Musings by Queen Elvis

My name is Taylor and this is my *music* blog. Here I'll write stories, give opinions, and freak out over my favorite tunes. I'm a college radio deejay and the station manager for WWHR in Kentucky! My main blog is at www.socentralrain.tumblr.com

[queenelvismusings]

playlist reflection: “i’m sorry i said something mean.”

I made this playlist on 8tracks after saying something shitty to my best friend. It must’ve been pretty bad for me to react with a playlist! RIYL: Feeling like you’ve failed the friendship game.

“Don’t Let It Bring You Down”- Neil Young

“Couldn’t I Just Tell You”- Todd Rundgren

“Do You Know What I’m Saying”- Wendy James

“I Want To Tell You”- Beatles

“Oops I Did It Again”- Britney Spears

“So. Central Rain (Live in Holland, 1987)”- R.E.M.

“Shake It Off”- Taylor Swift

“Most Of The Time”- Bob Dylan

“Baby I Can’t Please You”- Sam Phillips

“Blue Moon”- Beck

“Human”- The Pretenders

“Trouble”- Ryan Adams

[queenelvismusings]

i think about this blog a lot and how i do nothing with it.

i want to bring it back! i’ve been thinking of a lot of projects i could do. do people enjoy reading about certain memories associated with songs? i might do that. i’ve been living with  my parents during the summer and a lot of nostalgia has come up since i sleep in my childhood bedroom, which was the location for most of my musical discovery.

[queenelvismusings]

Draw!, by The Cartoons

6 track album

shout out to one of my favorite local bands here in Bowling Green, KY. i’ve seen them live a number of times, and i’m super excited that they are streaming their EP here on Bandcamp. i played this all the way through ten times last night.

catchy as shit. give them a listen!

[queenelvismusings]

Uncle Tupelo- I Wanna Be Your Dog

i’ve been really busy lately and neglecting this blog. school has kicked in and senior year of college is kicking me around like crazy. i haven’t had much time to play around with the new music from my school’s radio station; my shift for the semester is from 6-9am every Monday sans coffee. i’m really excited to hear those fall tunes as the season progresses, though!

Spotify has been good to me lately. i’ve discovered their “discover weekly” playlist, and i’ve been enlightened to a lot of material that i should’ve been paying attention to a long time ago. yesterday i found this cover of “I Wanna Be Your Dog” by Uncle Tupelo.

my only introduction to Uncle Tupelo came my freshmen year of high school when my Dad was spinning the Sire Records boxset. i don’t remember what song was on it, but i knew that i liked it because Uncle Tupelo sounded a lot like Big Star. i’m letting the YouTube playlist play, and now i’m listening to a live VHS tape gig from 1994. 

which Uncle Tupelo albums or songs should i start with? let me know!

[queenelvismusings]

best of  summer 2013

-”-it’s probably a bit random to write about music released two years ago, but i have been bubbling about with this idea for awhile. 2013 was the first year that i was really active within my college radio scene as the music director of my university’s station. it was a challenging role at first, because i didn’t feel “fit” for it. if you are a follower of my other blog, you may know that i gravitate toward the “older” tunes, especially the older college/alt tunes. i knew that i had purposefully put myself in a little bubble; i was closing myself off to a lot of material released in the last ten to fifteen years. i felt so excited because i now had the platform to expand upon the music scene, and give music and artists a platform when they may not have a platform to play with otherwise. some of these choices weren’t released in 2013; they were records that i discovered during that time.

2013 was a crazy year. it was my first full year in college, where i did all of the “stuff” you were supposed to do while getting used to the luxury known as parental freedom. i was learning about myself in numerous ways, and i really started to try and figure out who i wanted to be as a person. it took a lot longer for me to figure that out, but i really felt like i was starting this all too important process. this music was the soundtrack to that almost post- adolescence i should have experienced a few years earlier.

- “what do you want to do”- louise burns.

-”summertime sadness”- lana del rey

-”all the time”- diamond rings

-”never run away”- kurt vile

-”my god is the sun”- queens of the stone age

- “sprawl ii: mountains beyond mountains”- arcade fire

-”rat farm”- meat puppets

-”simplicity’s key”- claps

-”this is love (feels alright)”- camera obscura

-”global concepts”- robert delong

-”heavenmetal”- chelsea light moving

-”true love’- free energy

-”weight of love”- gliss

-”holly”- buffalo rodeo

“mirrorage”- glasser

i definite my life through seasonal playlists. it’s the journal that i used to be so good with keeping in high school. i got really busy in college, and neglected writing (i know..) by way of composing lists of songs and turning them into spotify playlists. i’ve been crazy nostalgic for these times because i’m approaching my last year of college. i’m doing that normal “oh god, should i have done this differently” reflection, and then getting on myself because the times i had and the decisions i made ultimately had an impact on the person i am today.

