Just as Legit as The Beatles or The Rolling Stones

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/nine-legitimately-awesome-video-game-soundtracks-20131004?page=2

What can make a video game memorable? Rolling Stone feels that music in games not only can make a video game more memorable, but culture as a whole loves video game music. The article is list of Rolling Stone's favorite video game music. Rolling Stone covers some great music from Halo, Super Mario and Tetris. The author feels that the music is not only catchy, but just as much music as anything else that is produced by major labels today.

I love video games. I also love music, but more specifically I love music in video games. Nothing is quite like the catchiness of Nintendo music or the awesomeness  of orchestrated music in RPG games. Music is just as much the experience that the story or the graphics are in the game. Let's take Pokemon for example. First you'll be walking around carefree while hearing the harmonic sounds of a route, then just as suddenly as the music changes to fast paced darker sounding tones, the game switches into a battle of epic portions. The music gives a sense of how the game should feel. The biggest thing that I have noticed about these songs within the games is that people are willing to scout the internet and pay fifty dollars in overseas shipping for copies of the OST (Original Sound Track) of these songs. For the popularity and artistry of the music in vide games, I feel that video game music should be just as recognized as any other music. I mean come on, Lost Woods from Zelda is way more musical than anything Miley Cyrus has shoved out of her brain. I personally have fallen in love with music from Pokemon, Zelda, Mario, and Starfox. The orchestration, the catchy tones, and the memories are enough to get me to say, video games over pop music any day. I feel so strongly about this that I think game companies and record labels should release the original sound tracks of video games when they release. Think of driving around to the Mario Kart soundtrack. Wouldn't that be awesome? It would be great listening to Starfox while on a plane or listening to Lost Woods while hiking, or even listening to Pokemon Center while in the hospital. (It would make the outrageous pricing of the bill a little better at least.) For these reasons and many more, I feel that video game music is not only incredibly complex, but also store worthy.

Credit Absent Where Credit is Needed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFsHSHE-iJQ

Not too long ago, I found out the the song Mad World was originally by the band Tears for Fears. This of course came as a pretty big "WHAT?" kind of statement. I had always thought it was Gary Jules and loved the song very much. I'm not a big fan of Tears for Fears, but I do feel that I should have known that they were the original creators of a song that I have enjoyed for quite a while. This situation has really got me thinking, why do covers not give as much credit to the originals as is deserved? Take for example the song Land of Confusion by Disturbed. The song is originally by Genesis and most people would tell you that Disturbed wrote the song. The band Van Halen has made quite an impression on the world with the song You Really Got Me, which was a song by the band The Kinks.

This seems wrong to me. Now, don't get me wrong I do indeed enjoy covers. I really enjoy covers when covers are done well. Take for example Kidnap the Sandy Claws. Originally a song in the Nightmare Before Christmas and then redone by the Band Korn. It was a flawless cover and I enjoy both versions of the song, but what really gets me is when people don't realize the song is a cover. This is why I feel that if an artist is going to cover a song, they should put a mention in readable print on the back that it is indeed a song that was originally done by a separate artist.

 I might be the only one who feels this, but I am all about credit given where credit is deserved. And the people who originally write music deserve credit if another artist is going to cover their music. If I was an artist, I would want to be recognized for the song I wrote, if another person is going to sing the same song. I do have to say though, good covers can give a whole different perspective of a song and that is why I do indeed feel that covers are an okay thing. Let's take for example the song Mad World. The original song focuses on the whole mad and craziness of the world and how its easy to get lost in it. While the cover by Gary Jules is more about how sad the world is. Both perspectives are very beautiful and have good messages, but they came from the same song. Overall, I feel that covers, regardless of who does them or how well they are done, need to give more credit towards the first artist who wrote them.

Story Albums are Indeed a Thing to Check Out

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/coheed-and-cambria-silence-superheroes-at-comic-con-yahoo-crash-concerts-20121130

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mar1mSlDsM

A little before this time a year ago, San Diego's Comic Con was rocking the geek universe. What many people did not know was that a rock band was also there.  A surprise performance by graphic novelist and front man for the band Coheed and Cambria was a major hit amongst both fans of progressive rock, and comic books alike. Claudio Sanchez, the front man as mentioned above, was at the Con promoting his own graphic novel, the Armory Wars, and decided it was time for an acoustic performance. Nervous at the reactions and feedback he might get from the audience there, he managed to silence the buzz of geek culture and his voice was heard. Some fans began to sing along, while others though to themselves, I should really check this band out. There new two part album, The Aftermath, was just around the bend at this point and was inadvertently promoted through this acoustic concert.

