Apple Genius playlist of the week! (first song: No Doubt – ‘Just A Girl’)

I’m going to start doing this, since I haven’t had a whole ton of other stuff to post lately.

In case you haven’t yet experienced the awesomeness that is Apple Genius, how it works is you choose a song and out pops a 25-song playlist based on what will probably go well with the chosen song.

I was driving home to my dad’s house on Friday and got a random urge to listen to No Doubt, which made me think, “Hmmm, I bet ‘Just A Girl’ will make an awesome playlist.” Here’s what my iPod came up with:

1. No Doubt – Just a Girl
2. Alanis Morissette – You Oughta Know
3. Green Day – Basket Case
4. Weezer – Buddy Holly
5. The Cardigans – Love Fool
6. U2 – Mysterious Ways
7. Stone Temple Pilots – Creep
8. Hole – Celebrity Skin
9. The Spin Doctors – Two Princes
10. Goo Goo Dolls – Name
11. Barenaked Ladies – One Week
12. Eve6 – Inside Out
13. No Doubt – Don’t Speak
14. Sheryl Crow – If It Makes You Happy
15. Alanis Morissette – Ironic
16. Weezer – Hash Pipe
17. Matchbox20 – 3 a.m.
18. Fiona Apple – Criminal
19. Cake – The Distance
20. Stone Temple Pilots – Plush
21. Beck – Loser
22. The Cure – Friday I’m In Love
23. Nirvana – Lithium
24. Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
25. The Offspring – Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)

Live review/photos: Mates of State @ Calvin College Fine Arts Center

Mates of State show review on filter-mag.com

As if you couldn’t already tell how much I LOVE Mates of State (see here and here), I went to see them again on Friday at Calvin College. I had never been there before and the theater was so nice!

My friend Karen and I thought we wouldn’t get there in time to get good seats, especially after a few driving-direction mixups getting on the expressway, and after getting mildly lost trying to find the actual venue, but we ended up just a few rows back and it was perfect.

They ended the encore with “These Days,” which is actually a Nico cover (I listened to her version too and really, I do like MoS’ better), but I’ve become obsessed with the song, which you can download legally and for free at Daytrotter.

One of my fave. Mates of State songs, “Fraud in the ’80s” from 2006′s Bring it Back:

Really, with Mirah on Thursday and Mates of State Friday, I decided that mass amounts of cuteness like that should be illegal.

Near-fatal amounts of cuteness after the jump!

Live review: Mirah, No Kids, Mount Eerie and Julie Doiron @ The Crofoot Ballroom

Mirah show review on venuszine.com

This show was so wonderful that when my friends and I left, we all wanted to take all the musicians home with us because they were so cute and sweet. Except for on MySpace I hadn’t really listened to anyone but Mirah, but definitely will be checking out everyone else’s stuff now.

Mirah’s setlist:

“Location Temporary”
“The Sun”
New song
“Look Up!”
“While We Have The Sun”
“Mt. St. Helens”
(couldn’t figure this one out! maybe new?)
“Don’t Die In Me”
New song
“Person Person”
“Advisory Committee”

Encore:
(couldn’t figure this out — most likely from her Share This Place album with Spectratone International)
“The Garden”

Check ‘em out on MySpace:
Mirah
No Kids
Mount Eerie
Julie Doiron

New music feature: I’m From Barcelona


(press photo)

I’m From Barcelona feature on venuszine.com

I saw I’m From Barcelona’s first U.S. show, at Lollapalooza in 2007, and it was about the happiest thing I saw all weekend (bright colors, balloons, frontman Emanuel Lundgren crowd-surfing on a yellow swim raft, a band member dressed in a big, fuzzy bear suit …). Oh yeah, and they’re actually from Sweden. The band definitely is a little campy and kind of a novelty, but they’re fun and just released a second album, Who Killed Harry Houdini?

“We’re From Barcelona,” from the band’s debut album, Let Me Introduce My Friends:

I’m From Barcelona’s MySpace
I’m From Barcelona’s Web site

p.s. For some reason, I was under the impression that I couldn’t post videos on here. Clearly I was very wrong, so there will be lots more to come!

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