the video

Daniel - Bat For Lashes


and you have set fire to my heart
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1. I've been writing these really long posts-mostly about the general despair of life,the last being a long,overly me-oriented short about how much of a stranger I feel sometimes but how I believe,these extreme feelings of isolation and loneliness I experience occasionally: will and have inspired me to take it out on art,be it photographs,words,the possibilities are endless really.But I never get around to pressing the 'publish' button,instead what I do is take a photo or find something online that mirrors what I feel,to try and capture as much as I can of these complicated emotions and mold it all into one image-to a certain extent art is a medium,not the message,and I believe there are stronger ways than words to convey the contents of my mind and heart.Store this also under Reason No. 2431 why I love photography so damn much-it allows me to speak when I am utterly speechless.

2. The new YYYs album isn't exactly out yet (I went around hunting for it yesterday,to no avail) but I downloaded a copy of it (usually this comes quite naturally to me,but for a band I love too much I feel a tad guilty,and promise to buy a copy of the album when it arrives in stores).If Fever to Tell was their letting loose and stepping over lines,and Show your Bones a more grounded and more consistent record-It's Blitz! is totally different,full of wonderful synthy ballads that has a smooth,easy complexity to it.Its a new,more evolved sound definitely,and of course I first took this not too kindly at first-but Karen O's presence on the record is unmistakable,they flirt with but don't go overboard with a bit of jazz and electro-and as a whole the album's a really solid,satisfying package.Highlights: Soft shock,Heads will Roll & Hysteric.

3. Saw Kings of Leon at Sound Relief last Saturday (got a free ticket that morning,saw Jet,thatgabriellachick,and the KOL then bailed for a meeting)-I was wholly and deeply and extremely disappointed.They came on,looking bored as hell (they were meant to be the highlight of the day-long event,everyone came just for them and the were advertised front and centre as Melbourne's big "International Artist" for the event-Sydney had Coldplay-sidenote) and played four songs.On Call,Use Somebody,Reverie (I think),and some other stupid song from their new album (which I've chosen to completely ignore,to me that horrid album never existed).No Knocked up (which is fine really,the song's 8 minutes long and the crowd would've been restless),no My Party or Charmer or Taper Jean Girl or any of the good songs from their previous records-I don't know what they've become,now clad in shiny ornaments and Vampire Weekend cardigans and doing Creed-like videos for song titles like "Sex on Fire" (oh.god) they've become fucking sellouts who barely know how to play a live gig.The only playing 4 songs part was sure disappointing,but I was in a forgiving mood and wouldn't care if they played covers alone-because despite the band's big soul-selling downfall into mainstream mediocrity I still do like Caleb's voice and believe that the band can redeem themselves in the future-but they played like they were winging it,like their fans didn't even matter,without the slightest bit of bother,and it was this that made the crowd tired and frustrated (standing in the on-off rain for near 4 hours clad in $4 raincoats that might as well have been made out of air,plus thatgabriellachick nearly put everyone to sleep before the KOLs came on-the things we endured for them),I felt shortchanged but as I said,I'm willing to put the new album and this bad experience behind-because everytime I hear Razz,Velvet Snow,soft,Milk,the Bucket or any of their older songs I know that this is just a phase the band's going through,and once they've accumulated enough wealth and MTV Artist of the Month titles cease compromising and finally get on to producing something more worthy.

EW has a new Grizzly Bear track ('Cheerleader') and its quite stellar.

flow sweetly,hang heavy

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