Loud and Mouthy

I haven’t talked much about this (mostly because I didn’t want to jinx it) but, in January, I got a position as a permanent staff member at the Wizrocklopedia. The Wizrocklopedia is the most comprehensive Wizard Rock website out there, as far as I know.

“But Laura, What is Wizard Rock?” you ask? Simply put, Wizard Rock is music by bands inspired by Harry Potter. Being the Great Big Nerd that I am, I latched onto Wizard Rock IMMEDIATELY. I heard Harry and the Potters in 2003 and my love just grew from there.

There are so many Wizard Rock bands now that it’s difficult to keep track of them all! There is even a movie (The Wizard Rockumentary) about the growth and popularity of Wizard Rock. I could go on and on AND ON about my love for Wizard Rock and the community it has created, but I will spare you. (If you really want to read it, I can post it later, or you can email me: newandhorrible at gmail.)

The editor/webmaster of the Wizrocklopedia decided to step down, and passed the site on. The two girls who “inherited” the site, Freya and Dinah, put up a post calling for help: they asked for writers, either to contribute on a regular basis, or to just help with news reporting and the occasional album review.

I sent in a writing sample at the beginning of January, not really expecting anything out of it. I just wanted to say that I had tried. The response was way better than I could have hoped for: I got a spot as a permanent staff member!

I got my first assignment: Australian Wizard Rock. AWESOME, RIGHT? Well, it turns out that Australians are very difficult to get a hold of. I sent out MySpace messages to 5 bands and one guy who is putting together an Australian Wizard Rock Compilation. I only got 2 responses: from one band, and the Compilation organizer. I sent an email to Freya, telling her that I had sent out messages, and that I didn’t want her to think that I was blowing off the assignment.

She said I could work on something in the meantime, while waiting for Australian responses. I jumped at the chance, because I was super excited and anxious to contribute to the site. I wrote up a little “press release” about a new charity compilation. You can find it HERE! It doesn’t have my name listed as the author, but if you look at the article on the main page, it says: “February 11th, 2009, posted by Laura!”

I hope there will be many more articles to come. The Australian Wizard Rock article will HOPEFULLY be done soon. I am really, really happy and excited to be involved with the site, and I consider myself very lucky that I get to write about something I love.

I know I have made this commitment to making Billy pay for torturing us with horrible behavior and even worse music but Mellon Collie is really good still and makes me feel old. We need to start live blogging records, like the new Cure record like yesterday. We need to get this blog rolling again and goodness knows teh internets is dying to read us rant and rave about stuff.

Loud-Don’t you have some stuff to discuss with the internets too? How about the Twillight crazy or something nerdish?

If I wasn’t at work, I would take the time to take a pic of me doing the heart symbol with my hands and post it here instead of <3. But back to work. 30 more minutes!

We need to make another video…it’s been a while. don’t you think?

Our very adorable Laura Marie has her own YouTube channel. You can check her out here. She is the sunshine and cuteness to the more sinister dark unholy seething yuckiness of Mouthy. Because of this she does things like post adorable videos of herself professing her love for the Backstreet Boys and also squee-ing about snow in Vegas. I personally love this part of her, but in order to stay true to my nature and keep with the reputation I have on the streets I had to respond to her ridiculousness. And Mike helped.

I know it seems like we’re being harsh, but mostly it’s just because I miss her when she’s gone. Laura went home (see post directly before this one) to visit her family for Christmas and subsequently the Mouthy parts of Loud and Mouthy are lonely and lashing out a bit. But lashing out with love.

Also, while Laura was super excited about the snow here’s how I felt about the snow.

HEY GUYS CHECK IT OUT.

The Marie Club Monkeys are DONE!

They were completed on Christmas Day, about 5pm, during an Arrested Development marathon with my middle sister.

For your enjoyment, this is how my sister and I spent our day today.

I’ve been hogging her Mac Book ever since I got home. It is so freaking cool. I don’t want to spend $1200 on one for myself, but I am greatly enjoying playing with hers.

Merry Christmas!!

All this talk about Fiona Apple has renewed my interest in her music. I’ve been on a bit of a kick lately of reattaching myself to my younger days of musical interest. Today Christina Marie was hanging out at the yarn shop with me and we were talking about music videos. I didn’t own a television for several years, and even when I did have a t.v. I didn’t have cable (therefore no MTV or VH1) for most of my youth. Since I didn’t have access, I didn’t see a lot of music videos during their height of popularity. Thanks to YouTube however I got to catch up with Fiona Apple music videos today.

