In continuation of my list for the new President, this is Fiddle and the Drum, brought to you by A Perfect Circle. It's difficult for me to introduce bands that are already well known; it almost feels like they don't require introductions. Here we go anyways. A Perfect Circle was formed by the lead master mind of Tool, Maynard James Keenan, hence you would hear a lot of similarities in the two bands. For some strange reason, I love listen to APC, but can't find much appeal in Tool. Weird.
Moving on, the new presidency is marked by a very prominent and often repeated word: diplomacy. This song seems to be perfect to mark the end of the Bush era, and a time to begin reconciliation. Even during Obama's inauguration speech, hope for peace resounded. I only hope that this will be done in the most time-efficient manner, with consideration for the various countries whose people and government we've affected.
Hmmm this seems a little overdue. So President Obama has had almost a week now to get used to being the most powerful man on earth, and so far he's doing a fantastic job. Almost every other blogger out there has already written a full list of what they want the president to accomplish over his term, I guess it's now my turn. Let's start this one off with something controversial, something to jump start the atmosphere.
This is Tegan and Sara: a pair of Canadian twins, and extremely talented musicians. Tegan Sara wrote this song "I was Married" not long after one of them got married engaged to a long-time girlfriend. (I'm full of inconsistencies I know!)
There are a lot of extremist views when it comes to gay rights, but please, before you make up your mind or get defensive, listen to this song. Let it bring you to that sunlit wedding, and tell me this isn't about love.
So here's our first challenge for the freshman President, he's been reportedly associated with religious anti-gay rights pastors, but I want to here what HE has to say himself. I want to see him do something about this.
HISTORY CLASS! This is one song from back in the 80's by a band called the specials. They rode on the 2nd wave of ska. Now some people ask me: "Waves of ska?" A brief rundown. Ska came out in the 50's and 60's in Jamaica and was a lot more reggae oriented then it is today. Ska bands were stereotypically from the poorer class of people, and this music was their way of escape. Played in small clubs and bars that many workers would come to after hours. This wave didn't see much outside of central America. The Second wave came in the 70's and 80's, The band I am showcasing today was at the front of the new wave. This was known as the 2 tone wave, because many americans and euopeans played in the band, making them multicultural. Finally we have the late 90's, which the Third wave is just dying out now. A few bands made it big, like Five Iron Frenzy and Reel Big Fish. For more information, see this video here: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=AesId12OKsY And enjoy one of the classics
So I became a fan of Street Drum Corps back in high school, when I was going through - we'll call it - my Vans Warped Tour phase. SDC is a trio of amazingly, outrageously talented percussionists, who carry around drumsticks and bang on whatever makes sounds.
I was catching up on what they've been doing the last few years and found they've come out with a new album. I thought the first one was obscure, but I can't find this new album ANYWHERE, and needless to say the youtube video I found isn't that great either. Hopefully, you'll get the gist of their sound. At the beginning, one of the members actually uses a welder as an instrument... It's intense.
They used to be more pure percussion, and have added singers and other instrumentalists as features on their new album. I can't say I'm a big fan of these changes but they're still pretty effing awesome. The second video is just one of the guys, walking around some city and banging on random stuff. He does some pretty crazy rhythms, and there's a cameo by drummer of 30 Seconds to Mars. Enjoy!
It was a good day that I discovered Tilly and the Wall. They're an upbeat pop band from Nebraska, I mean, what can be more upbeat than having a tap dancer? That's right, one of the "instrumentalists" is a tap dancer, in replacement for a drummer. They're almost the same thing right?
I've been listening to this album on repeat the last few days, sure to drive my roommates mad soon. This is my favourite song off the album, hope you enjoy it!
Yes, today's feature band is a pop driven boyband from the state of Florida. Boyce Avenue is the three Manzano brothers and an odd ball, Stephen Hatker. The brothers began playing music at the age of ~14. The band was split temporarily as the brothers left for university (Architecture at U of Florida, and Harvard Law school... just for the sake of dropping names).
Their music is simple, with catchy lyrics and tunes that will get stuck in your head the whole day.
