Avi Knows Music

My Electronic Show on KJHK, Student Radio!

2009-09-27T09:24:00.001-07:00

Hey all, check out my new special show on KJHK.org 8-10pm Saturday Nights (CST)!

The show is called Mind Dance, and I'll be playing for you Electronic Dance Music for your mind, body, and soul.

Electronic Dance Music is actually more widespread than you may believe. I will play the typical dance music such as Darude, Daft Punk, or trance-beats like Infected Mushroom or GMS. Also, Mind Dance features the calmer, slightly slower side of electronic dance music, called IDM (Intelligent Dance Music). here's some examples of IDM: Mu-Ziq, Autechre, Aphex Twin.

These are a few songs that I played last night for a taste of whats to come:
1200 micrograms : Mayans Incas and Aztecs
Ulrich Schnauss : Between Us and Them
Gorillaz : 5/4
Boards of Canada : An Eagle in your Mind

--
Listening to Soulsavers' new album, Broken.

Pay homage to MJ

2009-06-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

Yeah I mean Michael Jackson. ;)

You can say his morals were a little off, but he still was a great musician and inspired pop music in his time that has churned into a new style still seen today. He died June 25th, 2009 at the age of 50.

Pay homage by watching a few of his music videos:

Smooth Criminal (full)

Thriller (full)

Black Or White (full)

----------------
Now playing: Willie Bobo - Fried Neckbones And Some Home Fries (Dan The Automator Remix)
via FoxyTunes

Happy, upbeat little ditty, but not super fast

2009-05-07T15:40:00.000-07:00

If you had to describe the most generally liked style of music, could it fit in this blog-post's name? In my opinion, many artists throughout musical history gear their music towards the "happy little ditty" genre I hereby name.

Examples can be found in many of the traditional genres we know:
folk music: The Mamas and the Papas - Make Your Own Kind Of Music
Jazz: Renee Neufville and Roy Hargrove - Crazy Race
Pop: Jack Johnson - Breakdown
Classical: Haydn - String Quartet in B Flat (op. 1 no. 1)
just a few for example.

These songs appeal for the masses- they are designed to make you happy, and forget your troubles. It is interesting to call one of those traditional genres pop, when a good case could be made that each of these songs were extremely POPular in their day. In fact, that is a good correlation; pop music tends to be happy and upbeat. There are always exceptions, but the best way to get people to like your music seems to be to make slightly happy but not too frenetic music.

More music fitting in the "happy, upbeat ditty" genre:
Finger Eleven - One Thing
Coldplay - Clocks
Orbital - One Perfect Sunrise
Blind Melon - No Rain
Ben Folds - Fair
----------------
Now playing: general fuzz - comfort zone
via FoxyTunes

superb pseudo-instrumental hip hop - Bassnectar

2009-05-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

I just heard this song for the first time. It's very impressive - great editing, and that laugh is to die for!

Bassnectar - Laughing Crescendo

----------------
Now playing: Aphex Twin - Polynomial-C
via FoxyTunes

Parodies of the Powerful Pachabel Canon still made Today!

2009-04-09T10:38:00.000-07:00

As you may know, there are riffs that are commonly used and recycled through much of pop music in the last 100 or so years.

One is the extremely old (from the late 1700s) and yet timeless "Pachabel's Canon in D" and it's well used and reused riff.

The cello keeps the entire pattern going the entire song (acting as a basso continuo) and the entire chord progression is in root position (so what the cello plays is the same name as the chord [ex. the cello plays a "D", so the chord is "D major"].

anyway, you've heard this even if you know nothing about music... because of ALL the songs in the world that borrow at least part of this riff, such as:

Green Day - Basketcase

Vitamin C - Friends Forever

Also, a very common riff in much of today's music can be traced to the start of pachabel's Canon in D riff: "I V vi IV", like in:

Dispatch - The General (great live ver.)

Blink 182 - Dammit (clean)

To show my point of view on this matter, I'll let this comic routine found on youtube explain my point of view. Yes I played the cello for this song back in middle school, and this guy is hilariously accurate!

----------------
Now playing: Bob Marley & The Wailers - No Woman No Cry
via FoxyTunes

Relive your childhood fears a Fun way with music!

2009-03-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

Do It Again - The Chemical Brothers

Don't forget to dance!

Making Video Games... Fun

2009-03-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

Music is almost always present in many kinds of video games, simply because most of the time the gamer would just be "reading" their TV. Our ears would be bored otherwise.

Just as in real life, music can set the tone, or mood of a party or room, in video games, the music lets you feel like you're there, feeling the emotions the characters are.

Examples:

Star Wars Battlefront 2 - video of gameplay and music used in the game. As you may know this is actually from the movies, Star Wars. If it isn't music already composed by John Williams, they certainly impersonate it throughout this game. This certainly lets you feel like you're in the star wars universe, blasting up droids.

Resident Evil 5 - Gameplay video. This shows how intense it would be to be attacked by zombies who won't die from several shots in the head. Certainly spooky and graphic stuff. Tip: hit mute - you'd see how different it is without the music!

Some games have multiple soundtracks for you to pick. Grand Theft Auto series has a nice feature of changing your radio station of the car you're currently driving. Preview the radios on GTA 4 here (Be warned of possible cuss words). When you've grabbed a fast as heck car, you can grab some dance or hard classic rock. When you're rolling down the road with a big ol' hummer you could listen to the beats, hard n' slow. Or if you're in the mood, there are talk shows.

However, in my opinion, the best video game soundtracks revolve around those games with lots of different music that change depending on the mood of the current story.

Game Soundtracks Like:

Final Fantasy VII
Song: Hurry Faster this song is aptly named, as this is during a timed section of the game where you only have a few minutes before the building around you blows up.

Fighting: if you've played this game you cannot forget this tune. It surges the will to fight and finish the creatures you're fighting. And unlike other videogame fighting music, this goes through complex variations long before repeating itself to keep it interesting.

J-E-N-O-V-A: A mysterious boss you fight's theme. The vibrophone arpegiating down adds quite the feeling of insecurity. But, just like so many songs, it changes to a major sound for a brief horn solo.

Those Chosen by the Planet: to not spoil too much of this game, the planet picks you, the party, to save it from extinction. Meanwhile, the main villain plans to of course cause the destruction of the planet for his own power, and he meets the heroes before they're ready to fight him. So you can now identify why its so dark, as the plot thickens throughout this scene/location.

Ok I could end up posting nearly every single FFVii song because they're all incredible. Instead I'd just recommend listening to them and checking them out, here's the amazon link, because they're all awesome.

Others are generally other roleplaying games, because a shooter is gonna have well practically the same mood and storyline the entire game. A strategy game will be the same. However, roleplaying games, such as the Final Fantasy Series, have long stories where characters develop and its almost like reading a book or watching a movie, but you come in to make dialogue choices for the main character and control the party of a few heroes battling and puzzling out the realm's problems.

One not so low-bit styled soundtrack to a game is Dragon Quest. Dragon Quest VIII (the only one I remember playing) uses a much more classical styled soundtrack, with nearly a full orchestra you'd expect behind Aaron Copeland or Tchaicovsky. Here's a video of dragon quest gameplay and music. Music Influences: certainly newer (contemporary) music like jazz and nu-classical songs like Rhapsody in Blue.

Another trick is to have a soundtrack for different locations. In the case of Rogue Galaxy, you have different sounds in the city then out in the world. Each planet has its own style. This first starts as a video of the "jungle planet" and how it sounds in a fight at the first minute. All music is from the game at some point, and this video effectively shows what you can do throughout the game. Its combat system is awesome.

Do you have any other favorite video game songs/soundtracks you wanna share?

----------------
Now playing: Final Fantasy VII - Sandy Badlands
via FoxyTunes

Electrojazz

2009-02-11T12:29:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite types of music is Electronic music influenced by jazz. There are vast types of electronica that have touches of jazz:

Upbeat DJ'ing like DJ Shadow's Organ Donor or Mouse On Mars's Twift is vastly influenced by jazz - scratching and drumbeats in most DJ sets are syncopated and active... and although it may have a slight structure, it is modified as the song progresses: sounds may be added, removed or the artist changes what sounds are accented as the loose pattern repeats.

Electronic Rockers like Kenna (listen to Hell Bent or possibly the ironically paired, Bent's Invisible Pedestrian) use lots of jazzy/hip hop drums, and very jazzy singing - as Kenna's singer sweeps and swells through the notes, and mixes in blue notes, those impossible to play on a piano. Albeit, these songs portray a fairly new style of jazz-electronic combo: riffy-jazz. Artists provide a syncopated sound, but there isn't a lot of improvisation or variation.

There are some darn-near impossible artists to fit into one category of electronic - but have no fear, cause electrojazz is here. Electrojazz is an umbrella category made by myself, but here I'll list a few links to a couple I'd consider electrojazz for lack of better term.

upbeat-crazy electrojazz
µ-ziq - Secret Stair pt 1 and 2 also Octelcogopod (µ-ziq is generally awesome but prepare yourself for the unexpected!)
Venetian Snares - Einstein-Rosen Bridge

not so crazy electrojazz
Nomo - My Dear
Gorillaz - Don't Get Lost in Heaven (demo ver)
General Fuzz - Cream

slower-smooth electrojazz
Skalpel - 1958
The Kingdom - Fade (free mp3)
Squarepusher - Duotone Moonbeam

As this blogpost progresses, I progress towards the slower side of electronic and jazz - next is IDM (intelligent dance music) with fantastic-and-active-heavily-jazz-influenced percussion:

The Orb - The Box
Cujo - Cruzer
2 different sides of Four Tet - Glue of the World and Sun Drums and Soil
Ulrich Schnauss - Blumenwiese Neben Autobahn
Speedy J - The Fun Equations
and many others!

Jazz influenced electronica shows how the classics still greatly help define and create music of today and the future. Jazz is almost 100 years old and many artists still make jazz-styled songs. Heck, even classical music influences electronic. Some IDM artists feature a few songs throughout their albums that practically sound like something Mozart or Chopin wrote hundreds of years ago that someone remixed: ex: Four Tet's Untangle plays this awesome and triad-arpeggiating harp loop. listen for 1-2 mins at least to get the whole effect. Some are much more obviously classically influenced, like Aphex Twin's super calm solo piano work (lol?) Nanou 2.

----------------
Now playing: DJ Shadow - What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 1)
via FoxyTunes

Album Review: Dream Theater - Octavarium

2009-01-31T17:02:00.000-08:00

Dream Theater, kings of progressive rock n roll, come out with this extremely metal, classical, rock of all types-influenced album, Octavarium. (for sale on Amazon.com). Even though they're metal-esque, most people I play Dream Theater like them, just not those expecting death metal, or someone expecting something less edgy and intense than Foo Fighters' hard stuff (i.e. Best of You)

Open up links in a new tab so you can listen while you read:

Root of All Evil: a great In-Your-Face very loud and fun track with a relatively simple song structure. No typical-of-DT long and super progressive solo yet! I give it ****.

The Answer Lies Within: DT's chill side, this slow song features acoustic piano, orchestra, and pure-voweled singing. It's songs like these that remind you that all of Dream Theater's members are classically trained rockers. ***

These Walls: Wow! An awesome slow-but-fast prog rock song with chill verses. With great guitar riffs and pedal effects, DT's keyboardist, Jordan Rudess's excellent arpeggios, and super active drums on Mike Portnoy's gigantic kit. Yes the strings, acoustic voice and piano are still in this song too, and they add a great tone. My favorite part has to be the choruses: that's the drummer, Portnoy harmonizing with lead singer James LaBrie! *****

I Walk Beside You: A fun feel, and very diverse compared to DT's normal sound. They never cease to change their sound with something new combined with the old. ****

Panic Attack: With lyrics all about the super anxiety of having a panic attack, (a pyschological issue generally in your brain making you think you're suffocating when you aren't) and a very hard, fast, metal feel. They continue to progressively change the groove to something new throughout the song. Very good if this is the style you like. The musicality is limitless - tight harmonies, super steady beat as an ensemble, active drums... the list goes on for around 8 minutes of a rockin' beat. ****

Never Enough: A wierd introduction in this live version of the song makes much more sense if listened in the album straight through. Panic Attack (track 5) leads into track 6, Never Enough. This is a great prog rock song, similar to DT's old style but still unique in its own way. The electronic keyboard sounds are pretty intensive and effective. *****

Sacrificed Sons: the creepy introduction, again DT has a continuation in Octavarium as Never Enough leads into Sacrificed Sons. The introduction is actually real recordings of newscasters broadcasting the events of 9/11/01. The song and lyrics haunt you, and let you remember exactly how the event took place. It is done excellently. This song starts slow, and in case you couldn't guess, DT speeds it up halfway through with some fantastic groove/solos between the guitar and keyboard. *****

Last but not least....

Octavarium: Possibly the best 24 minutes of my life was when I first heard this song. Yes, it's exactly 24 minutes long, and you'll love nearly every minute of it. Think of it much more as a classical showcase of the ensemble of Dream Theater, with five fluidous movements after a lengthy overture/introduction played solely by one person - the keyboardist/electrical steel guitarist, Rudess.

I give this song ****** on a 5 star scale!

Movement 1: Someone Like Him
A man tells himself to be extraordinary, going through his life. "I don't want to be someone like 'Him' " is said often in this movement. However, he ends up finding out too late in his life that he is indeed like "Him". This story continues for about 8 minutes. If you don't wanna listen to this entire song, speed up to 8:45 and get to the better parts later!

Movement 2: Medication (Awakening)
The man supposedly fell asleep for three decades, and he wakes up to a doctor trying to help him stay awake, but he falls asleep again, trapped in his body.

Movement 3: Full Circle
The best part of this song in my opinion starts at about 12:20 and goes for the next 8 minutes. Lyrically, this spans movements 3 and 4. Mvmt 3, named Full Circle, features several alliterations from music, pop culture, literature and history. They also sing of a style ''Everything ends where it begins''.

Movement 4: Intervals
Extremely progressive and changing dramtically, 16:30-19:53 shows all the different styles of music that DT have ever considered an influence - rag time, classical, rock, opera, prog classic rock, metal, and some I don't even know. Calypso? whatever it's great. I read somewhere that the wierd vocals spoken in the background in one part here are all quoted from other songs on the album.

Movement 5: Razor's Edge
You're listening to the most epic, long Dream Theater song ever to be made in a studio. Of COURSE its going to have a huge build=up, slow-down, powerful concluding section. The track and album both feature multiple musical themes that reoccur within multiple songs... and the only time the main "Octavarium theme" resolves most impressively fulfilled (perfect authentic cadence in theory) is at the end of this song. It's also of note that the song ends with the same low note as the album had in its start with Root of All Evil.

You've just listened to Octavarium! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do!

----------------
Now playing: Muse - Butterflies and Hurricanes
via FoxyTunes

Update on my Back

2009-01-31T15:40:00.000-08:00

Hey there; I have good news on my back. I received an epidural shot, that got me back to school and classes and driving in no time. I had narcotics, muscle relaxants, met with multiple doctors, and all that jazz, but I finally found one that would provide me with plenty of pain relief right at the source, my L5S1 lumbar disc. I still am in recovery, and my energy is currently predominately aimed towards school work and class.

But, I have found the time to make a new blogpost for ya'll this afternoon. Stay tuned for the next more musical post!

