The Cake and The Candles Are Raging Inside Me

A random and delightful appearance such as this one is only made possible due to 2011’s most fabulous of days – today.

Happy Birthday to the most magnificent ovine in the barn, our very own Sheep! May your bah never cease to carry a tune, may your wool forever be fine and well groomed, may your hooves continue to graze the vastest of terrains, may your grinders always be flat and well maintained, and may the wolves never come at night to TURN YOU INTO DINNER! >:O

Happy Birthday, best shrend (tacky combination, I apologize)! I love you!

Love always,
The Wolf and The Blog

Kanye West featuring ….Bon Iver???

So, the rumors of a Kanye West/Bon Iver (Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj) collaboration are, in fact, TRUE. Yeah. They’re true. For those of you expecting to hear Vernon spitting rhymes, you might be a little disappointed. The track (one of TEN, apparently) opens with Vernon, and ends with Vernon. I find the song to be more on the obnoxious side and listening to it brings me flashbacks of the opening scene in Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ video (no idea why) but his beautiful howler’s croon shines, as it always does and as weird as it sounds over a hip hop medium, I’m happy for the guy! Let’s just hope he makes it to the studio soon, to stop collaborating and to start recording a new record. (PLEASE.)

YO BON I’M REALLY HAPPY FOR YOU AND I’MA LET YOU FINISH BUT — alright, I’m not even going to take it there.

Download Kanye West’s ‘Monster’ featuring Bon Iver and company here!

And I know we keep saying that we’ll be back, and we have something in store, but we will and it’s true – we’re just fighting time, we’re always just fighting time – and sleep, (yeah, sleep) – The Sheep has been sleep-grazing through time for the last 2+ months, while I’ve been hunting the Earth for a cure. Let’s just say that my hunting skills are a bit lack-luster compared to the power of the Sheep’s *big* hoof hitting the SNOOZE button. We miss you though, and we hope you feel the same. 😦

YEAH!

….what they said! 😡

Classic Rock Mix

Woah, is this actually a post from the lazy animals? I guess it is…
Last weekend was my fathers 50th birthday (if you see him, tell the old sheep that his wool looks not a day over 40), and I decided, naturally, to make him a mix cd of some of his favourite songs that I have heard a million times since I could hear. There is no common theme or anything, just plain old rock n roll (well mostly..) Here it is:

Black Dog – Led Zeppelin
Cocaine – Eric Clapton
Purple Haze – Jimi Hendrix
Bad Case Of Loving You – Robert Palmer
White Bird – It’s A Beautiful Day
Cinnamon Girl – Neil Young
In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel
Space Odditiy – David Bowie
While My Guitar Gently Weeps – The Beatles
Speak To Me/Breathe – Pink Floyd
Hey Hey My My – Neil Young
Layla – Eric Clapton
Putting Out The Fire With Gasoline – David Bowie
Tiny Dancer – Elton John
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – Eric Clapton
Kashmir – Led Zeppelin

download it here

Enjoy!

Kevin Devine; She Stayed As A Stream

Now that FIFA madness is over, we can get back to the real world..

I for one feel like this blog posts a tad too much Kevin Devine. Agreed? Well if only he didn’t have all that music in his mouth, then we wouldn’t have anything to post 😉

She Stayed As A Stream, which came out earlier as a demo version, is now avaiable for a free download over at the Favorite Gentlemen’s website (Record label owned by Manchester Orchestra, which KevDev is signed to along with All Get Out). The single is on his 2010 EP along with 3 other new tracks!

The Demo Version:

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/03%20She%20Stayed%20As%20Steam%20%28Demo%29%202.mp3?w=26cfeaa1

The Mastered Version:

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/01%20She%20Stayed%20As%20Steam.mp3?w=7bb5553c

Which do you guys like better? I am undecided because they are both great tracks, yet are so different from one another. I find that the new version is more patient, thoughtful and darker, while the demo does the job its supposed to do: make you fall in love with the rawness of a song enough to want more. But hey, why choose? Just enjoy both

It’s friday night and I am hungry
for a hand, a mouth a body
a love I wouldn’t have to carry

– wolves among the sheep

Happy 32nd Birthday Jesse Lacey

Not much to say here, except thanks for being alive. To celebrate, listen to (probably) the most beautiful song he’s ever written, Play Crack The Sky,

WATS Presents: Summer Clothes – A Mix for the Sunshine!

Hello everyone! We hope everyone is enjoying the warm weather and nicely tanned (at least for you olive people out there…)! We have been working on this mix for a while now, and it has been a little difficult because our little wolf is in europe and 6 hours ahead, which is why we’re posting this AFTER the first day of summer. We bring you these songs from Canada and Italy (there’s not italian music… but there IS canadian music!).

Anyways, this mix was inspired simply by what we think people (our readers) want to hear in the summertime. Summer music, like summer clothes, is specific and essential in this hot hot heat! The mix starts with a very high energy and ends on a lower key, while keeping the same momentum. Enjoy this driving in the car with the windows down, while hanging out with friends tanning in the backyard or anywhere that has sunshine – Enjoy!


