1. Although The Beatles broke up 25 years ago, they continue to sell more records each year than the Rolling Stones.
2.Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain were all 27 years old when they died.
3. When a record company executive first met the band Pink Floyd he asked them ’’Which one’s Pink?’’
4. Jimi Hendrix was thrown out of high school for holding the hand of a white girl in class.
5. The band ’’Lynyrd Skynyrd’’ took their name from their gym teacher, Leonard Skinner. Skinner had given some of the band members a hard time in school because of their long hair.
6. Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols died in February, 1979 from an overdose of heroin that was bought for him by his mother, who was present when he injected it.
7. Eric Clapton was born to an unwed mother. To shield him from the shame, Eric grew up believing that his grandparents were his parents and his mother was his sister.
8. When Pink Floyd played in front of a large lake at the Crystal Palace Bowl in London in 1970, they played so loud that a number of fish were killed.
9. Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham died of alcohol overdose. It is said that he downed 18 bottles of whisky before he passed away in his sleep.
10. British singer-songwriter Robbie Williams was scared to death one night of a prowler and had to call the police. The prowler was Courtney Love, drunk and banging on the door asking for a sexual favour.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
The Beauty of Last.fm, Leading Us to the Beauty of An Horse
As you can tell, I'm quite the music fan. One of the greatest discoveries I've made as a music lover is Last.fm. Last.fm is a UK-based Internet radio and music community website. It has over 30 million active users based in more than 200 countries. Any musician can make his/her own last.fm to get their music out to the masses, giving music fans millions of artists to sample. It also creates a medium in which artists and fans can communicate directly. I'll never forget when Jonas Jonsson of Bedroom Eyes [the most quality and most treasured gift Last.fm has given/will ever give me] wrote on my page saying thanks for eagerly supporting his music.
Free downloads are also available on Last.fm. Although it can be a pain to sort through the innumberable options, it's well worth it when you discover gems such as Dylan Mondegreen's "Girl In Grass".
Last.fm also connects to your iTunes lubrary and "scrobbles", or records all of the songs that you listen to, which are shown on your profile. It tabulates and orders the artists and songs you listen to, which aids the site itself in suggest new music/events to you. My favorite feature, and the most useful to me, is the pop-up info for each band. As you listen to songs on your computer, you can read biographies and discographies of the band you're listening to, as well as check out a list of similar artists. This similar artists list has opened more doors for me than you can imagine.
...Which leads me to An Horse. One day, I was listening to "Speak Slow" by Tegan and Sara for the 3rd time in a row [that song is my #1 most listened to song on my last.fm...surpise!] and I looked at the info page. There I found under similar artists...another gem...An Horse!
An Horse and Tegan and Sara sound unbelieveably similar; and if they both weren't so darn good I'd criticize them for it. But alas, they are great so I refuse to comment negatively. Ironically, Tegan and Sara met Kate Cooper of An Horse in Australia after playing a show in the record store where she worked. Tegan and Sara and An Horse played together at several Australian shows, and thereafter An Horse was invited along for Tegan and Sara's US tour. An Horse began as a side project of Kate Cooper and Damon Cox, both who were in bands at the time of An Horse's conception [Iron On and Intercooler, respectively], however, it has sprouted into something much more than that. Following their tour in the United States, An Horse has gained quite a bit of popularity in the indie folk/pop scene.
"Camp Out" is definetly one of my favorite songs of theirs. It's catchy and fun, but has actual meaning and relevance towards their audience. It's being confused about love, whether you want to settle down or not, and finding out in the process exactly what love isn't. It's about being twentysomething and not feeling guilty about just wanting to fool around. It's not regretting all of them, because we'd "do it all again, just to get where I am". It's about being experienced in love and loss: "Cause it's okay to fall down, It's okay to crumble, I've seen this before." But the song also acknowledges the speakers need/underlying desire to move on from this and become adults; realizing that last year's fun ("...at this point of the last year I am happy to just be alive"), although it brought initial happiness, is empty, and we all need to find true happiness. This is one of the big reasons I love An Horse. Their lyrics have meaning. Their songs aren't just catchy melodies to sing along with; although they could be if that's what you're looking for. It's when you really listen to it that you realize all of the information tucked into the short, sweet lyrics. Where artists such as Bright Eyes slow/strip things down to make you pay attention to Oberst's message, An Horse makes you want to delve deeper and find out what's going on in the mind of Kate Cooper.
And you probably thought from reading the title that this post would make no sense. But you see, I'm quite good at tangents. They're my specialty.
Free downloads are also available on Last.fm. Although it can be a pain to sort through the innumberable options, it's well worth it when you discover gems such as Dylan Mondegreen's "Girl In Grass".
Last.fm also connects to your iTunes lubrary and "scrobbles", or records all of the songs that you listen to, which are shown on your profile. It tabulates and orders the artists and songs you listen to, which aids the site itself in suggest new music/events to you. My favorite feature, and the most useful to me, is the pop-up info for each band. As you listen to songs on your computer, you can read biographies and discographies of the band you're listening to, as well as check out a list of similar artists. This similar artists list has opened more doors for me than you can imagine.
...Which leads me to An Horse. One day, I was listening to "Speak Slow" by Tegan and Sara for the 3rd time in a row [that song is my #1 most listened to song on my last.fm...surpise!] and I looked at the info page. There I found under similar artists...another gem...An Horse!
