Unfortunately,  this the last definite blog I'll do (except for random times) because I went to the play (picture in a bit). After a school year of blogging almost every week about music usually in the early morning hours, ahem, 1-6 am, it'll feel weird not having to write the weekly blogs and reading other's blogs (because eventually everyone will stop for a while). I definitely feel like the blogs and this class (which if there was History of Rock ll I would kill to get in) have had a definite impact on the way I listen to music as well as how I look at music and I appreciate what I've gotten from writing these blogs as well as the music I've discovered from other people's blogs as well as the various music I've found accidentally while searching youtube for videos to link in my blogs. The same applies for the class itself from which I found numerous artists and LEARNED, yeah, I've learned various things from the class, -(that's not to say we didn't screw around every once in a while when the music wasn't too exciting, ahem 70's)- from what's expected you would learn; the background of rock movements and eras to various artist's impact and influence on music today (be that positive or negative) and regards of music as a buisness and copyright law to things such as having actual opinions and their defense, as well as some pretty good discussions, to the "give a shit" graph Mr.A made some class periods back. The way I listen to and critique music as well as understanding its significance has been heavily changed by this class and I'm glad I took it and thank you Mr. A for putting up with our crap and teaching such an awesome class.

Biggest impact artist

      I think it was in Tuesday's class when Mr. A  asked each person which artist has had the biggest impact on us or was the most important (I don't recall exactly what he asked but it was along those lines). As people answered I thought and went through several artists and bands trying to decide which one was the most important, throughout this process one name kept coming up no matter how much I dismissed it until I decided to embrace it and give more thought to this reoccurring name until the realization of its importance and significance overcame me as I answered almost by reflex "Dan Black".
        
          What I realized was that Dan Black and his music was my kickoff artist where I became more actively aware of the presence/idea of finding new music or better put, discovering music new to you and the idea of finding and actively looking for music, conducting research. Essentially the beginning of my musical awakening and drastic change in the way I viewed/listened to music compared to before where I definitely listened to music (and a lot), but only listened to stuff that I knew from the radio, my parents listened to, or my brother showed me, in other words I got almost all my music from people I knew and even then I never acquired much depth of knowledge with any artist because looking deeper and listening to full albums was something of a result of Dan Black.
         
           They way I came about knowing of Dan Black is peculiar because he was more or less my first individual musical discovery as result of having listened to a Cudi track that (to me at the time featured Dan Black but later came to realize that it was Dan Black's track which recorded a version with Cudi) anyway eventually I clicked on Dan's name which took me to his music and resulted in me starting to find my own music. So then I began to more actively listen to music and its elements as well as actively looking for new music, one example of this is a playlist I made for my youtube account that's titled "music research"  that features various artists of different genres that I came across while on youtube and put them in this playlist to remind me of the exact aspect I liked and go deeper and conduct research on the artist, I still use this playlist and add songs to it to check later, it's definitely a good tool. Another form is when I mistype an artist or for some other reason a different artist comes up, I click on it and give it a listen and its taught me to take chances listening to anything that appears especially mistakes from typing because I've found some great stuff I would've missed otherwise.
      
       I've found that Dan Black has definitely been the most significantly important artist to me not just because of his music (which is really good) but what resulted from finding it and how it continues to influence the way I discover new music and how I listen everything in general to this day.

Mezzanine

So we were about to begin listening to Massive Attack's Mezzanine in class when an announcement called for a "stay in place drill" and in result led to turning off the lights which reminded Mr. A that 2nd period listened to it with the lights out, so we decided to do so as well with the visualizer on, and the combination was sick. Mezzanine, as Mr.A said is definitely a night album so just with the lights out the mood was enhanced and better fit with the music which had something about it that gave off a slightly darker chilled out vibe which is a good and refreshing change from the constant barrage of uptempo music. The visualizer also enhanced the mood of the album, supporting the chilled out, downtempo side of it, sometimes with bright colorful firework explosions and other times with darker, less active smoke balls. One thing I noticed was that as the album progressed, the visualizations looked more and more organic (at least to me, I had Schwarz for biology, so everything's kind of been tattooed into my head)  and got more and more complex from the double helix to flagellum and cilia, so that was pretty interesting to watch the different structures that formed (again that's what it looked like to me). At one point I think a vice principle or some else came in, and based off the ambiance that featured the lights out, rather trippy visualizer and the album playing, they definitely thought something along the lines of " holy crap what did I just walk into","god damn it Mr.A the kids are high","everyone in that room is tripping" and crap along those lines. It think one of the reasons the majority of the songs in the album tended to have a darker sound attributed to them was the lack of  a definite instrumental melody to lead which results in more focus on percussive elements and I think at least some of the songs were in a minor key which would definitely contribute to the sound. I enjoyed Mezzanine throughout and has gotten me to check more of Massive Attack's music.

