Since I turned 20 last weekend and stole a hotel room, I felt like I have been on a really long acid trip. Tonight’s escapades only confirmed this feeling. After waking up at 12 pm with a hangover I can only blame on my first OK Cupid date(s)…yes, I back to backed…I did my usual deal, went to class, felt sorry for myself, and drank a lot of coffee. But the minute I left the prison I call college I had to have slipped down a rabbit hole.

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On Sunday evening I ventured down to BOSI Contemporary on Orchard St. for my friend Dean Dempsey’s closing party. Dean is a photographer and visual artist. In my opinion, he’s taken the self portrait into a different world entirely, creating stories using primarily empty spaces and himself. Read More

While I was down in Austin at SXSW, Sol Republic hooked it up with a fresh pair of their V8 Sound Engine Tracks headphones. My Urban Ears headphones recently died on me after a long year of wear and tear, and the $20 no-name headphones I bought on a whim really weren’t cutting it for me.  Read More

A few weeks ago, Skrillex spent 5 nights tearing up New York City for the end of The Mothership Tour..which I honestly thought would just go on forever. it was like 6-8 months long. Seriously, the guy played something like 322 shows in 2011. I was fortunate enough to catch the first 3 nights of his NYC invasion at Webster Hall, Pacha, and at an invite only secret event WESC held at the newest addition to nightlife in New York, W.I.P.

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"Bon Rappetite is the world's first hip hop restaurant. Featuring a delicious menu that caters to the ballers. Relax at the bar with a signature cocktail, like the refreshing Long Island Ice-T, or eat so many shrimp you get iodine poisoning in our relaxing dining area. One thing's for sure, you better bring your rappetite.™"

When the Rainforest Cafe just isn’t quite corny and kitchy enough, head on over to Atlanta, GA’s premier “Rap Inspired” restaurant, Bon Rappetite. Appropriately titled, the joint has renamed all of their dishes to embody a legend of hip hop, rap or R&B.

Trying to keep it simple? Order yourself a plate of the “Snoop Doggy Corn Dogs” or a “Drake-on Lettuce & Tomato Sandwich” . If you want to spice things up on a hot date, maybe go for the “Lil Kimchi” or an appetizer of “Olive Tape-Nas”.

Despite a ludicrous menu (no, but really) this place actually looks kind of tasty. ATL readers, can you give it a try for us?

I am a second semester Jr. at Pace University, New York’s most obnoxious private university. We’re not as good as NYU academically, not as aesthetically pleasing as SVA, and our claim to fame is our musical theatre department, which means the majority of my fellow students are the most annoying, loud, and generally overweight assholes you’ve ever met.

That being said, over the winter break, I took a class and came to school fairly often. Between the 24 hour study room and the gym Pace was peaceful, quiet, and actually made me want to study. Today, all of that changed. The main dorm re-opened, and the Ugg Boots, sweatpants, and badly gelled hair shuffled itself back into what I thought was my humble learning abode.

After a nice work out, I head into the cafeteria to get some work done. I sit down, spill my coffee, move over, slap my headphones on and press play on The Promise Ring. Within seconds of opening up my book and hearing the soothing sounds of emo dudes from the 90′s I am interrupted by two grown men playing “The Penis Game” with the phrase “your hat looks like a cotton ball”.

If you are unfamiliar with what “The Penis Game” is, it is when two cretins stare at each other and start saying the word “penis” first in a whisper, eventually escalating to a yell. I’m just like COME THE FUCK ON GUYS. I’m ready to rip off my headphones and burn Bro #1′s stupid hat right in front of him. With the amount of facial hair they’re sporting, these two have to be at least 20 years old. I’m not even 20, and I’m at least adult enough to not have to scream at my buddies over some lukewarm french fries.

Why is it that at no matter what point we reach in our lives, our peers always seem to be barbarians?

To celebrate tonight’s season 2 premier of IFC’s absolutely hilarious sketch show, Portlandia, TTHU is going to be giving away a Portlandia Season 1 Blu-Ray as well as a snazzy Put A Bird On It tee. Read More

2011 was seriously an incredible year for music. I’m a pop punk kid, and I always will be, and this year was the year pop punk, emotional hardcore, punk,  whatever you want to call it came back with a vengeance. I feel like people finally got sick of click tracks and auto tuned lyrics about shaking it, and some quality music began to make its mark again.

PLEASE NOTE: There is no particular order to these records. They all make themselves stand out records for different, but equally great sounding reasons.

