Kings Champions Parade!

UNREAL!

Los Angeles Kings 2012 Stanley Cup Champions!!!

I cannot believe I was there.... HISTORY! GO KINGS GO!

Summer 2011 Music

Sorry for the long lapse in time, but there's been so much to do! Lately I have been able to listen to so much new music, it's been really amazing. I just wanted to drop by and let people know of some new albums/bands that they should probably check out. This summer seems to have almost every band I enjoy listening to making a new album or starting a new project which is very exciting!

Here are some bands that you should put on your calendar to check out:

Thrice - Major/Minor 

Can't write a blog without putting my all-time favorite band Thrice into the mix. They just finished recording their 7th studio album entitled Major/Minor and it looks to be a great collection of songs. I've always been so enthralled with every single piece of music this band has made and that is one of the reasons I'll always love them. Be sure to check it out if you like alternative/rock music! Major/Minor is set to be released September 20th of this year.

City and Colour - Little Hell 

I really can't say enough about City and Colour. Dallas Green is such an amazing musician I think everything he puts out is simply golden. The lyrics on this album seem a little more "dark" than usual but I think it has the power to really resonate with anyone. It truly is a great piece of art and I recommend anyone to at least check it out. It's available now! I haven't been able to stop listening to Little Hell since it arrived in the mail. Definitely a acoustic/folky connoisseurs delight!

The Dear Hunter - The Color Spectrum

Well frontman Casey from The Dear Hunter never ceases to amaze me. He recorded a concept album after all of the colors of the rainbow (ROYGBIV), including black and white this past year after traveling across the country in a van with his girlfriend and dog. There are about 36 songs in total for the entire color spectrum. Four songs on each EP for each color. The entire album collection will not be available until Tuesday, June 14th, however, I've already gotten an early preview of the songs due to a bundle package I picked up the other day in anticipation for their concert that I'll be attending in Pomona in August. It's been a great treat to see just how big this whole concept has really been. Writing about ten songs is tough enough, I can only imagine the amount of time this whole thing needed in order to be put together. I truly can't wait for this album to come out and I think everyone should check it out and take a gander at an amazing band at The Dear Hunter!

Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys

Death Cab for Cutie has always been a group that has pushed the envelope and have always made amazing music in the process. Codes and Keys is no different, with great songs such as You Are A Tourist and Unobstructed Views you can see that they didn't want to have songs centered around solely guitars and in the end, came out with a great product that Death Cab has become known for. I can't wait to check them out in concert for the first time in August at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Should be a grand time. Be sure to check out Codes and Keys which already available if you haven't done so.


See you guys later!

IM


Playlist: 
Little Hell (Album) by City and Colour
The Color Specturm (Album) by The Dear Hunter
Headlong into the Abyss by We Are Augustines

The Great Northwest!

Well here are a few pictures from past events... I know I haven't kept this blog going too strong but I'm hoping I will remedy that soon enough. In the meantime, this past year I've reflected much and I feel that this might actually be my last year in Los Angeles. One can only hope! That and I will applying to graduate schools soon as well, which might make me move somewhere new. I really would like to move out and go somewhere very different. I am really thinking about moving to the Northwest, and since I've named this blog "The Sun Is In The North" I think it would be a perfect move! :)

Downtown LA

My Birthday Cupcakes

500 Days of Summer

Bradbury Builing

Thrice Concert

Rose 

Until next time... 

-Isaac 

Current Playlist:

The Beatles (all albums on shuffle)

Brand New - Deja Entendu (album)

Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More (album) 

Greetings from Indio, CA!

Sorry for being MIA for the last few weeks! I've been working lots... we all need to pay bills. Any-who, I've had some awesome adventures these last few weeks so I'll be sure to include some pictures onto this thing for everyone to gaze and see. I've had the chance to see some good shows as well from the likes of Manchester Orchestra and The Temper Trap. Great bands and seeing them live was awesome! I even got a chance to attend a taping to Jimmy Kimmel Live this last week which was pretty fun.