01. Safe in LA – Gold Motel***
02. Lost Coastlines – Okkervil River
03. Sunshine – Old Man River
04. Ocean Breathes Salty – Modest Mouse
05 . Middle Management – Bishop Allen
06. Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss – Built to Spill
07. Music Will Not Last – Jamie Lidell
08. Lust for Life – Girls
09. Weighty Ghost – Wintersleep
10. The Ghost Inside – Broken Bells
11. Song for Sunshine – Belle and Sebastian
12. Love You Better – The Maccabees
13. Perfect in my Mind – Gold Motel***
14. In Transit – Albert Hammond, Jr
15. Jasper – Aidan Knight
16. Boat Behind – Kings of Connivence
17. Wandering – The Preacher’s Sons

Download here!
Download here!
Download here!

***Please note, the two songs by Gold Motel have been taken down and out of the playlist by request. This tracklist is our original one, however, when you download the file tracks 01 and 13 will be missing. Please add the tracks to the mix if you own them on your own computer!***

The Preacher’s Sons; when the sun don’t shine

The last thing one wants to hear in the summertime is slow and moody music that is reserved for winter months, right? Right. Alas, I really do not care, as it still rains sometimes in the summer. Also, I can not NOT share these songs with you guys. With that being said, we bring you….

The Preachers Son’s are two brothers ( how adorable is this?) who have been hard at work trying to put out a record and make a name for themselves. Right now, you can download “Looks Like A Sampler” over at their bandcamp, which is 3 “sample” songs to hold us over before their full-length drops. The two boys have done a good job, in just ten minutes and three songs, of keeping me hooked and anticipating hearing more of their polished tunes. Their debut (full length) album Looks Like a Flood, Feels Like a Drought (clever name, right?) has been recorded with the help of their fans and should be released for us any day now!

This is one of those albums I grabbed because I thought the album art looked interesting. It turned out that these guys are right up our alley (we are freaking addicted to hidden gems, if you havent noticed) which rarely happens when you download things because of something like album art or a band name (we all do it, right?)

I don’t know what to do with the things I know
and I can’t tell if it’d gonna rain heaven or hell

This simple yet brilliantly honest lyric above reminds me of when I was a little girl and I would ask my parents questions like “what time is it” and even something unanswerable. Either way, I would often get “I don’t know” in response because they didn’t have an answer for me. I remember the feeling of shock that I got from this because I thought that my parents would just know everything. With age, I have realized that we don’t have all the answers because the course our life takes, even when planned, is unpredictable (and that is why we listen to music, right!?!). I thought this lyric really captured that feeling of instability for me.

Sold? Head over to our new favourite boys’ bandcamp and download Posion Oak, Wadering, and Wormfood (catch the lyric that could have been written by Jesse Lacey…) for FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE!!

Their Myspace
Their Website
Their Bandcamp

Your lazy friends in the grass,
WATS

Radiohead; Look out world, we’ve got a new album coming

The art is to not give in, to carry on, persevere. You just have to keep going. The great thing about Nigel is; he raises the bar. He drives you hard. You think you’ve done the take, you think you’ve done your overdub, you think it’s in there and then he says: ‘Maybe one more time’. He gets the best performances out of you. He’s amazing. Cause he also drives himself really hard as well. The quality of the stuff that he does is really high. So, it’s good to be driven hard. (Guitarist Ed O’Brien on producer Nigel Godrich )

Radiohead is just wrapping up their latest album and it should released before the end of 2010. Read an interview here, O’brien souds really excited about to whole process of their new album.

He says that it might be “the best record [they’ve] ever made”. But seriously, what could possibly beat the perfect beauty of In Rainbows? We’re waiting to find out!

Also, this means TOUR DATES . I have been waiting to check Radiohead off my list.. and this should be one golden check mark.

Source
Radiohead’s Myspace
Radiohead’s Webside

WATS and a Summer abroad;

So, for the next couple of weeks, we will be bringing you music from two different continents, opposite sides of the world, etc., literally. I just wanted to say that it has been an awesome blogging for all of you out there who take the time to read and especially comment and a lot of fun making playlists for those of you out there awesome enough to give our mixes a few spins.

But most of all, it has been a complete honor and privilege to be blogging with the best little Sheep that I know. Seriously. 😥

We’ve come a long, long way…

and if i made a fool, if i made a fool, if i made a fool
on the road, there’s always this
and if i’m sewn into submission,
i can still come home to this

and with a face like a dad and a laughable stand,
you can sleep on the plane or review what you said,
when you’re drunk and the kids leave impossible tasks
you think over and over, “hey, i’m finally dead.”

oh, if the trip and the plan come apart in your hand,
you look contorted on yourself, you ridiculous prop.
you’ll forget what you meant when you read what you said,
and you always knew you were tired, but then,
where are your friends tonight?

Stay tuned for some European death metal – more awesome music is always on the horizon over here, haven’t you figured that out yet? Phew, thought so.

Ci vediamo presto. Viva la WATS!

Zanne e lana per sempre,
Il lupo e La pecora