My favorite was this one for “This is Not About Love” from the Extraordinary Machine album. It won’t give me the embed code so just follow this link to see a wonderful and hilarious music video featuring Zach Galifianakis. (By the way, total side note I just put the name ‘Zach’ into my Google search bar because I can’t spell the dudes last name and he’s second under Zach Braff for ‘Zach’ suggestions. Weird.)

Click here for awesomeness

Now, I assume you’ve followed the link already and watched that video and heard that awesome song. Now check out this video, a cover WITH A CELLO of the same song. AWESOME. I officially heart Ben Sollee

I am trying to tire myself out so I can get up at 5 am to get Laura Marie to the airport so she can leave me and Dani behind for the holidays. So I figure now is the time to post about my near and dear. I have gone back and forth about what is my near and dear. On my blog, I have posted a love letter to Bjork and her record, Medulla, and gushed about next year being the “year of Morrissey.” Not worth repeating here, though they are two of the nearest and dearest to me.

I decided in a frenzy of thought this morning that I would post about Fiona Apple. She is another one of those polarizing artists that I love and it seems that everyone else loathes. Is she polarizing because of her public meltdowns, speaking her mind or because of her music? It seems to me that women artists get the brunt of that. Something to explore further later…

Anyway, I heard Fiona for the first time in high school, when “Shadowboxer” came out and loved the song. I got the record “Tidal” a few months later and it was okay. I liked the singles and “Never is a Promise.” Take that back. I LOVED “Never is a Promise” but everything else was kinda eh. Other girls my age seemed to love that record and related to it and saw it as their truth. I did not and was a bit disappointed and felt it was a bit melodramatic. I moved on still listening to Bjork and Tori Amos and Hole and mostly male artists and just pulled it out every once in a while to listen to my favorite song when I needed to.

Then in 1999, she came out with “When the Pawn Hits..” The title was like over 100 words, right? Crazy but awesome. I finally got around to getting the record a couple years later after rewatching the “Fast as You Can” video (where she puts the match out on her tongue) and found my truth. It was raw. Her vocals, the lyrics, musically. Everything. Raw. I have said that this is a record I want to be buried or cremated with and I stand by it. She takes on failed relationships, failing herself and starting all over again.

I have said before and I will over and over again: I love me some indie rock but I feel like I am intruding in a boys club and that the music is not for me or my gender. When I hear strong women like Fiona (and I believe she became musically strong on “When the Pawn”) singing loudly/quietly/growling/screaming about her experience as a girl/woman, it strengthens me.  It validates my love for music in general and urges me to keep on fighting to get my voice heard wherever I want it to be.

As of right now, Dani and I have our personal theme songs from “Extraordinary Machine” (Dani = “Extraordinary Machine”, Mine = “Better Version of Me”).  I can’t think of any better theme songs but really, a ton of Fiona’s songs could be my theme song at any moment and that’s how I know that she is absolutely brilliant and near and dear to me.

I’m not sure how I’m going to top the EPIC love post that Laura Marie contributed, but I’m going to do my best. My ‘near and dear’ is a little broader right now, because it encompasses a bunch of little stuff.

We’re going to start with my infatuation with Rachel Maddow. I love Rachel Maddow. I love her in a completely whole and beautiful way. I want her to be my best friend (after Loud and Mouthy of course.) and I want us to hang out and drink cocktails and bash shitty politicians and talk about how awesome she is all the time. I have a big old crush on her too which is going to always go unrealized for two pretty big reasons: 1) I’m straight. I’ve wanted to be gay at times in my life when relationships with men have left me less than stoked on the whole hetro lifestyle but sadly, I gave it a good try and found out I’m just not into chicks. Maybe next incarnation. 2) Rachel Maddow is obviously very deeply in love with her girlfriend and I am not the sort of straight girl who goes breaking up happy lesbian homes. Just not cool.

However, if for some bizarre reason I were able to marry Rachel Maddow (like say the country got it’s SHIT TOGETHER and legalized marriage for everybody and not just people with the ‘right’ bits and peices.) I would want Keith Oberman to officiate the wedding. Because next to Rachel Maddow, Keith is my second biggest mostly political news anchor crush. Followed closely by Jon Stewart and Dr. Stephan T. Colbert. Yes, Jon Stewart goes first before Colbert, and I’ll tell you why. Why? Because I have loved Jon Stewart since his brief stint on MTV. Seriously.

Okay next near and dear thing after my love affair with news and fake news anchors is how much Jenny Lewis rocks my world.

