Friday I'm in Love.

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Friday I'm in love with...

* the way Bonnie naps, all curled up with her chin resting delicately on her paw.

* Mr.K's 3 day old beard, the perfect peeling to get soft pink cheeks.

* me and my brothers private jokes, most of them being quotes from our favorite movies and all of them sounding as good on the phone as they do in real life.

* still finding sand in my hair two days after coming back from the beach

* the smell that fills our nest after I bake "better than sex" cookies for my boy

* the realization that my new summer shoes have the exact same color as my favorite Tropical Temptation nailpolish

* daydreaming about our impending trip to the Middle East

* trying out new recipes to feed my hungry Mr K...sesame turkey meatballs anyone ?

* the shy but determined way in which the sun has been appearing more and more lately

Mostly though, just like every other day, I'm in love with our gang of losers, our furballs, and the handsome shaggy haired daredevil that I get to call my boyfriend.

x, K.

Friday I'm in Love...with Austra.

Once upon a time, I was obsessed with The Knife.

Their mix of whimsical beats and haunted voices felt like nothing I had ever heard before and I loved how upbeat their songs were.

Listening to The Knife kind of felt like being at the Mad Hatter's tea party -if the Mad Hatter had been a Swedish indie kid.

Then came Tomorrow, In a Year.

They were as haunted as ever, but for me, they seemed to have lost what made them so special, their cheeriness having been replaced by a rather gloomy feeling.

The album kind of felt like what would be playing at The Knife's funeral and, with a heavy heart, I stopped waiting impatiently for their next album and chose instead to focus on their masterpieces.

I had never thought that someone could filled the void left in my heart by The Knife, but then, I discovered Austra.

Austra could very well be the cool cousin of The Knife and Florence Welsh.

In fact, if you ask them, I'm sure they'll tell you that they are indeed related.

Lose It is a perfect combination of addictive beats and of Katie Stelmanis' rich, decadent voice.

(I'm aware that that description would maybe match a fudge brownie better, but really, that's what her voice feels like, dessert for your ears.)

We literally only had to listen to Feel It Break once before it was playing every day on our speakers.

Austra has managed to cheer us up during that god awful period known as finals and for that, you should give them a listen.

Also, I don't know if I'm the only dork who pictures movie scenes in her head when she listens to music but f there was a scene in Lost In Translation where Charlotte was tripping around the streets of Tokyo, Austra would definitely be the soundtrack to that.

It would be a great soundtrack to this scene too.

If they ever tour the Old Continent, you can be sure that me and the Mister will be singing at the top of our lungs front rom -and so should you.

x, K.

Friday I'm in Love...with Herman Düne.

Like many great things in my life, Herman Düne was brought to my attention by Mister K.

Once we got our hands on Next Year in Zion, we kind of forgot about it until a cold winter day when I was sick in bed.
If I'm not too sick, I actually like sick days.
You get to lounge in bed like a cat and you don't even have to feel guilty about it because well, in your state, what can you do ?

If you're the lucky girlfriend of a Mr K., you even get freshly squeezed orange juice to make you feel better so really, having a cold is pretty great around here.

Anyways, that day I was sick in bed and Mr K. was acting as a human teddy bear.
As we kept falling asleep, the album kept playing on repeat and throughout bouts of consciousness and orange juice, we listened to it and fell in love with it.

The songs fall beautifully into one another and even if you're not feverish the quiet melodies might still put you to sleep.


That beautiful collage was given to me by Mr K.
It doesn't show much in the picture but there is a quote from one of Herman Düne's
songs on it :
My Home is Nowhere Without You. (mine either babe)


Herman Düne kind of sounds like a mainstream Devendra Banhart, with the same enchanting voice but without some of his strangeness.
* said in the best sense of the word, we are big fans of his too *


Seeing that I am now worried sick (read : scared shitless) about my statistics exam, I thought it was appropriate to put two songs :


Try To Think About Me

This song is really pretty, and seeing the frequency at which "don't you worry a bit" is repeated in the lyrics I'm kind of hoping that it will work on my poor nerves.


My Baby's Afraid Of Sharks

Because on top of being afraid of anything that resembles mathematics, I also am afraid of sharks.
And many other things too, which are mostly all included of the lyrics of the song.
So yeah, perfect fit for me.


Speaking of being afraid of things, I'm gonna log off now.
I have to go hide somewhere and cry my eyes out and pray that if I wish it hard enough, I won't have to pass that exam.
Pray for me that it works - or that I ace the exam, I'd be fine with that too.

x, K.

