In The Box: Aug/Sept/Oct Newsletter
We're in the homestretch now! If you're reading this, there's a good chance you're coming in from Instagram where I've been posting about my full week of blog posts. If you are, I'd like to say thank you for clicking on this. You don't know how much it means, really! If you're just reading this for fun, I'm giving you a thank you as well. Here's what's been new in my world of music.
First of all, happy Halloween! This should be going up on the 31st. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays in my favorite season. It's also my favorite season musically. There's so much awesome stuff out there that sounds like it was just made for Halloween. Plus, the movies?! I love scary films and also the really stupid Disney Halloween movies. It's all just great. Here's a little list of some songs I've been listening to throughout October:
Maneater- Nelly Furtado
You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween- Muse
Cherry Waves- Deftones
Kool Thing- Sonic Youth
1979- The Smashing Pumpkins
Jennifer's Body- Hole
New Perspective- Panic! At The Disco
Dreams- Fleetwood Mac
Iris- The Goo Goo Dolls
Lorelei- Cocteau Twins
Calypso- Spiderbait
Zombie- The Cranberries
Meet Me on the Equinox- Death Cab for Cutie
Season Of The Witch- Lana Del Rey/Donovan
Pretty Girls Make Graves- The Smiths
We Only Come Out At Night- The Smashing Pumpkins
Pet Sematary- The Ramones
The Horror- Spacehog
Dracula Teeth- The Last Shadow Puppets
Witchy Woman- The Eagles
Anywho, back to business. This newsletter includes August, although at this point I'm feeling like it was so long ago that it's unnecessary to report a whole lot on. The best artists I saw that month were Beck, Phoenix, Jenny Lewis, All Time Low, Stone Temple Pilots, The Smashing Pumpkins, Bon Iver, and Weezer. It was a great final month of summer, and I did go more in depth about All Time Low and Weezer in separate blog posts if you're interested. September was the end of my internship at Hayden Homes Amphitheater which was so sad, but there was still a few great shows that month before it was over. The Goo Goo Dolls, Rick Springfield, The Lumineers, and James Bay all played in September! I want to talk about the Rick Springfield concert because it ended up being one of my favorites of the whole season. I'm sure you're thinking, "Rick Springfield? Wasn't Jessie's Girl all the way back in the 80s? He's gotta be really old now." If you were thinking that, you were correct. But, he's still got it, let me tell you. Every single person in that audience was a middle aged woman absolutely falling apart over Rick Springfield. Honestly, I don't blame them.
Here's what he looks like at 73 years old. Crazy right? He put on an incredible performance in true 80s heartthrob fashion. I'm not super familiar with his music, but I had such a blast. Everyone was so happy to be there and it was a night full of smiles and good memories. Outside of the concerts I was working at, I also saw Bruno Major in September. This was a long-awaited concert! I've loved him since I was in seventh grade. I remember sitting on this giant rock in my school playground with my dollar store headphones and listening to his album A Song For Every Moon. The day itself was a bit bumpy, but the concert was a blast. He played most of my favorite songs! I was able to get a setlist, and a picture of him handing it to me actually ended up on his Instagram. I'll include it here:
How cool is that?! It was such a special moment to look him in eye and see a person who I'd loved for so many years. I'll never forget that. The next big concert of September was of course the Arctic Monkeys. I've written about that one separately as well, but as a short summary, it was one of the coolest nights of my life. They're another band I've loved since my middle school days and have fond memories with. Hearing "Knee Socks" live made me so nostalgic I wanted to cry. My friend and I were about five rows back from the barricade so we were close enough to be able to really look at their faces. Seeing Alex Turner in person was crazy. You can read more of my fangirling in the separate post if you're interested.
Other than those things, September was a very transitionary month with starting my second year of college. I did make an excellent artist discovery though: The Psychedelic Furs. They've been around forever, I know, but I fell in love with them. I knew "Love My Way" prior to that, but that was about it. Something possessed me to just dive deeper into their music, and I think that gut feeling was my intuition telling me I would love them. I adore "Pretty In Pink", "Heartbreak Beat", "Heaven", "Imitation of Christ", "Sister Europe", "President Gas", and "This'll Never Be Like Love" most of all. I'm not even going to talk about how sad it makes me that I didn't get to see them when they came through Eugene. But, I found their album Talk Talk Talk on CD recently and I'm loving it. They were a big part of both September and October for me.
In October, I also got super into Bring Me The Horizon. The real obsession began when I heard their song "AmEN!" featuring Lil Uzi Vert, and let me tell you, I was astonished. It is an incredible song. That led me to discover Lil Uzi Vert's song featuring BMTH called "Werewolf" which then made me realize that BMTH are the kings of transcendent choruses. At this point, I only knew a handful of their songs ("Happy Song", "Sleepwalking", and "Can You Feel My Heart"). This discovery of "AmEN!" led me to go through their discography a bit and I fell in love with the whole That's The Spirit album. Every single song has so much emotion and anger and heartbreak and it's just beautiful. I've enjoyed listening to them so much.
I've also begun to buy concert tickets for next year! Here's my lineup so far: Waterparks 2/27, Madison Beer 6/7, Pierce The Veil + Blink 182 7/13, and Foo Fighters 8/16. You read that right, I'm finally seeing both Pierce The Veil and the Foo Fighters!!! If you've kept up with the newsletters, you'd know I was obsessed with Pierce The Veil at the beginning of 2023. Their new album is incredible and I can't wait to hear the songs live. It is just an opening gig, but it's better than nothing. I guess it's time to brush up on my Blink-182, too. Then of course, the Foos. I don't believe I've talked about it on here before, but one of the deciding factors of me going to school in Bend was the fact that I'd get to see the Foo Fighters and I wouldn't have to drive to Portland. They were scheduled to play at Hayden Homes Amphitheater in October of my freshman year, but it got cancelled because of Taylor Hawkin's death. That was heartbreaking, but I was so freaking sad it was cancelled. For good reason though. What's ironic is that I ended up getting a job at that same venue the following summer. Funny how things align like that. So now I finally get to see them in Portland!
October was filled with many autumn activities and frequent rotation of the songs I listed above (plus tons more, you can find the full playlist on The Music Box Spotify). Some other artists I discovered or frequented this month were Flyleaf, Ethel Cain, Talking Heads, James The Seventh, Twin Temple, and Metric. That was the extent of my end of summer/fall months, they were honestly pretty relaxed activity-wise as I've been focused on school and working. I'd like to give one last thank you to anyone that kept up with my blog posts this week. I worked really hard on everything so it means the world to have support. Thanks for reading!
See you in December,
Cece