Blame It On The Pop

Today's Song: United State Of Pop 2009 - Blame It On The Pop by DJ Earworm

I've recently gotten into remixes. It all started back when I was walking around the San Francisco Virgin Megastore a couple of years ago and I put on some headphones to listen to The Killers' new B-side-filled album, "Sawdust." I saw on the track listing a remix of Mr. Brightside by Thin White Duke (Stuart Price). I was intrigued, so I checked it out. To this day it's still probably my favorite of any remix I've ever heard, though that's hard to definitively say. 

After that day, I started to listen to more remixes. There are a lot of poorly done remixes out there, but every so often you run into some real treasures: M83's remix of Bloc Party's The Pioneers, Hellogoodbye's Here (In Your Arms) [Club Mix], Enmass's remix of Imogen Heap's Hide And Seek, Owl City's Hello Seattle [self-remix], or Shiny Toy Gun's Don't Cry Out [Teenager's Remix]. 

Then remixes led to mashups: multiple songs re-edited and spliced together into one. Mashups, to me, can be more impressive because of the difficulty of combining songs of different keys, tempos, and forms. They're different from remixes in that mashups don't usually change the original mix of the songs they're splicing, but when they're done right I tend to like them better. Imagine this: Green Day, Oasis, Travis, and Aerosmith (technically Eminem's sampling of Aerosmith; but really, there's not really much Eminem there) all in one song. What do you get? A Wonderwall Of Broken Dreams. And if you think that's impressive, try 2009's top 25 pop hits all combined into one, 4 and a half minute segment of complete sweetness. You can hardly believe it, and you can't not like it.  

NOTE: My brother was the one who originally showed me this song. Just thought I'd give credit where it's due...

Symphonies

Featured Song: Symphonies by Dan Black

Some songs you listen to and they make you cry; some make you laugh; others make you feel alive (to put it simply). But most of the time the beauty comes from how each song we love makes us feel emotions we've felt before, but with a new twist. We feel something that is both familiar and yet unique - no other song can make us feel exactly that way. Thus the music we listen to has the power to engender in us seemingly limitless combinations of emotion. 

Once in a rare while though, I come across a song that is undefinable -- it breaks the mold. It doesn't make me feel like other songs do. I feel instead in a way that's both acutely different from anything I've felt before, and yet the nature of the emotion eludes me. I couldn't tell you if the song made me feel happy, sad, empowered...It isn't something you could put your finger on. And yet I strangely find that when I listen to it, whatever emotion I'm experiencing is somehow poignantly accented. It is as if what I'm feeling right then is suddenly beautiful - something that warrants acknowledgment and appreciation. And I feel for a moment that I see the world through new eyes.


Dan Black's Symphonies is one of those songs. 

Stay On My Side Tonight

Today's Song: Disintegration by Jimmy Eat World

I wonder why I’m so caught off guard when we kiss. I'd rather live my life in regret than do this. What happened to the love we both knew? We both chased? Hanging on a cigarette you need me, you burn me.
Hushed with a finger. Don’t say you’ll never when you might, or just another time. This poison comes instruction free. Do what you want, but I’m drinking. Lie better next time, stay on my side tonight. Brilliant.

I Love The Feeling When We Lift Off...

Song Of The Day: Death by White Lies

Just heard this song for the first time on Christmas Eve while watching a cool Youtube compilation of every Hollywood feature film made in 2009 (See Link Below). The video shows clips from each of the 342 movies in a short 7 minutes. Its unusual for me to find multiple songs at the same time that I absolutely love, but from Evermore to Onerepublic to these guys, I guess I've just been lucky lately. They had me from that first big hit. 

It's like what you would get if you made The Killers from England and crossed them with Interpol. I'll tell ya - The UK's got it figured out. For such a small island, they seem to produce a disproportionately large catalogue of fantastic music, or at least big or greatly influential bands: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, Coldplay, Oasis, Pink Floyd, The Who, Muse, Genesis, Elton John, The Police, Queen, Snow Patrol, The Clash, Robbie Williams, The Sex Pistols...

