Hellooooo everyone and welcome to another issue of Woman Crush Wednesday! This week the coveted honor of being Lil Red’s Woman Crush goes to…..GWEN STEFANI!!!
^^^ AYYY! #WCW
Dear Gwen Stefani,
Oh sweet Gwen, you beautiful little starlet! I so admire your talent and your amazing fashion endeavors. I had the pleasure of seeing you perform in No Doubt when I was fifteen and was blown away by your show-woman-ship and rockin bod. So for that, it is only fitting that you receive a hubba hubba! Everything that you do, I love – fronting No Doubt, your solo career, coaching on The Voice, and all of your amazing clothing lines. I have countless Harajuku Lovers purses and fragrances as well as your perfume for L.A.M.B.! You are so fabulous and creative and I always look to you for celebrity style inspiration. Thank you for giving me music that I can sing poorly to while driving the Little Red Love Machine. Thank you for creating clothing lines to bring some of your flawless style to a gal in Akron, Ohio. And thank you very much for creating fragrances that keep me smelling “Yummy” on the daily! I LOVE YOU!
^^^ She’s so gorgeous I just can’t even! And miss thang can rock a red lip like no other! Hoochie mama. :*)
So there you have it, my Woman Crush Wednesday: Gwen Stefani Edition! I hope that all of you are having a fabulous Hump Day! Who’s your Woman Crush Wednesday? What’s one of your favorite creative endeavors from Gwen Stefani? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Whatupppp everyone and happy Hump Day! This Funky Time Jams post is brought to you by my hangover and my deep passion for Bedtime Music. If there’s one thing that I love, it’s falling asleep to some soothing tunes. I have a plethora of go to artists in my vast collection that I play when it’s time to hit the hay for the night and they never fail to send me off to dream land peacefully. The trick to good bedtime music is that it literally has to be “just right”. So here’s my Lil Red Rules to bedtime music before we discuss some tried and true favorites:
1) The music can’t be too upbeat because you don’t want to get hyped up instead of worn out.
2) The vocalist needs to have a voice that soothes you, obviously.
3) Songs with piano playing is always a good thing!
4) The songs need to take you to your pre-sleep happy place.
Alright, here we go!
Enya – Orinoco Flow: Freaking OBVIOUSLY. Out of all of my bedtime music artists, Enya is the one that I play most frequently. I just love her – even though I never understand what she’s singing about half of the time. All I know is that Enya soothes a Lil Red like no other. Her music is pure poetry and it takes me to places in my mind that are good for the soul…shopping in Paris, shopping in London, shopping anywhere. It’s a magical thing. Enya has saved me from many a sleepless night and for that, I salute you.
Coldplay – Speed Of Sound: Of course Coldplay had to be included on this list. I had a difficult time selecting which Coldplay song to feature on here, but then I thought back to yesterday when “Speed Of Sound” came on my iPod when I had it on shuffle and just how much I enjoyed it. I seriously forgot how much I love this song. I’m a really big Coldplay fan – they were my first concert when I was in fifth grade or so. (Richard Ashcroft from The Verve was the opener and they performed “Bittersweet Symphony” together and it was life changing!) My brother chose to take me over his stupid girlfriend at the time and it’s always been one of my favorite memories. I also figure skated to “Talk” during competitions. Coldplay holds a very special, sentimental place in my heart and their music makes me happy – which is why they’re a great band to play before bed!
Cat Power – I Found a Reason: Oh dear lord I love this song – specifically because it’s featured in one of my all time favorite movies, V For Vendetta. Cat Power’s voice is so hauntingly beautiful. Her music is the kind that you would expect to hear in one of those jewelry boxes that I feel like every little girl has when they’re growing up…You know, the kind where you open up the lid and music starts playing and the ballerina or whatever starts spinning around. Those jewelry boxes.
Wolf Parade – Dear Sons And Daughters Of Hungry Ghosts: I know I said to avoid upbeat music before bed, but Wolf Parade is my exception. Spencer Krug’s voice is simply intoxicating and it legitimately puts me under a spell every time I hear it. Maybe that’s why I can listen to them while I’m laying in bed at night and feel sleepy, because I’m under a weird Indie rock love spell. “Dear Sons And Daughters Of Hungry Ghosts” is a fucking brilliant track, and if you’ve never heard of Wolf Parade then this is a perfect song to introduce you to them with. Make sure you pay close attention to the lyrics because they’re fantastic. The video I’m posting is great too because it includes their hit “I’ll Believe In Anything” as well which is one of my all time favorite songs in the history of ever.
