Gentle piano

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.

The first time they've dissapointed me.

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.

Shinedown's best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7NVxAMQn_I

First, as usual, I highly advice you to watch the music video before reading this post. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Shinedown, but this video was so powerful. I am a victim of bullying, so harsh and cruel that I had to switch schools because I was attempting to kill myself. I will never forget the words they said, the scars they left, or the damage they caused. Nor will I ever forgive them, or let someone treat a living creature the way they treated me.

I first heard this song on the radio, and though I don’t listen to Shinedown actively, I don’t change the channel when they come on. Shinedown has some great rifts and strong lyrics, so I’ve put them on my list of bands to pay attention to.

“It’s eight AM, the hell I’m in, it seems I’ve crossed the line again for being nothing more than who I am. So break your bones, throw your stones, we all know that life ain’t fair, but there’s more of us, were everywhere.” Bullying usually takes place at school, which usually starts at eight in the morning. In the video, you see a boy hiding in his room with his door closed, his mother outside worried and upset. Words flash above her face: power, small, weak, object, useless, and then pauses on FEAR. She is afraid of what will happen to her son. The camera then goes to the father, the words saying: Hell, different, hate, tomorrow, lies, bullying, and ends on WARNING. Ironically, victims of bullying feel alone, but most people are bullied at one point in life. The victims need to band together to fight bullies and make it end.

“Think it through, you can’t undo. Whenever I see black and blue I feel the past, I share the bruise, with everyone who’s come and gone. My head is clear, my voice is strong, but I’m right here to right the wrong.” At this point at the video, the boy is at school. The bullies are running around in black hoods, holding nooses and pushing him. The camera pans to someone representing a teacher, who sees it and turns away, the words “Think, look, hide, forget, ignore, SELFISH.” Teachers over look bullying and do nothing. Not so much at Kennedy, but other places I’ve been. Those teachers are the most disgusting people I have ever encountered and are partly to blame for so many teen suicides.

Later in the video, kids are walking into a forest of dead and burning trees, some in the trees while they burn. In the bible, it is said that those who commit suicide will be banished here in the afterlife for destroying the life that “god” gave them. 

Welcome to Plastic Beach!

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

Why some musicals are great.

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/

Why most musicals are bad.

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.

Music inspired by the gluteus maximus.

TWERK- verb. to dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance. 


This is the most ridiculous video I've ever seen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL5WCeBY0aU

I don't even know what to say. I watched this video, laughed about it for a while, then realized what our society has come to. This is today's music. This is what kids listen to. This is what is popular. This is 'art'.

My good friend Kolton has a tendency to find the funniest things on the internet, it’s truly his god given talent. He found this song, I don’t know how, and decided it was so funny we had to watch it. My friend Emily and I watched it, and died. First we laughed- this video is ridiculous. All it is, is large African American women “dancing”, which now is what you youngsters call “twerking”. I am appalled by this behavior. Women fought so long for the right to vote and to be called citizens, to be respected as people not property, and here we have a very large black women in a neon thong, “twerking” in a black light with white paint on her body to make it obvious she had been touched in certain areas. I can feel my great grandmother rolling over in her grave.

The song is called Trampoline Booty.

I’ll start with the lyrics. Here’s a verse!

“I told her jumpity jump dat booty (Twerk)

Jumpity jump dat booty (Twerk)

Jumpity jump dat booty (Twerk)

Jumpity jump dat booty (Twerk)

I told her Jumpity jump dat booty (Twerk)

Jumpity jump dat booty (Twerk)

Jumpity jump dat booty (Twerk)”

In the entire song, he says “booty” 70 times. SEVENTY TIMES. At one point in the video, he is jumping on a large “booty” as if it were a trampoline! What is our world coming to?! This is what children listen and watch.

The rappers name is Kstylis, which I don’t understand. He is neither a caterpillar, nor butterfly. His other songs include “Booty Me Down”, “Booty Hopscotch” and “Kangaroo Booty”. I’m sensing a theme here… could it be he’s fascinated by large buttocks? All of his songs have the same words: booty, work, twerk, down, girl, jump, cheeks, etc. please allow me to stress that this isn’t music. This is trash with a record deal. I can tolerate rap music, but this isn’t music. This is trash, a disgrace to all things with a beat and lyrics. Who gave this ignorant pervert a record deal? Who in god’s name gave him money for a music video? Jesus Christ in a chicken basket. Who does such horrible things to humanity? Isn’t our country perverse and stupid enough?

