Timid Tilly's brush with [adorable!] fame

Rounding out the end of SXSW 2009, Tilly and Thom attended the Saturday evening premiere of the adorable indie flick 500 Days of Summer, directed by Marc Webb and written by Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber.



The director, writer, and stars Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt made an appearance right before the show began and at the subsequent Q&A. Tilly was a bit nervous about actually getting so close to these famous people, especially since she is a teensy bit obsessed with Zooey Deschanel (see the evidence). Armed only with a crappy phone camera, she was too embarrassed to ask to take a picture with her indie idol or her super-cute counterpart, Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

The lead actors are apparently BFFs, as they said in the Q&A. Way cute. It helped to make their performances in this quirky, sweet and hilarious film believable and thoroughly charming. When 500 Days of Summer shows up in regular movie theaters on July 24, we urge you to see it! It also has really great music, which doesn't just adorn the soundtrack but permeates the film in the best possible way. Check out the tracks below!

"Us" - Regina Spektor
"Sweet Disposition" - The Temper Trap

Tilly and Thom’s favorite things this week!

Tilly:

Continuing on my Zooey Deschanel kick, I have gotten into an all-synth, all-girl band from San Francisco called Von Iva who coincidentally make quirky music with Ms. Deschanel in the recent movie Yes Man. While I do have a soft spot for Jim Carrey’s humor, the movie is pretty stupid. The saving grace is the super-indie (averaging 5 fans per gig) band Zooey and Von Iva portray, called Munchausen by Proxy, and I sure wish it were real. At least Von Iva is!

“Living for It” - Von Iva



Another badass lady making music is Brody Dalle, under the mantle of Spinnerette, along with (seemingly) random others. The song “Ghetto Love” is crazy catchy and full of attitude. I ghetto love it.

“Ghetto Love” - Spinnerette



Lastly, what do you get when MGMT and Cut Copy have a secret child? The answer is the band Empire of the Sun, who sound all set for summer (oops) and infectious indie-fame.

“We Are the People” - Empire of the Sun

Thom:

My favorite thing this week is… Myspace? What? Not for its social networking capabilities (for that facebook is far superior) but because smaller bands have actually acknowledged my existence through it. After a Tilly and the Wall show where Sebastian Grainger was a no show I wrote on their myspace ‘why no show in Austin?’ To my surprise they got back to me.



Built By Snow is another band that has recently communicated with me.



A local Austin band, Built By Snow satisfies my lust for nerd rock (a need left unfilled by Weezer’s latest albums). A band that worships the days of Atari and Pacman, understands the finer side of killer robots, and has successfully brought the word ‘rad’ back, Built By Snow is everything one could need (and so much more). Thus, our conversation on myspace was all the more beautiful.

(you will probably need to click on this picture to get the un-cutoff version)


Although, in the end I was still unable to make it to their CD release show.

"Algometric Touch" – Built By Snow
"All the Weird Kids Know" – Built By Snow

Check out http://www.builtbysnow.com/rad/ for more free Built By Snow mp3s.

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