A friend of mine showed me some music recently that I absolutely loved. As it turns out, the band is one of Anderson graduates, started by my same friend's brother. The Jalapeno Heads are this band and they play many gigs in Lubbock, are currently on iTunes, and are signing record deals. They describe themselves as being almost like a mix of Two Door Cinema Club, Maroon 5, Jet, and Kings of Leon. The singer and drummer Mitch Brown has absolutely incredible talent.
Sing it With Me is off of their new EP, along with another song, and I'd say that the two are their best songs. Mitch's voice is pretty amazing in this song and everything blends together really nicely.
To listen to the next song, click on the link and press play for the song "Barriers." It's really great and I really recommend checking it out. You won't regret it. I can appreciate the amount of time it takes to develop the skill of singing and drumming at the same time. Mitch has perfected it and executes both very well. I really love this band and hope to go see one of their shows soon. I would definitely recommend checking out some of their other songs, because everyone can enjoy a few of their songs and it would help out a local band.
Basically all that I knew about The Who before this week was that I really liked them. Learning that they were some pretty crazy rockers kinda made me like them more. They were an incredibly influential and widely popular band. I hate to compare them to The Rolling Stones because the two are pretty different, but I simply like The Who quite a bit more. Roger Daltrey really sounds great in all their songs which isn't something that I can personally say about Jagger. I do like Keith's drumming a lot because it changed rock drumming immensely, but Keith's crazy style distracts me a tiny bit. Don't get me wrong. He was an absolutely incredible drummer.
I had to throw this song in here because it's one of my favorites. I love the recognizable intros to many of The Who's songs. Their use of the synthesizer in this version really ties well into the rest of the song. It's one of those songs that I'll have a craving for. If I'm in the mood for a great classic rock song, this one always satisfies.
Now I know that this is a really common song by them but I really love this one too. The synth intros sound great to me. Baba O'Riley didn't become so popular on accident. It's just a really great song. The Who really isn't the kind of band that I could listen to for hours, but few bands really are. They're perfect for when I'm in the mood for some classic rock.
My favorite band that I blogged about a few weeks back recently released their newest album. Beacon by Two Door Cinema Club has 11 tracks on it, all of which I really like. It has some serious differences to their first album Tourist History, but I think that they're good differences. The style has moved further away from their previous 'dance' and up-beat rock, and more into an alternative rock genre.
This song called Handshake has become one of my favorites on the album. It is a good example of a sort of middle ground between their previous album's style and their new one.
Wake Up is probably my favorite song on Beacon. It is high-energy, very well written, and the vocals are great as usual. This particular song seems to me that it could appeal to people who like many different genres and classifications of rock or pop. It's kind of a mix of rock, pop, and alternative.
When I hear this song called Sleep Alone, it was a couple of months before Beacon was released. I knew that I liked it for sure. It wasn't until the third or fourth time that I listened to it when I realized how much I actually liked it. It grew on me. My friend who loves this band had the same reaction as me. The song definitely has a pretty deep meaning that I'm still trying to put my finger on. I think it really is a great song. Like I said in my last blog about TDCC, they sound very original in my opinion. Alex Trimble's higher-range voice is a big part of this. He is a skilled singer and his range really compliments the rest of the music. The short, solo-like guitar parts that they use frequently in their songs also influence their sound. I'm not sure if they're the first ones to combine aspects like these, but the end result is very satisfying to me and I really love listening to every song of theirs.
Before this week in class, my exposure to The Rolling Stones was very limited and I pretty much just heard them when my dad played them. Now, I can't really say that I'll go out of my way to listen to them much. I had known to start with that I definitely liked a few of their songs. Most of them don't really entertain me all that much. The singing is not my favorite and after just listening to The Beatles, I barely see a point in listening to more honestly.