Well the blog I wrote about Phoenix's new album deleted itself so I'll just post some funny and ridiculous hip hop dancing songs that made all the white kids want to dance (or try).

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=0FOjmV66zf8

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=mwPIC2HchpQ

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=NJxYiIfr4WM
This one is pretty funny because of the guy on the far right.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=Dq_sGy4H_-k
as if the song wasn't enough

In class we covered some LCD Soundsystem with the documentary and their performances as well as listening to Nirvana. One of the things I like about Nirvana is how their sound can vary from their more common sound of heavy, overdriven guitars (which is always great) to a calmer, quieter, hell even acoustic sound in songs like Polly and how the subject matter is more or less plainly stated in the lyrics though somewhat hidden, in Polly's case the subject matter being toture and rape, yep, and though it's more or less evident what the song's about by lyrics, you wouldn't really catch it unless you read them as the way Curt sings it makes it hard to understand the lyrics together.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=k2Fr90sOxbs
Okay I think this is the right version with on screen lyrics, I think because I'm on "mobile" (tablet) so it won't let me see it, so if something horrendous comes up on the video I apologize in advance.

Pearl Jam (PJ)

Yup their intials are mine. Anyway, I've definitely liked a lot of their songs, though these tend to be the more popular ones (Even Flow, Yellow Ledbetter,  Alive, Jeremy, Better Man etc.) So I'm definitely going to try to listen more and get deeper into their music. Even Flow I particularly like because its something you automatically start torso nodding to (whole upper body moving to the beat) and just a song that is driven by the guitars and the awesome intro riff, I've seen the video of their live performance like the one Mr.A showed us and I always find it great how much they get into their music and the moment along with Eddie Vedder's voice that chooses when it wants to be understood.

STRFKR

On Wednesday instead of playing music Mr.A asked us what we were currently listening to so I decided this blog will be about that. Lately I've been listening to lots of STRFKR or Starfucker and definitely to their new album that I keep in my car along with the rest that are in my phone. What I like about this band is how varied their sound is, going from chilled out music to dance-focused beats, straight rock and electronica. They use lots of synthesizers but in a way that doesnt drive you insane along with some pretty sick base and guitar lines. On vocals you'll find that the way its mastered will muffle them out or make them sound far off almost making it seem like they're trying to direct your focus elsewhere or when they sort of want you to pay attention to the vocals they'll make more audible while still keeping them slightly muffled, they also have some pretty good harmonies that help drive home the song. Also to wake you up after  a chilled song, they'll hit you with something a bit more upbeat, like the transition between Isea and YAYAYA, yeah you can see difference just in the text. One thing I really like is that no matter how minimalist the lyrics are, the rest of song covers it though I suppose it's a preference thing with lyrcis, for example I can live with songs without lyrcis (or bands ahem, Explosions in The Sky) while some prefer lyrics like Ann yesterday in the car said there wasn't any lyrics or they weren't easy to follow, so lyrics is definitely a personal preference.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=plcp&v=1EL03Pl4oL4 Atlantis

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=plcp&v=_YsjVTdq5og  Beach Monster

These are the videos they have so far and on each one you'll see the different sounds described.
A cool thing I found on Miracle Mile is that if you run it without a gap between the songs  they all (almost all) connect perfectly. I would put up more links, but I would end up listing every song they have so I suggest going to spotify and start at Reptilians, move to Miracle Mile and then go back to the older albums like  Jupiter and Starfucker and Heaven's Youth which is cool because it's the Reptilians demos and you can see how the songs changed and progressed. So my advice is listen to EVERYTHING.

