Cuteness obsession v3.0

First primordial dwarfs, then a ridiculously large bunny named Heir Hare, and now a special breed of cat that is noticably larger than others. What is it about overly large and small things that makes them so cute?? Today I stumbled upon this picture:

And while upon first glance, you may think "Yah riiiiiiiiiight. Dat ain't real boo", it is in fact, real boo. That right there is a 24lb Maine Coon cat. I looked into the breed of cat and it turns out they're predispostioned to be super cuddly as well as super big. They have really large ears, super fluffems tails, and big big tufted oogle-worthy paws. Wikipedia calls them "gentle giants" and says that they're intelligent and playful. In short, I considered flying out to Maine to pick one up from a breeder (that is, until I discovered you can adopt 16lb-ers in Oakland).

Here's another picture of Fluffers McGee looking super cute in the arms of this owner who looks exactly like me circa 2003. Coincidence? I think not..

Weekly obsessions in the key of Caitlin!

You know the drill. Stuff I've been listening to that fits into no particular theme (such as my super cool, super fun Teenagers post which totally got overshadowed by Dean's prompt hotness. I'm nudging you right now, btw. Check it out). I've got some patented Caitlin-approved cuteness along with a couple amazings.

As for Amazings:
1. Cadence Weapon ft. Final Fantasy // Sharks
An example of what happens when you mix too many amazing artists. Cadence Weapon is a pretty good rapper, who performed live with Final Fantasy, who in turn sampled Andrew Bird. The result? Probably one of the best songs you will hear all week. And if you're curious, I did check out the original, studio-recorded "Sharks" and it majorly pales in comparison.

2. Mom // Green Echo
Entirely instrumental and only 2 mintues long, but pretty beautiful and shows a lot of potential for a new band of greatness.

3. Studio // No Comply
Pretty 80s New Wave that's new and catchy to boot. You'll like it.

And as for fun and cute:

4. Peel // In the City
Totally fun, standard Indie rock stuff that I love to post/play/listen to. It's catchy enough, it's got British vocals, and it's hott.

5. Lavender Diamond // Open Your Heart
Fairly cute with sweet female vocals, light giddy guitar, lotso piano, and of course, hand claps.

6. Feist // Fighting Away the Tears - Mocky Mix
Mocky has an incredible ability to make Feists songs sound entirely different and yet entirely wonderful. He's one of the few artists who really plays with songs that he mixes. This version of one of Feist's new songs is totally deconstructed into a simple beat with just hand claps and vocals and some very secondary piano/horns/etc. Pretty relaxing, and fits into the feel of Feist's "Let it Die" more than "The Reminder"

Okay, that's a lot of mp3s. I tried to seperate the stuff that you (yes you, you readers, you super cool readers who also have a blog and don't like cute stuff) would want to listen to from the stuff that, say, someone with a more fun taste might want to listen to.

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Oh, and notices: Next time you're at The Del Mar Theatre, Streetlight Records, or Cafe Pergolesi, pick up the latest instalment of The Fish Rap! It's pretty funny. Also, check out the layout for our new website which should be coming up sometime next week.

New to me and old to you, Weekly Obsessions round 2.2

Lately, I have been way into a few sweet lovers, namely Mirah (2nd cutest girl on K Records), Final Fantasy (incredibly incredible stringed indie music that "oh my god are they really gonna team up with Beirut and send me into musical heaven??!"), and a few Sub Pop singles which belong to a collection that is exceptionally amazing. Also, if you're into new to you and not new to me: Mancino, who use cute Islands-esque whistles as their song opens up but don't shy away from using that scary ah-ah-ah sound that Animal Collective brought to us on Feels. Also, Mother Mother, who are kind of cute thanks to their girl-boy vocalists who sing about under the sea. The guy sounds like Of Montreal's Kevin Barns and the girl sounds like a mix between Joanna Newsom and Regina Spektor. Also known as really quirky nice. This song is much recomended.

Mirah // Person Person
Final Fantasy // This is the Dream of Win and Regine
Mountain Goats // Store
Mountain Goats // Jam Eater Blues
Bonnie "Prince" Billy // Let's Start a Family
Mother Mother // Polynesia
Mancino // L'amour (or Less)

Weekly obsessions, round II

You know how it goes. Fantastic songs that I've recently fallen in love with. All worthy of a mix cd, all worthy of your love.