An Horse and Tegan and Sara sound unbelieveably similar; and if they both weren't so darn good I'd criticize them for it. But alas, they are great so I refuse to comment negatively. Ironically, Tegan and Sara met Kate Cooper of An Horse in Australia after playing a show in the record store where she worked. Tegan and Sara and An Horse played together at several Australian shows, and thereafter An Horse was invited along for Tegan and Sara's US tour. An Horse began as a side project of Kate Cooper and Damon Cox, both who were in bands at the time of An Horse's conception [Iron On and Intercooler, respectively], however, it has sprouted into something much more than that. Following their tour in the United States, An Horse has gained quite a bit of popularity in the indie folk/pop scene.
"Camp Out" is definetly one of my favorite songs of theirs. It's catchy and fun, but has actual meaning and relevance towards their audience. It's being confused about love, whether you want to settle down or not, and finding out in the process exactly what love isn't. It's about being twentysomething and not feeling guilty about just wanting to fool around. It's not regretting all of them, because we'd "do it all again, just to get where I am". It's about being experienced in love and loss: "Cause it's okay to fall down, It's okay to crumble, I've seen this before." But the song also acknowledges the speakers need/underlying desire to move on from this and become adults; realizing that last year's fun ("...at this point of the last year I am happy to just be alive"), although it brought initial happiness, is empty, and we all need to find true happiness. This is one of the big reasons I love An Horse. Their lyrics have meaning. Their songs aren't just catchy melodies to sing along with; although they could be if that's what you're looking for. It's when you really listen to it that you realize all of the information tucked into the short, sweet lyrics. Where artists such as Bright Eyes slow/strip things down to make you pay attention to Oberst's message, An Horse makes you want to delve deeper and find out what's going on in the mind of Kate Cooper.
And you probably thought from reading the title that this post would make no sense. But you see, I'm quite good at tangents. They're my specialty.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
It's Music...It's Life.
Music. To some people, it’s just there. A pick me up. Something to make the bus ride to school a little less boring. An excuse to shake your body in a crowd of people without being labeled as crazy. A trend, a fad. An excuse to gather with thousands of other people to watch scantily clad blonde girl hump the floor.
But for other people, like me, or maybe like you, it’s something else. I wouldn’t know how to describe its importance to someone if I had to. You either get it or you don’t. You’re either that kid who wants to run a few red lights to get to school, or the kid who wants the bus driver to get lost so they can finish their new playlist.
Music has been the one constant through my life. The genres and the posters on my wall may have been changed once or twice, but I’ve never loved anything more. Like I said, to explain it to a “nonbeliever” would be impossible, but I guess I could try…
It’s when you look back the first 5 years of your life and all you really remember is singing Sam Cooke in the bathtub to your dad as he reads a book. Or your dad catching you dancing to Tom Petty in the living room and whipping out the camcorder. It’s sitting on your front step with your $10 Toys’R’Us guitar and pretending [and starting to believe that you really] are Dolores O’Riordan.
It's being 9 years old and almost breaking your arm when you decide to stage dive from your bed during the opening night of your "bedroom-wide tour", knowing that your adoring fans, aka your stuffed animals, will catch you when during the crescendo of your dramatic opening number, you thrust yourself off the stage and onto the floor. No one caught you. And you're crying on the floor holding your arm, wondering how you will ever explain this to your mother. She doesn't understand how important this dramatic act is to the integrity of your stage show.
It's being that girl. The 12 year old listening to My Chemical Romance in her room while her peers are walking the streets in denim mini skirts sipping $6 frapuccinos. It's watching the walls crash around you and feeling like you have nothing, then finding something to grasp onto. It’s hearing the “Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot” and seeing yourself say these things to your mother when she’s crying in the other room.
It’s that moment when you’re 14 and it’s your first concert. You’re standing in Nassau Coliseum covered in beer, dancing on the stairs. You were supposed to be in the nosebleeds, but you snuck down to the floor. And the old man who’s next to you telling you to move over is blocked out by Adam Lazzara’s voice pulsing through your veins. It’s having a stranger cry on you because you were both just within inches of Tom DeLonge, aka pop/punk GOD.
It’s when 5 months of your life were spent listening to and believing in and defending a boy who never gave a shit either way; when you’ve waited 15 years for the perfect first kiss and you've just shared it with the shittiest person you can think of, and you sit in your room and listen to one of the 4 mixes your best friend made you…the one with a legend which tells you which song to listen to when you wanna cry, when you wanna kill someone, or when you wanna “tap the next boy you see”.
It’s sitting on the train for 2 hours blasting every song in Brand New’s catalog in preparation for what should be the best show of your life. It’s singing into a bottle of Snapple to the smiling family plastered on the wall of the LIRR; seeing Jesse Lacey whimper and whine on stage then drop his guitar off the stage of Madison Square Garden because he had one too many before going on. It’s crying on your friend’s shoulder because you just heard Chris Carrabba sing your favorite song of all time, the one you listened to on those nights when you cried over him, sung live and so beautifully that you have no other choice.
And it’s calling all of your favorite musicians by their first name, like you know them like you know everyone of their lyrics. Staying home on Wednesdays in the summer to watch Warped Wednesday on FuseTV, wishing you were on that bus that smells like sweaty socks and week old pizza, singing to hundreds of people daily in blistering heat, and smelling/looking like a caveman. It’s when you dance alone in your room, and watching this hairbrush become a microphone and the bed behind transform into a drum kit...and playing the Warped Tour in your bedroom.
It’s obsessing over every line of every song on every album and analyzing and writing every breakthrough in your very own music blog, hoping that maybe 5 people will read it, and that maybe 1 of those 5 will read it and find their own truth in it, and maybe even find it somewhat...interesting.
Oh wait…That’s me.
Who are you?