----------------
Now playing: Kid Spatula - Tugboat
via FoxyTunes

P.S. I dunno if you've ever heard of Infected Mushroom, but they make some of the most incredible, diverse electronic music out there. Some are in their own genre, some trance, some rock, and some that touch everything else. Here's their newest album, Vicious Delicious, on Amazon. The previews do not give it full justice, so here's a link to streams of the full songs.

IDM music - Blue Swell

2009-01-02T12:30:00.000-08:00

One of my absolute favorite styles of music is IDM electronic music. Most people I play it for really like it, at least some sub-style or artist. IDM or intelligent dance music is an Electronic sub-genre of music that generally has three to four features:

1) the song's beats per minute, or tempo is slower than most electronic music (techno/trance/rock) but still with a dancing feel. Sometimes you have to listen a few times to identify the part of texture that makes you wanna dance.

2) they tend to be instrumental songs that start slow and calm, and build upon itself with new melodies, harmonies and rhythms until it reaches a climax - which slowly returns back to the soft and simple sound like it was in the beginning... until it fades out. This makes them lengthy- the average is probably 5 minutes, although some artists have some songs less than two minutes and some songs they make go well over 8 minutes.

3) percussion instruments are active, complex, and the rhythms are very jazzy, but the bass, feel and sometimes the melodies are very disco- and funk- influenced.

4) melodies tend to be polyphonic, there isn't a standard harmony and melody but multiple melodies working together and independantly.

With all IDM music, you have generally extremely affected parts, with lots of sound editing. If you have good speakers or headphones to hook up, I recommend it for this post. The sound can lose a lot with electronic music through weak speakers.

Examples of different IDM music are:

The slightly frenzied and maybe a little weird, but designed to make you think - old-school electronic (90s) extraordinaires:
Aphex Twin (goofy NSFW lyrics at the end)
Autechre
Squarepusher (so fun to dance to! think twice as fast.)
Venetian Snares (totally new feel at 1:55, and it keeps progressing like any venetian squares song to some crazy stuff later)
mu-ziq (just discovered this song! fabulous)

The happier, upbeat IDM'ers:
Four Tet
Ulrich Schnauss (vocals)

Many of those artists above have some songs that are the chillest and most ambient stuff on earth, as these dance moves slow way down:
Boards of Canada (short)
Animals on Wheels
Aphex Twin's other calmer side

--

I only bring this genre up for one reason, I have finished a song featuring IDM and downtempo influences. You can find it at my myspace.com page, here.

My new song is entitled Blue Swell. It is an extended groove of a down-tempo dance beats and melodic explorations with synthesized instrumentation and effected voice, with hints of IDM elements (intelligent dance music) and progressive roots.

In other words, that means it has a danceable feel while it keeps the speed of the song slow and steady. It builds to a few climax points before fading in conclusion. And, when the song could seem like the feel is getting a little old, a new feel takes place, thus it progresses through different styles.

My addition to this genre is that I sing-scat a melodic line with added sound effects such as echo, reverb, and phaser; whereas much of the genre, especially earlier keeps instrumental, or other artists tend to focus less on the vocals (such as having background oohs and aahs)

I hope you enjoy it! A full-length album featuring this and many other songs will be out for download over the internet in the not-too-distant future!

----------------
Now playing: Tangerine Dream - Dies Martis [Transmercury]
via FoxyTunes

Music Glossary - Harmonic Definitions

2008-12-16T11:29:00.001-08:00

A. General Music Terms
B. Genres
C. Rhythmic Definitions
D. Melodic Definitions
E. Harmonic Definitions
F. Miscellaneous (coming soon!)

E: Harmonic Definitions

Again, I continue the music glossary of common terms and explanations of music, so you can listen to your tunes with a little more understanding.

The third component of any musical production (other than Rhythm and Melody) is Harmony. Harmonies are the background of the melody: the less-projected-but-equally-important base and support for the melodic line. In most rock music, There usually is a harmony of some acoustic guitar or piano, which stays more constant rhythmically and forms chords giving the feeling of the song.

These feelings a song provides are most often classified as Major or Minor.

Major Keys: When a song is in a major key, it provides a sense of happiness and sweetness. Here is an example of a major-tonal song, A Strangely Isolated Place by Ulrich Schnauss.

Minor Keys: In sharp contrast to major keys, minor-toned music is dark, sad, and can be frightful. Here's the daunting Rabbit in Your Headlight, featuring U.N.K.L.E., DJ Shadow, and Thom Yorke of Radiohead... with an equally scary music video to match the minor key.

However, in both those songs, the artists transfer between major and minor keys. But, usually songs stick to one as the "home base" or tonic. This is what keeps songs interesting, as the listener journeys there and back again from tonic. Even songs like Beethoven's Sonata (better known as Moonlight Sonata) in C# minor will have parts that aren't in C# minor. There are other keys beyond major or minor, such as augmented or diminished, suspended or embellished chords, etc. But, most of them are based off the major or minor chord.

Monophony: Songs without a harmony, when a solo voice or instrument plays one note and only one note at the same time, is called Monophonic. These tend to be relatively short and rare, because without harmony, the music just isn't as interesting. Here's an example you probably know: The American National Anthem.

Homophony: The standard structure of much of today's music, homophony means there is both a obvious melody line pronounced above a harmonic, chordal accompaniment. An example of homophony is: The Doobie Brothers - China Grove (Check this vid out, this is them live from the 70s!). You can hear in this song the nearly constant guitar and bass below the singing - the melody line. When the backup singers start harmonizing or repeating the melody in the background, it adds another layer to the song.

Polyphony: Polyphony is when several voices combine, starting at different times and/or with different rhythms, to form a total-melody; all the while no one voice stands out the entire length of the song. Polyphony can be hard to find at times, as so much music is generally homophonic. But, have no fear, I have found some great polyphonic tunes. A form of polyphony is a song that "rounds" or when one voice starts before the next, but they're singing the same thing. Here's a funny round of Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Another kind of polyphony, which is just incredible to listen as well as to be a part of, is when each voice has its own unique melody, and yet, they still all combine to make a fabulous sound. I sang in a choir this year, where we sang this song: Palestrina's Sicut Cervus.

----------------
Now playing: Freezepop - Plastic Stars
via FoxyTunes

The Power of Lyrics

2008-12-13T12:10:00.000-08:00

Throughout the history of music, there have always been two obviously different genres that no one can deny their existence:
Vocal vs. Instrumental vs. Both

Yes, today, most famous music is Both vocal and instrumental. But back in the day, it wasn't always the case.

In the Middle Ages, most music was spiritual in nature and lyrics. Usually, the religion was Christianity in Europe, and the language was Latin. These songs are masses and gregorian chant, when a singer, aca pella (without instrumentation in Italian) has set pitches to words, but the rhythm was free form. Chants could go on for hours, sung every morning and night in monasteries in Medieval times.

Then, the Renaissance came, and artists decided to take more credit for their songs, and made them more strict with obvious rhythms, multiple parts, instrumentation AND music. It was revolutionary at the time... remember this is around 600 years ago!

The genres would again mix in the Late Classical/Early Romantic period when Beethoven combined (gasp...) a symphony with a choir! This is his famous Ode To Joy Symphony #9, 4th Mvmt.

However, most music before the 1900s really chose either vocal or instrumental. There certainly were the occasional accompanied choir with a piano or small ensemble, but those are generally uncommon til recent history.

In fact, it's probably the early roots of rock n roll that revolutionized music again making nearly everything have a singer and instrumentalist... such as country blues or big-band jazz with singers.

--

So, now you know the history of "lyrics" as compared to instrumental music, here's how powerful and different vocal music is to instrumental music.

Lyrics are the easist way to relate to the audience. Sure, composers can write up what they were thinking of when they wrote the song, and give suggestive names (such as Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony #6, where each movement was named something like "Scene at the brook" or "Thunderstorm")

But that is still not as discriptive as the lyrics alone. Choirs sing songs named "Aleilluia" and yes it can sound beautiful, but sometimes an audience doesn't get as much out of it as compared to a song like John Dowland "Come Again"

Lyrics must, however, relate to the audience for them to work. Lyrics' topics range as wide as there are minds in the world. There are depressed songwriters singing songs of sadness, there are angry punks screaming at the top of their lungs about the horrors of the world and politics (not safe for work), there are pop singers who express their care for a certain someone, and many lyrics praise their lords or role models. And yet, I'm not done thinking of lyric topics! Some prefer campy, cheesey lyrics that get standing ovations and there are lyrics that whose goal is to make you think, or to laugh, or to just enjoy this current moment or music. Some praise locations and some lyrics reminisce the 'old times' and there's lyrics calling their listeners to action. There are more that I am not thinking of, certainly.

The source for these lyrics can be difficult to track, as well as to come up with. Some people are naturally fantastic at making a rhyming line(NSFW) to a certain rhythm that makes sense or that's funny.

Well, there's obviously plenty of reason for lyrics. That doesn't mean I don't like instrumental music though. In fact I'd say I normally listen to more instrumental music than most people, especially for being a singer. But, being a singer I realize how great lyrics can be.

----------------
Now playing: The Parallax Corporation - Your Image (Live At The Hokkie Club)
via FoxyTunes

Explaining the Drought of Blogging

2008-12-13T11:49:00.001-08:00

As it reaches a month since my last post, I wanted to make this post for you extra special. I must be honest and say that the drought is partly due to my back has been hurting plenty for over a month, enough that it hurts to sit.... so I stand while I write this on my laptop on a stand. I don't think you'd admire my position, as I am only 20.

I, being a student at the University of Kansas, will have to take finals this upcoming week standing up for fear of sitting. Yes, I'm recovering and seeing a physical therapist, and I can sit for periods of 30 minutes with minor pain, but driving hurts and the rest of my body is fatigued just from compensation. I bend my knees and hips real low to avoid bending my back to lean down, etc. The worst is that no one point in my life injured me, it was just a combination of multiple things coalescing to be something severely painful.

So, I wanted to make a few health suggestions about backs to YOU... I am learning these life lessons right now trying to change my wrong habits, and I know I got most of those habits from seeing others doing it.

* Don't Slouch when Sitting- Sure your back will feel more relaxed as you slouch, but it will lead to some horrible pain, sometime in your life. Put a lumbar support pillow behind your back, letting your back's natural curve be supported instead of curving outwards:

see how her pelvis sticks out further than the head and shoulder-blades? That is your natural back curve. When sitting you will not have that curve, unless you sit with a small pillow between the curved part of your lower back.

* Get a good bed that isn't sunk. It's possible that this is one of the many reasons that my back "broke", as a couple months ago I had a really bad bed that was too soft that it kept the location that I slept and studied in all of one year.

* Exercise regularly and get a trainer at least to start to make sure you're doing things properly.

* Ergonize your life now, not later. Yeah I made that word up, but Ergonomics is the study of things that fit your body, such as comfy office chairs with millions of gizmos, or computer stands and foot rests. Lumbar pillows that strap to any chair are easy to find at "Relax the Back" stores or probably "Bed Bath & Beyond".

A quick expense now means you will be more comfortable, less stressed, and possibly avoid debilitating pain sometime in your life. Everyone's body deteriorates; this is the only body you get. Are you going to let it go to waste now or let it carry you for the rest of your life?

----------------
Now playing: Kenna - Be Still
via FoxyTunes

P.S. I have to give you a song or artist, no? This is still a music blog :P

Check out Michna's Magic Monday: fabulous electronic club music with a 'tude.

Album Review: General Fuzz - Soulful Filling

2008-11-12T19:56:00.000-08:00

I discovered General Fuzz, a computer-musician named James Kirsch (or JimmyK), a few weeks ago when he posted a comment on my Album Review of Air's Pocket Symphony. His tunes are very ambient and melodic. It has crazy cool IDM roots (intelligent dance music).. and was worthy of getting some publicity on my blog with an album review of his latest and greatest album...

Soulful Filling (this link will legally download the entire album for free from General Fuzz's website! Too cool, JimmyK!)

Recommended if you Like (RIYL): Air, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Four Tet, Ulrich Schnauss

Track Descriptions: (ALL INSTRUMENTAL except some vocal ooh's and ahh's)

1: eye heart knot: a great major-tonal (a.k.a. happy) introduction to the General's sound and style. It starts very melodic on sweet sounds from synths, electronic pianos and pads. You hear the active but calm percussion that creeps in, a signature of General Fuzz, especially on this album.
2: four prophets: the way eye heart knot leads right into four prophets shows how talented General Fuzz is. Although it has similar instrumentation to start, General Fuzz adds in new instruments (electronic data of these instruments at least!) and guests like violinist Ryan Avery (who appears a couple of times on this album), and some funk/disco influences later in the song. I realize another part of his classically as well as IDM influenced style is the adding of new sounds and instruments as the song progresses and then to back them off before the song ends.
3: comfort zone: This stand-alone song (and the rest of the album) is phenomenal. The harmonies are sweet, the instrumentation and feel is so powerful, and the title is perfect for its sound! It's about as comfortable as a song can get. It just moves my body to the great ambient feel. I sleep to this song because it's just incredible and relaxing at the same time. Some of these melodies are just amazing.
4: mellow drama: Melodically, General Fuzz takes some distinctly different influences. I feel like he gives us much more of an Asian and Irish bagpipe feel, but it is still the same tranquility that makes General Fuzz... General Fuzz. The guitar style, pedal effect on the bass, eastern drum sound; all this combines to make quite the eclectic sound. And it's done well.
5: warm steel: great chill music, with a slow trance feel with the bass hitting every 16th note. The percussion starts as a prominent part of the song unlike those we heard before this one, but even that percussion follows the natural shape of a musical phrase throughout the entire song in complexity (start small, build to a climax after the half point of the song and then it slowly backs away). I am thoroughly impressed with his guest, David Phillips' ability to bend pitches and slide in a musical fashion on the pedal steel guitar. This song makes you feel all warm inside :P
6: go inward: This song starts with a slow pad and a slow happy little tune. Here, General Fuzz uses some African drums and some world influence; but it's mainly just a very chill fuzzy song. One of the reoccuring melodies does sound like a marimba though.
7: starry: this spacey tune really makes you wanna just zone out and take a happy day dream flying through space. It's really enjoyable, even though it's fairly short compared to the rest of the album. Some songs just can go on longer than others.
8: second thoughts: The beat of this song has a hip-hop feel. and certainly a reggae one too (they're closely related historically). Again this features happy, major tonal music made by JimmyK. This song's title makes me give a second thought to the name of the album. You're certainly getting your fill of soul listening to this musical style.
9: walking home: Man, General Fuzz is really good at naming songs. I really can feel how great this song would be to walk home to the beat (an adante tempo for you music theorists). This has the simple instrumentation of just synths, piano, and electronic drum kit, and it still is ear candy.
10: fuzzy prayer: this two minute long song features some guests: Audio Angel on vocals and Steve Sparapani on cello. Sweet 'n solemn. No percussion and fairly calm.
11: goodbyes: Although it starts quite catchy and reminds me of some 90s pop song, it changes up the riff with its own twist. Piano, violin and happy feelings are the entire instrumentation of this song. It features only one violinist, Michele Walther, but after reading up about General Fuzz, I bet he recorded Miss Walther multiple times and layered them on top of each other using a program with tracks of mp3's running simultaneously. Cool stuff eh?

If you want any other album reviewed, ask me and I will give it a listen!

----------------
Now playing: The Sea And Cake - The Leaf
via FoxyTunes

Music Glossary Part 4

2008-10-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

A. General Music Terms
B. Genres
C. Rhythmic Definitions
D. Melodic Definitions
E. Harmonic Definitions
F. Miscellaneous (coming soon!)

