Feb 28 - Ravyn Lenae

We left you in Central Portugal, in Evora, which I've already told you is wonderful and I'm sad I didn't have enough time to really explore it. But there is a reason for it, which is Jewish towns like Csatelo de Vide. I went to Castelo de Vide after high school, on my very first trip to Europe. We only spent one night in Portugal, and it was in Castelo de Vide. And it left such a strong impression that Portugal has been my top place in Europe to visit ever since then. So I don't actually know why it took me so long to get back. But I finally did get back, and took my parents to Castelo de Vide. It's about 2 hours from Evora, and it is also a very old town on a hilltop (although this hilltop is much steeper than Evora). I was a bit disappointed when we got there because the weather was miserable for like the first time on our trip. We were basically in the clouds and exploring the town in the cold and rain and horrible wind. But as the rain subsided (it never went away, just came and went) we were able to see the countryside and town and enjoy the beauty. What I love about it is as you climb up to the old synagogue (the reason we were there) and the castle at the top of the town, you just get these amazing views of both the town itself (which is impressive enough) and the surrounding countryside (which is dotted with similar cute little towns on hills). So we did get to see that and explore a lot of the Jewish history, which is the reason we came. So in the end, I wasn't so disappointed.

The idea was to stop in Marvao after that to see the castle, which is supposed to be one of the best hilltop fortress/castles in Portugal. But it was still terrible weather and hidden in clouds when we got there, so we got out of the car for like 5 minutes and decided not to climb all the way to the top of hte town and see it. We had already climbed a ton in Castelo de Vide, which is super steep, and didn't need to do it again. So we spent like five minutes, then hopped back in the car and took a different route back to Evora to explore a bit more before it got dark. It still wasn't much exploring, but a bit.

The next day was our last day in Portugal and we had two more stops planned. We left early and drove up to Tomar, a town about an hour north of Lisbon, which has the oldest functioning synagogue in Portugal. The synagogue was built in the early 15th century, and then went through a few incarnations while the Jews were expelled, before being donated to the government and turning back into a synagogue in 1921. It's not a normal functioning synagogue, but people can use it when they come. That was the only reason we came to Tomar, but we did take a few more minutes to walk around town and get lunch. And we stopped in the tourist info stand, but there was nothing that sounded more interesting than Sintra, which we decided we'd stop in if we had time. And we did. So we drove down to Sintra, which is the town like half an hour from Lisbon that has all the royal summar palaces. We didn't have very much time, but we did make it to the Pena Palace, which is one of the most famous sights. It's this crazy, colorful castle on top of the tallest mountain in the area. Originally a monastery back in the 15th century I think, it was taken over by the royal family in the 19th century, converted and expanded into their summer palace. The thing looks like a toy, painted in all bright colors and covered in opulent tiles. And inside it's pretty nuts, too. The old sections, especially, which is where the monastery used to be, are beautiful, but the newer parts are pretty standard. There are plenty of awesome palaces to see in Sintra, but that was all we had time for before running back to Lisbon, eating our last dinner, going to bed, and waking up super early to go home. All in all, it was a really great trip!

Also great is this fantastic music that I found yesterday, and so I have to share it. It comes from Ravyn Lenae, a 17-year-old from Chicago. That's right. 17 years old. Crazy. She put out her debut EP, Moon Shoes, back in 2015, and then it was widely released on a Chicago label in 2016, and finally made its way into my ears in 2017. Luckily, cause it's great. Somewhere between SZA and Erykah Badu. I originally heard the title track, Moon Shoes, which I thought was interesting enough to draw me in. But it did not prepare me for what was in store with other songs like Blossom Dearie.




There is so much right about that song, and literally nothing wrong. I love the children speaking in the back, and the percussion and the way she sings the hook. Such a fantastic song. And it doesn't stop there. There's also Sleep Talking, which is similarly fantastic. And if you thought the percussion on that last song was good, this is even better!




And we're still not done! I normally on share two songs by artists, but I'm going to share 3 this time. Because I feel like those first two are more representative of her general sound. But then there's this song Free Room, which is probably her most popular, and maybe also my favorite by her. It's important you listen to the other two first, though, because I think if you listen to this you will be disappointed by the rest. But if you listen to the rest first and then hear this, you will also love this, but recognize it for it's unique sound in her library. So now you can go listen, and you will probably listen to it like 19 times in a row.

