Green Day

Green Day is the band that got me listening to music. I began listening to the song When I Come Around and thought it was awesome. That song alone was one of the main reasons I started listening to music. Of course, I loved the album American Idiot for the longest time. It really sounded awesome to me. I still can enjoy a few Green Day songs like Time of Your Life and the cover of John Lennon's Working Class Hero. They were a majority of what my early music taste was. I still respect them as a band. I've definitely moved on to different bands and have a different taste in music. I can always credit Green Day as the band that started my love of music.

Austin's Live Music

We all know that Austin is the live music capital of the world, but I've always wondered just how big it is in the world of live music. Sure we have some venues like Antones, The Erwin Center, and Stubbs that are popular. Many famous musicians have come from Austin such as Robert Earl Keen, Eric Johnson, The Bright Light Social Hour, Ben Kweller, and What Made Milwaukee Famous. There are so many more. Austin has produced some great musicians but how famous is its live music? I suppose I don't have anything to compare it to since I've lived here my whole life and I haven't been anywhere else for long enough to know its live music. I know that there are always live shows to go see and many great bands playing, but I don't think bands are waiting in a line out the door to book venues in Austin. This is just a guess and I could be completely wrong. I guess what I'm saying is if we are the live music capital of the world, then I'm a little worried for live music in general.

Early Death Cab

I know I've blogged about Death Cab for Cutie a couple of times but I felt like this was an appropriate subject, considering my recent discovery of many earlier songs of theirs. They may not be that early but some of them are earlier than the other songs I've discussed. The first one is:

This song is Stay Young, Go Dancing and it is actually off of their newest album Codes and Keys. I really like it and the message it teaches. I don't like too many songs on this album but this is definitely one of my favorites.

This is an interesting song called Death of an Interior Decorator. The drum beat has an interesting meter to it that fits the song but can get a little confusing. Its a nice and slow song but I enjoy it a lot.

This song called Your New Twin Sized Bed is very good in my opinion. The overall theme is a little sad but many songs by Death Cab are. I think it's a really good song but it doesn't seem to be very popular. Popularity doesn't matter to me though.

This last song is called Transatlaticism and it is the title track to one of their albums. It's very simple but enjoyable. It sounds great when I'm in a calmer mood and reminds me of many other songs by Death Cab for Cutie.

Weezer

Weezer is a band that I've liked for a long time. I first became a fan of Say it Ain't So, and quickly discovered other songs of theirs. I only really got into the Blue Album and didn't love any of the rest of them honestly. Out of the songs on that album, my favorite have to be My Name is Jonas, Buddy Holly, Say it Ain't So, and The World Has Turned and Left Me. I think the band is really talented. I wish they weren't known for the song Beverly Hills as much because, personally, I don't really like it that much. If I'm being honest, I really only love these certain songs out of most of their discography; but I really do like them a lot. I think they maintain a simple but classic rock sound. I absolutely love that about them. Sometimes I feel like they almost are trying to bring back that true rock sound to the mainstream. Although the instrument parts seem to be relatively simple to me, they blend together really well and bring a lot to the sound of each song. I think Weezer will continue to be that band that fills my rock craving that I get occasionally. I'm not super into them, but I don't really want to be. I like where they fit in with my music taste.

Radiohead

The truth is that I thought that I didn't like Radiohead before we listened to them in class. I thought that, like Led Zeppelin, they had a huge group of fans and that I wasn't one of them. I'm not sure at all why I would think that because I wasn't familiar with their music at all. My whole view of them changed, thankfully. We listened to some good songs of theirs, but two stuck out to me. Those two are Fake Plastic Trees and Paranoid Android. I really do love Paranoid Android. I've listened to the video that has just lyrics many times. I think the music video makes it hard to focus on the song itself. It really is a strange song in itself. But I still really like it. Certain parts of it remind me of the singer from Muse, more towards the end. Fake Plastic Trees is also very good. I love the more relaxed feel to it. I would really love to listen to some more Radiohead and I definitely plan on doing so.

Massive Attack

Like many other people, but only knew about the song Teardrop because of its role as the House theme song. Other than that song I basically didn't have any expectations as to what I would hear on the album Mezzanine. What I did discover is that Teardrop seemed to be different from the rest of the album somehow. It seemed to be more of a relaxed song with a different feel than the other songs on the album. Honestly at the end of the album Teardrop was the only song I really enjoyed a lot. I liked the song Exchange but not nearly as much as Teardrop. I'm sure there are others that I did like but the one that really stuck in my head was obvious. Actually, I liked all of the songs we listened to. But it was Teardrop that stuck out. Listening to the album made me aware of the group, allowing me to check out more of their music. I agree with what Mr. A said. This album is the perfect type of music to listen to in bed with some good headphones. That's what I've been doing recently. I'll listen to Teardrop and occasionally other songs on the album before I go to bed. It's perfect. 

Bankrupt!

The new album from Phoenix was released, so I'll talk about it a little. When the song Entertainment was released I was very excited for the album. I almost expected all of the songs on the album to have the upbeat feel that Entertainment does. So far, what I've found is that they don't have much of that feel, besides Oblique City, to a certain degree and Drakkar Noir. The album isn't bad at all. I just don't think it's as good as the previous one Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. There are a few good songs on there but the only one I love is Entertainment. I like every song on the album. But I basically just like them. Some of them more than others.

Here is a performance of Drakkar Noir, Trying to be Cool, and Chloroform.