D. Melodies

This blogpost is about Melodies and common terms discussing the most singable part of a song: it's melody.

You know what a melody is, even if you haven't heard of that word before. A melody is the tune that makes the song easily identifiable, usually in the highest pitched instrument (soprano, flute, violin, guitar, etc). A melody you probably know is Ode To Joy or the incredibly famous riff of Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple.

--

Melodic Terms:

Phrasing: For something to be musical, it must move the listener. This is done by what is called phrasing. A phrase is much like a sentence in language; it has a beginning, an end, some necessary components and it's fairly obvious where a phrase moves. This phrasing is accomplished by the joint efforts of musicians and the composer of a song. A melody tends to lead throughout a phrase. When a melody is patterning and repeating, it probably marks the start of a new phrase. Listen to songs and try to feel when the song is about to relax and reach an endpoint (~period/exclamation point/question mark in a sentence), and notice how it starts again.

The most common phrasing technique is to start a phrase low in pitch, and a low volume. This phrase will generally grow to a climax slightly past halfway (highest point in pitch and volume) and then it will fall down to lead the next phrase in. A great phrase will lead directly into the next, or it will be a true "cadence" or endpoint for a song. I'll explain cadences more in Part 5 of the glossary about Harmonies.

Here are a few songs that phrase extremely well:
Blue Man Group - Rods and Cones : count 1 2 3 4 2 2 3 4 3 2 3 4 4 2 3 4. Here you're counting the measures, and the most common phrase in all music: 4 measures/phrase. Do you notice that things in this song seem to reset and yet add a new sound on every 1st measure of the phrase?
Francis Scott Key - Star Spangled Banner : again, this has 4 measure phrasing. Sing along with the words, here's where each phrase ends (marked with P): O say, can you see P, by the dawn's early light P,
What so proudly we hail'd P at the twilight's last gleaming? P, etc.

Dynamics
Dynamics are how loud or soft a song gets (I.e. it's ever-changing volumes). No famous song is all loud or all soft; even if the composer didn't write it in, there are some assumed dynamics to follow, using the phrasing of the song, and the natural occurrence that as a pitch gets higher, it gets louder (the same is true for lower/softer).

Dynamics range from:
Pianissimo (very quiet) [pp]
Piano (quiet) [p]
Mezzo Piano (kinda quiet) [mp]
Mezzo Forte (kinda loud) [mf]
Forte (loud) [f]
Fortissimo (very loud) [ff]

Although there are cases of [ppp] "pianississimo" or [fff] "fortississimo", these are rare. Also, of note, these markings are usually relative: in a somber and sweet song, when it says forte, it could be the instrument's mezzo forte volume in a louder march or symphony. Here's a song by Muse that has phenomenal dynamics, and huge contrasts between louds and softs; it starts quiet, and the choruses get to be pretty spirited. Of course, much music today has a huge amount of "compression" on the song, so even though they're playing quietly or loudly, the actual volume varies only slightly. It "squeezes" down the extreme volumes so the listener doesn't have to switch back and forth between reducing and gaining volume when the song switches volume. However, live music tends to lack compression. Here's a Mozart song that has some really obvious dynamic changes.

----------------
Now playing: Aphex Twin - Hy A Scullyas Lyf A Dhagrow
via FoxyTunes

Album Review: Air - Pocket Symphony

2008-10-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

This post will be a review of the album Pocket Symphony by Air.

Cover of Pocket Symphony

About the band: Air is a French duo, which is literally an acronym for the words Amour, Imagination and Rêve, or Love, Imagination, and Dream. Their music tends to be electronic, and downtempo. Influences could be Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream.

About the album: This album came out in March 2007. The most famous song is Once Upon a Time. This is a much chiller side of Air than normal. Some people could call it "boring" but I don't believe that it is. Some songs are a little more interesting than others though.

About the tracks:
1: Space Maker: This introduction is instrumental. With several interesting sounds, including guitar, random percussion, pianos and synthesizers, strings and much more. This is a very chill song and sets the mood nicely for this album.
2: Once Upon A Time: Yes, this was their single from this album, and supposedly their most famous track. Honestly I feel that the song gets a little repetitious, but it still deserves a listen. This song has a glockenspiel, vocals, haunting piano and strings, and several other electronic sounds.
3: One Hell of A Party: This fairly slow song and superb vocals done by Jarvis Cocker (in Pulp, the members of Air's first band together) is incredible. I imagine it would be amazing to play during cleaning up after a big party, hungover. So surreal and well, incredible.
4: Napalm Love: A great little song, and much more upbeat than most of the album. It has JB (Jean-Benoî) Dunckel, Air's lead female singer providing the main melody.
5: Mayfair Song: An awesome chill song, this song is mainly instrumental, and has some crazy cool sounds. The piano is the same haunting-and-still-interestingly-happy style that Air uses plenty in this album. The riffs are spectacular in piecing together an interesting melody.
6: Left Bank: If you like Elliott Smith or John Vanderslice, you'll probably like this song. Very moving acoustic guitar and pure vocals. This is actually one of their least electronic songs that I've heard. Still is great.
7: Photograph: This is an excellent example of most of the album's feel, as it is chill electronic with various percussion and guitar. This is the male singer of Air, Nicholas Godin, singing at first. The harmony between Nicholas and JB, later, is common in Air's sound. Decent, but there are better tracks on this album.
8: Mer du Japon: This upbeat song features Japanese instruments such as the koto. The singing and piano provide the Air "haunt" and the fast beat keeps you rockin on and on to this song.
9: Lost Message: This song is a little sleep-inducing, which may be a great thing for you to listen to after a long day. But, this may be a little too slow for your tastes.
10: Somewhere Between Waking and Sleeping: This singer is again a guest singer, Neil Hannon. This is a decent chill guitar/piano/vocals combination. It sounds classical at times.
11: Redhead Girl: Redhead Girl is an amazing song. Perhaps this is the best track on Pocket Symphony, in my opinion. You can hear awesome sounds that are nearly impossible to identify. Thankfully, wikipedia.org lists the parts for us: vocals, rhodes, synthesizers, piano, voice pad, guitars, bass, memory moog, wind chimes, glockenspiel and koto. Talk about an eclectic mix. This is on the downtempo side of Air, and certainly fits the Pocket Symphony mindset.
12: Night Sight: This is perhaps the slowest and most chill song on this album. I have this song in my "sleepy" playlist to help me fall asleep every night. It's awesome, just recognize the name of the song does include "night" in the word... and perhaps you shouldn't listen when driving :P

So there you have it. Check out this artist, even if you only like the faster songs on this album. Here's some awesome songs from their other albums.
Air - Alpha Beta Gaga
Air - Don't Be Light
Air - Run
----------------
Now playing: Crystal Castles - Black Panther
via FoxyTunes

Music Glossary (Part 3)

2008-10-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

This is the third section of the Music Glossary, Definitions of Rhythmic Terms.
To read the other Glossary sections, check out:
A. General Music Terms
B. Genres
C. Rhythmic Definitions
D. Melodic Definitions
E. Harmonic Definitions
F. Miscellaneous (coming soon!)

C. Rhythmic Definitions

Rhythm is the part of music that makes you dance, whether it be a slow lyrical hand glide to the groovin' tap on the foot, the song's rhythm moves you. Rhythm is how sound is produced through time. Songs can be "rhythmic" or "arrhythmic", and I will explain them both below, once you know some basic Rhythm terminology.

Beat: Most music that you hear has a beat to it. These beats can range from the slowest of around 35 beats per minute up to over 200 BPM (like your heartbeat!) In fact, the main reason for this range of beats is because if a song truly moves you, your heart can follow the "beat" with its own. Do you wonder why as you age and your heartrate goes down, you tend to not like super fast songs? Perhaps the beat is too hard for your body to meet the tempo.

Tempo: the actual BPM (beats per minute) of the song right then. In music, A Tempo means go back to the original speed the song started with.

Rhythmic Accent: There are multiple kinds of accents, but the most common one is that of rhythmic accents. This is when a patterned sound is louder, or at least more announced, because of how it falls in the meter.

Meter: One of the hardest things to describe, especially to the "newbie" musician, is that of Meter. Basically, your ear can recognize what the composer intended for the rhythm to fall within, using accents and the feel of the musician. At the roots, any meter is usually Duple, meaning that there are generally 2 (or a multiple of 2) beats per measure (the meter), or Triple, meaning 3 beats per measure. Although there are occasionally 5 or 7 beats per measure, that is uncommon in much of what we hear today.

Duple Meter examples: Most Rock, Famous Marches ()
Triple Meter examples: Classical Waltzes, Some new rock like Ben Folds' Narcolepsy ()

The way you can tell if something has a duple or triple meter is by the accented sounds. In steady, rhythmic music, each beat will be fairly easy to identify with a slightly emphasized feel. For example, Rock music has 4 beats per measure that you can feel "boom boom boom boom" before the drum pattern repeats, with accents on 2 and 4. dum DAT dum DAT. Classical music has accents on 1 and 3 when in duple meter, and just on 1 in triple meter. In that waltz, watch the composer's hand as he gives the 1st beat of each measure.

The reason music can be confusing, is that the Ben Folds example I posted earlier could be both a duple or a triple meter. This is called a compound meter. If you count the quick 1 2 3 1 2 3 in the piano each as a measure, which it certainly could fit into the accent set, it would be triple. But, if you count each one of those triplets as a third of the beat, and do a slow one.... two.... three.... four..... There's 4 beats or a duple meter. This is probably closest to a 12/8 meter. The more you are listening for the meter the more you will feel it. Watching musicians or conductors help a ton at identifying the meter.
--

Rhythmic: A song is rhythmic if the meter rarely changes. The beat is easy to follow, and the song is easy to bob your head to and know when the next beat will come in. Here's an example: Modus Operandi by Photek.

Arrythmic: This could be considered a misnomer: Arrythmic music still has rhythm, but the feel of the song is consantly changing before you can get into a groove. Here's a "less rhythmic song" but as I listened to it, I could find a beat: it was just a little challenging to identify. And here's practically a true arrhythmic song's introduction by Steve Miller Band (but the song is certainly rhythmic).

(More) Complex terms in music:
Largo: very slowly
Adante: a slow, "walking speed". tends to be around 80-100 bpm
Adantino: medium-slow speed. Slightly faster than Adante
Moderato: medium speed. no faster than 120 bpm is a good rule of thumb (2 beats a second)
Allegretto: medium-fast
Allegro: fast. upbeat. 120-170 bpm
Presto: very fast. 160-200 bpm
Ritardando: gradually slow down
Accelerando: gradually speed up
Rubato: free with the tempo. Bends and swells of the beat to move with the music. Common in Jazz leads and choral music.

Stay tuned for the next part of the music glossary! Feel free to ask me if you do not understand a term. By the way, here's an awesome song I was listening as I wrote this blogpost:
If You Were There, Beware by Arctic Monkeys.

And this is an amazing song that I listened to as I edited this post:
----------------
Now playing: Dream Theater - Octavarium <-- this song is both rhythmic and arrythmic. As a Prog rock song, it changes tempo often. But, it tends to groove long enough at one so you can feel each rhythm for its own life. via FoxyTunes

iTunes is now Intelligent! It's Genius!

2008-09-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

If you haven't updated your iTunes yet in the last week or two, I highly recommend doing so. Because the newest addition to the all-powerful music player can not only impress you, it will help you discover new music related to what you own and like.

This new thing is Genius. No I don't mean that it's amazingly awesome and smart (although it is), the name of the addon is "Genius". Genius has basically 3-4 new features (all optional to use of course) and they're all awesome! Once you go through a slightly lengthy process for Genius to aquire data about your libary (so the more music you have, the longer the wait),

1: The Genius Button () is found at the bottom right of your iTunes. This super-button will generate awesome playlists of your own music using related songs to whatever you have selected. You can save the playlist for later with a button provided by Genius. These playlists tend to be fairly smart, and even for underground music! I put a highly jazz influenced electronic song (and not a very well known artist, NOMO) into Genius, and it popped up with some of my favorite modern jazz, as well as some synthy dance songs. It recognized NOMO's eclectica sound and provided me with some of my own songs that I already had (and perhaps not listened to, yet).

2: The Genius Sidebar (turn it on/off with ) has two very nice features. Whatever song you have selected pops up categories. It gives you recommended songs and albums of that artist's, that "You're Missing".

3: Lastly, the Sidebar will have recommended songs based on the selected song, and you get the 30 seconds from iTunes Store. This is definitely an easy way to explore new music based on what you have already.

If you want more recommended songs based on a selected song in your iTunes, check out the similar iLike's sidebar, downloadable at iLike.com/download.

----------------
Now playing: Ride - Ride The Wind
via FoxyTunes

Music Glossary (Part 2)

2008-09-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

A. General Music Terms
B. Genres
C. Rhythmic Definitions
D. Melodic Definitions
E. Harmonic Definitions
F. Miscellaneous (coming soon!)

B. Genres

Classical Genres
As I mentioned before, in the Music Vocabulary Glossary (Part 1), What many non-musicians consider "classical music" encompasses more genres than just "Classical".
Music Historians classify "classical music" based on trends in the style of performance and instrumentation through time. The earliest "classical music" could be considered:
Medieval music (Gregorian Chant) (500-1400): During the Medieval times, music consisted of primarily Gregorian Chant, which was generally one part vocal chanting used for the celebration of Mass. Gregorian Chant is the oldest known written form of music. It tends to look like so:

Renaissance Music (1400-1600): Although Renaissance Music is influenced by Gregorian Chant, it marks the end of the trend of single-part vocal music. Greensleeves is a common Renaissance song, and fits the style extremely well.
Baroque Period (1600 – 1760): Baroque means "misshapen pearl", and that sorta fits into the sound of this music. The most famous baroque composers were Vivaldi, Handel and J.S. Bach. The harpsichord (a "plucking the string" piano instead of a string struck by a hammer) was commonly used in this era, as well as the performance of ornamentation. Ornaments include trills and tremolos to add interest to a long note. Vivaldi's Four Seasons is a perfect example of Baroque Music.
Classical Period (1600 – 1760): Classical music is the quintessential beautiful polyphonic melodies with an extreme structure, even each movement of a symphony had a set style and beat it required. The piano was invented and became a common solo instrument; Mozart wrote during the middle of the Classical Period and Beethoven marks the transition between Classical music and the next... Romantic Period.
Romantic Period (1815 – 1910): Wagner and Tchaikovsky are big names from the Romantic Period. Most romantic music was the anti-classical, although some still followed a similar structure during this time. Composers like Berlioz made the ensemble bigger than ever with new instruments. Romantic music tends to be very emotional and expressive of feelings.
Contemporary Period (1900s-today?): For lack of a better term, any music made since the Romantic period that is still in the "Classical style" is considered contemporary. This is the catch-all miscellaneous category of classical music.With such a wide variety of instruments, styles, and melody influences, no one theme explains every quality, although much of contemporary music tends to be "unique" to say the least.
Now, there are tricks using recording and digital audiomakers, crazy arrythmic and yet at the same time in-rhythm (phasing) songs (read about this video and the comments) and even silent pieces, in the pursuit of musicians thinking up something new.

