It was a crazy week everyone. I had my play "A Small Pair of Feet in the Middle of the Sea" open at UCLA, began shooting the pilot for the internet series "Odyssey Years" with my writing/producing partner/bff Sarah "Rockstar" Masson and our awesome cast/crew, and had to do intense 40-hour surgery on the first act of my screenplay. I also went to classes. And sometimes slept. It's been busy.
But all this hectic scheduling gave me an super idea for a post. This post. Because what kept me more or less sane throughout this Wonderland-esque mindf*** of a week has been,of course, what soothes the savage beasts, the language of love, the purest form of art.....MUSIC!
So I thought it would be nice to profile a few artists I've been listening to/relistening to lately.
A brief note on why I haven't talked about music on the blog as of yet. I'm not really that much of an expert. Like, I feel fairly confident giving you all the lowdown on books and radio, even movies. I feel pretty in touch with what's up and coming and/or off the beaten track in these mediums.
But in music I'm just a follower. I'll be like, "Oh wow, Feist is so cool!" And everyone else is like, "Um, yeah Kit, we've known that for, what? 15 months already?" And I'm like "This is why I shouldn't talk about music because it makes me look lame and behind the times as opposed to snarky and on the pulse." And everyone else is like, "Yeah."
Howevs, I think the artists I'm repping today actually aren't on everyone-and-their-immediate-and-extended-family's-radar. For once, I might actually be kind of ahead of this music thing. Or at least on top of it. I disabled the comment section of this blog, so no one can asswipe-ishy contradict me. I'll keep my delusions intact. Today, I am a cutting edge, miles ahead of the crowd, Buddy-Holly-glasses wearing, band-you've-never-heard-of-t-shirt-clad, circulation-impairing-skinny-jeans-donned, dorkily-awesome music critic.
Enough introduction, let's roll.
1.) YAEL NAIM
This is Yael being like "Brunette actresses who play the quirky love interest in independent movies, I am the real life version of you so grab those forks and eat your hearts out."
So Yael is Israeli and by proxy, magic. Yael is just this second blowing up hardcore. Her song "New Soul" is the music they play in the new MacBook Air ads. And yes, the song is just as bad-ass as the platonic-ideals-of-computers that it helps advertise. "New Soul" is currently the number two song on ITunes. Sarah Bareilles, who is amazing and had that spot for like weeks with her "Love Song" is so pissed about being knocked off her second-best pedestal, and is currently sticking pins in the vocal chords of a home-made Naim voodoo doll.
But I digress. "New Soul" is a great song, perfect for dancing around you apartment and pretending you don't have work to do. The rest of the album is not as dance-y, but just as fab. Beautiful melodies set to lyrics the flow from English to Hebrew to French back into English. You just feel a little more peaceful and cool listening to Naim. My friend Coco Kleppinger recommended me Naim and she recommended brilliantly. A great album to listen to while lying on your bed and looking up at the ceiling. Or driving in the rain. Or kissing your B'sheret, that's Hebrew for "soulmate." Naim's new album is currently my musical B'sheret. 
Yael Naim's self-titled album, available on record industry-destroying behemoth, ITunes. Check it.
Yael Naim's self-titled album, available on record industry-destroying behemoth, ITunes. Check it.SPECIFIC SONGS THAT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL MAGICAL JUST LIKE NAIM- "Too Long", "New Soul", "Shelcha" and "7 Baboker"
2.) CARLA BRUNI
There are two of you who are like, "Why is this name familiar? Wait, is that the model-slash-singer mademoiselle that just shotgun-weddinged the pants off of French President Nicholas Sarkozy?"
