The Black Angels

The Black Angels remind me a lot of the Black Keys and a little of the Beatles combined. They're SOO good, they have a lot of variety with their songs. Their most recent album, "Indigo Meadow", I discovered from looking on the Waterloo Records website and seeing what music the people working there were listening to. The band is going to ACL and I cannot wait to see them live. If people aren't listening to them now, they will be for sure after they see them at ACL. They really know how to rock.

"Indigo Meadow" is the first song on the album and it's my favorite. It starts off with a retro beat and a really cool sound, then about 2 minutes into the song the electric guitar comes out and they totally rock.

Echotone

I love it when movies are filmed in Austin, let alone a documentary.  It's so cool to see places that you've been to in a movie. But Echotone was really cool to me because the bands in it were straight up Austinites. Especially the band Belaire, they were the definition of hipster. I thought it was so funny how they wanted to design all the t-shirts and CD covers rather them getting them electronically done. It's really depressing to see bands that try so hard not get the result they want. They put so much heart into their music but they just can't get exposed big.  Austin is a perfect place for people who want to play music, and they definitely shouldn't be replacing music venues with condos or apartments. Maybe in some places, but not all around Austin, there's enough already. But as the population increases, I hope they don't get rid of what our city is famous for.

Indicud

Indicud is Kid Cudi's new album, which came out a couple months ago. All of Kid Cudi's albums are good, except for one, and this one definitely meets its standards. I really like Kid Cudi's voice, it definitely stands out compared to other artists. My favorite songs on the album are "King Wizard", "Immortal", and "Red Eye". Another thing that is interesting about this album is that he dedicated it to Ben Breedlove who was a kid who went to Westlake and died last year.  Kid Cudi has really good beats in his songs which makes them fun to drive to (plus you look cool).

The Strokes

I'd only heard the song "Last Night" by The Strokes because they play it quite a bit on the radio.
Their song "Is This It" is absolutely AMAZING. I loved the beginning of the song, it really got me hooked and is one of the reasons I like it so much. (I already bought it on iTunes even though we listened to it today). Probably one of the main reasons I liked them was because I listen to Indie music and I can definitely see the influence they had in some bands.  Another song I really like by them is "Someday". "Is This It" has such a different sound to it compared to the other songs on the album.  I love the way the vocalist makes his voice sound in it.

Alt-J

Alt-J is a techo/ alternative/ weird band and I honestly am not quite sure what genre they fit in. Some of their songs have more of a techno sound to them but then there's others that sound more rockish. The guy who sings has a really unique voice and in a few of their songs you can't really understand what he's saying but the lyrics are really freaky good. I've never known what he was saying, or if he was saying real words at all, in a few of his songs but the lyrics are amazing, and i'm not that big of a lyric person. Here's some lyrics from their song "Tessallate":
Chunks of you will sink down to seals
Blubber rich in the mourning, they'll nosh you up
Yes, they'll nosh your love away but it's fair to say
You will still haunt me

Radiohead

Thom Yorke has an absolute gorgeous voice. Like all of Radiohead's songs have so much emotion in them which is why I enjoyed them so much. I've only heard a couple of their songs before, and Creep wasn't one of them (surprisingly). I can understand why people didn't like their album, The Bends, that came out after Creep but I loved it. I liked how much variety they had with their songs yet Yorke's voice was still as passionate as ever. My favorite songs on the album were "Planet Telex", "High and Dry", "Fake Plastic Trees", and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)". Their next album, Ok Computer, I liked basically every song.

Guards

My friend told me about this band called Guards, who I had never heard of before. She told me that they were pretty good, but when I listened to them, I didn't only think they were pretty good, I thought they were REALLY GOOD. On their album, "In Guards We Trust", each song has a different sound to it. The album is really well balanced with slow songs and faster songs, which is how the album is so easy to listen to. I really like the drums in their songs, I know drums normally sound the same except when there's a drum solo but drums are probably my favorite instrument in bands. My favorite songs by them are "Silver Lining" and "Coming True". But overall the album is a fantastic alternative rock album.

