Luxembourg Koen

I can't exactly explain to you how this ended up on my youtube favorites list. AH YES, I remember, I was just blindly watching through many accordion performances and just being interested by the range of styles of music to which accordion can accompany so perfectly. I have this "cool list" when it comes to music, where its almost a failsafe that if you do any of the things on the list correctly, the music is instantly cool. One of the cool list items is accordion, another is the saw. If these are done well, instant cool. We will get to more of those another time, but I'll give you a hint at one more... organs!

If there was a question of whether or not I was going to favorite this, that was definitely answered by my need to see that crushingly beautiful japanese girl play awesome fucking music again. I mean look at her! the smile, the eyes, the outfit... what a fucking doll. Definitely givin me the ol' yellow fever.

Oh, yeah, and the song kicks ass too. I don't know of this group, just found this randomly.

Omega Massif - Space Jam

I mentioned about Omega Massif before, but I caught up with this video late last summer kicking back with my macbook pro in a hammock, and i was drawn the fuck in. i watched this the whole time like "WOOOOOAAAAAHHHHH DUUUUUDDE". There's definitely been this movement in doom to incorporate space themes and spacey synth elements, but Omega Massif is going for it all-in. The mountain and glacier imagery they were using like every other "epic" heavy band was no longer Massif enough, they had to go to space, the HUGEST THING EVER! i love this shit

My favorite John Lennon Song of All-Time

Like tons of us, i grew up hearing tons of John Lennon, and earlier on, the Beatles. Like, so much so that I had to go through about 15 years of rebelling against what everyone else liked and what my parents liked before I got into listening to some Lennon again, and even then this Plastic Ono Band album had totally slipped past my memory. A while ago I rediscovered it and instantly remembered this song being a part of my memory since... always, and how it always spoke to me even when i was like 7. I fucking love this song, it's gotta be my favorite.

Matt Mulholland

a stunning cover of "my heart will go on".

Oran Juice Jones

This video is badass on so many levels. Dude's fashion is on point. dude is baller status. dude has some sliding dance moves. dude tells the bitch like it is. sick beat and synths. dude is embodying M.O.B.

stars revisited

so, i totally listened to stars' "heart" album in 03 and 04 a good amount. kinda indie-poppy, but do they have pleasant singing voices and interesting synths in the mix. They had a couple new albums in the meantime that i never paid attention to, so i finally recently picked up "In our Bedroom After The War". i enjoy about 20% of the album, but the good songs are pretty good as far as catchy love-y poppy girl music goes. this one got stuck in my head a few times, and i really like how accurately this video portrays some aspects of love from a guy's point of view at least. fast, insane, neurotic, out of control...

definition of heavy - samothrace

I love these guys, as previously attested. I have nearly worn out their Life's Trade album which is just about elevated to Masterpiece status for me, and i'm dying to hear their new recordings. This video surfaced of one of their new songs, with their current lineup. I met all of these dudes, they are great dudes too. This clip is so fucking heavy, i've been watching this a lot waiting for new material.

Old school experimental

I've been trying to figure out what some of the earliest heavier / experimental music ever made was. I came across Luigi Nono (as early as the 50s) and Edgard Varese (00s to 40s). we could go into all kinds of elaborations about these guys, but its done for you already one wikipedia:
Luigi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Nono

Edgard:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgard_Varese


amazing stuff. This stuff is still pretty far-out for nowadays, you can only imagine what it was like in the 20s, 40s. It reminds me of newton inventing calculus out of nowhere or something like that.

george harrison

as i've grown to learn more background knowledge of many beatles songs (which beatle wrote what), I've come to learn many of my favorite beatle's songs are the ones george harrison wrote, such as this classic:

too $hort bitch

i already shared some too $hort when i was in my phase a few months ago, but damn you have to give him props for his usage of "bitch" in this song.

the tallest man on earth

I'm not at all big on bob dylan, which is the most common style The Tallest Man On Earth is compared to. I find his music way more engaging though, which may just be because its contemporary for me, so i feel like i can identify better with all the feelings he sings about.
The voice definitely seemed to be annoying to me at first, but it totally grew on me. I let the fingerpicking and general rhythm of the songs instead be the carrying factor, that just holds up the vocals, strings them along. as you can see in the live clip below, the guy honestly knows his music as his singing and playing are spot on. its pretty stuff

tom petty

I grew up with tom petty all over the radio, mtv, and played by my parents. i kind of liked his songs when i was even 5 and 6, but i didnt understand all his love and marijuana references, or understand how relatively unique and badass his musical style was for the time.
late last year i finally revisited his stuff and i was so stoked on it! what a badass! looks at the camera like a badass! dresses like a flamboyant badass! and the whole time he just looks like some skinny white stoner, unlike springsteen can pull off. revisit this one (embedding disabled):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TlBTPITo1I

erasure

taking the cake for gayness, this band, this video... i cannot believe what my eyes are seeing and what my ears are hearing. something almost could not be more shitty, and thus it has found its way on loop on my speakers a few times.

madonna is metal as fuck

ok, so i like to think im into at least something from every style of music, and in the pop category I have to admit that lately ive had a re-obsession with madonna.