On an off note I'm going to listen to Phoenix's new album!!

Unplugged

I've always liked the unplugged series/acoustic performances with very few electric aspects minus the mics for any band or group that does it. I find it interesting how certain songs sound without any overdriven guitars or bases and how they adjust the song accordingly, for example some guitar solos may sound amazing when everything is set up and the notes tend to have a longer sustain and they probably have some pedal to adjust it (wah pedal for example) but when they play unplugged they may have to throw out the entire solo because it doesn't have the same effect unplugged and fill it in with something else (usually boring compared to the solo). Overall, unplugged performances are usually pretty good.

Nirvana

Please refer to blog name for most accurate statement referring to today's fanbase. (not the title of this post)

It speaks for itself and I'm tempted have that alone as a second blog but I imagine it's not enough, so we'll go a bit further. You can't mention a band like Nirvana around people not expect to a couple of these situations: people who don't know much about them: "I've actually never listened to them" (at least they're honest) -internet trolls/idiots:" LOL DEY SUCK LEAD SINGER KILLED HIMSELF CURT-GO-BANG, CURT COCAIN", and the most common: person 1- "oh man I love their music, smells like teen spirit is amazing" (then the following happens) -person who also likes Nirvana and wishes to further discuss them* "cool what other songs do you like?" Person number 1:"uhhhhhhhhhhhhh" -and this is where my blog's title "smells like the only song you know" came from/comes into play as its usually the only song they know besides other big ones commonly listed like Lithium. There are people who don't actually care about the music, just looking cool because they "know" certain bands, very much how Mr.A refers to ACL  and that its "Austin casual listener" (may be a couple words missing because I don't remember) and that people go to music festivals ACL particularly  because "it's cool to be seen there" -Mr. A instead of being there for music itself, same goes for Nirvana or any other band: listen for music's sake and listen to the other great (or not great) songs they make. That's all for today (yes it's very ironic that I didn't even get to adress the music itself).

NWA

   NWA, when you hear or see these three letters there are a few things that instantly pop into your head, these mainly being heavy profanity, angry lyrics and strong beats that are repeatedly pounded into your head and where most are deterred by taking these at face value instead of focusing on their seemingly constant message against/about the injustices faced by people living in poorer neighboorhoods mostly at the hands of the police and instances of heavy abuse, namely police brutality along with common issues such as racial profiling. Though the profanity may get extreme, it works in driving through raw emotions of anger and frustration in a way unmatched by most other means. Think of the profanity as brick that is thrown through the window of predisposition to get inside to deliver its true message (suiting I know); it's not cursing just to curse, (something common in most of today's top 40 radio rap, ahem, lil wayne) it's cursing to snap you out of the passive listening that artists of lesser skill rely on to stay afloat and that keeps you from seeing a larger picture or the intended message.

I recalled Mr. A telling us in class about U2 and how before in the 80's they weren't nearly as popular while they were essentially making the same music they are today, only difference being the time period and the popular genre of that era (80's mainstream primarily glam rock) and how it affects the way even bands like U2 were (and still are) recieved by the public. I found this interesting how the the popular of today is anchored down and holds stubborn, even against the superhuge of tomorrow knocking when it's not within the right spot in time.

Since 7th period only had you for one day this week I don't have much to draw from but we watched a little bit of U2's documentary. Even though it was interrupted every 5 minutes or so by ads as the videos were split up, their actual performances weren't bad aside from occasional drops in sound quality and the resulting inability to make out some of the lyrics.

There's a saying that there is dubstep for everything, so naturally, I tested this saying by typing in "chair dubstep" : http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=Bw-OxoCDSBA yep, it's kind of funny and  usually has to be for something like this, but I wasn't quite convinced so I searched "potato dubstep" and sure enough, they have that too: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FODMIeXmMCI yeah I wouldn't suggest listening to all of that one because it's repetitive  and about a potato,  not much you can do there. I do like dubstep's  granted freedom to make a song about  literally anything, even random subjects such as these. 

