“Tighten Up”

Love it. Great song, too.

Seen any good music videos lately?

Arcade Fire is one of those bands that you have to see live to truly appreciate.  There is an enormous number of people on stage during their performances and those people are doing things that are often not immediately recognizable as music.  They play instruments like the Hurdy Gurdy.  They bang on random stuff.  They make long wandering trips into the audience. (more…)

I recently emailed a group of various friends and asked them to send me a song from a movie soundtrack. I was surpised that no one sent me this song.

It’s only one of the most recognizable pop songs connected to a movie. It was Simple Mind’s biggest hit in the U.S. In fact I bet a lot of people would be hard-pressed to name any other songs they did. I wouldn’t be surprised if the band hates it, though. They didn’t write it.
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When I was young and poor I never purchased singles. I mean who really did when vinyl went away and tapes and CDs were the dominant format for music? But now that I have an iPod I find myself purchasing single songs all of the time. Sure, I purchase albums at iTunes or Amazon still but it sure is nice to just get that song you gotta have for 99 cents. Anyway, here are a few of the singles I have purchased recently:

Broken Bells – The High Road (I caught this collaboration band on Jimmy Kimmel one night and had to get the song)

Carolina Liar — I’m Not Over (This band may be a one hit wonder but I like this one hit.)

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It’s partially Susan M’s influence, but mostly the fact that Greg and Jim at Sound Opinions turned me on to Torche’s Meanderthal, but now whenever I go to my local library I hit the CD bins and grab three or four discs that look like they are by metal bands based on the name of the band, the name of the album and album tracks and the cover art. It’s amusing to me (but probably not surprising) how most of the time my assessment is right on. But anyway, the result has been that over the past nine months (and mainly the past four) I have received a random education in 21st century metal (with some not-exactly-in-genre intruders because of the random element)  and the beginning of a personal set of likes and dislikes. Here is a list of capsule reactions to the albums in order of listen.

Torche — Meanderthal (2008): This is the album that started me on the journey. Love the vocalist here. Exactly what I want out of a metal/hard rock album. Pretty decent lyrics. Solid songs up and down the track list. It simply rocks. Standout track is “Grenades.”

Thrice — The Alchemy Index Voumes I&II , fire and water (2007): Fire is better than water. This is epic, ambitious, pretentious stuff, but  it has its moments. Hard rock with prog elements (I don’t know what else to call it) and a bit of rap rock/thrash in places (sorta). Quiet/loud, slow/fast. Stand out track is on disc 1 Fire — “Burn the Fleet.”

The Sword — Gods of Earth (2008): With song titles like “Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians” and “The Frost Giant’s Daughter,” this is your typical D&D-tinged metal band. But I kinda like it. Some of the riffs seem derivative and some of the song structures don’t bring much to the table. But on the longer songs, in particular the aforementioned “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” and the 7-minute long instrumental “The White Sea” you get some interesting structure and movement and some surprising or at least interesting moments. (more…)

(Bear with me, first post. I will grudgingly accept post criticisms.)

This is a musical genre I’ve really enjoyed for the last 5 years or so. Wikipedia describes it as heavy metal with symphonic elements. I prefer the ones with female vocalists with a classical sound, near operatic sometimes.

It started with a haunting ballad from the soundtrack of Daredevil (of all places) and I just fell in love with Amy Lee’s voice. Then a driving duet on the same album, a combination of heaven and hell, with pounding guitars,  angry rap-like lyrics, and Amy’s angelic sound wrapping it up. I was hooked. Since then, I’ve sought out more like it. I find that I’m drawn to the sheer energy of the music as well as the smooth vocals. I tend to steer clear of the growly, “Cookie Monster” vocals, although I’ll make exceptions. Here are some of the bands that have captured my fancy. (more…)

I found an interesting iPhone/iPod Touch game that is free today. Tap Studio Pro lets you create guitar hero/tap tap revolution style tap tracks (my term, not theirs) for the songs that are already on your device. You can then play the game with those tracks or search their online database for tracks that other people have uploaded for songs that you already have. Seems like a great idea: you get to use the music that you already like and if people make enough tracks there is the potential to have a lot of replay value. The server just stores the tap tracks, not the songs themselves, so there isn’t any copyright infringement going on. I assume that a tap track that someone created while listening to a particular song isn’t an infringing use.

I tried it out today and found it entertaining. The primary limitation was my own lack of ability to create a compelling track the first time through. I haven’t tried the online features yet, but thought I’d post this while the game is free.

I debated whether to go to this show, because I already saw the Kings in L.A., and they have not put out any new material since that tour. In the end, my love of the Kings got the best of me and I went to the Usana Amphitheater to see what the boys would play. Bottom line: I’m very glad I did.

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What a great decade, musically.

I made a 70s playlist recently and thought I’d share some of it here. Give me some good 70s songs in the comments.

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Stand out for me this week was Lauren and Kent’s prom dance routine. I think part what made it so great for me was just Travis Wall’s choreography–and he was smart to make the characters high schoolers. Perfect for Kent.

