new love.

Kings of Leon!!!

I stumbled across them on the United Kingdom iTunes store, and I am loving their music. Something I like to do every now and then is search around the iTunes stores of other countries. If you're on iTunes, there's a little place at the bottom of the main screen that tells you which store you're at (i.e. "United States") and you can choose to go to a different one. I always find it interesting to look at what songs/artists are popular in other countries...there are albums that have been released over there that haven't been here, that kind of thing. And personally, I think the United States is lacking in the ability to appreciate good music (for the most part). Back to Kings of Leon- I had heard of them, but not heard any of their music. I'm glad that the UK seemingly has an appreciation for good southern rock. Well, Kings of Leon is at least southern rock-ish (the UK store classifies them as "American Southern Rock")...I might not entirely classify them as that. Alternative/southern rock. Whatever. I like that half the band is from Tennessee. My favorite songs by them right now are "Fans," and "Sex On Fire." The latter is only released as a single right now but will be on their album that's set to be released on Sept. 23rd...this Tuesday! sweet. I really love the lead singer's voice, too. All the songs on their myspace page are good and they have some good live videos on youtube that are worth watching.

Speaking of youtube, I have a channel that I save all my favorite videos on and you can check them out at www.youtube.com/aubsmiles03.

So I also saw on iTunes that Jessica Simpson has gone country...bahahahaha. I am not a fan of Jessica Simpson. I always feel like her vocal chords have to be in agony when she is singing, it sounds like it takes so much work for her to wail the way she does. It's like...just quit while you're ahead. I'm aware there are some very talented country musicians, so I'm not saying this is the case all the time. but sometimes it seems like the country music genre is a popular back up plan for when artists aren't received well anywhere else. Country or children's music. Haha. I guess it's just the way everyone tries to dabble in everything else, which is fine I suppose. Country music artists try to go pop, vice versa, they all cover each others' songs, yada yada yada. I digress.

Well, to end this, here's my "recently downloaded" playlist for the week...fyi. :)

1. "Fans" by Kings of Leon (love this one!)
2. "Second Chance" by Shinedown
3. "Flying High" by Jem
4. "Swingset Chain" by Loquat
5. "Rise Above This" by Seether
6. "Take On Me" by a-ha ...I've been watching too much "I Love the 80's" on vh1, and I was surprisingly lacking this song on my ipod 80's playlist
7. "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" by Pearl Jam
8. "Finding Me" by Vertical Horizon
9. "My Name is Trouble" by Nightmare of You
10. "Better Than Me" by Hinder
11. "Rattlesnakes" by Tori Amos
12. "Wreckage" by Ben Jelen