ANGRY MUSIC

So here’s my first post with some inappropriate or vulgar language. Judith is a great song though, so calm yourselves.

A Perfect Circle is a band my mom has listened to ever since I can remember. Maynard James Keenan is the band’s lead singer and also did a lot of work for Tool when A Perfect Circle went dormant in 2004. Keenan was a huge momma’s boy and was devastated when she died. When Maynard was 11, his mother suffered a paralyzing cerebral aneurysm and later died of the complications. She was a very devote Catholic, and her son clearly displays his feelings for his mother’s faith in Judith, the song I’m reviewing today.

            “You’re such an inspiration for the ways that I will never ever chose to be. Oh so many ways for me to show you how your savior has abandoned you. F*ck your god! Your lord and your Christ! He did this, took all you had and left you this way. Still you pray, still you never stray, never taste the fruit, you never thought to question why.” It amazes me how so much rage can be formulated into words that ebb and flow with the music like mixing sugar into water. They meld together expressing Maynard’s rage at a god who his mother worshiped and loved so contently. Maynard expresses that she never strayed from her faith, “never taste of the fruit” (a relation to Adam and Eve no doubt), and yet this god still allowed her to be paralyzed for much of her life and allowed her to die.

            “It’s not like you killed someone! It’s not like you drove a hateful spear through his side! Praise the one who left you broken down and paralyzed. He did it all for you!” After doing some research on his mother I find that she was a caring person and was liked by many. So why would an almighty who loves us do such a thing to someone like this? Maynard makes an excellent and powerful point, which leads many to a vital question about life: why do bad things happen to good people?

            This is why I personally do not believe in a god. People spend so much time worshiping and praying just to get squashed like bugs. If you ask me, god is a kid with a magnifying glass who’s frying us with the sunlight. Judith’s god abandoned and betrayed her. Why?

I could not find a clean link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRl7NEh2HBk

We don't have to take this, back against the wall. We don't have to take this, we can end it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7NVxAMQn_I

First, as usual, I highly advice you to watch the music video before reading this post. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Shinedown, but this video was so powerful. I am a victim of bullying, so harsh and cruel that I had to switch schools because I was attempting to kill myself. I will never forget the words they said, the scars they left, or the damage they caused. Nor will I ever forgive them, or let someone treat a living creature the way they treated me.

I first heard this song on the radio, and though I don’t listen to Shinedown actively, I don’t change the channel when they come on. Shinedown has some great rifts and strong lyrics, so I’ve put them on my list of bands to pay attention to.

“It’s eight AM, the hell I’m in, it seems I’ve crossed the line again for being nothing more than who I am. So break your bones, throw your stones, we all know that life ain’t fair, but there’s more of us, were everywhere.” Bullying usually takes place at school, which usually starts at eight in the morning. In the video, you see a boy hiding in his room with his door closed, his mother outside worried and upset. Words flash above her face: power, small, weak, object, useless, and then pauses on FEAR. She is afraid of what will happen to her son. The camera then goes to the father, the words saying: Hell, different, hate, tomorrow, lies, bullying, and ends on WARNING. Ironically, victims of bullying feel alone, but most people are bullied at one point in life. The victims need to band together to fight bullies and make it end.

“Think it through, you can’t undo. Whenever I see black and blue I feel the past, I share the bruise, with everyone who’s come and gone. My head is clear, my voice is strong, but I’m right here to right the wrong.” At this point at the video, the boy is at school. The bullies are running around in black hoods, holding nooses and pushing him. The camera pans to someone representing a teacher, who sees it and turns away, the words “Think, look, hide, forget, ignore, SELFISH.” Teachers over look bullying and do nothing. Not so much at Kennedy, but other places I’ve been. Those teachers are the most disgusting people I have ever encountered and are partly to blame for so many teen suicides.

Later in the video, kids are walking into a forest of dead and burning trees, some in the trees while they burn. In the bible, it is said that those who commit suicide will be banished here in the afterlife for destroying the life that “god” gave them.