Friday I'm in Love...with Grass Widow.

Grass Widow is badass.

Their song "Tattoo" is even better.

It's what you're listening to as you're speeding on the highway in a stolen pick up truck.

It's the song that plays in the background as you are convulsing on the floor after a particularly bad trip.

It's the song that's playing in your headphones as you decide to go all Lolita on your Professor.

-kidding babe-

It's a song for roadtrips, impromptu parties on the balcony, steamy make out sessions, and well yes, a great song to get tattooed to, though it might hurt if the needle is trying to keep up with the frantic guitars.

I don't know many of Grass Widow's other songs but frankly, I don't need to.

I get my fix of raw voices and guitars with Tattoo and I love it -so will you.

x, K.

Grass Widow * Tattoo

Friday I'm in Love...with Lissie.

To be perfectly honest, I'm actually in love with Lissie every day of the week.

I love her voice, I love her record and yeah, ok, I'm crazy jealous of her long blond hair.

Her beautiful song Everywhere I go had been featured on the soundtrack of one of my secret addictions (which does involve scrubs, but never involved George Clooney) and I was completely blown away by her powerful voice.

After a bit of searching the internet, I found out who that voice belonged to and that it was even featured on an EP.

It was love at first sight, and not only because the cover art was so pretty.

* Happy Lissie Surprise °1

Just as I was itching for more songs to listen to (am I the only one who gets frustrated with EPs?I get that it acts as a teaser of sorts, but to me it's kind of like eating a microscopic bite of red velvet cupcake.Torture.) I found out that Ms Maurus had just come out with a new album.

At first I was a bit torn, after the raw beauty of Everywhere I go which showcased her voice so amazingly, her album seemed a bit...tame.

It did grow on me very quickly though, even more so after I started reading interviews and getting the meaning behind every song.

* Cue Happy Lissie Surprise °2

A short while after her record got out, I almost had a heart attack when I found out by checking our favorite concert hall's website that Lissie was performing there in two days.

In less time than it takes to say cuckoo, we had booked our tickets and off we were to the front row to watch her perform.

* And this, my friends, is when Happy Lissie Surprise °3 happened.

We were blown away by her performance.

She is one of those artist that you should definitely check out live, in part because her band is so awesome.

Her guitarist is a dreadlocked bearded beast who would certainly make Jimmy Page proud with some of his insane solos and her bassist is also her drummer so that makes him a badass.

Her songs really come alive, mostly because she makes sure to tell her audience the story behind them before she starts singing them.

When we left, we had been Lissied (and believe me, it's hard for me to get Mr K. to like a long blond haired singer who's not in a hair metal band).

I had a hard time picking a song to post here but I finally settled on Bully.

That's the perfect song if like me these days, you're feeling a bit down but don't want to indulge into your weepy songs cravings.

It starts out pretty mellow, building up slowly until at the end of the song you feel empowered again -Perfect for the exam blues.

Have a listen below and make sure to check her out if she ever performs close to where you

live !

x, K.

Lissie * Bully

* We found out not to long ago that she would be performing at a festival we're going to this summer.

Yup, that would be Happy Lissie Surprise °4 !

Friday I'm in Love...with Oh Land.

My brother N. is a pretty quiet person.

He will answer you if you talk to him, but other than that, he's happy to be chilling somewhere with his cup of coffee.

Why talk when you can just listen ?

His rather silent demeanor means that whenever he says something, you not only listen, you know that it is going to be interesting.

To be perfectly honest with you, I literally drop everything I'm doing any time that my brother decides to strike up a conversation with me.

He's that interesting.

The other day, I was wasting time on Youtube when, on his way to make himself a cup of coffee, he glanced over my shoulder and mentioned that I really ought to check out Oh Land's "White Nights" because it reminded him of me.

When I saw the video, I was curious.

Was it the blond hair ? The long legs ? (one can hope...) The drumming skills maybe ?

Admittedly, my drumsticks/hair/legs are a bit shorter than hers.

Nope.

Turns out that her weird dance moves reminded him of me when I've had too much sugar to eat.

Oh well.

All long legs and trippy dancing apart, he actually made me discover a really cool song.

It's really refreshing to hear a new-ish band that don't take themselves too seriously or try overly to be the next big thing.

Instead, Oh Land puts together catchy songs, kind of as if Emiliana Torrini and The Knife had an illegitimate child.

I've been listening to it over and over again ever since I discovered it and soon, Im pretty sure you will too.

Thanks N. !

x, K.

Oh Land * White Nights

Saturday I'm in Love...with The Pierces.