Feb 24 - Taylor Bense / Bewilderbeast

We'll see how far I get today. Lately I just have not been in any mood to write. Also it's Friday and I get out of work in 20 minutes. So I can't concentrate on much of anything, let alone work. So I'll try this.

Also, weird thing. It seems my blog has some bot or something reading it. I swear I only ever get 2 or 3 people reading this thing, and recently there's all this traffic from America and I have like 60 - 100 reads on each post. I feel like it has to be a bot because there's no way that many people are interested in reading my verbal diarrhea. But if you are, sorry?

Anyway next stop was Faro. We had originally planned to spend our whole trip in Southern Portugal, doing day trips and seeing Jewish stuff. After going to Faro I'm glad we didn't. The town is cute enough, but there isn't very much to do there and it was pretty deserted. Most people go to this area for the beach, which my family is not so into. We went because it's an old Jewish historical region, and they have a small Jewish museum about the Jews who came back to Portugal in the early 19th century, after having been expelled at the end of the 15th. So in case you didn't know, Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, and then from Portugal in about 1496. I always thought it was at the same time, but apparently not. A bunch of Spanish Jews fled to Portugal, and it was only a few years later when the Portuguese prince wanted to marry the Spanish princess that she made him expel the Jews as well. So a bunch of them went to North Africa and Gibraltar or off to the Americas for the next few hundred years, and only came back around 1820. The first settlements formed in Faro, and they have a small museum and graveyard there, with a really nice old guy who teaches history at the local university and volunteers to watch the place and give tours. It's super small, but if you go, this guy will tell you all kinds of stuff about the history of Jews in Portugal, which is exactly what we wanted. So we did that and left, pretty much. There's a cute old town that we saw also, but it was nothing compared to some of the other ones we saw.

Then it was up to a town called Evora in central-ish Portugal. We chose to stay in this place because it's only a couple hours from Lisbon and from a few other Jewish points of interest, and it sounded really interesting itself. It's an old Roman town on a hill with one of the most complete and oldest aquaducts in Portugal. In fact the apartment we rented was built into the aquaduct and was absolutely gorgeous. Probably the best place we stayed the whole trip. And Evora was awesome too. Everything there is preserved really well, but it's also got some really interesting and unique sights for Portugal. There are old Roman baths and temples in addition to the aquaduct, and they're all stuck right in the middle of the old alleys making up the otherwise typical (and super cute) Portuguese town. Sadly because we were using it as a jumping off point for day trips, we didn't actually spend much time seeing Evora. Not in the daylight anyway. I kind of wish we'd had more time there, but I guess it's just one more reason to go back to Portugal! And since I have to leave work soon, I'll talk about the rest next time.

But before I go, here's some new and upbeat music that should be fitting for a Friday night. Two new and upbeat musics, even! The first one is Can't Wait, the debut single from Taylor Bense, off of his debut EP, Caught Up. The whole EP is pretty fun, but this song caught my attention immediately when I first heard it. Reminded me of Jai Paul a bit, which is always a good thing.




The second one is Severed, off of Bewilderbeast's new album, Unreal_Estate. I've only heard about half the album so far. Sometimes I feel like it's way too electronic and I shouldn't like it, but I still kind of do. This song in particular. And also really upbeat and fun for a Friday!

Feb 22 - Dyan

I've got a bit of time to kill, so figure I may as well write something here. I didn't finish blogging the trip with the parents yet, and of course I've already finished the next trip. I need to get better at this.