Folk Music
Every nation has its own Folk music. These tend to be melodies that someone growing up in that world feels is familiar and recognize from their childhood, as well as its influences on popular music.
Examples:
American: Shenendoah
Eastern European: Bratislava
Folk Music have had rebirths and became "popular" even in the last century. Ex. Mamas and the Papas

Rock Music
I took a History of Rock and Roll Class last year, and the best definition for what rock music is simple, and this broad definition probably labels a majority of all music made today as rock:
Rock has two components, and usually both can be found in the drums and/or rhythm instruments.
1: The song has an accent on beats 2 and 4 (as opposed to the usual for classical music, accents on 1 and 3). This gives a feel that the song is always rockin and leadin to the next part, as there seemingly is no conclusion (or cadence) as it gets to 4.
2: The song has an 8-beat style beat. This means a pattern of 8 beats can be found within each measure, and considering that each measure has the accent on 2 and 4, it produces a sound like this: dum dum PAT dum dum dum PAT dum dum dum PAT etc.
Early Rock:
Little Richard - Tutti Frutti
Classic Rock: This is actually a radio genre, and is very subjective (as if any other genre isn't? :/ ) Basically, classic rock tends to be at least 10 years old and tends to be the big hits. Ex. Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo - Rick Derringer
Punk: Punk tends to be anti-society, and found its roots in garage rock. However, late 90s found that even Punk Rockers were "selling out" their sound to big name record companies. Punk kings Green Day certainly have their attitude, although their last album did disappoint several fans. The Punk sound tends to be full of active and fast drums, tends to follow a similar rock song-structure of verse/chorus. The lyrics were usually along the lines of I hate authority, I wanna do what I want.
Grunge: Early 90s music featured the grunge music scene: grunge tended to be a little in your face, but also calmness with an edge. Ex. Smashing Pumpkins 1979
Metal: This tends to be loud, screaming, fast, anti-life and culture music spawned from the 80s. Metal has its own sub-genres, but basically to the untrained ear, they all sound fairly similar: sorta like this: All That Remains - Six.
Pop Rock: This genre has been around since the Beatles first did it with songs like Eight Days A Week. Today Pop rock sounds much the same, if not with some more electronic synthesizers instead of an orchestra.
Prog Rock: Progressive rock starts out slow and/or quiet, possibly the most chill and classical-sounding, and then halfway through, the song gets into a whole new groove as it goes through a crazy solo that progresses from groove to groove. Once one has been worn out a bit, the song'll speed up or slow down, add an extra beat here and there, and basically keep unpredictable unless you've heard the song before. Prog rockers Dream Theater do it better than anyone else I've heard. (start at like 3:00 to see the transition)
Electronic Rock: Nowadays, nearly every guitar goes through some effects and sounds and synthesizers, to make the exact sound the musician wants. Most could fall under an umbrella genre of Electronic Rock. However, there are several types of Electronic rock beyond that. There are fully electronic songs that have the standard rock beat through much of the song, compared to a normal rock song and ensemble (guitar, bass, drums, voice) with electronic editing and sound bites.

Electronic Music:
Electronic is another umbrella genre, because, all it requires is that some form of electronics was used to make the song. Therefore, only "acoustic" songs featuring a mic next to an instrument or voice could be considered un-electronic (albeit the microphone would be electronic amplification)
But, there are still other genres that are more specific and unique to electronic music.
Techno: The roots of much electronic music comes from early techno. The normal techno song has each on-beat (1 and 3) hit, while the off beats (2 and 4) get an accented sound. These patterns tend to be very fast in techno. Early techno sounded a little like Basshunter - Boten Anna. Techno is commonly labled as House, and as far as I can see, there isn't much difference. All of it is club dance music.
Trance: Oftentimes confused with techno, but merely it is just influenced by techno. Trance tends to have a 16 beat style beat (meaning every 16th note in a measure is portrayed by something, usually a bass synth or drum), and an accent on each beat (so you get the sound of BOM beh deh deh BOM beh deh deh BOM beh deh deh, etc. Trance tends to be very fast as well, and very good dance music. Oftentimes, Trance is considered "progressive trance", as it goes in and out of the beat and intensity alternating with some calm parts. Psy GOA TRANCE is a good example.
Downtempo (aka Ambience): Downtempo electronica is the opposite of trance and techno, as they tend to be slower and calmer. Downtempo electronic music can sound like anything, and there are plenty of varieties of it in the world already. A lot of good music can be classified as ambient electronica. Here's a few of my favorites:
Aphex Twin - Xtal
Four Tet rmx of Skttrbrain (Radiohead Orig.)
Everything in between downtempo and trance can be unclassifiable, or could fall into many genres. Examples of this include Infected Mushroom's Converting Vegetarians or Ratatat's Mirando.

I will add another post for jazz, blues, or any other genre I can name. Stay tuned for more Music Glosssary!

----------------
Now playing: Aphex Twin - Start As You Mean To Go On
via FoxyTunes

Music Vocabulary Glossary (Part 1)

2008-09-12T18:42:00.000-07:00

So I figured that I sometimes use terms without an example, EVERY time I use the word, because it is just a part of music vernacular. However, I realize that some readers do not know all the little words I use to describe and explain music. Therefore, here is a little glossary of music-related terms that I or someone else may use. These of course are subject to opinion (such as what is considered techno or jazz, or if patterns in music are riffs or motifs), but I say these as generalities, and I appreciate any rebuttal to my definitions.

I will add more terms and edit those after discussion if need be.

Lastly, please check out the links. I use them as examples, but they also are just links to great music! Just right click to open in a new window or tab.

---

Table of Categories

A. General Music Terms
B. Genres
C. Rhythmic Definitions
D. Melodic Definitions
E. Harmonic Definitions
F. Miscellaneous (coming soon!)

---

A. General Music Terms

Music: Sounds that fall within time, generally consisting of a rhythm and melody. An example of non-music is very culture-driven. Some cultures identify religious chanting to not be music, whereas others believe that nearly everything can be music.
Rhythm: How the sounds fall within time, such as if it is fast, slow, tempo-changing or even a rest.
Melody: The way pitches form, a melody is just what you hear when someone whistles a tune, unaccompanied.
Harmony: When multiple pitches are played at the same time. Here is an example of some singers harmonizing. Generally its considered the under notes supporting a melody, but that is not always the case. Music can be polyphonic.
Tempo: how fast or slow a song goes, and how often the beat strikes per minute. 60 bpm is one beat each second.
Rests: Music is all about the form of sound among time. However, it would just be a continuous noise if there weren't rests, or silence. Sheet Music marks a rest with a symbol like this:

Composer: Song Writer
Classical Music: I do not mean the genre in this definition. there are two ways people classify classical music. Either by the centennial names such as "Baroque, Classical, or Romantic", or that it's just plain "Classical". Classical music is basically anything that requires a high deal of attention to detail, and complexities in the performance of the piece, and is not new (hence the term classical). Classical Instrumentation doesn't always relate to classical music, i.e. the violins found in Infected Mushroom's Elevation or Goo Goo Dolls' Better Days.
Motif: Reoccuring musical pattern in classical music, similar to Riffs. Ex: Ode To Joy by Beethoven.
Riffs: Patterns in Rock and today's music. Ex: Warewolves of London by Warren Zevon in the piano.

I will post the next sections later. Any questions/comments? post and I'll respond.

----------------
Now playing: Len - Steal My Sunshine
via FoxyTunes

Music doesn't have to be Complex

2008-09-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

Some of the best music in the world is actually very simple. Sure, the musicianship and quality of work to develop these melodies require energy, time, and an uncommon talent of music-writing... But, at the heart of so much music is a simple little pattern, or riff. These patterns are combined with other patterns, riffs and melodies throughout the song. Of course, several artists add a modulation or two to these patterns to keep the music interesting and lengthen each song. However, the sound remains similar throughout most songs.

The simplicity of music can be found in all types of genres, although not every artist uses simplicity (in fact some try to avoid it!). But.. for the most part, musicians combine simple ideas, and although the product can sound complex, the base foundation of so many songs are easy to follow, and well... simple!

Examples of simple classical music:
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) - Gradual
This song has four voices, and although they are not doing parallel motion in rhythm and pitch, each voice is simple. It sounds more complex simply from the combination of the voices working with each other. The song is very consonant, as in each chord sounds pretty and sweet. A good explanation of consonance versus its opposite, dissonance, is that major triads sound consonant and minor chords are more dissonant. Very close notes stacked upon each other such as the eight-part There Will Be Rest by Frank Ticheli is very consonant. There Will Be Rest is an example of more complex music composition.
Joseph M. Martin (still alive) - The Awakening
The harmonies of this song is very simple. I sang this song in my first and second year at the University of Kansas, and it was a quick learn for the notes and melody. It's very predictable in the melody. However, since it's simple to learn, the performers can expand it musically, by bending the tempo, expressing a wide range of dynamics, and of course, it has a sweet and serene build-up to a big crashing, ringing cadence to put the cap on any show.
Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata
Even though this may not be terribly simple to play on the piano, it still sounds simple. There is a difference between complex and challenging, and simple can be used as the antonym for both. When I refer to simple in this blog, I refer to being not complex. Beethoven was "riffing" well before Led Zeppelin ever was.

Examples of simple rock music:
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Simple Man
I know you probably think I just picked this song cause it had "simple" in the name. Well, you're partially correct. Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote this song to be such a laid back and easy to follow song. The drums are slow, easy, and just set the tone for the entire song. Real... Simple... Man!
Voxtrot - Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives
Voxtrot is extremely talented at making simple music that just kicks butt. Although this video was the only one I could find of this song that wasn't live and it has that extra skateboard sound, you can still hear the quality of simple, upbeat and relaxed music that made Voxtrot become semi-famous.

I figured in rock music, I could post tons of options, because well, Rock IS simple. It's so simple that 11 year olds can make some killer metal/rock songs, such as Crooked X's Nightmare. (Yes, they're still in junior high school!) Rock is practically based on having riffs organized in a similar order of songs, you probably recognize the words, verse, pre-chorus and chorus, as nearly every rock song fits within that form.

Heck, even electronica can be simple:
Eskimo - Party Pooper
Sure, the sounds themselves are very complex, unique and probably required plenty of time to find exactly what sound the artist intended, but trance is fairly simple. Having that same rhythm in the bass throughout most of the piece is commonplace in trance. Then, the beat follows an 8 measure of 8 beats pattern, just like many electronic trance songs. When you hear the drums or bass add a little stutter in the rhythm to keep it interesting, count like this on the beat: One two three four five six seven eight Two two three four five six seven eight Three two three etc. The bolded number going up is the measure count. In the Eighth measure, there tends to be a quick added beat that quickly dies out the song only to expand afterward. This simple pattern is what gives the audience a comfort level and lets them predict what is about to happen. The better trance-artists keep it interesting by going back and forth through many melodies and adding sound effects such as echo, reverb, or flanger. Also, you can probably hear the riffs within this song coming in and out.
Ratatat - Falcon Jab
This band makes electronica that sometimes rocks. Using riffs in each part, they make some crazy awesome music. This is currently the number one-played artist in the rotation for the radio station I DJ for, KJHK, Student run radio.
Bent - Private Road
I fell in love with this band recently, because of their simple riffs and yet such a beautiful complexity as they combine together. The singer is amazing, too. Also, not every song of theirs fits this style, although it seems to be their favorite type of music to make, because their album Programmed to Love is full of downtempo, sweet singing, and rock n electronica mix.

If that wasn't enough un-complex music for you, here's a few more I'd recommend:
Stone Temple Pilots - Big Empty
Doobie Brothers - Dangerous
Air - Once Upon A Time
Blues Traveler - Hook

----------------
Now playing: Jurassic 5 - Blacktop Beat
via FoxyTunes

Radio Stations Play Too Much Rock

2008-08-22T14:43:00.001-07:00

Although it may just be the radio stations that I have programmed in my car, I feel that radio stations play too much rock. I understand that rock is the quintessential music of today in America, but that doesn't mean we need so many stations that only play rock! Being a DJ for a radio station that has the tagline of "sound alternative", I try to not sound like every other radio station: I try to play other styles of music, including but not limited to jazz, blues, trance, ambient down-tempo electronica, and other diverse styles from around the world.

If you ever hear yourself stating this blogpost's title, you may need to change your radio stations. I found that so much of music today is "rock n roll" as in the accented 1 2 3 4 beats in the drum part. Between hip hop songs having a rock beat, (like Jurassic 5's What's Golden) and pop like John Mayer's Waiting for the World to Change, and even including most country songs like Sheryl Crow's Soak up the Sun, every style of music I hear continues the riffy style of rock n roll, including the accented backbeat.

There's this one radio station out of Lawrence, KS, called 105.9 the Lazer.... And their tagline is "The station that defines variety"... and yet, EVERY SONG they play has a rock beat! How can it define variety when the feel of each song is "boom Chick, boom Chick?"

Therefore, as a representative of the true sound alternative radio station and variety of sound, I promise to play very little rock n roll on my dj shift, my first one of this season tonight, midnight to 2am Saturday mornings CST. Of course, the occasional rock beat will sneak by as a request or a song that still is unique in some other way.

Examples of Non-Rock-Beat songs from recent history that I recommend:
Squarepusher - Go Spastic (jazz influenced spastic and sparce electronica)
Fieldwork - ?? (Modern psychedelic jazz)
1200 Micrograms - Language of the Future (trance about today's technology being "the future")
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - Earth Jam (jazz)
Foo Fighters - Another Round (3/4 [possibly 6/8] time signature makes this normally rock band... not rock)

I'm okay with some rock beat songs but when it's not obviously rock, and not the entire time, like:
Autechre - Basscadubmx (a very chill remix that I fall asleep to)
Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy (Builds up to greatness like any other IDM song)
GMS and Eskimo - GMS-Kimo (Progressive trance, one of my faves)
Radiohead - Sit Down, Stand Up (psychedelic pseudo rock)

And of course, you can always go back to the classics, before rock was ever around:
Aaron Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man (contemporary classical Americana)
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane - In a Sentimental Mood (jazz)
Leadbelly? - House of the Rising Sun (classic, delta blues) or that's too slow for you, try Bob Dylan's version.

----------------
Now playing: Stereo MC's - Rhino Part II
via FoxyTunes

What makes Classical Music so special?

2008-08-04T15:03:00.000-07:00

I mean no offense to any classically trained composer and performer, as I have studied classical music for a good majority of my life. However, it seems that most people are actually more interested in newer, simpler, and catchier songs with a rock beat (1 2 3 4 1 2 etc.) (as opposed to the classical style of accents on the 1st and 3rd beats of each 4 beat measure 1 2 3 4 1 2 etc. or in a waltz, just on the 1st beat of three 1 2 3 1 2 3)... Is rock the anti-classical music? I'd like to think not.

Just as American musicians in the mid twentieth century combined elements of jazz to classical music (ex. Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin), so too can today's musicians add their element of rock to classical music. I do not mean Classic Rock, the radio genre of solid rock n roll; I mean a new genre I like to call Classical Rock. Examples that can fall in this category include:

Guns N Roses - Patience : This song has a sweet and familiar melody to you for some reason... it's classical influences of course! If you feel the accent, you'll find it on the first beat of nearly every measure, although occasionally it goes into a little bit of rock feel too with the guitar. This mix makes up lots of classical rock ballads. Guns N Roses were amazing at classical influences. Check out their November Rain too if you haven't heard it before.

Dream Theater - Forsaken : This song may not sound like a classical song, but there is certainly a feel of classical music to the song. They have lots of classical instrumentation; This is a harder rock example of classical rock. These dudes went to classically training facilities before becoming rockers.

Radiohead - Paranoid Android : Again, the classical roots are hard to hear, but its most obvious in the creepier bridge and other various parts of the song structure. The idea of starting big, suddenly quieting down and changing tempo and/or key, and building the song up before repeating a major theme one last time is very classical in nature. Beethoven did that well before The Doors were born.