I put Paint It Black in here because I do really like this song. Even the singing sounds good to me. Unfortunately, most of their other songs have a few things that I just don't really like, which in most cases, is the singing. Like Mr. A said in class, I think that I would have loved the music if it had a different singer. Another thing I don't particularly like about them is the blues. Blues is definitely not my main style of music, so this is just my preference, but I honestly don't enjoy their more blues-styled songs as much. I feel like The Beatles had a pretty wide variety in their song genres/styles and they executed each one close to perfectly. The Rolling Stones do have variety, but I don't think that all of them are very good. I don't hate this band, so I hope it doesn't sound like I'm just bashing them. I very much respect their influences on other musicians and music in general. But given a choice, I would probably listen to something else that that would keep me entertained.
I encountered the music of a band called Walk The Moon recently and I loved all of it that I heard. Here is a fairly popular song of theirs.
Although to me, the chorus' chord progression can get a little old, the song really is good. There's not much history behind them except for they are an indie-rock band started in '08. You could also classify them with alternative. I don't really understand all of the rock classifications but for some reason, I don't just love classifying bands as indie, because it is calling the music they create independent which doesn't make sense to me. But then again, I may just not understand it.
This song is my favorite of theirs. The mix of the incredibly high singing and the high guitar riff really impress me. It just sounds original which I love. Bands that appeal to me have an original sound. Well most of them do. I actually fell asleep listening to this song last night. Which is the reason why these blogs were posted this morning, so I apologize for the tardiness. If need be, I will rename these to be make-up blogs or simply write more. Anyway, Walk The Moon is an awesome band to check out if you enjoy the indie genre in general. Here is one last song that I like:
This week, I did a lot more research on The Beatles, as well as got a lot of their music. I can say that they are one of my favorite bands now. The history behind them is really pretty interesting too. A sad fact that I encountered was that both John and Paul lost their mothers early on. Their losses probably helped unite the band however. I enjoy listening to their early songs and transitioning into the later songs because I like hearing how their subjects and influences change, as well as their appearances. The overall obsession of The Beatles was close to one of a kind. Everyone loved them and they received infinite attention. I dont, however, believe that it will ever be matched again. The reason is that music has evolved into many different genres since then. People like too many different types of music to all have an obsession with one specific band. This is just my opinion.
The Strokes are a band that I had heard a lot of people talk about but I never really looked into them. When I finally did maybe a year ago, they quickly became one of my favorite bands. They pretty much began in 1998 and are still active today. They are a band that I could easily sit around and listen to all day. Their genre is a kind of indie-rock but they have a pretty large amount of fans worldwide. Here are two great songs of theirs.
The song is great even though the video is kinda weird. It has a pretty challenging but awesome guitar part.
This one is pretty well known and its guitar part is also amazing. The singer Julian Casablancas probably doesn't have the best voice, but I think it really works for this band and style of music. I would say that really anyone can like The Strokes because I know people with all different tastes in music who do like them. They've one multiple awards, released 4 albums with a possible fifth on the way, and really do provide good, fun music to listen to. I recommend you check them out and see which songs of theirs you like.
I've been a pretty big Beatles fan for a while now. I liked their music but it was mostly the popular stuff, and I really didn't know tons about the band. Now, after learning in class and further research, I know quite a bit. One of my favorite aspects of them is the fact that they are all really talented singers and switch off singing duties. The musical talent of all of them was really incredible. Very few people I know actually dislike The Beatles so it's safe to say that if you check them out, you'll find a couple of songs you really like. One of my new favorites is "I Saw Her Standing There." Here is a video of the song.
Even here, in their early stages you can really see that they have fun on stage and look very lively. This period of Rock is one of my favorites because not only do you have The Beatles releasing great music, you also have Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, The Who, The Beach Boys, and tons more. In my opinion, the '60s may have been one of the most important decades for Rock because you have so many huge bands that are still loved today releasing really popular songs. I really love the earlier stage of The Beatles partly because hearing really good early music just confirms my thoughts that they were extremely talented artists who recorded a live album in a session that was just over 9 hours. Now I'll admit that hearing lines about love in every early song of theirs can get a bit annoying but all you need for a breath of fresh air is a newer track of theirs that maybe isn't about love.
