Music Mondays: The Spill Canvas

This weeks Music Mondays will be another band feature. I had recently discovered this band about a week or so ago when I was listening to music on my iheartradio app on my phone (which I’d recommend by the way, if you like finding new music). I listened to their song “Appreciation and the bomb”, and fell in love. I looked up some more songs from that album on youtube and they’re gaining appreciation by this music lover ❤

The Spill canvas is an emo acoustic band from South Dakota. Hm, never knew anything so awesome came from South Dakota. Seriously. 😛 They started off as a side project for Nick Thomas, the lead singer. As time passed, it was decided that The Spill Canvas would be a full time band.

I wasn’t aware at first that they were considered “emo acoustic”. I did enjoy their acoustic sound and they had pretty meaningful lyrics. Maybe I need to listen to their beginning albums to see where the emo portion is coming in. I normally don’t listen to emo music or …well emo anything. Regardless of where you want to put them, The Spill Canvas is a jumble of beautiful lyrics and sounds. Emo or not, I can call them an ‘honest’ band. You can easily relate to what’s being sung about and that’s sometimes hard to find. I adore them for it.

My Favorite: Appreciation and the Bomb. It speaks about appreciating life while you can, basically…since most people don’t and take it for granted. I LOVE this song. I hope that you do too. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, is that we never feel the hear until we get burned” ❤

All Over You. Another great song…more awesomeness to love.

Last one: more romantic, and whatnot. Not usually my speed, but it’s not cheesy.

Happy Listening! See you all next week~

 

Music Monday: Iron and Wine

I normally don’t listen to much Folk or Folk Rock BUT…I absolutely love Iron & Wine and yep… so worth blogging about. For those who don’t know, Iron & Wine is the stage name for the American Singer-songwriter, Samuel Beam. As for the reason behind his stage name, I had to “google that shit”, to find out. The name Iron & Wine is taken from a dietary supplement named “Beef Iron & Wine” that he found in a general store while shooting a film. Random, but it worked out. Now, onto his amazing career. I’ll be honest. I had never heard of Iron & Wine before until the Season 4 Finale of House where they played the song “Passing Afternoon” as the scenes to the episode flickered onward. I was, uncharacteristically, in tears. The combination of both the situation going on in the last moments of the finale along with such a beautiful song was too much for me and I’m not the “crying type”-ever.

Anyway.

Samuel Beam released his first album, The Creek Drank the Cradle, back in 2002. He did everything from in his home studio: performed, recorded and producing the album. As a Folk/Folk rock artist he used a variety of instruments in his songs: acoustic guitars, banjo, slide guitars and various others. After the album was released, he was compared to the ranks of more well known artists like Neil Young or Simon and Garfunkel. In the same year he recorded a cover of The Postal Service’s song “Such Great Heights”. The song ended up being included as  “b-side” of the original version by The Postal Service. It was later on included on the album “Around the Well”.

His second album (my favorite) was released in 2004, titled “Our Endless Numbered Days”. This time he actually recorded in a professional studio…in Chicago, no doubt! It was still heavy on the acoustic sound but incorporated other band members to increase the sound. Later that year he recoded the song “The Trapeze Swinger” for the film, In Good Company. Also, his version of “Such Great Heights” was featured in an ad for M&Ms and was in the soundtrack for the Garden State movie.

The following year he released a few EPs: “Woman King” and” In the Reins” (a collab album with the band Calexico). Beam later released another full-length album entitled “The Shepherd’s Dog”. It was released in 2007 and was voted one of the ten best of 2007 by Paste magazine. Contributors to this album included members of Calexico and some jazz musicians: Matt Lux and Rob Burger.

After that his music appeared in random places like Greys Anatomy, The L Word and House M.D. It was even in Twilight (even though I hate Twilight…)

Beam recently released his 4th album entitled “Kiss Each Other Clean” back in January 2011. It has a similar acoustic style but infuses more of a pop influence.