--

Okay... so classical music still does influence music today, but the standard beat seems to have been lost, at least in most younger generations. Many find jazz and classic blues to be too boring, much less 3 century-old music without a backbeat. But it is obvious that very talented musicians still feature themes, riffs, and styles of songs within rock music. In fact, many famous rock riffs derive from just a small alteration on some folk tune or classical masterpiece... because they just sound familiar to our ears, and have just been passed down one alteration at a time from one influence to another.

That still brings me to the question of what makes classical music so special... My simple answer: The musician's quality of skill to play many of these songs are extremely impressive. Examine the video of a Cello concerto by Dvorak. Skip to like halfway through to see the cellist. This is more impressive than any guitar solo I've ever seen, because remember, the cellist doesn't have FRETS! He has to remember using tactile and auditory queues where his notes are. Concertos are generally fully memorized, tend to be about 30 minutes long, and of course, the song mainly features that one cellist, so he doesn't get many breaks.

--

The more complex answer to the topic would be simply a self-fufilling prophecy: These classical melodies and masterpieces have been around and played by so many musicians and heard by so many audiences for such a long time. They're just classic; there are countless reviews of classical music, from the first day the music was heard and more every day. It's just a part of our history and society, such ingrained in our ears that it sounds familiar, friendly, and always what a musician wants to strive for... good music that everyone likes.

Historically, this music was popular in Europe before and during Europe's practical outstretched goal to be powerful around the world. Paper music from the 1500s is practically the earliest form of music to accurately replay a song nearly the same as the artist intended. Basically, it was all that we have to study for past music, with a structure and replay-ability.

These classical artists have influenced us more than we know, because they spanned a long chain of music influence passed down from one ear to the next. Rock... is only 60 years old. Baroque music (18th century) like Vivaldi has been heard for over 300 years!

--

I'll end this post with a link to two of my songs I classify as classical rock:
Avi Morgenstern - Eden
Avi Morgenstern - Lullaby

----------------
Now playing: Christopher Hogwood; Academy Of Ancient Music - Music For The Royal Fireworks, Bouree And La Rejouissance
(composed by Frederick Handel)
via FoxyTunes

Seether Concert Notes

2008-08-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

So, this last week I went to see Seether with a group of friends on a road trip just a few hours away. It was an amazing experience. Yes, Seether rocked our socks off, but really, I was actually more impressed with the first opener band, Sick Puppies. They tended to start quiet then get some rockin grooves. An awesome song of theirs was a hard rock cover of Destiny's Child Say My Name. This live version is gritty and loud but a great hard rock cover. The cover starts at like 1:23. Not safe for work or those easily offended.

This concert was energetic and fun. The elderly were scarce, but I still saw a variety and a fairly large range of ages. The only complaint I had was the long changes between each band, and the 2nd band was pretty bad, and hyped up their music only to sorta suck.

Some of my favorite songs from the night on Seether's set were amazing. Their harmonies and energy for the harder songs are entertaining; their chill songs are so moving.
Seether - Fake It (uncensored)
Seether - Fine Again
Seether - Broken (with Amy Lee from Evanescence)

Here's some other artists in the same style as Seether and Sick Puppies:
Evanescence - Call Me When You're Sober
Three Days Grace - I Hate Everything About You
Tool - Schism
Foo Fighters - The Pretender

I identify this genre as sort of a post grunge and with modern-electronic guitar manipulation harder rock, generally with cleaner vocals but occasionally screaming at climaxes. These songs tend to be minor and chromatic, and tend to fit the "standard" rock song formula... usually a quiet intro, verse, chorus; possibly an instrumental with vocal hiccups before the next verse, chorus, solo or build up bridge, quick stop time of some quieter section to blast at the biggest chorus, twice, and finally to die at the end. This has been prevalent in rock music since the classics, I believe many credit Led Zeppelin to be the first to formulate that build.

----------------
Now playing: Bent - Always Part 1
via FoxyTunes <--- foxytunes keeps bugging up my firefox, so I don't use it much more. Hopefully they'll add a new version of it soon.

80s Music Continued... The Electronic Roots

2008-07-17T13:20:00.000-07:00

This blog-post is a continuation of my last post, in that I'm describing the way the 80s music paved the way and developed into what music we hear today. My last post explored more of the rock music from the 80s, and how that led to 90s and millennium rock; while this one will explore the electronic music makers before we knew what we could possibly do with them.

Generally, very strange sounds that have never heard before can be heard in today's trance, techno and other electronic genres. The first strange sounds that musicians could make with electronic help were pedal effects, and keyboard sounds, which were very prevalent in the 80s, take for example:
Take on Me by Aha
Don't You Want Me... Baby? by Human League

Techno and trance beats finds its roots from the 80s. Here's my proof:
New Order - Blue Monday : this drum beat sounds just like a slow version of techno from the 90s and today: compare that with DHT's techno version of Listen to your Heart.
Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Right Round (like a Record) : This song features much of a 16-beat stylebeat, which combined with on-beat accents sounds very similar to trance beats. Compare to the 16 beats of Acid for Nothing (remix of Money for Nothing) done by 1200 Micrograms.

Chill electronic and drum and bass electronica finds its roots in the 80s too:
Compare M.A.R.R.S. - Pump up the Volume, 1987 to The Chemical Brothers' Salmon Dance
or compare Rob Base and DJ EZ rock - It Takes Two and Paul van Dyk's We are Alive

Basically, we may not like it, but if it weren't for the dorky, nerdy 80s artists, our music wouldn't be close to what it is today. I hope this should give you enough reason to give 80s music another try, now that the anti-80s have passed.

----------------
Now playing: Eskimo - Gms-Kimo
via FoxyTunes

How 80s music influenced today's rock

2008-07-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

Yes... I know that many people make fun of the 80s music. However, plenty of people today give 80s artists plenty of credit and enjoy enough 80s music. Even though it can get a little old, I enjoy the occasional 80s song mixed with other genres.

However, this blog-post is not just relishing 80s music gems.... I will show you why I believe that 80s music led to the current unique rock music that we all listen to nowadays, and that it is important to remember the 80s and its influence, just like it is important to remember the roots of a genre (like that blues and jazz are the roots of rock and hip hop)

Okay, I know that rock music in the 80s differs completely than 70s rock and is just as equally different from the 90s. However, the transfer between 70s rock like Lynyrd Skynyrd's Simple Man to 90s' Goo Goo Dolls' Slide probably came from the prevalent 80s bands like Dire Straits... give a listen to Money for Nothing. Sure the Dire Straits' music video is totally goofy as we look back at it, but it was impressive back then. Check out other goofy styled music videos from more modern days: Chili Peppers' Can't Stop, Nickleback's Rockstar... etc. It isn't anything new in the 80s either. Here's ELO in the 70s.

Another side of rock that went through the transition throughout the years (from the 70s to 90s, happening to cross the 80s at some time) was the harder styled rock... The seventies transitioned into 80s Van Halen'ites from bands like Journey, and led to punk artists like Blink 182 in the 90s.

Lastly, pop rock expanded tremendously from 70s' Fleetwood Mac to 80s' Duran Duran, Blondie... etc. leading to Michael Jackson, 90s Boy Bands, and even electropop of today.

More Great 80s rock videos:
Wang Chung - Everybody have Fun Tonight
Devo - Whip It .... okay that's REALLY goofy
Talking Heads - Burning Down the House
Billy Idol - White Wedding

----------------
Now playing: Dire Straits - The Man's Too Strong
via FoxyTunes

Eclectic Music: Touching and Crossing Musical Borders

2008-07-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

Artists can always find new techniques by crossing genres and mixing their style of music with something else. Prime examples of these cross-genre/musical border musicians are the Gorillaz.

The Gorillaz do not have one set genre. You have old-school style of rap songs like Rock the House compared to their more rock n' roll style songs like in El Mañana. Again these can be compared to more electronic pop songs like DARE. They even have a foreign-influenced songs like Hong Kong which features a traditional Eastern harp called the guzheng (below).

Now of course, not all musicians who cross and combine genres end up making great songs. It can be hit or miss. However, talented artists can conjoin influences from every type of music that they love and the combination that they produce is so unique and new that it just mystifies us listeners. A good example of one of these talented melting-pot-artists are the Beatles.

The Beatles came from several different musical backgrounds.
John Lennon played in a skiffle band, which features banjos and English folk music with a hint of jazz.
Paul McCartney was heavily influenced by classical art music because his father took him to brass ensembles and piano concerts as a kid. He later joined the Quarrymen (same skiffle band Lennon was in) and became influenced by the blues, jazz and folk music.
George Harrison went to school at a performing arts school and had some classical upbringing. He also joined the skiffle group and gathered influence in the same blue/jazz combination of skiffle music.
Ringo Starr, before being the drummer for the Beatles, played the drums for English singer Rory Storm, who in turn gave Ringo rockabilly and early rock influences.

This combination of styles really led to Beatles' songs not always being "rock". Ex. Eleanor Rigby being very classical in sound, or the sweeter songs like In My Life with powerful harmonies and riffs.

Some artists start as one genre, and then later produce some songs in a much different sound. Dave Matthews Band started as truly Alternative Rock, with their standard ensemble of acoustic guitar, drums, violin, bass and saxophone... Ex. Crush. Later in Dave's career, the band expands to some more hip hop beats and feel, with more electronic production added to their sound, such as the song Stand Up.

To end this post, Here is a link to one of my songs that touches several genres of music: combining rock and classical instruments. Check out What If? if that sounds interesting to you.

The importance of Harmonies and Backup Singers

2008-06-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

Ahh.. the perfect way to take a pretty good song and send it to a new super song quality... is none other than adding a backup singer or a couple of them harmonizing with the melody.

This provides quite a relief to musicians as well because they can make a song longer and still keep it interesting with the simple addition of backup singers, giving the song's end more weight. (hence the term end-weighted songs, often heard in pop music such as the Righteus Brothers' semi-performance of Phil Spector's You've Lost that Loving Feeling, adding in new instruments and melodies, lots of back up singers, and plenty of percussion instruments every verse and chorus. Meanwhile, I read an interesting thing on Wikipedia about this song: Among the background singers in the song's crescendo is a young Cher.)

Not only did I pick to play Loving Feeling for the easy example of backup singing, between the two brothers are a simple harmony and call and response strategy, that especially towards the end makes everyone get goosebumps. Apparentely though, Phil Spector, producer extrordinaire just slowed the tape of the Righteus Brother's low verses to get that low, rich baritone sound. It's amazing what new technology can do to do this piece by piece; change the tempo or change the pitch independently. Anyone can experience a freeware version of this with the program Audacity. Most basic sound editor out there. If you find yourself enjoying time spent on Audacity, try some more complex but better developed programs (not freeware), leading up to the powerful Digital Audio Studios such as Logic, Qubase or Digital Performer.

--

Anyway, back to the topic of Harmonies and Backup Singers, some songs have about 50% harmonized, like Boston's Peace of Mind, some have almost every line sung by multiple parts, some are just a tiny bit of glaze on top of the doughnut at important climaxes and words. All work. Some artists have practically none of the "lead singer" throughout several parts, such as many Queen songs like the introduction or bridge parts to Bohemian Rhapsody and However, some songs have almost every note harmonized, such as the famous harmonizers Crosby Stills Nash & Young in Suite Judy Blue Eyes or equally famous singer/songwriters Simon and Garfunkel in the Sound of Silence.

Again, the aformentioned bit of glaze harmonies; the vanilla in the pancake batter: such as the powerful harmonies in the middle of verse lines, and just a little more in choruses, but not overdone. This can be heard in Collective Soul's Shine or Cake's Short Skirt/Long Jacket, for Short Skirt's "nana" 's, "hey" 's and "ho" 's coming in later in the song.

Backup Singers can help the listener too, like when they repeat important words and convey what the artist intended with their tone and dynamics. Having mixed sex or race backup singers add to the sound in an intentional way. One of the kings of combining a female backup and male lead is Bob Seger in songs like Night Moves, after the first chorus.

Harmonies can be found in almost every song. Possibly half of the time you probably won't even recognize it unless you focus on it, but it's there. Harmonies aren't limited to just a vocalist. A harmony in a song can be what one guitar or piano plays with chords under a voice. Or two guitars can harmonize together like how the Allman Brothers Band was famous for; an example is in Jessica, an instrumental song with no singing and a powerful 2-part melody by the sweetest guitars known to man.

Here are more songs that have great use of harmonies throughout:
Mason Proffit - Two Hangmen (if you don't like the beginning try at halfway through. The story is pretty nice though too)
Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice
Radiohead - Sit Down Stand Up
Eagles - Seven Bridges Road

----------------
Now playing: The Doobie Brothers - The Doctor
via FoxyTunes

Multi-styled Musicians

2008-06-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

I apologize for my hiatus with my blog, but I have a great musical reason. I've been busy making music with a new program I just received, Logic Studio by Apple. It is a very powerful and professional audio sequencer. Basically, this program is a professional studio-quality with plenty of sounds, effects, instruments, and plenty of music loops to add, edit and combine to make whatever music you wish. I have released one single for free download, Eclectica. I am currently working on an album featuring both rock and electronic music. I have no definite date when it will be ready, but I will be sure to post here when I have an idea.
--

Onward to this blog's subject, multi-styled musicians. These virtuosos have proven their ability to sell a song to such a wide audience, because they touch on so many styles either rolled into one or song by song. By no means am I saying that a musician is sub-par or that I don't like a musician who does not dabble in other styles of music; I love Jack Johnson and Darude and many others even though almost every song sounds like the same timbre as their last song. (i.e. Jack Johnson's bass is always pretty clean, the accoustic guitar is often starting the song, the drum generally sticks in the style of chill, blues-rock with a touch of jazz and reggae)

However, I do really enjoy hearing new sides of artists, whether they progress with their style every new album, such as Radiohead (compare My Iron Lung off The Bends (1995) to one in the middle of their fame, like Packt like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box off Amnesiac (2001) and lastly compare these to their most recent album, In Rainbows (2007), such as the song
Reckoner) or if artists actually change their name to go for something completely new, such as AFI's fairly new AKA band, Blaqk Audio. They could with this new name explore trance and techno that doesn't quite fit in AFI's first image.

Many reasons that artists change their style of play for several reasons. One easy reason would be that times change, the artists change. They start hearing new songs from other artists and draw their own perspective. People change, and so do their music tastes. (by the way... why is music favorites called a taste? shouldn't it be related to hearing, not another sense? I suppose we'll never know. I can't think of a good auditory preference other than taste. Well it's English, what can you expect hehe)

Artists will also change their style for monetary reasons. Older artists find they don't get enough playtime or fame without "selling out" their sound to a record company and thus conspire to the sound and production the record company wants. (Ex. Blink 182: compare newer Stockholm Syndrome (2003) and All the Small Things (1999)

Other artists start as a "sell out" but once they get famous enough, they try their own style. Examples of these style changers can be heard in Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone when he plugged in his guitar, added a drum hitting on the backbeat and left the folk scene to pioneer the combo: folk rock.

The Beatles once had to follow everything that their producer, George Martin recommended, such as lovey-dovey songs and slick suits. Once they got the girls crazy for them, the Beatles tried new styles and stopped really listening to what the record company wanted, and did their own things, such as songs off Magical Mystery Tour (1967). And you know what? most people find the new songs without restriction better. Their lyrics actually meant something (although I don't quite know what they mean by "I am the Walrus"), and their experimental instruments opened up the doors for so much amazing rock.

