I think it might be a trend in music, or at least a trend in the music I find myself listening to lately. Very dancey. Very retro. Very fun. Something with a good beat that makes me want to shake your booty.
Scissor Sisters are always a group that will do it for me. "Don't Feel Like Dancing" certainly has a quality to it that puts me in a good mood no matter what is going on. If the song came on and I was standing up, I would be dancing.
If you watch Project Runway you will get this reference. Scissor Sisters have a song called Laura. The female singer of the band reminds me of a rocked out version of Laura from PR. I know it's a sad connection, but I can't help but watch the show and think she moonlights as a singer.
Make sure you pay close attention at the very beginning. When the guy playing the keyboard (aka Baby Daddy) is floating off screen he winks. Yeah... He's winking at me. <3 <3 <3
I posted this @ 12:14 PM.............Need a link?..........
MAMA'S ROOM - Under The Influence Of Giants
I admit that there is a small place in my heart with some Bee Gee's love in it. I'm ashamed, but it IS there. I cannot deny it.
Under The Influence of Giants takes that little bit of love and exploits it. The harlots that they are make a song that is such a flashback to a bygone era that I can't help but groove.
I must admit I like the song more than I do the video. Yet, it's a good representation of the feel of their music.
I posted this @ 12:01 PM.............Need a link?..........
Monday, June 19, 2006
EVERYBODY'S CHANGING
This isn't a new song. It's been out for a while now. I've loved it for a while now too. It's been out for well over a year. Since getting an iPod Everybody's Changing has been steadily climbing my Top 25 chart. With the recent subject of change being a topic on this blog, I suppose that could contribute to my fascination with the song and video.
Last weekend I was in Des Moines and caught the video on a TV in the mall. Once again, not a new thing. Yet, new to me. I haven't regularly watched MTV or VH1 since they stopped playing music videos. So I hadn't seen it. I stopped and watched the video like it was Dire Straits' Money For Nothing. I was captivated.
Here's the weird thing. The video? Isn't really that impressive. I mean, it's really simply done. It has a cool idea to it. The song is great. But the video certainly isn't anything groundbreaking or revolutionary. Yet, it is just a fascinating three and a half minutes that I keep watching over and over.
Have you ever heard a song that broke you? Emotionally. Physically. Mental. Any or all. Gary Lightbody, Snow Patrol's singer and chief songwriter might as well be asking me to give him a kidney and perform the surgery myself.
Can a person feel distraught, elated, nervous, confident, and romantic all at the same time? If so, I'd say that Snow Patrol managed to figure out a way to package all those emotions into a CD full of songs.
Like Chocolate, Chasing Cars uses one hand to grab me by the balls to get my attention and then uses the other to hold my hand and remind me it's going to be ok.
His voice is so deseraptely reaching out for someone to join him.
"If I just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world?"
If my life has a soundtrack, this is the song that is playing during one of two moments. One intimately romantic. One painfully sad. Someone is either coming or going. I haven't decided yet.
Maybe I'm just emotional lately. This songs makes me want to cry and then laugh through the tears. Actually, that's exactly what this song is. Laughing through tears. Seeing the beauty of what was and also what could be. The beauty in the newness and wonder of something.
I posted this @ 10:28 AM.............Need a link?..........
This is one of those songs that isn't really deep. There is no hidden meaning. It is just a guitar driven roadhog of a song. Forget the slow lane, this song takes up the fast lane, slow lane, and part of each shoulder.
My co-worker brought in the song. Within 10 minutes I'd found a free download from their site and have been listening to it ever since.
I posted this @ 11:40 AM.............Need a link?..........
Monday, February 27, 2006
I WILL FOLLOW YOU INTO THE DARK - Death Cab For Cutie
I've been pimping this album to anyone who will listen. Death Cab isn't new, and certainly new to me. Yet, I feel familiar enough to actually call them by the abbreviated moniker.
