Autumn Micketti

I Forget Where We Were, A Review

I first discovered Ben Howard last year when I heard his song Old Pine. I was immediately drawn to his beautiful slightly raspy voice and his gripping lyrics. I was extremely excited when I read that he was going to be releasing a new album this year, I had been patiently listening to Every Kingdom, his first album, waiting until he announced he had a new one on the way.

When I listened to I Forget Where We Were for the first time I was positively shaking with excitement. As soon as the first few notes of Small Things wailed out of my stereo a shiver ran down my spine. I listened to the album a total of four times that day and less than two days later I’ve lost count. It’s hard for me to choose a favorite song from I Forget Where We Were because every song has its own emotion and story that pulls at your heartstrings. The title track feels a bit like an 80’s power ballad but with Howard’s soft crooning and wailing guitar it has the Ben Howard stamp of approval. End Of The Affair is over five minutes long but it’s so worth it. Howard has mastered the art of keeping the listeners on their feet. Starting off with echoing guitar and cello in the background the song, it seems it’s going to stay slow and steady for ever and lulls the listener into a soft sleep full of Ben Howard’s cries about trying to live without this mystery woman. The song continues into a wailing, almost spacey guitar movement, until about 4:45 at which point the drum kicks in and the listener is sitting on the edge of her seat. You can almost feel the guitar undulating through your body and Ben Howard’s echoing cries of “what the hell” are gut wrenching.

Howard’s new album is very different from Every Kingdom, it’s less acoustic guitar and more spacey with echoing electricity. It’s a beautiful piece of work that Howard and his team must be very proud of. I recently got tickets to see him in February of next year and now that I Forget Where We Were has been released I am ecstatic to see him live. This new album is a work of art, each song flows easily into the next. The only bad part of the record is the end. I highly recommend that everyone listen to Ben Howard and support him by purchasing his music and seeing him live if one can afford it.

BEN_HOWARD
©Ben Howard 2014

The Year of Music and Mountains

2014, the year of music and mountains. When the lineup for the Britt Festival came out earlier that year I could barely contain my excitement. This was the first time there was more than just one act that I was excited about and I was determined to see as many shows as I could afford. The festival was opened with Michael Franti’s Soulshine Tour which consisted of Trevor Hall, Soja, Brett Dennen, and Michael Franti and Spearhead. I’ve lost count of the number of Michael Franti shows that I have seen, but watching him perform is always so enjoyable that I have yet to get tired of it. Granted ever since Franti’s song Say Hey (I Love You) got onto the top forty list he has been steering towards a more pop oriented crowd rather than his usual radical hippy crowd. However, He’s still the smiling, dreadlocked, barefooted guy that can make a group of sleeping grannies jump up and shake their booties.

My mum is a huge fan of Brett Dennen and since he was going to be performing only a half hour away from us we couldn’t resist spending the money. Dennen is such a quirky character with his long lanky legs, bright red hair, and unique nasally voice. Watching him sing and twist his tiny hips makes it impossible for you not to smile; he exudes such warmth and sweetness that you just want to run up and give him a big hug. Dennen is a great performer; he gets his audience up and moving. He knows what songs his fans want to hear the most and he’s always ready to give. Seeing him with the Soulshine Tour made me want to see him again on his own tour. With the Soulshine Tour not everyone was there to see Brett Dennen, as I was, and it’s hard to enjoy a concert when a majority of the audience are still sitting down, talking, and eating and not jumping up and down to Wild Child. So, now I have made a vow to see Dennen the next time he’s in my area so that I can share my love of this quirky red head with other people who know and love his music.

The next installment in my musical summer was Amos Lee who I went and saw with my dad at the Britt Festival. The only Amos Lee song I knew at the time was Sweet Pea, and although I had most of his music I had yet to actually listen to a full album before heading out to see him in concert. For all those concert and festival goers I would highly recommend that you do some research before going to see an act that you don’t know. You will enjoy the concert a lot more if you recognize more than one song and you might discover your new favorite band in the process. Even though I didn’t recognize most of the songs Amos Lee was great to see live. He had a really great band supporting him, and he told a lot of funny stories. Black Prairie opened for Amos Lee, and they were quite enjoyable except that I felt they were trying too hard to joke around and connect with their audience and not succeeding. It felt a bit as though I was hanging out with a group friends who knew each other really well and had all these inside jokes that I wasn’t a part of, so it got very old very quickly.

