Bitch Dan't Kill My Vibe

I love having a blog.  I didn't think I'd like having it as much as I do!  It's been a constant outlet for all of my procrastination in school the past year and I've been able to share ideas and music with friends.  I'm even a little bit impressed with how much I actually kept up with it, even though some months have been a little dry.  I originally started it so that I could practice writing.  Words do not come easily to me in real life so I thought maybe this could be a nice place to channel what I really want to say when I can't do it face to face or I guess, as a gal that's more reserved, prefer not to do it to people I am not completely comfortable with.  I know that my audience is super small, and that's great for me!  However, I recently considered going outside my comfort zone and for my one year blog anniversary, announcing to Facebook that this thing really exists, because I'm pretty sure there's a mere 6 people who read it on the regular.  But fuck that.  The thought of certain people viewing my opinions and words stresses me out, and why cause myself more stress?  On the other hand, my New Years Resolution for the past a million years has also been to care less what people think and to just dzo what I dzo when I dzo it, y'know?  This thang isn't that great, I basically just discuss what music makes me feel, and memories tied to it, and that isn't just biznazz I wanna share with anyone.  But maybe I shouldn't care if someone knows what I think.  OH CONFLICT.

So what I'm trying to do here, after 2 huge glasses of wine after work, is
a) thank y'all who read my blog for doing so, and
b) make a lil promise to myself that now, without school (I officially graduated today!) I will keep up with this blog, and maybe even take the time to make it better and hopefully more diverse.


There's a bunch of shit coming up soon that I have to look forward to.  First Christmas and friends being home, packing my shit, moving to Winnipeg and in with m'lady m'Katy, going to Europe, degrading myself by "hitting the pavement" and looking for jobs in Winnipeg, (applying for jobs is THE WORST) and fingers crossed, still waking up every day reading music blogs and trying to listen to new shiz, as well as trying out new little crafts and projects around my new home that I can blog!  Goodnight lovely friends!

Best Albums of 2012

So it's the end of the year, and everyone is coming out with their best of 2012 music lists.  I guess since I have this blog and everything, I can do the same!  These are my top 12 of 2012 in no particular order, except I'm pretty sure Frank Ocean deserves that #1 spot:

1.  Channel Orange - Frank Ocean

 

2.  Born to Die - Lana Del Rey

 

3.  Confess - Twin Shadow

 

4.  Cruel Summer - GOOD Music

 

5.  Visions - Grimes

 

6.  Sun - Cat Power

7.  A Thing Called Divine Fits - Divine Fits

8.  Shields - Grizzly Bear

9.  Good Kid M.A.A.D City - Kendrick Lamar

 

10.  Give You The Ghost - Polica

11.  Kill For Love - The Chromatics

12. 2 - Mac Demarco

Best Traxxx: coming soon when I'm more ambitious

YE

(get real with that do', drake)

Scrub.

You know when my favorite time to do crafts & projects is? When school is at its craziest and I'm stressed out, feeling like there's not enough time for everything, trying to juggle shifts at work, drinking way too much Bailey's on the regular and going in between all nighters/going to bed so early so I can "study more the next day." It's totally a way to get out of doing homework, or justify not doing it, but this is what happens Every. Single. Year.

Yesterday I made a body scrub (so I could relax and de-stress in the tub, duh.) and it is wonderful! It smells amazing and gets rid of all the nasty winter-time dead skin. You feel a little bit oily when you get out of the tub or shower, but the coconut oil eventually soaks in and makes your skin all sessy.

I didn't really measure anything out cause I'm a shlub but here is my very rough recipe.

*Keep in mind you can put whatever you don't use in the fridge for next time, so it's not a big deal if you make too much!

- Coconut Oil - Sugar - Limes

I put the juice of half a lime in with about 3-4 tablespoons of coconut oil. Next add sugar, and mix up. I added a lot more sugar than I did coconut oil to make it nice and scrubby. Scrub this stuff all over in the shower or bath, and rinse. YAY 4 COCONUT OIL!