...And U2 is just an island away.


Here's the link to the Youtube movie compilation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5bc8zFUiQE

Waking Up To The Good Life

Song Of The Day: Good Life by OneRepublic
  

Now that class exams are over, it's time to get to all that new music I haven't had time for...

I recently purchased OneRepublic's new album called "Waking Up" on a whim, without having heard anything about it. Sometimes I do that. I figured it wasn't much of a risk though - I did decently like their last record, "Dreaming Out Loud," and they do move a hell of a lot of numbers. Anyways I couldn't sleep earlier and so I decided to lend it an ear. I just finished my first listen through, start to finish, and turns out its not half bad. I actually kind of fell in love with this one song, Good Life. It may turn out to be just be a passing infatuation, but it certainly caught my attention and I've been playing it pretty much straight for the past half hour or so. It hasn't gotten any older. I can nearly always tell the good ones, because the more I listen to them the more I like them. Some of my favorite songs I've disliked and some I've even hated the first listen through. This, I think, is a good one. It's the kind of song that's perfect for a listen at sunrise (which is what I've been doing). And I find it humorously fitting that it's kind of a celebration of life, just as I'm celebrating finishing finals.

And for those of you who scorn all pop, don't do yourself the great disfavor of avoiding good music just because of its genre - you'll be missing out. At least this time you'll get in a listen before you hear it sprayed all over the radio, which it very well will be in a few short weeks, or whenever they end up releasing it as a single (the album just came out November 17th, so it might not be for a little while as I'm guessing it'll probably be the 3rd or 4th single).

P.S. I APOLOGIZE THAT I HAVEN'T YET FIGURED OUT HOW TO MAKE LINKS POP UP BY DEFAULT IN A NEW TAB. I KNOW YOU CAN RIGHT CLICK THE LINK AND SELECT "OPEN IN NEW TAB," BUT I WANT TO MAKE THAT DEFAULT. IF ANY OF YOU KNOW HOW TO DO THAT I'D APPRECIATE THE TIP.

Kid A

Song Of The Day: Idioteque by Radiohead

So I figured since I talked about Radiohead's "Kid A" in my last post I'd put up a song off the album. It's crazy to think just how much variation there already is out there in the music world, and then hear this song and have it be pretty much unlike anything I've ever heard. The tune is hauntingly mesmerizing. It could almost put me in a trance.

More Evermore

Song Of The Day: Hey Boys And Girls (Truth Of The World Pt. 2) by Evermore

So I'm in the middle of finals right now - pretty much pretty busy. But I was listening to Evermore's latest album, "Truth Of The World: Welcome To The Show," while studying and heard this track: Hey Boys And Girls (Truth Of The World Pt. 2). It's their most successful single to date and I thought it was decently catchy. It's poppy, but I like that it's also kind of different from most pop songs. The whole album is kind of a social commentary, and this track fits right in with its discussion of celebrity obsession and the myriad things all vying for our attention. Most of the time I tend to steer away from that sort of thing but I can't help but love this album, and I'm not exactly sure why yet. 

In a way it kind of reminds me of Radiohead's "Kid A" - of course the records are two stylistic worlds apart, but to me they both imbue a common sense of departure from their band's original style. "Kid A" was of course a more drastic and impactful departure - and probably much more difficult to digest - but...still. I dunno. I guess it's apples and oranges here, because "Kid A" was really a big milestone for the entire genre while "Truth Of The World: Welcome To The Show," though an excellent album, just wasn't, or isn't yet (though I doubt the future holds any promise). I guess all I'm saying is there's a loose similarity between the two. But I would definitely recommend you give both a listen at some point, if you haven't already, because they definitely merit it.


Some other tracks I'd recommend off the Evermore album:

Join The Party 

Everybody's Doing It 

Front Page Story / Diamonds In The River 

Plugged In