In class we listened to some early hip-hop from the 80's that I  liked because of its simplicty in terms of the beat and/or the limited presence of other effects like in Slick Rick Doug E. Fresh's La Di Da Di where it was a complete absence of machine/instruments and the beat was beatboxed by Doug E. (you wouldn't be able to tell the difference) and Rick's lone voice with straight calm/paced lyrics. In contrast, early hip-hop could also get in depth and detailed with lyrics  that were delivered with an amazing flow.

Though what Mr. A showed us in class (hair metal) made up a large amount of rock present in the 80's, I was a bit surprised that we didn't listen to or mention some of the other rock genres/bands that were also as prominent as some hair metal acts and sounded a lot better, one that comes to mind being Guns N' Roses and Appetite for Destruction,  an album and band that had a more aggressive heavy metal sound  and course I'm referring to the best lineup it's had (duff, izzy, axl, steven, slash-thankfully he didn't go with poison) that featured a mix of heavy songs led by distorted guitars and an aggressive attitude, a couple of these being Night Train and of course, Welcome to the Jungle  while it also had its slowed down, less agressive songs like Mr. Brownstone, Paradise City, the well known riff and solo in Sweet Child o' Mine and the combination in Rocket Queen that made this album several times better than most if not all hair metal albums. I'll put links when youtube decides to work.

80's-90ish

This week everything we listened to I liked, or didn't completely mind which differs from what normally happens where there's one thing (or more) that we listened to that I wouldn't really like, but this week was different.  From MJ's Thriller to 80's rock (I'll go into more detail on the second blog on this subject) and early rap/ hip hop, I enjoyed everything we listened which hasn't happened since we listened 50's-60's (yeah the 70's killed it a bit). I'm not saying that the 80's didn't have it's own set of god-awful songs and looks, but what Mr. A showed us wasn't horrible though my least preferred song came from Poison if I do recall correctly and yes, 30 years later Brett Michaels still kind of looks like a girl.

Disco

I've never really liked disco at all, though I disliked it a lot more before we listened to it more in-depth in class where I found some aspects of it interesting. I did enjoy some of the funky guitar hooks such as Staying Alive that gets your head nodding almost instantaneously. I still don't have a great taste for disco but now it's not as horrible as it was before.

Elvis Costello

We listened to his album and I enjoyed most if not all of it and how some of his songs have lyrics that require one to go over them a bit slower (or making a small inference) to get the true meaning or message in songs such as Alison. I definitely enjoyed the album more than I thought I would (I initially thought the album would've just passed by without much of an effect on me).

Well, I was really only in class monday but I heard we listened to The Sex Pistols who bring forward a very punk sound

STRFKR-Starfucker

                 I've been meaning to write about this band for a while now but I haven't gotten the time to, so now I might as well. STRFKR or Starfucker depending on what's best to use for the situation at hand, is an indie-electronica band from Portland, Oregon. One of the first things you notice is the distinct relaxed vocals that often seems to scream indie at to people who live in the top 40 loop. What I definitely attracted me was this very laid back, relaxed, slightly psychedelic sound that accompanies many of their songs and is the dominating sound throughout their newest album Miracle Mile. Though many of their songs are very relaxed, don't expect it to be a dull, downtempo song with a beat that could put someone in a coma, no they manage to produce very upbeat songs with an active drumbeat and various sounds that still manage to maintain a calm tone, primarily due to the vocals that remain somewhat long and relaxed.
                Certain albums such as Reptilians manage to explore a party pooping subject such as death and feature interludes of a man addressing the black lugger and still make the album sound as happy as Mr.A with his coffee playing Madison Square Garden and one could go through the entire album without the slightest idea of a theme (well, minus Bury Us Alive, Death as A Fetish, and Hungry Ghost, which all sound kind of dark/depressing by the title until you actually listen to them). I particularly enjoy this album just a bit more than the others due to the fact that it features the first song (Reptilians) and favorite (The White of Noon) I heard by them and this was the first of their albums that I resulted devouring (followed by many others). The White of Noon begins with a piano/synth intro that resonates throughout the song that is anchored by a complex but steady beat that grip your ears until the vocals finish you off. Also they're coming next week so I'll probably go to that.

