Music 2013
SQ's favourite albums of 2013
Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob / One Direction - Midnight Memories / Kevin Devine & the Goddamn Band - Bubblegum / Kanye West - Yeezus / Neko Case - The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You / Fall Out Boy - Save Rock and Roll / Haim - Days Are Gone
13 songs for 2013
i.e. songs I had on ridiculously high rotation throughout the year
13 songs for 2013 from proteinscollide on 8tracks Radio.
Or download the individual tracks below.
Tegan and Sara - Guilty as Charged
One Direction - Story of My Life
Kevin Devine & The Goddamn Band - Redbird
Kanye West - Blood on the Leaves
Neko Case - Night Still Comes
Fall Out Boy - The Phoenix
Haim - Falling
The National - Fireproof
Panic! at the Disco - This is Gospel
Demi Lovato - Warrior
Justin Timberlake - Tunnel Vision
Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?
Little Mix - Boy
Eisley - Currents
And yes, I know there's actually 14 on the list. Because, despite my efforts to cull it down to an aesthetically pleasing 13 for 2013, I couldn't leave off one of these for any other. :)
Let me know if you want a full upload of any albums!
2013 in live music
Total shows: 15
Bands seen: 20
Jan: The Jungle Giants, The Vaccines, Two Door Cinema Club, Tripod, Hoodlum Shouts, The Smith Street Band, Against Me!
Feb: Divine Fits, Jens Lekman, Garbage
Mar: Fall Out Boy
Apr: Tegan and Sara
Aug: 5 Seconds of Summer, One Direction, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z
Sept: Panic! at the Disco, Fall Out Boy
Oct: Fall Out Boy, One Direction
Nov: M.Ward, Neutral Milk Hotel
Dec: Taylor Swift
Bands seen the most: Fall Out Boy (x 3)
Biggest Show
40,000 for Taylor Swift, and whatever the capacity Sun Life Stadium was for the Legends of Summer show in Miami.
I've never been to stadium shows before, and the sheer size of the venuse and amount of people at both were overwhelming. Not sure how I'd feel about nosebleed seats in that situation but luckily I'll never find out as both times we had great, close to front, seats on the floor. :)
Smallest Show
Jens Lekman, in a sweet but sticky show in a jam-packed Oxford Arts Factory on a hot, humid Valentine's Day.
Band(s) you never want to see again
It hurts me to say this, but: Garbage. The whole show just sounded like an unsubtle messy noise to me, with songs having no place to go as the band started at full throttle and bludgeoned their way to end (ruining the quiet melancholy of great tunes such as #1 Crush and You Look So Fine). Set list was fun though; lots of old songs including some deep cuts that were particularly enjoyable for the 14-year-old me that loved them, and Shirley Manson is as beautiful and hot as ever with great stage presence. I'm glad I went for nostalgia's sake, but yeah, once is enough.
Band(s) you didn't really know going in and came out loving
Not sure about loving, but the Smith Street Band were pretty good live.
Favourite Tour
Our all-music, all-the-time, interstate US jaunt!
Favourite Performances
Neutral Milk Hotel was one of maybe three gigs I've been to in my life that felt like religious experiences - just everyone in a room completely enraptured in joyous fervour for what was happening on stage (the others were Radiohead and Arcade Fire).
Like I wrote in my write-up of the third Fall Out Boy show I saw this year, I may have run out of things to say though apart from "I LOVE THEM SO MUCH" and "I WOULD SEE THEM AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN". :D. It's been a beautiful transformation to witness how this band has grown in shows over the last six years. Seeing them for the first time in a small club show made the surprise reunion even more sweet, the whole show one big singalong, energy high, Patrick's voice even more of a delight ringing out over the blast of sound. The Brooklyn show was a big, fun show full of excellent surprises and the Sydney show was another chance to experience the highlights in a smaller setting at home. If this is what a hiatus does for them, it was worth the pain of missing them for that little time.
Like I said above, the JT/Jay-Z and Taylor Swift shows were in stadiums and I've never experienced tours of that size before - not just in numbers of people, but the grand, flashy production and the all-dancing all-entertaining extravaganza of these types of shows. The Taylor one was particularly interesting because she's trying to have an 'intimate' moment with 40,000 people with her very sincere and heartfelt and rambly speeches about songwriting being catharsis (usually with a guitar strapped to her ready for the next sincere, heartfelt, cathartic song) during a show where there's also so many costume changes I lost count, aerial drumming, awesomely OTT and cheesetastic sets etc etc. It's emotion and drama writ large in every way, and I loved it for perfectly illustrating the seemingly contradictory nature of Taylor Swift as an artist, making the personal public with big gestures/songs.
Upcoming Shows
Looking pretty good for the first three months with Arcade Fire, Neko Case, Okkervil River already lined up. :)