Other artists who had several styles of music:
Gorillaz: These diverse musicians all come from such various backgrounds, like in the song Hong Kong featuring an eastern stringed instrument compared to El Manana or Dirty Harry featuring a kid choir.
Grand Funk Railroad: I would classify their songs to range from about 4 or 5 different styles. You have the more poppy and upbeat Footstompin' Music or the epic ballads like I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home or blues rock like Time Machine. Lastly my favorite style are their harder somewhat progressive rock with crazy cool solos, like the song Heartbreaker.
Incubus: most people know of their chill side like Echo or most songs off their album Morning View. However some may not know of harder and crazier songs like Nebula from S.C.I.E.N.C.E.
Infected Mushroom touches several styles of music in their electronica. Namely, they have trance songs and unclassifyable electronic songs but they also have vocal chill songs or just some fun beat with some synths and call it music. Heck they even have some vocals and trance combined like the Cities of the Future.
Today I just heard Snoop Dogg's My Medicine. He's adding country to rap. It's interesting enough to listen. Of course if you need to have something to compare it to, here's Snoop old school (unedited).

----------------
Now playing: Ulrich Schnauss - Sunday Evening In Your Street
via FoxyTunes

Wakarusa Festival - 4 days of Foot stompin' Music

2008-06-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I went to two of the four days of Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival at Lake Clinton (just a few miles west of Lawrence, KS) to see bands such as the more famed The Flaming Lips (entertaining rock), Cake (silly lyrics with a meaning rock) or Buckethead (the modern day Jimi rock) and the slightly famed Mates of State (most of their songs were just two people performing rock), Built to Spill (chill and ol'fashioned rock), and Blackalicious (underground hip hop/rock).

My thoughts about the festival were endless; there was every type of person you could imagine at this festival.. hillbillies to college students, old couples to young families, and yet, all these people were joined together because of one thing: their absolute love of music. It was amazing to hear the uproar from the crowd when the lead singer of Ozomatli (latin rock) cried out for all the music lovers out there.

Though the land was fairly muddy from a powerful storm Thursday night, it didn't stop everyone from grooving from some music. I met with strangers and friends all throughout Friday and Saturday, and everyone was doing their own dancing, while their feet were covered with mud. We all had our favorite bands, and the various styles were practically endless. I unfortunately missed more bands simply because there were simply too many to hear.

All in all, the festival was absolutely great. I highly recommend Music Festivals in your favorite genres to each and every one of you, as long as you don't mind being in crowds and the sun all day, you'll be sure to have a good time.

Look for the Flaming Lips shows because they are so fun to watch. Here's Wayne, the lead singer of the Lips, on the big screen behind the Lips' stage. The mic was attached to a camera. It was totally awesome, especially for those not very vertical people like me. :D

Here's some videos of them live:
Here's Wayne coming into the crowd in a bubble. What a start to a show. There's a new definition of crowd surf.
She Don't Use Jelly
Do You Realize

----------------
Now playing: The Flaming Lips - Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell
via FoxyTunes

Backtracks

2008-06-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

Since I have just started as a DJ at a college radio station with a tagline of sorts named "KJHK, the Sound Alternative", I'm attempting to identify what makes an alternative sound compared to what other radio stations play, and the biggest difference between most commercial radio stations and an alternative college station is the amount of backtracks the station plays. Backtracks are the remaining songs on an album that do not become overly famous. Sure, in Apple's Itunes Store, you'll see on the popularity markers some backtracks that never make it to MTV or classic rock radio stations, but that's generally because someone bought the album. We have no idea if they listened to these songs.

I find in my experience that in order to get played on a hit station such as Kansas City's 96.5 The Buzz who claims to do Alternative rock, you have to be about as un-alternative as it gets. These songs may not be quite "pop rock" as you'd hear often on the top 40 stations, but these songs still have a mainstream and possibly sellout attitude. However, even the most famous and virtuous musicians have songs that most radio stations would never play. These have a different, an alternative sound to what their record companies probably want them to sound like. These reasons are the basis of why I love backtracks, because they're not songs to be made just to get on radios and to make money. These musicians' songs are from their hearts; these musicians are passionate about their music.

Here are some backtracks that I enjoy greatly:
Ben Folds - Losing Lisa
Fatboy Slim - Song For Shelter
Grand Funk Railroad - Hooray (sorry couldn't find it full song, that happens a lot with backtracks unfortunately)
Muse - Map of the Problematique

----------------
Now playing: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Hard To Concentrate
via FoxyTunes

Setting the Mood with Music

2008-06-01T19:07:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite things about music is the instantaneous ability to change the mindset of a party or group of friends merely by playing a different artist or style of music. I tend to try to "DJ" with my friends getting together by selecting a song or artist to play for a bit depending on who I am with as well as what we currently are doing at the moment.

For example, I was over at a friend's apartment about a week ago and we were playing poker (1$ buy in for a bunch of chips.... very risky eh?) and I put on some jazz from my Ipod, some Dave Brubek Quartet. Everyone was in a relaxed mood and having a great time not worrying about anything but the two cards in their hands. It was really quite a great time, and I think the main psychological reason this experience was so wonderful for all of us was the jazz.

Another example in my own personal life of how music helps psychologically: when I'm in not quite in the mood to study but I HAVE to study for a test coming up, I put on some classical music (usually Beethoven or the Four Seasons by Vivaldi before for about 15 minutes and check my emails or write a blog-post while listening to something classical. Later, I'll get bored of flipping through facebook and decide to study.

Why? I have made an internal connection between studying and classical music, a psychological relationship that associates that when I hear classical music, I think more clearly and prepare my mind for studying. Anyone can do this, as long as you consistently follow a pattern of studying with the same music. I prefer instrumental music so I can concentrate more on the words I read instead of the words I hear, and I range my study playlist from jazz instrumental like Duke Ellington's Mood Indigo to Mozart Symphonies to instrumental folk rock songs like Nickel Creek's Smoothie Song. I read to songs like Infected Mushroom's Avratz. I myself have made some great instrumental songs that others have said are very good study music. You can find many of them at my iLike Artist page.

Actually, this last semester I took several tests while listening to my study list. Some could say it's cheating but I'm very happy that my psychology teachers understood that I wanted to study in a similar atmosphere as I take the test. It also helps a bunch when there's other people around who get up after 10 minutes and just filled in every answer as "C", and when they get up and make a ruckus, I won't hear it as clearly with my tunes on.

Lyrics and instrumentation can also have a large factor on your mindset. I get so moved emotionally when I hear and pay attention to the lyrics of Uncommon Valor, A Vietnam Story by Jedi Mind Tricks.

--

Whatever type of music you prefer to listen to while driving or with a certain group of friends, pay attention next time to how you and the people also listening act and think. If you're tired and have to wake up, put on something loud and fast-paced. Psychology studies have shown that there's a strong correlation between arousal and the beats per minute of a song. (although it also depends on the feel of the song, as a song with a supposed 120 BPM could easily be subdivided into 240 BPM or halved to be 60 BPM.)

Find your own connections and mindsets when you hear songs of a certain genre and style. Use these to control the mood of the people around you, or just to chill by yourself and set yourself up for whatever you're about to do or currently doing. By understanding your body's reaction to certain types of music you can really benefit in the end.

to end this post, here's a link to stream in one of the best college radio stations in the world:
KJHK
I will, by the way, be a DJ every Saturday 8-10am CST) playing a variety of music styles: from hip hop to electronica to jazz and all kinds of rock, and much more.

----------------
Now playing: Pinball Vs. Dj Palon - Wildstyle [Extended Mix]
via FoxyTunes

Polyphonic Melodies

2008-05-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

Polyphonic means in the music world a type of texture in a song that comes from playing multiple but equal melodies at the same time to form a new sound. Comparatively, Homophonic means that one instrument or sound is accompanying a main melody (in other words one is the most important line and the other lines are merely laying the foundation and harmonies.

A good example of polyphonic music is R.E.M's Its The End of The World As We Know It during any chorus after the first few. The high voice part is adding a whole new line of words and melodies to envelope the entire song. A more classic rock version of the same style of laying on a new line over the top to an already repeated theme is often found in Meatloaf's music, Paradise by the Dashboard Lights from like 6:30 til the end of the song. Paradise is also a great example of a prog rock song.

One of the most intriguing aspects of polyphonic music is how complex the songs can get and how the melodies by themselves can be much weaker than together if not just plain boring. Again, many rock bands feature the style of starting with just one melody and adding the 2nd or third later. Actually... this isn't just a Rock style for polyphonic melodies.

Take for example probably the most famous classical polyphonic song: Canon in D by Pachebel. Although the cello part pretty much stays as an accompaniment for the higher pitched instruments, the violins in two parts and the violas all hold several different types of melodies throughout the song and they all blend to make a beautiful song. Canon pretty much means "round" and a round is a type of polyphony where one part has a melody and then another part plays the same or similar melody but starting later.

Another type of classical polyphony is a fugue. Johann Sebastian Bach was a huge fan of fuguing tunes, and a fugue is similar to a canon or round in that parts start with similar melodies at different times, however the parts come together for a cadence (fancy end of a theme chord) only to break up in their own melodies again. Here's a fuguing Bach choral work adapted for an orchestra and a leading voice: Alleluia.

Polyphonic music allows artists to add something new and work with extremely complex and powerful harmonies. Generally, it is harder to perform than homophonic music, since you may not always be able to base off where you are compared to what the other instruments or voices are doing. It takes a lot of practice and work to perform polyphonic music, and of course multiple people or tracks.

More polyphony: (most of the polyphony is toward the end of these songs)
Phish - Bouncing Round the Room
Barenaked Ladies - Another Postcard (only in the very end)
The Police - Don't Stand So Close to Me
Check the Rhime - A Tribe Called Quest (choruses)
Will Smith - Wild Wild West (and Stevie Wonder's original version of the tune I Wish in the end)
The second half of another simple prog rock song, Two Handmen by Mason Profit
Lots of electronic music has polyphony because it is very easy to add a new rhythm and line that works together with old sounds. Ex: Jeenge by Infected Mushroom, especially towards the end when they combine almost every sound you hear in the song.

----------------
Now playing: µ-Ziq - Secret Stair Pt.1
via FoxyTunes

90s music

2008-05-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

I have a deep attachment to 90s alternative rock music, because that's what I grew up listening to on the radio. For example, bands like Dave Matthews Band, Dispatch, and Collective Soul are among my favorites. This song I recently found through Pandora Radio really makes me feel good when I hear it.
----------------
Now playing: Dispatch - Elias
via FoxyTunes

The simple but new additions to drum beats and harmonies in the 90s really set 90s music differently from any other time, in most genres.
I believe Nirvana started the 90s drum feel with rhythms like In Bloom's double kick and adding to the normal rock beat of eighth notes with accents on the backbeat (beats 2 and 4)
The new additions to the standard rock beat continue to alternative music, like the aggressive and fairly syncopated drums in Third Eye Blind's Semi-Charmed Life or the equally syncopated and very famous Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve.
Meanwhile, I felt that there were common harmonies throughout much of the 90s, such as the harmonies in Bitter Sweet (above)
or Incubus's standard harmony heard in I wish you were here during the choruses. Its just something with the way 90s rockers built up the chords for the harmonies, they all did something similar.

--
Another common genre that fit into its own style during the 90s is the hip hop/pop/R&B side of music. The 90s featured boy bands, Boyz 2 Men, and Tender Lovin Care.
Boy bands and Britney Spears copy-offs were usually the top charts of pop music in the 90s. Although I'm not too big on most boy band songs and pop singers like Britney, They do have their moments. Christina Aguilera dared to cross several music styles with her powerful voice and great dancing, such as the song Come on Over. Boy bands even had some quality hits in their days, I'll link one I don't mind: Tearin Up My Heart by Nsync. Sad that many of their songs after that had practically the same beat though.

Meanwhile, The R&B genre in the 90s produced some awesome artists and songs, such as TLC. I love TLC's Waterfalls and their Unpretty. These feature some excellent drum beats and rock influences, but topped with noteworthy vocals harmonizing almost constantly. The mix of rock and R&B is extremely fun to hear. They have good messages too.

Boyz 2 Men were another huge hit in the 90s. Possibly most famous for their Motown Philly. These inbetween boys and men featured a combination of old Motown styles similar to Marvin Gaye combined with Sugar Hill Cult's early hip-hop. Again they use excellent R&B harmonies and a very dancable beat.

--

No 90s blogpost could be finished without a video of jam music of the 90s, like Phish's Fluffhead. Hope you enjoy.

----------------
Now playing: O.A.R. - I Feel Home (Live)
via FoxyTunes

Music Questions, Anyone?

2008-05-20T14:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, so a few days ago my mother had a question for me as to why she liked and associated these three artists together: U2, Seal, and Steve Winwood. I thought about those three artists for about 20 seconds and could hear in my head a song or two by each artist, then I came up with this answer:

First off, I recognized them all three as pop rock artists, male singer.
The lead singer of U2, Bono, sounds quite a lot like Seal and Steve's voice, since they all have a little edge and the melodies can be haunting in all three singers. (nowhere near as haunting as a metal band's scale, but as a pop rock band these three certainly have their swagger)
All three use electronic sound effects and tried to be up to date with the technological sounds of their era. (Steve Winwood in the 80s, U2 from the 80s to today, and Seal from the 90s on)
All three have great drum riffs. Compare the drums in U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday, Steve Winwood's Gimme Some Lovin, and Seal's Bring it On. The pop fills of the drums are very similar.

I know that her question was fairly random and personal to her, but I know that other people have questions about music analytically. If you have a question about an artist or possible connections that I could point out to you, please feel free to leave a comment in my blog and I'll answer in a similar fashion. If I do not know myself I will ask my resources and come back with an answer shortly.

--

On the discussion of pop rock, here's a great 90s pop rock song, Savage Garden's I Want You. Yes I can sing the chorus, and I do so happily :D

----------------
Now playing: Infected Mushroom - Converting Vegetarians
via FoxyTunes

After Concert Thoughts... What is Prog Rock?

2008-05-20T09:26:00.001-07:00

I recently got back home to Lawrence after roughly a 28 hour road trip with an old friend of mine to see Dream Theater in Cleveland, Ohio for their Progressive Nation 2008 Tour.

The 5 members of Dream Theater from left to right, John Myung (bass), John Petrucci (guitar), James LaBrie (vocals), Jordan Rudess (keyboard), Mike Portnoy (drums)

My favorite thing about DT is how equally important every instrument is throughout the songs. One example of this is in the song Metropolis where Myung gets a crazy bass solo. (6 minutes in) Metropolis, especially the second half, is a quintessential prog rock song.

--

The concert made me consider what was considered "prog" or progressive rock. I've found at least one common denominator as the 3 bands before DT also had prog rock sets. (a little harder for my tastes and generally were harder rock than Dream Theater) However, on my way back I started listening to earlier prog rock bands such as Yes, Grand Funk Railroad, and Rush. This let me hear the similarities and express them into words.

Prog rock means that the song must progress to new "grooves" almost out of the blue, with the drummer portraying the transition to a new tempo and basic rhythm. This can be very taxing and difficult for drummers to do, and since Mike Portnoy is one of the best drummers I've ever seen, Dream Theater's progressing beats are darn near perfect. However, the metal influences certainly leads many listeners to cringe when these talented musicians take the stage.