Me and My Friend Neil

This song is by Majical Cloudz, who collaborates with Grimes on her "Nightmusic." This is the first solo song I've heard from him, and to my surprise, he sounds like an electronic version of Adam Green (one of my favs) with his simple lyrics and lazy singing. And I always love when boys write friend-y songs. 2Kewt! Katy, lets cover this, it makes me think of you!

GIRL PARTY

I cannot stop listening to this song.  Solange is gonna carry us girls through Beyonce's maternity leave, and dare I say... be even cooler?  Not cooler cooler.  Just like.. different, y'know? 

And she has a no pants scene like B's every single video!

[ri-buht-l]

EKB

Daaaaaamn, Emily Kai Bock, you make the raddest videos! Just like the Grimes & Grizzly Bear videos she has recently done, this one makes you feel something inside and the colors are beautyful.

This next video is also by Bock, and is by the band Doldrums...? The song irritates me but you can see Emily Kai Bock all over it. And I've had a bit of an obsession with the desert for a long time. I know it's a whole lot of 'nothing' but I feel like photographs look so friggin amazing out there.

No Stripe Snap Pants

As a child, I always had knock-offs. My parents would never buy me name brand clothes or toys. At the time it felt like child abuse, with my snap pants from Zellers that had no stripes or my hoodies and sweatshirts that were from similar stores.  Nike and Adidas were too expensive, so I always had the rip offs.  Remember "Starter jackets"?  I got one (couldn't tell you why I wanted one) on sale of course, because there was a spelling mistake on the team name, which I had never heard of because apparently they made non-NHL ones?  Ugh, little me, what were you thinking?

  The only time I got name brand clothes was if they were on sale.  I remember my mom bought me a Tommy Hilfiger t-shirt that was clearly out of style at this point, and it made my gross little grade 7 boobies look even worse in my bra that certainly wasn't from La Senza.  I wore it with pride anyway.  I'm glad my parents did this for me, although I'm sure I was a little jerk about it at the time.  It has taught me what is really important in life, has saved me hundreds of dollars on shit I could have bought, and now allows me to scoff and roll my eyes at people who do not share my always-right opinion and spend way too much money on material things.  (Right?)

One of the things that my parents cheaped out on was a mp3 player for my birthday years ago.  Right when iPods were coming out and becoming popular, I got an "RCA Lyra mp3 player."  This thing lasted me a surprisingly long time and it was perfect as I had just moved to a new city where I did a lot of walking and busing so a soundtrack just added to how great I felt about everything.  The poor bugger eventually started losing memory, and songs were just disappearing off of it every other day.  I was getting pretty sick of this, especially when it was down to the last three songs.  One day, I was down to a single song, and I'm going to argue that there isn't a worse song to be "The Only Song You Are Allowed To Listen To."  In true West Coast fashion, I walked down to the ocean, not even listening to it anymore because I was so sick of this song, and threw it as far as I could into the ocean.  (I'm sure it was the most embarrassing "girl throw" to be honest)  I shortly after switched to using a walkman.  Although it was a lot bulkier and kind of a pain in the ass if you weren't digging a song, it was a hell of a lot better than listening to one song over and over and over and over.

I've made a playlist of the memorable songs that I listened to on the Lyra.  You can listen to it below.  Below that I posted the "Last Song".  I can still barely listen to it.

RCA Lyra mp3 Y'all from alivandali on 8tracks Radio.

AG & BS

Adam Green has been a long time favorite of mine.  Friends of Mine was the first album of his that I heard and shortly after, became obsessed with.  His lyrics are pretty goof, sometimes inappropriate, but the melodies are catchy, sweet and loveable.  It's the kind of music that you can listen to with your mother while sitting on the patio drinking a white wine spritzer or two on a hot summers day, and she will enjoy it until she pays attention for one second and realizes that he just said "and I don't go out for lunch/and I don't go out for cunts" from his song 'Bluebirds'.  His other two favorite albums of mine are Sixes & Sevens, which has a heavy cabaret feel that makes you want to sashay around your house while never letting go of a glass of scotch, and Minor Love which at first was a little disappointing because it didn't make my shoulders want to shimmy like Sixes & Sevens did but it eventually grew on me in classic Adam Green style, heavy on the guitar and vocals.