The biggest strength Beam has in his music is his lyrics. His songs are so beautifully written and so moving.

I think I’ll end things as I normally do…with some links to some songs ❤

Enjoy the eargasms and cya next week!

 

Music Mondays: Streetlight Manifesto

I decided instead of blogging about a genre this week, I thought I would blog about a band that I liked: Streetlight Manifesto. I hadn’t heard of these guys until within the last few months or so. My Boyfriend had linked me a youtube video of one of their songs and I was hooked since then. Streetlight Manifesto is a skapunk band from New Brunswick, New Jersey. Their sound is influenced by a mix of genres: ska, jazz, latin, punk, and traditional Eastern European music (among a few others).

Their first album, Everything goes Numb, was released August 26, 2003. They headlined and sold out on their first concert in New Jersey months later. Some of the band members were already famous and well known in the New Jersey ska community due to their roles in previous years…namely Catch 22, One Cool Guy, Reel Big Fish tour, and some others.  As of October 4, 2009, the lineup consists of songwriter Tomas Kalnoky on guitar and lead vocals, Mike Brown on alto and baritone sax, Jim Conti on alto and tenor sax, Pete McCullough on bass guitar, Matt Stewart on trumpet, Nadav Nirenberg on trombone, and Chris Thatcher on drums. I think that is what I like best about this band. They go beyond the typical instrumental makeup of bands; incorporating various instruments not typically used.

Streetlight Manifesto’s first recording consisted of a four-track demo EP, featuring the songs “Everything Went Numb”, “Point/Counterpoint”, “The Saddest Song” and “We Are the Few”, all of which were re-recorded for their debut album. The line-up that recorded the demo consisted almost entirely of musicians from Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution: Josh Ansley (bass guitar), Jamie Egan (trombone & trumpet), Tomas Kalnoky (guitar & vocals), Stuart Karmatz (drums), Dan Ross (alto & baritone saxophone) and Pete Sibilia (tenor saxophone). The band was signed to Victory Records, the same label as Catch 22.

After the demo was recorded Karmatz left and was replaced by Paul Lowndes and Jim Conti took the place of Pete Sibilia. This line-up then recorded Everything goes Numb, but changed again before the band could perform any live shows, Jamie Egan played both trumpet and trombone, but as he would not be able to do this live Mike Soprano joined on trombone. Paul Lowndes had no intention to tour and was replaced later by Chris Thatcher.

Streetlight Manifesto’s second album, Somewhere in the Between, was released in November 2007.  It is my favorite album, side note, that they released. Their next album, 99 Songs of Revolution, is a collaborative project that consists of two full-length CDs by Streetlight Manifesto, two full-length CDs by the Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution; as well as four other albums, two each by two other Streetlight-related artists. The project consists entirely of cover songs. Volume No. 1 of the project was released by Streetlight Manifesto on March 16, 2010.

Kalnoky writes the band’s songs on an acoustic guitar and then fleshes out the song structure on the computer and hums basic hornlines, after which the rest of the band comes in and adds their parts (and it shows in the perfection of some of their songs). He has cited the soundtrack of the film Stand by Me as his biggest musical influence, and stated that he looks to the 1950s and 1960s for inspiration when writing. He has specifically cited Louis Jordan, Nirvana, The Drifters, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and The Martino Latino Experience as influences.For Somewhere in the Between he sought to “branch out in different directions”, adding “eastern European and gypsy sounds” to give the album “a world experience”. I think he successfully managed to do so.

So, on for some samples!

Everything goes Numb

Would You Be Impressed (the video and lyrics are very meaningful…)

Me and Julio Down

Side note: Streetlight is going to be at Warped tour this year…and of COURSE I’ll be out of town when Warped Tour hits Chicago…July 7th, I believe. So pissed. Grrrr. Maybe another time I’ll see them live. Hope you guys enjoyed this 🙂 Happy Listening.