Say Hi To Your Mom – Let’s Talk About Spaceships: If you want some really good Indie bedtime music, then Say Hi To Your Mom is one of your best bets. I love this guy too much and I’m actually really excited because I’ve wanted to see him in concert for years and he’s finally coming to Cleveland in October!! HURRAY! “Let’s Talk About Spaceships” was one of the first songs I ever heard by Say Hi To Your Mom and the only reason I even discovered this artist is because years ago when my brother and I were browsing through Best Buy we saw his CD’s and thought his name was absolutely hysterical. I had to investigate his music as soon as I got home and I fell in love. This track opens with one of my favorite lyrics of “And what’s that saying again? They’re only words and words can’t kill me.” I’ve never considered this song one of my favorites but honestly I think it’s safe to say that it’s one of my favorites. I’ve loved it since I was fourteen and I still love it seven years later.
Sufjan Stevens – Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head! (Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!): Once again, if you’re looking for some really good Indie bedtime music, Sufjan Stevens is also a good way to go. “Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head!” is probably one of my favorite Sufjan songs for reasons I can’t tell you, because I have no clue why. In the words of Matthew Mcconaughey in those stupid Lincoln commercials, “I just like it”. One of the reasons why I like to play some Sufjan before bed is because all of his songs are quite long, so you can easily lose yourself in the ten minute tracks and before you know it you’re asleep. INDUSTRY! INDUSTRY!
U2 – Sleep Like a Baby Tonight: Okay, 1) Did you honestly think that I would pass up an opportunity to post music by my favorite band in the whole wide world? and 2) The answer for posting this song is all in the name of it. The end. Wait…no, not the end! Because now I have to discuss just how disappointed I am that U2 isn’t coming to Ohio on their Innocence + Experience Tour! So Bono, if you’re reading this: I love you! AND COME TO OHIO!
So there you have it, the Funky Time Jams: Bedtime Music Edition! If you’re having trouble sleeping, definitely give some of these songs and artists a try and let me know how they work out! Who’s your go to bedtime music artist? What songs succeed in making you sleepy? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Heyyy everyone and happy Tuesday! So last night I went to see Glass Animals at the House Of Blues in Cleveland with one of my comrades and it was fucking amazing! I’m going to be really honest with you guys…I was very intoxicated so some of the details are a little blurry BUT I do know that Glass Animals absolutely killed it. I also know that I’m never getting too turnt during a concert again so I can fully enjoy it and be able to remember everything about the show vividly. It was raining when we got to the venue and we got there a half hour before the doors opened so instead of waiting in line outside we went to a bar around the corner for drinks. As you guys have gathered by now, I’m a big fat lightweight so after two vodka based drinks I already felt tipsy. This unfortunately didn’t stop me from drinking more at the HOB, AYYY! #whitegirlwasted
Shortly after we got to the venue, the opening band came on. I feel like such a goon, but I can’t even recall the name of them…I mean if they were good I probably would have remembered but they weren’t my cup of tea anyways. They were really techno-y, which I actually wasn’t expecting because I feel like Glass Animals is more indie than electronica, so that was kind of fun because I’ve never been to a techno show before. I dunno, music like that all starts sounding the same to me after awhile, so I felt like after hearing two songs by the opener I heard them all. That’s why I really like Glass Animals, because they have electronica qualities to their music but it’s still distinctively very indie as a whole.
The nice part about this show was that there was only the one opener and then Glass Animals came on. This was great, because there were three openers for The Used when I saw them at the HOB last month and it dragged on for forever. As soon as Glass Animals came on I freaked out so hard! It kind of sucked because we were pretty far back in the standing area so I couldn’t really see the stage even with my concert heels on, but I’m not too worried about it because homegirl was dancing the whole time – everyone was! The lighting throughout the show was dope and all of the good vibes in the audience was amazing to experience. I didn’t take many pictures during the concert because I was dancing (probably very poorly) and I was so white girl wasted that all of the pictures were probably going to be blurry anyways. But take a look at the pics I did manage to snap before I gave up on having my iPod out:
^^^ AHHHH! Like I said, all of their lighting was rad and they alternated their color scheme a lot throughout the show. They used the green in my featured image photo to open the concert with and then would change the lighting after every song or two. There was deep indigo, red, fuchsia, white, purple, and probably a lot more that I just can’t remember…Whoops.