But for other people, like me, or maybe like you, it’s something else. I wouldn’t know how to describe its importance to someone if I had to. You either get it or you don’t. You’re either that kid who wants to run a few red lights to get to school, or the kid who wants the bus driver to get lost so they can finish their new playlist.
Music has been the one constant through my life. The genres and the posters on my wall may have been changed once or twice, but I’ve never loved anything more. Like I said, to explain it to a “nonbeliever” would be impossible, but I guess I could try…
It’s when you look back the first 5 years of your life and all you really remember is singing Sam Cooke in the bathtub to your dad as he reads a book. Or your dad catching you dancing to Tom Petty in the living room and whipping out the camcorder. It’s sitting on your front step with your $10 Toys’R’Us guitar and pretending [and starting to believe that you really] are Dolores O’Riordan.
It's being 9 years old and almost breaking your arm when you decide to stage dive from your bed during the opening night of your "bedroom-wide tour", knowing that your adoring fans, aka your stuffed animals, will catch you when during the crescendo of your dramatic opening number, you thrust yourself off the stage and onto the floor. No one caught you. And you're crying on the floor holding your arm, wondering how you will ever explain this to your mother. She doesn't understand how important this dramatic act is to the integrity of your stage show.
It's being that girl. The 12 year old listening to My Chemical Romance in her room while her peers are walking the streets in denim mini skirts sipping $6 frapuccinos. It's watching the walls crash around you and feeling like you have nothing, then finding something to grasp onto. It’s hearing the “Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot” and seeing yourself say these things to your mother when she’s crying in the other room.
It’s that moment when you’re 14 and it’s your first concert. You’re standing in Nassau Coliseum covered in beer, dancing on the stairs. You were supposed to be in the nosebleeds, but you snuck down to the floor. And the old man who’s next to you telling you to move over is blocked out by Adam Lazzara’s voice pulsing through your veins. It’s having a stranger cry on you because you were both just within inches of Tom DeLonge, aka pop/punk GOD.
It’s when 5 months of your life were spent listening to and believing in and defending a boy who never gave a shit either way; when you’ve waited 15 years for the perfect first kiss and you've just shared it with the shittiest person you can think of, and you sit in your room and listen to one of the 4 mixes your best friend made you…the one with a legend which tells you which song to listen to when you wanna cry, when you wanna kill someone, or when you wanna “tap the next boy you see”.
It’s sitting on the train for 2 hours blasting every song in Brand New’s catalog in preparation for what should be the best show of your life. It’s singing into a bottle of Snapple to the smiling family plastered on the wall of the LIRR; seeing Jesse Lacey whimper and whine on stage then drop his guitar off the stage of Madison Square Garden because he had one too many before going on. It’s crying on your friend’s shoulder because you just heard Chris Carrabba sing your favorite song of all time, the one you listened to on those nights when you cried over him, sung live and so beautifully that you have no other choice.
And it’s calling all of your favorite musicians by their first name, like you know them like you know everyone of their lyrics. Staying home on Wednesdays in the summer to watch Warped Wednesday on FuseTV, wishing you were on that bus that smells like sweaty socks and week old pizza, singing to hundreds of people daily in blistering heat, and smelling/looking like a caveman. It’s when you dance alone in your room, and watching this hairbrush become a microphone and the bed behind transform into a drum kit...and playing the Warped Tour in your bedroom.
It’s obsessing over every line of every song on every album and analyzing and writing every breakthrough in your very own music blog, hoping that maybe 5 people will read it, and that maybe 1 of those 5 will read it and find their own truth in it, and maybe even find it somewhat...interesting.
Oh wait…That’s me.
Who are you?
Monday, December 1, 2008
Artists I Wish Would Change Their Ways
Ok. So I know what you’re thinking. You’ve read the title, and you already wanna bash me and say how I should love them the way the are, a take it or leave it sort of deal. Well let a girl dream. Jeez. Thre are a few artists out there I feel have insane potential but waste on lame projects that play down how talented they really are.
Tim Pagnotta- I wish I wish I wish he would mature just a little bit. He's an unbelievably talented guy, but from yet another pop/punk cliché guilty pleasure band. I LOVE Tim’s voice, and I just wish he’d ditch the entertaining-seventh-grade-posers scene and come join Dustin Kensrue on the converted-to-folk-artists scene. He's 32 years old for God's sake, yet producing music far below his age and his potential. I think his voice is just amazing in a slower and more subdued format, like in “Sign Off’ from their second album, Palm Trees and Power Lines, where we are teased with only a minute long morsel of the amazing potential this guy has.
Tim Pagnotta- I wish I wish I wish he would mature just a little bit. He's an unbelievably talented guy, but from yet another pop/punk cliché guilty pleasure band. I LOVE Tim’s voice, and I just wish he’d ditch the entertaining-seventh-grade-posers scene and come join Dustin Kensrue on the converted-to-folk-artists scene. He's 32 years old for God's sake, yet producing music far below his age and his potential. I think his voice is just amazing in a slower and more subdued format, like in “Sign Off’ from their second album, Palm Trees and Power Lines, where we are teased with only a minute long morsel of the amazing potential this guy has.
Travis McCoy- the once underground, innovative Gym Class Heroes is now cheesy and over-exposed, and I really can’t stand it. McCoy knows how to rhyme, he’s witty and has great delivery, a sense of humor, and HUGE hair. What he really needs is a real hip-hop album. I’m talking real rhymes over real beats..angry...rather than watching an eight year old dressed as cupid getting crunk in a park. More POS than Aaron Carter, if ya know what I mean. C'mon "Travvy", show us whatcha got.