New restaurants! I went last month to the Father's Office in Santa Monica, CA. which is like a gastropub with lots of alcohol to choose from. Being a non-alcoholic drinker myself I pretty much went there to get the low down on the burger there. Rumor has it, they have one of the best burgers in Los Angeles, so ideally it would be a great place to visit and see what the fuss is all about.

The Father's Office burger! Viola! Well it was a very good burger, seemed a bit small when I first got it but it is definitely very filling. The burger is made fresh to order and I had mine cooked well done as I always like it (I am not trying to get any salmonella). Very greasy which obviously after being at a bar until like 2am it will taste amazing. Being in there sober and just enjoying the atmosphere I quickly got full and left with the notion that the burger was good, but definitely not great. It's a great place to drink, bad part is that it is very difficult to find a seat in this small lounge (one small room) area. Parking is also difficult as one must look through the streets to find a place. It definitely wasn't a cheap burger by any means either. Overall I give Father's Office a rating of: B-

Well as promised, here are some pictures of some of my other adventures from the past month or so.... Enjoy!

-IM

Playlist: 


Rest by The Temper Trap

Many of Horror by Biffy Clyro

In My Teeth by Manchester Orchestra

Guest Blog: Best Albums of 2009!

So since I wanted to have a bigger and broader scope of music that compiled some of the best albums of the year, I had my good friend Sanjeev Chahal make a list for me of some of the best stuff. He was kind enough to take time out from his busy schedule and make a pretty awesome list! So check it out, here are some of the best albums of 2009:

1. Lady Gaga-Fame Monster
2. Chris Brown-Graffiti
3. Pet Shop Boys-Yes
4. Cursive-Mama, I'm Swollen
5. MSTRKRFT-Fist of God
6. Owl City-Ocean Eyes
7. Muse-The Resistance
8. Cobra Starship-Hot Mess
9. The XX-XX
10. Michael Buble-Crazy Love


Awesome stuff! If you haven't checked them out do yourself a favor and look into them for sure. And a huge thanks goes out to Sanjeev for helping out with the compilation! Woo =) 


Be Well...


-Isaac 

Top Albums of 2009!

Since I recently have been reading several articles that compile the year's best music, I decided that I would take a crack at some of my favorite albums for this past year. Looking back on my playlist and the songs that I have compiled onto my itunes, I can see that it was a good year with good music. Some of my favorite bands also released new albums this year, which have definitely made my top list, while others came really out of nowhere to claim their place. I must warn everyone, however, that this is really my own list and in no way is supposed to compile an actual list of the best. Because, let's be honest... I really do not have the time or money to go through every single album that was made this past year! I am also keeping this to one genre as well, which will evidently be alternative/rock since that is what I usually listen to. With that being said; it was a very difficult task to look up my favorite/best albums for the year. Doing some research I actually found out that some awesome albums that would have definitely been on the list were not released this year but in fact last year or even later! So I tried my best to look for albums from this year only. I've included one EP on the list as well, simply because... well, it's good.

And now to not stall any further, here are my top albums for 2009:

(In no particular order)

Brand New - Daisy

Death Cab for Cutie - The Open Door EP

Manchester Orchestra - Mean Everything To Nothing

The Dear Hunter - Act III: Life and Death

Thrice - Beggars

Russian Circles - Geneva 

Silversun Pickups - Swoon




There you have them! Some honorable mentions that should also be looked into though are as follows:

Mutemath - Armistice

Kevin Devine - Brother's Blood

As Tall As Lions - You Can't Take It With You


Mat Kearney - City of Black & White 

Those are definitely some bands to know for next year as well, so keep them on your radar because they are good up and coming artists. Hope everyone enjoys my top albums, I'm sure I left plenty out there for debate but as I stated earlier, I don't have time to listen to everything!

 Signed Beggars vinyl by Thrice