Since the year-end traditionally leads to year-end lists, I figured why not join in the bandwagon fun? I present, in no particular order and with no deep thought involved, really, my list of favorite songs of 2013.
1. Instant Crush, Daft Punk featuring Julian Casablancas. From the artist names alone this is pretty much self-explanatory. Daft Punk is the reigning royalty of electronica, and anything the Strokes front man does is just New York-swagger cool. Heck even Casablancas’ grocery list is probably also cool. Put them together and you know you are bound to get something magical on the side of the synth. It’s electronica ear-candy at first listen. The music video seals the deal. Continue Reading
My favorite Christmas foursome is back with their yearly tradition of song and charity. Early this December, The Killers released their 8th Christmas song, following 7 previous Christmas singles similarly tied up with RED, an organization of the band’s good friends (high five all around) Bono and Bobby Shrivers. This year’s single is a lonely ditty titled Christmas in LA featuring Dawes. 100% of the song’s proceeds will again go to RED’s Global Fund to Fight AIDS.
To see Owen Wilson ponder about the meaning of life during his Christmas in LA, with Harry Dean Stanton‘s voice as company and Brandon Flowers on background music, click link below.
If you want something more fun, check out my very favorite Killers’ Christmas song of all time, Don’t Shoot Me Santa. The 2007 release features Ryan Pardey as the vindictive Santa out to get a naughty Brandon in the middle of the Mojave dessert. And puppets. There were sock puppets.
Nothing says Christmas more than tree trimmings and a bullet in the gun. (Don’t quote me.)
Merry Christmas ya’all!
Brandon and Santa Ryan in peace and harmony. For now.
Who is the Real Flower? Diana Agron plays Brandon in the Killers’ latest single, ‘Just Another Girl.’
Hardly just another Vegas-style love song. Spare me, critics. But Mr Flowers does know how to write and sing a heartbreak song. He starts with the imagery and delivers the hook, hitting right where it hurts singing, “I’m trying to tell myself that I’m better off alone.”
And the memories surf a free wave from there:
All my friends say I should move on
She’s just another girl
Don’t let her stick it to your heart so hard
And all my friends say it wasn’t meant to be
And it’s a great big world
She’s just another girl
I could be reeling them in left and right
Something’s got a hold on me, tonight
Well maybe all of my friends should confront
The fact that I don’t want another girl
Video credits: The Killers Vevo. Lyrics from azlyrics.com.
The boys make their delayed Philippine comeback with Super Show 5 Manila, staged for the first time at the Mall of Asia area on October 24 2013.
Initial feels:Tired from an unfamiliar wave of stress from work. Worried that I am getting too old for this. But then again I felt the same way in the past 2 Super Shows. And again I was perplexed by the average age of the crowd. I know Super Junior‘s fan base is still mainly carried by the teens and pre-teens, which begs the question: how the heck are they able to afford the price of admission? (Think 8,000++ for Lower A and B seats.) My mother will surely never be generous enough to concede and feed a fan girl’s appetite.
Excited. The pure energy from the sea of sapphire blue lights was electrifying and contagious. Fans went wild for every shade that the lights were dimmed until the moment the Mall of Asia Arena went completely dark, save for the screen that came to new life. At 7:15, Super Show was running late, an unexpected and unprecedented glitch in a usually prompt-to-the-last-minute Korean event. But if the screams and cheers were any indication, no one was complaining. Continue Reading
I don’t remember crying so much over someone I only felt I knew but never really did.
This week, Glee finally put out its much awaited and similarly dreaded tribute episode for the late Cory Monteith. It was honestly one of the hardest 44 minutes of television that I had to go through, and I am a known crier for all sob stories.
Cory’s passing is one big Hollywood spectacle. But despite his tragic and sudden loss, a lot of hecklers wondered out loud, why the big deal? Why the tribute at the Emmy‘s and now for an entire episode in his memory? I can see where they were coming from. Cory was young. He was no Michael Jackson or Princess Diana. He was a budding actor with a short resume, treading the gray line between misfit and cool in Hollywood, much the same as his character quarterback-cum-acapella-singer Finn Hudson. But I guess in death, we do not look at the person’s list of achievements and measure our grieving from there. We look at the person he was, the kindness he emanated, the charm he exuded, the little good things he spread around. We wonder at the demons he faced, and are saddened that the demons won. We look at the people he loved, and know even just a tiny little bit of the grief they bear, because we have carried the same weight ourselves.
I look at how he has barely breached 30 years, and I grieve for him, and I grieve for the person I lost at the same age he was. I grieve that much the same as my personal dearly departed, Finn and Cory will only be alive again in pictures, in videos and in songs. Beyond that, as Sue said in defeat, “there is just nothing.”
Track list for Glee Season 5 Episode 3: The Quarterback
“Seasons of Love,” featuring Amber Riley, Naya Rivera, Chris Colfer, Mark Salling, Harry Shum Jr., and Glee‘s current cast.
“I’ll Stand by You,” featuring Amber Riley and Glee‘s current cast
“Fire and Rain,” featuring Chord Overstreet, Kevin McHale, and Glee’s current cast
“If I Die Young,” featuring Naya Rivera
“No Surrender,” featuring Mark Salling
“Make You Feel My Love,” featuring Lea Michele
Photo and video credits to Glee. Cory Monteith (May 11, 1982 – July 13, 2013)
I don’t think Brandon Flowers has gotten more honestly sentimental than this. The track starts will the type of easy beat you twirl your prom date to, then Brandon lays down the scenery of a lonesome thoughtful drive through the desert. Elvis joins the song as the doubts are told, and the song builds — as Killers songs only do —
If I go on with you by my side
can it be the way it was
when we met?
Did you forget about those lonely nights?
The drum slows down and you twirl again in a slow dance in the endless Mojave desert.