Dave Melillo- I really have nothing groundbreaking to say, I'm gonna be honest and say this is more of a rant. I’d just REALLY like for Dave to PLEASE go back to the good ol’ days of folksy acoustics ala "Knights of the Island Counter" that make me love him, and ditch this whole Cute is What We Aim For bass-playing thing. Because he’s honestly more talented than that whole piece of crap foursome put together. COME BACK TO ME!
Taking Back Sunday- Once again, this one for me is more about moving backwards than about moving forward. This is only my humble opinion, but for me, with each album, Taking Back Sunday gets less amazing. Note the choice of words. It’s not that “Louder Now” is BAD, necessarily; it’s just not the amazing stuff that they put out earlier in their careers. Much of this change, I thought initially, was due to the fact that John Nolan and Shaun Cooper were no longer in the picture as far as TBS was concerned. For me, they took ALL of the slower more gentle aspects of the old TBS and brought it to Straylight. Straylight to me is almost too mellow, but TBS lost all of that soft touch. The farther they get from Nolan and Cooper, the farther they get from their initial fans and their great music, and the closer they get the mass-produced emo/screamo/pop/punk crap that I could write a chemical formula for right now. They’ve lost that more clean sound that they had back in the day; their sound is now muddled and one big BLAH in your face. Brand New and TBS came out with similarly hyped albums around the same time, and I feel that Brand New was much more successful. They’ve gotten darker and more abstract, with a different and more distinctive, more mature sound. However, TBS, in their attempt to make “epic rock” with “Louder Now”, have become less distinctive and less mature...more like everyone else. Once again…COME BACK! Saturday, November 1, 2008
Don't Judge An Artist By His Guyliner
I haven't written in a while. Sorry to those 3 people out there who actually read this thing. Apologies from the depths of my soul.
I realized the other day how fed up I am with the images that go with music. The "scene" kids, the "emo" kids, the "indie" kids who buy used CDs to look artsy and bad ass, not because they just want to save some money...the kids who say they live for music and know it all and keep the Jonas Brothers on repeat.
I went to a show the other night. In a church basement-ish-thing. Now that's what I call indie. All you little 12 year old "music freaks" with your My Chemical Romance and your dime-a-dozen pop/punk bands take notice. Go to a church basement for 4 or 5 hours and listen to some real music. Haha. No, really.
I've been to probably 10 or more shows in this place with bands ranging from mindblowing to pathetic. But that's where the good stuff is. Not on the commercials on Fuse TV or some emo girl's myspace.
I remember one show I went to there. We were there for a good 3 or 4 hours and everyone was leaving. Not that there was anyone there to begin with. I'd say like 50 kids at best. But it was really winding down to the end of the night and now there were probably 10 people in the audience. Pathetic. And the band that was going up next consisted of two rather large, rather scary looking guys with Biggie shirts on and dreads. Sweet. I had this feeling though that they must be good. Because if they're that strange looking they must have minds twisted enough to create something good...and they were in my opinion the best of the night. Yay for my amazing musical instincts!
But basically the point is, those attractive boys in skinny jeans with big flippy hair and high pitched voices may be cool for about five minutes, but it's the big fat guys with dreadlocks of the world that make the real music. Look at Bob Dylan. Now there's an unattractive guy. Or Michael Stipe. He's no GQ model. But they're quality musicians--two of my favorite. But when Joe Jonas starts aging and starts losing that jet-black pseudo mullet thing he has going on, I'm sure the 12 year olds [and sadly some 17 year olds] will start to lose their undying love for him.
And the whole chains on the pants/guyliner/strange piercings thing is getting old too. The whole point of dressing in that way is to ostracize yourself from everyone else and defy stereotypes. But after the unbelievable influx of mediocre emo/screamo/hardcore bands with guyliner and black nails, that look in itself has become a stereotype. I'll never forget the words my friend said once that I just thought were so true and so poignant. He said "You're not being original by wearing a uniform. The uniform may be skinny jeans and tattoos, but it is nonetheless a uniform.
Have you ever noticed that the kids that love music, I mean really love it, wear normal clothes? I wear cardigan sweaters. I have friends that wear jeans and band t-shirts everyday. I'm really sick of these kids walking into school in trench coats or skeleton hoodies because that's what Gerard Way does. Its kids like that that ruined My Chemical Romance for me...I own their first two albums, yea that's right. And I'm not ashamed either! Back in the day, I'm sorry but that band was solid. Then all these kids glorified them into some weird vampire-obsessed hot-topic marketing scheme, which turned almost all [normal?] people off to them. And they missed out. Or for you older folks, Alice Cooper. My uncle and I had this conversation the other day. Cooper was such a weirdo and attracted such strange people that it detracted from the music he made which was actually pretty decent.
So basically, in conclusion, be yourself and accept artists based on talent, not sex appeal. And that's my lecture for the day...Thank you and goodnight.
I realized the other day how fed up I am with the images that go with music. The "scene" kids, the "emo" kids, the "indie" kids who buy used CDs to look artsy and bad ass, not because they just want to save some money...the kids who say they live for music and know it all and keep the Jonas Brothers on repeat.
I went to a show the other night. In a church basement-ish-thing. Now that's what I call indie. All you little 12 year old "music freaks" with your My Chemical Romance and your dime-a-dozen pop/punk bands take notice. Go to a church basement for 4 or 5 hours and listen to some real music. Haha. No, really.
I've been to probably 10 or more shows in this place with bands ranging from mindblowing to pathetic. But that's where the good stuff is. Not on the commercials on Fuse TV or some emo girl's myspace.