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Here’s an idea that I lifted from the All Songs Considered podcast. It’s a good topic for rock music nerds of a certain age, as demonstrated by this clip from High Fidelity (NSFW – language):

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1. I went to a show this week, one of my favorite bands, Converge. And the entire thing is on youtube! They’re a hardcore metal band, and their shows are extremely intense. As in violent. I LOVE them. I took pictures and even video on my cell phone, but of course the video is practically useless.

I did a search on Flickr and found photos someone else had taken. I’m in several of them!

This is me while the opening band was getting ready to play. (Far right.)
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As we’ve previously discussed, there are a lot of new albums by great artists coming out this year, and the best of the current crop that just hit the pavement may be the new album High Violet by The National. (more…)

1. Crystal
2. Lee
3. Casey
4. Michael

And bleh to the rest.

Cheese night on American Idol! What’d everyone think?

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I’m sure we’ve done this before, but not anytime recently. Always a good way of discovering good music!

If you listen to music on your computer or an mp3 player, there should be a way to figure out what your most-played songs are. If not, just guess.

Here’s mine:

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A group of around 1,000 gathered in Seattle yesterday and danced to music from the TV show, GLEE.

Unfortunately embedding is disabled for the video, but you can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5PyIVVKoWU

Definitely worth watching. More videos from other locations around Seattle are coming soon.

What other flash mob videos have grabbed your eye? I love the Internet.

The girls have voices I like better than the guys, but the guys sing on key better.

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What’d you think?
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2010 is shaping up to be a great year for music. (more…)

What’d everyone think of the top 12 girls? I haven’t quite watched them all, but from what I’ve seen, it looks like a pretty disappointing group.

Except for Chrystal Bowersox, who completely rules. She sounded like a combination of Linda Perry and Ani DiFranco last night. I don’t think she sounded like Alanis, do you?

This post is a shout out to my favorite saxophone player on the planet: Lenny Pickett. You might know him best as that shredding sax player who now runs the Saturday Night Live Band. But Lenny Pickett was somewhat of a legend in sax circles long before he landed that gig. At the tender age of 18 Pickett burst on the scene in 1971 as part of the great funk band Tower of Power. We get this from the Tower of Power wiki:

Lenny Pickett (b. Las Cruces, New Mexico, April 10, 1954) is an American saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, music director and teacher. He was a member of the Tower of Power Horns from 1972 until 1981, and since 1985 has been the tenor saxophone soloist with the Saturday Night Live band. He has served as the Saturday Night Live band’s musical director since 1995. He is known particularly for his skill in the altissimo register (executed by using a combination of embouchure control, air stream control, and alternate fingerings), which can be heard during the opening credits of each episode of Saturday Night Live.

Pickett grew up in Berkeley, California. He has no formal musical training, did not attend high school beyond the ninth grade and did not attend college. Except for a brief period of study with the jazz saxophonist Bert Wilson (another player known for his facility with the altissimo register) after dropping out of high school in Berkeley, he is completely self-taught in the saxophone.[4] While with the Tower of Power Horns, which he joined when he was 18 years old, he performed with Elton John and many other rhythm and blues and soul groups. He has also worked as a saxophonist and an arranger for artists including David Bowie, Talking Heads, and Laurie Anderson. As a composer, he has written for his group, the Borneo Horns, and has received a number of commissions to write works mixing classical and popular idioms for a variety of musical ensembles, including the New Century Saxophone Quartet, as well as music for theater and collaborations with dancers, poets and filmmakers.

He is a professor of jazz saxophone at New York University.

Here are a couple of Pickett clips for your enjoyment:

This is Tower of Power in a 1973 gig in Santa Monica. The band is busting out a version of the classic “Knock Yourself Out”. Not only is teen Lenny the featured soloist here but check out his killer dance moves as well. (The audio is not great but the clip is still really cool.)

Here is Lenny in 2008 along with alto player Eric Marienthal (who is no slouch himself) playing with some kind of high school all star jazz band from Utah. In this clip Lenny busts our the entire killer repetoire, including making some noises I heretofore had never even heard emit from a sax.

Just in case you were wondering, the SNL band led by Lenny Pickett is normally the best band of the night on SNL. The dude rocks.

What more can I say? (HT: Scalzi)

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Jack's Mannequin - The Resolution (HQ)
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It’s the rare rock band nowadays that rocks a baby grand as its primary weapon of choice, but Jack’s Mannequin is that band. (more…)

Brendan Benson is a different sort of cat. He has a pretty folkie image, plays an acoustic guitar a lot, lives in Nashville. But every now and then, he picks up his electric guitar and reminds you that he grew up in Detroit and hangs out with Jack White. (more…)

Hey! Your tape.  lt´s good.

I know. We made it. 

I  mean, it´s rough, but, unbelievably, it shows promise.  I’ll put out your record.  Any profits we split down the middle after I recoup expenses, okay?

Recoup expenses?  Man, you´re gonna recoup a big, fat Mercedes is what you´re gonna do.

We´re not there yet, Justin.

I’m Vince.

Whatever.

                                                      -High Fidelity

The brave new world of the music business just gave us another interesting peek behind the curtain through this open letter from the band OK Go. (more…)