2013 in music

If you're a regular visitor to Sunshine Days, you'll be fully aware that music plays a mahoosive part in my life. Looking back, I've been to some bloomin' brilliant gigs this year (above is a little snapshot with some rubbish quality photos... I'm far too busy actually enjoying the music at gigs to watch it through my phone screen!) from little gigs like The Family Rain who played the Brudenell Social Club to a mammoth expedition down to Suffolk for a weekend of fun and vodka at Latitude. Other highlights included HAIM, an Old Skool Cribs gig a few weeks back and stumbling upon a tiny Pigeon Detectives set in Leeds Trinity and ending up on the front row (even though we don't really like them all that much...). 

While I'm thinking about music of 2013, I thought I'd put together a list of my top tracks of the year. I did this back at the end of 2012 too and its a great way to look back and remember songs from a particular time in your life! Last year I narrowed the list down to five songs, this year I just couldn't whittle it down to any less than ten. Miss Indecisive 2013 right here.

Why'd you only call me when you're high? Arctic Monkeys

My Number Foals

 The Wire HAIM

Lovesick Peace

 Hearts Like Ours The Naked and Famous

Biblical Biffy Clyro

 Trust Me... I'm a Genius The Family Rain

Wasting My Young Years London Grammar

Best of Friends Palma Violets

Youth Daughter

What have been your favourite songs of the year? Hope you've enjoyed some of my top ten too!

Roll on 2014- its already shaping up to be a good one for me music-wise... so far I've got tickets for Foals, Bombay Bicycle Club and *ahem* McBusted (not ruining my indie street cred at all there...).

Also, for once I've not used song lyrics in my post title- yet more proof of how indecisive I am... I couldn't pick one of the 10 songs above as the most worthy of the title! I was discussing with my friends the other day that I really should get an app or something that will make all life decisions for me!

Why couldn't we save you?

Much to my surprise, I've come to realise that I'm actually pretty excited for winter. I've made best friends with my favourite bobble hat again, today I bought myself a new Christmas jumper and I've forced everybody into picking their Secret Santa at work (although on that subject I have no idea what to buy for the person I've pulled out so am now kicking myself for starting the whole present buying process in the first place). 

I'm trying to expand my winter wardrobe by wearing my dresses from the summer layered up under shirts and big wooly jumpers to attempt to save a bit of money before all my money starts being spent on numerous Christmas dinners and trips to the Leeds German Market. This white lace dress was my best buy of the summer so I'm glad it doesn't seem to have any objections to tights being thrown under it and every possible long sleeved item of clothing I own being chucked over it. Definitely £10 well spent... well done Primark.

dress: Primark, shirt: New Look, boots: Topshop, necklace: Urban Outfitters

Something else that makes me happy to see winter rolling in is the ever growing list of gigs I've got booked or am planning on buying tickets for. Peace, Foals, The Family Rain, Haim, Bombay Bicycle Club... and perhaps most excitingly of all I'm crossing my fingers and toes about getting McBusted tickets (all illusions of my musical credentials have gone right out of the window now but quite frankly I couldn't care less... I was a huge Busted fan back in the day so just want to relive those days without the spots and general teenage awkwardness for a night).

I Kill Giants- The Naked and Famous

Fred Astaire's the man for you

On Monday, I took my first trip to what could well be my new favourite place in the world ever. The Belgrave Music Hall opened its doors in Leeds earlier in the month and I'd been itching to take a visit to Leeds' newest gig venue ever since. Luckily for me, San Cisco were playing so I had the perfect excuse to pay the venue a little visit.

San Cisco were pretty decent and their set offered me lots of opportunities to boogie around to a bit of indie pop (something I'm not sure I'd ever be able to resist) and their summery vibes helped me forget the horrible wintery weather I'd left behind outside. Although it was a lot of fun, at times it was hard to forget that I was again experiencing the sinking feeling that I'd inadvertently landed at an under 18's disco. Getting old is tough sometimes and its only when you're surrounded by cool kids who would have only been about 10 when you were there age that you truly realise it. 