I remember one show I went to there. We were there for a good 3 or 4 hours and everyone was leaving. Not that there was anyone there to begin with. I'd say like 50 kids at best. But it was really winding down to the end of the night and now there were probably 10 people in the audience. Pathetic. And the band that was going up next consisted of two rather large, rather scary looking guys with Biggie shirts on and dreads. Sweet. I had this feeling though that they must be good. Because if they're that strange looking they must have minds twisted enough to create something good...and they were in my opinion the best of the night. Yay for my amazing musical instincts!
But basically the point is, those attractive boys in skinny jeans with big flippy hair and high pitched voices may be cool for about five minutes, but it's the big fat guys with dreadlocks of the world that make the real music. Look at Bob Dylan. Now there's an unattractive guy. Or Michael Stipe. He's no GQ model. But they're quality musicians--two of my favorite. But when Joe Jonas starts aging and starts losing that jet-black pseudo mullet thing he has going on, I'm sure the 12 year olds [and sadly some 17 year olds] will start to lose their undying love for him.
And the whole chains on the pants/guyliner/strange piercings thing is getting old too. The whole point of dressing in that way is to ostracize yourself from everyone else and defy stereotypes. But after the unbelievable influx of mediocre emo/screamo/hardcore bands with guyliner and black nails, that look in itself has become a stereotype. I'll never forget the words my friend said once that I just thought were so true and so poignant. He said "You're not being original by wearing a uniform. The uniform may be skinny jeans and tattoos, but it is nonetheless a uniform.
Have you ever noticed that the kids that love music, I mean really love it, wear normal clothes? I wear cardigan sweaters. I have friends that wear jeans and band t-shirts everyday. I'm really sick of these kids walking into school in trench coats or skeleton hoodies because that's what Gerard Way does. Its kids like that that ruined My Chemical Romance for me...I own their first two albums, yea that's right. And I'm not ashamed either! Back in the day, I'm sorry but that band was solid. Then all these kids glorified them into some weird vampire-obsessed hot-topic marketing scheme, which turned almost all [normal?] people off to them. And they missed out. Or for you older folks, Alice Cooper. My uncle and I had this conversation the other day. Cooper was such a weirdo and attracted such strange people that it detracted from the music he made which was actually pretty decent.
So basically, in conclusion, be yourself and accept artists based on talent, not sex appeal. And that's my lecture for the day...Thank you and goodnight.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Jesse Lacey: Undercover Holy Man?
Jesse Lacey has always been one of my favorite songwriters, because of the interesting stories and multiple-meanings behind each song. Lacey is such an enigma of a person. He is very reminiscent of Kurt Cobain in his hate for fame and seeming lack of consideration for his adoring fans. Also like Cobain, Lacey seems to just not understand why people love him and his music so much. He claims that he hates it when people put deep personal meanings into one of his songs, he feels uncomfortable because most of the time he just writes stories with no underlying personal feeling. One song in particular, "Jesus", off of Brand New's latest album, "The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me", raised many questions about the importance of religion in the life of Jesse Lacey. When asked about it, Lacey claimed that one day, he was just sitting on his couch writing songs, and the words just came to him; without being inflicted with any personal tragedy. One of Brand New's oldest songs, Seventy Times Seven" by Brand New has always been my favorite "fuck you" anthem. It's nasty and hateful yet catchy and easy to sing to. It's about a best friend's betrayal and the hate that grows from it.
Ironically, right around the time that The Devil and God came out and this religious theory surrounded Brand New, I was reading the parable of the unmerciful servant. It said:"...Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?"Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven." I always thought the title was random, therefore annoying [see one of my previous rants about song titles below]. But it's not. Apparently Jesse Lacey is more religious than I thought.
All of this detective work makes me feel very "Sherlock Holmes on estrogen" right about now.
Ironically, right around the time that The Devil and God came out and this religious theory surrounded Brand New, I was reading the parable of the unmerciful servant. It said:"...Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?"Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven." I always thought the title was random, therefore annoying [see one of my previous rants about song titles below]. But it's not. Apparently Jesse Lacey is more religious than I thought.
All of this detective work makes me feel very "Sherlock Holmes on estrogen" right about now.
Friday, February 1, 2008
10 Interesting Tidbits
If you wanna look like a real music know-it-all, throw these random tidbits at your friends and watch their jaws drop in awe and jealousy.
****Jesse lacey started his musical career as the bassist for Taking Back Sunday
***Dashboard Confessional actually started as a side project of Chris Carrabba, who was the frontman of Further Seems Forever
**"Bettie Serveert" is NOT a singer songwriter one-woman act. It is in fact a Dutch band that is named Bettie Serveert, which means "Bettie serves", which was taken from instructional tennis books by Dutch tennis player Bettie Stove.
***Japanese pop artist Utada Hikaru was born in the United States and was raised in Japan.
****In "Nimrod" by Green Day, all the words scratched out in the booklet say "Delete This."
***Billie Joe Armstrong's nickname was "Two Dollar Bill" because he sold joints for two dollars.
**For a short time the band HIM was also known as HIM and HER.
***Bob Dylan became the oldest person to top the American album charts in 2006, with his album "Modern Times". At the time, he was 65 years old.
****Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ is MTV's most-requested video ever.
***The title of Brand New's second album Deja Entendu, is French for "already heard". This highlight's Brand New's opinion that all modern music sounds the same.
****Jesse lacey started his musical career as the bassist for Taking Back Sunday
***Dashboard Confessional actually started as a side project of Chris Carrabba, who was the frontman of Further Seems Forever
**"Bettie Serveert" is NOT a singer songwriter one-woman act. It is in fact a Dutch band that is named Bettie Serveert, which means "Bettie serves", which was taken from instructional tennis books by Dutch tennis player Bettie Stove.
