. the reason .

no. i'm not talking about hoobastank's one hit wonder back in grade school.

i'm talking about the rockin band that was awesomely smart enough to have sara quin featured in one of their songs.

yeah. it's another tegan and sara post. what can i say. i'm high on t&s (seven days til the concert!).

well i discovered this back in december. i was pretty stoked, usually people ask tegan to sing for them, because she has a steadier, more appealing voice.

but come on. let's be honest. sara's my fave.

so here is a rockin duet. sorry about this boy. i can't really handle him. but the vid is kinda cool. and sara is awesome.

love. peace. tegan and sara. 

we're so beyond this ft. sara quin by the reason

. jim ward .

i love my guitar. love love love. ask anyone in my family. i play it non stop. 

back up. i love music. 

back up. i love tegan and sara (nine more days til the concert!). 

so of course when i got my guitar in december (i had no idea how to play anything), i went online and look up simple versions of tegan and sara songs to teach myself. 

soon after i wizened up and got a guitar teacher. he comes and teaches me every week.

so a couple weeks ago, i gave him this song and said, ' i want to learn to play this, but i cant figure it out '. and him, being the music god he is, learned it and taught it to me last week. 

the guitar had to be tuned down 3 half steps, which is why it's so low.

anyway... my friend and i discovered this awesome duet a couple months ago and completely fell in love with it.

i don't know much about jim ward, but this song is genius. 

it's completely different from anything tegan usually does. 

and now i can play it. and i do. all the time. 

broken songs ft. tegan quin, by jim ward

:: bond ::

the incredible kylie (again..i just love her, she's awesome) did a great job.

. william fitzsimmons .

nothing beats a song, with a man and a woman's voice complimenting each other. that's why i love solid boy/girl bands like the stars, the brunettes (post soon to come), abba for goodness sakes. 

which is why, when i was introduced to this song, i fell instantly in love. 

william fitzsimmons has such the comforting voice. but paired with priscilla ahn, man it just rocks the core.

this man is remarkable. he was born to two blind parents who were incredibly talented in the field of music. he first was taught on the organ his father built. he went to school and was a mental health therapist for a while. his sound is very similar to iron and wine. he has a beautifully written bio on his site.

he looks somewhat like a hobo. unless you dig a beard. then he'd be hot. i don't. so he remains hobo.


{i found this on his site and thought it was hilarious}

so here is the beautiful song, i don't feel it anymore. a duet.

the lyrics are truly amazing. 

{also...fourteen days. two weeks. 336 hours. 20,160 minutes. until i am at the tegan and sara concert with my best friends. i may or may not be counting.}

. tiësto .

because i will be soaking in the glorious sound of tegan and sara in a little over two weeks... they will be the majority of what i will be feeding you. 

tiësto is quite an impressive man. he is the master of all things mixed and remixed.

a while back he did a remix of tegan and sara's song, back in your head. it was alright, and was a favorite dance mix at clubs. but it didn't get too much hype.

last august he put together a record of his mixes, all featuring different bands. and of course, tegan and sara were asked to come sing a song he wrote and mixed called, i feel it in my bones. 

it will rock. your. world. 

the video itself is incredible. i have a new appreciation for tiësto and his talent. check out tegan and sara's post about this experience on their site. 

so enjoy tiësto's i feel it in my bones ft. tegan and sara

{fun fact - the acoustic version of this song is on tegan and sara's set list for their concert!}

[ a wolf at the table ]

crap. i'm about to make my blog more that it was intended to be. i am now adding books into the mix. maybe the occasional movie. maybe. if it's really deserving. but mostly i'm a bookworm. yes. i live a large part of my life with headphones on and book in hand. 

and guess what? this post is not only about one of my favorite books..it's also about my favorite band. the book is called:

[a wolf at the table] by augusten burroughs

this book is a memoir of the relationship a young augusten had with his father. it's a story of the need for unconditional love, and a boys journey to find it. here is a short synopsis from augusten's website:

With A Wolf at the Table, Augusten Burroughs makes a quantum leap into untapped emotional terrain: the radical pendulum swing between love and hate, the unspeakably terrifying relationship between father and son. Told with scorching honesty and penetrating insight, it is a story for anyone who has ever longed for unconditional love from a parent. Though harrowing and brutal, A Wolf at the Table will ultimately leave you buoyed with the profound joy of simply being alive. It's a memoir of stunning psychological cruelty and the redemptive power of hope.

i discovered this book whilst watching some tegan and sara videos. if you haven't read my tegan and sara post yet..stop reading this and look at it now. i'm serious.

[a wolf at the table] is one of tegan's favorite books. so she wrote a song about it and sent it to augusten. it's hauntingly beautiful. 

so if you like intriguing, dark humored books. this one's for you. so good, i promise. after you read it, come tell me what you think. 

here's tegan performing his love for augusten.

. keane .

when i was thirteen i took the bus to and from school every day.

i was in my prime at thirteen. really.

i was a back-of-the-bus kid. yeah. i had an adorable little friend named cole, and together we ruled the world. i looked forward to these bus rides like a leprechaun looks forward to st. patty's day (oh yeah, happy st.p day to you all).

why? you may ask. i'll tell you. every day, in the back of the bus, my friend would have a new playlist for me and i'd have one for him. we'd swap ipods and enjoy our thirty three minutes home. i discovered band after band in the back of that infested vehicle.

but there was one i loved most.

last week i visited my snister and her friend. this woman, sarah, is a special one. because she has a love for this band also. not a love...a passion. it may or may not control her life.

so sarah (and cole...wherever you may be), this one's for you.