A couple months ago it was Death Cab For Cutie Storm! They performed on an awards show and I'd read two independent reviews of a couple of their songs. I was groovin. I love Soul Meets Body. Then when I started poking around for more info and came across Directions on their website. I was hooked once and for all.
As the band explains it, Directions is free-for-all type of video making adventure. They gave money to people and told them to make a video about whatever song they wanted. In return they got 11 amazing videos. Each week they showcase a new video featuring a song from their latest album.
I got in on this late and started with Different Names For The Same Thing. I loved it and would watch it again and again. I was sad to see it swtich to the next video and figured there was no way I could love it as much. Then I heard and saw I Will Follow You Into The Dark.
The album is overall somewhat meloncholy, but I think it is crowned the King Of Meloncholy with the I Will Follow You Into The Dark. It plays out like a tragic love story that makes you smile but weep at the same time.
I'm the type of person that will like a song, but like it even more if I enjoy the video. Once I can get a visual sense of what the song is portraying then the song jumps up my Top 10 list of Songs I'll Play Over And Over Until I Wake Up In The Middle Of The Night Singing It.
I posted this @ 11:48 AM.............Need a link?..........
I've always had a special place in my heart for Ben Folds.
It was right around my graduation in '92. I was cruising around town on a Friday evening when an Omaha college station played a song that would forever change the way I thought about music. The song was Underground by Ben Folds Five. A drummer, an upright bass player, and a talented pianist for which the band was named blew my mind with a song that seemed quiet eclectic in it's performance. It was alternative. It was melodic. It was rock. It was fun. Underground was underground.
It was the song your garabe band friends always said they wanted to write. It was being played on the radio. I listened to it and hoped the DJ would tell me everything that was to know about these five Ben Folds.
In reality, Ben Folds Five was actually three. As I learned more about them they seemed like the geeks of alternative rock music. Who goes on tour with a piano and upright bass that isn't from from the Big Band era or a jazz ensemble? Ben Folds! That's who!
Ben eventually went solo and produced his own music. Rockin' The Suburbs had some of the finest music I'd ever heard. By this time what I was realizing about my musical tastes was that I love good harmony music that had a lot of acoustic paino and 'jam band' feel to it. I liked music that I thought I could play. While I am no Ben Folds, I do enjoy listening to his music and picking out the notes to recreate it for myself.
The song that sticks with me lately is Landed. It's like the song was written for me. I suppose as an artist that would be how I'd want my audience to feel. Like the could personally relate to what was being expressed.
We'd hit the bottom I thought it was my fault And in a way I guess it was I'm just now finding out What it was all about
I turn up the volume so I can feel the paino. The piano solo at the beginning is enough for me. I could play that part over and over again. Then Ben is joined by a strings section for a brief reprise towards the end of the song. This is the part where I shouldn't be driving because I love to turn the stereo up as loud as I can take it and rock out white-boy style.
The way I worry about my friends is sung as such...
If you wrote me off I'd understand it 'Cause I've been on Some other planet So come pick me up I've landed
The credit goes to Jay for this one. I'd heard the song in three seperate place in the span of an hour. The world of music was trying to tell me something. I was listening loud and clear. The songs says to me that you can fall in love in just a moment. And yet, in a moment it can be gone.
I love to people watch. I like flying for this reason. Airports are great places to people watch. Everyone is coming and going with a destination in mind. In a large crowd, like at some airports, there are striking people that easily stand out. Whether it is something appealing or unappealing. They may stand out. This song reminds me of moments like that.
Someone catches your eye and in an instant of creative imagination you see the future with them. Then their flight boards and they are gone.
I posted this @ 11:29 AM.............Need a link?..........
I'm a 30-something student of human nature. A music-lovin', groove-shakin', laugh-inducin', dish-cookin', gossip-slingin', type of guy. This is my diary of sorts...
I've been pimping this album to anyone who will listen. Death Cab isn't new, and certainly new to me. Yet, I feel familiar enough to actually call them by the abbreviated moniker.