Here's some great quality songs I've identified with at least one or two progressive parts, with less loud metal beats and screaming than Dream Theater:
The introduction compared to the main song of Movin On by Missouri (right click, save as or just open in new tab)
The solo part and then leading into the slow part of Radiohead's Paranoid Android
Grand Funk Railroad's Sin's a Good Man's Brother sounds to me like it's an early hard-prog rock song.
Paul McCartney's Live and Let Die certainly changes its groove often throughout the entire song. When a song has a reggae rhythm section following a rock solo, you know it is prog rock.

So, as you can see, prog rock is not just what loud metal bands are doing, but the style of funking up the groove of a rock song to add interest has been done for the last 40 years. It just happens to be that I saw most recently a metal-influenced prog rock style this last weekend. This uncanny ability to just play a new "progressive chord" leading into either a new louder part or a quieter chill part of a song as you hear in Dream Theater's long songs like Metropolis (above) or the two part Beyond This Life.

--

Last but not least, here's some songs that I think have a little bit of prog rock in them. Can you identify them? some are very subtle changes.
The Beatles' I Want You (She's so Heavy)
Blue Oyster Cult's Joan Crawford
The Doobie Brothers' Clear As The Driven Snow
The Doors' L.A. Woman
As you might see I'm going in alphabetic order through my library, and I barely got through D. There are plenty of prog rock solos and sections in classic rock. If you want an example of more modern rock going progressive check out Jack Johnson's first hit, Flake's new groove about 3/4 of the way through.
Electronic Music occasionally progresses too, (although some could be just end weighted songs that are always building and adding) take for example Infected Mushroom's Dancing With Kadafi. This song progresses through several different feels throughout the 10 minute song.

----------------
Now playing: Muse - New Born
via FoxyTunes

Songs or Albums?

2008-05-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

Here's a personal preference thing many music listeners always disagree on. Do you like to listen to Random Songs from your library or listen to your library album by album?

Compare my listening habits to my roommate's. We both agree that the other way is viable, but not what we prefer.

He listens to an entire album, usually in order, and then picks another album (or just keeps listening to that one album for a while).

Meanwhile, I have a Smart playlist through iTunes, it looks like this:
I rate songs based on how much I enjoy listening to them in general, and by listening to my "Da Nasties" playlist, I hear several different genres: rock n roll songs like The Who's Pinball Wizard; strange electronic songs by Darude, like Music; funk like Stevie Wonder's Very Superstitious; pop songs like Seal's Kiss from a Rose, and more genres.

This unique mix of music leads me to have over 2 and a half days of music on one playlist!

Since they're all songs that I like, I rarely get "tired" of the playlist.
Since iTunes smart playlists can build off another playlist (add a criteria), I have some genre playlists including both the criterium 0f 5 star songs AND if the genre contains the word "rock" or contains "electronic".

These really let me have a random mix of songs in whatever I'm feeling at that moment. Of course I do go through albums and 5 star songs while I'm listening to the album, so that I can hear them sometime again in the future.

Now what do you think? What's a more effective way to listen? In albums you get to see what the artist truly intended for you to hear, and in picking your songs, you get to only hear your favorites. For example, here's a cut from my 5 star playlist showing how much I like of a certain band compared to another:

I have more Dave Matthews Band songs than I do by Dan Bern, because I only liked one of Bern's songs, but I have several albums of Dave Matthews Band live and I love several, and these are my true favorites of his. As you can also see some have a handful and some have only one.

This customization really adds to my music experience, in my opinion. I can hear such a variety of sounds at every "music listening session" I go through.

Lastly, one of my favorite options that I use through iTunes is the Smart Random. Considering that I have varying amounts of artists' songs in my main playlist, I have the choice to keep it going for a while with one artist with the smart random set on "More likely to play a song by the last played artist", or if I'm getting sick of listening to one artist over and over, I can go to the preference "Less likely to play the next song by the last played artist". This gives a very random artist mix and touches all genres that I have in the list in about an hour.

What smart playlists does anyone else use? Or other itunes features of customization? I have a most recently added playlist, songs that I haven't heard, and a most recently played just in case i wanna look back at what I just heard.

Here's more of my faves,
Will Smith - Getting Jiggy With It (Will in a mummy outfit haha)
O.A.R. - Great live version of Crazy Game of Poker (2 parts really long and chill intro/solos)
Scott Fisher - Struggle (free mp3 and stream)
KSXI - Friday (free mp3, great electronica)

----------------
Now playing: Scott Fisher - Struggle
via FoxyTunes

The BEATLES ARE ATTACKING!

2008-05-11T15:53:00.001-07:00

Cause no music discussion blog cannot have a post dedicated mostly to the Beatles, here goes my rendition:

Ahh..... The Beatles. The reason rock n roll is so widespread and loved by billions. The most impressive things about the Beatles are that they composed so many songs in so many different styles of "rock", and that everyone loved them. What made them so lovable? They learned how to adapt, and add new influences on their music like noone before them, and only a few rockers since have been able to adapt almost as much. (i.e. Red Hot Chili Peppers)

How did they adapt? It's quite simple to hear, really, if you compare their older stuff to their less old songs.

Take for example one of The Beatles' first song to hit America in 1964, I Wanna Hold Your Hand. You have to remember back then, this was a revolutionary song. The simple rhythms to us seem so old-fashioned, but the ways the Beatles harmonize and how catchy their original songs were quite new to the screaming girls you see in that video.

Then, something happened, the Beatles met with Bob Dylan, who provided quite an insight to John Lennon. Bob said something along the lines of "So, what? what do your songs mean other than telling a girl 'You're cute, let's have sex'?" This attack on Lennon's songwriting skill made him reconsider and write about more political and social issues. The Beatles started to become much more serious from about 1966 on. Example: Yesterday. Notice the ensemble change? Strings in a rock song... Probably the first. The lyrics step up considerably in how much thinking and processes the lyrics go through instead of something simpler like "Can't Buy Me Love" from '64.

It's amazing how different the feel of their songs change in just a couple of years.

Let's continue. One of their most controversial and in my opinion one of their best albums is Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club, featuring crazy psychedelic songs like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Yes, it's probably a drug reference, although Paul McCartney denies it. Yes, even the best artists sometimes do drugs. But hey it was the 60s, so who didn't at that age? Again, the Beatles draw from new influences for their music, including psychedelia.

After the Bugs released Sgt. Pepper's, quite a few new albums fit into a new style of them going back to their roots (old rock and roll, blues, jazz, parlor music) and reduce the drug references in albums like The White Album. The White Album features 30 songs with several different styles for each. The thought must have been to include everything that the Beatles drew their music upon so everyone could be happy. From silly songs like Bungalow Bill to serious songs like Rocky Raccoon talking about adultery and vengeance. From simple but dazzling melodies of Dear Prudence to the almost haunting but very powerful While My Guitar Gently Weeps, The Beatles were sure to rock the socks off anyone who heard these songs.

I link mostly The White Album in this blog, because I believe it to be their peak as a band. Their solo careers were modest at best, and the vast and various styles of music throughout the entire album truly show how lovable the Beatles are. Not many people will like EVERY song on White, but I'd be darned if there weren't at least a few songs that you like off it. Also, many of the songs are about 2 minutes long so it sounds less daunting with "30 songs". Anyone who hasn't already should definitely check out The White Album. You won't regret it.

The Beatles all came from different backgrounds, and when they put their heads together (or separately make their own songs and combine them as an album) it's truly amazing how great it sounds meshed as one style of music... "Beatles Style" or about what every rock and roll band has since the Beatles. This great influence is extremely interesting to music majors, that even classical composers like Leonard Bernstein commented on the musicality of the Bugs.

FYI: bloggers need help? check out:

Peter certainly helped me :D

----------------
Now playing: Avi Morgenstern - Mama's Got A New Groove

Dream Theater, the excellent band noone knows

2008-05-08T09:17:00.000-07:00

Dream Theater is a great band, hailing from all around the world. These band players almost all spent some time at the Berklee College of Music getting classically trained before meeting up and starting to perform their prog rock style. These musicians have been playing together since the late 80s, and are one of the most successful prog rock bands, and yet they stayed completely underground. Most of the time when I introduce Dream Theater to someone they have never heard of them. And yet, if you're into harder or prog rock in general, you'll love their style. Their musicianship and quality of performance is one of the best I've seen. They use interesting computer synths and sounds considering that their keyboardist, Jordan Rudess is usually a lead part of the songs.

I'm going to see them live with my friend, after taking about a 13 hour road trip once finals are over. We should have a blast :D.

Here's some various youtube videos of them live, you can see how impressively together the entire ensemble can be.
Overture 1928/Strange Deja Vu
Instrumedley
Octavarium (just part 1, the song gets cool as the whole band joins in later, although i absolutely love that Continuum Fingerboard)
and for anyone who doesn't like the crazy sounds or loudness of Dream Theater should check out their softer songs like:
Wait for Sleep

Messing around with my current favorite Dream Theater member's website I found Jordan Rudess's Online Conservatory. Supposedly it will help any level of musician. He designed it to teach high technology instruments and rudimentary skills for aspiring musicians. I heard his demo explanation, and knowing how much technology he uses to make the coolest sounds (see the octavarium video above) I'm certain this could be beneficial at some level.

anyway that'd be it for this post. Hope you checked out DT, at least you can say you tried them out.
Here's some other prog rock bands music videos:
Rush - Limelight
Yes - Changes
Valient Thorr - Fall of Pangea (only audio)

----------------
Now playing: The Rolling Stones - Beast of Burden
via FoxyTunes

Quickie, and a New Song

2008-05-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

This will be a quick blog post because I'm getting very busy with exams for the next few weeks.

Today, in one of my music classes, I watched a video of Leonard Bernstein talking about the Beatles in a CBS documentary. This may not seem at all odd to you, but think of it this way: Bernstein was the lead composer of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and back then, someone of Leonard's age (he's a father during the start of rock) who is highly liked among the "art" musicians of America was praising the unique and surprising things the Beatles did, even in their earlier stuff. I unfortunately cannot find the video online, as CBS probably has some copyright over the documentary it came from. However, you should definitely check out some of his various music styles, ranging from conducting and playing symphonies to making music for musicals like West Side Story, the song Tonight (ensemble).

Leonard was the first American Music Connoisseur, since he was respecting quality American-styled music of his time. Bravo to him.

Here's my new rock song, named The World Keeps Turnin'. Lyricists and Poets: I would love to have some lyrics in place of my be-de dat'en-ing (aka scatting). Any suggestions for ideas to follow that song in the sense of continual life motion and fighting for a greater goal even through hard times.

Press this button to get updates when I post new songs.

----------------
Now playing: The Kingdom - Fade
via FoxyTunes

Freedom of Distribution of music

2008-05-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

The music industry is an old system that needs to be changed. Why are there still record companies anyway? Not many people have bought a record in years, they're all cd albums now. Anyway we should switch to a group of mp3's or lossless encoded data, found on the internet.

The record company executives are stealing from poor college students to fight against the internet, instead of using it as a tool it was designed to be, to connect and spread people's knowledge to everyone and everything, including music. These students are merely doing what everyone else is doing, and are made an example of because they happened to be tracked by using the University of Kansas's internet bandwidth to share their music on filesharing programs like Limewire or torrents. These fines, over 3000 dollars for most cases, should be unconstitutional based off the 8th amendment, as this is cruel and unusual punishment for something that shouldn't be illegal at all.

If I'm a painter, I can put my paintings on the internet for the use of expanding my audience. Music should be the same way. Yes, the artists need to be paid, so this is up to artists to put their own music on the internet un-signed, not with the money hungry record companies of old. Take for example what Radiohead did with In Rainbows. If more artists did that, they will cut out the middle man and could even set a low price for the listeners. Not everyone will spend their money, but many would if they knew that all the money was going straight to the artists themselves, not the already wealthy record companies.

We need a new business in the place of these record companies, or the music industry will eventually fall off the place of this earth, and noone will make money from their compositions. Which may not be a bad idea, as from the ashes something would be reborn. I just hope that enough people realize this before that happens so we don't have to give 2/3 of our album cash to the RIAA for the rest of our lives.

I'm not doubting that record companies serve a purpose. They discover new artists and give them a pathway to make it big. however, there is a time when something new must form. What if record company executives (or whoever is willing to do so) search through the internet in search of artists and then let the artists be their own music-maker at their own rate, but guide them to make their own website where downloading albums of music at a cheap price is possible. These agents would take a small % based on agreements between the artists. This is not too different to what we have today, but will not short change the artist and listeners alike.

Not everyone will honestly pay for any music, and there's nothing we can do about it. However, for the good 1/3 of people who do care would be much more willing to pay money for albums and cds if there was an easy way on the internet to make sure that most of the money or even all will go to the artists directly. Artists could sell at a quarter a song for full profit, and people will pay it. no going through some other company, just a listener connecting to the musican's website.

meanwhile, to get this changed sooner rather than later, the superstars need to follow in Radiohead's footsteps. If you're Radiohead's fame level, you don't need those record companies to make you money. If enough outcry against the money-hungry RIAA, more will follow, and the cataclystic destruction of what we know as the music industry will occur.. Meanwhile, I'll be saying "shoulda changed when you had the chance."

The world is changing. Radiohead and Al Gore led the way. Improper business must be solved by the outcry of the people.

Tell your senators and representatives that the internet can be used as a tool for popularity and wealth for musicians, just as long as no middle man mega-company takes a big chunk from both the artist and consumer. The issue is not us "young people" with no bounds illegally downloading the music because we don't have the cash, but the problem is with the price itself.

Tell your favorite musicians to follow Radiohead's move, and that you'd pay 5-10 dollars for an album from them if they knew it was going straight or almost straight to them! We the people have control!

--

Okay, enough ranting about the record companies. Here's a music video of Muse's Knights of Cydonia. A little freaky, but who cares? It's a great song.

----------------
Now playing: Electric Light Orchestra - Mr. Blue Sky
via FoxyTunes

To iPod or Not to iPod. And Stuff.

2008-04-25T16:32:00.000-07:00

Before I get started, here's some great instrumental music while you read this blog:
Jessica by Allman Brothers Band (classic rock)
Smoothie Song by Nickel Creek (folk/modern rock)
Take Five by Dave Brubek Quartet (cool jazz)
Spaniard by Infected Mushroom (techno/electronica)

Being a music lover, I feel naked without my iPod. I always love having the choice to put on one of my favorite songs when I need a break from the real world. It's not that I'm being antisocial (always having it with me, and usually putting it on), but just every once in a while, I need a reason to walk fast to not be late to a class, or like if I'm a little tired, I'll put on some loud music to wake me up before my class.

Anyway, I heard an interesting lecture in my cognitive psychology class about the effects of aging on the senses. Not only do people lose hearing while they grow old, these effects are greatly increased if they listened to loud music, especially plug-in earphones generally associated with iPods. My parents are both losing their hearing, when I'm talking to my friends I need to be about 2/3 as loud as when talking with the older generation.

Therefore, there needs to be a balance for us music lovers, because you do NOT want to lose your hearing when you get old, because the music will just be that much harder to hear. My balance is instead of the "in the ear" phones that really quite hurt my ears, I use the around-the-ear phones like Bose's. These are a little pricey, but they're worthwhile. I've gone through and broken countless cheap headphones and pained through discomfort and bad sound quality, and these ones are just absolutely great for me. If you have the money, go for the noise-canceling headphones for some really good sound and it doesn't need to ever be loud.

If you don't have the money and you like your in-the-ear, just turn the volume down! you'll thank yourself later so you can still enjoy music in your later and crotchety life.