Yes, it totally is. And people are going to hold this against Bruni and think she's a gold-digger and not respect her work. And this is sad because while she may be a gold-digger (... I mean, maybeeeee she's really in love with Sarkozy and doesn't care about being First Lady of France and getting a major-career boost and maybeeeee Sarkozy is really love with her mind and not just her hot legs) she's not talentless. Girl is bursting with talent, it's stupid how good her music is. I first discovered Bruni almost two years ago when I was in NYC getting my play produced Off-Broadway at Playwright's Horizons. I was really lonely because I didn't have a lot of friends in NYC, so I spent a lot of time (and right, money) downloading music and listening to it while I walked through New York. I downloaded some really stupid albums like "Panic! At the Disco" and I am woman enough to admit it. But I also downloaded super-good stuff like Carla Bruni and her "Quelqu'un m'a dit." This album is like "I'm sweet, snarky, 21st century French Cafe music, love me, want me, need me." And I'm like "Quelqu'un, I do, I do." The songs in this are sometimes melancholy, but mostly Bruni composes in the genre of sweet-and-sour jaunty tunes, and I love it. This is the kind of music that makes you feel like a cool expatriate even if you're stuck in America with no escape in sight, at least none that the near future holds. Bruni is also good making-out-music if your significant other is cosmopolitan and low key but also fun. I tend to like make-out/driving music, or I tend to make the music I like fit into those categories. Personal quirk! So give Bruni a chance, she may be gorgeous and have France in the palm of her hand, but she's also really talented and I totally have a fun-music-with-lyrics-I-can't-understand crush on her work. 
Carla Brunis' "Quelqu'un m'a dit," available at Harbringer of the Apocalypse ITunes.
SPECIFIC SONGS THAT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE A BADASS EXPATRIATE- "Raphael", "Tout le monde, " L'excessive" and "La derniere minute."
So we just have to talk about how dumb it is that pop-folk singer-songwriter Mason Jennings hasn't (yet) achieved the same level of popularity of singer-songwriters like Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright whom I also love a lot, but whom Jennings is absolutely equal to. Jennings is like that well-travelled, worldly-wise friend you live vicariously through and secretly want to be. He muses about life, love, death, and the matters that connect the three in the most intelligent, accessible, and original way. Jennings is also driving music, preferably driving alone on a highway in the middle of the night thinking about the MEANING of it ALL.
Carla Brunis' "Quelqu'un m'a dit," available at Harbringer of the Apocalypse ITunes.
SPECIFIC SONGS THAT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE A BADASS EXPATRIATE- "Raphael", "Tout le monde, " L'excessive" and "La derniere minute."
3.) MASON JENNINGS
So we just have to talk about how dumb it is that pop-folk singer-songwriter Mason Jennings hasn't (yet) achieved the same level of popularity of singer-songwriters like Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright whom I also love a lot, but whom Jennings is absolutely equal to. Jennings is like that well-travelled, worldly-wise friend you live vicariously through and secretly want to be. He muses about life, love, death, and the matters that connect the three in the most intelligent, accessible, and original way. Jennings is also driving music, preferably driving alone on a highway in the middle of the night thinking about the MEANING of it ALL.
That makes Jennings sound ponderous, he's not, he's much too wry and funny to be anything like that. One of his songs literally starts off like this "This is a bullet from a gun called what the f***?" I love this man. His songs are about embracing life and not fearing death and I personally don't think there's anything more noble to write/compose about. His music makes me want to put on my well-worn Converses and slip on my ten-pound traveler's backpack and just wander around the world and fricking live.
Unfortunately, have too many obligations, projects, commitments, attachments, so that all will have to wait. But someday, if I'm free enough and listen to Jennings' albums on repeat enough times, I just might walk out that door and into the sunset and not come back for like a month and a half. For reals. Thanks to my boyfriend Brian, who recommended Mason Jennings to me. Thanks in turn to Willie Chase his friend first, but also now mine too, who first recommended Jennings to Brian. And thanks to Jennings for existing.
Mason Jenning's available on "Simultaneously convenient/insidious" ITunes.
SPECIFIC SONGS THAT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE WANDERING THE UNIVERSE-
"Bullet" and "Adrian" off of "Century Spring", "Crown" off of "Use Your Voice", "Confidant" off of "Birds Flying Away" "Darkness Between Fireflies" and "Butterfly" off of his self-titled album.
Back soon with more smarter-ing, better-ing things. I might be a little behind it all musically, but I am totally on top of being...
Affectionately,
Kit Steinkellner