Joyce Manor- Joyce Manor

Favorite track: Beach Community

I really like music that tells a story not only lyrically, but also in the way that the sound progresses, songs that feel like they are moving, songs that ebb and flow, swell and crash from verse into chorus.Besides having this perfectly rough vocal that walks the line between yelling and singing, that is what Joyce Manor’s self titled release does for me.

Mansions- Dig Up the Dead

Favorite track: City Don’t Care

 When I used to see Mansions in high school, I somehow pegged him as a wannabe Chris Carraba with an acoustic guitar and a backpack full of self hatred. He is anything but. That backpack is more like a suitcase, and it’s full of all all the hatred he’s got for everyone else. Let’s face it, everyone fucking sucks.

Dig Up The Dead is ten tracks of everything you’ve ever resented in everyone articulated almost too perfectly. When I saw Mansions perform at Piano’s in October, I almost had to leave halfway through the set, because I got so upset hearing him perform….which was everything I was supposed to feel, and everything his performance was supposed to do to me.  Now hows that for Emo?

I Am the Avalanche- Avalanche United

Favorite Track: You’ve got Spiders

I already wrote this record up here, but straight up it is solid and everything you’ve been waiting the past 6 years for. You should listen to it, simply because.

Lemuria – Pebble

Favorite track: Pleaser

I am generally not huge on bands with female vocals, but Lemuria plays on their dueling male/female vocals in a way that that remains playful all while still being punk.

The Front Bottoms- The Front Bottoms

Favorite Track : Swimming Pool

Listening to this record kind of feels like you’re watching a rain soaked teenager peel his clothes off, song by song to reveal an awkward bony kid with pruned fingertips and holey socks. It’s honest, and infectious, and you should listen to it.

Into It. Over It. – Proper

Favorite track: Write it Right

A really solid debut LP from the king of EPs. Evan Weiss tells stories through his songs, and although he mostly tours acoustic, the full band brings so much depth to his music.

Balance And Composure- Separation

Favorite Track: I Tore You Apart In My Head

This record is just solid emotional punk. Its not to heavy, but heavy enough. At first it didn’t stick out to me as a top 10 record, but then I realized how often I listen to it, and how it has made itself the soundtrack to my every day life.

Touché Amoré- Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me

Favorite Track: Condolences

This record is a frontrunner in the resurgence of punk and hardcore  that happened in 2011. It is heavy, it is fast, the songs are short, and MAN it is self loathing. Every song has a handful of quotes you want to scribble on your trapper keeper, as you think about how much everyone in your town fucking sucks. If you could wear out an mp3, I would have worn this record through at least a month ago.

“If you fantasize about your funeral, I understand I’ve been there before.

 If there’s more importance in the music played, than who’d attend, we are the same.”

Little Comets- In Search of Elusive Little Comets

Favorite Track: One Night In October

Little Comets were my favorite surprise of SXSW 2011. They put on performance that warmed me up and out of my hangover, many thanks to their clothesline of percussion. Like many UK  indie pop bands that I love, they drop girls’ names like wildfire, and pine away. Although this is technically a much awaited re-release. I’m countin’ it!

Grouplove- Never Trust A Happy Song

Favorite Track: Tongue Tied

Infectious, bouncy pop that’s just hip enough to be acceptable. Despite having a girl rap in the middle of Tongue Tied, and being incredibly jingly, Never Trust A Happy Song never gets too cheesy.

What are your favorites from last year? Was there anything that I missed?

I am getting good at New Years Resolutions. Last year, I my resolution was to smell like a girl all the time. I have since gone through two bottles of Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume, and always smell like I am edible. This year, I’m trying to take life a little more seriously, and have made two hearty resolutions I plan to stick to:

1) Stop getting DENNIS-ed.

To fully understand the complexities of  The D.E.N.N.I.S. System, see the video above. Every motherfucker I get involved with DENNIS-es the SHIT out of me.

Since I can’t change the fact I apparently love assholes and somehow bring out the worst in every dude I bump nasties with, I have decided to defeat the DENNIS system instead. Maybe I’ll be less of a dumb girl by the time the world ends.

2)Get Off My Goddamn Phone.

I didn’t realize what a serious problem this is until recently. Every time I go out, you know, in social situations with real life human beings, I (as well as my friends) somehow get sucked into Twitter the whole night. This shit is sick. I do NOT need to be texting. Unless it involves me getting some (whilst not getting DENNISed of course), I will, in 2012 put my phone away, open my mouth and talk with my voice, not with my thumbs.

Considering that I have been going to the gym since September, and am in no way quitting smoking, my list of resolutions ends here. What are yours!?