triple j Hottest 100

I swear it was only about a month ago that I was writing up my nominations for 2013's hottest 100. To think that I found last year's choices difficult...this year was excruciating.

I find this stressful...do you pick your favourite song by the artist? Or do you pick their most popular song therefore increasing their chance of winning? Yeah...it's a difficult decision. This year my plan of attack was to simply pick my favourite song by each artist...songs that were important to me throughout this year pretty much.
I spent a couple of hours with Will going through the nominations and by the time I had picked my favourite song by each of my favourite artists I had nominated 50 songs. Narrowing them down to my top 10 was almost impossible. I gave up 4 times. Then I had to go through the whole journey again as Will did his nominations. But we did it, and here they are for your pleasure at your leisure:

I actually found great sadness in narrowing down my long list of nominations to my top 10...because of this, I want to mention the artists that I really am hoping whole heartedly to see in the Hottest 100 despite not receiving my vote:

Saskwatch - Born To Break Your Heart
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard - Hot Wax (luckily Will included this is his top 10)
Delta Riggs - Gooey (Like A Version)
Broods - Mother and Father
Childish Gambino featuring Chance The Rapper - The Worst Guys
Kasabian - Eez-Eh (Again, Will including this gem)
Every other Sticky Fingers song that was nominated...a part of my nearly wanted to nominate everyone of their songs, but I pushed through the temptation and picked my favourite.

So, if you haven't already, it's your turn! I've left the link below. Honestly, get yourself a drink...you'll need it, this is stressful and if you're like me it will cause you to make the biggest decisions you have all month.

http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100/14/

- Stella xx

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Images from:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-orwells-react-to-instantly-infamous-letterman-performance-20140116
http://www.mtv.com/artists/alt-j/photos/
http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/9386-courtney-barnett/
http://www.kiss925.com/2014/11/17/watch-mark-ronson-and-bruno-mars-debut-uptown-funk-music-video/
http://www.theartsshelf.com/2014/06/30/glastonbury-headliners-kasabian-announce-autumn-uk-tour/
http://www.altpress.com/features/entry/amity_affliction_joel_birch_near_death_experience_new_album
http://www.outinperth.com/alison-wonderland-get-ready-australian-tour/
http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/QOh8ukyCrhr/Annual+ARIA+Nominations+Event/ZnWGdQRcIlJ/Chet+Faker
http://musicfeeds.com.au/feeds/king-gizzard-the-lizard-wizard/
http://www.projectu.tv/tag/allday/
http://www.emimusic.com.au/angus-julia-stone/
http://sureshaker.wix.com/sureshaker#!artists-bootleg-rascal/cy9l
http://www.table9mutants.com/dmas-delete/
http://www.thekitestringtangle.com/
http://macdemarco.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stickyfingersmusic?fref=ts

Steroid filled Stereo

I really try to not making any harsh judgements on things without having experienced them myself or having enough really great evidence in my favour. So honestly, I have attempted for long enough to give Stereosonic a chance. Don't get me wrong, never have I once even contemplated thinking about wanting to attend the festival...I just thought I wouldn't completely discourage it as I never have (and hopefully never will) experienced it personally.

Stereosonic is a music festival pretty much known purely for having a lot of DJ's, shirtless steroid filled, fake tanned, dyed and gelled haired men in wife beater singlets shirtless...they are all shirtless. Exhibit A:



There could be the same photo twice there...sorry if there is, I just couldn't tell BECAUSE THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME ANYWAY, and I can't look at them for long enough to notice because I feel like I'm getting all their bleach, and tanner, and chemical enhancers in my eyes purely by looking at the photos.

Anyway, there's a bit of an uproar at the moment because of the violence that has occurred at the festival's Sydney event. Men are swinging punches and going crazy, showing off their overly high testosterone levels by acting like complete and total imbeciles in public.

