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.

Finding new music

Recently, I've gone through a period where I've lacked finding new music that I enjoy. Admittedly, I haven't looked too hard but I've never had to look hard before. My music usually comes from friends, my dad, brother or sister. I think I've just been listening to the music I've had all along and accepted it. I have been using music as a way to help me do homework and not much else recently. When I don't have much homework I listen to much more music and enjoy it. I find new music and add it to my collection. It could be at a result of my limited genres that I enjoy. I admit that I may be closed minded to certain types of music. Hopefully things will change when I get past some of the difficult school times.

LCD Soundsystem

I had only heard the name of this band until we listened to it in class. I only think they're okay, really. I only have one real point to make. If you're looking at music from their era, there are much more exciting artists to consider. I listened to LCD Soundsystem and almost fell asleep. To me, it sounds like a guy singing to an electronic beat. It isn't bad but I personally don't love it. If I were asked which bands I would listen to alternatively, I name bands such as Death Cab for Cutie, the early works of The Strokes, The Shins, and many other bands that I love. This is, of course, my opinion. I find much more excitement from listening to these bands. I really appreciate their music a lot. While watching the documentary for Soundsystem, I asked myself why the crowd was cheering at certain points because I wasn't impressed. I know this is biased, but it's my honest opinion.

Pop

To me, pop music is mostly what is played on the popular radio stations. The stations play songs that are popular which is enough for me to label most of them pop. I asked my mom what she listened to growing up and what most people enjoyed. She told me that she always loved "Hair Bands". I didn't ever know that she liked hair metal too much but I'm glad she did. My dad loved The Beatles, of course, and he also has listened to Bob Dylan a whole lot. Pop music when they were growing up was nothing like it is today. Then, many people listened to rock on the radio and everyone loved The Beatles. Today, it would be pretty hard for me to find a song on 96.7 that I truly enjoyed. The few times that I listen to it, it's just for background noise while I'm driving. It isn't that I can't tolerate pop at all. I just really don't like it and it's hard for me to believe that so many people to. That being said, I don't want to be too cynical. I accept that it's the popular genre and I quietly enjoy my own music while trying to not let it affect me. I will never try to tell someone that their music is bad and mine is good. I find that completely wrong and pretty stupid, as you can't expect everyone's opinions to mirror each others.

So many rappers become popular and fade out within a few months or a year. I probably couldn't name a third of all the rappers or hip-hop groups on the radio today. Sometimes it feels like they come and go in a cycle. Either way, I'd much rather hear someone say that they love Justin Bieber than say that they "don't really like music". To me, that's a closed minded thing to say. It may be rare, but everyone should enjoy music, no matter what the genre is.

Wilco

Wilco is an interesting group. I had never heard of them once before yesterday in class. I'm glad I did though because I've found them to be quite enjoyable. Watching the documentary and seeing them playing in the studio was interesting to me because you could really see how the recording process works. I've been listening to the whole album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", and have yet to find a song that isn't a low energy sound. I'm not complaining because I've basically discovered that it's just the way they sound and I do enjoy it. I don't think that I would sit down and intensely listen to a whole album of theirs. Instead, this music feels, to me, like perfect background music for passive listening. I can listen to it at a normal volume while doing something else and appreciate it. I will probably only listen to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot because it seems to be one of the middle albums they released. I want to hear the median of their albums and I may listen to another some other time. There is a video on YouTube that has the entire album on it and it's pretty awesome. You can just hit play and listen, appreciate, and not worry about changing songs. It's a fun listen and to me, it sounds like it could be a tranquil feeling overall, but a little bit of sadness at the same time. It varies from song to song. As I continue to listen, a few of the later songs sound a bit more high energy. Here's the video and I highly recommend checking it out.