Binki Shapiro is the very girl-crushworthy babe that was a part of "Little Joy", a band that I previously wrote about.  She has a sweet, quiet voice that makes you think of decades passed.  She was previously dating Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes and Little Joy, but they broke up and bummed me out because they were the most attractive couple ERR'RRR.  And looking good together is one of the most important things two people should consider when they decide to start an adult relationship, right?

Well, on January 29th, these two coolios are coming together with their debut album!  I've only heard the one song "Here I Am" from it, but it sounds quite sweet.  Not sweet like, "Sweet, Brah" but sweet in its original form.  Listen to it below:

And check out this interview, I even "lol'd" when they were laughing about Binki feeling like a woman for the first time. 

My Kind of Woman

This guy looks just like a friend of mine, Tanner, right down to the over-sized plaid shirt, constant cigarette, big grin and shitty hat.  I chanced him based on his appearance but am now obsessed with his music.  I can only find his first album, Rock and Roll Nightclub but I look forward to buying his new one, 2 on vinyl when I move to da big city, as Walmart is literally the only place to buy music in this town.

This music belongs on vinyl.  It sounds super old-school, especially his album Rock and Roll Nightclub.  Half the songs he's singing in a low, half-assed Elvis voice like on "Baby's Wearing Blue Jeans." From the few songs I've heard of his latest album, 2, things are sounding a little more current in the vocal department, but it still has the grungy old punky alternative, whatever you wanna call it sound, similar to The Modern Lovers.  The music is pretty simple but there are still nice melodies and keyboards that make it stand out, and I reaaaaaaally wanna cover "My Kind of Woman" with my "band", temporarily called Threesome (thanks to Brandon rumors!) until we can find something better.  Or start jamming more.  One or the other.

Baby's Wearing Blue Jeans

My Kind of Woman

Royal Wedding

I, Alison Nicole Vandale, have had my secret dream come true.  I've been invited to a wedding. A good wedding at that.  I never get to go to weddings!  My parents pity-invited me to a dude from high schools wedding, because they're friends with his parents.  I considered it, because I've heard through the grapevine he's "not racist anymore" and doesn't get black out drunk to the point where people can spray paint fake hair on his skin-head-shaved-bald head.  (Anymore)  However the bridal shower invitation saying "No gift registry but anything in purple or butterflies would be great!" grossed me out so I decided to opt out.

This wedding is for my good friend Jade.  Haven't seen her in a few years, mainly because she got deported back to ENGLAND, WHERE THE WEDDING WILL BE!!!!!!  So exciting!  (And she didn't get deported, her visa just ran up but we thought having a "deporta-party" sounded pretty hilarious, espesh with an English accent)  I met Jade when I was a wee lass of 19, fresh to Victoria.  Daniel and I were out at Monty's, the downtown strip club and noticed a guy that was getting titties shaken in his face.  He stuck out in our minds because he  really wasn't enjoying this experience.  Then we saw him shortly after at McDonalds, ended up chatting and having a funny time so we exchanged numbers and decided to hang out!  I remember being so friggen excited cause it had been so long without meeting any friends.  Anyway, long story short, Jade was his roommate, and hallelujah, she was just the friend that I had been looking for!