[queenelvismusings]

oh, good lord.

i had never heard of this band before today. my long distance boyfriend came to visit me, and he made me a mix tape for my birthday with this song on it. i really really really dig it.

i would write a post about the importance of mix tapes but i’m too sad with reality setting in.

[queenelvismusings]

Can You Have An Album On iTunes If You Don't Exist?

The strange story of a made-up pop star who managed to keep an album on iTunes for six weeks and get 64,000 followers on Twitter, without recording a note of new music.

 in the news of the weird, lies this article. a friend sent me a link to this story on NPR and i spent the next several hours investigating this case. i can understand why reality shows and tabloid magazines are so intriguing after basking in the internet trail of links related to Lucia Cole.

what do you think? is this a reflection on the current state of the music industry or the forefront of the money making corporation machine? should Jessica Simpson’s camp sue, and if they did, would they be able to go forward without this person continuiously striking back?

[queenelvismusings]

hi!

yesterday was my birthday (i somehow managed to escape Taylor Swift references galore; maybe 22 will be quiet after all). the bar i went to last night blasted lots and lots of grunge and alternative stuff, and to the bartender’s chagrin, i told him my age only to find out that he graduated college the same year i was born.

here’s one of my favorite tracks from 1993 preformed on the John Stewart show, “Hey Jealously” by the Gin Blossoms. here’s a big piece of culture in 1993; references to Wayne’s World, INXS, and Elizabeth Shue are intact at the end!

[queenelvismusings]

recent favorites

hi!

i’m here at my radio job looking at our track database, so i thought i would write a quick post about my favorite tracks as of late that i’ve discovered through the College Music Journal, (CMJ) and Spotify. some of these are more recent than others. i will post a link to a Spotify playlist a little later. let me know what you are listening to in my ask box, too!

Sex-1975

L$D- A$AP Rocky

Keep The Car Running- Arcade Fire

Bela Lugosi’s Dead- Bauhaus

Dreams- Beck

Diggin’ Up The Heart- Brandon Flowers

Brainfreeze- Bully

The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth (cassette single)- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!

Motel- The Connells

Raw Honey- Du Blonde

Man On Fire- Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Restless Year- Ezra Furman

Call Girl- F.F.S.

Red Skies At Night- The Fixx

I Can’t Please You- Sam Phillips

Walking On The Roof- Sgt. Arms

Prince Johnny- St. Vincent

Hypnotic- Zella Day

[queenelvismusings]

okay, one last buffalo rodeo post! this is from an audiotree session they did a few months ago. this is my favorite track off of their latest EP, “123 Water”

go give ‘em a like on the social medias!

[queenelvismusings]

123 Water, by Buffalo Rodeo

6 track album

if you like what you heard in my last post, check out buffalo rodeo’s bandcamp for their latest release “123 water!”

[queenelvismusings]

 i can’t wait to share this with you all!

 buffalo rodeo is a band that is close to my conscious. i’ve had the privilege to be around in their hometown of Bowling Green, Kentucky to watch them sprout and flourish. i’m really thrilled to listen (literally, through the headphones of Revolution 91.7, BG’s university station) to their evolution. i think with evolution, there’s a lot of nostalgia and buffalo rodeo certainly makes me feel nostalgic. 

i saw them live for the first time as a freshman deejay at Revolution at our fall festival. i remember watching them intently from our merch table. three years later, they’re the only band i remember from that year. they seemed so effortlessly cool; every single member seemed at home on stage and extremely jazzed to support local music.

in 2013, the band released their first EP called “home videos” which i will no doubt file under my “definitive college records list.” i became music director for the station during that time, and i think i put nearly every track in our systems for airplay. the single “treehouse” had an accompanying video that got some coverage in the nashville scene. i listened to that track non-stop, and it remains one of my all time favorite songs. “treehouse” is one of those tracks that you hear and you can be instantly transported back to a particular time in your life; as cheesy as it sounds, the track sounds like a trip through time.

i recommend every release by buffalo rodeo, but my very favorite material of theirs is very recent! earlier this year the band released their sophomore EP called “123 water.” when i heard the first single “blue sky” (the video featured here) i just stopped. as awkward as this may sound, i think the band captured that sort of nostalgic feeling that i’ve always felt while listening to their music. the band’s new psychedelic sound really fits their energy; it’s almost trippy. i rarely hear music these days that just makes me sort of stare off into space, while still being aware of what’s going on around me. “123 water” is the perfect record to just lie in bed and listen to loudly in your favorite headphones. i had a hard time picking out only one track to feature, so i’m going to write a follow up post with links to more music and merch!

if you’re able to catch the band on tour- you should definitely do so! i’m always sick or working whenever they’ve done local club dates.. :) let me know if you like what you hear!

