Kia

The theme in life for the last month has been Kia's graduation. So, this post is a tribute to her. Songs that relate to her some way, somehow. Kia's graduation playlist, if you will. :-)

When I was pregnant with Kia, I went to my first sit-down concert. It was a sit-down for me because I was 7 months pregnant and HU-GE! It was the Stone Roses......

It also took me a long time to come up with a girl's name I liked. I had a boy's name picked out, but a girl's name was much harder. UNTIL.....I watched an interview with the singer from a Swedish band I liked at the time, Whale. Their singer's name was Cia and I liked it immediately. Change the C to a K, works better in Finland. (FYI.....I had no idea about a car named Kia at the time!) It's just hard to tell your daughter that she's named after a girl who sang the song "Hobo Humpin Slobo Babe"!!

After she was born, she got the nickname Boo from the song I always sang to her, "Wake up Boo" by the Boo Radleys. (A huge coincidence that Boo Radley is a character in my favorite book of all time, To Kill A Mockingbird.....one of my graduation gifts to Kia.)

Kia had two favorite songs when she was little. She loved singing the do-do-do-do-do-do parts in Queer by Garbage and she would stand mesmerized in front of the tv when Gwen Stefani and No Doubt were singing "Don't Speak". This was in toddlerhood.

When we lived in Munich, the girls were introduced to a lot of my music as I played my cds non-stop in the car. I have a vivid memory in my head of a 4-year-old Kia (with 2-year-old Kenzi) jumping up and down in their party dresses and shoes begging me to buy Limp Bizkit's cd. They LOVED "Take a Look Around". 

But those are the years when their favorite band became (and still is) the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There have been too many songs she's loved to add here, but this stands out as one of her favorites.

Another band she's loved since their beginning and still does....The Strokes.

When we moved back to Finland, we discovered a new band that actually made us laugh out loud, Kings of Leon. We loved their sound so much! I think she still has the poster from NME magazine on her closet door from their very first album. 

Another band we first discovered together, and was Kia and Kenzi's first indoor concert, was The Killers. Hot Fuss was one of our favorite cds.

It seems like I was always introducing music to Kia. But as she grew up, she started introducing music to me as well. Two of my favorites, Two Door Cinema Club and Ed Sheeran.

There has been so much music over the years. So many concerts together. Too much to list here. Kia's music taste is so varied. I really love hearing what new stuff she's listening to. She listens to everything from Two Door Cinema Club to K-Pop to Bullet for my Valentine. 

The last song I'll post is our song after driving home in the middle of the night (Finnish summer....so still light out) after Ruis Rock. The fog was so thick on the road that we could barely see in front of us. The coolest thing was that we were listening to the Wombats, and of course which song came on? Jump into the Fog.  So, Kia dear, this is for you. Because we'll always have the fog. I love you.

Song for a sunny weekend

Too busy until after our graduation party. But we need a great song for the sunny weekend. A song for the sunroof open and blue skies. So here you go.....you're welcome ;-)

French Films...and Khloe

Yesterday, Kenzi and I took Khloe to her first concert. French Films (one of her top 3 favorite bands....favorite Finnish band) was playing at Linnanmäki amusement park in Helsinki. So, we made an afternoon/evening out of it. As first concerts go, I'd say it was definitely a success. She loved it and has been talking about it non-stop today. 

My own French Films history goes back 2 years when I got their first cd (not their EP, which came before), Imaginary Future. As someone who worships Johnny Marr, I'm a complete sucker for melodic guitar, so this band is just heaven for me. After this, I saw them at RuisRock and then once again the same summer when they played at a club here in Tampere. (This is also when Khloe started loving them, as I played the cd all the time in the car and the catchy lyrics were easy for a 6-year-old to pick up and sing along to.)

They released their White Orchid cd last year in April and it was a sophomore cd that did not disappoint. (I really thought I couldn't love another cd as much as I did Imaginary Future.) I was really thrilled when they played Tampere right away. But it ended up that we were not allowed to go!! By Khloe, that is. She was a little fed up with US seeing HER band without her. So, Kari and I were actually able to live stream the show, and I watched it drinking wine in my pjs :-)  (Khloe fell asleep, though her attempt to stay awake for it was definitely admirable!) We were really excited last summer to see that they were playing the Tall Ships race (all-ages show), but then Khloe got sick at the last minute. Oh the tears :-(

So, this concert was a long time coming for her, which sounds weird, since she's only 8, but....you know :-)  Here are some of her thoughts afterwards: No, it wasn't too loud (she usually doesn't like "loud"); she noticed every song (except the new one) from the very beginning; the new guy has a really good voice too; why doesn't the keyboard player take off his sunglasses (ha ha!); and hmm.....which one is the cutest?? (They're very young so I felt super creepy taking part in THAT conversation, ha ha!) But my favorite comment was "Why did they speak Finnish between songs?" I guess because they sing in English, she just assumed :-)  So, she really didn't know until yesterday that she had a favorite FINNISH band.

So, if I could spread the French Films love, here are a couple of their videos and some pics from the show. You should really check them out. Really...you should! 

