Unhappy Birthday!

Today's my birthday. I'm a year away from being legal (hear that Sara?!!). To honor this, I've chosen 11 birthday themed songs. Okay, well, "Disturbia" isn't birthday related at all, but when I woke up this morning, I felt like Rihanna did in that song. Even if today isn't your birthday, everyone has a birthday so go ahead and download the mix to listen to when it is your birthday, or your significant other's birthday, or your parents birthday...

Click here for the .zip. Oh, and the playlist as follows:
1. The Smiths- Unhappy Birthday
2. Tender Forever- Happy Birthday
3. Benjamin Gibbard- Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
4. John Mayer- 83
5. Travis- Tied to the 90's
6. Rihanna- Disturbia
7. of Montreal- I Was Never Young
8. Jens Lekman- It Was a Strange Time in My Life
9. Bright Eyes- Happy Birthday to Me (Feb. 15)
10. Radiohead- Lucky (Live @ KROQ Studios)
11. Andrew Bird- The Happy Birthday Song


Alright, I'm off to go to my birthday party. Cross your fingers they ordered a bounce house!!


yours...hopefully,
Summer
x

on behalf of music...

upon reading Lucy's award proposition,
i immediately began recalling the year of music so far.
and i must say - when it comes to highest selling albums and popularity, its hard to find any reasonable talent worth adhering to. let along awarding.

especially when the singles charts are dominated by:
Leona Lewis - who couldnt just do us all a favour and 'keep bleeding'.
Madonna and Justin Timberlake - who spent their last 4 minutes dancing instead of saving us from assured death.
Coldplay - need i say more? no. but for the sake of clarity - just take a look at this
Flo Rida - who spawned that oh-so-nasty dance move....*shudders*
Kid Rock - and his oh-so-classy 'rock and roll Jesus' - would surely make a certain messiah roll in his grave
Gabriella Killme - (am i spelling that right?)
Katy Perry - who lost all her discretion and cashed in on her supposed sexuality.


Don't worry music.
We here in the proper, enlightened world -
are embarrassed for you....


heres a fun game...see if you can guess the picture the link goes to...
The music world - well the public face of it - is today characterised by the cruisey ballad/pop song about a boy or a sound (or who knows what? right!), the modified sweet-guy sound of R&B stars, the semi-contraversial and ambiguous themes of lyrics, the increased and unwarranted popularity of talentless girls because their dad is famous, and/or the distorted messages of songs which further destroy the minds of those who listen to it. not much of which could actually be labelled 'music' - or could even fall under a genre.
These bands and 'artists' were designed to sell records and their doing it fine! what they need to realise is they're not doing it by being musicians.
most of the time - they're doing it by being promiscuous copy-cat impersonators of talent.
its robbing the talented world of lyricists, groovy guitarists, that band who are really good live etc etc.. of the rewards which should be theirs for the taking.
and they win all the awards...

at AATS, im not sure about the other writers here, but i actually hope that one day, the bands we constantly tell you all about will be famous.
good music will dominate the charts and BLOOD WILL FLOW!

or maybe if that happens. i'd just hate it because its popular.

"Music. the only pleasure without vice." (or is it?)

~ronan

A.A awards

As scary as it sounds, the end of 2008 is looming closer and closer (quite literally) with every second that passes.

But instead of getting down by the fact that the year is almost gone and you have achieved pretty much nothing, we should distract ourselves from these such depressing realities by creating the very first annual 'arms around awards' (AAA) list.

it'll be kind of like the grammys or arias, except without all horribly attractive celebrities and strange pants:

hopefully if we start now, we'll have a nice comprehensive by the end of the year.
so start putting some votes in (either by comment or email)
here are some of the categories:

-best album
-best song
-artist of 2008
-band of 2008
-worst artist of the year
-'if i hear that song one more time this year i'll actually slit my wrists with a blunt spoon' award
-most disappointing record
-most embarrassing musical moment
-2008 artist 'i would so totally sleep with'

...they're just a few ideas for categories, if you have more/better ones, i'm super keen to hear them.

so yeah, get your votes in.
fuck the U.S presidential elections, vote here where it matters
(i'm only joking, vote for both if you can)
(but if you can't, just vote here)



lucy

(who is compiling a list for the collaborative mixtape, thanks for all the responses!)

