'll get here soon enough.

I'm going to be that guy and go ahead and state that the beginning of this song is perhaps my favorite beginning to a song.ever. Maybe it's because of my new southern home, but I am so into good ol' boy southern rock. Give me a denim jacket, some sharp bootz, a cig behind my ear and a twang any day. I don't really know what that means but Y'ALL this song makes me want to slam a beer bottle onto someone's face and ride in the back of a pick up truck.

THE BEAT. simply. it's different than the Tilly & The Wall that we loved so much in high school, i know. But it's kind of one of those jams that make you want to hold a drank in ya hand and shake your hair around and dance. And by dance, I don't mean a crab-dance (me) or a scat/crazy finger dance (abby). I mean a foot stompin, non-chalant, cool girl dance that i'm not quite sure we know/will ever know.

Y'all ever heard of Johnny Cash? He's laik this new obscure musician that just signed onto the same record label as the Arcade Fire! I think he's duet-ing with one of them gals from Camp Rock or ICarly on Disney Channel! Demi Lovato maybe? Or I think it's actually a cover of a Taking Back Sunday song. That's it. It's the cover. Anyway, get into it. It's kind of new. People probably don't know about it yet.

Ode to Poor Person Hair/ Home

So what are the cool jams with blogs? Update often/ on the dailyish or should I be playing hard to get or something because otherwise I'm committing social suicide/ ruining my reputation... or does no one care because no one reads this besides Sas and I? Right. If a person writes in a blog and no one reads it... does it exist? Shut up? Well good thing this is more of a love letter/ collection of musings to my Sista Fran Cunningham than I don't even know what.

In response to the Four B's, yawls for sure covered the bases. In terms of beards, I realized that when it comes to LiKiNg b0iZ, my type is simply "beard". I mean, obvz I need humor, intelligence, kindness. But he also has to have the ability to grow a beard. I'm actually all for any kind of folic experimentation, I think its funny. I won't hate on a mustache or chops, even a mullet is a funny for like a week, but I WILL hate on a soul patch, I can promise you that. There's no soul in a soul patch, just douchebaggary. I don't condone it. I also realized that I might need to reflect on that fact, as I actually have a true life crush on a homeless man. This situation could possibly get cool if life were a movie in which the plot chronicled as I, a young and driven woman, fall in love with a homeless nomad who wears skirts, only his eyes and nose are visible through his jungle of tangled and dirty hair, and he is never without his hoola hoop and jelly beans (...seriously. He's never without them). Sure, at first society judges us for our unorthodox relationship, and the middle of the movie is filled with Nike Drake songs conveying the dismal turn life has taken after our devastating breakup, yet we ultimately realize that love conquers all and we get together and Miike Snow's "Animal" plays as we drive away into my car and I buy an old farm house for us to live in (because duh he has no money) and we play music and make things. But life is not a movie, and people (besides Sarah) grow alarmed at the fact that I lust after a homeless man.

Even if I don't end up with a homeless man, I still want my future home to look like a homeless family lived there. (How spoiled rich girl do I sound? I just mean I love shabby chic, decaying/ ivy covered/ overgrown by flowers/ weeds kinda joint with brick walls, fire places, tall ceilings, giant windows, hardwood floors with which I would decorate with throw rugs and millions of pictures on the walls [hello0o0 nice things folder**] books spilling out from any and every available crevice and chandeliers/ weirdy light fixtures). I want an old farm house and make it my comfy cozy home. I want to be like Estelle in Great Expectations, the Gwyneth Paltrow/ Ethan Hawke movie adaptation. Obvz I don't want to be a clown make up wearing/ depressingly alone/ gossip monger/ life ruiner, I just kinda want her house. See:

http://www.jonie.snn.gr/images/great1.jpg ...I kiiinda love her. And I kinda want a sun room which gets nasty natural lighting and is almost a kind of green house.

http://www.scout-holiday.com/Temp/roomoutside.jpg ...a tree growing in the middle of the living room? Perfect much?

When I learn how to post pictures I'll provide a more accurate description of my future dream living spaces, which of course are pretty much the same as Sarah's dream living spaces. And since she learns the design jumpoff at her school she has even more to say on the topic besides "that's pretty"... which is kinda all I gotta offer on the subject. I LIAK WUT I LIAK YAWL.

** my nice things folder is where I stuff aesthetically pleasing photos I find while surfing da web. It is so chock full of pretty pictures of people/ architecture/ art/ nature that every moment of my existence I expect my computer to start exploding and instantaneously combust.

So long,

Abby

Four B's by Sarah

Abby and I have the same brain a lot of the time, so it's only natural to kick off this blog-party with a list of what I think are our favorite things. I'm going to go with a simple theme for my list, AB FEEL FREE TO DO WHAT YA'LLS WILL, but four B's come to mind.

Babies

So, who doesn't love babies, right? The answer to that question is surprisingly: a lot of people. In fact, I've met so many people that would rather get a hysterectomy for graduation than a new car (shout out to one of my pals. ya know who ya are) It's becoming more and more acceptable that women don't have to give a shit about babies/children and would rather focus on millions of other things than paying attention to the drooly baby in the high chair at T.G.I.Fridays.

