Peep Your Sleep

If you ask a normal what they spend most of their time doing, they'll probably say something like "work" or "moving, nourishing, believing," but I'm here to tell you that really it is SLEEPING. I'm a regular snoozin' boyle. In the words of wolfpupy, "I hit the hay all day." But what does this have to do with the music-centric focus of this fantastic blog?

Because I live in the political and geographical hellscape that is Australia, I have gotten used to sleeping with a fan on over the summer season. Unfortunately, this means that now that it is starting to cool down a bit, I find it hard to snooze without that breezy white noise in the background. Silence is scary.

As a result, I present to you- my favourite things to play from tiny phone speakers at a volume of 1 as when you're trying to snooze because it is too cold to turn on your shitty Big W fan!:

Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2 by Aphex Twin
Duh. Pros are that it is very long, so it might outlast your insomnia if you are having one of those nights where you keep thinking about the things you need to do at work tomorrow. Cons are that while parts of it are v beautiful, some are downright eerie and may cause you to think there is an invisible demon standing over you RIGHT NOW. 7 zzzzzzz's out of 10

actual photo of the musician responsible

Kid A by Radiohead

An oldie but a goodie. Pros are that it is relatively gentle to begin with so will work well if you are quick to snooze. Cons- there are a few cacophonous bits (The National Anthem, Idiotheque) that might rouse you, personal con for me is that my partner can't stand it and has terrible nightmares if I put it on. YMMV! 3 zzz's out of 10

The Fall Into Time by Oneohtrix Point Never

I have this one permanently available offline in my spotify account because it's my go-to drowsing music for travel. Combine with some noise-cancelling headphones for a v surreal transit experience. Possibly just one of my straight-up fave ambient albums ever, v. soothing and vaguely sci-fi without being eerie or downbeat. No cons try it yourself tonight! 10 zzzzzzzzzz's out of 10!

i also love this album cover

Cover the Windows and the Walls By Grouper
Basically witch music- sad lady with reverb turned to six million and ten. If you are easily spooked probs won't work for you as a snoozelisten. This is my personal favourite Grouper album though and it works well for me! It has probably fallen out of rotation in my sleep listening because of the strong efforts of Oneohtrix and Max Richter though. 6 zzzzzz's out of 10.

Sleep by Max Richter
Surprise- this album is called sleep and it is good to sleep to. Slightly more vocal/choral?-based than the others in this list, so if you're feeling a bit plagal hit this one for your sleep cycle. It goes for eight hours, which is about the amount of time you're meant to sleep, right? I don't know what much more I can say on this one. You'll need to make sure your phone is charging so it doesn't drain your battery overnight!, and good luck if you're in a place where you don't have wifi and need to stream it. Also a fun surprise if you can catch the end of it in the morning when you wake up. 8 zzzzzzzz's out of 10.

Happy snoozing!

Super Request with Rosie Beat-her-head-in

Sup, again
Since my holidays consists of rain, playing pokemon, hoarding things, losing things, and playing "world of warcraft" (see: i am a loser) i decided that two blog posts in x amount of days is Totally Ok.

HERE IS, A 'short' list of "albums I look forward to in 2011." In no particular order.
- Hercules and Love Affair. Uhhh there is a video for the first single on the interwebs somewhere and it's pretty much regular faire for hercs, which is Good With Me. DISCO DISCO. Qs regarding hercy: is "Hercules and Love Affair" the most homo-sounding band name in existence? Is "hercules and love affair" THE most "homo" band name in existence? Disco disco?
~~~~~~~??????
- Patrick Wolf. If you follow patrick wolf on twitter you would have treated with this gem:


Hes engaged! To be maRried!!!!! KrAzY!!!!
Apparently no one else finds this as amusing as I do, which only disappoints me, 24 hours a day, 364 days a year (I have A Birthday, you guys.) The little symbol in the top left of the tweet means that I favourited it AND retweeted it. THAT'S THE MOST LOVE YOU CAN POSSIBLY SHOW A TWEET.Anyway, his album is apparently going to be called "Lupercalia," which is the best possible album title for someone named Patrick Wolf. And it will probably be ridiculous. YES.

- PJ Harvey. Her album coming out is called "Let England Shake." Remember back in ___ber (name of month) that the weird song leaked with her wearing a batshit-crazy hat on TV and strumming on an autoharp which was totally out of tune with the "Take me back to Constantinople!" sample playing? What. The fuck. This album will blow chunks/be amazing.
I actually found an image of that what-the-fuck moment as described above:

"~~i'm peejay and i'm jus belting shit out regardless of anything ever POTATOES~~"

MEN. Because I find JD Samson oddly attractive. I say oddly because she is a woman with a moustache.
Lupe Fiasco. His album is going to be called LASERS or L.A.S.E.R.S or some shit. I don't know. I love him. Have you listened to The Cool? It's so cool. Also anyone that knows me in real life will vouch for my ability to swoon over lasers. Seriously. Sometimes people take photos of lasers and tag me in them on Facebook.

Cut Copy. DOES ANYONE NOT LIKE CUT COPY? SRSLY.
The Streets. I think I have a crush on Mike Skinner even though he is kind of gross. Also I don't mind the newer "omg I have feelings" Streets albums over the "omg I'm so english!!!11 chips" older Streets albums. And the new one has the word "Blues" in the title, so it's going to have soooo many feelings.

~~~~~~---- The following are ones that I don't actually think are confirmed to have albums coming out:

Bjork. Apparently there is a Bjork album coming out this year. But, like Radiohead, I think 'they' say there is a Bjork album coming out every year. Nonetheless, if a Bjork album DOES come out this year, I'm on it. I'll learn all the not-great-english lyrics and wail along like a, uh, minnow.
"~~~i am bjork soh-reee i did-uh ze sneezingks~~~"

Aphex Twin. Apparently in an interview he said he had made like six million albums. I don't know why I am including him on this list, I am kind of "over him" and don't really like his stuff apart from the selected ambient works collections??? What??? UHH

Japandroids. For some reason I suspect these bros will release something in 2011. Call me psychic, or call it "band-wanting-to-remain-profitable." WHATEVS. Remember how great Post-Nothing was :'(

Any of the 5038 bands featuring Spencer Krug.

I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness. This band basically don't exist and just put out one album ever and I am so confused about anything related to them ever. BUT they have totally awesome songs on that album. Also, the worst band name ever.



I can't even remember what that album came out. SIGHS. DISAPPEARING BANDS, WHERE ARE YOU, MISS U

I'm going to leave it at that. Appaz we have probs with people commenting :'( soz. I don't know how to fix it. You can tweet at me or something.