Oh and stop complaining about the boybands, at least I didn't post the Jonas Brothers... yet.
Love is All is yet another indie band that emerged from Sweden, although they are currently signed on with an American record label. Their music is upbeat and umm... I'm not good at describing music past "Awesome".
I know one of my roommates find the lead singer's voice really abrasive, and I can see what she means, although it's weirdly addictive to me. I guess it's one of those, love it or hate it sounds.
Once again, video and sound quality not very good since I couldn't find a single one of their songs on youtube and had to make my own. I think you'll get the general gist though, and there's always Myspace!
What? you haven't heard of Iced Earth? They've only been around since, well, longer then me. They got together back in 1984, released their first CD in 1988, and have been pumping out new CD's almost every year or two since. Sure, the band members have changed a lot, and the lead guitarist/songwriter, Jon Schaffer, is the only original member still there, but they still rock! What impresses me about these guys is that they are one of the few great Progressive Metal bands out of North America, 99% of them seem to come from the U.K. and Japan (oddly). Iced Earth also does a lot to appeal to their fanbase. They know what their listeners want, take a lot of their feedback, and use it to improve their music. They have done the CD "Tribute to the Gods" which was a cover CD of all their favourite bands and songs, another CD retold famous historical battles such as Waterloo through Heavy Metal, and a whole CD based off the comic character "Spawn." Jon Schaffer is even planning to create a graphic novel based on his character and band mascot, Set Abominae. Also, with lack of finding a non-live performance of this song, I used the AMV I watched when I first heard these guys years ago. I know this is a music blog, but Final Fantasy 9 was one of the greatest of the series, and is seriously under rated. Just think of the setting: Steampnk + Midevil Fantasy + awesome magical summon monsters = Flawless Victory. Sure, the main villain was (very) flaky, and the final boss came from no where, but the rest of the story and characters are solid. Anyways, enough Video Game ranting, here is the video... I mean song...
Gregory and the Hawk is actually rather well known, but this is because of a one hit wonder they had a while back (Boats and Birds anyone?), which is rather depressing since their other songs are really really good as well. They definitely deserve more than the one hit stardom. So this is one of their more recent songs, Grey Weather.
Gregory & the Hawk is actually just a name that Meredith Godreau adopted for her musician alter-ego. Yes, that is her angelic voice that you're hearing. Meredith is one of those musicians that can just pick up an instrument and go. As a result, she learned how to play piano, clarinet, oboe, violin, and viola, before finally deciding to make guitar her weapon of choice.
Welcome to our second trip-hop entry here on The Mix Tapes. Please correct me if I'm characterizing this genre incorrectly. For the life of me I can't figure out how I found out about Sutrastore, but I found their name on my Zune a few days ago, and thought "well I don't recall that name..." so I listened to it and it was the most pleasant surprise I got that day. Sutrastore's music features sometimes a female singer, sometimes a male singer; this is one of the only songs where they both sing together, and it sounds just divine. The girl has one of those raspy jazzy voices but it's so soothing at the same time. However, the thing I love the most about this song, is that solo at the beginning that sounds like a... harmonica? I could be wrong, but it sets a really nice mood for the rest of the song.
So for today's post I am not so much posting a band, but a compilation CD. I recently (by recently I mean almost a year ago) got my hands on a CD called Metaliska. In short it has many Ska bands doing covers of 80's metal and rock songs. Here is my favorite from the CD. It has a ska/reggae feel to it but still feels true to the techno/rock song Final countdown was. Enjoy, and find the CD if your into ska, 80's rock, covers, or whatever.
So I apologize for being so frazzled this holiday, I haven't really updated much being my connection at home is really slow, and I guess everyone else was busy with the holidays as well. Anyways, we're back.
This is James Yuill, an acoustic artist from the UK. I've always been a sucker for acoustics and the Brits, really what girl isn't? He's got this kind of geeky folk artist thing going on. This video is just an acoustic session with him, his usual stuff has electronic synthesizers as well. It's quite an awesome mix.
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