Punk Princess

I have always been a hard core Avril fan. The first CD I ever got was her first album, “Let Go”, for my birthday. And it blew my second grade mind. The combination of depression and grunge made me hate preppy girls instead of wanting to be one. I instantly got the CD for all my friends and we’d sing it during recess. A month after I got “Let Go”, I forced my hands on “Under My Skin” her second album. It was so dark and deep, I didn’t listen to it very much. Two years later, I picked it back up after being made fun of at school, and the darkness spoke to me. I wrapped myself in the lyrics and focused on myself and feeling better rather than hanging out with friends and doing fourth grade things.

In 2007, Avril released “The Best Damn Thing”, her third album. I went crazy. It was completely opposite of everything she had ever done, no fun acoustics riffs, no depressing lyrics. I was so confused. After a quick google, I realized my idol had gotten married to Sum 41’s lead guitarist. After swearing to never listen to the CD, I put it under my bed. Until I heard Girlfriend, the single for “The Best Damn Thing”. And man, was I back on the ship! Though Avril added background singers, the guitar went from acoustic to electric, and it seriously ROCKED. I memorized my new favorite album and when I’m feeling particularly carefree, I blare it with my windows down on my way home from school.

Next came “Good Bye Lullaby”, returning to Avril’s acoustic roots. The lyrics were more personal, but not as angst-y. It wasn’t my favorite album, but man did I love track five. Smile is so incredibly uplifting, and when I watched the music video even more. I can’t even describe it. It’s just great. Watch it. I’ll post a link.

Avril came out with a self-titled album in November. Its sort of like a reaction to “Goodbye Lullaby”- a response to a conversation almost- the Ying to Lullaby’s Yang. Where “Goodbye Lullaby” is soft an personal, “Avril Lavigne” is a blaring new sound. Avril said she named the album after herself because she really couldn’t think of a better name. The song Hello Kitty is a DUBSTEP song! My pop princess tried DUBSTEP!!! And I love it! She sings “Mina sako arigato, Kawi!” meaning something along the lines of “thank you all very much” and “cute”. I’m confused, but I love it.

Smile:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KagvExF-ijc

You've got to be kidding me.

American Idiot- The Musical. Are we really so out of ideas that we have to take a band that's over glorified and make them into a Broadway musical? What has our world come to? Since Green Day isn’t making enough money on their so called music, we better make them a musical so they can suck more money out of… well… American Idiots.

 

I liked Green Day once. I liked their album Dookie, which is my basis for any good punk band or song. Green Day’s Dookie set the standard for true punk music. And they threw it all away. I’m going to be legitimately honest; some songs on American Idiot were okay (like Holiday and Wake Me Up When September Ends) But a musical? Really guys? Let’s give a punk rock band a musical to make people with poor taste to spend more money on their sad excuse for music and to piss off the informed population even more. Are you freaking kidding me?

 

And the story behind Wake Me Up When September Ends isn’t a patriotic tale about 9/11. The original meaning behind the song was when Billy Joel Armstrong’s father died in 1982 when he was ten. During his father’s funeral Armstrong ran home and hid himself in his room, and when his mother came to check on him he asked her to wake him up when September ended. Now, a lot of Americans took the song and thought of 9/11, which is fine, the lyrics match up really well ("Drenched in my pain again, becoming who we are" - the realization of the fact that everything we go through, all the pain and losses), but it pisses me off that people don’t know the actual story behind the song. IF you’re a real fan, you do. And I wouldn’t consider myself a fan, so why do I know that? Google. That’s how. If you really like a band, you’ll at least google them. Come on.

 

The musical is pretty much a bunch of Broadway idiots dancing around in grunge-punk clothing and ridiculous amounts of eyeliner, imagining they are actually going to make it somewhere. Yeah right! Apparently they invited a story line out of Green Day’s bullshit anti-America album, American Idiot. The “story” follows three friends trying to follow their dreams and find meaning in the September 11^th terrorist attacks. So, they’re making a patriotic musical about… an album smashing the American system and the American people? Awesome. That’s not any form of money making crap. I’m so done with Green Day. Wake me up when this crappy musical ends.

In a place where we only say goodbye

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

The seasons have changed, and so have we.

Death Cab for Cutie is a more modern indie/alternative band formed in Washington in 1997. Lead singer and writer Ben Gibbard is a recovering alcoholic from Washington State. Chris Walla is the lead guitarist, Nick Hammer on bass, and Nathan Good on drums. The band has seven albums, and have left their underground status when they signed to major label Atlantic in 2004. Since then they have gained plenty of fans- short and tall.

The Ice is Getting Thinner by Death Cab for Cutie is a really grim song. I love it, but whenever I hear it I can't help but think of dramatic love stories that fall through. My favorite thing about the music over all is that the bass line is the most prominent. It’s a simple, slow line repeated over and over. But it has a ring. When I hear it I think of when I have bad days and everything seems to lose its color. I don’t hear people speaking to me, I don’t comprehend what’s taking place around me. Everything is just a blur and the world is moving normally without me. Or falling through a black void that never ends. When this song is played I go numb and want to go back to bed and let the world go on without me. What I find brilliant is that the song is just the same few notes over and over for every instrument. The bass being the lowest instrument presented is the loudest to highlight the death of their love. The tune repeats itself over and over- like a romance that has fizzled out of its passion.

            “Were not the same dear, as we use to be. The seasons have changed and so have we. There was little we could say, and even less that could do to stop the ice from getting thinner between me and you.” Already I need a hug.