So to be honest, as hard as I am ripping on this festival, I do understand there are fights everywhere. Although I will point out that this particular fight left a man unconscious and yet it's said the fight has not yet been reported to officials, and it is unknown whether the man suffered any serious injury.
That's the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard...but the question is what can be done to avoid this sort of thing? Is it going to come down to even tighter drinking and drug restrictions? Or will it be more severe consequences for those acting disorderly?

But with that all in mind...here's the link to their website, buy a ticket, get a tan, bleach your hair, steroid it up, burn all your shirts. It will be fun:

http://stereosonic.com.au/

Winterbourne - Our Love's A Lie

I wrote this is 20 minutes, so don't judge me too harshly. I logged off social media 2 hours ago, telling people I was going to bed. I thought I was going to bed. But then I started watching some shitty TV show. There was something one of the characters said that wasn't a very significant line but for some reason it stuck with me. I'm going to be a bitch here and not tell you what the line was, I don't know why...perhaps so I am keeping at least some of this to myself.

I hate showing negative emotion. I don't like people knowing that I am sad. I want to look strong and I enjoy putting up a facade that I am unaffected and too strong in who I am to let others wear me down.
But sometimes that is not the case. I have distracted myself over months of emotional torture and persuaded myself that I am fine. I am fine. It's not a facade this time round, I am okay. There are people in my life who have made me okay again. But tonight has been rough, for no apparent reason.

I feel like it would be stupid to waste this emotion when I could put the energy into writing. I was going to write about Selena Gomez's live performance of 'Heart Wants What It Wants' at the AMA's. Not because it affected me at all, because I'm not going to lie...it didn't. I'm not a fan of Selena Gomez at all, but I was just going to talk about how much I respect her for performing such an emotional song for such a wide audience, especially after all she went through to create that song (breakup. Justin. Sad. Heartbreak. :( boys suck).

So I started talking someone who I knew could make me happy and distract me from being sad, and I listened to Winterbourne's 'Our Love's A Lie' whilst doing so. From the first time I heard this song it really made an impact on me. And this song seems to keep popping up, which I think is less of a coincidence, and more of a sign. I think it is apparent when listening that the lyrics come from a deep emotional place in the songwriters past. The boys do an amazing job at connecting with an audience of people who may have experienced the themes that prevail in the song.

It has a really fun, uplifting, festival vibe to it which I find super interesting because it contradicts the lyrics almost completely. I love when songs do this. Because it is almost like the emotion itself...melancholy.
The song is all about a great love that falls apart and is questioned. Now, yeah, ugh, super depressing, love sucks, but if you have experienced something similar you will be able to agree that much like the contradiction of the happy sound to sad lyrics...the experience of lost love shares a similar contradiction. All the experiences whilst being in love were happy and made you and the significant other happy...but the fact that it all fell apart can cause you to feel unbearably sad. For a long time as well...as suggested by the lyric "pull me from this never ending sadness".
Despite this, and despite my relation with this song...it doesn't make me sad. I think mainly because I connected it to a time when I was happy...so instead of focussing on the lyrics, I focus on what it reminds me of, which is smoked salmon, stolen cups and lost car keys.

Now this is has all been super depressing and I apologise so much for that. But do you want to know what's even more sad...the fact that Winterbourne are playing at a local venue in a couple of weeks BUT IT'S AN OVER 18 SHOW. "Our Love's A Lie" and my life's a joke.

- Stella xx

Robbers - The 1975

I have recently began listening to The 1975 again. For some reason I get the vibe that listening to The 1975 is a little lame? Is it? I just really like them. I think they are really different from a lot of other music that's around. Plus they seem very honest in their writing and production - they aren't trying to be anyone else, nor are they hiding who they are. 

Anyway, I realise it came out a long while ago...actually, exactly 6 months ago today...but their film clip for Robbers might be my favourite film clip ever.
That's a bold statement but this film clip is so well done. Very completed.

This film clip intrigues me, I was going to say it's like a little movie but I don't think it is, it's like a snippet of a life. It's like reading someone's diary, or reading letters that you found in your grandmother's attic from 40 years ago.
For me at least, this film clip offers me something new each time I watch it. I have loved the song since the album came out, but the film clip was what really grabbed my attention.

