Music Monday | Paramore

who: Hayley Williams, Jeremy Davis, Taylor York

what: American/Alternative rock group

when: 2004 - present

From around 2008 and into 2009, my group of friends and I developed some fascination with rock/alternative/metal music. One of the only band that really stuck with me beyond that "phase" was Paramore, my absolute favourite band to this day. There's nothing particularly recent that sparked this post, but a couple of days ago, I re-watched their performance at the iTunes festival, which was brilliant. Vocals, energy, everything was flawless. It was the kind of performance that covered you up in goosebumps, and made you like the band and appreciate their music, even if you don't listen to it. Hayley Williams' vocals are out of this world! (And she brought a fan up onto the stage to sing with her, and let me tell you, the screams behind this computer screen were real!)

The video I've embedded above is their single, Still Into You, from their latest, self-titled album. Other favourites of mine from the album are Ain't It Fun, Last Hope and Fast In My Car. If you've listened to their previous albums, you'll notice the difference when comparing it to the new album, but it still has a familiar, distinctly 'Paramore sound'. I probably sound like an obsessed freak, which I am, but I just have this incessant need to express my love for them to every Tom, Dick, Harry, Sally, Sarah and Susan. They're that good.

Paramore's links:

official website | twitter | facebook | tumblr | youtube

xo,

Lovely Links | 22.03.14

(image source: tumblr)

• Topshop and Adidas have cleverly collaborated to create Topshop x Adidas Originals, a collection of 20 equally high-street, sporty and fabulous pieces. Currently on sale here.
• As always, my art research has resulted in me finding the most amazing artists/artworks. Billy Kidd had a photography exhibition called Transience, which is composed of photos of dying flowers and nude women. Check it out before simply dismissing it - it's been done so tastefully.
• My 5 year goal right now is to finish high school, move to and study in the England (preferably London). ID Magazine has an interview series of first year fashion students studying all over England, which fuels my imagination with what my life could possibly look like in a couple of years. (I literally die at the thought!) Read them here 1, 2, 3.
• Top 5 songs on my recently played playlist: 

               Fancy (feat. Charli XCX) - Iggy Azalea                             
               Dark Doo Wop - MS MR
               2 On (feat. Schoolboy Q) - Tinashe
               Pluto (Remember You) [feat. Beatenberg] - DJ Clock
               Down (feat. OmArr & T. Coles) - Jaden Smith

• If you follow me on twitter, you might notice that I often post poetry or quotes from poems. Most of which I've recently found on Instagram. My favourite insta-poet has to be Olivia (@ohpoems). She's unbelievably good. Like, I have no words to describe her, she's just out of this world.
• My namesake and blogger friend, Khensani Mohlatlole, has written an article for ItsFashionating.com on my favourite member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, Kendall Jenner, who is blowing up in the modeling world right now. Read that here.
• What most people tend to forget, for all of Miley's antics, is that the girl can sing! I've been loving her cover of Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Rey and Hey Ya by Outkast recently.
• My favourite type of design is brand identity design, and there's nothing I love more than watching my data disintegrate as I browse through identity after identity after identity. The identity I'm currently obsessing over was designed by Anagrama Brand Intelligence Group, for a boutique called Novelty, which you can take a look at here.

I haven't done a Lovely Links post all year, which is a shame because they're my favourite kind of posts. Grade 11 has already battered and bruised me enough to last a life time, and so I don't really have much time for the internet and blogging and a life outside of school. What a bore, right?

I'm in Mpumalanga right now for a little getaway with the fam, during very nearly the only time I've had free this year (mid-term break). I feel like sometimes we all just need to sit back, separate ourselves from our work and lives for at least 24 hours just to reset and refocus. I think this break will do me some much needed good (that is, if I can get past the anxiety of all the things I still need to do once I get back...) Happy Saturday, and to those of you who watch Suits on DSTV, happy Suits Is Back day!

xo,

Woman Crush Wednesday | Iggy Azalea

I've been crazy about Iggy for a while, and I never really made it an official thing, but with the recent release of her Fancy (featuring Charli XCX) video, it seems fitting to do so now. The song is amazing on its own, and then you watch the video - a homage to the classic Clueless movie, with very similar outfits, very similar fluffy pink pen, same exact high school and everything - and you just die at how perfectly they've done it. Iggy plays iconic Cher Horowitz, and Charli XCX plays Tai Frasier. It's such a fun and fabulous throwback, and I'm already-watched-it-seven-times-today obsessed. Apart from the video, can we just acknowledge how insanely gorgeous Iggy is? I die. (I die a lot.)

xo,

Music Monday | Sonnentanz Cover - Will Heard x Cara Delevingne

who: Will Heard, Cara Delevingne and Klangkarussell
what: Cover of Klangkarussel's Sonnentanz
when: August 2013

Crazy talented Will Heard, a British soul singer invited, get this, the crazy beautiful Cara Delevingne to his studio to record an acoustic cover of 'Sonnentanz (Sun Don't Shine)' by Klangkarussell. I don't know about you, but Cara's singing ability came to me as quite a surprise...

Prior to me actually listening to this cover, I'd heard that the supermodel could sing, but with her already having so many great things most of us would kill for (her face, her body, her modeling career, her face), and the ridiculous amounts of non-singing celebrities suddenly pursuing (and failing at) music careers à la Kim Kardashian's Jam, I can't deny that I was a little skeptical. Nevertheless, I finally got around to giving her a try, and she can sing, like, really-and-truly-no-jokes-no-gimmicks SING! The cover is great, and I've played it over a hundred times, but even though I'm obsessed with it, the little pain in my heart hasn't disappeared. I mean, Cara is literally winning at life. She's beautiful, she's talented, she has a job that she seems to love and could most likely cover her bills for the rest of her life, and now she can sing too?! I mean, give me a break.

The original song is by an Austrian electronic music group, Klangkarussell ('Sound Carousel' in English), and has a pretty sick beat. It's not the kind of thing you'd pump your fist to, but it's a sort underground dance track... It's the kinda chill, kinda funky, kinda easy listening type, ya feel? I haven't heard any of Klangkarussell's other songs yet, but by the refreshing sound of this one, it's definitely on my to-do list.

Klangkarussell (Tobias Reiser and Adrian Held)

Klangkarussell's links:

official website | soundcloud | facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube

Will Heard's links:
youtube | soundcloud | facebook | twitter

xo,