So I blogged just a bit ago about Austin’s Saints of Valory, who are quickly becoming my favorite new find of 2011.
Yesterday, they released a new EP with two new songs. This song, “Neon Eyes,” is on it. If you know me at all, you know that I cannot resist a good clapping song. This is going to be my summer song….forever. I LOVE IT.
Happy Friday, people.
P.S. The EP is a whopping $5. For the cost of a Guinness, you can own this marvelous little piece of music. Will be the best $5 you spend all weekend.
This was posted last week on BalconyTV Brisbane. The fella’s name is Matt Crowley. He has no music to purchase, and no website to speak of, so I’m left watching this video over and over and stalking his SoundCloud page waiting for the songs he promises at the end to be posted.
Matt Crowley, if you somehow see this, I will gladly pay you to have a copy of this song! I LOVE it!
There’s really no sense in trying to sweeten it – I’ve probably put on 30 pounds since my birthday last year. The last 10 months of my life have been upside down crazy. I can come up with any number of excuses for being lazy: Mom got her cancer diagnosis, and I was preoccupied with her care. I started working mad numbers of hours. I was depressed about everything. Those are all true statements.
But it doesn’t change the fact that I just stopped any kind of physical activity altogether and started eating terribly.
But, I’m going to fix it. Going to get back to running. Improve my diet. Starting now.
I do better with motivation, a reason, a sense of purpose, whatever you want to call it. So this morning, I signed up for my sixth half-marathon – November 5th. I haven’t run in months, and I know I’m going to have to work extra hard to get back to where I was, but I need to do it. Because I hate looking at myself in the mirror right now – and that’s a reason to do this. Plus, it cost me nearly $100 bucks to register. And that’s big motivation for me – there’s no way I’ll let $100 go to waste!
Somehow, writing this out validates my need to do this even more, and makes me accountable to those people that read my blog.
Of course, I can’t do anything without rewarding myself. And running is inextricably linked to music for me. I cannot run a foot without music in my ears. So I signed up for a Rock n’ Roll race. A band at every mile along the course – hello reward! I’ve done three of them before, and they’re really well organized and a ton of fun. And when I ran San Antonio, some band along the course was covering Will Hoge. If that’s not awesome, I don’t know what is!
The half-marathon may only be 13.1 miles, but it’s going to be a long road getting there. I’ve got a little over 23 weeks – 163 days in total. My journey starts now.
How can you not love a band willing to get doused with a vat of Pepto Bismol in the name of band PR?
One of the JrzyGyrl blog favorites, Son of a Bad Man, is getting some spotlight time again. Since I’ve rambled on and on and on about them previously, I won’t spend a lot of time going through the details. I’ll just ask of you…
I was lucky enough to get an advance preview of this song back in November, and it literally spent two months in my #1 song spot. According to my iPod, I listened to it something like 72 times the first week I had it. It’s an earworm you’re gonna love…trust me. 🙂
Easily one of the best purchases I've made this year, Saints of Valory's The Bright Lights.
One of the ways I hear a lot of new music is just by watching what bands I love are listening to, other bands that they promote, and bands with whom they tour. Probably a good 50% of my “new in rotation” music is found this way. Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a handful of my favorite Texas bands talking about a band called Saints of Valory. Regrettably, it took me until now to listen to them.
Holy crap, what have I been missing?
This Austin-based quartet is the real deal. With super international influence bleeding through from its well-traveled, multi-national band members (Brazilian, French man, American and Canadian), Saints of Valory’s debut record The Bright Lights is just great modern rock n’ roll – it’s not indie hipster kid stuff, but real, guitar-centered, melody-driven rock. All the band members have worked producing music in the past, and one did scoring for films, and that experience shines through in the sheer quality of the music. If you like Kings of Leon, Coldplay, and Alpha Rev, you should check this band out because you’re bound to find something you love on this record. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the only record I’ve listened to for the past week – I’ve played nothing else since I bought it.
Seriously crushing on them right now. In a big, big way.
The band has been around since 2008 where they got together in Atlanta, although they say that they all sort of met in Rio. A trip to SXSW inspired their fairly recent move to Austin, and now they are firing on eight cylinders. I encourage you to check out the Vivogig Podcast interviewing Saints of Valory at SXSW. It’s chock full of great info on the band, including who Valory is (a real person, actually), and most of all, it showcases their true passion for music…it’s inspiring to hear musicians who talk about loving music for music’s sake.
And if you’re a more visceral person, just watch this video of the record’s title track from the fine folks at Do512, Austin’s hippest little social happenings group. Then go buy yourself The Bright Lights.
jrzygyrl.com 