***Japanese pop artist Utada Hikaru was born in the United States and was raised in Japan.
****In "Nimrod" by Green Day, all the words scratched out in the booklet say "Delete This."
***Billie Joe Armstrong's nickname was "Two Dollar Bill" because he sold joints for two dollars.
**For a short time the band HIM was also known as HIM and HER.
***Bob Dylan became the oldest person to top the American album charts in 2006, with his album "Modern Times". At the time, he was 65 years old.
****Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ is MTV's most-requested video ever.
***The title of Brand New's second album Deja Entendu, is French for "already heard". This highlight's Brand New's opinion that all modern music sounds the same.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Dashboard Confessional's "In The Shade of Poison Trees"
Dashboard Confessional was started in 2000, as a side project from lead singer Chris Carrabba's venture with Further Seems Forever. Dashboard Confessional released their debut full-length The Swiss Army Romance in 2000, followed by The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most (2001), A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar (2003), Dusk and Summer (June 2006). Their latest release, The Shade of Poison Trees, was released on October 2, 2007. Dashboard Confessional has been one of my favorite bands for about 4 years now. They’ve gotten to be pretty mainstream without selling out, and Chris Carabba knows how to write heartfelt lyrics and great acoustic guitar riffs better than anyone. I believe the recurring theme for this album is "leading double lives". Some are “gilded” lives, others are lives of privilege pretending to be down and out.
“Where There’s Gold…”, the opener, features Chris Carrabba’s trademark catchy guitar playing and thought provoking lyrics. The mantra “Where there’s gold, theres a gold-digger." is repeated--it seemed to become more and more meaningful each time it was repeated. This song also contains one of the most amazing one-liners on the album: “Mistresses have all the fun, but no ones ever there to take you home.” It sums up what Dashboard is all about in one line. Simple, to-the-point lyrics, that are easy to understand, yet so clever.
“Keep Watch for the Mines” is my least favorite track on this album. I find the guitar rhythm annoying, and the melody boring and drawn out. This is just a personal preference, because this isn’t necessarily a bad song, I just don’t enjoy the sound or the lyrics very much—I’d call it mediocre. But it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to all of the other amazing songs.
“These Bones” is one of my two favorite songs on this album, mainly because of the great rhythm and melody. The lyrics are not very deep, but I feel that this song is meant to be loved for its melody and pop quality rather than its lyrical content.
Not gonna lie, the first time I heard “Fever Dreams”, I found it so annoying that I changed the song. Chris’s falsetto was so annoying, and I really just wasn’t into it. But the more I listened to it, the more I loved it. However, this was another song that wasn’t so gratifying lyrically. The phrase “Fever dreams can only haunt you ‘til the fever breaks” is said frequently, and I honestly wanna stalk Chris Carrabba just so I can ask him what the hell a fever dream is. Wet dream? Hot flashes? Chris PLEASE explain these things to me for the sake of us all!
We reach the halfway point with “The Shade of Poison Trees”, the track that this album is named for, and with good reason. This is my favorite song of the album. Chris really focused on the lyrics and let them speak for themselves, with just simple chords on an acoustic and occasional violin in the background. This song is so reminiscent of “Dusk and Summer” , the song that Dashboard’s last album was named after. Simple, acoustic, amazing. A theme of duality and secretiveness is prevalent with the phrase “If you knew what I know…” repeated in the beginning of each verse. The song closes with the line “As we lie in the shade of poison trees, are we as safe as we let ourselves believe?” Good question.
“Matters of Blood and Connection” has the most honest lyrics I’ve heard in a while, they actually remind me of kids in my high school. It’s the song that personifies the afore mentioned theme of lying, secrets and living a double life. It’s about privileged kids pretending to be of a lower class and pretending that they’ve been through it all, as shown in the line “Why do you speak with that accent now? Everyone knows you’re not from the streets.” It makes me laugh really, because it reminds me of Vanilla Ice of all things. You know, ice ice baby, the pathetic white rapper who pretended to be hardened by the streets. He really grew up in the burbs with his family, living a life of privilege.
“The Widows Peak” is about a guy who leaves his girl behind, “watching the ships come in”, aka waiting around doing nothing, waiting for his return. He promises that he’ll come home, and that their relationship can only get stronger with the distance, and it will take a hell of a lot more than 200 miles to separate them. So romantic and poetic, other than "Poison Trees" this is the best lyrical effort made by Carrabba in this release. Ships are constantly used as a metaphor for people, they are tethered, they sail, they wait. It’s a great close to the album, one damn good album at that.
“Where There’s Gold…”, the opener, features Chris Carrabba’s trademark catchy guitar playing and thought provoking lyrics. The mantra “Where there’s gold, theres a gold-digger." is repeated--it seemed to become more and more meaningful each time it was repeated. This song also contains one of the most amazing one-liners on the album: “Mistresses have all the fun, but no ones ever there to take you home.” It sums up what Dashboard is all about in one line. Simple, to-the-point lyrics, that are easy to understand, yet so clever.
“Keep Watch for the Mines” is my least favorite track on this album. I find the guitar rhythm annoying, and the melody boring and drawn out. This is just a personal preference, because this isn’t necessarily a bad song, I just don’t enjoy the sound or the lyrics very much—I’d call it mediocre. But it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to all of the other amazing songs.
“These Bones” is one of my two favorite songs on this album, mainly because of the great rhythm and melody. The lyrics are not very deep, but I feel that this song is meant to be loved for its melody and pop quality rather than its lyrical content.
