I saw Rachel Getting Married a few days back, and I really liked how they incorporated so many musical elements. I’m not a huge Anne Hathaway fan, but I like her more in this post-rehab character than her usual smiley-too eager roles. The best part was the wedding march stylised by Brooklyn Demme, son of the director, Jonathan Demme, done with a single electric guitar and drums.

Take a look at the trailer if you haven’t seen it. The wedding march is heard in the first few minutes of the intro.

I would like my march like this please.

*swing

oh me oh my i haven’t been here in a while, and what is this, a birthday dedication to me and many other things? I never got to give my birthday songs a listen.

But I’m back because I have been hearing songs that I immediately wished to share or label as a colour.

This song has been playing for quite a while but it’s so happy and bright that there is really no other choice but to play it again.

Los Campesinos is a deceptive name because these kids are actually from Wales. I refused to click play on this song for quite a while because the band name and the song title combined promised some very ethnic festival dancing music. The sound is very youthful and energetic, the kind of thing you forgive youths for coming up with because it just makes you feel happy.

You!Me!Dancing! – Los Campesinos (click!)

And this one will make you feel like you’re jogging and panting and losing control of everything. Don’t you hate these kisses?

It reminds me of fuzzy old recordings, heading back for big beat and the supremes, but there is too much testosterone and careless sadness in the vocals and lyrics to be anything but 2009.

It’s good to be back.

*crush

Lalita- The Love Language

COLDPLAY LIVE

Were you one of the 10,000(according to xMartin) there? 

It was a well planned concert, the videography was excellent, and I must say it really was beautiful. xMartin collapsed a few times tho and disappeared into the floor. Then he did a backroll (like the ones we learnt during gym) and was back up again in superstar mode. 

Lovers in Japan was my favvvvvvvvourite piece…the background video…the falling butterfly confetti

Backdrop opening scene to Lovers in Japan and falling butterfly confetti below.

Chris Martin often has weird eyes, as seen below

Here’s the video of Death And All His Friends…and you can see the VIVA backdrop coming down

***video will be uploaded later***

and here they are at the Raffles Hotel

image via coldplay.com

*swing

“hey boy won’t you take me out tonight?”

My Love makes me dance in bed. It also makes me want to put on pink polka dotted shoes and drink lemonade. And twirlllll round with my arms open wide till I get dizzy, just like how I did when I was 8. Or sit in the bath and have breakfast.

image via big fun

If there’s one song I pick for this week, this is it.

My Love – The Bird and the Bee (clickk!!)

*swing 

It’s hard to find that right song sometimes.

A momentary touch, a short-lived spark, but enough to keep you going through that instant. Half Asleep tapped me on the shoulder today, just in-between being stuck in the jam and reeling around in my black shoes, ready to quit, to leave it all. 

Every now and then, I’m awake. Mostly, I’m half asleep. Drifting in and out of indigo seas and crimson tides. 

Image from Arvida

Half Asleep – School of Seven Bells (click!)

*swing

Seems like we stumbled into a new year already.

Which also means, crush turns a year older!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CRUSH!! My oldest friend and partner in musical crime. It’s funny cos we BOTH spent our birthdays in Hong Kong in 2008. Where will 2009 bring us?

ABBA by Agata Nowicka

From our earliest days, crush influenced me with ABBA, and we spent countless hours jumping and twirling around on her parent’s bed yelling “Money, money, money!!! Must be funny!!!” We still sing ABBA now, still jump around, and still like to yell. And we realise having money is more than funny.

Here’s a not exactly very creative cover of Mamma Mia and Madonna’s take on Like An Angel Passing Through My Room.

Sun Yat Fai Lok crush!! 

*swing

Mamma Mia (Abba cover) – Miniature Tigers (click!!)

Like An Angel Passing Through My Room (Abba Cover) – Madonna (click!!)

It’s been awhile. The world has been noisy with celebrations, parties, fireworks and some protests, but it’s been quiet here at Merry Men. 

As we bid farewell to 2008, is there something you need to do before 2009 comes bursting in? Someplace to visit, something to fix, goals to write, someone to say hello to?

This is another brown song, a short one, and makes me think of days where i lie in bed, with nothing to do and not a care in the world. May 2009 have more days like these. 

We’ll leave you with this, Say Hello.

Thom Yorke by Stefan Venbroek

*swing

Say Hello – Rosie Thomas (with Sufjan Stevens) [click!]

Work has come between us, but I come to you now with my tail between my legs, and a brown playlist.

What is it with colours? It isn’t entirely a Kandinsky-type synaesthesia thing. I label these songs as blue or yellow; blue for mellow, yellow for upbeat. My own playlists used to be orange, white, black, yellow and blue. Figure them out. Then I got into weather and changed them to ‘rain’ and ’sun’. How do you categorize your music?

Brown is the feeling of sleepy nostalgia or deja vu, the kind you are too lazy to do anything about, or to even remember properly. The first song has the faint taste of the beach boys, but not too much of it. The second song always reminds me of night-time when you want to go to bed but can’t bear to turn the light off.

*crush

Do You Love Me? – The Explorers’ Club (click!)

Jimmy and the Photocall – Broken Social Scene (click!)

Go On, Say It – Blind Pilot

Dory Previn – Camera Obscura

Sundays always turn out to be those unproductive days with too much time spent in bed.

Human is one of those songs I get hooked on for weeks and the tune rings in my head and I sing it out loud in the shower.

I am one of those. Those sing-in-the-shower people who have no shame or concept of noise pollution. The bathroom makes a perfect replacement to a studio anyway.

I stumbled upon Ghost & Liars and felt they had some Travis sort of vibes going on. As for the Damn Yankees, they caught my ear on the 80s countdown on radio sometime this week, and it’s really unmistakably 80s. 

*swing

Human – The Killers (click!)

We’ll Carry On – Ghost & Liars (click!)

Where You Going Now – Damn Yankees (click!)

Everything about James Bond has been cheesily masculine, machismo, bravado. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

James Bond soundtracks have been equally intentionally badass, with menacing riffs, tough lyrics and titles so mean you either buy wholly into the Bond myth or laugh it away.

Here’s the newest one: Another Way to Die by JACK WHITE and Alicia Keys. I can already see the opening credits sequence in my head. I like Daniel Craig. He’s gritty and contemporary, he’s unshaven and tumble-dry. Which is pretty much the sound of Jack White.

*crush

Another Way to Die- Jack White/ Alicia Keys