THE M:M MUSIC TEAM (LOTR): Crystal Ann Lea, Meg MacDonald, Rene Magallon
FEATURED ARTISTS
Bastille
"Quarter Past Midnight"
Passenger
"Hell or High Water"
Amy Shark
"I Said Hi"
Xavier Rudd
"Walk Away"
Mt. Joy
"Silver Lining"
William Prince
"Breathless"
I miss looking at the calendar in May and anticipating summer vacation. Adults don’t get summer off and no one told me that when I was growing up. If they had, I would’ve just stopped.
I still love the long hot days, but I’m inside for all of them and cutting work isn’t as easy as cutting school used to be. Even if I could play hooky, to whom would I call in sick (and why does using correct grammar make me sound like I’m 100 years old?).
So, while the 21-and-under crowd enjoys three solid months off, what do the rest of us get? Not much.
May – A three-day-weekend with Memorial Day.
June – Is a complete waste of four weeks. Nothing happens other than receiving a ton of wedding invitations from friends’ kids making me feel A). old and B). creative as I come up with new and clever excuses on why I can’t make it. It should be noted that the most associated phrases with this month are “June Bride” and “June Gloom.” That can’t be a coincidence.
July – We get the 4th and our entire industry finds patriotism we never knew we had that requires at least a four-day weekend. This year the 4th falls on a Wednesday, so I’m guessing we’ll end up with a five-day weekend.
August – Brings us the Boulder convention. While it’s great to see everyone and the music is always stellar, it’s still working in a place with no oxygen and I get a nosebleed at least once every year. Edibles don’t prevent them but they do make them funny.
September – Offers us a free Monday, but all Labor Day does is lure us into a false sense of security, setting us up for the most disappointing month of the year….October.
October – Is the ugly, itchy Christmas sweater the grandma you didn’t like gave you each year. We lose daylight hours and “rise and shine” becomes “rise and find a flashlight.” It gets colder and we have to endure a night where every dog and cat loses their mind (and hair) over non-stop doorbell ringing and sticky children shrieking for candy.
November and December – The months I most anticipate. Starting on January 2, I have my eyes fixed on the months that give us Thanksgiving, Christmas, a combined three weeks of no charts, no music calls and silent phones.
These are also the months where, after a year of work with no break other than weekends, I’m so tired I become the person who searches the car for my phone using my phone as a flashlight.
I do still miss having three months in the summer off, riding bikes with my friends, swimming all day and selling lemonade on the corner. But, the three weeks off for the holidays I get as an adult have their own perks as well. While I don’t swim all day or ride bikes in LA traffic, the lemonade now has vodka in it, so that’s something.
“Let’s kick off summer with a holiday weekend that isn’t warm enough for summer activities.”
– Someecards
Wild Child
“Wilson takes control with the punchy, Sarah Bareilles-styled ‘Back and Forth.’” – Austin Chronicle
“Standout track ‘Back and Forth’ features an impressive vocal performance by [Kelsey] Wilson, interesting choral interjections by her backing band, and a foot-tapping brass section.” – Pop Matters
Decemberists
“The Decemberists make the album of their lives with I’ll Be Your Girl”
– PASTE
“A newly invigorated Decemberists” – RELIX
“Absorbing… The Decemberists know how to seize the day” – MOJO
Bastille
“an enticing glimpse into the band’s future” – Red Brick
“euphoric” – NME
“it is, as they say, a tune” – Billboard
Rayland Baxter
“an impeccable breakout” – Stereogum
“big, psych-jangle production and cynically humorous lyrics”
– American Songwriter
“close to perfect” – NPR