I haven’t even talked about how the band sounded yet, so let’s discuss! Glass Animals sounded INCREDIBLE live. Their set list consisted of their album ZABA in its entirety and then one or two songs that I hadn’t heard before. They sounded EXACTLY like how they do on their debut album, which was astounding to me because there’s so much going on in all of the tracks that in my head I thought it would be difficult to recreate on stage…Drunk girl thoughts, obviously! It was so cool to be able to experience seeing one of my favorite bands live and having their performance go above and beyond the high standards that I hold them at, because they really are SO talented. There’s not one song on ZABA that I dislike so I was so happy that that was primarily what they performed at the concert, especially because the album is still relatively new.
As my white girl wastedness increased throughout the night, so did the urge to pee. I had to go SO SO BAD towards the end of the concert, so when they closed the show and went off stage for a few minutes before the encore I jumped on the opportunity to go to the bathroom. They had a chair by the sinks that I vividly remember sitting on for some reason or another, but that’s neither here nor there. Anyways, as I finished washing my hands I heard the beginning of “Pools” being played which is literally one of my favorite songs on the planet, so I ran my happy ass back to my companion in the standing area ASAP so that I didn’t miss one more second of it. Hearing “Pools” live was what I was looking forward to the most and it was everything that I hoped it would be AND MORE. It was seriously the perfect encore song to close the night with. What an amazing, incredible, wonderful, terrific show.
So there you have it, my Glass Animals concert experience! If any of you guys have the opportunity to see them live, I urge you to jump on it! You’ll be glad that you did! Is anyone going to a show anytime soon? Who are you seeing? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Heyyy everyone! I hope you’re all having a fabulous Sunday! So as you know, last night I went to see The Used in Cleveland with my sister Kristen and it was absolutely AMAZING!!!! I got Kristen the tickets for her 23rd birthday in April and we had the best time ever!!! I’ll start off the post with some pictures from the show, and then I’ll discuss our incredible concert experience!
^^^ Note that the last picture posted is of Every Time I Die who opened the show!
All of yesterday I was seriously so excited I could barely concentrate. Kristen got home from work around 4:30 and we arrived in Cleveland about an hour later. We found a parking garage and then went to wait in the line to get into the House of Blues because the doors opened at six for the show to start at seven. The House of Blues is a pretty intimate venue, and as you can tell by the pictures, Kristen and I were very close to the stage – which was awesome! We had a great view of the entire show, and I couldn’t have been happier about it. It was so cool to feel like you could literally reach out and touch the band members and it was amazing to see all of their expressions and instrument playing so clearly. I wore my concert going Vera Wang wedges so that I wouldn’t have to worry about not seeing anything because I’m a shorty. Kristen opted for more sensible (and still cute!) black tennies, so she stood in front of me so we could both have a clear line of vision to the stage. It worked out perfectly, and sucks to suck for anyone standing behind my fake-tall self thanks to my wedges! There were three opening bands before The Used went on, and quite frankly the first two sucked ass. I honestly don’t even remember the names of the bands and I really don’t care. But Every Time I Die who was on before The Used fucking killed it! I’ve heard of them before, but I’ve never heard their music so I was very excited to finally experience it. And what better way to hear the band for the first time than seeing them live?! They blew their performance out of the water. Every Time I Die definitely falls under the screamo category of music, which I happen to really like! As soon as the band ran on stage things started getting rowdy in the audience, but all of the pushing and shoving just added to the experience. I’ve never been to a show that would fall into the emo or punk genre so it was way fun being able to head bang and jump around with all of the concert goers. I definitely plan on listening to Every Time I Die again, and if you haven’t heard of them I highly recommend you check them out!!! After another twenty minutes, The Used finally came on and Kristen and I were freaking out! The moment that we were waiting for for the past four or so hours was finally here and we were so happy!!! I’ll never forget watching Kristen sing along with so much enthusiasm and I cherish the times when she would squeeze my hand with excitement. I loved watching her have a good time – especially since it was her birthday celebration! Their set list for the night was filled with old favorites like The Taste Of Ink, I Caught Fire, Take It Away, and All That I’ve Got just to name a few. I have no shame in admitting that I totally cried during The Taste Of Ink…I seriously couldn’t help it. I’ve listened to that song on repeat countless times during a bad day and to hear it live was