I'll put links later
 

This is a follow up from my last post about the harlem shake because it popped into my head first so that's what I'll talk about. Well since the video's up I'll just link that to reiterate on my point from last time of music's influence on such things such as the effect of the bass drop and the resulting insanity fueled by the increase in volume and beats that crumble a house's foundation. Alright here's the link, enjoy (or don't).

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=k7GUhbogKOo

In class we listened to Stevie Wonder and his album which was great by itself and turned even more sick when you realized (or remembered) that he was blind,  then it got insane when you were told he played almost every instrument on the album. Considering the depth of  the instrumentation and the skill involved to produce the varying sounds,  it's amazing enough for a person to be able to skillfully play multiple instruments, but on top all of that the guy is freaking blind, that really does amaze me. Overall,  I enjoyed the various sounds that ranged from fast jazzy sounds to some slower sounds.

Harlem shake

Based on what we did in the parking lot after school on friday, I figured this was fitting. Okay quick boring analysis of viral videos and music's role before I link some videos for entertainment; the extremely large viral videos  that quickly gather a large cult following tend to have eitheror 1. Physical action/inaction (usually of a comedic nature) 2. The majority also tend to have some form of music that propels and supports the action and is most prevalent in group actions and brings hysteria to a climax after the ceremonial dropping of the base, which is definitely the case with the harlem shake). Nearly forgot the key factor, comfort of group which can be identified as a group mentality, or more commonly, bandwagon.
             Alright enough if the boring crap, the link is below and feel free to continue (or don't) looking at other versions including our own Anderson version that damaged a minimum of three cars, the video will apparently be up sometime around sunday.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=4hpEnLtqUDg    a prime example, not the original or first to do it, but frankly the original is just weird.

We continued with Led Zeppelin and watched their live performance and while it got dull at certain moments, the entire show radiated  rock n' roll. What I enjoyed seeing was how much the band was into what they were doing and enjoyed playing for themselves if nothing else at all. The performance also varied a lot throughout in terms of sound and their experimentation with various sounds such as the bow (violin?, cello?) on the guitar that increased the length of the note in a different way than the guitar's pickups do, overall the performance wan't too bad.

     In class we listened to John Lennon's solo album which was kind of balanced for me, there wasn't too many songs that actually left some form of impression and those type of songs for me, they're almost worse than songs I don't like because the ones I don't like at least have some form of effect on  you to make you not like it, basically songs that go in through one ear and come out the other. I did like a couple of songs however, one of them that can be seen coming from many miles away, Imagine, and the other one Jealous Guy.

While listening to Joni in class when she hit some really high notes it reminded me of The Darkness'  "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" in which this guy hits notes a 5 year old girl on helium couldn't reach (well, it's not that high). It's also not a bad rock song.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=sRYNYb30nxU&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DsRYNYb30nxU

I guess he's still got it (and a mustache)

 http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=ftVoTP41el8 skip to 1:40

Joni Mitchell

In class Mr.A told us to shut up and listen to the album, and I'm glad he did because I ended up really enjoying her music and style (don't know why but I kept thinking about how Jewel sounded sort of like her), besides her great piano and guitar playing which I appreciated even more when Mr.A told us she had polio, her vocal range and seeming ease in reaching the higher notes had me in awe. While a majority of the songs were a sad, they still were good to listen to and kept my attention throughout in part with her lyrics that always told some story and her guitar/piano playing.

   In class Mr. A talked about a radio station (Ket x?) that I'll have to check later and hope to have found a decent radio station. The radio is basically dead to me, not because it's "outdated" or "obsolete", but because of the overplayed, artificial crap they practically shove down people's throats until it's perceived as good,  now of course there are still good stations that don't practice this and you actually enjoy the music without the Chinese water torture-esque conditioning but unfortunately are of a dying/bought out species. Now I try every once in a while to turn on the radio and station surf and I'm not sure if this happens just when I tune in, but it seems like every single song has an idiot "singing" either about how much weed he smokes/sells, how much of a badass they are, or how many strippers he falls in love with hahaha.
           As for finding new music from the 10 song loop that comprises the majority of radio you're screwed, even with decent stations it's difficult without your phone app that identifies the song/artist (which is damn useful) if you miss those crucial seconds when they say who it is, or if you can't recall the lyrics to google it later, what could've been your find of the year has slipped through your fingers. Now as for internet radio/radio for new stuff goes, I'm still a big Pandora user because it actually brings up stuff (usually) that sounds/shares musical qualities from what you said you liked/requested unlike spotify's radio which lets admit, sucks and brings up the most irrelevant music ever. So, yeah that's my rant-opinion of radio at this present time.