A few days after seeing Amos Lee I went back to the Britt with my dad, my sister, and my friend Raina to see Tedeschi Trucks Band. I was completely blown away by their performance. Derek Trucks is absolutely amazing, his fingers possess magical powers, and Susan Tedeschi has a voice that makes you turn into a puddle of goo, not to mention she is also a killer guitar player. My dad is a huge Tedeschi Trucks fan so I had heard their music while it was playing around the house, but once you’ve seen them live there’s no going back. The band makes great recordings but seeing them live is a whole new thing; you get to see those amazing solos (guitar, piano, and vocal alike) being created before your eyes, which for a musician like myself is extremely inspiring.

I didn’t see anymore live music until the middle of August when I volunteered at the Folks Festival in Lyons, Colorado. Once again I failed to do my research and didn’t look up most of the bands that were performing although I had heard of many of them before. It was a very small festival with only two stages, the main stage and the Wildflower Pavilion, so for three days I enjoyed the folk music bouncing off of the Rocky Mountains. My favorite part of the festival was the Songwriter Showcase. Before the festival thousands of aspiring musicians auditioned so that they could play there. Only ten were chosen and these ten had the honor of playing two songs each on the main stage to officially open the festival. I spent most of the next two days in the Wildflower Pavilion watching these unknown musicians playing their own sets. I was extremely inspired by all of them and I had a chance to speak to several of them afterwards and tell them so.

I was lucky enough to get accepted as a volunteer for the festival and I was really excited that I was posted at the west gate which had access to the backstage area, so I had multiple opportunities to talk to a lot of the artists, including several members of Elephant Revival. The entire festival was well organized, relaxing, and very fun. It was a great location since it’s right on the South St. Vrain river which was helpful since it was in the high 80’s during most of the festival. I did struggle with loneliness while being at the festival. I only worked four hours a day so I had a lot of time on my hands after my shift ended, but looking back I’m glad that it was just me. I had an opportunity to go out of my comfort zone and try to talk to strangers which has always been hard for me. I also think that if I had been with friends I wouldn’t have stayed in the same place watching act after act for so long so it was nice to just sit and listen for hours on end without worrying about where we should go next.

A couple of days after I got back from Colorado I went back to the Britt with my dad to see Peter Frampton. My dad was really excited about this and would randomly spit out bits of information about Frampton and his career. We were also lucky enough to see Buddy Guy who opened for Frampton. It was thrilling to watch these amazing guitarists just mess around and do what they do best. It was also hilarious to watch my dad singing along and play air drums and air guitar.

When September began I went back to Britt with my friend Mimi and my mum to see The Head and The Heart who are one of my favorite bands. Living in a small town like Ashland it’s rare to have a well known band come through town let alone the Rogue Valley, I usually have to commute to Eugene or Portland so when I saw that The Head and The Heart were going to be at Britt I jumped at the opportunity to see them. They did not disappoint at all. They were all very sweet and Mimi and I had a lot of fun watching the bass player who was easily over six feet tall with a big beard and looked like he was gently tip-toeing in place while playing his bass. San Fermin was their opening band. Charlene Kaye as the replacement for their lead singer who had decided to work on her solo act. I had seen Charlene Kaye a few years earlier when she was with her own band so it was cool to see her again. I can’t say that I was a huge fan of San Fermin, some of their music I enjoyed but I didn’t like the male lead singer’s voice and even Charlene Kaye’s voice got on my nerves after awhile. Later I looked up a video of San Fermin with their original lead singer hoping that maybe she would turn me into a fan but no such luck. My favorite part of the entire concert was when one of the lead singers of The Head and The Heart invited a girl from the audience to come up and dance on stage. She was bursting with happiness and the crowd was cheering like crazy for her. As soon as she got on stage and they started playing Lost In My Mind everyone got to their feet and started dancing. That’s one of my favorite things about concerts, sharing the music that gives everyone such happiness.

The finale of my 2014 summer was The Avett Brothers. I cannot put into words how happy it made me to see them. I have been a fan for a long time and I’ve been wanting to see them for years. This was their fourth time performing at the Britt and I had managed to miss their three previous performances much to my disappointment. The worst miss was in 2012 when I was working for the Northwest Youth Corps in Idaho and The Avett Brothers played at the Britt the day before I came home. As soon as they came on stage I was up on my feet with the rest of the crowd cheering and screaming. They played for a solid two and a half hours and I could have watched them play all night. The Avett Brothers didn’t have an opening act which surprised me but was actually a blessing since that meant they were able to play for much longer than usual. Even with The Avett Brothers I realized that I still needed to do research before I came to a show. I was very ignorant in thinking that I knew a large majority of their music when in reality I owned all of their albums but I had only listened to four out of the eleven that they have. So I was slightly embarrassed when I didn’t recognize many of the songs that they performed.