I really appreciate that the whole situation in the film clip is not glamourised. The portrayal of the story remains realistic. Although it's definitely helped by the production, setting, music and directing of the clip, I think the acting had a major effect on the realistic portrayal. The girl in the clip expresses very fitting and relatable emotions through her gestures and expressions, which even though the majority of the audience will not have shared many similar experiences with the character, makes her relatable and intriguing to watch. The perfectly un-glamourised portrayal is also evident towards the end when they are shown throwing the money around...it's hard to tell whether that even happened, or whether it was what they imagined happening when it all crumbled.

In an interview, lead singer Matthew Healy explained the inspiration behind the clip, saying that the song Robbers is a love song inspired originally from the film True Romance. True Romance tells the story of an Elvis obsessed loner who falls deeply in love with a prostitute. (Spoiler alert) In the film the couple kill her pimp, stealing his drugs and running away to California to start a new life. Upon interview, Matthew Healy told why he was inspired by the film: "It’s the sentiment behind the film that appeals to me, the hopelessly romantic notion that two people can meet and instantly fall in love, an escape story where love is the highest law and conquers all against the odds. Characters like Bonnie and Clyde always appealed to me as a teenager — couples so intoxicated with one another that they fear nothing in the pursuit of the realisation of each other, actions fuelled by blind unconditional love. Robbers is an ode to those relationships. The type of relationship all humans long for. All or nothing." (1975, 2014)

I haven't seen True Romance, but my love for this film clip and for how passionate Healy is about the inspiration makes me really want to. I love this film clip. I have nothing else to say other than I love it. I have watched it far too many times now, and after writing this, chances are I will watch it a couple more times.

- Stella xxx

References:
1975, T. (2014). The 1975 – Robbers. [online] Genius. Available at: http://rock.genius.com/The-1975-robbers-lyrics [Accessed 27 Oct. 2014].

Month of explanation.

Okay, so I have been really pissing myself off with the fact that I haven't written a blog post since the Allday interview. Which was an entire month ago. I really needed to keep that momentum going, and I just really didn't. The last month has really taken it out of me. 

I want to be personal with this blog, because that's what draws me to other blogs. But at the same time, I really don't want to seem to melodramatic. So I'll keep this fairly 'light' hey?

This time 1 month ago, I didn't suspect a thing, everything was normal, and I thought I was content, so the change of the last month has been a really bizarre one for me to wrap my head around. My life has subtly, but surely changed entirely.

I came out of a really serious relationship, which I guess was the main factor into everything spiralling out of control. I had holidays so I was able to distract myself, and focus a lot more on other things, including this blog (organising exciting - for me at least - things coming soon), but then I had to return to school. It's our last term ever, so I guess everyone is a bit antsy and bitchy. Going back to school was difficult mainly because it was a quick snap back to reality...I couldn't hide myself from my emotions like I had over holidays because I had to face certain people everyday.

I don't like to mention this because I find it a little bit tedious how much it's spoken about (don't get me wrong, it's a serious issue, but I feel like my suffering of it is hardly anything compared to what other people deal with, so I shouldn't complain...) but I think it might be stress induced anxiety. I get really really tense. And usually I can relieve this tension by just taking some time out, writing, listening to music, anything. But last week it all got a bit too tense and was fairly overwhelming, and I just felt very very very lonely because of it. And unfortunately, I didn't put my emotions or energy into writing when I really should have been.

It was a really shit period of time. But things started looking up, the whole situation really opened my eyes to who and what was really important in my life, and I managed to come across new people, new experiences and new distractions. Although I do realise I am repressing my emotions a little bit, I think moving forward is the best thing for me to do for myself. I have to put myself first for a little while, and this is how I'm doing it.

I contemplated not putting this up, because it is pretty lame. But I don't think it is reasonable for me to disappear from this blog for a month without an explanation. 

So enough of this bullshit, I'm going to start writing. 

- Stella xxx