1. Gameboy/Gamegirl // Sweaty Wet/Dirty Damp
(dance) Ugh so funky, so good. The heavy electro bass is sure to get your body moving and the rapping in this song is so Fanny Pack that it's just super super cool. This is the 2007 answer to Fanny Pack's awesomeness, which I want to exploit the crap out of because they deserve some fame fame but I can't because, like, who talks about bands from the nineties anymore??? J/k you luvs it. You so do. And backtrack that Fanny Pack cuz its soooo soo fun.

2. Miami Horror // Don't Be On With Her
(dance) Funky beats and fatty treats. This song's got some more dancy fun for all you crazy legs out there. It's got a straight taken from Daft Punk transish around the 2min mark, keyboard synth totes stolen from my bestfriend Prince, 808 hand claps, and some SICK guitar shredding. And when I say that they took these parts from these musicians, I mean it in the best possible way. It's all instrumental, but it's sure to keep all you kids dancing, espeshs if youre a fan an 80s fan, which I know you are. Cuz, like, you know. I'm pretty sure we ALL are.

3. Justice // D.A.N.C.E
(dance) Yay for a new Justice song. A new Justice song that was smart enough to top it off with some cuteness. (I talked to their representatives and it turns out the main reason for this is to make it to LRMD fame. They're clever.) First off, the vocals have a child-like quality, which combined with the spelling out of words as in "stick to the B-E-A-T" plus "easy as A-B-C" makes for some fairly cute touches added to an otherwise perfectly produced dancy song complete with bloops and sharp strings. This song is a must.

4. The Brobecks // Jacqui
(indie rock) Ugh. Simply wonderful indie rock. Perfectly constructed with bridges and balloons. This falls short of cute and settles perfectly into that number one indie rock song that you haven't heard this year.

5. Gruff Rhys // Candylion
(indie rock) Let's just say that this song starts off with "A long time ago, in the kingdom of candy"... There's xylophone for cuteness and strings for pleasantry but there's room for cream. I mean cuteness. There's room for cuteness. Someone smart decided that the lyrics were already so cute that they should leave some cuteness out of the music so that if you were to see a kitten while listening to this song, you wouldn't explode. Cuteness overloads are dangerous sometimes, I should know. Anyways, this song is mainly just very, very pleasant. It's sort of like looking at a pop up book filled with lots of pretty pictures of rolling hills and round anatomically-incorrect animals. It feels good and it's relaxing, but it's not going to bring you to any epiphanies. Never the less, it's made it to "weekly obsessions", so I suggest you do a little clicky clicky and d/l d/l.

6. Antarctica Takes It! // I'm No Lover
(indie rock) Duh you guys. Just duh. Someone tell this band to start making music again because I'm offishs a fan.

Image via one of my favorite peoples evs: L.P.

huit. Weekly obsessions

1. Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing!
First off, check out that title. So cool, so cute, so nice! This track is six full minutes of delicious indie rock pop with a long, building beautiful intro that leads into catchy fun guitars, well-placed hand claps, dingle jangles, and ooh-oohs. Paired with the lead singer's hottie British accent accompanied by a cutie girl and nice lyrics ("If there's one thing I could never confess, it's that I can't dance a single step"), you're in for six minutes of fun and quality goodness. And I promise, it's a little bit addictive, just how we like 'em.

2. Do Make Say Think - Horns of a Rabbit, The Universe!
Maybe I'm retarded, but I had never heard this band until this past week when they snuck into my ears at a coffee shop and soon shot endorphin bubbles of awesimity through my brain. They reminded me of what I fell in love with Broken Social Scene originally for, that beautiful instrumental style that combines dreamy guitars with steady drums and some fuzziness. That sound that makes you sure there must be at least 30 people in the band, all fiddling around to create a dream sequence for you. (okay, so there's only 3 people in the band. Whatevs, they're so good that each person ~10people) I also like that they're like Explosions in the Sky except that they have 3 minute songs and it doesn't take days to build to the stormy parts. Love is what I feel for them. My fave song is "Horns of a Rabbit" but they also have a new release coming out Feb. 27 which "The Universe!" is from. I hope you love.

3. Gui Boratto - Beautiful Life
Another long song (this one's 8 minutos) but this one's not poppy like the prev. Instead it's mainly instrumental/electronic until the 6 minute mark which jumps into some sweet femme vocals. As skatterbrain said (that's where I found this), it's the best candidate for a car commercial. Aka really good.



That's enough listening for now.