In class we continued listening to Zepp IV and while it was entertaining watching people argue over the volume, the album got slow more than a couple of times and yes, I know some of the songs are really long but it got slow in terms of lack of action in certain spots though they also had their moments of good old loud rock and slower songs (more notably Stairway to Heaven) that despite clocking in at about 8 minutes (bested in length by GN'R's November Rain and Coma) changes throughout and introduces different sounds.

extra blog because I found something pretty cool

While I was looking through for videos to link for the previous two blogs I found a mashup that featured Chiddy Bang, B.o.B., Oasis and Owl City, so curiosity got ahold of me and I wanted how they would make Chiddy Bang and Oasis work together,  and the result was pretty satisfying in terms of how "Opposite of Adults'" intro was used throughout and how "Wonderwall" was incorporated and rhythm was kept almost as well as with its original guitar. The other two were pretty well done including some harmonies, but the song wouldn't have completely fallen apart without them.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=eIXCO6IYnyY&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DeIXCO6IYnyY Here it is

I heard some of Girl Talk's music from the documentary so I got home I decided to look into a few different songs and while I'm still in the process, I have found songs that I've liked including "what it's all about" which brings the other different hours ranging from The Fugees to Outkast (more specifically Andre 3000) and ties it together with the Jackson Five which is frequently remixed or sampled like Discovery's remix of I want you back.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=huQdrgVS0_U&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DhuQdrgVS0_U  "what it's all about"

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=znb5zgfDP7g&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dznb5zgfDP7g Discovery "I want you back"

Remix Manifesto

The documentary we saw in class was very interesting and made me think about the different points and arguments raised by this issue, it also made me think about how downloading music is maybe the most common "crime" committed by people in the nation (possibly only second to jaywalking) and the enormous wave of fear that paralyzed most people downloading music illegally until the companies decided it wasn't worth the price to take all the people to court. Adding to the challenge of trying to stop illegal downloads is that the sheer number of people downloading music illegally makes it almost impossible to effectively combat it. My problem with the companies' efforts to prevent illegal downloading is that it's not so much an act of protection of the artists as much as a protection of their pockets (and to a much lesser extent the artist's). Truly, it also hurts the artist in the loss of a potential listener that may download a few songs illegally to get a preview but then go back and buy a whole album.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/music_industry sort of relates

https://beta.indabamusic.com/opportunities/cazzette-weapon-remix-contest/details
They're highly encouraging people to make remixes/mashups of their songs

In class we listened to some Led Zeppelin, the majority of their songs had a slower downtempo sound to it which didn't seem to impair the use of heavy guitars which kept most of the songs from getting boring although some songs were ridiculously slow and long and didn't seem to be going anywhere .  The lyrics weren't the worst ever, but they definitely weren't the best. Needless to say I wouldn't mind just listening to the instrumental if they also made it slightly shorter. Overall, Led Zeppelin wasn't bad at all.

The Jalapeno Heads

I was on youtube the other day when I somehow ended up on a random band's clearly self-directed music video which gave me the slightest reminder of a (much better) band that was shown to me by my older brother who knew them as they were in the same grade at Anderson a while back, just thought I'd use this blog to show one of the more successful bands Hailing from Anderson.
Here's their videos from a while back, and yes the lead singer is also the drummer and characteristic of their early work, some of their songs get a bit repetitive.

Humorous video, aren't taking the video too seriously
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCJslAqy5ZE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sV3pbRcJsI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM0N0Q5Gn_k

I know, who uses myspace anymore? -other songs
http://www.myspace.com/thejalapenoheads/music/songs?filter=popular