Now i'll tell you straight out, i know you've seen these music videos a thousand fucking times growing up (if you're 25 or older), but watch them again after my commentary.

Papa Don't Preach - It came out in 1986, and because of mostly this fact alone, from the time i first have memories in life, I was hearing this song regularly in my life on the radio, i was turning 4. By the time i was 7, I probably could have sung along with all the words in the song for you, and I remember not knowing what any of the lyrics meant, but thinking it was so damn catchy.

I got turned off by madonna by the time she was like, doing the soundtrack song for an austin powers movie... it was just too... POP. like commercial pop, so i pretty much eliminated any madonna from my ears until the rebirth of new wave in 2004 or so.

So here at age 27 i redownloaded her entire discography since I hadn't rocked that shit since i was a kid, and one of the first ones i listened to was papa don't preach. It seemed like it was the first time I had heard it since the 80s, and now as an adult I just realized for the first time that I understood what all the lyrics were about.

I instantly was remembering conservative reagan era politics in our country and how bringing up abortion and teen pregnancy openly in public was pretty taboo. and, she looks so HOT in the video! the whole thing is just so fucking PUNK! "fuck you, im going to make a song about real shit that happens to kids, real heavy choices they have to make, and im going to make it irresistable for you to listen to"


Papa Don't Preach Video




Lucky Star - again, alongside michael jackson, this was one of those songs that I grew up with. one of the songs that has just existed for eternity as it is. Once I youtubed this shit again after not seeing the video for literally 17 years, I instantly understood everything so much more. My mind is thoughroughly blown for how fucking cool she knew how to be in the 80s. Her outfit? its fucking incredible! her singing and little touches? so cool!

Lucky Star video



like a prayer - same thing, I youtubed it and realized I hadnt watched it in literally 17 years. Having needing to up the bar in controversiality at the dawn of the decade of the 90s, she started using and misusing tons of religious imagery in the public eye. I remember watching this video at like age 7 and not even knowing anything about christianity or jesus and trying to understand what it all meant. I was pleased with all her religious button-pushing like a) being dressed sexy in a church b) insinuating jesus is black c) having sexual tension with jesus.... and then around 3:15 it kicks in to that shot of her in front of a field of burning crosses. YES!!!! holy shit, she knew exactly what she was doing and I never even realized it when i was a kid. Conservative christians were just SQUIRMING when they saw that video, man.

Good job madonna, thats all.

Like A Prayer Video

Omega Massif

When I was on tour with the Blackwaves in '08, they told me I had to check out Germany's Omega Massif. I just had heard a little bit and thought it was cool, but I must have been swamped in other stuff I was listening to, because they didnt get to my queue until now. What a great band! really visual, organically moving songs. Their imagery of natural things like glaciers and monumental mountains really matches their sound to me... building massive walls of sound to sheer drops, always following the slow slow inevitable movement of time. you can go to their website and download three tracks for free. I think their website is great and perfectly captures DOOM mentality.

Portland Cello Project

When i moved to portland last summer, i heard from several sources that the Portland Cello Project cd was hella good, and based on the fact that i love a) portland and b) cellos, i bought it. the album starts right off with one of the most killer upbeat tracks "beat" that just was instantly nostalgic to me of happy summer-times activities and memories, and i used that song for this little moped rally video i put together last year.

The music throughout the album is... i would describe it as refreshing. There are a ton of creative kids out there who have lots of passion but maybe lack on the ability when it comes to music (just like me), so you hear lots of projects come out that sound really promising, or have good ideas or good moments, but at the end of the day you can lump them in with other things you've heard and they aren't outstanding. PCP is DIFFERENT. its already hard enough to find people who are into really good music and play a good cello, what to speak of up to 12 of them!!! its also really hard to find a great singer, male or female, and we all know how the vocals can seriously make or break a band. well they collaborated with justin power and Thao who both sing flowingly smooth and gentle throughout the album.

So what i'm trying to say is the musicianship is incredibly sound on every performers part, beginning to end. The album definitely has low points, i always skip "geography" for instance with its possibly awkward part changes and Thao electing to do cranberries-zombie-style yodels for once on the album, no thanks.

what i like about the album is all the different songs grew on me. There would be two or three that would really stand out, then i'd switch to other ones that i'd play all the time... I feel like it will stand the test of time.

The last song I got around to getting stuck in my head constantly for a month was appropriately the last song on the album, "travel", leading me to believe it wasn't an accident that they placed it there. This is one of those songs that is so beautiful, so sweet, such moving lyrics, how can anyone NOT like it?

The best video of them i found online was of that very song, and this performance is fantastic. you can see some of that musicianship im talking about in watching Justin's ease of fingerpicking the ukulele and being perfectly on key singing live. i'll never get tired of this video.