Those people are all well and fine in my book but (my new way of saying "I DONT GET YOU") "i can't relate". Neither can Abby. We are actually borderline obsessed with babies. We'll actually stop at a restaurant, stare, maniacally smile and "aw" for more than we're supposed to at stranger babies. Parents are sometimes into it but other times they think it's weird. Not to mention how nervous we make our own parents, I'm sure. As if we're going to run away to some New England town, get artificially inseminated and live in a house that is flowing with a sea of babies.

Reason number 4,000 that Abby is my friend is that I can send her a video of a baby crawling or laughing (that I may or may not have cried at) and she will most likely cry too.

Burgers

This has become a theme in our sistafranship. Burgers. Why wouldn't it be a theme? We're 21 year old sassy single gals just lookin' for love and fun. Having a burger diet comes along with that lifestyle, right?

I remember when the burger obsession came about. Abby was visiting Savannah with me when I came to SCAD for some interviews. We were walking around for what felt like days (when in reality, it was most likely 3 or 4 hours) and both simultaneously started whining for a burger. We searched high and wide until we stumbled upon an establishment that would look like the perfect burger fix. If burgers were heroin, this place would be our needle. Sure enough, we devoured burgers and talked about it from that moment on until, well about...now. Over a year later. And so the burger adventure was born.

Now don't get me wrong. We're not some kainda lazy pieces of unhealthy people or NUTHIN', but we're girls who will sometimes say outloud, in public that we want to go on a "Burger Adventure" to either Bobby's Burger Palace or Five Guys. Is this why we don't have boyfriends?

Beards

Is this completely typical of me but why do beards rule? And no, i'm not speaking about women beards. I'm talking about the type of scruffy, grizzly beard that will make your knees melt! The kind of beard that makes you question if that person would be a good rapist or a good kisser. The kind of beard that can make you do a double-take at that homeless guy walking across the street. "wait, is that a hot person? no wait he's covered in dirt and has no shoes on. FUCK" (hate when that happens.)i have this theory that any man would look good with one. fat, small, thin, tall, very short. just grow a beard, and you'll be fine. Obviously, i'm not speaking about some Santa Clause/ZZ Topp kind of shit. Who do you think we are, here?

Bowdoin-

Alright, so I was thinking of a fourth B and obviously the only thing that came to mind was "Bowdoin", (pronounced in our world as "bo-doo-ayn") which is a term that I feel like solidified our little language to each other. This language, you ask, is most likely a very politically incorrect sassy southern/attitude-y/fierce strong woman voice with lots of finger pointing and hands on hips. It started off with a simple "Bowdoin" one night in Boston and ended: never. If you're friends with either of us, you know what this is. Now that we're apart for a while, we do our best to type in this voice to each other as much as possible even when talking about serious things.

Bye

regards,

sarah

Actual Cool Jams

Hello world (or should I say, "Hi Sarah and sometimes Jessica and maybe even our moms"). Instead of writing about identity formation in terms of gender/ language and the effects time and memory have on the way we experience life/instill meaning.. 0_o is right.. I'm illegally downloading cool jams such as Bibio (how precious/ happy baby/ smile time/ happiness infusing is "Lovers carving" even?), Beach Fossils, Phantogram, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, The Black Keys, Deerhunter and now the new Arcade Fire. Yawls need to git on that Cool Jam train and ride it to Cool Jamtown in which I am the conductor of Good Times and Grooves. Beach Fossils is kinda New Order-ish, so obviously they rule.

Also, on a scale of 1 to 10 how embarrassing is it that I don't hate that Train song which is constantly on the radio? TRAIN, DUDE. I LIKE IT. What does that mean? The one that goes "Hey soul sister hang on mister mister" (as if I care enough to look up the actual words, you catch my drift I'm sure) and kiiinda sounds like it would be a Jason Maraz song, which is why I want to hate on it so badly but I just can't seem to muster up distaste for it. I think its maybe because my mom likes it, so I find that precious, thus like when I hear it. Speaking of Songs That Rule but I Probably Shouldn't Like/ Love.. "Beautiful Girls" and "Airplane" by B.o.B? WHY THEY GOTTA BE SO CATCHY?

Anywiz, I was thinking we could do this thing called People From N.J Who Rule, in which we feature.. people from Jerz who rule. Mostly to bring the lolz, but also to spread peace, love and light (Danielle from NJ Housewives' new motto, even though she spreads nothing but hate, fear and evil dog face glares) and perhaps to even learn a thing er two 'bout a thing er two.

You saw the band Real Estate in Asbury once right? Well they even played at the Roision in Galway but I had just missed them! So instead I stole one of their posters and will write about them here. I guess now that I'm writing about them I don't have much to say besides I like them.. I'll have to put more thought into People from N.J Who Rule next time. Oh, but Soft Pack and The Growlers are also good and kind of sound like Best Coast. Also, I need a lesson on how to post pictures/ videos and the like to spice this baby up.

Love, Bro (Me/ Abby)