frontman friday: brendon urie

fur-ry-day is here, folks!
it arrived in the blink of an eye with having such a short week...thanks memorial day.
hence the incredibly late post...it's barely still friday.

he's still worthy of friday love though: brandon urie

closed eyes means he's really into it. 

urie is the formerly-smokey-eyed frontman of: panic! at the disco

then

now

not all that long ago i wrote a post about a new panic! song called hallelujah and included a really captivating interview with urie. he grew up in a faith-based family and still very much respects a lot of the thought and traditions behind christianity. if you've got an extra minute it's worth a listen, some interesting food for thought.

i feel like panic! at the disco has always played a bit of second fiddle to fall out boy since they came out around the same time but FOB seemed to garner a bit more of the spotlight. which is a shame because PATD is completely capable of holding their own and are some talented dudes. we're going to pretend that i didn't do a frontman friday on FOB's patrick stump first. this was their first big single that came out in 2006...if you don't remember i write sins, not tragedies this is your warning, there is some language not suitable for little ears. 

time to wrap this up before it isn't friday anymore in the central time zone(because it's not friday anymore in most parts of the world)! 

live it up this weekend, friends!

xo

my rider.

a rider is a contract of sorts in the music world...it basically lays out the requirements of the band for them to play at your venue. including things like stage set up, sound and lighting needs, and green room accommodations.

since i am still counting on being a famous person i feel it's important to get together a rider so i'm prepared. what can i say? i'm a planner.

i have yet to play more than an acoustic cafe show so i'll leave all the tech jargon to my future manager. what i really care about is the green room food and such...i may not be fancy but i've acquired a taste for name brand diet coke and nothing else will do.

these are the things i will require in my green room:

• diet coke 
• veggie tray with hummus
• fruit tray
• tortilla chips and pico de gallo
• salted almonds
• dark chocolate
• wifi access (because i'm super cool and have limited data)
• a couple of fashion and music magazines
• some candles
• a comfy chair or couch

that's it. i like to think i wouldn't be a diva at all. 

what would be on your rider?

xo

frontman friday: joel houston

it's the friday of memorial day weekend...summer is HERE, y'all.
i don't know about you but i'm looking forward to a summer of outdoor concerts, stand up paddle boarding, movies in the park, grilling out, and gaining a new nephew!
but before i write my whole summer away, let's pause and lend some frontman appreciation.

he's lead some pretty huge crowds: joel houston

he's gotten a haircut since this was taken but i just love long hair on fellas.

photo credit: google

houston fronts worship band: hillsong united

all the skinny jeans.

photo credit: internet search

hillsong has the modern worship movement on lock and are expanding to a convergent media platform. they are releasing a film in a week, it's called let hope rise. if their movie is as solid as their worship it's going to be fantastic. 

anyone wanna go see this with me?! 

if the film isn't enough for you, they are going on a summer tour in late july/early august and there's a chance they're coming to your city...i'm mostly speaking to US residents here since i didn't look at their international schedule. check here and see if you're one of the lucky ones!

onto the weekend, let's raise a glass to my favorite season!

xo

one chapter closes, another one opens.

there have been a lot of changes in life lately.
as with most change, it's bittersweet. i'm loving the new things that are happening but there is always something a little sad about leaving the old behind.

if you are a big music fan (specifically the Christian music industry) you have probably referenced the site IndieVisionMusic (IVM) a time or two. with constant reviews, updates, release lists, and interviews it was the go to source for all things music. i have had the privilege of writing for IVM for the past four (maybe five now...i've lost count) years! i've gotten to hear albums before they've released to do reviews, i've gotten to hang out and chat with artists to do interviews, and i've gotten to meet (via the internet) a bunch of rad people who care about music as much as i do.

it was recently announced that IVM is coming to it's end. it will live on as a sort of message board for music fans but it won't function at the same level that it's been trucking for the last 15 years.
don't get too sad though, there is a bright spot in this story.
there is a new site coming...
it's going to be big.
it's going to be great.
and i'm going to write for it.

i can't say much about it at the moment but i am excited for the things to come. the new site will include music and more...exploring other venues of entertainment and delving deeper into faith discussions. check back soon, i'll let you know as soon as possible about what this new venture is called and how you can access it.

