Kristen’s 2011 Mix – Track 7 – Kill The Alarm

7. “Not An Addict” (K’s Choice Cover) – Kill The Alarm

2011 marks the first year I saw Garen Gueyikian/Granian/Kill the Alarm play acoustic since my Bryn Mawr days at The Point. He came out to LA and played Room 5 and I was transported to a completely different time and place; one in which my happiest memories exist.  It’s difficult to describe how much this LA visit meant to me. Kill the Alarm released two EPs this year including a collection of covers which included “Not An Addict”, one of my fave tunes from the 90s, originally by K’s Choice.

~Kristen

Do You Know: Kill The Alarm?

I would call this a new band love post expect I’ve been following the music of Garen Gueyikian since 2004 when he’d frequent The Point in Bryn Mawr, PA. Back then he would go by the name Granian. He had just released a CD, On My Own Two Feet. Songs like “My Voice” and “Contagious” really spoke to me and his live shows never failed to captivate, as each show seemed to offer a fresh perspective on the songs I quickly came to know and love.

In 2006, Garen started playing under the name Kill the Alarm. Kill the Alarm released Fire Away the next year and I was thrilled to add more tunes to my collection, which by this point included several CDs and EPs dating back to 1996.

Being based in NYC, I haven’t seen (or really heard much from) Garen or Kill the Alarm since I moved out to California. But TODAY, I discovered that Kill the Alarm not only has a new EP in the works, but has, for download, a collection of cover songs including the K’s Choice tune “Not An Addict” (LOVE!). I am very happy right now listening to this tune as well as my old Garen faves, so of course I needed to share!

Go check out Kill the Alarm and download The Covers today!

I’d also recommend getting that old Granian gem, “On My Own Two Feet”

 

Listen and LOVE!

 

~ Kristen

 

Garen really kills the guitar on this one:

Fifteen Albums…

Someone posted this on facebook. I like doing these little quiz-type things, but I rarely post them. This one really got me thinking so I thought I’d go the extra mile. Here are the directions:

Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen albums you’ve heard that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.Tag fifteen friends, including me because I’m interested in seeing what albums my friends choose. To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, click “Write a note”, paste title and rules in…

And after the appropriate 15 minutes, here was what I came up with:

  1. Joe Firstman- War of Women   01 Introduction to _The War Of Women
  2. Sarah McLachlan – Mirrorball Building a Mystery
  3. Dido- No Angel All You Want
  4. Andrew Lloyd Webber- The Phantom of the Opera Soundtrack The Phantom of the Opera
  5. Jewel- Spirit Jupiter
  6. Carole King- Tapestry So Far Away
  7. Love Actually Soundtrack God Only Knows
  8. Alanis Morrisette- MTV Unplugged Head Over Feet
  9. Veronica Mars Soundtrack We Used To Be Friends- The Dandy Warhols
  10. Granian- On My Own Two Feet Contagious
  11. Carly Simon – Coming Around Again As Time Goes By
  12. Maroon 5- Songs About Jane The Sun
  13. Teitur – Poetry & Airplanes Rough Around the Edges
  14. Moulin Rouge Soundtrack Elephant Love Medley
  15. Ally McBeal: For Once In My Life featuring Vonda Shepard You’re the First, the Last, My Everything

Honestly, I surprised myself with some of the answers. I was thinking of entire albums and not just favorite songs or favorite bands (most of which didn’t even make the list!). Also, the thing all fifteen of my choices have in common is that the entire album is strongly linked to something in my life…a place, a time, an event, etc. As a result, most of them are from my past…when I actually listened to entire albums obsessively and before the majority of my music came in its live form.

I’ll never forget, for example, listening to The Veronica Mars Soundtrack in my car quite heavily the last few months of college…or having Sarah McLachlan’s “Surfacing” on repeat while getting lost in Washington DC on a Girl Scout trip…or listening to Jewel’s “Spirit” while playing Pokemon on my Gameboy. Then, of course, there is the album I listen to whenever I am deeply upset because it can be the only thing that makes me feel okay (that would be Joe Firstman’s “War of Women”, also strongly connected to what I still consider to be the best day of my life).

I could go on, but all of these albums make me feel something above and beyond the music itself. I’m sure it’s that nostalgic link that will keep these albums firmly implanted in my brain for years to come.

~ Kristen