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!