cheers to some great years at IVM and cheers to the future!

xo

thoughts and impressions of the billboard music awards 2015.

these are my thoughts and impressions of this year's billboard music awards...fairly unfiltered...be prepared...

t.sweezy's bad blood video...i think it was just to show off how many famous friends she has. though mariska hargitay (i'm sure that's spelled wrong) was a fun surprise.

didn't love the hosts. don't know who i would want to host...maybe chris d'elia or mindy kahling or melissa mccarthy or a cast member from snl?

really appreciated one direction's acceptance speech (okay, mostly i appreciated harry's hair and swagger), sweet of them to mention zayn.

had to leave and walk the dog, got caught in a rainstorm, missed a half hour of the show. according to twitter i didn't see mariah carey and john legend/meghan trainor...not too sad about that.

i love watching wiz kahlifa perform. he's just so into it...even though he's only rapping for maybe half of the song. i also love that he's from north dakota and looks like the last person i would expect to be from north dakota.

sam smith's cue card acceptance speech was funny and heartwarming and i really hope that he did arrange a chippendale's dance for ed sheeran.

hozier is great live but he's got to be sick of singing take me to church at every televised appearance ever. i mean, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth and he's probably extremely grateful the song has gotten so huge but he does have other songs believe it or not.

little big town and faith hill are both incredible but i was bored by girl crush. so bored.

chris brown and pitbull did a song. that's all i got on that one. i got an email that demanded my attention so i didn't really get to watch. the one time i did look up though it looked like a bunch of girls were having a pillow fight and that stereotype could die any day and i would be fine with it.

i know it's just a loop pedal but i am always so amazed by ed sheeran. he's a one man band and he kills it every time. i have a serious crush on that tattooed ginger. and it makes my heart so happy that he didn't do one of his current singles. he's ed sheeran and he does what he wants.

why did charlie puth cry during meghan trainor's acceptance speech? are they best friends? did he have to learn to love his body? was he also just glad that taylor swift didn't win?

i know you're dancing but that was some painfully obvious lip synching going on there, britney.

nicki minaj had underboob and buttcheeks and some real questionable hand placements. david guetta looks like he's straight outta the 90's. i did enjoy the songs in their set though.

great spotlight on tori kelly. she's got effortless vocals.

kelly clarkson has got a diva voice. she maybe can't do 8 octaves or whatever it is that mariah carey can do (or maybe she can i really don't know) but girl can sing. i will be sad if her current size gets more recognition than her spot on performance.

the boys of imagine dragons did a nice job on stand by me. it was very much not a typical imagine dragons performance but completely appropriate for a tribute song. looked like king's daughter and granddaughters approved.

either the sound on my tv went out or there was a LOT of editing happening during kanye's performance. and question to anyone who has worked to get their doctorate...do honorary doctorates make your skin crawl?

so that's what i got. did you watch? what were your thoughts?!
xo

the wonderlands and huffington post.

i try to not write about jon foreman unless i have really good reason to because i know the general population doesn't care about him nearly as much as i do BUT....

yesterday was a very exciting day for j.fore fans (sorry, that was gross, i won't do it again).

first, he announced that the first ep from his new the wonderlands series of ep's will drop may 26th. that's mere days away! yessssss. it's called sunlight and i cannot wait. it's been years since his first set of ep's released and he's been teasing these ep's for months. there will be 24 songs spread out over 4 ep's, one song for each hour of the day.

second, he released the first single off sunlight. it's called caroline and you can listen to it on spotify here. that voice. dreamy.

third, he had a new article that went live on huffington post. it's about the chaos of our lives and it's fantastic. i am aware that i'm 100% biased but take ten minutes of your time and read it...it will add to your life more than scrolling through your twitter or instagram feed for the millionth time today.

it's almost embarrassing how much i love that man. almost.
xo

frontman friday: patrick stump

i'm not even entirely sure that i'm comprehending that it's friday. it's really not sinking in at all. but it's here so we're gonna love on a frontman.

i feel like a lot of his frontman love goes to pete wentz: patrick stump

that's some lead singer confidence right there

stump is the recognizable vocals in: fall out boy

i don't know when they became so rock 'n roll but i like it

the very first fall out boy song i heard was back in college, sugar we're going down. it was a little scandalous (for small-town sara it was very scandalous) and i was into it. 