That said, I'm glad I'm that little bit older than all the posy kids we were surrounded by. It meant we could fully take advantage of the Belgrave's facilities, they've got a huge bar downstairs playing some awesome songs, complete with a canteen style fish and chips shop and pizza stall (I was eyeing up the pizza all evening... definitely going back for a slice soon) and possibly the best roof terrace known to man, even in the rain it was a great place to sit and take shelter in a cosy wooden shed. 

Leeds, you're doing brilliantly at the moment. I love this city and the ever increasing amount of brilliant places to visit.

Fred Astaire- San Cisco

Love wasn't what I thought it once was

Monday was quite an occasion this week. After waiting and waiting for about 10 months to be able to sink my teeth into HAIM's debut album, the day finally came (and involved a fair bit of dancing around the living room). I was scared that it might not live up to all the hype after I'd spent most of 2013 getting steadily more impatient for the album. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. Those girls did good. Very, very good in fact.

 I've spent about 80% of my time at work this week trying to decide what my favourite track on the album is (a week well spent, I'm sure you'll agree). I've come to the annoying (but also rather impressive) conclusion that ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO PICK A FAVOURITE. I'll listen to one song and think, YES, this is it. Then the next track will come on and completely change my mind. Over and over again until I've exhausted every track and ended up none the wiser than when I started. Albums tend to fall into two camps with me, there's the ones I listen to all the way through a few times but then end up falling back on the singles from the album since they've clearly put a lot more effort into those songs than the others, and then there's the ones that I turn into the soundtrack of my life for weeks and weeks whilst completely neglecting the thousands of other songs on my iPod and still fondly listen to track by track months later. Days Are Gone is without a doubt one of those albums as far as I'm concerned. Plus its given me a bit of variation for my walks to work so I can stop strutting down the street to the Arctic Monkey's new album every day. 

shirt: New Look, pinafore: River Island, t-shirt: Pull and Bear, shoes: Converse

Can someone let me be the long-lost fourth Haim sister now please? Its a dream I'm not planning on giving up on any time soon.

Honey and I- HAIM

Sing along and it might just get you through

Since moving out of the city centre at the start of July, I've been very much enjoying having a longer walk to work in the mornings. Not so much on days where I've spent ages just sat on my bed listening to the radio, or have been too busy rearranging my bedroom to bother with getting dressed quickly and end up having to power walk up the huge hill on my route, but the rest of the time my walks have been far more relaxed and an ideal time for quality time with my iPod. Few things make me happier than when I'm listening to music, and listening to new favourites (and old favourites too... I have an unwritten rule that I have to reserve one morning walk a week for a bit of Pulp!) is the perfect way to put myself in a good mood for the day. Anyway, I thought I'd share a few songs that have been creeping their way up my most played list since I started my new walk to work.

Do I wanna know? Arctic Monkeys

I always try to maintain that I'm not a big fan of the Arctic Monkeys (I think I like to see myself as a little less mainstream indie than that, unless I've had copious amounts of vodka...) but this song slipped right through and caught me by surprise. I've not been able to get this song out of my head for almost two months now, and I'm not in the slightest bit ashamed to have it blaring out of my headphones.

Beach San Cisco

I've fallen head over heels in love with this band. They're from Australia, they're really summery and fun, plus they've done an awesome cover of Daft Punk's Get Lucky (if that doesn't make you love them then I don't know what will).

Pushing it The Family Rain

One of my only regrets from Latitude was not getting to see The Family Rain. I knew I really wanted to but Eddie Izzard was just too funny to leave (plus leaving was impossible as there were so many people crowded into the tent), his set over-ran plus the Comedy arena was the opposite side of the site to the little stage that The Family Rain were playing on. The odds weren't in our favour really. They're playing in Leeds in a few months time so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get to see them then instead.

Lovesick Peace

Peace are a band that I literally haven't been able to stop talking about for over a year now. I waited patiently for their album to come out in March and I just haven't tired of it at all. Its not everyday you find an album like that. Lovesick is one of my favourites from the album so if you ever caught sight of me walking through Leeds, there's a very high chance that this'll be this song that I've got playing. 

Let me know if you like any of the songs I've included in this, and if you've got any recommendations of songs I can update my iPod with to vary my morning routine a little then let me know! 