After this amazing summer of music I have made a vow to always do my research before seeing a show. I also have several important tips to give if you want to fully enjoy a concert; bring water and drink lots of it through out the day and the concert, and, do your research!! Make sure your phone is fully charged, bring delicious food with you (if it’s allowed, that is), bring extra layers, talk to the people you’re sharing the venue with, talk to the artists if you see them and they don’t look like they’re pre-occupied, try not to let little things, like people talking really loudly throughout the entire show or drunk people, get in the way. If you have some spending money go to the merchandise booth and spoil yourself (everything is expensive but it shows your support and the merchandise at concerts are always much better than the stuff you’ll find in other places), and above all have fun! Music is a chance to have fun with your favorite band and people you’ve never met before and will probably never see again so take advantage of it.

All pictures are property of Autumn Micketti

What I’m Listening To

I recently came up with the idea to add a new “section” to this blog. Every month I hope to post about the music that I’m currently listening to, and hopefully I’ll be able to spread the word about different musical acts that you may not have heard of.

This month I would like to talk about Bear’s Den. These three lads are from London and are just about to come out with their first full album, Islands. In 2013 they came out with two EP’s: Agape and Without/Within. Bear’s Den are part of the regenerated folk movement that has been sweeping the world and their enthusiastic use of the banjo and their fabulous beards is proof of that. Their songs have that classic English folk feel to them, making the listener think of the lake district and thick fog moving through the bracken and herds of grazing sheep.

bearsdenbandinterview
©Beer with the Band

Bear’s Den is definitely the music that you want to listen to on a crisp fall day or while you sit in front of a fire while it snows outside. Their lyrics are classically folk, very full of meaning yet simple. Many of their songs are more like poems put to music like most folk songs are. In Agape there is quite a lot of banjo throughout the entire EP but with Without/Within it has a bit of a more pop feeling to it with echoing guitar and it even has a spacey feeling to it at some parts. Of course the banjo is still present in songs like Sophie but the rest of the EP is dominated by the guitar.

I’ve been listening to Bear’s Den for quite awhile so I’m very excited to listen to their first full album and I wish them the best of luck in their future musical endeavors.

You can check out their website here.

Arctic Monkeys… aka My New Favorite Band

First off let me say that I am aware that AM came out quite a few months ago and for many loyal Arctic Monkey fans the songs have been ingrained into their minds, hearts, and even skin. I’m a late comer on the Monkey wagon and I did not get my hands on a copy of AM until Christmas, where I proceeded to listen to it on repeat where ever I was, (for any fellow house keepers out there it’s a great album to listen to while cleaning).

I had heard of the Arctic Monkeys a few times while I was making my way through high school. It was the period of my life where I was still searching for that gateway band that would lead me towards the artists that would inspire me to find and make more amazing music. However, the Arctic Monkeys did not hold the key to that hidden gate- I just thought that they had a cool name but never bothered to listen to them and when I did I wasn’t that impressed. I was into the pop stuff that played on the radio. Eventually, a good friend of mine gave me Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, but I still wasn’t ready; I ended up skipping each song whenever it came up on my iTunes.

I finally found my gateway band… or bands I should say. It began with The Avett Brothers, the Decemberists, and too many others to name, which lead to Mumford & Sons. That is where I was able to open up to more bands, more musicians, and more possibilities. The Arctic Monkeys were waiting for me, amps buzzing. The first song I heard from AM was Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? And I fell in love. There’s something about the bass line that I can’t put into words. It’s simple yet sublime. After listening to the song several times I finally realized that the singer, Alex Turner, isn’t talking about someone calling him. He’s talking about himself, and how he can’t stop himself from ringing this girl whenever he’s had a little too much.

That’s another reason why I like this band. A lot of their songs talk about how they drink too much and make stupid decisions, but they aren’t glamorizing it, they are telling it like it is, in a very poetic rock n’roll way. I love that AM moves from hard rock to slow bluesy guitar riffs and then slaps you in face with some more wailing guitar solos. The album constantly keeps you on your toes and makes you wish you were wearing a leather jacket and smoking a cigarette.

The last song, I Wanna Be Yours, made me giggle the first time I heard it. It starts off with Turner describing how he wants to be inanimate objects so that he can do all of these things for his girl, sounds silly at first but when you read the lyrics it’s actually quite sexy. Turner says, “If you like your coffee hot/Let me be your coffee pot/You call the shots babe/I just wanna be yours”. It’s clear his devotion runs deep and he’s not afraid of expressing it.

