Music: Adele sings "Make You Feel My Love"

How awesome is Adele?! Rhetorical question. Dissenters, keep to yourself. You know, I never really gave Adele much of my attention even though everyone basically loves her. It wasn't until the cumulative effects of the Baker's unabashed fandom, my sister's (and the Baker's) celebration of the Glee mash-up, that I decided to start snooping around.

Now, call me a convert, because I'm a big fan now.

The Baker sent me this link, and I think it's super awesome. How great is it when singer's live performances sound better than their CD recordings? I only knew two people for whom this statement held true--Nickel Creek and Yo-Yo Ma. Although I haven't been able to see Adele live in concert, this video will definitely suffice. It comes from her "Live At Royal Albert Hall" DVD (which comes with a CD of her live recordings!).

Check it out.



This link came from a blog post for NPR's show, All things considered. 

Music: Michael Buble

I can't believe it, but I think I like his version better than Mariah's!

Funny or Die: Bluegrass Diva

I never knew Funny or Die would make something like this, but I am very glad they do. I'm a huge folk and bluegrass fan (shout out to Batgirl for introducing me to Nickel Creek way back in the way!), and it was tres exciting to see some of these players in this video. I particularly enjoyed mandolinist Chris Thile's reaction to banjo player Noam Pikelny's singing.

(I bet a lot of you didn't know Steve Martin has been for many years, and is, a banjo player. In fact, he was named Entertainer of the Year by Bluegrass Music Association. You can read an article about it here.

Bluegrass Diva with Steve Martin, Ed Helms and Noam Pikelny from Steve Martin

Music: Muppets - The Green Album

I grew up on the Muppets. I had all those VHS tapes of all their movies, and now I get to recall those memories of the past with the new Muppets movie coming out!!!!

I found this album on Spotify, and I wish I could link to some youtube videos, but I couldn't really find any.

Highlights from the album

• The Rainbow Connection (Weezer + Hayley Williams of Paramore)
• Mahna Mahna (The Fray)
• Movin' Right Along (The Alkaline Trio)

You can listen to some mp3 samples from Amazon here. 

Video: Behind the Scenes The Sing-Off

I always wondered if the groups choreographed the opening number by themselves. Turns out, nope, they don't. But hey, that doesn't detract from the performance!

I love behind the scenes footage, and this is no exception.

Those of you might recognize that Sam Tsui of Youtube fame is the host of these behind the scenes featurettes! Cool, right?! I mentioned him before in this post.

Video: Downton Abbey 2 Interviews with the Cast

God, I can't get Red Nose day out of my head every time I watch Downton trailers. The parody makes a special effort to laugh at the long gazes and solemn stares with musical interludes. Also, I'm pretty sure part of the show's success comes from the music. I love this intro music. Almost as much as I love the Little Dorrit music.

Super thanks to the Baker for sending this to me.



Downton Abbey Theme


Little Dorrit Theme

Music: American Boy by Afro Blue

I love their version of this song--more than the original, actually!

 

Music: The Goat Rodeo Sessions

Oh my God, possibly my two favorite stringed instrument musicians are working together on a new album. A new album called The Goat Rodeo Sessions is coming out, with Yo-yo Ma (Cello), Chris Thile (Mandolin), Edgar Meyer (Bass), and Stuart Duncan (Fiddle).

I loveeeee Chris Thile & Yo-yo Ma, but I never expected them to work together! (In fact, they address their very different musical genre backgrounds in the behind the scenes video two below.) This interview with Ma though got me dreaming a little bit. (Try and ignore the glaring misspelling of Thile's last name).



Here's one of their songs, "Attaboy."


And how could I resist not posting a behind-the-scenes, making-of video. Clearly, I couldn't.


Get excited! This album comes out October 25th! These next few weeks are way action-packed. Steve Jobs' bio on the 24th! The Goat Rodeo Sessions on the 25th! Mindy Kaling's new book on November 1st!

What great things I have to get me through the increasingly blustery weather. :)

Music: A Very She & Him Christmas

I first fell in love with Zooey Deschanel's voice when I heard her version of Baby It's Cold Outside on Elf. How fitting it is then (is it? I just wanted to start my sentence this way), that I announce her new album with M. Ward--A Very She & Him Christmas.

Let me just say that I LOVE CHRISTMAS. More than you could imagine. I'm the girl that people make fun of because, let's just say, "It's July? Yeaaaaaaah! Christmas is in the house!" That's right, one day past the half way point technically brings us into Christmas territory. And once, when I saw someone walk into a lecture hall with their holiday-themed Starbucks cup in hand, I exclaimed a little too loudly (with bulgy eyes, mind you..but wait, is there really any other way to exclaim), "I loooooveeeee Christmas!!!!" My friend the Lab Rat will never let me live this one down.