[queenelvismusings]

with this blog i’m hoping to feature things that dip through the cobwebs of my mind, and bring those long forgotten and weird memories out.

one of those memories has to do with “Square Pegs” and the summer between 7th and 8th grade, which for many, are years of adolescent hell. during middle school, i was in band, because my parents wanted to give me an opportunity to socialize. i met some good friends in band, but i was the only girl tuba player so i automatically hated it. i went to band camp during this summer and won “camper of the week” because i guess that’s what they give the only girl tuba player to keep her from blowing one last b flat to death.

during this time i listened to a lot of 80′s music on my brand new blue iPod nano. i discovered a lot of this music through MySpace, and internet scowering. after a day in band camp hell, i would come home and listen to The Police and write in my MySpace blog and wonder if things were ever going to turn out closer to an episode of Lizzie McGuire but with elements of the Facts of Life for me.

i was discovering a ton of pop culture history on the internet which was stimulated a lot by my fascination with the early 1980′s. i would get my parents to tell me as many stories as they could about this time in history, because it was so MUSICAL and ZANY, which were two elements i thought my MySpace-centered world lacked.

during this time i discovered “Square Pegs” which was the answer to my thirteen year old prayers. here was a TV show about teenagers which featured culture targeted to kids who weren’t much older than i was. i felt so connected to Sarah Jessica Parker’s character Patty Greene, because she was a nerd, and she loved and hung out with her equally nerdy friends. it wasn’t cool to be defined as a “nerd” in middle school, despite the fact nerd culture was slowly becoming a “thing” around 2007.

i had an iPod back then, but i really wished for a music culture that was as dominating as MTV was during this time in history; i wanted music videos to rule the world. in retrospect, i still can’t understand why music television was uncool. yes, people were watching music videos on the internet. but STILL, teenagers watched TV. i don’t know what the “counter culture” was like during 2007, but i really wanted something similar to what Square Pegs delivered for a little while in 1982. it was canceled after one season, so i guess something didn’t “click.” however it clicked with me. for a long time, i was in love with Stewart Copeland, and wanted to be Johnny Slash. i STILL want to be Johnny Slash.

totally different head. totally.

[queenelvismusings]

i’ve been thinking about high school a lot because i’m about to enter my senior year of college, and i’m kind of obsessed with the passage of time.

i think it’s fair to say that i really discovered music in high school, and my taste (for now, maybe) was cemented through the music i discovered back then. i think i’ve been “known for” my love for these bands (specifically R.E.M. and The Replacements). i think the front men for these bands represented how i felt as a teenager, and they both represented what i saw going on around me at school.

i went to an arts school, so i didn’t really have the “normal” high school experience that i saw depicted in culture (Freaks and Geeks, and John Hughes movies). even though i may not have experienced the exact situations, like being bullied by a certain group because i liked things that weren’t the norm, i still felt insecure about being immersed in the culture that i was interested in.

i was raised by music fans, my dad especially. he never forced me to listen to the music he was interested in; i gravitated toward the music i heard being played in the house. the only band that i can remember him deliberately showing me was R.E.M. for Christmas 2008, he got the 25th anniversary edition of R.E.M.’s first record “Murmur.” their debut album set the tone for my high school years and beyond, with the sound of music i gravitated toward, and i feel like it set the tone for my life and way of thinking.

dad drove me to school every day for four years. we bonded on the way to school through the albums he played for me. one of the earliest records he played was that copy of “Murmur.” i know for a fact that he didn’t expect to be listening to that record for six weeks straight.

i knew “radio free europe” just by being vaguely aware of 80′s music. i liked it because it wasn’t “stereotypical” eighties; it was jangle-y and loud, and i liked Michael Stipe because he was quiet. R.E.M. fans may know that the band’s image changed a lot through their three decade long career. i guess the most notable change was Stipe’s vocal style became clearer and fans could UNDERSTAND THE LYRICS.

as a music fan and confused teenager, i think Michael’s style of singing and the confusing nature of R.E.M.’s early lyrics was what largely drew me to the band and “Murmur.” i had no idea what was going on in my head, and i loved not knowing what was coming out of my father’s stereo. it was as confusing as the french phrases in “Talk About The Passion” and the blatant 80′s sound of “Moral Kiosk”, which was my FAVORITE TRACK.

i think “Talk About The Passion” would be the best fit for the accompanying song to this post. R.E.M. was the first band that i was really really really passionate about, and i didn’t understand why, but i knew that i loved how they made me feel. i loved how i felt comfortable hiding in the corner, trying to figure out what it was that Michael was saying.

when i was 15, i became attracted to tattoos. at 21, i still don’t have any because 1) i’m so indecisive about what i want on my body for eternity, and 2) needles. i do know that i decided that i wanted “talk about the passion” somewhere on my body, and i still feel that way six years later. we’ll see!!

