I saw The Cold War Kids at ACL last year and only knew a few of their songs at the time. Since then, I have discovered more, but they are still a really talented band. My sister introduced me to them a couple years back and for the longest time, 'Hospital Beds' was the only song I had.
Hospital Beds is a great song to listen to every once and a while. I've heard better singers than Nathan Willett, of the Cold War Kids, but Hospital Beds sounds pretty good as far as vocals. The combination of the piano and the singing was done very well and results in a good, low energy sound for part of the song, changing into higher energy later.
'Louder Than Ever' is another song of theirs that I have known for a while. It brings a completely different sound to the table when comparing it to 'Hospital Beds'. I don't like the singing in it quite as much as Hospital Beds, but it's not a huge difference. They performed this song very well live, and it sounded pretty accurate to the studio-recorded version. A couple songs by Cold War Kids are great when I'm in the mood for some indie, but usually I'll listen to another band as well as Cold War Kids.
Simon and Garfunkel is another one of those groups that my dad has been playing for years. As usual, I hadn't really gotten into their music until around last year. My guitar lesson teacher played The Boxer, and I immediately wanted to learn it. After I did, I began to look into many other songs of theirs.
I love this song. The guitar work is great. The vocals are amazing. The lyrics tell a story of dealing with poverty and other challenges in New York City. Simon and Garfunkel harmonize in tons of their songs and they're amazing at it.
Scarborough Fair is good relaxing song. As usual, both Paul and Art provide excellent vocals. This is a great version of the very old, original song. I may attempt to learn the guitar part to it, and other songs of theirs. When I compare them to Bob Dylan, I can say that the vocals sound better with Simon and Garfunkel. But Bob Dylan sounds completely different to me, in terms of style. They both occupy different genres and in my opinion, cannot be easily compared.
My sisters good friend introduced me to a band a long time ago. I didn't really pay much mind to them at the time. My dad recently played a song of theirs, which sort of made me curious about them. I listened to some songs on YouTube and liked what I heard.
This is called "Calamity Song." Apparently my dad has played it many times for me, and recently he has been showing me some good music. This is probably my favorite song by The Decemberists. The vocals sound really clean compared to their other tracks. I love their other songs but the vocals sound great in this song specifically. Hopefully soon I can download some more of their work so I can listen to it more carefully.
The Beach Boys were my dads favorite band to play when I was groing up. I basically only heard their more up-beat tracks though. Basically their surfing related songs. That was ok for me. I didn't even know about their other styles until recently. I was also surprised to discover all of the problems that the band had dealing with Brian Wilson. He had many mental health problems and heavy drug intake.
I had to use this song. It is the main one my dad played when I was growing up. It just reminds me of California and the beach, as I'm sure it's supposed to do. In my opinion, these are the guys that could have rivaled The Beatles. I love the harmonies they use. It seems to be their iconic sound. The lyrics they used in the songs that I know are pretty repetitive. It's essentially just surfing, California, and girls. Which is cool with me, but I just thought it was worth pointing out. They were a very successful band and received very positive reviews. As soon as I get back from St. Louis, I will probably try to discover some more of their work. H
On Sunday, I will be going to ACL Festival. At the time that we got the tickets, I was only sure about a few bands that I was going to see. Those were Two Door Cinema Club, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I wanted to discover more to see, so I looked into some others.
This band called "Freelance Whales" was one that I loved. They have an Indie style, which I love. It was probably the best find I made when searching.
I had known that my dad loved this band called "The Avett Brothers" for a while. I searched them also and found that I like them too. This is a band that I would stop by and hear for a couple songs but probably not the whole show. Either way, they are pretty great.
I also came across "The Boxer Rebellion." Similar to the Avett Brothers, they had a couple of songs that I really loved and I hope to check them out at ACL for a little bit. I also am planning to be in the autograph tent when my favorite band, "Two Door Cinema Club," is in there. If I had been able to get 3-day passes, I would have hopefully gone to see The Black Keys, The Shins, Weezer, and a little bit of Neil Young and Gotye.