--

Some cool tidbits you may or may not know about some famous musicians:

Mozart died a pauper, trying to get a paycheck for an opera.
Haydn was a wealthy Count's Music Director at a young age, so he could live comfortably in his retired years as a Prince's musical scribe. And if you ask any non musician to list classical musicians, Mozart will probably be 2nd, and Haydn will probably be left off the list. Makes you wonder this question, would you rather be in textbooks after your death or live prosperous and be forgotten? I lean towards the textbooks, money isn't an issue in the long run as to what effect you have on the world. (of course, Hitler makes it in most textbooks too, so as I left the word "effect" to not always be positive or negative) I will do my best to have a positive influence on the world, and see if that gets me in textbooks.

Before starting the Beatles, John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen. John, I'm glad you picked the Bugs we all love instead.

Elvis Presley's first several songs were not rock, although the genre of rockabilly is very close to rock, the swing rhythms in the bass and drum parts of Hound Dog (1956) (as compared to the usual steady 1/8 notes like the drums in Fortunate Son by CCR.) make most music experts qualify it as something different than rock. So much for the King of Rock & Roll. Hound Dog is actually very blues-based with the 12 bar blues so I'd consider Hound Dog closer to blues than to rock. However, Elvis (and every rockabilly group) starts to speed up his songs and even out the swing rhythms and the songs are then "rock" like in the song In The Ghetto (1969).
For sure, I must give credit where it is due, as he did bring rock and roll to a white audience and that set the stage for the Beatles and nearly every other rock n roller since then.

Radiohead, in November 2007, released an album In Rainbows without a record company. This unsigned cd was not set to a certain price. Actually, Radiohead let the listeners pick their own price. Most Fans Paid 0$ for it, but by cutting out the record company, they still made money off the third who did choose to pay an average amount of 6$.

John Frusciante, guitarist of Red Hot Chili Peppers, left the band in 1992, only to become a heroin addict. However, he successfully completed rehab in '98 and rejoined the Chili Peppers to make some of their best albums, Californication, By the Way and most recently, Stadium Arcadium.

To close this blog, here's a video of Blue Man Group performing Rods & Cones. Pay attention and keep watching if you don't like the educational part. it gets funny and the music gets awesome.

----------------
Now playing: LeggoBeast - Swanky Shovel
via FoxyTunes

Strange Music of all Styles

2008-04-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite playlists on itunes is titled "Strange Music". These weird sounding songs really put one into a strange and unique mood. Great for fantasy or sci fi "out of this world" books.

This music style is generally a more recent thing to make strange sounds with digital instruments, however, even in Beethoven's time artists were finding ways to make strange sounds and unique textures throughout a piece.

For example, watch this video of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique - 5th movement for at least a minute. At about 40 seconds in the lead floutist bends a pitch with his mouth just like something made on a computer or a whammy bar. Berlioz was a romantic artist born in the early 1800s. Even back then people were thinking of new "instruments" and strange sounds and melodies combined to make music.

Imagine, there once was a time (the middle ages) where instruments and voices were never mixed to make music. At this time, it was revolutionary to have them both at the same time. Continuing on this atypical mindset to the future, what could possibly be strange and unique past computer-generated sounds?

I had a teacher in one of my classes present to me 3D tracking of sounds: I sat in this one room surrounded by 6 speakers and it truly sounded like the rain sound effects were landing everywhere on the roof above me, not just from the speakers themselves.

Soon songs will be tracking back and forth stereotypically, as well as from the front to back. Imagine sounds of music coming from different directions and moving all the while some melody comes above and fits into some beautiful masterpiece.

--

What makes a song strange?
Hearing another culture's music can probably make one think a song is strange. If you're western and you're looking to get weirded out, check out Chinese Opera. I suppose any hip-hop song of today sounds weird to some culture in the world.

However, There is a difference between a "different" culture producing a "strange-sounding to me" song and strange-sounding music to anyone who hears it. Here's one of the strangest electronic artists I've heard, Autechre. The album Tri Repetae has some very strange and unique songs, including Eutow and C. Pach. If those aren't strange sounds to you, then you, like me, have heard a lot of IDM or Intelligent Dance Music. IDM groups include but are not limited to: Autechre, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, B12, Four Tet, Mouse on Mars.

IDM is great chill music genre and is absolutely wonderful for reading and studying, as most do not have words. I fell in love with IDM when I happened across someone else's Electronic Instrumental Radio station on Pandora.com. Here's the link to my updated IDM station, adding in techno to the mix. It's still pretty instrumental only so I enjoy it when I have to concentrate on other words, not the music's.

The trick to IDM is in the name, Intelligent dance music. Trying to move your body to the generally slow beats of these songs can be challenging, and requires thought into your motion. It took a while for me to identify how to dance to this music but the beauty of it is that you can just flow with it after hearing it for a bit.

--

Other strange sounds occurred in the early stages of rock. Before Van Halen sang "You Really Got Me", The Kinks played the first version. The cool thing about this original version is the guitar effect, one of the first of its kind. Accidentally, the guitarist, Dave, discovered that a cut-up speaker head leads to the rough and gritty sound featured first in the Kinks' "You Really Got Me".

Jimi Hendrix loved making music with the feedback from his amp. How's that for a sci-fi movie's engine in space? (sound doesn't travel in a vacuum)

Progressive rock gives a strange feel from all the tempo changes and random little spurts of one part that never is returned to later in the song. Try bobbing your head to that music and keeping a straight meter... it's impossible.

Nowadays rock is generally trying new and unique and strange-sounding chords and riffs, such as Exo-Politics by Muse.

--

All this strange ways of producing a strange sound is still in the shadow of electronic noise makers. They can not only have strange pitch bends like Belioz did in his symphony 200 years ago, or long drones like psychedelic rock did 40 years ago. These songs can have the strangest sounds noone has heard before. They can have strange and even stranger rhythms than anything a rock band can play.

If that wasn't enough strange music videos, here's some classic rock strange'ies I found. These videos are of a fan's impression on the music.
Fire On High by Electric Light Orchestra
Revolution # 9 by The Beatles
Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride
----------------
Now playing: 1200 Micrograms - Speed Of Light
via FoxyTunes

I'm on iLike, and I know great classic rock!

2008-04-23T16:30:00.000-07:00

First, some great news: I have registered an iLike account so you can check out my currently released songs. More on the way! You can download mp3's of my music (very diverse, if you don't like one please consider the others, as they all come from different genres). Please listen and/or download my songs and if you like anything or have a suggestion for a song, feel free to leave a comment.

I developed a mindset when I became a musician; a song is never complete. There can always be some edit down the road to keep it "modern", or more ear-pleasing. If you think one of my songs are just missing one part or one part should be louder, suggest to me and I can keep updating the song to be better. Of course, "better" is completely subjective so this music will evolve to greater sounds through time and work between myself and those who participate. Song name suggestions for instrumental songs are always welcomed. Tell me what you think of when you hear a song.

--

Ahh... the Classics. The Rockers who pioneered Rock n Roll, and who led the way to nearly every American musician to play in a rock band sometime in their career. Classic Rock is a relatively recent history term, and it really is just a radio genre. Back in the 60s-70s, of course musicians just called it Rock. There was no classic part of it, yet.

Classic Rock radio stations are different from "Oldies" radio stations because classic rock generally refers to anything after The Beatles, and the "Oldies" is before then, but several 60s songs were in the style of the "Oldies". Both radio stations probably play The Beatles, as they were really a transition from the two styles, a bridge if you will.

Classic Rock is a unique genre because later in our lives, much of the music we hear today will be "classic rock". Basically, Classic Rock radio stations will never play a "new" song, but they have to yearly update their library to include "new to them" bands from 10 some odd years before.

When I start to hear the music I grew up to, mid 90s rock, on a classic rock station I knew one generation of music had passed and more will come.

Nowadays, Van Halen's 80s songs and Billy Idol often play on the radios once more on classic rock stations. In my mind I still think that 80s aren't classic rock but a genre of its own. You have metal heads and synth pops and I think those are relatively different from the 60s-70s The Who (love this video), The Doors, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin bands.

I know that even the 60s and the 70s differ stylistically as well, but several bands and artists kept famous from the 60s to the 70s and they merely adapted with the musical industry. Not many bands that were famous in the 80s and keeping the 80s style made it famous in the 90s, except pop singers, and I'm not considering those in a classic rock discussion... yet.

I believe that the term "Classic Rock" as a genre and a radio station type is a little big of a bite to handle over time. Sure it was convenient during the 80s to refer to the decades before, but my dad had the hardest time explaining classic rock to me as a kid. Fortunately his influences on the classics still passed on.

Soon there will be 50 years of extremely diverse music that will be considered "Classic Rock" on our new system. Merely refering to the 1960s and the 1970s as a genre is much more accurate. Stations will find their jobs getting harder and harder if they do not switch their titles to limit what they play, unless their goal is to really play any rock from any decade except the present one (starting with the 50s; Chuck Berry deserves his right to be played on a Classic Rock station).

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind a Classic Rock station as long as they were accurately labeled about what they played, Most would nowadays be called "mid 60s to mid 80s rock classics". Comparatively, a true Classic Rock radio station would have to include a huge spread of music. The only thing clarifying the type of rock is that it isn't new, and it's pretty good.

To list my favorite classic rock bands in one post would take about 5 hours to type and probably an hour for you to skim. I like many. Generally, I can sing along to most classic rock songs I hear at parties and with the radio; or at least identify the artist, which is quite impressive considering most of these artists died (musically or literally) before I was born.

Again, my father's influence on my love for classic rock... any time he'd hear a song on the radio he'd ask me quizzically "Who's this?" He stopped asking as much recently, as he could pretty much assume there was no way I didn't know the band after I starting singing one of the harmonies of the songs.

Here's a video of Lynard Skynyrd performing Freebird. Great production, too. Sad that it's one of their last years as original cast.

In addition to the video, here's a great album, 30 Years of Funk by Grand Funk Railroad.
You can sample the songs for free with the little grey button. I love almost every song on this album, and if you're into the hard or fun-filled rock of the 70s you'll find some great songs on this three cd collection.

----------------
Now playing: Foo Fighters - Best of You
via FoxyTunes

Online Radio, iLike, and Electronica.... oh my!

2008-04-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite ways to discover new music I like is the use of online radios. Unfortunately, international laws are making them very expensive to run, so I only know of free ones in America, such as Pandora Radio.

Pandora uses what they call The Music Genome Project to provide music similar to user input. The best thing is that as you're listening, you can thumb up or thumb down songs that it gives to shift the station into what you want.

You can either go simply into the station with barely any criteria just following this:

This will give you songs in Feist's style, and probably one in ten songs will be by herself. Or, if you want to customize the station from the start, click on edit this station and add a bunch of songs and/or artists of your favorites. I love taking other people's stations I find through pandora and editing them to add my own little twist. Also, the website offers genre stations that you can again build off. If you want to see my stations, click here.

--
by the way if you love electronica I highly recommend the artists Autechre and Aphex Twin:
Now playing: Aphex Twin - Alberto Balsalm (currently listening to one of my Pandora Stations)
via FoxyTunes
--

A great website for us music adorers is iLike.com. iLike has almost anything you'd imagine in an interactive music website. Lyrics, bios, connection to iTunes, free downloads of new artists based off what you're currently playing, etc. etc. Heck if you get your friends on iLike you can see what they're listening to and what they like. iLike has an application with Facebook, so you can see other Facebook friends' music in the same fashion.

One of the best things iLike offers is the iTunes Sidebar, downloadable here:

To the right you can see how my sidebar looks on one of the tabs, my favorite one: Related Music. It pops up a few bands of my own that are similar to the Beatles, suggests some awesome songs, and then I can download for free right there some new artists' music. I've already downloaded some Cinderpop via iLike (the song I was highlighting with my mouse) and I love it.

--

Meanwhile, let's talk some music.
Genre is always an issue any music expert has argued over sometime in their life. Is a rock song purely based off the rock beat (listen to the drums of any AC/DC song for a great rock beat)? Was Beethoven really a Romantic Era composer or a Classical composer? What's the difference between electronic music and most hip hop today?

Well these questions are not easily answered. My goal is not to force upon anyone else what I think the genres are, but I like to identify common themes in styles of music. Afterall, one of my favorite things to do is put a song into Pandora.com's search engine to get the song's information, like here. I just thumbed up that song on my Electronic Instrumental Radio station.

If you hear the song above's (Chime (7" Single Version)) sample you could probably agree with the sounds and the ways some music reviewer described them: like the house roots, trippy soundscapes, synth riffs, etc.

In electronica, the possibilities for sound descriptions are as unlimited as the sounds these creative musicians can come up with. That is why it is not a real genre. Instead, it's an instrument. Just like once electric guitar came out, it didn't have to be used for rock songs. The unique sounds that Jimi Hendrix made during his Woodstock's Rendition of the Star Spangled Banner do not reflect on any other rock song.

In the same way, electronica can be used to develop new sounds and music for ANY genre. Considering most western music now has a rock beat, there is a lot of electronic rock. When I traveled to the Middle East I heard a cacophony of electronic Mid-Eastern pop and techno. Some had the same rock beat I hear in Depeche Mode back in the States, but others mirrored more of a hip-hop beat combined with the modal scales of traditional Middle East music. My roommate always is playing some new forms of electronic music with the combination of speeches, rapping, techno beats and dj scratches to make it's own kind of genre. Therefore, the term electronica is really an umbrella genre. Just like R&B was an umbrella genre in the 1950s and 60s for any song played by a black artist, electronica is a genre played by a programmed in computer.

That said, I have myself made an eclectic song here following the uncategorized fashion of electronic music. This song, Mama's Got a New Groove, is dedicated to my mother's most recent birthday earlier this month. Hope you enjoy it!

----------------
Now playing: Leftfield - Melt
via FoxyTunes

I Know Music... Do You?

2008-04-21T15:54:00.000-07:00

Hello, blogosphere! My name is Avi Morgenstern, and I am a music major at the University of Kansas. I had this idea today to make a blog for music lovers to enjoy. I am one myself, and I know there are others out there in this big world, and what better way to connect than with the ever-powerful blogdom?

Basically, I'll be updating about once a week with some interesting and cool things I hear in music, including some of my own compositions. Every post will include some sort of music (a song, an album and/or an artist) for you to stream, link to, download or to explore for yourself.

I will read any comment as long as they are not flaming someone or something or completely off subject. This is a Music blog, so clean out your ears and have some fun!

Here's one little thing you may be interested in. I recommend the use of Mozilla Firefox and the addon FoxyTunes. Not only does it allow you to post in your blogs a signature of what you're currently listening to such as:

----------------
Now playing: Howie Day - Sorry So Sorry
via FoxyTunes

The thing I really use it for is to connect and control and help connect your music player to your browser (it supports iTunes, Windows Media Player, Real Player and others, even some websites with music players.).
This picture is cut from my status bar in Firefox, where FoxyTunes is connecting to my iTunes, giving me track and volume controls or i can pull up those menus for several new options.

: My favorite button to press, it accesses the FoxyTunes Planet website for the current song. Usually it has lyrics, a little artist bio and if it is missing, it will have a link to a website that will. This is a great and easy way to learn about your favorite musicians and to make sure you're singing the right lines :P

As promised, each post will provide you with some music. Here's one of my favorite songs:
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi by Radiohead
(the audio is a little better just from the Song Clip if you scroll down, although the video is still pretty cool)

Keep on Rockin in the Free World!
-Avi

----------------
Now playing: Keane - Is It Any Wonder?
via FoxyTunes