Not gonna lie, the first time I heard “Fever Dreams”, I found it so annoying that I changed the song. Chris’s falsetto was so annoying, and I really just wasn’t into it. But the more I listened to it, the more I loved it. However, this was another song that wasn’t so gratifying lyrically. The phrase “Fever dreams can only haunt you ‘til the fever breaks” is said frequently, and I honestly wanna stalk Chris Carrabba just so I can ask him what the hell a fever dream is. Wet dream? Hot flashes? Chris PLEASE explain these things to me for the sake of us all!
We reach the halfway point with “The Shade of Poison Trees”, the track that this album is named for, and with good reason. This is my favorite song of the album. Chris really focused on the lyrics and let them speak for themselves, with just simple chords on an acoustic and occasional violin in the background. This song is so reminiscent of “Dusk and Summer” , the song that Dashboard’s last album was named after. Simple, acoustic, amazing. A theme of duality and secretiveness is prevalent with the phrase “If you knew what I know…” repeated in the beginning of each verse. The song closes with the line “As we lie in the shade of poison trees, are we as safe as we let ourselves believe?” Good question.
“Matters of Blood and Connection” has the most honest lyrics I’ve heard in a while, they actually remind me of kids in my high school. It’s the song that personifies the afore mentioned theme of lying, secrets and living a double life. It’s about privileged kids pretending to be of a lower class and pretending that they’ve been through it all, as shown in the line “Why do you speak with that accent now? Everyone knows you’re not from the streets.” It makes me laugh really, because it reminds me of Vanilla Ice of all things. You know, ice ice baby, the pathetic white rapper who pretended to be hardened by the streets. He really grew up in the burbs with his family, living a life of privilege.
“The Widows Peak” is about a guy who leaves his girl behind, “watching the ships come in”, aka waiting around doing nothing, waiting for his return. He promises that he’ll come home, and that their relationship can only get stronger with the distance, and it will take a hell of a lot more than 200 miles to separate them. So romantic and poetic, other than "Poison Trees" this is the best lyrical effort made by Carrabba in this release. Ships are constantly used as a metaphor for people, they are tethered, they sail, they wait. It’s a great close to the album, one damn good album at that.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
This Song Isn't Really That Interesting, So I'll Just Make The Title Unbelievably Long To Trick You And Make You Feel Stupid Saying It...
Sorry I haven’t updated so long {to the 2 people out there who actually follow this blog}; I’m a junior now, and as the facebook group says, because of this fact, I no longer sleep and/or have a life. As I was writing a review recently, I found myself going off on a page long tangent about song titles, so I figured I would make my tangent its own entity.
Obnoxiously long and random song titles. They annoy me. Yea, okay, I get it. You want to be creative and abstract by giving the song a title that appears to have nothing with the song’s subject at all. Alright. But why not be creative and abstract with random song titles that are two, three, even four words long? Why should it take the same amount of time to say the song title as it takes to listen to half the song? {insert Napoleon Dynamite’s voice for the next exclamation…} GOD!
Seriously, how stupid do feel what you see your friends and you want to mention your new favorite song and you say “Oh yeah, that ‘If I Had One Pound For Every Stale Song Title I’d Be 30 {*breathe*} Short Of Getting Out Of This Mess’ is a great song!” {*sigh*} Jeez, what a mouthful, I need some Gatorade or something. I just feel really stupid, especially if they have no idea what I’m talking about, which is the case a lot of the time.
It’s like when you go to Ground Round {R.I.P} and you want a chicken sandwich and in order to get that sandwich, you have to declare a paragraph long, just stupid title to the waiter {who, with my luck, is ALWAYS an extremely attractive peer}. And, if you don’t want to look like an idiot {which I don’t even attempt anymore}, you gotta pull it off with a straight face. No matter how hard you try to say it in a different way, you always end up saying “I’ll take the ragin’ cajin’ rockin’ sockin’ chicken sandwich”—your face turns red, you don’t want to make eye contact, and your once enjoyable and relaxing lunch with friends becomes a mortification-fest. Okay, so that’s an exaggeration...
Another song title epidemic is the whole category of songs that are just “Untitled”. Wow, guys, you can assign paragraphs to track number 3, but by the time you get to song 9, apparently you are EXHAUSTED and can’t muster up the strength to find ONE word to describe your song. Come on! The funniest thing to me is when a song is “Untitled”, but there’s a subtitle in parentheses. Why do that? Here’s a thought, lets just forget the “Untitled” and just promote the subtitle to main title. I think the subtitle can handle the job.
I’ve compiled a list of the most obnoxious and awkward-to-say song titles in current underground music {in no particular order}.
1. If I Had One Pound For Every Stale Song Title I’d Be 30 Short Of Getting Out Of This Mess- Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
2. Lexington {Joey Pea-Pot With A Monkey Face}- Chiodos
3. Babay {Eat A Critter, Feel Its Warmth}- The Blow
4. Cut Down All The Trees And Name The Streets After Them- The Fall of Troy
5. Good To Know That If I Ever Need Attention, All I Have To Do Is Die- Brand New
6. Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us- My Chemical Romance
7. I Liked You Better Before You Were Naked On The Internet- From First To Last
8. If I Don’t Write This Song, Someone I Love Will Die- Hello Saferide
9. Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm- Crash Test Dummies {not that long, just stupid}
10. When The Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under The Glass- Bright Eyes
Obnoxiously long and random song titles. They annoy me. Yea, okay, I get it. You want to be creative and abstract by giving the song a title that appears to have nothing with the song’s subject at all. Alright. But why not be creative and abstract with random song titles that are two, three, even four words long? Why should it take the same amount of time to say the song title as it takes to listen to half the song? {insert Napoleon Dynamite’s voice for the next exclamation…} GOD!