Coheed and Cambria. I personally don not care for the progressive rock band, but my boyfriend happens to be huge nerd over the different sounding graphic novelist turned rockstar. As a background, all of Coheed and Cambria's music is a continuing story of love, hatred, and sci-fi wars in which people gain powers and destroy worlds. Although I am not a fan of this band in particular, I do think it is cool that bands do these concept albums. I feel like it all kind of started back with bands like Rush and Genesis. Rush did a song back in the 70s called 2112 which was a story by itself and Genesis did something similar with the sing Suppers Ready. The whole idea of concept albums seems pretty popular within the prog rock sub genre and are something interesting to check out. No songs about drugs, politics, or other things that can get in the way of good music. Just a continuing story that one can really get into. I personally am open to more music like this. It seems really cool that a musician can tell such a complex story through lyrics and sound, rather than printed words and pictures. Now I do have to say that some better bands should probably make these albums. Coheed and Cambria, Rush, and Genesis just aren't very good in my book. I'd like to see bands such as Breaking Benjamin or Death Cab for Cutie do albums such as this. Overall, I love the idea of concept albums and would encourage more people to listen.

Drugs and Music, the Combination of Angels and Demons

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/billie-joe-armstrong-rehab-his-425111

Billie Joe Armstrong has had quite a time with his last tour. His alcohol and prescription drug abuse had him hitting the floor when he had a meltdown back in 2012. It was at the iHeartRadio festival and a storm was brewing as the band went on. When the set managers tried to cut him short, he smashed his guitar and started on a "I'm not Justin effing Beiber" rant. This all happened right in the middle of his set and the storm had finally hit and hit harder than a hurricane. Billie Joe had reached his limit and it ended up in a postponed concert tour, an album promotion that got sidelined, and a few weeks in rehab. Billie Joe opened up the experience to Rolling stone and talked about how his struggle with alcohol had played a role in his meltdown. He also went on to talk about his mixture of prescription drugs. Anxiety and insomnia, two conditions that Armstrong takes medication for. He mixed them to the point where he didn't know what he was taking when, and ultimately fell victim to what was supposed to even him out. Rehab had a negative and positive effect on him, as the withdrawal was horrific, but the learning that took place was very self aware and helpful. Billie Joe Armstrong is back on track with his life, and his tour went phonemically.

Let's face it, people do drugs and abuse substances. It's not just those who are famous and its not everybody. As fan of Green Day (mostly older Green Day let's just get that out of the way right now) I had heard of the Billie Joe Armstrong meltdown. It really got me thinking, why does this always seem to happen to those who are successful? Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, and even John Lennon had drug problems. After careful thought, I came across what seemed to me the most obvious answer. External pressure. You see it in the schools of America and plenty of other places in the world as well. Human beings experiment with substances due to curiosity and pressure. Musicians are no different as they are indeed, human beings. The media's role in ruining people's lives is the reason we hear so much about these icons fall from grace. The biggest problem we have as "common folk" is that we eat this media  up. It's like crack (pun indeed intended) to us. We see these people who are famous get bad publicity and the reaction, positive or not, is what the new perception of these people are. I feel that we as a people, should let anybody, even those who aren't famous, work out their own lives without quick judgement. With positive support, we might actually see the abuse numbers decline and our society as a whole can be a better, more understanding place.

Make Up Your Mind Damon. Seriously.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jun/24/blur-gorillaz-new-albums-damon-albarn

Two bands, one common factor. Damon Albarn and his indecisive nature. Damon Albarn is both a member and friend of the band Blur, as well as the co-creater of the band The Gorillaz and in a day where its getting harder and harder for bands to be able to make money, both of the bands are to come out with new albums. Blur will be the first to release, followed by the Gorillaz. The biggest problems that both bands are running into is Damon Albarn's indecisiveness. Albarn has been known to start recording a new track, and then immediately scrap the idea altogether. This of course frustrates his band mates and although they respect him and his talent, wish he could get some of the issues worked out.