Max Brebes of the Music World

The best part about having a blog is that you get to gush about new music before all the other blogs start fighting over who found them first. You get dibs on the future hometown heroes, so to speak. I've told you about The Leader of the Mutineers, Tristen Brenner, and Grady Drugg, but I've got something new to share with you.

Max Brebes is my age, I think we're only a few months apart, actually. He's incredibly witty and rather shy, but shy to the extent that it makes you want to know more about him. See, the reason why I know all this is because from the ages of 2-6 we were great pals. Our moms were friends for years and got pregnant around the same time and we lived right down the street from each other. After I moved, we kind of lost touch. But still, I always wondered what happened to my first best friend forever.

Well, it turns out that my first bff has a knack for writing excellent indie rock songs. If we could have heard Jeff Mangum's voice at 17, it probably would have sounded like Max. At 17 years old, Conor Oberst was writing songs (really great songs, nonetheless) about missing the bus and being picked on. If he would have used more creative metaphors, he would have wrote songs like Max's...only not quite as unique.

When I found Max's MySpace page, I had to double-check the url to make sure that I hadn't located the wrong Max Brebes. No offense to Max, but I wasn't expecting to find what I did. What I found were two of the best songs I've had the pleasure of hearing this year. Lyrically dense and musically sparse, it was the kind of thing that you immediately resort to illegal methods in hope of obtaining the MP3's (MySpace Gopher, I'm eternally grateful!). The songs on his page are just rough little demos, they have that "recorded in a basement at 1 in the morning" feel to them. But if you know anything about me, you know that's my favourite kind of music.

Even though I adore the songs and Max's voice, it's a bit early to call him a hometown hero. There's still stuff to be learned, guitar parts to be practiced and memorized, lyrics to be written and then scratched out when a better line comes along. But for now, these two songs have made even me- the person who sees the worst in every band- find an enormous amount of potential in what could essentially be just a pastime for my very own Paul Pfeiffer.

You can judge that for yourself, I suppose: here's Max Brebes' MySpace page.

And Max, I just wanted to say that the world might not like dark people, but us introverts over at Arms Around the Stereo absolutely fucking love them.

this one's for symmetry, for the second hand and it's accuracy,

Summer

from a "true" pulp fiction fan

i have a confession to make. It's something rather embarrassing, but something i have to come clean with before i can continue writing...

I have never seen Pulp Fiction.

The embarrassing bit is that for my entire life i have pretended that i have seen it, because i like to sound cultured and impress people (like lucy...sorry i lied to you that time in az's car). Is it pathetic? A little bit. But anyway, i realised that it was about time i lived up to my false reputation as a passionate Tarantino fan and actually watched the film. Also, last month was Pulp Fiction August on my calender so it seemed appropriate.

I have another confession...i downloaded it *cringes in shame*

But thats beside the point, because even half way through i had decided it was one of the best movies i have ever seen and it would be completely worth it to spending $30 to watch it without delayed sound and fuzzyness, so not to fear, i shall be paying my dues. I know this blog is called arms around the stereo, not arms around the telly, but i dont care (unless someone yells at me) because i want to talk about this!

I know alot of people say its overrated, and perhaps it is, but in my opinion it is still a fucking fantastic movie. Many of the scenes made me shake. I'm talking physical shaking, goosebumps, wide eyes, hand clutching face etc. I'm still not fully over it (as i only just completed the movie and rushed on here to share my pointless opinion) and even looking at the picture makes me quiver. I may be a bit of a pathetic mess when it comes to movies, but hardly do the quivers continue 20 minutes after! It takes a very powerful movie to do that.

being the cynical bastard that i am i tend to hate a lot of things, and people who brag and brag about things that they have only seen once, or who just "absolutely like totally love that new band" when they have heard but one of their songs, is one of them. So i feel it would be rather hypocritical to gush about Pulp Fiction too much (seeing now you all know my secret) so i leave it to you true fans to tell the stories and give the opinions.

