BJ and I saw The Deep Blue Sea over the weekend. The pace was slow and natural, the sweet scenes were super tender making the dark ones even darker, and I thought this one of the few movies that examined love in a different light. Rachel Weisz was beautiful as always. If you see it, I would love to hear what you think.

One of my favorite scenes played You Belong To Me by Jo Stafford. And it’s one of the few youtube comment sections worth reading.

photo by Liam Daniel. Music Box Films

Cults at Fitz last weekend. Madeline Follin doesn’t hold back!

Playing in the car, Lana del Rey‘s Video Games

MADE HERE – UPSTATE from Jay Carroll on Vimeo.

For Mallory’s mix CD swap, I was paired with Liza—blogger extraordinaire behind Length x Wit and also a fellow Texan. Our assigned theme was “good times.” The below songs either lift my spirits or they kind of nostalgically point my memory toward particularly bright moments.

After the jump, the track listing.

1. Billy Stewart, “Summertime”
2. Plastic Bertrand, “Ça Plane Pour Moi”
3. Pulp, “Common People”
4. The Monks, “Monk Time”
5. Neutral Milk Hotel, “Holland, 1945″
6. The Clash, “Rock the Casbah”
7. E.L.O., “Mr. Blue Sky”
8. The Auteurs, “The Rubettes”
9. The Intruders, “Cowboys to Girls”
10. The Shangri-Las, “Give Him a Great Big Kiss”
11. Unrest, “Make Out Club”
12. The Breeders, “Cannonball”
13. Gene Vincent, “Be-Bop-A-Lula”
14. Mercury Rev, “Holes”
15. Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, “Patio Song”
16. Pavement, “Shady Lane”
17. The Clientele, “We Could Walk Together”
18. The Olivia Tremor Control, “Hideway”
19. Arthur Russell, “This Is How We Walk on the Moon”
20. Nat King Cole, “Quizás, Quizás, Quizás”
21. The Trammps, “Hold Back the Night”
22. Arthur Lee, “Everybody’s Gotta Live”

Pick up our first mix at Dropbox or Mediafire.

— C

a quickie

BJ’s Pitchfork review for Kate Nash’s single, I Just Love You More, can be found here.

An imaginary, ideal outfit that can easily transition from work to Lost watching parties at BJ’s. I know we have plenty of throw blankets, but how comfortable does that wool blanket from Dace look? Maybe if we move north…

I’m feeling a little sick towards the end of the week, and I’ve been curled up on the couch watching ABDC. I’m a little sad the crew from Providence with former Hope High kids didn’t make nationals, but thank God this season isn’t so gimmicky. I overheard some pretty funny conversations when I mentioned to my class that I watch the show. Speaking of which, I realized Friday that my ear can’t pick up certain frequencies anymore. I prided myself in the fact that I could pick up on the mosquito ringtone when students texted each other. It must be annoying for students who hear it but don’t want to be the tattletale. Fortunately, some kids don’t care about that, so when one called out his friend for using the ringtone, I quickly fibbed and said I could hear it too!

Sleigh Bells have drawn heaps of critical attention in no time flat. What could be the appeal? That, as they told an old colleague of mine, everything is glossy but something is off? I think you can trace it to the collision of sensibilities between Derek Miller, a guitarist from a Florida post-hardcore band, and Alexis Krauss, who’s worked as a schoolteacher, wedding singer, session vocalist, and teen member of a girl group. Miller offers varieties of primitivism: homemade beats plus squeals and squalls of roughly guitarlike noises. Krauss, on the other hand, boasts a diversity of talents that reflects her diversity of experience. This goes for both her voice—an instrument that can switch gears on a dime—and her body—an instrument that, in the fiery tradition of Joan Jett and Karen O, fastens into an ecstatic state that feels at once confronting and inviting. Stirring together ferocity and feminine innocence, this 24-year-old whirlwind of sound and motion launches out bratty roars and lusty moans, graceful hand gestures and dizzying hair whips, keeping stillness and silence at bay, the not-so-calm core within Miller’s maelstrom of brute riffs and booms.

Some are bothered by Sleigh Bells’ use of an iPod in their live show. I wonder if these people are troubled by Beach House’s prerecorded drum tracks. Frankly, I don’t see the issue. A live act need not conform to some eternal template of rock-band roles. Here we can zero in on the two true sources of action. Or in the case of “Ring Ring,” above,  one live center plus one warmly looped center.

Photo credits: Will Deitz, Pitchfork; James Ryang, NYT.