Music for Mother's Day

Well, I hadn't really intended to write a Mother's Day post, but since music is literally how my day started, I thought....why not?!

Khloe came into my room this morning with Kenzi's laptop (while the other's were busy upstairs putting a lovely Mother's Day breakfast together). And her job was clearly to wake me up the best way she could. Success! The wake up started with Enter Shikari's "Ghandi, mate, Ghandi" :-D  As calm as it sounds with Ghandi in the title.....it is NOT. But it's our favorite, so it was perfect! So we snuggled up and listened to Rou scream about blindly consuming to support a failing economy until all of our resources are used up. Ha ha....that's just how we do it! DJ Khloe then moved on to a much calmer French Films song....Latter Days. But then it was time for her to help out with breakfast, so the snuggling ended and she left me with the laptop, and put on the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Greatest Hits. She's 8....and she knows how to do it!

In the car, on the way to the Andy Warhol exhibit, we continued with French Films' White Orchid cd. But once inside the exhibit, there was just a continual soundtrack playing in my head. Warhol's relationships with so many musicians were a highlight of the exhibit for me. From the paintings of Mick Jagger to the album cover art of the Velvet Underground to the photographs of Dylan, Lennon and my favorite....Debbie Harry. I had a constant playlist going on in my head: Walk on the Wild Side, Brown Sugar, Heart of Glass. But I had non-stop Cars songs going on too. The Hello Again video where Andy stood in as a bartender is one of my favorite Warhol memories. 

So now, after an amazing day with my awesome family, I'm writing this and listening to an 8tracks playlist that I got by searching "happy" and "indie rock" cuz what better combo is there for a Mother's Day like this?? Closing out my day with Arctic Monkeys, the Black Keys, the Vaccines, Dandy Warhols, the Kooks, Matt and Kim.....and a glass of Flip Flop. Perfect. 

To all my mom friends out there. I wish you an amazing day, filled with your own perfect soundtrack.

Nine Inch Nails

So, Kari and I went to see Nine Inch Nails on Thursday. This is one band I've listened to for over 20 years and have never seen live. I even had (past tense) regret over not seeing them when we lived in California. We went to the second and third Lollapalooza festivals, but we missed the first one, where Trent & co. played. Since NIN's Pretty Hate Machine album was HUGE for me, I always regretted not seeing them then. That regret is long gone now.

I guess it would've still been cool to have seen them at the beginning of Trent's career, but I'm pretty happy with what we got on Thursday! Trent still has so much energy, he's still so intense, and add to it 20 years worth of material we wouldn't have seen back then. So, I'm good!

To be honest, I haven't heard much of the new cd, and he played quite a lot. (Loved the new material.) But my favorites were still there.....The Hand that Feeds, Head Like a Hole, Down in It, Wish. Love them all and they were amazing! And then there's Hurt. So, here's where I have to make a confession. As much as I love music, as passionate and emotional I can get about it, in my 33 years of going to (a lot of!) concerts, I rarely get emotional. Excited? Yes. Absolutely. But emotional? Not really, no. I can remember only a couple of times. But when Trent ended the show with Hurt, it took some time for me to realize that there were tears pouring down my cheeks. I love this song anyway. I loved when Johnny Cash covered it as well (and totally understood when Trent said that, as honored as he was to have him cover it....and he was VERY honored, it was like somebody kissing his girlfriend :-) ). But this is Trent's song and the emotion and rawness of this song live just did me in I guess. That's the only way I think I can explain it. Because I was so wrapped up in it, I didn't even notice I was crying til the end of the song. 

Then the song was over. Band left. Lights came on. And I was wiping my face like crazy!

Song for the weekend

I have a sick munchkin, so not much time to write. Just going to leave you with a song for the weekend.....have a good one

Nirvana

So, I thought that Nirvana would be a great place to get started. Two weeks ago was the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death (my favorite quote about this is from NME: Forget the drugs and the shotgun. It was always about the music.) and then last week Nirvana was inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. So it seems like a no-brainer. 

This post isn't a review or a history lesson. Just a memory. I've been listening to Nirvana most of my adult life. I saw them in a tiny bar in Portland. I remember the first time I ever heard Smells Like Teen Spirit (actually saw the video on Mtv's 120 Minutes). And I remember mourning somebody I didn't even know for the first time when Kurt died. I was sad, I was angry, and I couldn't listen to Nirvana for a long time after that.

Nevermind was absolutely the best album of the 1990's to me. I remember just listening through it the first time with a HUGE smile on my face because it was SO different and so raw, and you knew that this was really something special. (Only one other band/cd has had a similar effect on me: Kings of Leon's debut, Youth and Young Manhood.) And I suppose we're lucky that we have more than just this one cd. There definitely isn't a bad one in the bunch.  But I still can't help but think, on the other hand, how much great music Kurt still had left in him. 

So, the song for the weekend is one of my favorites. I'm pretty good at letting things go, but every single time I listen to this song and hear the words, "and I swear that I don't have a gun," I think......liar. Then I remind myself of NME's quote.