So what i was thinking is... i would like to watch some more good movies. I'm talking GOOD movies, movies like Pulp Fiction that make you squirm in your chair, and give you tingles and keep you all night from studying even though you have the final half of an english sac tomorrow because you are just to busy thinking about what you have just seen!

Here is my plan (inspired by Lucy's interactive mixtape expedition): I would like YOU to drop me a line, telling me a movie YOU think is well worth watching, and i will write about it on this music blog! Tell me what YOU think of it, the reason YOU love it, and why its important to YOU, because its YOUR movie! You know you love that feeling you get when you tell people about your favourite song/band/movie etc, and they have never heard of it before. Well now you have the chance to do it on a grand scale! aren't you a little lucky bugger?

If you care to participate in this grand scheme of mine, send your movie to stickytape73@gmail.com and wait....

eloise

ps. I'm real excited bout this guys because it'll give me a nice break during all my study, so i hope you all participate!
pss. dont worry, movies arent going to take over aats, i promise! ronan will kill me if they do.

impossible music festival

im sorry i didnt tell you all about this before - i only found out this morning...

but its actually the best line-up ever!!!
seriously no other line-up could possibly compare.

a festival with
radiohead
silverchair
crowded house
tegan and sara
nirvana
jeff buckley


to name just a few.
line-up here
triple j's 'impossible music festival' kicked off last night.
and its continuing on in all its beauty.
if you have a (australians...)radio switch to 103.3 and listen

for others, go to http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/listen/
and go to the mp3 stream.
DO IT!

before it finishes!

~Ronan

Pavement

Sorry for the lack of updates going on lately, we've all been busy. I won't speak for the others but as for myself: I'm in the process of moving, my birthday needs planning, and of course, I'm up to my neck in new music that people have been sending me. But it isn't the new music that has kept me away from the blog- it's this huge Pavement phase that I'm going through.

Pavement in my opinion, were the best band of the 90's and quite possibly one of the most influential bands in music. I've always known that but sometimes it just takes a week of listening to nothing but them to really get the point through my thick head. Stephen Malkmus' lyrics have this really silly side to them, but if you go back and you listen to a song three or four times, you realize that there's a whole lot of substance underneath all that silliness. If "Range Life" doesn't make you want to settle down and fall in love, then I don't know what will.

In honor of that, go pick up a few Pavement records today. They've all been remastered and come in really pretty packaging with loads of extra stuff (my favourite being "Dancing with the Elders"). By the time you've had your way with the records, I'm sure we'll be posting new and exciting things.

Now, for an after school Pavement mix:
[MP3] | Pavement- Dancing with the Elders (early version of We Dance)
[MP3] | Pavement- Grounded (live in '94, before SM's "little bitch" nonsense)
[MP3] | Pavement- Here
[MP3] | Pavement- Range Life
[MP3] | Pavement- Summer Babe (Winter Version)


don't lose your graceful tone,
Summer

PS: Kristine has been doing wonderful things lately. See for yourself.

NPR and Radiohead love you very much.

Well, well, well, my dear droogies, have I got a treat for you. Apparently Nigel Godrich wasn't the only one recording Radiohead's show at the Santa Barbara Bowl: NPR decided to make a day of it too. Now, if you know me, you know that there's nothing on this planet of ours that I love more than NPR and Radiohead...so you can imagine my delight when I found this waiting in my iTunes library for me this afternoon.

You get the full 2 hour set with. Not included: the 5 hour wait in line (that picture doesn't do it justice in the least), Thom's airplane dance during "15 Step", the feeling of anticipation for the next song, Jonny sticking his tongue out at you, and the opportunity to do your best impression of Tchocky's "Idioteque" dance. But still, that's nothing to fret about and I'm pretty sure that you could still dance to "Idioteque" in your room- at least it wouldn't be as embarassing as doing it in public. So get your noise-canceling headphones and head over to NPR for what will probably go down as the most perfect day I've ever seen.

love to you and yours,
Summer

Too old for crushes, too young for love

Okay so here's the story (in short): I'm currently going through one of the hopeless, pathetic, secret crushes on someone I know I can never, ever, in the whole world, ever (did i mention ever?) have.
It's one of those situations where you don't actually care that you can't have them.
You don't even really WANT to have them.
But they have you.
...and they don't even know it.
...and they probably wont ever know it.