Common People- Pulp

She may contain the urge to run away so hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks

Hello lovely people! It feels like its been forever since I last posted. I've had a pretty hectic month with moving house and everything else that's been going on (big thank you for your kind comments on my last blog post too- it really meant a lot to read them), and all of that teamed with no internet in my new house didn't exactly mean prime conditions for giving my blog some attention.

My first post was going to be a little tour of my new room now that its finally all sorted out, but it might have to wait a little while as I got back from an incredible weekend at Latitude Festival yesterday so my bedroom is currently buried under a huge pile of dirty clothes, wellies and camping equipment. Instead, it seems very fitting to share a few photos from my weekend (I don't trust myself with even my decent compact camera at festivals so apologies for the rubbish quality of a lot of the pictures but at least you get the idea!).

              

I'd been to Leeds Festival a few times already so was really looking forward to going somewhere a bit different, and was definitely not disappointed. Latitude is such a pretty festival and they really put in an incredible amount of effort to make it a unique and exciting experience with a lovely atmosphere, unlike Leeds where there generally isn't a great deal to see other than the bands and the nightlife.

We spent hours wandering around the site catching glimpses of so many unexpected things from a hot air balloon moon floating above us to multicoloured sheep grazing down by the lake aswell as floating around on a gondola and a strange experience of witnessing a huge crowd waving reeds that they'd pulled from the lakeside at a 2am DJ set, meaning that there was never a dull moment in between watching loads of brilliant performances. Alt- J, Foals and Daughter were some of my absolute highlights, I can't believe I hadn't seen Alt-J live before- I'll definitely be jumping at the chance next time they're playing in Leeds. 

We also got to see so many hilarious things in the comedy tent (another thing that makes Latitude so unique as they had some really big names from the comedy world) largely due to the crazy heatwave that we experienced for most of the weekend. I don't tend to watch much stand up on telly as I find it easier to get into when its live, I found myself crying with laughter on a few occasions across the weekend because everything seemed so much funnier when I was surrounded by hundreds of other people all laughing hysterically!

Anyway, I'm off to get dressed now (and yes, it is now 2pm. A whole day of travelling yesterday in horrendous heat whilst feeling sorry for myself after a night of dancing, running around the festival site and drinking too much vodka meant that a lazy day today was very much deserved and highly essential for my survival).

Breezeblocks- Alt-J

(My festival buddy and I had this song in our heads for the rest of the weekend after seeing them on Saturday night). 

I had a photo where John Lennon may have stood

After our trip to the Palm House a few weeks ago (yes it has taken me THAT long to write this...) we drove past John Lennon's childhood home. This then turned into a bit of a whistlestop Beatles tour around the area, where we were racing to get pictures of each landmark before the Magical Mystery Tour bus and a few Beatles tour taxis caught us up with their crowds of camera-wielding tourists jostling to pose in front of Penny Lane and Ringo's house. 

I think the thing I love most about visiting some of these well known Beatles sights is the sheer volume of graffiti declaring visitors' love for the band. There's more and more of it every time I visit, and I'm sure most of the people who write messages or their names weren't even born when the Beatles were at their peak. It astounds me how one band can be so influential and still attract such an incredible following decades after they stopped making music. I really can't imagine the same happening in 40 years time with any bands that are in the charts today, however popular they might be right now. And judging by the amount of people jumping off the tour bus outside Lennon's childhood home, Beatlemania doesn't look like its set to end any time soon. 

Teenage Icon- The Vaccines

I wanna get lovesick with you

I love bank holiday weekends. Especially this one as living in Leeds meant that I could spend the weekend surrounded by lots of my favourite bands at Live at Leeds festival. Buying a wristband for the Saturday gets you into all of the main music venues in the city centre where an endless list of bands are playing throughout the day. I went last year and saw more bands than you can shake a stick at, this year we didn't manage to see quite so much, partially due to not waking up until lunchtime (we were really sensible and went on a pretty heavy night out the night before...) but also because both The 1975 and The Pigeon Detectives attracted  huge queues that I don't think the organisers had quite anticipated which meant that there was a massive backlog of people who were forced to queue for miles to get into the venues for the acts that were later on in the day. Inevitably we ended up stuck in all of these queues since all of the bands that we wanted to see were inevitably playing at those venues later in the day. 