. keane .

this piano rock band (how cool is that?) is from the great land of england. i feel like my eyeballs are going to fall out so i'll keep this simple.

i love their main and first major album, hopes and fears. with their popular single being somewhere only we know. a large crowd favorite. so give em a listen.

i love guitar, but these guys have found away around it with a piano that will blow you away. enjoy.

go get:

bend and break

everybody's changing

this is the last time

somewhere only we know

:: things have changed ::

bam. new blog.

k it's not new. i decided (with much deliberation and help from sarah and ahlin) that it was time i combine my music and photography blogs. it's annoying to post on both. it's annoying to stalk both (like i'm sure you all do...mom).

so here we are. i'm not too fond of it at the moment. i may or may not have OCD's about combining things. so this is a healing process. tell me whatcha think. i'm not good at labeling things because i always forget to do it. and there's only two things i talk about on here.

music & photography

boom

so to differentiate these blessed things i have come up with a fool proof system.

if it's about photography, the posts will look like this ::insert clever title here::

if it's about music, they will look like this . insert rockin band name here .

so. follow this blog. it's about to become...awesome.

feel free to comment so i know someone beside my mother is reading this.

love to all.

(side note: if you want to turn off the legit tunes, so you can listen to more legit tunes, the playlist is at the bottom of the page. just scroll down and hit pause.)

. the veronicas .

australian. twins. rhythmic electro pop. need i say more?

the veronicas

i first started listening to these girls a couple years back when they came out with 4ever on the album the secret life of...

i forgot about them for a bit, but then a year ago during christmas, my sister showed me their most recent release untouched. the music video was free on itunes. i got it. i played it. i loved it.

so enjoy. they started rockin when the were eighteen. back in '07 i think. they got their name from the classic movie, the heathers. the perfect line. 'are you a heather?' 'no. i'm a veronica.' boom.

here's the music video to untouched.

also look up:

4ever

revenge is sweeter

hook me up

. benton paul .

i'm going to slow things down a bit with a solid artist. nothing to snazzy (did i just say that?) about this guy, benton paul. just a good basic guitar. i first discovered him opening at an allred concert at one of the only venues in sunny stg. but his voice drew me in. if i need to relax or sleep or do homework - this is my man.

coudn't find much about him. i'm pretty positive he's from utah. go to your local venue. you'll find him soon enough. he's touring with david archuleta at the moment. love.

{doesn't hurt that he's cute}

here's my fave song of his

don't go

:: represent ::

i would love. love love. love. if you all did an itty bitty favor for me. i'm trying to get all the money i can to pay for college by fall. so i entered into a photography contest. if you would, it would be awesome if you hit the vote button on each of these pictures. it will up my chances of the judges viewing them. thank you thank you.

{i have quite a few new shoots for my portfolio coming up next week :: stay tuned}

My Favorite Photo (I've Ever Taken) 2 Brickfish

My Favorite Photo (I've Ever Taken) 2 Brickfish

My Favorite Photo (I've Ever Taken) 2 Brickfish

My Favorite Photo (I've Ever Taken) 2 Brickfish

My Favorite Photo (I've Ever Taken) 2 Brickfish

. sugar spell it out .

ok. it's time. i've brought my other half with me to share this experience with you. mine bestie carlee.

it is a common misconception that because i have so much music and love such a variety of it, i do not have a favorite band. false. it is because of one band that i love music so much.

in 2004 i was a young pubescent twelve year old with braces and a bad case of acne. my world revolved around the approval of my older sister, niki. one blessed trip up to provo, she decided to play her newest cd for us. for the following four hours my life was changed. i closed my eyes and let the music trickle into my soul. that cd played on repeat the entire time. by the end of the journey i knew every word to every song. it was:

Tegan and Sara

as time passed my sisters grew somewhat out of love with the twins. but i couldn't let it go. these canadian sisters blew my mind and spoke to my little soul. july 23, 2007 was a day i had circled on my calendar. it was the day of their new album release. the con. again my world was flipped upside down. something about those haunting voices harmonizing and complimenting each other would soothe any pain, celebrate every joy with me.

a little over a year ago i found someone to match my love. after a summer of blasting Not With You over and over in my car, i found someone who would grow to love t and s almost as much as i did. i played her Not With You and crossed my fingers. she loved it. tegan and sara filled our cars our rooms the streets our ears.

on october 23, 2009 we both missed school awaiting the release of their newest album, sainthood. it blew our minds. again. their newest album brings in a new element of rock and electro pop (don't cringe at the word). alligator defied everything anyone expected out of them, showing these thirty year old twins still have some things up their sleeves.

these girls started out as sara and tegan at age fifteen, but soon changed their band name to tegan and sara because they thought it sounded more catchy. they started out with the yellow red and blue demo tapes. yes. tapes. which were all acoustic songs from the underground. soon their popularity grew and they came out with their first (and my favorite) album under feet like ours, in 1999. this album rocks my world.

i've said too much. and i will say more in later posts. but for now, i'll let you enjoy the sounds of my soul.

and yes. carlee did get us tickets to the SLC concert at the Venue in April. what up.

first off buy:

the con

alligator

my number

not with you

where does the good go

hell

come back for more soon.

also...they're hilarious