Jade and I went out all the time, we had sleepovers, we cooked dinners, she taught me how to make curry, we went for walks, we played with cats, we spent all the holidays together that we couldn't go home for, I taught her how to "Canada Day", she taught me funny British words and phrases (a SUV is a people carrier), we kissed boys at house parties together, went for hundreds of breakfasts, snuck into pools when it was late and dark, went to the beach, etc.  I called Jade at 1 in the morning, from under my covers when I was 'certain' someone was 'breaking into my apartment' and she came hustlin' over from her place two blocks away to save me from the big bad Absolutely Nothing that had B&E'd my pad.  The first real (only?)  friend-wedding I ever went to was with Jade, and a gay wedding no less!  I guess you probably get the point that we were really tight and hung out all the time and I just am way too excited to see a really great friend marry a great bloke that I'm sure I'll love!  Plus Jolene and I get to go to England, Scotland, hopefully Spain and France too...

Look at these old ass pictures!  We were babies!

 Jade and I tossin' around the ol' pig skin at the beach

 Pool hopping late at night

 Canada Day and some piddly fireworks with Jade & Jolene

I'm also excited to write a big juicy blog post once I get back from the trip!  I've been boring myself with my humdrum-ass life as of lately, laying in bed watching ShamelessDexterWalkingDeadWeedsHomelandANTM on rotation, pretending to do homework, day dreaming of moving to Winnipeg and friendship-sexting Katy.  ("And then, we can make extravagant brunches and drink mamosas while listening to Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings...")So it'll be nice to have something super exciting to write about! 

Well This Is Just Great

The Divine Fits covering Frank Ocean's 'Lost'???!?!?! Yes please! 

Whip Appeal

My brother got home yesterday, which is great for two reasons:  I haven't seen the kid in over a year and he brought home my new whip, a Kia Rio which traded him for a new Ipod.  Great deal right?!!  I have never had so much love for something so shitty before (the car).  It's way better looking than the Lumina that I previously owned, but I'm pretty sure everything that can be wrong with a car, is wrong with my new ride.  The breaks blow.  It takes about 20 minutes to actually come to a stop, and I'm pretty sure the breaks on my bike are better.  The drivers side window does not roll down, the passenger side door must be opened by pulling hard and downwards on a rigged up string, one of the back doors doesn't open, the left turn signal must be manually turned off, the windshield wiper reservoir is broken so I gots no wipin' fluids, the CD player doesn't work nor the cigarette lighter, the windshield is cracked to shit, I've already broken most of my nails trying to get all the dumb stickers off, there's random squeals and ticks and I'm sure a ton of things are wrong on the inside.  Either way, I love this thing, it'll get me to Winni and back to see ma babygurl and with the cold weather coming it'll be nice to drive! 

****Update:  This happiness ended abruptly.  The piece of shit was quoted as "costing thousands of dollars" to safety, and shall be taken to the wrecker in the next few days.  Shit.

1st Mixtape

I'm a huge believer in things happening for a reason. Katy and I dated a pair of bff's that treated us in a manner that would definitely upset our dads; and there happens to be a huge bright side to this, which has solidified my belief and makes it seem less like this in my head....

...And a lot more like this:

Had we not had these boyfriends, Katy and I would not have had weekly "Brickyard Nights" where we would drink cheap pitchers every Tuesday and bitch about our boyfriends, which in turn let us get to know each other better and made our little bud of a friendship grow into the big ass Rafflesia Arnoldii that it is today.  (Yes I Googled "What is the largest flower in the world?)  Going for "a pitcher" always turned into at least 3 and then going to a club afterwards, even though poor Katy worked at 6am every Wednesday.

Also, I was introduced to three of my favorite Victorians through these dudes, (Hi Kirsty, Alison and Stacy!) who I still consider my best peeps! And had we not met, these friends would never have spent time in Brandon, Manitoba and that is not ok.

I probably wouldn't have moved home to Brandon, where I have the best girlfriends in the whole world (even though some haaaaad to move to Montreal, RINA). I wouldn't be on my last semester of my degree and I wouldn't be moving to Winnipeg in 3 months to live with Katy.