I'm so excited that this album is coming out, and that it's coming out on October 24th! I don't like waiting for Turkey Day to end for Christmas Music Radio season can begin (Shout out to 96.5 KOIT, the best Christmas music station ever.)

You can listen to the first track for free (I've embedded it below), and you can legally download it too from Sound Cloud!

She & Him - The Christmas Waltz by MergeRecords

For those who are interested, you can preorder the She & Him CD here (cute She & Him wrapping paper while supplies last! Given the pretty cool designs on the last two albums, I bet it's nice.). And for a couple of (okay more than a couple) dollars you can add a hat or mittens with SHE & HIM knitted onto them.

Music: She & Him

I do love Zooey Deschanel's voice, and these are two of my favorite songs from the first She & Him album.

Why do you let me stay here? 

• The original music video can be seen here. 
• For some real fun, click here to watch the music video featuring Joseph Gordon Levitt & Zooey Deschanel. I saw this in the special features for (500) Days of Summer. It's kind of fun. 

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.
This song is so short, but I like it a lot.

Music: Matchbox Twenty

I love these two songs. Unfortunately, I couldn't embed Bright Lights, but I can direct you to the youtube page!

If You're Gone



Bright Lights
Click here to go to the Youtube page.

Music: Musicals!

I've been using Spotify to go back into my collection of musical songs. Here are some of my favorites. I'd also like to apologize for the my noticeable (I hope this isn't just me being hopeful)absence and my future shorter posts.

One of my favorite songs from That's Entertainment starring Fred Astaire and Jack Buchanan.



High Society, the musical remake of the classic Katharine Hepburn/Cary Grant/Jimmy Stewart film The Philadelphia Story, featured two of the best singers of all time--Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. Personally, I like the latter's voice better. This song is so much fun!
 

Monsters Inc, the musical! I love Billy Crystal. Recently I rewatched When Harry Met Sally--Billy Crystals delivers lines like no one else.


 This isn't from a musical, but my friend the Panda showed it to me a while ago. Streisand and Garland are two musical forces to be reckoned with.

Music: It's All Coming Back To Me Now

See song title for my comment.

Music: Good Life and Derivations

One of my favorite, Good Life always gets me bobbing my head and feeling a little bit lighter.

Here's the original music video for OneRepublic's hit.


Check out the remix featuring B.o.B below.

  Good Life Remix feat. B.O.B. by Interscope Records

The OneRepublic Youtube account also features videos made during the band's European Good Life Tour. Each episode has some behind the scenes interviews. Check it out!

Intro to the Series


In Luxembourg & Tilburg
My favorite part is at 1:30 when they play part of the melody on the xylophone.
\

In Prague


In Vienna

Music: Brighter Than The Sun, Faster

These are two of my new favorite songs right now!

Faster by Matt Nathanson


Brighter Than The Sun by Colbie Caillat

Fun fact: Ryan Tedder of One Republic co-wrote this song with Colbie Caillat!

Music Videos: Whistling

Have you noticed the recent whistle-trend? I was listening to these three songs and started to realize that they all had whistlin'! Anyone know if this surge in whistling is part of a grander scheme for something or other?

Britney Spears' I wanna go
Foster the people Pumped up kicks
Maroon 5 Moves like Jagger

Here are the vids.

Music Video: The Lazy Song

Ah, Bruno Mars and his laid back style. I'm totally digging this song--even more after watching the video. Like Mars himself, this video doesn't seem to try too hard to impress.

Songs of the Summer: Crazy in Love (2003)

Vulture recently posted an article about the last 20 Songs of the Summer. My eyes glossed over the 80s, and I quickly experienced through some 90s and post Y2K love. Look forward to a song from this list appearing every once in a while.

Word cloud for Songs of the Summer

The article featured the above word cloud, where the relatie size of the word correlates to the relative number of times a word has appeared in a Song of the Summer. I was most surprised to see that macarena has appeared more than once. Can you spot it? It's in purple, on the left of the red KNOW. It's appeared more times than mine and tonight, words I would have imagined to be more useful than macarena.

So, let's take a trip back to 2003, when this song was crazy big.

Music: They Can't Take That Away From Me

Ella Fitzgerald's voice is so smooth and rich. My favorite songs of hers are her duets with Louis Armstrong.

Music Video: OK, It's Alright With Me

From the Songbird. Her music choice is pretty excellent. In this video, I love how Eric Hutchinson can't contain himself as he plays.

The man sings and plays piano! 

I'd embed it for y'all if I could, but I can't. I have a feeling people disable embedding because views on other sites don't count towards their video counts. That's the only reason I can think of right now as to why the feature is disabled on some vids.

Watch the music video here.