As a fan of The Gorillaz, I was drawn to the above article. The albums Demon Days, and the original Gorillaz really inspired be back in the day. The next two albums, were different, but I still loved the tracks on them and I love relaxing to the sounds of the self titled albums, G-sides and D-sides. What has really gotten to me though is how much decision making that Damon Albarn has really put into his music. Other than this article, I have read many articles about new Gorillaz albums (when they were just coming out of course, and the most consistent  thing I have come across in these articles is that Mr. Albarn is extremely indecisive when it comes to his music. Now I'm sure that this comes from wanting his music to be something unique and special to his fans, but many people have come and gone from the Gorillaz for this reason. I even noticed how many songs were different from one another on the album Plastic Beach. I know from interviews with Damon (that I read of course) that he wanted to try many different directions with the band, and there is nothing that said he couldn't decide on the album as a whole, but my personal theory would be that Damon had trouble trying to figure out what the main theme should be to his new album. I love the Gorillaz, in fact there isn't a single song that I hate by the Gorillaz, but I would hate to see such talent and sound be broken due to Damon's endeavor for perfection.  My personal taste will always keep me coming back to the Gorillaz, but perhaps it's time for Damon to get some help with this perfectionist attitude.

"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not."

I’m sure most of you don’t know me very well. In light of that, I will fill you in on my outlook on celebrity crushes.

They’re ridiculous.

That in mind, when I tell you I’m crazy about Kurt Cobain… You know I really, REALLY like him. So much so that I named my teddy bear (that my boyfriend got me) Cobain. My boyfriend and I are such hard core Nirvana fans that we both have agreed that should Cobain come back from the dead, we would both be groupies. I now encourage you to Urban Dictionary ‘groupies’.

Kurt Cobain committed suicide in 1994 at age 27. I find this a little hard to believe, because Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, and Jimi Hendrix all died at 27. CONSPIRACY.

At age 8, Cobain’s parents split. At fourteen, he got his first guitar and taught himself the popular rock songs of the day. After being bullied all throughout high school for choosing art over sports, Kurt dropped out his senior year. Two years later, he formed Nirvana with bass player Krist Novoselic and drummer Chad Channing. Bleach, their first album, came out in 1989. After which, Channing was replaced with the nicest man alive: David Grohl, who is now the lead singer of the Foo Fighters. Nirvana signed to major label DGC, and produced Nevermind, their second album, in 1991.

When Nevermind hit its popularity, Kurt Cobain was crammed into the music spotlight. Something he hated. Trying to use his fame wisely, he spoke about gay and women’s rights. However Kurt never liked all the attention he was getting, and the heroin addiction he developed in the eighties began to return. In 1991 he began a relationship with Courtney Love, an alternative rocker from the band Hole. Courtney and Kurt got married on February 24, 1992, and had their daughter about six months later.

In 1993, after admitting to drug use, there began a custody battle over Francis Bean Cobain (Kurt and Courtney’s daughter). A few times the police were called to the Cobain home because of domestic disputes and at one point Kurt was charged with domestic abuse.

In 1994 Kurt overdosed while on tour in Europe, and went into a coma for about 20 hours. After which he went through detox, and was sent to rehab. He was there a day and left, going missing for a week. He returned to his home state of Washington, and was found dead. He went to his home and shot himself in the head. And that was the end of Kurt Cobain. 

"At this point I have a request for our fans. If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us -- leave us alone!

Don't come to our shows and don't buy our records." – Kurt Cobain

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/kurt-cobain/biography

http://loudwire.com/nirvana-kiss-deep-purple-nominated-2014-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-induction/

Can the lonely take the place of you?

I’ve already analyzed a song by Christina Perri, so below the post should be down there somewhere.

                This week Im reviewing the Lonely, a song off of Perri’s album Lovestrong., her only album (so far, anyway). Perri spent more time in the studio deciding what songs to put on the album than actually writing the songs, because the songs presented and their order was so important to her.

                The song’s tune brings about a gloomy feeling around. The piano’s rhythm is fast, but the minor key is what makes it sad. “Two am, where do I begin? Crying off my face again” this is referring to when she was driving home one night after recording. She stayed late at the studio and on her way home at 2 am, she had to stop the car and decided to grab a milkshake to cheer her up. I eat chocolate when I am sad. Milkshakes are cold. I don’t like being cold when I’m sad. “The lonely” that she refers to is a past lover or a dead family member, or maybe something like a monster that comes to her and scares her back into bed (“The silent sounds of loneliness want to follow me to bed”). “I’m the ghost of a girl that I want to be most, a shell of a girl that I use to know well.” The Lonely monster took her previous life and now she feels like the remains of someone, as if now she is half a person.

                “Too afraid to go inside, for the fear of one more loveless night. ‘Cause the loneliness will stay with me, and hold me until I fall asleep.” Here the lonely is taking care of her, the depression lulling her to sleep. Because she is so caught up with her illness, she is too afraid to love again or go out and meet new people, like someone refusing to drive after a bad car accident.  “Broken pieces of a barely breathing story, where there once was love, now there’s only me. And the lonely.”  This break up tore her life apart and left her all alone. This reinforces my thought of the lonely is a hole left by a break up. Go me.