Fugees

The Fugees were a lot different from the other hip hop groups at the time, I think, because of the female singer/rapper also. All the other groups were only males but the female gave the Fugees a more pop yet still hip hop sound. I really liked them and I've heard some of their songs before as well as samples from some of their songs. They have a really modern-day sound even though they were a group 20 years ago. I've heard samples from their song "Ready or Not", just the girl's part, and I'm pretty sure there's a song that just recently came out that plays her part. The Fugees weren't as angry sounding as the other rap groups which is why I enjoyed them, they stood out from the other groups at the time.

The Airborne Toxic Event

The Airborne Toxic Event is a band that has more of a harder alternative rock sound to them. There's a lot of pauses in their songs were there's just instruments playing. The band has heavy drums and guitar in them, and I like them because of this. My favorite songs by them are "Changing", "Sometime Around Midnight", and "All At Once". Each of their songs are different from one another. In "Sometime Around Midnight" it starts off with a violin then as it gets deeper into the song the instruments build up until it's all one sound.

Red Hot Chili Peppers

I've only listened to a couple of the RHCP songs before "Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik" and that album was not how I thought it was going to sound. I always thought they were a more of a rock band but that album had some hip hop in there as well. I've heard "Suck My Kiss" before and I've always really enjoyed that song because I really like Kiedis' voice. The first song on the album, "The Power of Equality" was nothing like I thought it was going to sound. The RHCP are a very diverse band and they definitely have influences from a lot of earlier bands before them. I can't wait to listen to more of their albums in class and listen to how much diversity is there.

Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Ray is such a cool singer to me. I love her voice so much and how different it is from other female artists because of how low she makes it. Such as in her songs "Blue Jeans", she makes her voice going to insanely low to freakishly high, and it still sounds amazing! I really hope she goes to ACL this year, and I feel like she has a very large possibility of going just because of how popular she has become recently.

Nirvana Unplugged

Nirvana Unplugged was really interesting to me. 1- because of how the stage looked like it should be at a funeral and how that foreshadowed the suicide in the band. And 2- because of how no one knew those Nirvana songs at the time, yet they are huge hits now. Basically all their songs are so popular which is another reason why I like the band so much. They are absolutely fantastic acoustic and I enjoyed their Unplugged tremendously by favorite song was The Man Who Sold The World, that's always been a favorite for me.

Kings of Leon

Kings of Leon is a new band for me. They've been around for a while but for the longest time I absolutely despised their biggest hit, "Use Somebody". It was just overplayed and I always changed the channel when it came on. But recently, I've heard another song by them called "I Want You" and it is absolutely amazing. The lead singer's voice is so cool and it has such a unique sound to it plus he knows exactly how to use it. In "I Want You" it starts off slower then the chorus speeds up. The drums and bass sound so cool in the song and all the instruments just go so well together it's absolutely perfect. After hearing this song, I looked at their other work and it is great. Each song is original and they are definitely an album band.

Nirvana

I've listened to a couple of Nirvana's songs before and I've always really enjoyed them. I really liked "Nevermind" even though it does have that rock sound to it and I'm not a huge fan of that. The reason why I like them so much is because of the lead singer's voice. It has such a cool, unique sound to it, which is why I also liked them more than the Smashing Pumpkins. I didn't like the Smashing Pumpkins because the instruments were a lot louder than the vocals so it just sounded like noise, to me. Considering how much I enjoyed Nirvana's album, I did NOT like the hidden track at all what-so-ever. Now THAT was noise. I honestly don't know what they were thinking when they put that on there, it just sounded like they were breaking things. Another thing, when they were performing they were straight up awkward. Their music sounds like a band that would be rocking out on stage but they were just standing there doing awkward dance moves. It made me uncomfortable just watching them. But it was pretty funny because all the audience was getting into it and then there's Nirvana, just doing little bobs with their head.