Much of this album is about a man who needs to know if the woman he loves is actually his. Again, the Arctic Monkeys don’t back away from their insecurities. Many of these songs are asking if this relationship is actually going to happen or if it can be awakened. The Arctic Monkeys are definitely not for everyone. When I was listening to them the other day at a friend’s house her grandma walked in and announced that it sounded like there were two different bands playing at the same time, but she’s in the minority. Overall the album is fantastic and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants some in-your-face rock with clever lyrics.

©Arctic Monkeys 2013

The Wedding Crashers OR Excuse Me While I Go Throw Up

I watched the Wedding Crashers with my friend Emalie while we were in Ireland in April, and afterwards I told myself that I should write something about it when I got home… of course, life got in the way so I’m only now sitting down to talk about this film, for lack of a better word.

First off, let me come clean about something. I don’t like Owen Wilson or Vince Vaughn. I don’t like they’re acting, together or apart, and every film I’ve seen them in I have found myself disgusted by the crass humor that is portrayed. I prefer humor that has some intelligence behind it and causes you think while also making you laugh, (hence why I prefer to watch British television than American). While watching The Wedding Crashers I found myself becoming more and more offended and annoyed rather than uplifted. It was Emalie and I’s ignorance that lead us to popping the dvd in and watching this poor excuse for a film.

For those who don’t know, The Wedding Crashers is about two friends, John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn), who enjoy crashing weddings. They’ve done it for years and are very skilled in the act of fooling everyone that they belong at the reception. The first 10 minutes of the film is a sequence of John and Jeremy drinking, laughing, dancing, talking, and, of course, having sex with bridesmaids. Predictably, 20 minutes in, Wilson’s character meets the girl of his dreams as he crashes her relative’s wedding. Wilson and Vaughn proceed to dig themselves into a deeper and deeper hole as they accompany the wedding party to their private lake house, where many strange and somewhat sickening situations occur, including Vince Vaughn getting a hand job underneath the table at dinner.

Wilson continues to chase after his new crush, Claire Cleary (Rachel McAdams), disregarding the fact that she has a boyfriend (Bradley Cooper). The writers tried desperately to shape a love story between John and Claire, but without success. The two of them go off and have bike rides and walks on the beach, but all John tells her is lies so as not to blow his cover as a wedding crasher. When the reveal happens John and Jeremy are kicked out of the Cleary’s home and then we move into the “friendship breakup” where Jeremy gets pissed off and leaves John to deal with his sad existence. Jeremy decides to marry Claire’s sister Gloria (Isla Fisher), and at the ceremony John shows up and asks Claire to marry him, which she accepts. At this point I was about ready to explode. Claire has only known John for barely a week and the John she knew was a man that does not truly exist. A man who spends his weekends figuring out how to get into weddings so that he can get drunk on free booze and screw women without having to deal with the mess of a real relationship.

I think that the writer’s main problem was choosing a topic that had no plot. There’s nothing more that can be made out of a subject like wedding crashers. They come, they booze, they eat, they have sex, they leave. No woman in her right mind would settle down with someone who was still immature enough to crash weddings. The entire film was a misogynistic fantasy that made me gag. It’s a movie I don’t plan on ever seeing again, and I would not suggest it to my worst enemy.

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou… a zombie?

Vampires, Werewolves, and Zombies, all of these supernatural beings have become more popular over the past few years. The reason? No one is really positive, but we do enjoy creating as many stories around them as possible. For example, the new Zombie comedy, Warm Bodies.

Warm Bodies was released earlier this year, collecting over $20 million at the box office on its opening weekend. The story is simple yet endearing. A zombie, called R (Nicholas Hoult) is unsatisfied with his life as a corpse, and one day, while hunting a pack of humans, he meets Julie (Teresa Palmer) and, predictably, falls in love. R rescues Julie from his zombie friends and keeps her safe before helping her return to the human camp.

While spending time with R, Julie discovers that the corpses have the power to heal themselves, all they need is love. Corny, yes, but also sweet if your a cheese ball like myself.

The film was basic and not particularly thought provoking, though I did find myself laughing many times. When I recognized the Shakespeare reference I had to groan. Leave it to Hollywood to create a zombie version of Romeo and Juliet, is it that difficult to find a less popular plot line or, even better, create a new one?

All things considered I did enjoy Warm Bodies. No thinking was required while watching it, it made me laugh, and I think it could be great for a first date…

Northwest Youth Corps

Being an introvert I’ve never done particularly well with stepping out of my comfort zone. I usually end up backing out at the last second or refuse to give an experience the chance it deserves. Last summer I took a giant step out of my small comfort zone and signed up for the Northwest Youth Corps, and it turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made in my 20 years on this planet.