Another huge thing that happened for a reason was the mix tape that was given to me in the first few weeks of meeting said dude. It really opened my eyes to a lot of amazing music that I wasn't listening to and has sculpted my taste in music today. I can't find that tape anymore, but I still remember most of the tracks on it, so I made a little 8tracks playlist. These are the songs that actually changed my life and make me happy that I've done everything that I have, even if it wasn't the most pleasant at all times.

1st Mixtape from alivandali on 8tracks Radio.

Lets Just Hope This Happens...

Emily Kai Bock, yet again!

Since the death of my car, "The Luminasuine" in August I have been forced to bike everywhere. I meant to do this anyway, but every time I would leave the house my big blue Lumina parked on the street just screamed "Convenience! Comfort! Style!" and I would end up taking it instead. The best things about being a full time bike-rider are that a) I have cut back in smoking about 50%. If I have my morning ciggy, I can barely make it up that stupid 6 block slight incline near my house. If I have one at school I probably won't make it home. Once I get home, I'm too winded to have my after-school snack cig. So this is positive. There is also b) I have a lot more time to listen to music! I've made several playlists of good biking songs, that have a bunch of Cat Power, Divine Fits, Twin Shadow, Icona Pop, Major Lazer, Matthew Dear and of course, the new Grizzly Bear album, Shields! (Fridays call for something a little spicier so I have my 'trunk rattla'z' playlist that has lots of Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, ASAP Rocky and Schoolboy Q)

Anyway, the video for 'Yet Again' by Grizzly Bear (which is one of the best biking songs) just came out today and is directed by the same awesome director, Emily Kai Bock that did Grimes' 'Oblivion' video.. y'know, the sweet one with Grimes at a football game and monster truck show? Check it ouuuut!

**Side note: Although biking has been a wonderful little treat for the last little while, I am very excited to obtain my bro Curtis' little Kia Rio in a month! Cause daaaaamn, winter be coming!

& It Was U

Last year or maybe two years ago (I have no concept of time) when I first heard "House of Balloons" by The Weeknd, I was searching for more music that sounded like them, because I couldn't stop and I wouldn't stop.  One suggestion I got was How To Dress Well, the R&B project of Tom Krell, who looks like a Hipster Hitler.  To say the least, he didn't sound nearly as sessy, hard, scary or druggy as The Weeknd so I wasn't interested.  I'm still not really that willing or ambitious enough to go back and listen to his album 'Love Remains' but he just came out with his new album 'Total Loss' and I am absolutely diggin' this one track '& It Was U'... so much that I am writing an entire blog post about it!  This song is definitely my new jam.  It sounds like a combination of all of your favorite 90's R&B hits.  Most predominately it sounds like Whitney Houston's 'I'm Every Woman' with all of the snaps, and makes me think of Janet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation' video, with the military SWAT team style outfits (especially when that big fat beat of his comes in at 1:32).


Wearing jeans in a sea of sweatpants and Uggs makes me feel cool enough at school, but having this jam cranked in my headphones really bumps it up to the next level for me.  (Also, a few posts below is a nice little Koreless remix of his song 'Cold Nites')

Whip It To Shreds

I watched this Vice interview with my high school hero, Blondie tonight. She's still one of the coolest ladies around. You can tell because she's wearing sweet beige Ray Bans throughout her indoor interview, and only top notch musicians are allowed to wear shades indoors without looking like a dummy. She tells the story about how she almost got abducted by Ted Bundy, which I did not know happened! Check it out: (I think this video may eff up my page format cause issssobig!)

Blondie is still in the top 5 for having the coolest female musician hair do's:

And hung out with the coolest people!

New Videozzzzz

Cat Power Cherokee (what?)

Frank Ocean Pyramids

Lana Del Rey National Anthem
(This Lana Del Rey isn't that new but I've been listening to lots of A$AP Rocky lately and I really like the idea of him and Del Rey being JFK and Jackie O)

Cold Nites

Dreammmmmy tune

How To Dress Well - Cold Nites (Koreless Remix)

I quite literally "stumbled upon" these pictures today. These are the ones that made me LOL alone in my room:

(check out who's taking the pic)