Blame it on the Tetons - Modest Mouse

That was my favorite song five years ago. Finally got to see the Tetons in real life. It's fosho a magical place - don't really know what the Modest Mouse lyrics actually meant, but basically I think that Grand Teton is where it's at.

We were there last week, and I absolutely loved it. I fell in love with the mountains, the geysers, the wildlife. We went white water rafting on Snake River, hiking and horseback riding through the Tetons, driving through Yellowstone.

The hike through the Rockefeller Preserve up to Phelps Lake. Found some strange trees. One of them was preggers.

We kept smelling cinnamon throughout the hike. Never figured out where/what it was coming from.

Phelps Lake

Jenny Lake

Jackson Lake

Snake River as seen from Oxbow Bend

All of the fields in the Teton valley were heavily occupied by cows, horsies, deer, or bison. The fluff on the fields is sagebrush - smelled super good.

We spent only one day up in Yellowstone, even though we met someone who said she spent five days there. Visited a lot of geysers (skipped Old Faithful though), saw wildlife, met my future husband Fred.

The geysers were colorful and smelly (sulfur)

So many snags left from the Yellowstone wildfires of '88

You can see Fred over there. Such a hottie (not joking). Best looking bison you will ever see.

I saw Bambi there too

I think they called this Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Yellowstone Lake

Wow, that was a long post yo. Oh and Fred and I are working things out long distance in case you were wondering.

I would go out tonight...but I haven't got a stitch to wear

I've decided I'm going to post about music more... starting right now. Music is one of the easiest things for me to share, mainly because I'm always listening to it and obsessively searching for more... Here's something sweet for summer: Canadian indie-pop band Stars' cover of The Smiths' "This Charming Man." The original is one of my personal favorite songs ever, and Stars' take on it borders on sugary chillwave surf-rock in the best possible way. Their new album, The Five Ghosts (the first since 2007's In Our Bedroom After the War), is slated for release by Soft Revolution Records on June 22nd. I don't know about you, but I'm counting down the minutes...

Check out their new single "Fixed" as well, I predict that for me at least, it'll be a sure go-to summer tune for those lovely long windblown drives down the PCH, alongside the ocean... California dreamin' already and I don't even go back 'till the end of the month. Ah well..

Speaking of interesting new 80's covers, Miles Fisher recently recorded his own electro-pop version of Talking Heads' "This Must Be the Place" (another of my all-time favorite summer jams)... check out his tongue-in-cheek music video for the cover. Warning: it's much funnier if you've seen American Psycho (2000). I mean, the guy is a dead-ringer for Christian Bale... how could he not? Amazing.

Side note: if anyone knows how to make videos actually fit into these blog posts and not get cut off, please let me know!! Getting on my nerves....

Summer Concerts: Delorean, Brian Jonestown Massacre

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One thing I love about New York summers are the amount of great bands that tour (and offer free/surprise/outdoor shows) in the city. Seeing two of my favorites in two days this past weekend (Delorean at Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn and Brian Jonestown Massacre at Webster Hall) definitely made up for the humid, muggy 85-degree weather... even if there is no air conditioning at Glasslands.

Delorean is an electronic dance band from Zarautz, a Basque town in Spain. Their newest album, Subiza, was released in March, but my favorite song, Deli, comes off their 2009 EP, Ayrton Senna. Stay Close, a single off their newest album, is great too. Yeasayer had a free show the same night at the beach at Governor's Island, and faced with the nearly unbearable feat of choosing between the two concerts, I eventually decided on Delorean-- since I had already bought the tickets, and I had already seen Yeasayer live last fall (even though I unfortunately missed them at Coachella...). Glasslands is a really cool little venue in Williamsburg (I saw Bear in Heaven and Secret Machines there this past February), although they really do need to invest in air conditioning. We were absolutely drenched in sweat by the end of the show, and the ceiling fans provided little to no remedy. That said, it was an absolutely amazing show, and I think we ended up making the right decision.

Music video for Delorean's Stay Close:

A few pictures I took at the Delorean show:

Delorean at Glasslands

Lead vocalist/guitarist Ekhi Lopetegi (and keyboardist Unai Lazcano's feet...)

For those of you who haven't heard of them, Brian Jonestown Massacre is a neo-psychedelic rock band with a slight Eastern influence and some shoegaze tendencies. The closest comparison I can equate their sound to is The Velvet Underground. Founded in San Francisco by Anton Newcombe in the mid 90's, the band has a huge following, and word has it that their name is derived from a mixture between Brian Jones, the guitarist of The Rolling Stones, and the infamous mass suicide of the "Peoples' Temple" cult in Jonestown, Guyana (lead by Jim Jones in 1978). BJM played a beautiful 2-hour set at Webster Hall in the East Village, showcasing their new album, Who Killed Sergeant Pepper? (2010) and playing all of my favorites from past albums, like Open Heart Surgery, Nevertheless, Super-Sonic, The Way It Was, Satellite and Servo. Probably the best part of the show, though, was the return of Matt Hollywood, who left the band in 2002 after an infamous on-stage altercation which can be seen in this excerpt from DiG!, Ondi Timoner's 2004 documentary contrasting the development of BJM and the Dandy Warhols:

Some pictures from the BJM show...

BJM at Webster Hall

the epic return of Matt Hollywood

Anton Newcombe

...And just for kicks, few pictures from the Caribou show I saw at Music Hall of Williamsburg in late May. I highly, highly recommend their new album Swim (2010). Some standout tracks are Odessa, Sun and Kaili.

Caribou at the Music Hall of Williamsburg

God, I love going to shows in New York. Planning to see Blitzen Trapper (for the third time), The Morning Benders and Neon Indian later this month, as well as Sexy Sushi the minute I get to Paris.

xx

Music video for Caribou's Odessa:

6 more months to go...

Too bad Christmas is so far away...because I really want a small framed bag yo!

Tommy Ton would agree. His photos of cool kids sporting Celine and Chloe bags:

Let the countdown begin.