For those who don’t know, the Northwest Youth Corps is a program based in Eugene, Or. that provides opportunities for young adults to go out into the wild and basically play in the woods and the dirt, (and get paid for it). To use their words, “our core purpose is to provide opportunities for youth and young adults to learn, grow, and experience success.” Check out their website here.

I signed up for the East 2 program which was five weeks long and took place in Idaho. My crew went to three different places during our session. Our first job was re-doing a trail that another crew had made a few sessions before and had not the best job. We hiked in 3 miles and camped for one week near the Idaho Wyoming border (or so I was told that’s where it was, my crew leader liked to keep us guessing as to where we were). Our next project was a two week stay in the Frank Church Wilderness, River of No Return that is located in the middle of Idaho, an absolutely beautiful place. My crew, known as the Blue Crew, hiked 18 miles in one day and spent the 2 weeks clearing out a landslide. This is the place that I released my inner hard core mountain woman, and I’m quite fond of her so she’s not going anywhere. Since Frank Church is a designated wilderness area there are no power tools allowed, so we had to take all of the giant logs and stumps out by hand… it took a long time, and lots and lots of pushing.
Blue Crew’s final project was clearing out a sick forrest and slash piling logs and branches for the forrest service to burn during the winter. (I was never told where this part of our journey was, somewhere in Idaho… I think).

These five weeks influenced my life tremendously. I learned a lot about myself in regards to what I can and cannot do. It also proved to me that really amazing things can and will happen when you take the opportunity to step out of that realm of comfort that you are nested in. Not only did I do amazing things that I never thought I would do, I met some of the most fantastic people who are now some of my best friends.

I highly encourage anyone who feels like they need to get out of their comfort zone, are bored with their current situation, or need a job to sign up for NYC. There are currently some spots open for the East 2 program in Idaho (the one that I did). It’s a tiny bit pricy to sign up but you get all of that money back at the end of session with your paycheck.
Even if this doesn’t seem like something you would want to do, I say try anyway and see what happens, you might surprise yourself.

I had never gone backpacking before and didn’t ever plan on it, but it turns out that I love backpacking! It’s so much fun! It’s also extremely liberating to not be bound by societal norms such as showering every day (I showered three times total during my five week session). You will also meet amazing people from all walks of life. NYC is difficult but extremely satisfying, and who doesn’t want to get paid to live out in the woods for five weeks?

Embrace your inner hard core, badass, mountain person and step out of your comfort zone and into the woods. You can sign up for the program here. 😀

P.S. if you do sign up and are put into Blue Crew 1st: congrats you’ve made it into the best crew there is, and 2nd: let me know because it’s possible that you had the same leader as I did and that’s awesome.

P.P.S Also, if you don’t get into East 2 there are Fall sessions as well which are just as fun.

Screaming for joy

So I’m taking a leaf out of John Green’s book for this post. He recently shared this video of this man who was trekking across Antarctica and had left himself caches of food and supplies at certain points through his journey. This traveler, Aleksander Gamme, has lost nearly 40 pounds and can’t remember what he put in these caches, it’s been so long. While looking through the backpack he finds a bag of Cheese Doodles (no idea what they are, but they sound fun) and basically he screams for joy.

After watching this it made me think of the last time that I let out a shout of happiness (which to be honest, being a quiet person by nature, doesn’t happen very often as I usually scream on the inside). Although, I do remember squealing with glee when I skyped with a friend of mine for the first time in three months after we had spent five weeks together in a tent digging trail for the Northwest Youth Corps… When was the last time that you were so happy you had to let out a shout?

The link for the video is right here. Make sure you put subtitles on, it’s much more enjoyable that way.

My Brain in Prose

Hello all! I’ve been really loving putting my poetry out into the world, so I wanted to let you know that I have a book that I published last year. It’s called My Brain In Prose and it’s a collection of my poetry and short stories that I’ve written over the past year or so. I’d love it if you checked it out. You can buy it at lulu.com or on Amazon.

Thanks for the support!
Autumn

Birthdays

Sure I’ve had some shitty birthdays,
but they’ll never out shit the day I realized I didn’t wear the same size jeans as my friends.

That my body had other plans
even though I wanted to stay flat and shapeless
for the rest of my life.

There are days when things go wrong,
and then there are days where you feel so uncomfortable in
your own skin you want to run away and never look back.
When everyone stares at you because you’re the only girl who has to wear a bra
even though you still think boys have cooties.

Sometimes you wish you could erase all of those embarrassing moments
and paint over that extra fat that you carry around in your shirt.
In the end those shitty birthdays are going to suck, but it could be worse…

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