Clusterfest

The clusterfest is coming up and I am so excited because awolnation is playing. They're one of my favorite bands and I've been trying to see them in concert for a while now. I looked at some of the other groups playing and the Wheeler Brothers are also really good. They have a rock/alternative sound to them and they have an album that came out recently. I've never been to festival before and even though it's a small one I'm still super psyched.

Beastie boys

I really liked the beastie boys album because of how all the songs flowed together. I love it how they sample from other songs. At the beginning I liked how all the songs would blend together but as the album goes on (like in the middle) it seems really long and like nothing really goes together. But I think it was definitely influential on rappers and djs who sample music.

MGMT

I've recently purchased the first MGMT album and I really like it. I don't understand why I didn't get it sooner, but it's whatever. I really like the retro/techno but modern, sound about them. They have some electronic-robot sounds in a couple of their songs and it makes it sound really cool. There's a lot of variety in their work and that's another reason why I like them so much.

U2 concert

I've grown up my whole life listening to U2 because my parents are huge fans. They have pretty much every album I'm sure and we would always listen to them in the car. I really like U2 because to me they're the perfect kind of rock. No crazy guitar solos, no heavy sounds. I would definitely want to go to a U2 concert just because it looks like they have so much fun doing what they're doing and their music is great.

The Wallflowers

The other day I went to Half Price Books to look at their CDs since they're so cheap. I found this one band called The Wallflowers and I picked up the CD because they just looked like a band I would like. (And it was only a dollar so I wasn't really losing anything if I didn't like them). But when I listened to them I actually liked them a lot. I really like the sound of the band in the background and their lyrics were really deep. They aren't exactly an album band though because all their songs seem like they're really long so it makes the album drag on for a long time. It's one of their first albums but I will definitely be looking at some of their later albums also.

Paul Simon

I really liked Paul Simon because he wa nothing like we have listened to so far. The African music and the different language that he was singing in made it really unique. At first I thought it was really cool because I didn't think it was gonna be like that in all his songs but then as the album went on and majority of the songs had the African sounds to them, I kinda got tired of it. The album was definitely an influence to later artists. I really liked the sound of his voice also. Overall I enjoyed Paul Simon.

Citizen Cope

Citizen Cope is a band I found while I was looking at other people's playlists on Spotify. I was going through someone's playlist and they had a couple songs by them so I checked them out and they are by far one of my favorite bands. The lead singer has such a unique voice and they have a huge variety in the sounds of their music. I went through their most popular songs first and loved them all so I started listening to their most recent album and loved every single one of the songs I listened to. I've never fallen in love with a band as fast as I fell in love with Citizen Cope. I'm planning on going to Waterloo Records soon, hopefully, to purchase some of their albums.

80's Hip Hop

I absolutely LOVE  80s hip hop. I actually like it so much better than hip hop now because it's just so dorky what they talk about. Now, the only things they talk about are drugs, sex, and girls but back then they had little stories to go along with their songs. They had such a more upbeat tempo while the hip hop now sounds more angry and dark. The hip hop day was my favorite day so far (I wasn't here for the hair metal day) because it's hard to listen to the songs and not laugh at how innocent the lyrics are compared to lyrics now.

Of Monsters & Men

Of Monsters and Men is a foreign band, I'm not really positive where they're from but I think they're European. I bought there most recent album a while ago and I really enjoy it. The guy's voice goes so we with the girl's and he doesn't look like the type of person to be in a band at all. Their 2 most popular songs are "Mountain Sound" and "Little Talks" but I think they're going to turn into Mumford and Sons in the way that they start with a couple hits but soon all their songs are going to be playing on the radio.

Earth, Wind, and Fire

I absolutely LOVE disco. I don't understand how you couldn't love disco because its just so happy and is impossible not to dance to it. Earth, Wind, and Fire is one of my favorite disco bands because they make so many cool noises in their songs. My favorite song is "September". I've heard so many different versions but overall it is such an upbeat song, which is like all their songs. I wish I was alive during the disco days because it looks like everyone is having a good time all the time.

