my indie obsession

a person obsesses over one thing or another every once in a while. some obsess over mathematical equations. some over hot, bronze french models. some over making a change in this otherwise sad pile of dump that is fast becoming the place we call home. while still others obsess over bacon cheesedog and oreo.

i guess what i'm trying to say is, obsessions are just as varied and as unwarranted as almost everything else in this world. anyway, because i am a fully selfish and self-conceited person (and because this is my blog), this post will be about my obsession. i mean, just one of my many obsessions. not all of which is healthy. so, let's stick to the PG-13 kind.

basically, i am obsessed with indie music. i know exactly why, but i'm not in the mood to count the ways, nor will you be in the mood to listen to every single, boring one of them. so instead, i'll just name some of the best indie musicians/artists that i've had a good fortune to come across with in my daily procrastination-induced worldwide web-ing, which i'm pretty sure will screw up my future one way or another.

so here are my loves..

Joshua Radin - i don't believe in marriage, but if it were to be with joshua radin, i'd be married faster than you can say "shrub" (and that's a one syllable word. very easy to say and just sort of rolls out of your tongue). i know, i sound so much like a fan girl. which i am, if you haven't figured that out by yourself by now. what i love most about joshua radin, is his amazingness. the man is a genius, seriously. and not the rene descartes kind of genius, which i honestly don't want to have anything at all to do with in the near future. but joshua radin is such an amazing singer/songwriter who writes songs with poetic lyrics and has the softest, sweetest (yeah, i've tasted it) voice. his songs are the type of songs i'd love to be in the soundtrack of any hopeful movie adaptation of my life. quite simply, joshua radin's music saved me from all these crazy college years where the last thing i wanted to do was to go to school, obviously. he is my hero. and i still want to marry him, but he doesn't know i exist. story of my life.

It's come to this, release me
I'll leave before the dawn
But for tonight
I'll stay here with you (stay forever, man. seriously).

Ingrid Michaelson - who doesn't love pretty girls who sing pretty songs? and did i mention she writes her own songs too? yeah, she does. bummer, right? some people are just so absurdly talented that you just want to take an exceptionally sharp knife and just drive it right through your heart and exist no more. i guess the really amazing thing about ingrid michaelson, besides the fact that she wears an apple on her head so exquisitely, is that her voice has the power to like, make you dance. you know, the kind of dancing you can picture yourself doing while wearing that fictional red dress. you just keep on twirling and twirling. her voice is so beautiful that it makes you think of green grass, and flowers and sunshine and bunnies and beautiful colors. and yes, i sound supergay right now.

If you are chilly, here take my sweater.
Your head is aching, i'll make it better.

(why you'd want to share your sweater with anyone is beyond me, but it does sound sweet).

Priscilla Ahn - while ingrid michaelson makes me think of sunshine and flowers and fairy dust, priscilla ahn helps me visualize rain, the rain spattering on the window pane and a hot cup of chai latte. seriously. no commercialization intended. her singing is the kind of singing you want to put you to sleep. it chases bad dreams away. also, she rhymes very well, which may be an amateur skill for singer/songwriters but which amazes me all the same. and i have heard a preview of her version of silent night. and i have to say, it's the most brilliant rendition ever. it literally took my breath away. i practically had to hyperventilate my way back to life.

Long walks in the dark
Through woods grown behind the park
I asked God who I'm supposed to be
The stars smiled down at me

( i have also asked god who i'm supposed to be in the past. the tricky thing is, i'm still asking the same question. that's not healthy is it?)

Iron & Wine - i would say the best background music ever. samuel beam's music is so quiet, you wouldn't even notice it anymore. the sucker that i am though, i just can't help but notice it. actually, i think that good movie dialogues are always better said with a soft and quiet music in the background, if not complete silence. the thing about iron & wine is, or for generality's sake, the thing that makes all singer/songwriters rise up so much higher like an eagle is their ability to write. i kind of feel like they're first writers, before they are singers. and that really endears indie to me. maybe because ever since i was old enough to personally criticize my own scribblings, i've always sort of decided that i wanted to be a writer. it has nothing to do with being good at it (because honestly, i'm feeling more and more disappointed of whatever writing ability i may have as the years go by). it's just one of those small dreams you have. and the songs of iron & wine, sort of become my background music whenever i lapse into wishful, destructive thinking.

There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon
Summer warmed the open window of her honeymoon
And she chose a yard to burn but the ground remembers her
Wooden spoons, her children stir her Bougainvillea blooms

(for some reason, this makes me think of past afternoons back home.)

Regina Spektor - is is just me, or do you see the singing brilliance that is people with curly hair? i mean the likes of regina spektor, josh groban, mika, shakira, mohinder suresh, borat... (couldn't resist). and most of the time, i find people with curls painfully atractive. but anyway, what i absolutely like about regina spektor is her "refined roughness". i honestly don't know what i mean by that, but i guess it has something to do with the fact that regina spektor dares to be artistically different and stretch her vocal chords into much longer and wider proportions than most. there's this particular badasss-ness about her that's just so appealing. she's the kind of artist that just exudes individuality and creativity and pure talent.

Suppose I never ever saw you
Suppose we never ever called
Suppose I kept on singing love songs
Just to break my own fall

( this kind of makes falling in love cooler than it probably ever will be)


i'd love to write more because a) i love making grammatical errors and b) because i have not exactly mentioned all of the indie music artists i'm inlove with. which sucks. but i hate writing very long stuff because then, i won't be reading it again because it's simply too long. and yeah, although i don't want to admit it, i read my own stuff. i read what i write. i am my biggest fan. which is actually, very sad.


i love indie music. even more than i love my left pinky.

- December 9, 2008 (after watching the amazing Superbad for the 4th time)