            “We buried our love in a wintery grave. A lump in the snow was all that remained. Though we stayed by its side as the days turned to weeks, the ice kept getting thinner with every word wed speak.” So this is going to get happy, right? Things rarely end sadly..

            “When spring arrived we were taken by surprise when the flows under our feet bled into the sea and was nothing left of you and me.” So their relationship isn’t going to work out. Youch. I feel a ping of pain every time I hear that. To think that a relationship between two people could just leave nothing left.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgRVeNMoU2c

My problem with sampling and covering music.

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.

Where IS the love?

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

"Oh, wow. Look at my wrist, I have to go!"

Today were going to do something a little different. Look out, I’m reviewing… A MUSICAL!!!! Anyone that knows me knows I hate most musicals. It’s far easier to list the musicals that I like then the musicals I hate. So let’s see… I like: Burlesque, Moulin Rouge (if you want to call those musicals), Grease, and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog.

            Which is our topic for this post! Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog is a mini three act musical about a super villain named Dr. Horrible and his love interest, a very sensitive and charitable girl named Penny. Dr. Horrible is played by Neil Patrick Harris from How I Met Your Mother. Dr. Horrible wants to take over the world because he is sick of the “status quo”, and how the people in charge have ignored him and brushed him off for so long. Penny, the love interest, is Doc’s crush from the Laundromat he goes to. She is working on getting the city to give her a building for a homeless shelter. Captain Hammer, the hero of the city and Dr. Horrible’s arch-enemy, meets Penny during one of Horrible’s heists, is able to persuade the mayor to give Penny the building and has Penny fall for him.

This entire little play was written and filmed during the actor strike (2008), and was directed by Joss Whedon, the creator of my all-time favorite show, Firefly. If you haven’t seen Firefly, it’s on Netflix. Watch it or be a loser forever. The play goes back and forth between Dr. Horrible’s blog and (some of) the events he has schemed. It’s pretty fantastic if you ask me. The beginning of the movie/ miniseries/ play begins with Dr. Horrible sitting in front of his computer reading fan mail. One fan writes “You always say you will show her the way, who is her and does she even know you exist?” Her of course being Penny.

That sparks my favorite song from the whole play- “My Freeze Ray”. Dr. Horrible is singing to himself quietly in the Laundromat watching Penny, about if he had his Freeze Ray ready to perform, he could freeze time to think of things to say to her, and pluck up the courage to tell her how he feels about her. The whole song is light and happy, defiantly something you could imagine singing to a lover or potential lover.

The play goes on from there. I could describe it, but I feel like I wouldn’t be able to be objective and give you an over view without either giving away the end or writing out the entire script. So watch it, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog is on Netflix. Make sure you have tissues for the end.

Penny: You're not really interested in the homeless, are you?
Dr. Horrible: No, I am, but... it's a symptom. You're treating a symptom while the disease rages on, consumes the human race. The fish rots from the head, so they say. So I'm thinking, why not cut off the head?
Penny: [pause] Of the human race?
Dr. Horrible: It's not a... perfect metaphor.

Link to the IMBD:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1227926/

Waiting by the mail blox, by the train...

So the Gorillaz have always been one of my favorite bands. My brother got into them when their 2005 hit Feel Good Inc. hit all of our favorite music stations. Feel Good Inc., from their second studio album, was a pretty big hit as I remember it. What hooked my older brother Spencer was the bass line- the bass had the melody rather than the guitar. Coming from a band background, this was new to us. Though I never asked my brother, I think this is what led him to learning bass. Spencer is the best bass player I know, but I suppose I’m biased because I’m his sister. I owe most of my music taste to my brother- he got me into some of my favorite bands (Led Zeppelin, The Gorillaz, and The Who), and taught me how to really appreciate music.

The Gorillaz is a virtual band, meaning they are made up characters representing real people who make their music. After their first album (self-titled), they were immortalized in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most successful virtual band. The band’s genre ranges from alternative rock to alternative hip-hop to Britpop (they are native to Britain).

To Binge (featuring Little Dragon), from their third album Plastic Beach (2010), is defiantly one of my favorite songs by these guys. The song depicts sort of a heart break feel with longing in the guitar line. There are highlights of hope by the synthesizer, making the song still upbeat and easy going. My boyfriend once said this song reminded him of me, because it conveyed a longing and lonely feel. So of course, I listened to again to remember it a little better. After listening to the lyrics, I had to explain to him that the lyrics did not fit us very well.

2D (vocals and keyboard):“I wait to be forgiven, maybe I never will. My star has left me to take the bitter pill. That shattered feeling well the cause of it’s a lesson learned, ‘just don’t know if I can roll into the sea again. Just don’t know if I can do it all again’ she said, it’s true.” When I hear that I think of a break up. Then when I hear the next part sang by Little Dragon (a female role), I get a much different feel.

“Waiting in my room, and I lock the door. I watch the colored animals run across the floor. I’m looking in the distance and I’m listening to the whispers. Oh it ain’t the same when you’re falling out of feeling and you’re rolling in and caught again.” Colored animals? We’re talking about drugs! The girl locks herself in her room to take hallucinogenic drugs, hence she’s caught back in the sea of addiction.

Next, 2D almost replies with “I’m caught again in the mystery, you’re by my side, but are you still with me?” Clearly the man is concerned for her well-being, worried if she will once again drown into the world of drugs. The song is actually sad, the longing sound about drugs forming a wall between two lovers.

I then explained this to my boyfriend, and cleared it up that only video games could form a wall between us. Can you believe he likes Kingdom Hearts?

 

Song Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0AUHWdTT9M