It's one of those situations where half of you wants to shake the crush and move on with...i dunno, your life?

But then somehow the crush makes your day a little more bearable, because just seeing them is enough to make you all fuzzy.

wow! that was super super pathetic.

anyway i was thinking to my tribute to this momentously pathetic occasion, i would 'do a Summer' and make a mixtape.

but then i thought 'nah screw it', because I'm lazy.
But also I thought I'd do a little experiment and ask anyone who reads this blog to help me in making a collaborative mixtape.

so for any of you who have been (or currently are) in the same tragic position I am in now, help me make a mixtape for all those other lovelorn folk out there.
suggest a song, and we'll make something beautiful

either email me (lucy_ramone7@hotmail.com) or leave a comment on this post. (it can be anonymous)

I'd love to hear from you.



lucy
(who doesnt know where the hell this picture came from)

Leslie Feist

As far as music goes, every country seems to have their good years and their bad years...
in Australia; 2007 brought some of the best music ever to grace the ears of its citizens (not to mention those of the people lucky enough to hear it in other countries) - bands like Silverchair, Angus and Julia stone, etc...(you only need to take a look at THIS to see)
Canada this year has been especially great - and the annum has brought to my attention one of -what i believe to be - the greatest singer songwriters of my 18 years.
From Toronto, Canada - she goes by the name of Leslie Feist, from 'Feist'.

As far as I'm concerned, Feist is one of the best kept secrets from the Australian charts. However, not enough so to keep me from telling the surprising number of oblivious Aussies about her.

Her first album - Monarch, (Lay Your Jeweled Head Down) - gives an early side (musically similar, lyrically quite different) to Feist that not many people have heard.
For a debut first album, the quality of the recordings and the over-all greatness of the music is astounding. Currently out of print - the album which was sold mainly only at shows is now worth upwards of $500 to get your hands on a copy.
For that, Leslie Feist can give her gratitude to the band which helped her break into the music scene, Broken Social Scene.

5 years later came the next installment Let It Die.
She released a two singles, 'Mushaboom' (which scored a highly desirable spot on summer's latest mixtape) , and 'Inside and Out', and scored a nifty 4 out 5 stars according to Rolling Stone.

The next stunt in Feist's 'becoming popular' stems from their most famous single '1 2 3 4' from her next album The Reminder.
The song and the filmclip (an impressive single take) featured on the commercial for the iPod Nano, and rocketed Feist into stardom.
The album is one of the few i have where each song truly complements the last, and honestly, when its played out of order - i get distressed.

Rather than let me tell you all about her angelic vocal composition, or how good she is live as a comparison to in the studio, or the influences which drove bands like Bright Eyes to cover their songs, or to join them in duet as with Jane Birkin - just look them up on their myspace etc...

But other than that, check out their Youtube Channel for some great live shows, and interviews.
i highly recommend the interview I've linked to.

- Ronan

Constructive Summer

(Even I can admit that Pismo Beach is quite pretty..)

Well, it's September. The summer is officially over. School is back in session, the temperature is dropping steadily (that means it's like...72 here), and the days are getting shorter. I don't really know why my parents chose to name me Summer, but it's my least favourite time of the year. I don't like the heat, I don't like all the people that come to our town and camp out on our beach, leaving behind a trail of trash to their Escalades. And most importantly, most of the music that I listen to doesn't sound good in 90 degree weather.

So, to honor the fact that the summer has ended, I have 14 songs that represent the transition from sleeping in all day and dancing to of Montreal all night to waking up at 6:30am and doing math homework until your eyes start to cross.

Click on the playlist to be directed to a .zip file of 14 mp3's:


Hope you're well.

regards,
Summer

www.myspace.com/anhorse
www.myspace.com/rachaelcantu