Let's see, after we left Seville we drove south with the goal of visiting Gibraltar. Which did happen, but not as scheduled. We were staying in this town called Algeciras, across the harbor from Gibraltar, because everything actually in Gibraltar was super expensive. So we had planned to get in and go spend the afternoon in Gibraltar, but we changed our plans a bit and instead spent the afternoon driving along the south coast to visit a few cities. Our first goal was Zahara de los Atunes, this little middle-of-nowhere town that's famous for tuna. So we ate like an entire tuna and wandered around a bit. The town was completely dead. Apparently everyone leaves and everything closes in winter, and we were just a few weeks too early. But we did manage to have a fantastic meal, which was the goal. Then we drove back along the coast, making our next stop at Baelo Claudio, just up the coast (although it's like a half hour drive because for some reason there's no actual coastal road and you have to go inland). Baelo Claudio is this 2000+ year old Roman town right on the waterfront, that's been extremely well preserved. It's beautifully situated right between the beach and the mountains, so in addition to getting to climb around on some awesome ruins you also get some beautiful views. It was a pretty great stop, and particularly interesting since I really didn't realize the Roman empire extended that far. Our last stop for the evening before coming back to the hotel was in Tarifa, the southernmost point in Spain, just across from Morocco. We went to look across at Africa because we weren't going to Africa (although we did want to. You can do day trips, or hop across to Ceuta, which is on the African continent but part of Spain, and my parents would have gotten a kick out of just saying they were in Africa, but sadly we didn't have much time and it sounded like there was nothing to do in Ceuta so we just looked at Africa instead). My parents still got a kick out of seeing it, and it was actually pretty crazy to be standing there in Spain and looking across to Africa. Plus I really want to go to Morocco, so that was fun for me too. Then it was back to turn in for the night.

This was our busiest part of the trip, so we were up early the next morning to drive into Gibraltar and visit for a few hours. I got it in my head to visit, and we just wanted to go up to the rock and see something Jewish. Sadly the cable car was closed, but you can pay these tourist vans to take you up to the rock and show you around a bit, so we did do that. They stop so you can get views of Africa, which was beautiful even though we'd already seen it yesterday. Plus they stop way up at the top at the actual "Rock of Gibraltar" and let you see the monkeys. One climbed on my mother. Well, they get the monkeys to climb on you if you want, and since my mother made friends with a panda on our last trip, she figured this time she should make friends with a monkey. So she did and let it climb on her head. Then it was back down to the bottom for a quick run back to the car before running out of time on the meter. Sadly that meant we didn't see anything Jewish, but Google also made it seem like there wasn't very much to see. So we were pretty happy with the visit. Also, fun fact about Gibraltar, in order to cross from Spain you have to either walk or drive directly across the airport runway. No bridge or tunnel, literally on the runway. So we did that twice! Then we started the drive back to Portugal, with a stop in Huelva before hitting the border. I was told they're famous for their Iberian ham, so we stopped, had a snack, bought some ham, and kept going to Faro. Which I'll tell you about next time.

For now, it's music. Today's is Dyan, a band who put out their debut album, Looking for Knives, last year. I heard St. James, one of their first singles, and really liked it, so checked out the album and really liked that too.




The band formed after all having worked on various musical projects, including film scores and albums with Jim James and Ray Lamontagne. Pretty good credits, if you ask me. Although this is quite different from any of those. Anyway, really good debut album, so here's one more song from it, Trouble. This song is pretty typical of songs I love. Pretty female vocals, starting out very simply and understated, and just growing and growing to the end, and with those heavy, fuzzy guitars. Love this kind of stuff, if you hadn't already figured it out.

Feb 16 - Elbow / Michael Nau

I don't have much time to write, so I'm just gonna leave a quick couple songs here from an old band a new artist who released albums recently.

First up are Elbow, a British band who have been together for over 20 years and have a ton of albums and awards. And they put out a new album, Little Fictions, this year. The album is nice, nothing amazing. Which is kind of how I've always felt about this band. But I do really like the title track, so here it is. And I only just now realized it's nearly 9 minutes long. Which is surprising cause I've listened a few times. So one more hint that it's good.





And then there's Michael Nau. He put out his debut album, Mowing, last year and it's also really nice (better than Elbow if you ask me), but still nothing amazing. Worth a listen or two, though. I actually really like the new single though, which is not on the album, called Love Survive. At least it's not on the album when I listen on Spotify. But the videos on YouTube all say it is. Odd.

Feb 15 - Bells Atlas

I left off at Seville. We took our car and drove from Lisbon to Seville, which is only a few hours away. I went to Seville after high school, on my first trip to Europe, but honestly I don't really remember it. Which is weird, because it's amazing. It's all these twisty, tiny little alleys, which sounds normal for Europe, I guess, but somehow it's not. It's just beautiful. Honestly I can't even tell you what it is about it that's so different and special, but it is. Just go and visit and see for yourself.