Seriously, how stupid do feel what you see your friends and you want to mention your new favorite song and you say “Oh yeah, that ‘If I Had One Pound For Every Stale Song Title I’d Be 30 {*breathe*} Short Of Getting Out Of This Mess’ is a great song!” {*sigh*} Jeez, what a mouthful, I need some Gatorade or something. I just feel really stupid, especially if they have no idea what I’m talking about, which is the case a lot of the time.
It’s like when you go to Ground Round {R.I.P} and you want a chicken sandwich and in order to get that sandwich, you have to declare a paragraph long, just stupid title to the waiter {who, with my luck, is ALWAYS an extremely attractive peer}. And, if you don’t want to look like an idiot {which I don’t even attempt anymore}, you gotta pull it off with a straight face. No matter how hard you try to say it in a different way, you always end up saying “I’ll take the ragin’ cajin’ rockin’ sockin’ chicken sandwich”—your face turns red, you don’t want to make eye contact, and your once enjoyable and relaxing lunch with friends becomes a mortification-fest. Okay, so that’s an exaggeration...
Another song title epidemic is the whole category of songs that are just “Untitled”. Wow, guys, you can assign paragraphs to track number 3, but by the time you get to song 9, apparently you are EXHAUSTED and can’t muster up the strength to find ONE word to describe your song. Come on! The funniest thing to me is when a song is “Untitled”, but there’s a subtitle in parentheses. Why do that? Here’s a thought, lets just forget the “Untitled” and just promote the subtitle to main title. I think the subtitle can handle the job.
I’ve compiled a list of the most obnoxious and awkward-to-say song titles in current underground music {in no particular order}.
1. If I Had One Pound For Every Stale Song Title I’d Be 30 Short Of Getting Out Of This Mess- Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
2. Lexington {Joey Pea-Pot With A Monkey Face}- Chiodos
3. Babay {Eat A Critter, Feel Its Warmth}- The Blow
4. Cut Down All The Trees And Name The Streets After Them- The Fall of Troy
5. Good To Know That If I Ever Need Attention, All I Have To Do Is Die- Brand New
6. Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us- My Chemical Romance
7. I Liked You Better Before You Were Naked On The Internet- From First To Last
8. If I Don’t Write This Song, Someone I Love Will Die- Hello Saferide
9. Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm- Crash Test Dummies {not that long, just stupid}
10. When The Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under The Glass- Bright Eyes
Thursday, November 1, 2007
5 Underground Singer/Songwriters Who Won’t Be Underground For Long
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly- Sam Duckworth, an Essex, UK native of Burmese ethnicity, is Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. Get Cape is one of the most innovative and interesting projects I have found in a long time. Since Get Cape is a one man show, it consists of Sam playing his guitar and singing, and working with his keyboard/synthesizer on the side. Duckworth is one of the most eloquent and creative acts out today, as well as an activist for many anti-racism campaigns, including one of my favorite organizations, "Love Music, Hate Racism". With a sound bridging the gap between Hellogoodbye style keyboard work and Owen-esque lyrics and musicianship, this is a guy worth checking out. http://www.getcapewearcapefly.com/
Bedroom Eyes- yet another one man show disguised as a group act. Jonas Jonsson, of Ostersund, Sweden, is a man who strives to make simple indie pop songs with meaning and melody. So far he has released the “Embrace In Stereo EP”, as well as the “Valentine Vacancy EP”. One his best loved songs, and my current favorite song, “Dancing Under The Influence” starts off with a banjo solo, then breaks out in all it's folk-rock glory, with an uplifting melody throughout. It’s a good time song, talking about “drinking till we can’t take no more”, a fun notion not many people would object to. http://www.bedroomeyes.se/
Owen- Mike Kinsella is Owen. For those of you who are into the folksy-rocksy, meaningful lyrics and existentialism, Kinsella’s your man. In “Bad News”, Kinsella explores the shallowness of society, as well as people’s inflated egos, stating that “Whatever you think you are, you’re not.” And “Whoever you think is watching you dance from across the room…they aren’t. If anything, they feel sorry for you, because you try so hard.” It’s that kind of brutal honesty and observation that Owen makes in his songs, about all different types of people, from pretty people, to ugly people, to people who’ve just lost someone, to people who are still looking for someone. “Owen” as he’s called, can relate to us all, and give it to us in amazing-song-form. http://www.purevolume.com/owen
Josh Rouse- not so much underground, I know, but still not well known on the pop scene, Josh Rouse is one of those guys who knows how to turn out lyrically amazing, melodically moving folksy songs one after the other, and very rarely does he produce a dud. With his nerdy-cute looks and his timid voice, Rouse feels like a close friend as he tells you stories about past relationships (his album “Under The Cold Blue Stars” narrates an entire relationship, starting with falling in love, and ending in pain), places he’s been, and where he wants to go. Rouse is personally my favorite artist for all of the above reasons. http://www.joshrouse.com/ Dave Melillo- first seen on the underground music "cult" movie “Bastards Of Young”, where he performed “Wait For It” as an impromptu audition for Drive-Thru record owners Richard and Stefanie Reines, Dave Melillo is an 18 year old phenom on the underground scene. With his dark curly hair and puppy dog eyes, girls swoon before he even opens his mouth, and once he does, they’re hooked for life. With only one EP out so far (“Talk Is Cheap”), Melillo’s true-life songs about teenage love and angst are a hit with indie music fans everywhere. Melillo pens honest and heartfelt lyrics about how everyone screws up[including his own gender “Vatican Roulette” is a perfect example of this]. http://www.davemelillo.com/
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