Teehee. Karma.

Hello world.

On a very usual Sunday-or-was-it-Monday night, I was at home. Doing homework, probably, because that's a pretty safe bet at the moment, or possibly watching Peep Show or lurking around Facebook or eating a yogurt or probably all of the above, when I came across something online. Then Iprobably put down my yogurt, stopped listening to Mark Corrigan's babbling, or forgot all about stem-changing verbs, because as it turns out, The Biff were having Visa issues.

Oh yeah. That band. Ha. I'm not sure if it's okay to say I almost completely forgotten about them...but I was nearly there. I hadn't completely, honestly, I was still pretty pissed but I was trying to forget the whole thing. My beloved were in the state, which is a rare thing because a lot of this country literally cannot understand the Biff, and I couldn't fucking go because I was born four years too late. But oh...visa issues. I can safely say that that beats Babyshambles last-minute ODs and that Kings of Leon pigeon-crap incident we've all heard way to much about, in terms of gig issues. Visas. Jesus! How great is that? It had never crossed my mind that such a thing could happen to a band. I mean, these people have people for all that stuff, right? But no. The impossibly baffling world of immigration, travelling, and visas strikes again. Two third of Biffy Clyro were not allowed inside the country for a Boston show. Instead, just Simon(minus the Reading and Leeds white hair and beard, I should add) came armed with an acoustic guitar.

I didn't see it, as I mentioned. Wasn't allowed. But the great thing is, not only do Visas strike again, but karma strikes again...you heard that, the Biffy management team? You fuck me over, I somehow subconsciously infiltrate the American Embassy and stop most of you from entering the country subsequently creating a free gig. Yeah. You do not mess with me.

In other music news, B-Flo's album came out a few days ago. Brandon Flowers. I'm getting it tomorrow if I can find it somewhere. Two years ago, I was a Killers hardcore fan. Like, scarily hardcore. I'm not saying I don't like them anymore, it's just that shirtless Scottish people(et cetera) have sort of gotten in the way. They write good pop songs. But I will tell you now, when I hear Crossfire on the radio, I am not loving what I hear. In fact, I'm not even sure I'm liking it at all. It's so bland, so boring, so cliched, it's frankly almost unlistenable. Yeah, I have a bad taste in music and stuff, okay? There seems to be this indie idea that Brandon's so uncool that he's now cool to like. Oh indie music. You're so pathetically transparent. But who knows, I'll get Flamingo tomorrow, maybe it'll be worthy of a 7/10 or something. You never know.

Have you guys heard Gold Panda? Looooove some of their stuff. I don't know the first thing about chillwave, but apparently this is it, and honestly, it's kinda good. It's crackly and calm. The title is fitting. But also a bit weird, and danceable and stuff. It's a very colorful band, I wouldn't say trippy, but you know. Colorfully vibrant. I love music like that.

From colorfully vibrant to black-and-white melancholy acoustic loveliness; Villagers. Have known about them for like a year now and just got properly around to listening to Becoming A Jackal. Un. Bel. Ievable. Every single song is incredibl, soothing, astonishing. Not only with Becoming A Jakcal, but ship of promises, Meaning of the Ritual, all the rest. It's getting better and better. Plus, Connor's voice is reminiscent of Peter Silberman from The Antlers. There isn't exactly a yawning chasm between The Antlers and Villagers I'd say, and The Antlers' Hospice is possibly my all time favorite record, so it's all good. If you wanna go folk and go folk well, Villagers are a must-cite influence.

My Spanish teacher's young and energetic and makes us do stupid things like sing songs, even though we're moving at too fast a pace for that. Spain and South America aren't necessarily famous for their music, so we're basically being force-fed Shakira every other day until the end of January. But we finally got round to Gitana...and...I really like that song, okay? Like, I find Shakira boring for the most part, and this so isn't. it feels both musically very rich and very organic, and her voice sounds great, especially en Espanol. the instrumentation is wonderful, too! Oh, it is just lovely.

So, um, that's more or less it, bar a bit of All Time Low and Jonsi and Freelance Whales. I promise, give me another week or two and school will straighten out, and I might stop complaining about it and actually write something, okay? Oh, not that you care. But I care. Writing's so fun.

Soo. Adios blog.

- Naomi