We had like a day and a half there, basically. We rented this apartment, so we just chatted with our host when we got there for a bit, and then went to dinner and a flamenco show. Dinner was maybe one of the best meals I had in Europe, actually. We went to this little Spanish pub that a friend recommended and ate all these things he told us to which we were clueless about, and which were all incredible. There was this thing called pringa which is like stewed minced pork or something grilled in a little sandwich. And then there was this thing called adobo, which is not the same as the Mexican adobo, it's actually pickled, fried shark. And it was incredible. So we ate that and then watched flamenco, which was fun for me, but I've seen it before, so it was really more for my parents. I still loved it, but I'm sure it was a better experience for them.

The next day we had a walking tour around town in the morning with this wonderful free tour. The women just walked us around the city, as free tours do, but it ended up being just us, which was really nice. Especially for my parents who ask a ton of questions. So we took in all the sights, including the lovely Jewish quarter, before going to see the Alcazar. This is the old palace, which is also the location where they film the scenes for Dorne in Game of Thrones, so you may recognize its gardens from the show. It's this amazing palace that's got a ton of Moorish influence, as so many buildings in the area are. It's kind of like the little brother of the Alhambra in Granada. But since we weren't going to Granada, this was excellent. That's pretty much it for Seville. We also had dinner and churros and took in a panoramic view from the terrace on the roof of the mall, but I'm not really in the mood to write so I'm just going to stop now and play you some music.

Today's music comes from Bells Atlas. I found out about this Oakland band when I heard their newest single Spec and Bubble, which seems to be the first single off of an upcoming album. It was a great track, so I went to see what else was out there, and found a self titled album from 2013 and an EP from 2015. And both are fantastic. So I'll just play you one track from each, in chronological order, starting with Rain off of the album.




Great stuff, am I right? A bit of Little Dragon, a bit of Hiatus Kaiyote, a ton of soul. What more could you ask for? Well, more music. So first, go listen to the full self-titled album. This is one of the more laid back tracks, there's other great ones as well, like Incessant Noise. And then there's also Hyperlust, the EP from 2015. Only 4 songs, but 4 good ones. Actually, one of them, Bling, the closing track, is better than good. Better than very good. So listen to it now, then go listen to the whole EP, and then get excited for the next album, like I am.

Feb 13 - Dirty Projectors

I'm in Nanning at the moment, a bit drunk after a work dinner, so I'm not gonna blabber on too long. But I need to share a song. I know I already shared Dirty Projectors last month, but they've released another single, and it is, again, amazing. This one is Cool Your Heart, also off the upcoming eponymous album. I now can not wait for this album to come out. Because there are now two songs I am obsessed with. I actually do just play these two songs on repeat (the other one being Up In Hudson that I blogged about.). They're so good. So so good. It's got me thinking this new album is going to be Dirty Projectors' best, and one of my favorites of the year. Which isn't a stretch since last time they released an album it made it into my top 10. Anyway, listen to this song. So good.

Feb 10 - Sampa The Great / Vagabon / Madeline Kenney

So let's get the blogging of this trip started. You know about SIngapore. And you know everything you need to know about Germany (which is pretty much nothing because I just stayed in my little village all week, except for being taken to another town nearby for dinner one night, and then spending an evening with my friends The Mangs in Munich and seeing my 6 year old best friend Henry who I watched ski at the park nearby and he's really good and we all went to this amazing Afghan restaurant together which was a delicious and new food experience for me.). But after Germany I went and met my parents for a 10 day trip through Portugal and Spain.

We started out in Lisbon. My parents arrived the day before me, but I wanted to see the Mangs so I stayed in Munich one extra night while my parents did some exploring on their own. I arrived in the afternoon, so we just went to dinner and had a wander through the old town, which is very cute. Lisbon is covered in big hills though, which was a bit of a surprise, and was a bit rough on my parents. It was almost like a mini San Francisco. Anyway we wandered around old town and walked up to this restaurant we read about that is run by a circus school. Sadly it was not as cool as it sounded, but it was still nice and had good views. Then I only had one full day in Lisbon, which we spent running around on one of those hop-on-hop-off busses. We went to this part of town called Belem, which is the entry to the bay that Lisbon is on. So there are some old buildings and monuments built alongside the river that used to defend entry to Lisbon. And there's this amazing monastery and church out there, as well as the presidential palace. We also had a fantastic seafood lunch at this little hole in the wall, followed by a pastel de Belem. It's basically a little pie filled with custard and then baked. It's kind of like the egg tarts in Asia (I think it must be what they're based on), but without the egg. I mean, there's egg in it, but the Asian egg tarts have a strong eggy flavor, while these are more just like a custard. You can find it all over Portugal, where they call it pastel de nata, but I guess Belem's is somehow different so they change the name a bit. To me, they all tasted pretty much the same, although the Belem one was definitely the best because it was warm and the crust was super flakey and crispy. Then it was back on the bus to continue the grand tour of Lisbon, with a stop at the tile museum. I think everyone knows that Portugal and Spain are famous for tile, all of which is really amazing. So the museum was also really amazing. Lots of great tiles. I wanted to buy/steal everything I saw. But I have no idea what I would've done with all those tiles if I'd actually bought them. In the end, I just got myself a little tile magnet, which will have to do.