                It almost seems like she is unsure of the lonely herself. Is it helping her? Protecting her from another heart break? Or is it impairing her, keeping her away from trying again? 

The lyric video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO4e4nCYBEo

Gone be the birds when they don't want to sing.

So. I’ve already written up a little biography for the Black Eyed Peas, it should be the post under this one. After I reviewed Where is the Love, I remembered this song and how good it was. Gone Going was released in 2005 on their album Monkey Business. As I recall, Monkey Business was their fourth album and the one that confirmed their new fame from Elephunk (their third album). Monkey Business sold well over ten million copies worldwide, so I’m sure they made plenty of money off it. Personally I’m not the biggest Black Eyed Peas fan, because I’m not much into hip hop or pop music. However, I do like Fergie because she’s a fantastic singer and their lyrics have a fair amount of punch to them.

                One of the main reasons I don’t like the Black Eyed Peas is because they did a cover of the tune from Pulp Fiction (the greatest movie ever), Misirlou, and so many stupid people think that they originally wrote it. Few things make me angrier than people not giving credit where credit is due. The Peas sampled it, and I hated their version.

                Moving on….

                The song Gone Going depicts a man who is making money wrongfully, and is enjoying his rich life- not caring about what is truly important. “He's a rich man so he's no longer singing the blues. He's singing songs about material things. And platinum rings and watches that go bling- But, diamonds don't bling in the dark” this is a man who was changed by his new found fame, not only in his morality but in his music. He begins to sing of material possessions instead of his true feelings. I think this song is about a lot of rappers. They start rapping of the “thug life” that “chose them”, and end up singing about money and things that don’t truly matter. In the end this loses them fans and record sales. But I don’t like rap, so I don’t really care.

                “You say that time is money and money is time; So you got mind in your money and your money on your mind. But what about... that crime that you did to get paid? And what about... that bid, you can't take it to your brain. What about those shoes you'll wear today, They'll do no good on the bridges you burnt along the way” I am assuming the crime he supposedly committed is plagiarism- stealing the work of others and using it in his music. I especially enjoy the last line, commenting on his shoes that won’t be any good with all the relationships he’s ruined by stealing other’s work. His shoes don’t love him or care about him, and neither do the people that he stole from so he could make the money to buy the shoes.

                SHOES ARE THE PROBLEM.

Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiEjy-Ey5sw

Lack of understanding, leading us away from unity.

For those who haven't heard this song or seen the video, as usual, I highly encourage you to do so. The message is truly moving.

Where is the Love is one of my songs for this week. The Black Eyed Pees recorded Where is the Love with Justin Timberlake in 2003. Beginning in LA, the Peas have five albums and are working on a sixth now. The hip-hop group consists of Fergie, Will.I.Am, Taboo, and Apl.de.Ap (I don’t know how they got their names). At the end of 2011 the Black Eyed Peas were the second best-selling group (with over 42 million record sales) because of their album the E.N.D.

            Where is the Love is one of my favorite political songs. In a nutshell, the song is about being accepting and tolerant of different races and countries and all of the violence taking place in our world today. The question is posed: where is the love? Strings and the xylophone are incorporated with the simple guitar line and clapping, created what I would call a tropical feel. It’s a relaxing uplifting tune, but when you listen to the lyrics you see that the peaceful melody is the only peace the Black Eyed Peas see in the chaotic world.

“If love and peace are so strong, why are there pieces of love that don’t belong? Nations dropping bombs, chemical gasses filling lungs of little ones, with ongoing suffering as the youth die young.” The part that hits me every time is the comment he makes about children dying young in horrible ways. I’m unsure if he refers to pollution or terrorism when he brings up chemical gasses though. I bet it can go either way, since there both unfortunate. “Father, father, father, help us, send some guidance from above, ‘cause people got me got me questioning, where is the love?” A desperate plea for the almighty to help us and fix our world. This line is repeated several times in the refrain, which makes me think that this is a question the writer of the song has had for a long time, and with what’s taking place in Syria… Well let’s hope if there is a god he pitches in soon.

I the music video, which I encourage to all of you fantastic mortals, shows hooded figures running around a city. They are posting signs containing question marks in a box everywhere they are in the video. A van with the question mark is driving around with the Black Eyed Peas inside as they sing their song in the van which is projected through a loudspeaker to the streets they pass. During the refrain they have shots of sad children singing “where is the love”, which is an emotional plea that I find insanely effective.

 

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpYeekQkAdc

Love is watching someone die.