The head and the heart

The head and the heart is a folk indie band. Recently I got their album "The Head and The Heart" and it is so good. My favorite songs are "Honey Come Home", "Cats and Dogs" and "Coeur D'Alene". I really like them because in their first 2 songs of the album they blend them together so the transition makes it all sound like one song. "Coeur D'Alebe" sounds like 3 songs in one. Their songs sound really different yet the same in some ways.

Talking heads

Talking heads was really weird. I definitely liked them, but the lead singer is freaky. All his little dance moves he does when he sings and when he did his performance where his suit got bigger is so funny. I don't understand how you could think of that. I really enjoyed them though because their songs are upbeat and peppy. I would LOVE to go to one of their concerts because the atmosphere just seems so fun and you wouldn't know what to expect.

Perks of Being a Wallflower Soundtrack

One method that I have for finding new music is to get the music from movies. Usually a movie will have a couple good songs, depending on the movie. But Perks of Being a Wallflower literally has THE best soundtrack I have heard yet. It has old rock songs and some indie rock stuff.  The movie is about high school kids where music is a very big part of their lives and they're trying to find good present day music. I feel like this kind of relates to the world now because on the radio they don't play that good of music, it's all about the cheesy stuff that doesn't take much talent at all. It takes work to find songs but I love discovering bands that no one knows about. Some of my favorite songs from the soundtrack are "Temptation" by New Order, "Could It Be Another Change" by The Samples, "Heroes" by James Bowie, and "Come on Eileen" by Dexys Midnight Runners.  The music in the movie definitely influenced my opinion on the movie. When a movie has good music/soundtrack, it makes you want to watch the movie more so that you can hear the music.

Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder absolutely astonishes me.  I seriously do not know how it is possible to play any instrument deaf. Not only deaf, but blind also. Stevie seriously just defies logic and is incredibly amazing. It amazes me how he is his own band and another thing that I like about him is that his inspiration is Paul McCartney. I've heard a lot of Wonder's songs before that I didn't know were his. I really like his work because it's so funky and makes me want to dance. I wish he could teach me how in the world he can do what he does.

The Weight & the Hurry

I've been getting tired of all the mainstream bands lately and I wanted to find something new.  I was browsing through iTunes when I found this band, The Weight & the Hurry. They were exactly what I was looking for, Indie Alternative and a little folk. I really like the vocalists in the band, a male and a female. Mixed gender vocals are my favorite especially when they go together perfectly.  The band is very recent, they only have 1 EP which came out this year consisting of 5 songs. I enjoy all the songs a lot but my favorite would probably have to be "Stars".  I will definitely be looking for new work from The Weight & the Hurry and keeping up with them.

Bobby Womack

Bobby Womack isn't exactly the type of music I listen to but I really enjoyed this album. I liked it because it was really funky. I know that sounds cheesy but when "I Can Understand It" started I could picture Bobby in a café type place singing to all these people in a little concert and all the people dancing.  I liked it a lot better than the other album we listened to along with Understanding.  The other one was more boring to me since this one is really upbeat and happy.  The one thing I don't like about this album is that the songs are so long. Some of them actually seem like they drag on for a really long time, more than others. Overall I'm glad I listened to "Understanding" and I probably would of never listened to it because it's not exactly my type of genre.

Pearl Jam

Lately I've become obsessed with a couple Pearl Jam songs, "Just Breathe" and "Unknown Thought". When I heard these I immediately fell in love with them because I LOVE the way his voice sounds in them. I know of a lot of people who like Pearl Jam so I listened to some of their other songs but they're a little to much of hard core rock for me. I really enjoy their slower songs though because they're not as heavy as the others. I'm not saying that Pearl Jam is heavy rock, but I prefer these 2 songs over a lot of their others.