i am aware this is one of the shortest frontman friday posts in existence but i am writing this in the eleventh hour on my phone so cheers to the weekend! 

xo 

new music for your ears.

i'm obsessing. over this record. 

all day i've been listening to josh garrels's new album, home, and i'm getting a little starry-eyed over it. he's got a falsetto that doesn't quit and it's musically diverse so you don't feel like you're listening to the same song over and over again. we all know those records, you're like "how long is this track?! oh, the whole album just sounds the same, got it."  the worst.

but this is not that at all. at all. 

if i owned a coffee shop i would have home hour once a day and make everyone in my shop listen to this album. 1) because it's the perfect underground record for hipsters who like their coffee brewed single-serve and always want to be the one who've discovered something first so they can be over it when it gets mainstream. and 2) it's just legitimately good enough to listen to at least once a day. 

so now that i've waxed eloquent (or maybe not so eloquent) about mr. garrels's latest release i'm sure you're just dying to hear it. am i right? 

here's the good news: you can get the whole album for...wait for it...FREE. yes, you can download the whole album for free (or if you want you can leave a "tip" which i'm sure would be appreciated). so go do it now, it will be the best thing you've done with your tuesday.

xo

sunburn and vinyl love.

if you read friday's post you know that saturday was one of my favorite days of the year; the bryn mawr festival of garage sales.

one neighborhood, multiple food vendors, hundreds of garage sales, thousands of people.

i take my garage sale-ing very seriously. this is not the time for us to have a deep conversation...this is the time i want to dig through other people's junk and see if i want to give them money for it so i can keep it. i can assure you that i'm not invested in our conversation at all as i'm digging through a box of tangled necklaces or trying to figure out if i really want to pay $5 for that camel-colored leather backpack (i should have, it's my one regret for the day).

so if we happen to bump into each other at next year's festival of garage sales (it's always the first weekend in may just in case you want to mark it on your calendar now) know that i'm not intentionally being rude, it's just hardwired into me to FIND ALL THE DEALS.

the weather was perfect for the festivities. mid-70's, sunny, and not an ounce of humidity in the air. and being the pale minnesotan that i am i rocked a tank top and shorts since it's been months since those clothes have seen the light of day. obviously i didn't wear sunscreen because i'm an optimist idiot. my shoulders and neck were bright red by the end of the day. oops.

my sad little right shoulder on saturday night.

been coconut oiling for days hoping i won't peel.

one of my best finds (which actually my roommate spotted the killer deal at the back of a garage at the end of dead end alley) of the day was some old vinyl. this lady was clearly just wanting to get rid of it, they were 50 cents a piece or 3 for a $1. i don't actually have a record player (cassettes were the new cool thing when i was a kid, maybe some day i will be cool enough to own a player...) but my parents do and i knew they would love these gems.

that would be a little kenny rogers, styx, def leppard,
fleetwood mac, foreigner, and reo speedwagon.
#favoritechild

i'm already dreaming about next year.

xo

frontman friday: andrew ripp

HAPPY MAY DAY!
today is may day and tomorrow is the festival of garage sales and i'm already in love with this weekend. in case you were wondering, the festival of garage sales is as magical as it sounds. it's put on by a neighborhood in minneapolis and it's such a big deal that there are food vendors (cheese curds and mini donuts...yummmm) who post up and virtually every house in the neighborhood prices their trash and it becomes my treasure. it's like a real live macklemore song.

as exciting as this weekend is going to be i kinda feel like my weekend started last night, andrew ripp was in town and i got to sling merch and watch him do his thang.

speaking of: andrew ripp

dude has a killer falsetto

photo credit: some photographer at biola

he sings under his own name: andrew ripp

his eyes are looking straight through to your soul

photo credit: andrew ripp

my favorite song of his happens to be a little diddy called, when you fall in love

swoon

i snuck away from the merch table for a few songs last night and grabbed a couple of pictures. i NEED an actual camera...my phone pictures always turn out terrible. 

i think that's God shining on him

tree in the middle of the venue! so rad
check out the loring pasta bar next time you're in dinkytown

side stage shot

grab a ribbon and dance around the maypole...the weekend is here!

xo