I have discussed Death Cab for Cutie before, so if you want to check out my little biography of them look at my post for The Ice Is Getting Thinner.

What Sarah Said has been a favorite song of mine for some time. I first heard it when I was in eighth grade. I had been having a rough time with kids at school and was extremely depressed. I’m sure you can all speculate my mental state at this time after listening to this song. Around sophomore year I decided I disliked the direction my life was going in and that my family didn’t need to be in the waiting room wondering if I was alive. Whenever I feel weak, I listen to this song and remind myself of the dangers of returning to old habits.

“And it came to me then, that every plan is a tiny prayer to father time. As I stared at my shoes, in the ICU that reeked of piss and 409.” Gibbard sets the scene of being in a ruddy little waiting room, the reek of harsh cleaning products (409 is a disinfecting cleaner, in case you didn’t know). Clearly the situation is dire, because he is in the waiting room for the Intensive Care Unit at a hospital, usually meaning the patient is either dead, dying, or somewhere in between. Not a happy place to be. “I rationed my breaths, as I said to myself, that ‘I’ve already taken too much today’. As each descending peak on the LCD took you a little farther away from me…” Gibbard at this time was a raging alcoholic, which makes this situation seem even worse. My first thought was maybe he was drinking and was in a car accident, but now I think something completely different. Obviously the person he’s concerned about isn’t doing stellar, because the heart monitor screen is slowly falling…

                “Amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines, in place where we only say goodbye. It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend on a faulty camera in our minds.” I have a family in very poor health, and I wish I could remove every memory of a nurse walking in and being terrified that the person currently ill had died. I would pray that the nurse would go to some other poor Joe in the room and tell them their bad news. That my person had lived and theirs died- what a selfish thought to have.

                Later in the song I pieced together that this person was in the hospital for a suicide attempt, and in the music video this is only more painful. In the music video the girl seems to be invisible to her lover, because she’s dead. He is thinking of all the things he could have done to help her and she doesn’t understand why he is ignoring her (or at least that’s how I deciphered the video). It’s heart breaking. When she writes on the mirror, her hand, her arm, etc. she is playing the game of he loves me/ he loves me not.

Il m'aime: He loves me.

On her hand, "un peu?" is "a little bit."

On the walls, "beaucoup?" is "a lot."

On her arm, "passionaïément" is passionately. On her leg, "à la foue" is "to madness."

And then in the end, "il m'aime pas du tout" is "he doesn't love me anymore."

Here’s the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I483tB12SyE

If he was something special, I wouldn't have this song.

Christina Perri is incredible. I personally love her because she is a huge advocate for To Write Love on Her Arms (an organization dealing with self-injury), but her music is fantastic in a gentle way. In all of her songs that I’ve heard, she incorporates her independent spirit and her heart breaks and sorrows into one. Blue Bird is my song for this post.

            Before reading this post, I advise listening to the song so you can understand what I mean when I describe it to you. Here’s a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO5NLUOD8v8

            The song starts with a simple question: “How the hell does a broken heart get back together when it’s torn apart? Teach itself to start beating again…” and of course it makes me wonder. How do people bounce back from heart break? I’ve been dumped once, and man it sucked. Luckily I realized what a jerk the guy was, but the rejection still stung. How to people go on with their daily life if the person they were dating or married or whatever just decides to leave? If my cat up and left me I’d be devastated. And I clean his barf and poop. I feel empty like my life is over when a show I like ends. What would I do? How would I go on?

            The song describes a friend coming to Christina, asking her about (I assume) an ex-lover. She refers to this friend as a blue bird. “This little blue bird came looking for you, I said I hadn’t seen you for quite some time. This little blue bird came looking again, I said we weren’t even friends- she could have you. Don’t you think it was hard? I didn’t even say you died… But it wouldn’t have been such a lie. ‘Cause then I started to cry.” I think by this she means the person she knew had died, maybe the lover turned into a jerk or changed himself drastically. She didn’t tell her little blue bird that he had changed, only that she was free to be with him.

            “This little blue bird sure won’t give it a rest. She swears that you may be better than all the rest. I said, “No, you’ve got it all wrong! If he was something special, I wouldn’t have this song.” Don’t you think it was hard? I didn’t even say that you died…” Christina is obviously upset that this lover is making her blue bird so happy but rejected her. That stupid blue bird won’t give her a break.

            “This little blue bird won’t come ‘round here anymore… So I went looking for her- and I found you.” Maybe blue bird and the lover broke up, maybe Christina snapped on her “If he was something special, I wouldn’t have this song.”. Either way, the end of the song makes you question if Christina went back to her ex-lover, or if the blue bird won.