But really, its quality over quantity at these things (at least that's what we had to force ourselves to believe during our hour long wait to get into The Cockpit) and the acts we did manage to see put on a brilliant show. We managed to catch Backyards who are a great little band that we went along to support because one of my friends is good friends with the drummer plus they're a really talented bunch, Tribes (who I've seen about four times now but still really love the energy they have on stage every single time), Swim Deep (singing along to their songs after our horrendous Cockpit queuing experience was exactly what I needed) and Peace. Peace were the absolute highlight of the day, I've loved them for ages and have been dying to see them live after missing out on seeing them at a tiny little venue in Leeds way back in October and they completely exceeded my expectations. They're still a pretty new band, their album hasn't been out for long at all but they've really exploded in popularity lately and so the venue was absolutely rammed with fans singing back every word of every song. Plus, they snuck in a cheeky few lines of Daft Punk's Get Lucky (which forces me to dance like a loony every time I hear it!) and sent the entire room crazy. Perfection. There's no way they'll be playing a venue as small as Cockpit again from now on, they're destined for far bigger things! 

After another night out and a much needed Nando's to recover, we discovered that The Pigeon Detectives were playing a free set in the tiny Made in Leeds shop in Leeds Trinity. After missing out on seeing them the day before we decided that the chance to see them playing in a really tiny venue would more than make up for being caught out by the enormous crowd. Somehow we ended up on the front row, close enough to see the beads of sweat dripping off the lead singer's hair...sometimes being so close has its downfalls...

To top off our weekend, we had tickets to see The Vaccines playing in Millennium Square in Leeds so after our little encounter with The Pigeon Detectives (and a stop off for a few bottles of cider and a slice of cake) we headed into the arena. The sun was shining and there was a great atmosphere because of it, it felt like we were at a real festival but with less mud and more buildings around us. The Vaccines were bloody incredible. I didn't think I liked their second album quite as much as the first but seeing them playing all the songs live completely changed my opinion and made me love some of the newer songs just as much as the first. If you ever get a chance to see them live then go, go go- they know exactly how to make the crowd have the best time watching.

My photos aren't exactly the best I've ever taken, I was mostly relying on my phone as there was no way my SLR was being let loose in the thick of the crowds I'd been stood in, but also because I was too busy singing until I lost my voice to be bothered about watching the whole show through my camera lens. In fact, it gets on my nerves when people do that at gigs... just enjoy the show and focus on the music rather than missing out on a good boogie for the sake of a few pictures.

Lovesick- Peace

Play another song here and then you can leave

This week has been a good one for me exercise-wise. However, I do feel the need to warn you all that exercise can be bad for you. Not in a "woe is me, my legs hurt" sort of way (although for the record, walking has become quite a challenge for me over the last few days), but because my head has been infiltrated with a playlist of Zumba tracks which I keep finding myself singing as I potter about the flat. 

Now, don't get me wrong, Zumba music is pretty damn awesome and absolutely perfect for shaking your hips to in the company of 30 other lycra-clad women, but in the comfort of my own home (and my own mind) I like to consider myself to have better taste in music than that. 

So, as a desperate measure to force the weird medley of banghra, latin and hip-hop out of my head, I thought I'd compile a little playlist of a few songs that I've been loving this week that I'd much prefer to have stuck in my head as I hoover the living room. 

Laura Palmer- Bastille

You know that feeling when you buy a new album and find a track on it that you love waaaaaay more than the singles that made you want to buy the album in the first place? For me, this is one of those songs. I'm very guilty of getting a bit put off songs that I have adored for ages when they become 'big' and played about 1000 times an hour on Radio 1, so was really pleased to find a song on the Bastille album that I loved more than Pompeii. I'm really pleased that Laura Palmer seems to have been picked as their next single release as its a bloody brilliant song that deserves a good bit of success, but at the same time I'm reluctant for it to reach a point that I have it forced upon me through the radio so often that I can't bring myself to listen to it in my own time any more. 