Music Monday: House Music

So for my first installment of my ‘Music’ Monday series…(well, the new music mondays that is), I will blog about a particular genre of music. This weeks genre? House music! This one is sort of a request from my boyfriend who is more into house music than I am…or at least has listened to it more than I have. However, I am always up for a challenge…and this Music Monday’s aren’t meant to be me harping on and on about the stuff that I listen to everyday. lol So, on with the post ~

A bit of history first…(and I”ll keep it short and sweet, nobody is here for a history lesson per say):

House music is a genre of music originating from the GREAT City of Chicago (since I’m a Chicagoan…naturally this pleases me :P) around the 1980s. It was at first more so associated with certain minority groups (African-Americans, Latinos, Homosexuals) but has increased it’s range to listeners of all kinds since it first emerged. This is particularly so in major cities in the United States and Europe.It eventually hit the UK mainstream market in the mid-to-late 1980s. It continued to spread throughout Europe and globally until it became a world wife phenomenon (early-to-mid 90s). Some artists used House music to their advantage and incorporated some of it into their music. Ex: Madonna and Bjork. The genre still remains popular today, but with more finesse and sub-genres mixed in between from progressive house to pop house. There are also many other genres of music that have been ‘fused’ with this genre, giving it a different sound (alternative dance, techno, etc). There are many people who probably have never (or think they haven’t) heard of House music. However, you might have heard more than you think. Some of the more noted artists of today: Daft Punk and Deadmau5 (who is categorized as progressive house and/or electro house) are a bit more ‘mainstream’ and well known even to House “n00bs”…like myself 😛

A bit on the music itself….

House is an uptempo kind of music made for dancing, although by modern dance-music standards it is mid-tempo (at least). Typical instruments you will find included in any track include some of the following: sampler, drum machine, synthesizer, turntables, sequencer and/or personal computer. A major component to house is a kick drum on every beat. This is known as a ‘four-on-the-floor’ beat and is usually generated by a drum machine or sampler. Also, artists use many different sound-sources for their bass sounds in house. Last note…electronically generated sounds from other genres (jazz,blues, etc) are often added to the drum beat. Some house songs may include vocals and additional percussion such as a tambourine (or other).

House in the Now: (Some samples for your ears…)

Not much to say here…I really liked it. It was really catchy lol Really upbeat, so I think I’d actually want to listen to this on a regular basis lol

This one…a bit too light sounding and down tempo in the beginning, got better starting at the “chorus”, the end was a bit weird sounding. Didn’t like it overall but I liked some particular parts to it.

A bit too….disco…y lol

Too much going on, a big mashup of sounds. wasn’t all that catchy…but was good for Bourne identity movie.

Really catchy. fast paced, nice club sounding. speeding up in song was a bit weird. but otherwise alright

These selections were given to me by my boyfriend…I will end it with something from Deadmau5 <3…

Ghosts N Stuff ❤

I hope that this is something that people will enjoy…I will try to pick a different genre every week…or a band/album/something. If there is a particular one that you want me to blog about, feel free to mention in the comments. That will do it for this weeks Music Monday…let me know what you think. ❤

Music Monday…Video Game Edition~

So. Yeah I know it’s actually Tuesday but I’m always busy on Mondays it seems and never have time to get things done for my blog. Ugh. Well anyway. This Music Monday will be the Video Game Music Edition 🙂 I have a particular love for metal/rock versions of video game music…and the lovely people who produce them.

I will start with a Metal Medley from the greatest video Game series of all time: The Legend of Zelda. Oh, P.S…I’m pretty positive all of these will be older games (most from N64).

Next: Banjo Kazooie!(this is just a medley of all the Gruntilda’s Lair music…my favorite is the music for the Mad Monster Mansion)

Powerglove. Not much to say other than that Powerglove is A W E S O M E. So uh…here is the Tetris (Themes B & C) cover 🙂 Mmmm a bit of Tetris metal in your day. ❤

Halo theme song ❤