Today’s blog is brought to you by the letter ‘A’

I am going to keep this week’s blog simple. Eugene and I often differ on our musical tastes, I can’t please everyone all the time. Plus I am of a different generation so my tastes will inevitably differ. His generation’s music got me started, I kept going. And some day if I ever have kids the cycle will continue.

So this week, let’s put up one song each from a band who’s name starts with the letter ‘A.’ Why ‘A?’ Several reasons. 1) In response to Eugene’s comment I thought I would post something I knew he wouldn’t like. My mind  immediately went to At the Gates. One of my all time favorite metal bands. After years broken up, I finally got to see them on their reunion tour a few years back. It was great. At the Gates are, in my opinion, one of the top 5 metal bands…of all time. I won’t go into why here, that’s for future posts. 2) Pete suggested Avail, and I recently re-purchased ‘Over the James’ after it was stolen. I forgot how great that album is, probably my favorite of theirs. 3) At the Gates reminded me of At the Drive In, and I heard a rumor they reunited, which it turns out is true. They played Coachella and are playing Lollapalloza. So, three bands that start with the letter ‘A.’ One song each.

1) At the Gates. This is a live version of ‘Slaughter of the Soul,’ off the album of the same name. This is their first US date of their reunion, filmed in NYC. I watched this before the show I went to, which was the last stop on the tour, and was excited. Listen to that crowd yell ‘GO!’ at 0:22, fists in the air! Crowd singing every word. That, is a great show! Great song.

2) Avail. There are so many great Avail songs, so I’m not sure which one to post. But, I’ll go with one off ‘Over the James.’ Ok, here is one of my favorites, and a good live version. Also, a great, great live band! After I saw Avail in 2000, I never went into a mosh pit again, I retired. But, they (and this song) are great to sing along to.

3) At the Drive In. Let’s see if I can find footage from Coachella….Low and behold, I did. I’m going with my favorite from the album ‘Relationship of Command,’ ‘One Armed Scissor.’ This song always reminds me of driving to work at the Bronx Zoo after a snow storm, I think I was listening to it as I drove through the zoo to get to the building I was working in.

There you go. A. Enjoy, or not, but have a good weekend!

What are you listening to while you work?

Here is a quick post of three songs I keep listening to today while I work.

1) Skrillex: ‘Right In’ I seem to keep listening to his stuff.

2) Sweedish House Mafia:’Save the World’ Embracing my inner guido?

3) Disfear: ‘In Exodus’ Getting rid of my inner guido.

Each of these I heard via Pandora…on two different stations. But, I keep listening to each while I work today. Enjoy!

Jack White’s new album

Is currently streaming on iTunes for a limited time. Go to iTunes store and you should see a link in the upper right. I listened to it last night. First impression, I like it.

Fortune tellers make a killing nowadays….

Eugene suggested a topic for this week, and I was going to go with it, but I decided not to. He suggested posting current songs so we could discuss the state of music in this day and age, how bad pop music is. But, that would just bring us down. Friday music shouldn’t bring us down, it should pick us up! One thing that current pop music has is a lot of production. What I mean by that is, someone sings into a mic, but there is a lot of processing of the vocals that goes on, such as autotune. In terms of the music, most is done on computers. Some of it might not even be actual instruments. Over production isn’t bad, and it can be good, if used correctly. The point of pop music is to make money. So, producers make them sound good, sometimes by overproducing them, they’re catchy and have good chord progressions. Some, even have the same chord progression (C G D is a favorite and has been used in countless songs). But it seems that the days of a band playing in a room with a mic or two are gone. Oh, you messed up, we’ll edit it out. Didn’t quite hit that cymbal on the beat, we’ll fix it. I personally like the rawness. I like the mess ups. I also like when it sounds like you are hearing things as they actually sound.

So what does all of this have to do with this weeks music? Well, I heard Nine Inch Nail’s ‘Only’ on the radio a week or so back and it made me think. Here is a musician, Trent Reznor, that makes industrial music, with a lot of electronics, yet on this song it is very stripped down and raw. In particular, the drums have a great sound. Now maybe I’ve been fooled and it is so produced that it sounds real, but this song has very simple music, simple drum beat and bass line, and Trent singing over it. His voice also does not sound overproduced. To me, it sounds like he just sang this into a mic and hit record. Again, I could have been fooled, but for a band that uses a lot of electronics this sounds raw. This is also just a great song, there are little vocal parts here and there that he throws in that I like (for example, the ‘yes I did.’ at 2:15), the song builds, and sometimes he writes good lyrics. There doesn’t seem to be much music like this right now….there should be. Here is the video, which is also pretty cool.

And a live version with a great light show.

Lets go with a few more off this album.  A live version of ‘The hand that feeds.’ I could have went to this show….I should have.

This album had stripped down music that translated really well live.

And one more. We’re keeping it simple this week. This one is for Eugene. And often this song is an anthem for me.

So, let us not dwell on how terrible the current state of music is. Something will change, something has to right? Instead, let us enjoy the good music that already exists. Its funny, I was never a huge fan of NIN, I got into them later after their 90′s explosion. I prefer most of the later stuff. And these three songs are some of the best. So, enjoy!

TV off.

