The Goo Goo Dolls

A very long time ago, I bought one song off of the album "Dizzy Up the Girl", and that was all of the knowledge that I had on the band. Later, my dad took me and my family to see them in concert, which was great because it expanded my knowledge on them and got me more interested in the band. 

If you know one song by The Goo Goo Dolls, it's probably this one. It's really famous and played pretty often on the radio, even though it's years after it's #1 position on the charts. It's just a really good song that anyone can enjoy. That's why it has become so widely known.

I think that this song was actually released as a single to be a sound track in the movie "Transformers", which is a little disappointing that it was made for that purpose. Either way, it's a great song. It changes both time signatures and tempos in it when it transitions into the chorus, which I absolutely love for some reason. I don't think that many musicians do things like that as much anymore. It's just another reason for me to like the Goo Goo Dolls.

The Ramones

I grew up listening to The Ramones. My dad played music all the time, and The Ramones happened to be one of the bands he loves. I love them too. I love the sound of Joey Ramone's voice, even though it sounds really different. Just like Bob Dylan, a lot of people in class seemed to dislike the Ramones, and I love both of them. 

This must be my dad's favorite Ramones song, because I've heard it the most out of all of them. It's a great song by them even though it doesn't seem to be quite as well known. I've always thought that playing drums, or any instrument for the Ramones would be ridiculously fun. They rarely use a slow tempo and there are almost always fast eighth notes coming from the guitar and the drum beat includes fast eighth notes on the hi-hat. Playing with the Ramones, to me, would be all fun music all the time. It would be great. That's part of why I like them. It's just fun to listen to. 

This is just another song that would be fun to play. There isn't much to say. I think it's great, but that might be just be because I actually like the style of music and I like the singing, which I think might be a main reason why people don't like the Ramones. 

Passion Pit

A few years ago, my sister showed me an interesting group called Passion Pit. I initially didn't like them too much, but like many other bands, I grew into them. They have an interesting genre of music. It's somewhat techno and somewhat indie. The singer has a very high pitched voice. Some people may not like it at all but I enjoy it a lot. It really works for their style.

This song called "Sleepyhead" is the most famous of theirs, as far as I know. It was the first one that I heard and I grew to love it. I've listened to it many times and I haven't gotten tired of it at all.

This is the most recent song that I've discovered by them. It was actually my dad who showed me it. It also became my favorite song by them. It's really great for any mood you're in and it's just a great song. Passion Pit is probably the only group that I could like in this genre. 

More Zep

In "How the West Was Won", Led Zeppelin played a long and continuous concert. I am only a moderate fan of Zeppelin, so my attention was only partally kept. I love watching rock like that, but it seems to be much more interesting live. Also, being a guitar player, I can appreciate the skill it takes to play that well on a live stage. The few times that there was a drum solo in between songs, you could tell how talented Bonham was. The band is talented, without a doubt. I enjoy their performances and their music, but it's not quite my perferred taste. Don't get me wrong though. I can appreciate them for what they are, which is an incredibly talented rock band. Arguably one of the best in history.

The Postal Service: Such Great Heights

I did a blog a while back about Death Cab for Cutie, but then I discovered that their lead singer had also been a member of a duo called The Postal Service. I'll go ahead and say that I don't really care for them all that much. They do electronic music with Ben Gibbard, the lead singer of Death Cab, singing. I honestly would have rather seen some more Death Cab material and I think that The Postal Service is a waste of Ben Gibbard's talent, besides his acoustic covers of their songs.

This is the original version of Such Great Heights. It is The Postal Service version that was written originally. I think that the feel of the song doesn't really match the lyrics that well honestly.

I heard this version a while ago and didn't recognize the song at first. I loved it. When I discovered what it was, I downloaded it and have been listening to it since. It was surprising that I liked a cover so much more than the original song.

Lennon vs. McCartney Solo careers

After the break up of The Beatles, the member's solo careers began, which was part of our focus in class this week. John Lennon had some amazing hits including Working Class Hero, Imagine, and others. Many of his songs have a special meaning pertaining to either a current event at the time, deep emotion, or political opinion, which seems perfect to me for being rock and roll. Of course his career was cut short when he decided to retire and then he was killed in 1980, but he released some great material in is career. Paul McCartney has released tons of material since The Beatles break up. Some of it has been completely solo with him covering all instruments, and others with different bands such as Wings and The Firemen. I think that it's great that he still plays and does what he was born to do. I can't blame John, of course, because we can't know whether or not he would have come back. It is nearly impossible for me to choose between the two amazing artists because they're both great in different ways. Paul can record multiple tracks of him playing instruments and make great music and John writes awesome and strange music.

David Bowie

In class, we listened to a lot of David Bowie. This is just gonna be my short opinion on him. I really think that he was very weird. I saw him in the movie Labyrinth, and thought he was strange then too. I'm sure that for the time, it wasn't quite as different, but he does feel like someone straight from the '70's which is not a bad thing. We did listen to some of his music that sounded much more slow and not quite as high-energy. I did like that. I think it's pretty cool that such a famous person has admitted to being bisexual too. He, of course, is loved by many and he still came out with that information. Moving towards the '90's, Bowie started to have a more normal appearance, which I like more. I also love the fact that he is still making music. That's good to see.

More of The Shins

The Shins don't have a ton of songs that I love. There definitely are plenty, but compared to the number of songs they've released, it isn't many. They have a lot of just okay songs. But don't get me wrong. I love the band and they have some really great songs, like I said in my last blog about them.

This song, Phantom Limb, sounds slightly different from most of their other songs. I can't really decide what's different, but it's a great song. I think that it may be the singing that I feel is different. 

It's Only Life is a great song if you ask me. It doesn't really sound too original or different, but definitely sounds like a Shins song.

Saint Simon is really interesting. It has a different tone than most of their other songs. There are some weird things in it that I don't just love, and some weird things that I do like.