Tag: Indie Pop

Exercise/Running Songs, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Rising Artist, Upbeat Songs

SONG OF THE DAY – “WE COME RUNNING” by Youngblood Hawke

April 21, 2014

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Today was the Boston Marathon and I just had to post a song about running today because it inspired me. What an amazing race!

There is no other event quite like the Boston Marathon. Boston is still the only marathon in the world where you have to qualify in order to officially enter the race. In the late 1980s, they started allowing charity runners, but to be an official race entrant you still have to run a qualifying time … and the times are no joke. It is a fast race!

I have run six marathons, qualifying for Boston on three separate occasions, and missing qualifying once by less than 60 seconds. Running and qualifying can become one of those very addictive activities, particularly for those of us with addictive behaviors. haha! I watched my husband run the race in 2003 (when I just missed qualifying) and then I ran it in 2005. It is one of the highlights of my life. What an incredible experience! There just truly is nothing like the Boston!

My parents and my little sister came to support me and watch me run the race, along with my kids who were pretty young at the time. It was so fun to have my family there with me! My kids had their fold up chairs on their backs and their watches on their wrists so that they could track my time. They were expert spectators! I’m not sure either one of my kids are particularly interested in running a marathon right now, but they sure are more educated than most spectators and enjoy the thrill of the whole experience. My daughter is really putting on the pressure for me to qualify and run Boston at least one more time, so that I can run through the “Scream Tunnel” while she is still at Wellesley.  After watching the race today, I feel like I just might be sufficiently motivated! 🙂

Did you watch the race today? It was so exciting! The elite runners are just a thing of beauty! It is amazing to see the human body move so incredibly fast and effortlessly. The women were very speedy! In fact, a new course record was set with Rita Jeptoo of Kenya running a 2:18:57. The old course record was set in 2002 by Kenyan, Margaret Okoya, with a finishing time of 2:20:43. Today’s race was so fast that there were actually four women who ran faster than that old course record.

The men were actually amazingly fast as well, but they were still several minutes off the course record time of 2:03:02 set by Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya in 2010. But, the men’s race was by far the most exciting to watch. An American man, Meb Keflezighi from San Diego, California won the race in a time of 2:08:37. He was the first American to win the race since 1983 and he set a PR at the age of 38! He took a lead fairly early in the race and held on to it for a long time, but in the last 2 miles of the race it was TENSE! He was being folllowed by Wilson Chebet of Kenya who was trailing by no more than 6 to 12 seconds for the entire last 2 miles of the race. I was jumping up and down in my kitchen while watching the race being streamed on my computer. It was incredibly exciting and so thrilling to see Meb pick it up at the end and win.

Today’s song is from Youngblood Hawke, an Indie Pop/Rock band from Los Angeles, California. The group was named after the 1961 Herman Wouk novel by the same name. Today’s song is off their full length debut album, Wake Up, released in 2013. The album did very well , landing in the Top 10 on the iTunes Albums chart after it’s release. They are definitely a group to keep your eye on and they just released a new single last month, called “Pressure.”

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Exercise/Running Songs, Indie Pop, Rising Artist, Upbeat Songs

SONG OF THE DAY – “DREAMING” by Smallpools

March 31, 2014

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Well, it was a crazy weekend! On Friday morning, I received the call no one wants to get. The school nurse at my son’s high school called to tell me that my son had been hurt in PE and that I needed to come right away to pick him up. She said that he had either broken his wrist or it was severely dislocated. I was at the dentist’s office with my daughter when I received the call and the nurse told me that I needed to leave her there and come immediately. I was panicked! I  jumped in my car and headed off; I had driven just a couple of blocks when the nurse called me back and said, “turn around and go to the ER, I have called an ambulance for your son.” She had just personally seen the injury and she told me that it was a severe break and she did not want me to drive him, the ambulance was on the way. Okay, well now I was really stressed!

I need to comment here on the kindness of people. I just deserted my daughter at the dentist’s office without her even knowing I had left. The office staff said they would let her know where I was when she finished. When I called them just a few minutes later to tell them I was headed to the ER instead, they immediately offered to drive my daughter there to meet me. That was one of the kindest things that anyone has ever done for me.

Needless to say, I drove to the ER and when my son got there he had an IV and was very calm. His wrist was pretty gruesome and looked like a bent spoon as you can see.

wrist photo

The reason for the song today … my son told me that when he first fell and looked down at his wrist, he thought he was having a bad dream. He kept trying to wake himself up. That might be why he stayed so calm after it happened. He just kept thinking this is a dream … wake up! He told me even up to yesterday that it just didn’t seem real. Unfortunately, it is real! The wrist is fractured in two locations and he won’t be swinging those golf clubs any time soon. Luckily, it appears that there is no nerve damage and he won’t have to have surgery; we will know for sure next Monday. After 2 days in the ER, a couple of long nights, and back at the Orthopedic Surgeon’s office today, it has been a few days to remember … or should I say, forget. 🙂 Sure wish we had been dreaming.

Through it all, my son has been amazing! Everyone who came in contact with him during the incident, from the school nurse to the gym teacher to the EMTs to the hospital staff, commented to me on what a polite, great kid he is and how calm and patient he remained through the whole thing. He is a pretty awesome kid!

Well, a long story to make up for two days of not posting. Now for just a few notes about today’s band. Smallpools is a quick-rising Indie-pop band that just got their start in 2013, the same year they released their first self-titled EP and hit single, “Dreaming.” Two of the band members were originally from New Jersey (Mike Kamerman and Sean Scanlon), but moved to Los Angeles to further their music career. There, they met the other two members of the band who both hailed from Oregon (Joe Intile and Beau Kuther). Something clicked! This song is infectious and it is easy to see how it so quickly became a hit. Some friends of mine just saw them live in NYC this week, opening for Grouplove at Terminal 5, and loved them! The band seems to be as excited and surprised by their quick rise to popularity as everyone else, but they also seem to be around to stay. Hope you enjoy this catchy tune.

Indie Pop, Rising Artist, Upbeat Songs

SONG OF THE DAY – “HOLD ME” by Royal Teeth

March 18, 2014

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Okay, so I have to be honest as to why I picked this song today. I have had several songs by this band on my list for some time, but I have teeth on my mind today and so I obviously gravitated to this band. Sometimes it is an odd reason that leads me to share a great song! haha

Last week I started having some tooth pain. It was fortuitous timing because I had a regular cleaning scheduled with my dentist on Friday. He took a quick x-ray, did some tests, and immediately referred me to an Endodontist. So, today I started root canal therapy on the tooth. YUCK! It is the very back molar and I honestly did not think I could hold my jaw open one second longer when my doctor said “we will finish for today.” It is a two appointment root canal and “it will get much worse before it gets better.” Well, that’s dandy! You would think if you had a dead nerve you would have no pain … obviously not the case. So, you can see why I was driven to pick a song by Royal Teeth. 🙂

Royal Teeth is a young, five member, Indie Pop band formed in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2010. Nora Patterson is the only female in the group and she uses her incredible voice like a fine-tuned instrument. I am fascinated by the sound she can make – it really could be mistaken for an instrument. Gary Larsen is the other lead singer and he is just fun to watch perform. In fact, the entire sound of the band is fun, lively, and youthful.

The band is really on a run right now. They have been touring like crazy over the last year, they just finished performing to glowing reviews at SXSW, and they will be the guest performer on American Idol this Thursday. Their debut album, GLOW, was released in August of last year and their song, “Wild” has been hugely popular. You can currently get a free download of three tracks off GLOW at NoiseTrade (just don’t forget the tip!). This band is certainly one to watch – I think they are about to explode!