[queenelvismusings]

I haven’t forgotten about this blog

i started this blog a year ago, during a really difficult time in my life. i went through a ton of personal changes, but despite of this, i had the realization that i always had music no matter what was going on. music always remained “the same.” music helped me through some enormous doubts, and built me up to face the next thing.

 my idea for this blog was much bigger than the content of it thus far. for two years, i was the music director for my college’s radio station. every week i was surrounded by new music, which was really amazing for me because i was so rooted in the kind of music i enjoyed. i wanted to document what i saw happening in the world of college music. for me, college radio is a never ending sense of discovery, because you are surrounded by vasts amounts of music which will serve as the influence for the *latest and greatest.* in some cases, these songs will be the biggest tunes in the country. in a way, i felt like i had to change as a person at the fast pace that i saw music change in the baby steps of doing something musically centered for my career.

i’m about to turn 22 in a few days, so i’m going through a sense of wonder about the future. as things change, i feel pressure to forget about my deeply rooted favorites- music included. people have made jokes about me “not buying a new record since 1982″ or something like that. if i had been alive in 1982, i probably would’ve bought and enjoyed the same things i do now. i don’t know where i’m going with this. yeah, the joke was funny, but i felt really guilty for liking what i like in an ever changing world.

don’t get me wrong, i don’t only listen to the older stuff. i listen to older stuff, and out of habit, i listen to new music that has been influenced by the classic stuff; i don’t purposefully seek this music out, it just happens.

i guess in the grand scheme of things, i guess this could be a lesson to never ignore your influences. i guess, keep them as part of your backbone as you experience new adventures. this is probably rooted from the pressure to look for a career and begin thinking about your post college life, and start to realize the (maybe) permanent aspects of decisions you make. i honestly don’t know where this pressure is coming from, but i feel surrounded by that.

music is great- stay tuned to this blog because i want to revive it and keep documenting my life through music. 

my “main” blog is at www.socentralrain.tumblr.com if you want more of a visual sense of who i am

[queenelvismusings]

I swear I'm going to update this thing.

SEW BUSY WITH SKOOL.

[queenelvismusings]

I make a lot of playlists.

Hey guys!

I'm sorry I've neglected posting for about a week. I missed "NEW MUSIC TUESDAY WHOO" again, but I'll definitely make up for it. I don't have a specific song in mind to write about now, so I thought I'd dig into my spotify playlists. 

I've been making I-Tunes and 8tracks playlists forever. Before that I was strictly mix tapes. I miss making them. I went all out making cover art and put careful detail into the track list. I just stopped when I moved away for college because I didn't have access to my music, or the money to keep buying cassettes. Then there's the dreaded feeling that people don't really care about getting mixes as gifts anymore. So I moved on to playlists. I'll do a more detailed mix tape post later.

I've been working on a *romantic* playlist lately. If I had to make one of those cheesy TimeLife commercials to accompany this list, I totally would.

Let Me Roll It- Wings

Thirteen- Big Star

Born For Me- Paul Westerberg

At My Most Beautiful- R.E.M.

Coming Up Close- 'Til Tuesday

Message of Love- Pretenders

Let's Spend The Night Together- covered by David Bowie

I Will Take Care of You- The Bangles

Take Me I'm Yours- Squeeze

Here Comes The Rain Again- Eurythmics

Never Tear Us Apart- INXS

Pretty Baby- Blondie

Next To You- The Police

What A Wonderful World- covered by Joey Ramone

Mayor of Simpleton- XTC

Friday I'm In Love- The Cure

Everyday I Write The Book- Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Thank You- Led Zeppelin

Forever Young- Bob Dylan

I Believe- Stevie Wonder

Always See Your Face- Love

Grow Old With Me- covered by The Postal Service

True Love- Free Energy

I Go Crazy- Flesh For Lulu

Tenderness- General Public

I'll Wear It Proudly- Elvis Costello

Short Skirt/Long Jacket- Cake

Alright For Now- Tom Petty

Let's Get It On- Marvin Gaye

Ain't That A Kick in The Head- Dean Martin

Cruel To Be Kind- Nick Lowe

Baby I Love You- The Ramones

This Very Second- Bill Lloyd

Bedroom Eyes- The Dum Dum Girls

50's- Pomegranates

If You Want My Love- Cheap Trick

You And Your Sister- Chris Bell

L-O-V-E- Nat King Cole

Late At Night- Buffalo Tom

Wannabe- Spice Girls

My Side of the Bed- Susanna Hoffs

I Need You (For Someone)- The Jam

Ring of Fire- Johnny Cash

Baby's Arms- Kurt Vile

The Book of Love- The Magnetic Fields

Superstar- covered by Sonic Youth

Top of the World- covered by Shonen Knife

L.O.V- Fitz and the Tantrums

Funtime- Iggy Pop

A Song For You- Leon Russell

Earn Enough For Us- XTC

Hold Me- Tom Odell