Overall impression of Lisbon after taking the bus all over and seeing everything very, very quickly? Old town is gorgeous, absolutely beautiful and amazing to wander through and just appreciate all the small alleys and views of all the hills and tile work everywhere. The rest of the city, the modern part, is super gross. It's like the city just expanded with no style or thought at all. It's pretty sad. And a lot of it is really run down, also. And there's abandoned buildings everywhere. I'm not sure why, if it's economic or what since they were pretty heavily affected by the recession in 2008, but there are so many abandoned buildings in that city. Actually, a lot of them would make pretty sweet venues for pop-up events or something, though. But I did love the old city. It seems like there's a lot going on under the surface there, there's a buzz and electricity to the city, and I think living there could be really fun. Not that I'll probably ever find out, but anyway it could be fun. So that was Lisbon, and then we picked up our rental car and drove to Seville. Which I'll write about later because that place was awesome and I may write a lot about it.

We're gonna have music from a bunch of ladies today. Because there are some great ladies making some great music out there. So here's 3 very different songs from 3 very different ladies for you.

First up is Sampa The Great, or Sampa for short.  I'm actually not sure how I didn't write about her before. I saw her at Laneway last month, and before going to Laneway I had looked into most of the artists who were playing that I didn't know, and of those artists I didn't previously know, she was the one I was most looking forward to. Born in Zambia and raised in Botswana, Sampa now lives in Australia, which is probably how she ended up at Laneway since it's pretty heavy on the Australian artist roster. Her performance was good, but sadly the sound was not great so she got pretty drowned out by the background music. And there were a million 14 year olds there for some reason, and they were all right next to me jumping around like idiots and continuously running into me. It was very annoying. So I can't say I enjoyed her performance as much as I expected, but it really had nothing to do with her personally. It's too bad, though, because she has some great tracks, like Blue Boss. I love this song. But the performance was slightly ruined by the teenagers, and more so by the fact that the guitar riff, which I love, was totally drowned out by the poorly balanced sound. But it is still a fantastic beat, and at least that was loud and clear.




Sampa has some singles and mixtapes out, but she's still working on the debut album, which I'm very much looking forward to.

Completely switching musical gears, up next is The Embers, by Vagabon. Another African transplant, Vagabon (real name Laetitia Tamko) was born and raised in Cameroon, but has been in the US since high school. Obviously not all African music is the same, but it's interesting to hear just how different the musical directions these ladies chose to go in are. The Embers is off of Vagabon's upcoming depub, Infinite Worlds, due out later this month. It's actually a rework of the song Sharks, from her Persian Garden EP.




And again, we're going to completely change musical directions (and move away from the international transplants) and hear from Madeline Kenney. She put out her first EP, Signals, last year. It's a very good debut, and the title track is my favorite off it.

Feb 3 - Bayonne / Jens Kuross

And yet again, I am sidetracked by new music from old artists. Well, not necessarily old, but not debuting. This time it's Bayonne. His debut album, Primitives, came out last year and made it into my top 10. And he's already busy with new stuff! There was a song called Living Room last year, and then this year he's got another new one called Fallss. And both of them are beautiful extensions of the sound profile he's already created. I'll just put both here, in chronological order, so first we have Living Room.




And now Fallss.




But I'll also play you something new, which is Jens Kuross. He's an LA based Idahoan whose put out one EP and another single, and who's popped up in a few places. The EP is nice, but it's really the new single, We Will Run, that got me. So here it is.