so special to me. It was so much fun to listen to Burt talk throughout the show as well! First of all, he’s drop dead gorgeous. Second of all, he’s hilarious! Our favorite Burt-ism of the night was when he was introducing Pretty Handsome Awkward by saying “this is a song about how fucking special I think I am”. We were dying!! We both purchased the same shirt after the show, which I wanted to buy for her but she wouldn’t let me! The shirt is dope! It’s black with The Used in red and in white there’s a picture of a coffin with a broken up skeleton on the inside and underneath that it says “I Buried Myself Alive”. Love it. We both are wearing it today and it’s the first time we’ve matched clothing since we were little kids! Saying that Kristen and I had a blast is a severe understatement and I’m sure she’ll agree with me when I say that it was the best night we’ve had in ages. My sister’s birthday celebration was a success and I’m so happy that she enjoyed herself. One of my favorite parts of the night was her thanking me and telling me that she had fun – I felt like such a champ and a ballin little sister! ❤
So there you have it! Mine and Kristen’s fabulous experience of seeing The Used in concert! What was the best show that you’ve ever been to? What band would you love to see live? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Heyyy everyone and TGIF! AND Happy May!!! I just wanted to let you guys know that I’ll be out of office tomorrow because my sister and I are going to see The Used at the House of Blues in Cleveland!! WE’RE SO EXCITED!!! I got Kristen tickets for the concert for her 23rd birthday in April, and tomorrow is finally the day for our emo night on the town! The concert starts at six, which is kind of a weird time, so we plan on making the hour drive to Cleveland fairly early in the day so we can make the most out of our general admission tickets by getting an awesome standing space. The emoness is going to be SO real tomorrow….I’m talkin black on black on black and a whole lot of crying! It’s going to be AWESOME! I’m really looking forward to celebrating Kristen’s birthday again and having a sister filled day. I haven’t been to a concert since I saw The 1975 in December and I’ve never been to the House of Blues before so needless to say, I’m so hyped up. The best part about Kristen’s birthday concert tickets is that we both have a strong mutual love for The Used so it’s not like I’m taking her to a concert of a band who I hate – even though I wouldn’t care at all! So what I’m saying is, it’s going to be just as fun for me as it will be for her. Kristen has seen The Used once before in concert and I was so jealous so I’m very happy to have the opportunity to finally see them live! I’ll try and take lots of pictures and avoid getting punched by angsty emos as best as I can – but don’t be surprised if I post a picture of myself with a black eye! 😉
^^^ Kristen posted this video on Facebook last night, so it only seems right that I feature it on this post!
I hope all of you guys have a fabulous weekend and I’ll tell you all about the concert on Sunday! What was the best concert you’ve ever been to? What band would you love to see live? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
So as many of you know, I love AFI. And if you’ve read my post A music dream come true, you’ll know that I’m seeing them in concert in Pittsburgh. AND THAT HAPPENS TO BE TODAY!!!!! Words can’t even begin to express how excited I am. I’ve been longing to see them in concert since I discovered AFI almost ten years ago. I’ve never been to a real punk concert before – like in an actual stadium with mosh pits and swarms of emo kids so I’m very much looking forward to this experience! One of the first albums I bought was Sing the Sorrow, so I’m really hoping they’ll play a lot from that album. One of my all time favorite AFI songs and songs in general happens to be Silver and Cold off of that album. I remember hearing it at eleven years old and thinking it was the most beautiful thing in the world. Here I am at twenty, and I still feel the exact same way.
There’s something so special about getting to experience one of your favorite bands live. I’ll never forget seeing U2 live in Pittsburgh two years ago with my family. That was a show for the ages and one of my most treasured memories. I cried so much during that concert, but they were happy tears. I can guarantee you guys that I’ll be crying a lot during the show tonight. I’m sure they’ll be tears of pure joy though! I’m just so excited to hear all of the songs that I’ve felt like were written specifically for me live. AFI’s music has made me feel like they flipped through the pages of my journals and wrote albums upon albums about my struggles. I think that’s why I love them so much. They understand the darkness of life and they understand pain. You would think that hearing that type of music would make me feel upset – but it does quite the opposite. It makes me feel like I’m not alone. It makes me feel like I’m understood. And that is so, so beautiful to me.
I can’t wait to tell all of you guys about the concert! Also, please send good vibes my way, as there’s a pretty bad storm passing through the area that my sister and I will be driving through. Have a fantastic day – I know I will!!!! -Sarah
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