As we listened to Bob Dylan in class, I sort of realized that out of artists we were asked about such as The Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Beatles, Bob Dylan is definitely my second favorite. One thing I really like is the length of his songs. Sometimes it's nice to just press play and listen for a while, especially if you're really enjoying all of the music. Another thing that really impresses me about Dylan is the fact that he is still playing and is still active. I'm sure that there are people saying that he should stop and he doesn't sound good any more. To me, it's really cool that someone could be an active musician for so long. This is one of the reasons why I'm interested in Paul McCartney still.
I love this short song called "Times They are a-Changing." It really does bring out the style of his voice and displays his true folk sound, as do many other of his songs.
This has got to be my Favorite Bob Dylan song. It helped me decide that I do really like his voice. Many people admit to disliking it, but I am not one of those people. I will say that his new songs are not as good sounding in my opinion, when it comes to voice. I grew up listening to Bob Dylan. My dad would play tons of his songs on car trips and eventually as I got older, I began to listen to him on my own and I still enjoy his music today.
Before I was into Two Door Cinema Club, The Strokes, and Walk The Moon, I really liked a band called Phoenix. They actually formed in Versailles, France, which I thought was pretty cool, and started out as a garage band which is pretty typical. Basically I only know the music they have on their album "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" released in 2009. That's not important though because you can easily get a feel for their sound with just that. They were my gateway band if you will. I listened to them, loved them, and then discovered new music because of them through Pandora and other people.
This song titled "1901" is probably their most popular track, with good reason. I think it really shows of the skill that their singer has. From what I've read, the lyrics are somewhat parallel to the history of Paris, France, but if I'm gonna be honest, I really haven't paid much attention to them on this song. The chorus is pretty well known, but it sounds very new to me. What I mean is that it sounds original, like no one has made chorus that sounds even similar to that. I could be wrong, but that is just what came to mind when I listened to it.
This song "Lasso" sounds very much like Phoenix to me. The drum intro is really fun to listen to and although the lyrics make little sense to me, it's kind of hard not to sing along to the chorus. My favorite band "Two Door Cinema Club" actually put a remixed version of this song on their album full of remixes, which I found to be pretty good, although I was more interested in the fact that they had done it.
The last song I'll include is called "Rome." It is very mellow, I'd say, and really keeps me wanting to listen to this band. It does get stronger sounding later in the song, which I loved hearing, but still remains a relatively calm song. Phoenix is great if you're into Indie Rock in general. I know that it's one of my favorite genres, and Phoenix actually was the first band I liked in the genre. Well now I really feel like checking out the rest of their music so I can better know the band that basically created my music taste today.
I read that Rubber Sole was the eleventh album created by The Beatles that was released to the American market. It's almost too hard to believe that a band can release so many albums and have all of them be so successful. I'm quite sure that a band has released as much music as The Beatles before. But to my knowledge, none of them have been as successful with each album. Just about every song on Rubber Sole was recorded after The Beatles returned to London from America. Of course they paid their friend Bob Dylan a visit while they were there. The "activities" that they partook in with Bob Dylan expanded their sound greatly, which in my opinion was a very good thing. I think that my absolute favorite thing that changed with this album was the lyrics. Rubber Sole caused Beatles lyrics to be much more complex and have a broader list of subjects. They no longer wrote about love and the feelings that come with it, but now wrote about failed relationships, depression, and many other topics.
Nowhere Man is among the first of all Beatles songs to have nothing to do with love at all. It's not only a great song, but it has great lyrics with a deep meaning. John Lennon wrote the song after spending hours trying to think of a song to write for Rubber Sole. McCartney said that John wrote the song about himself, which clearly shows the depression and self-doubt that he was experiencing.
Drive My Car really is one of my favorite Beatles songs. Wikipedia describes the lyrics as "a satirical piece of sexism" as it describes a woman who will be movie star and gives a man an opportunity to be her chauffeur. It seems to be a bit over my head right now but the song is still great. Also one thing I'd like to add is that I grew up watching the animated move "Yellow Submarine" and I didn't know much about The Beatles back then, because I was so young. I remember the animations seeming random but entertaining. The movie introduced me to many of their songs. I think that other than the music, the involvement of the band was limited, but the great music in it makes watching it worth it.