When her first solo album came out a few years ago (Rabbit Fur Coat with the Watson Twins) I was lucky enough to catch her and the Watson twins opening for Deathcab for Cutie here in Las Vegas. Jenny and the twins STOLE THE SHOW. At least for me. I could have cared less about Deathcab by the time they got on the stage. I was just that blown away by Jenny Lewis. I’ve been a Rilo Kiley fan for a long time and I am generally pretty skeptical of solo acts coming out of bands. Jenny Lewis is the exception to that. So I wrapped myself in the Rabbit Fur Coat album for a long time, nearly constant play in my car stereo. Then Rilo Kiley came out with Under the Blacklight and ‘Holy crap! This is awesome’ happened again. Once again Jenny Lewis/Rilo Kiley could do no wrong. “Breakin’ Up” was the ring tone on my phone for like 8 months. “Silver Lining” was my new anthem and “Angels Hung Around” will be played at my wedding.

Then she went and did it again when she released her second solo album, ‘Acid Tongue’. At first I wasn’t into it. I gave it a few cursory listens and just sort of let is sit around in my car. Then I uploaded to my iTunes so I could put it on my iPod. Then a strange thing happened, I was baking my epic pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and I decided to give ‘Acid Tongue’ another try on my iPod. I like to listen to music while I bake. All of a sudden the entire album clicked for me. ‘Next Messiah’ had me rocking out in my cooking clogs and old coffee shop apron and before I knew it I’d listened to the entire album four or five times in a row.

NEW FAVORITE ALBUM. EVER. (go buy it. now.)

So, that’s my near and dear post for today. Rachel Maddow and Jenny Lewis.

Coming up next from me? Probably how much I love Terry Prachett and Neil Gaimen, the lost art of independant coffee houses and why I love my Subaru so much.

We had, like, two glorious weeks where we were All Loud&Mouthy, All The Time. Then we all got busy with various things and Loud&Mouthy kind of fell by the wayside.

I know for me, it was preparing my students for our Winter Concert, which was on December 10th. THANK GOODNESS IT IS OVER. I learned a lot this time around: things that I need to do differently next year; what worked and what didn’t; and how I need to get better confirmations from my teacher-friends on whether or not they’re going to come and help out. But regardless, it was great and I had fun, and the kids enjoyed it, and at the end of the day, that’s really all that matters.

So, in an effort to resurrect our dear site, we are each going to post about something important to us in the coming weeks. I’m here to talk about something very, VERY near and dear to my heart.

The Backstreet Boys.

Yes, you read that right. The Backstreet Boys. Nick, Brian, AJ, Howie, AND KEVIN. (EVEN THOUGH HE LEFT AND TOOK MY HEART WITH HIM.)

The Boys are my childhood. I grew up with them. Millenium came out when I was in 8th grade. And, yeah, I grew up in suburban Texas, and it was super cool to like the Backstreet Boys. So I did, all through high school.

When I went to college in New Orleans, that did not change. Even though most of my friends were either all about new music - my friend Beth was always finding new bands on MySpace and forcing them upon me - or about the past - my dear friend Nikki is a die-hard Beatles fan, and will be until the day she dies. I’m pretty easygoing, so it didn’t bug me that nobody shared my love for the Boys. It was me, it was special, it was my own.

So, ALL THAT BEING SAID, I am 23 years old, I saw them in concert on November 22nd, and I CRIED. THERE WERE TEARS. In my defense, though, they were singing “I’ll Never Break Your Heart,” which has always been one of my favorite songs, and the video was playing on the big screens, and the video showed Kevin, who left, and it was just so sad and wonderful at the same time.

I just love them so so so so so so much. The way they interact with the crowd when they perform, the way they interact with EACH OTHER, AAAHHH, IT ALL MAKES ME SO HAPPY.

Here are 2 videos that I think encompass my love the best. The first one is a spot they did for the Tonight Show. The way they all introduce themselves is freaking adorable, and the AJ/Brian bit at the end is just glorious.

THEY JUST MAKE ME SO HAPPY IT HURTS. Like I told Paul DeGeorge when he wore my hat out in public for other people to see, “I DIED INSIDE.” (In a good way.)

This next video is a little harder to get into, because you have to wait about a minute and a half before it gets really awesome. Whoever decided to give Nick Carter a videocamera, THANK YOU.

Stuck in trafffffiiiiiiiiiccc …. THEY ARE SO GOOFY. I love them so much.

And just so we’re all clear, nothing anyone ever says will diminish my love. Not even when a certain someone describes one of my Boys as “a walking STI.” YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. (But I still love you.)

Comment with YOUR favorite band and why!