Holiday Hypocrisy

I suppose it's officially time to admit that the holiday season is in full swing and that Christmas is upsettingly soon. In keeping with the season, I'm sharing a little bit of both the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who sides of my inner music critic. (Awwwr.)

First, GRINCH: the times when my deeply cynical, sarcastic, Seinfeldian streak makes itself known. During these moments, I'm usually just chillin', listening to the radio while I roll out pastry dough for my latest fattening holiday pie, and BOOM. One of those awful, cutesy songs pops on and ruins my retro-domestic good mood. If you don't know what I mean, chances are you're a normal, well-adjusted person. Congrats!

Well, norms, if you're curious what it's like on the dark side, here are a few examples.

Michael Franti - "Sound of Sunshine"

Grinch Tilly says: Put on some shoes, asshole. For real.

Bruno Mars - "The Lazy Song"

Grinch Tilly says: As charming as shoving your hand down your pants is, I would appreciate you truly committing to this lifestyle of never leaving your house. Like, ever again.

Train - "Hey Soul Sister"

...and I feel compelled to include the equally repugnant "Marry Me"

Grinch Tilly says: All I want for Christmas is for Train to realize they're over 40 and go away.

BUT WAIT - the plot thickens! ...I am a gigantic hypocrite. I listen to some seriously fluffy music of which Ms. Lou Who herself might approve. Observe:

She & Him - "In The Sun"

Tilly Lou Who says: I think she would really appreciate my penchant for holiday pie baking. (Also I may or may not be obsessed with Zooey Deschanel. You know how it is.)

Aaaand sometimes I just like to get my estrogen on. You know, Moulin Rouge style.
"Elephant Love Medley"

Tilly Lou Who says: What do you do when you can't decide between the cheesiest, sappiest love songs of all time? LISTEN TO ALL OF THEM AT ONCE.

Ok. Let's get real. Here's the lamest, sappiest skeleton in my musical closet: DA BIEBZ. (Like you didn't see this one coming.) Here's a LUDA-cris (har har har) holiday single of his.

"Mistletoe"

Tilly Lou Who says: It's like candy for your brain. You know, if candy could have an illegitimate babymakin' scandal.

It must be this same cotton-candy quality that makes such songs irresistible to residents of Whoville and beyond; it's an escape, a way to turn off your higher brain function and succumb to the sweet, foot-tappin' grooves of muzak-al oblivion.

Would you look at that? I suppose I've finally reached my peace with the "Hey Soul Sister"-s of the world. IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE YOU GUYS.

On that note, enjoy the holiday buzz and whatever terrible songs make you happy this time of year.

Tilly

Space - the musical frontier

These are blog posts of the starship 2G1K. Its five-year mission (or until we get sued by the FCC for copyright infringement): to explore strange new music, to seek out new artists and new hyped bands, to boldly go where no gurl has gone before.

The following songs are some of the best about space, and all those who dwell there.


"Like a Star" - Corinne Bailey Rae


Island's video for Rough Gem is highly regarded as one of the most adorable about space travel.


"Black Hole" - She and Him
It should be noted in the Captain's log that Muse's Supermassive Blackhole gets an honorable mention.


"Subterranean Homesick Alien" - Radiohead


"Moonlight Sonata" - Beethoven


"Satellite of Love" - Lou Reed
Bum bum bum


"Space Oddity" - David Bowie

To my new like-minded space-music friends, live long and prosper.

Welcome! Tilly and Thom share their favorites this week.

Hello! Welcome to 2 Girls 1 Keyboard, which you appear to have stumbled upon. Oh, fate! What has brought us here to this moment, this time, this...blog?

We girls would like to give you some music goodness, be it in the form of youtube video, mp3 download, or beautiful prose. We have two editors, the lovely Tilly and the charming Thom. Two native Austinites, Tilly and Thom have been going to shows together since their senior year of high school. (Awwr!) To continue this glorious tradition, they will keep you loyal readers up to date and entertained about all of Austin's best shows!

From Tilly, you can expect self-indulgent feminist rants, musical infatuations of often frightening proportions, and various neuroses which may amuse others. Thom plans to blog about the bands that would form within dystopian societies and other subjects that she finds delightfully absurd, but will probably get distracted and just post random youtube videos.

And now, our favorite things for this week! We hope to make this a 2g1k tradition.

Tilly:
I love two things in particular: Metronomy, an adorable, danceable band from Devon, England (and especially their newest music video), and She & Him, a sweet, nostalgic duo including actress Zooey Deschanel. Metronomy's latest album, Nights Out, is pretty amazing...the standout song would have to be "A Thing For Me," the music video for which is brand new and absolutely wonderful. Check it out below! Also, Zooey Deschanel's voice in She & Him is quite impressive. Her music seems vintage and romantic, but she's such a modern hipster (though one of those rare, nice hipsters). I hope you enjoy discovering these cute bands as much as I did.


Thom:
I recently stumbled upon Jason Schwartzman's solo project Coconut Records.

Poppy, catchy, I'm satisfied. There's not much to not like. My only fear is that his acting schedule will make it hard for him to tour. It's ok, I'll be waiting.

"Summer Day" - Coconut Records