Yesterday I was a very busy bee.

You'd think that having listened to that song all week, making a post about it wouldn't have slipped my mind.

Well it did.

Even though The Cure never sang about Saturday I'm in Love, which kind of cancels the musical reference of this post's title (Look at me!I'm a cool rock chick!I love Robert Smith!) I decided to go ahead anyway and write the post one day later.

I wouldn't want to disappoint my fans out there, waiting impatiently to be told what to listen to.

Ha !

So, before I get to the song, I have to make a shameful confession.

I'm a closeted Gossip Girl fan.

The city, the beautiful clothes, the shiny hair, the drama...I love it.

Actually, I loved it long before it was a successful TV show.

Yup, to add insult to injury, I also read the books.

I remember how excited I would get as a teen whenever a new one would come out.

For about 200 pages, I could identify with the characters (well, maybe not too much either.They ARE pretty slutty) and transport myself to The Upper East Side.

Hell, I day dreamt so much about the place that I could prolly find my way there blindfolded.

But anyways.

The only reason I get Mr K. to watch it with me is because the soundtrack is actually quite good.

It's actually pretty funny to imagine the music connoisseur putting together each episode's playlist.

I guess it's safe to say that he/she probably doesn't care much about wether Chuck and Blair are FINALLY gonna get back together or not and more about who's playing next at the Glasslands Gallery.

Never mind that person's opinions on us losers who get caught up in the (fake) drama though, the music on the show is pretty cool and eclectic.

Come to think of it, the only thing that made last episode better for me (REALLY?Aren't you tired of playing cat and mouse B.?) was the great song at the end.

A little bit of searching and I found it : We Are Stars by The Pierces.

To me, the song didn't really belong on a CW show though.

It's more the kind of song that you imagine playing in a dark bar, as the waitress gently sways behind the bar in a cloud of cigarette smoke.

It's the song that's playing on your record player as you make out with your tattooed boyfriend.

Hell, it's even the song that's playing as your boyfriend is getting tattooed on a hot, lazy afternoon.

In other words, it's awesome.

Watch out though.

If you're anything like me, you might find yourself listening to it over and over again until you know the lyrics by heart.

x, K.

The Pierces * We Are Stars

Friday I'm In Love...with Florence + The Machine.

I discovered Florence + The Machine like many people did , her powerful voice blasting through our car's little radio.
"Dog Days Are Over" just felt like the perfect song to be silly to after a month of exams and rainy weather.
Time for me to discover her cover of "You've Got The Love" and off we were to a festival where she was performing.

Her performance baffled me at first.
Here I was, expecting to dance my ass off while shouting whatever lyrics I knew and instead, I was completely transfixed.
The concert was out of this world, she was very ethereal in a long victorian dress and the audience was completely mystified, vibrating to the tune of the accompanying harp.
It so happened that she was performing at sunset, giving it even more of a magic feel.
The hour that the show lasted was enough for me to become a fan.

This winter, we tagged along my parents for a snowboarding trip.
My brother having a tiny crush on her, we ended up listening to Lungs for most of the 8 hour trip.
Before I knew it, I knew the lyrics to all her songs and the album was forever linked in my mind to the exhilarating journey to the mountains.

"Cosmic Love" is one of my favorite songs off Lungs.
It has all the elements of a typical Florence + The Machine song : the mystical beginning slowly building up to a powerful chorus, the beautiful melody, her amazing voice....
Enjoy !

x, K.

Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love

Friday I'm in Love...with Angus & Julia Stone.

This post might be the first one on my blog (blah) but it also marks a way more eventful event : the first installment of the "Friday I'm in Love" posts.

As a student, I have quite a bit of time on my hands to satisfy my cravings for music and to look for new tunes.
Nothing sounds as good as the raw sexiness of a vinyl slowly turning, but hopefully, the little youtube snippets that i'll post here will hook some people up to whatever my obsession is that week.

You can expect to see on this blog a content as eclectic as my wardrobe's one : music, book and film reviews, hotspots in Europe and mainly in my current HQ (Brussels) and also probably a lot of rambling and over-sharing...can't say you won't have been warned !


So anyways, today I find that this beautiful rendition of the Grease classic matches perfectly the summery weather we had and the beautiful sunset light that's coming through my window right now.
I find that her raspy voice makes it very haunting, like something straight out of a Sophia Coppola movie - can't you see Lux & her sisters dancing absent-mindedly to this at their prom ?

x, K.

Angus & Julia Stone - The One that I Want

See what I'm talking about ? They're SO listening to that song there !