One of the things I like about this blog, is it allows me to have a record of my weeks thoughts on music. I can come back to it and see what I was listening to on a given week. The other thing I like is seeing what it makes others, most notably Eugene think of. We hear a song, it leads to another, then another, Youtube suggests one and we’re left hours later thinking…’Well, how did I get here?’ Today, I am going to tell you exactly how I got here…..musically.

I have been writing at work all week, when I write, I listen to music. Mainly this week it has been background noise, but today I found myself going down a path that led to somewhere I didn’t expect. Much like life. I started out the day listening to Type O Negative’s ‘October Rust’ album. I listened to that for a while and re-wrote an introduction. When the music was done, I didn’t know what I was in the mood for, so I scrolled through my iTunes and landed upon Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind.’ I always start that album with track 2, In Bloom, because it is my favorite song of theirs. When that was done, I thought, ‘What next?’ Well, the alphabet led me to NWA’s ‘Express Yourself.’ Yup, from grunge to rap. Then I remembered a cover of Express Yourself I hadn’t heard in years and that brings us to our music this week. Covers by the band Stretch Arm Strong.

Let’s see what wikipedia has to say about Stretch Arm Strong. They are a hardcore band, that seems to be inactive at the moment. They are from SC, and that’s about it. I’m not sure where I first heard them, it was sometime in the late 90′s and I saw them once in 2003 in Indiana. One of the things I liked about them the most, was their covers. I’ve mentioned covers a lot lately, maybe we need some new music, but Stretch Arm Strong do covers in a certain way. They take a song, and they make it theirs. However, they also retain the essence of the original. As I’ve mentioned earlier, picking a cover is an art in itself. It seems most bands go straight for 80′s new wave songs, which I am also guilty of, and they often turn out well. The other favorite, especially for heavier, fun bands is to pick a current pop song, guilty again. Then there are the covers that are outside of the box. Ones we might not have expected, and often turn out well. I don’t like cover bands. You know the type, you’re in some dive bar and there is a band trying to sound just like Journey or something. I like bands that have fun with it, put their spin on it. They’re covers, so most people know the song and will sing along, but add your twist. As I said, Stretch Arm Strong always seemed to do this well, and I like their covers. So, for this Friday, here are three covers Stretch Arm Strong did and the originals for comparison. Which are better?

First up, the first one I heard of theirs, a cover of Modern English’s ‘I Melt with You.’ Great original song, reminds of being a kid, and I do like the cover. Mind you, Stretch Arm Strong are a hardcore band, so expect some screaming, expect some breakdowns, but enjoy the music.

The Original:

The Cover:

Ok, we have our 80′s cover. Check. Next up, the next cover of theirs I heard. This is the ‘I didn’t expect them to cover that, but I like it.’ NWA’s ‘Express Yourself.’ I like the original, I like the cover.

The Original (with samples from other songs), and yes that’s a young Dr. Dre and Ice Cube:

The Cover:

And last, but not least, since its Friday, their cover of Pink’s ‘Get the Party Started.’ Current (at the time) pop song. Check.

The Original:

The Cover:

So there we have it. I started with Type O Negative, I landed on covers by Stretch Arm Strong. Enjoy!

Oh yeah, and Happy Birthday Jess!

Let’s go…

…Crazy?

I’ll admit, I find myself for the first time writing this, with a blank mind! I know. I haven’t exhausted myself with it, just not much inspiring music this week. I haven’t heard anything new, although the new Meshuggah is out. I’ve been working and listening to various things, but nothing has stuck in my mind this week. Now, this isn’t to say I’m not going to post anything. There are always tidbits and morsels of music floating around in my head. The difference is, this week I will probably spare you my ramblings and nuggets of information that will only get you points on a pub trivia night.

Originally, this blog was inspired by me playing music on Friday’s for my office mates when I was in grad school. Oddly enough, I have only posted a few of the songs I would actually play. Today, I am posting one of those, plus a few more. Friday’s are the start of the weekend, so, the music should inspire us to leave work behind for a few days…well most of us leave work behind. So, a Friday song has to lift our spirits. It has to be the song that at 3 pm we are ready to let loose…..go crazy! One of my personal favorites for this is Prince’s ‘Let’s Go Crazy!’ I’m not going to go into detail about Prince. He’s been around for a long, long time. But, if you want to know, here is the link to his wikipedia page: Prince. I remember listening to Prince when I was a kid. My Dad would play him, and we would all….go crazy in the living room. He has some great songs, is a great songwriter, and if you didn’t know, is a great guitar player. So, on this Good Friday, Let’s Go Crazy.

Huh, I just found out that Prince won’t let his music be on Youtube. Hm. Well that sort of ruins this post. I’m not going to delete it though. Instead I’ll post this cover by Incubus. Its okay, but its not the original. Although, they do have a picture of an anglerfish.

I was going to post more, but this no Prince on Youtube has sort of thwarted me. So, I’ll leave it simple this week and hopefully next week I will be more inspired. Send some ideas! Oh, and have a ‘Good Friday,’ and Easter.

 

What Happened?

I missed Friday! Sorry about that, I was out on an expedition in bigfoot country. I was going to post a mobile-post, but apparently America’s number 1 4G network does not reach bigfoot country! I was going to post this song in honor of my expedition, so here is a quick post to get you started this week. I don’t know any other bigfoot songs, so here is Clutch’s “The Yeti.”