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. 

ACL 2013

I have tickets to the first weekend of ACL. Unfortunately, I will have to miss Friday due to a band conflict. If any of the main bands that I want to see are on Friday, I'm not quite sure what I'll do. I'll go through the bands that I'm considering seeing and talk about them. Phoenix is one of the ones I want to see the most. I haven't seen them before and they just released an album so it should be pretty awesome. Walk The Moon is right up there with Phoenix and I'm really hoping that they aren't on friday. They're probably the one I want to see the most. Passion Pit is definitely up there because I love them but I've also heard that they aren't great live. I won't be heart broken if I don't see them. Fun. would be cool to see for sure. But again, it isn't gonna be terrible if I don't see them. Grouplove is a band that I like but I really don't care if I see them or not. It's just one that I'll see when no one else is playing that I like. Jimmy Eat World and Vampire Weekend are under the same category. I could easily live without seeing them. Arctic Monkeys are, to me, just okay really. I like them but I feel like I could easily get bored of their music. I'll see them if they don't conflict with any other bands. My sister used to absolutely love Okkervil River, so if she wants me to go see them, I'll consider it. Muse. This one is interesting to me. I've loved Muse for years and years and have all of their albums besides the new one. I'll see them if I can but it isn't too important to me. It wasn't even close to as important as it was for me to see RHCP last year.

I love when the lineup is announced because it always leads to me discovering more music. I'll definitely go look up some more bands so I have more to see when I'm there.

Wu-Tang Clan

I know that Wu-Tang Clan is a group that we listened to in class but I want to count this as my personal listening because I've loved these guys for a long time. I think my love for them started with the song Method Man. I won't post a link to it because it isn't super school appropriate but you can check it out. I went a while only knowing Method Man and then I learned of a few more songs such as C.R.E.A.M, which I absolutely love. I came to love RZA and Method Man the most. I learned that RZA was a cool guy outside of rapping, in his acting carrer. Truthfully, I don't know tons of the group's songs but I'm definitely going to check more of them out because I haven't found one that I don't like so far. This is one of the very few rap groups that I actually like. I really can appreciate this style of music. Another one I like a lot is Biggie Smalls. Although the two groups had a strange relationship, I love both of them. Biggie Smalls is probably my favorite rapper of all time. Wu-Tang Clan would be a close second.

Red Hot Chili Peppers (Early)

I wrote a blog earlier about these guys earlier but basically only covered their new stuff and what I had already heard. We listened to Blood Sugar Sex Magik, which I had only heard certain songs on. I really enjoyed the album all the way through. It sounded exactly what I thought the Chili Peppers would sound like back then. We then went even further back. This is when I started to almost hear a Beastie Boys influence in their music. Maybe that was just me but it seems like their later albums sound more melodic and lyrical rather than being close to Beastie Boy style. I think that their choice to keep Chad Smith as a drummer was a great decision. He is perfect for the band and his style of drumming adds a lot to the music. One thing I didn't know was that the band has been active since 1983. I knew that they had been here for a while but not that long. It really shows you that not all bands take off after one album. These guys worked hard for their well deserved fame. They're one of the first bands I actually liked and no one could ever replace them.