Thorr's Hammer

ive only just been super into the DOOM-y side of things for about the last two years, so i hadn't heard of Thorr's Hammer until last year. I was skeptical of the ability of anything to come out in the mid nineties to be able to avoid shades of punk/grunge, or outdated metal at the gates/early metallica sounds, but holy fuck... i got their album, after more than ten years, and its HEAVY. some of these seattle kids were in high school still when they wrote and recorded some of this shit!!!
As far as i can tell, this album must have been revolutionary! (i wasn't there at the time so i can't speak with authority on the matter.) But it seems right in line with a lot of DOOM to follow for the next ten years, and i still haven't seen such a performance from a female vocalist since.
and about the singer, Runhild- in this video, talk about a picture of perfection... jesus!

read more about them here

slipknot, so sick brah!

so this christmas i got turned onto this slipknot shreds video. apparently it was already popular, but i just found it and basically couldnt stop laughing for a week straight. hahahah fuck you slipknot, fuck all the people in that crowd! hahah this video is the most awesome thing ever

BTBAM - NEW MISDIRECT VIDEO

Hot off the presses, BTBAM just released a new music video for their album that just came out! I want to actually provide a whole review of The Great Misdirect, but havent found the time yet.
This video is really great. I've only watched it once but its the first video they have done that has a budget worthy of the immensity of their band. its all fucking awesome but uh, one thing..... those subtitles? really? was that the best graphics guy you guys have at victory records?

BLACK HEART PROCESSION!!

I kind of have to start out and tell you that this is a band that can do no wrong in my eyes, so if you want an unbiased review, go somewhere else. If i was trying to, I could write a 5 page essay about how important Black Heart Procession was to my musical influence and life-ambience soundtrack, but i'll paraphrase it in order to tell you about their NEW cd, titled lovingly for those who will know, "six". before doing my typical pseudo-review of the album, i want to pause and give a short backstory.

When I first started getting to be the age to where you consider all genres with an open mind, black heart procession was literally one of the first bands I listened to outside of punk/hardcore/metal type stuff. one of the first bands that i heard about with a folky, more acoustic mellow sound. Well I guess in the 90s i DID listen to modest mouse, radiohead, portishead, and built to spill for a little mellow change of things, but black heart procession is definitely a mature step up from the likes of those. Its a step away from poppy and more traditionally folky and towards darker, stranger, more deeply emotional, more CLASSICAL in instrumentation and music. Probably one of the first bands where i ever heard an accordion that actually made my jaw drop and want to play the track over and over. as well as cellos, saws, distant wailing vocals, hollow wind ambience sounds, and on and on.

I got "one" and "two" albums and was instantly captivated by their dark somber beauty, and bought "three" as it was released. by the time i had played through "three" into deep channels in my brain, their first three albums all formed the backing track for an an entire fall and winter in my life, the first fall and winter where I was thrown into the adult world and becoming an adult. first year out of high school, first living on my own (with a roommate), first REALLY serious girlfriend, first job, a dehumanizing cubicle job...

throughout all of these things that we all get thrown through and chewed up as becoming adults, I had just discovered this beautiful band BHP, and had reason to feel the dark longing things they expressed in their music. but it was never a darkness that lowered you down into a sinking depression, but a bold recognition of things like depression in an empowering way to allow you to recognize and accept sadness or longing for what they are. its all part of life, and life is beautiful.


like i said, this five page essay is already getting too sappy and out there. at that point i decided to get matching black heart procession-inspired tattoos with the said first girlfriend. we would spend time designing the drawing together, in the dark and freezing cold, because we couldnt afford to pay the electric bill with our 7 dollar an hour jobs for 19 year olds. would look at the album art for "two" and "three" and think the style and the heart logos were so cute. we would just drawn them together in the candlelight, with different variations, and then started talking about mike it be a matching tattoo for us since at the end of that season BHP had just become the soundtrack for all of our time together.


well as young couples do, we eventually went through tons of really hard times and boke up, then a year or so after the breakup, i decided to actually get the tattoo we talked about. its on my wrist. barely talked to her for a long time, then she got a hold of me and asked me for some of the sketches we had done since she wanted to get the tattoo, and i was amazed. she had hers done up a bit different without seeing mine, and got a pair of them on the back of each arm.

at this point bhp came out with the radical departure of the salsa/latin ballroom "The tropics of love" and then later a very combination-of-the-new-and-old-sounding "the spell". The tropics album lets just say i appreciate, and the spell definitely has a few real gems. but i really spent from 2003 to 2009 waiting for BHP to once again make something along the lines as dark beautiful and intriguing as their first trio of albums were in their time.

THE TIME HAS COME. they just came out with "six", like a welcome and fresh homecoming. as soon as i saw some banner ad for it online i went to my record shop and bought it and was instantly please with nostalgia when i took it out and it was bound like an old canvas book. adorned with the very similar vein of cute iconic dark art. the music is much like the first trio of albums, but more intentional, matured, and thoughtful. I dont think we will get any more extended bad-acid-trip through the snow wailing ambience type tracks from them like in "the waterfront" on "three", but we still have fantastic ambient samples, an array of instruments, and never-wavering perfectly ON vocals that maintain an emotional honesty.

so, i love this band and everything they create and their body of work will always influence everything i create.

now that its out there, here is a piece they made from SIX::