Oct 25 - Your Friend / LIV

It's only Tuesday, and it has been a very long week. It was a fantastic weekend, though. I met a bunch of new people and made some new friends, which as we all know I've been trying to do lately. And I ate some delicious brunch on Sunday. But then Monday came along and I feel like this week is already kicking my ass. First, I didn't sleep well Sunday night, which never helps. And then Monday was just super busy, as usual. And work is getting in the way of life this week. Which would be fine, if life weren't also getting in the way of life. I have no passport at the moment because I'm renewing my visa, which means of course it's the perfect time for me to lose my debit card. Right? I can't think of a better time. Luckily I will get my passport back tomorrow (but only temporarily), which gives me time to leave work early so that I can go get a new card and buy a train ticket, then go to all these meetings on Thursday before taking a train to Beijing to spend a couple nights. And Saturday I'm flying from Beijing to Wuhan for an afternoon meeting, and then back to Shanghai very late. The plan is to just go out and celebrate Halloween, but I'm pretty sure I'll just be in a really bad mood and come home and pass out. At least I'll get to see friends in Beijing on Friday night.

And in the meantime, at least there's good music. Up first is Your Friend, the moniker of one Ms. Taryn Miller. She put out an EP (Jekyll/Hyde), and then an album (Gumption). The EP is pretty good, and the album isn't bad either. But there is one song in particular which I think is fantastic, and that's Tame One off of the Jekyll/Hyde EP.

And then there's LIV. LIV has just put out their first single, titled Wings of Love. It's a solid track, with a great throwback, soulful sound. But it would not necessarily have caught my attention on its own merits. The reason it has, though, is because LIV is a new supergroup made up of Lykke Li, two of the guys from Miike Snow, Bjorn from Peter Bjorn and John, and some Swedish producer guy named Jeff Bhasker. With a lineup like that, this is definitely something worth paying attention to. There is no album yet, or even an album announced, but I did read an article that says they've made enough content as a band for more than one album. So that's worth looking forward to.