Sacrilege- Yeah Yeah Yeahs

When I first heard this new offering from Karen O's vocal chords, it took me right back to my hey day at Uni. Definitely a good thing as hearing new stuff from the band that's as fun as Zero fills me with excitement at the prospect of going mental to this soon when I've got a good bit of vodka in my belly. Although it'll have trouble having the same emotional significance as the stuff from their last album for me as I'd give my right arm to go back to 2009 and listen to it all again as something new. Sorry, going a bit off track and onto a moan about the pitfalls of post- University life again! 

Biblical- Biffy Clyro

I have so much love for Biffy Clyro. Mostly because anybody who sings in a Scottish accent is a winner for me. One of the few bands that made the Reading and Leeds line up have any sense of appeal to me this year (sadly there wasn't enough else to entice me so I'm going to miss out on seeing these bearded lovelies when they come up to Leeds in the summer). But still, the new album is brilliant so I'll just have to play that with the volume up on full instead. Plus it'll be a nice chance to get back on my neighbours who think that even just watching tv at tea time requires surround sound with a room-shaking amount of bass. 

My waffling about musical goodness seems to have done the trick in erasing the Zumba tunes from my head for tonight at least. 

Although I'm sure I'll be right back to square one tomorrow when I go to my next class. Somebody get me some new music pronto!

Biblical- Biffy Clyro

Like those before and those to come

2013 has definitely been a good one as far as music goes. I've been thinking for a while about what I'd say my top 5 songs from this year are and I've struggled so much to actually come to some sort of definite list as once I think I have my five another song from the last few months pops into my head and takes me right back to square one. I could have probably done a top 10 (or 100...) the way I was going, but eventually settled on this little lot (I'm writing this in a rush now before I change my mind again).

If you've not heard of some of these songs before and are partial to a bit of indie goodness then definitely give them a listen. I've always got music blaring out of my laptop when I'm typing out blog posts which is why it always ends up creeping into my post titles (I should probably start linking them in my posts so they make a bit more sense!).


Default Django Django

Now this is one of those songs that I've sung along to for ages on nights out and had a jolly good time watching them at Leeds festival in the summer, but despite this, they're not a band I'd paid too much attention to until quite recently. I'm now making up for lost time by listening to them on my iPod ALL THE TIME. The rest of the album is great too so if you like the sound of this then definitely give them a go.


Sappho Tribes

I cast my mind back to the start of 2012 to think about what I was listening to earlier in the year and this was definitely one of my most played songs. I love the lead singer's voice, he's got that whole grungy rock vocal thing going on and is great to sing along to if you're not having the best day ever- sometimes you just need to belt out a big song to make yourself feel a bit better (apologies to my neighbours).


Breezeblocks alt- J

Probably one of the most hyped up bands of this year, but alt- J's album An Awesome Wave is too brilliant and refreshingly different from a lot of other stuff out there at the moment that its impossible not to give them credit for it. Breezeblocks is the first song of theirs that I heard, thanks to my old housemate who was in the same course group as them at uni and was all excited because they were about to release an actual, proper album.


Pelican The Maccabees 

I went to see the Maccabees back in March and even then this song was sending the crowd crazy. Then at Leeds festival they were headlining the NME tent and the electricity the song produced then was absolutely mind blowing. Its impossible to listen to this and not have a bit of a boogie when it builds up to the chorus. This one also took the crown as the lyric in my post title... that must count for an extra star or something!


Celestine Spector

I've had so much love for Spector since probably around February/March time and resorted to listening to their songs on youtube whilst counting down until August when they FINALLY released their album. Celestine is a song I've been continually listening to for most of the year and is always one of my go-to songs when I put my music on. If you ever get the chance to see Spector live then my word just do it, they're brilliant live and aswell as putting on a great show they don't take themselves too seriously and aren't afraid to interact with the audience (when I saw them in Leeds in May they extended an open invitation to the bar they were going to after the set to the packed out o2 Academy... if that's not audience interaction then I don't know what is!).


So there you have it, a little insight into what my ears have been enjoying this year. If anyone has any recommendations of new stuff that I can kick start the new year with then give me a shout!