The horrible crowes

My friend showed me the horrible crowes last year and I really liked them. Their album is really good and no one knows about them really. The other night I saw that one of their concerts was on tv and I got really excited because they're a band I would love to see live. So I turn it on and it was terrible. They were singing the song "sugar" which is slower but on the shoe they were trying to do way too much with it. The lead singer kept moving his voice up and down (thinking it sounded good) but it sounded like a dying cow. I don't understand why or how bands become bands if they are god awful. Every time one of their songs comes on my iPod I have to change it because I can't look at them the same.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney

John Lennon and Paul McCartney solo albums were a lot different than what the Beatles would create. I enjoyed Lennon's more because Paul's was a little to strange for me. It was a little opposite of what I expected, I was expecting John's to be more of a freaky album and Paul's to have really deep lyrics but it seemed like Paul's was more of weird noises together. I love love John Lennon's song "imagine". I've heard a lot of different versions of it and its probably one of my all time favorite songs. Overall I would rather just have the Beatles back together because I feel like Paul and John together is like a super band rather than them separated. They kind of level each other out which is why the Beatles were so amazing.

Des ark

Right whenever des ark started playing in class I fell in love with her voice. Her voice is probably the coolest female voice I've ever heard. It's deeper an she can stretch out the notes long like Joni. I really enjoyed Joni but her songs seem really bubbly to me since her voice is so high and I feel like Des's don't.

My Body (K.Flay Remix)

I absolutely love the band Young The Giant. Their album is so good and one of my favorites on it is called "My Body". I'm not a fan of dub step but the remix to this song by K. Flay is PERFECT. I love what they did to the song because they didn't change the sound of the singer's voice but they just changed the beat and tempo in the background and the way he mixes one part of the song with another. I may like it better than the actual song itself. It's that good.

Let It Be

Let It Be is one of my favorite Beatles albums so far. I loved Abbey Road also but Let It Be is definitely a favorite. I liked it because a few of the songs on it I've heard before, such as Let It Be and Across The Universe. Those are my favorite Beatles songs, so that could also be why I like the album so much. This album I think could still be very popular today and doesn't sound like something of it's time. I wish the Beatles were still around just not only because of how amazing they are, but because they could be producing the crazy-coolest work present day.

LP

LP is a singer that my friend showed me and she discovered her at ACL. She has an African/indie sound to her and her voice is really unique which is why I like her. She's really good live. I know that because she has only 1 or 2 albums and the songs that I like I've only heard her live versions of them because they aren't on an album yet. My favorites are "levitator" and " into the wild". Into the wild is her most popular song because I'm pretty sure it's on some sort of commercial.

Copyright Laws

After watching the movie we watched in class about copyright I thought that the laws about them were dumb. People are just making new music, that sounds nothing like the original song, for a different genre. It's basically the same as covering a song except they don't ask the original artist. The mashups that Girl Talk made and other artists is so cool to me and I love how different they can make a song sound. I never saw the point in suing all the people who illegally download music because let's be real, everyone does it.
But then tonight I was talking to my friend's dad about it and he thought the opposite. He explained how what if people dont like the mashup or remix of the song and therefore they stop listening to your song because of it, which was interesting to me. And also how the original artist doesn't get paid ANYTHING for the mashup and what if the mashup becomes more popular than the original song? This gave me a different perspective on the topic and I'm torn.

Passion Pit- Manners

I think I've already blogged about the most recent Passion Pit album, Gossamer but I purchased their older one recently and it is absolutely fantastic. On Gossamer, all the songs sound very similar while on Manner, each song sounds distinctly different. Another reason why I like this album a lot is because it has the "striped down version" of a couple of their songs, "Sleepyhead" and "Moth's Wings". These versions of the songs I really enjoy as well as the original version. Passion Pit is one of my all time favorite bands by far and if you like Indie Rock/ Electronic I think you will definitely enjoy this album of their's.

"Moth's Wings Striped Down"

"Sleepyhead"



Black Sabbath

I didn't like Black Sabbath very much. Their songs were scary and I'm not a fan of the long guitar solos. They sound cool for a second but when they go on for a good 2 minutes it gets boring. The lead singer of Black Sabbath has a cool voice but it sounds creepy on a regular basis. I've heard the song "Iron Man" and "Electric Funeral" before and their too much of hard rock for me. Bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zepplin is how I think of rock and roll but I've learned that other genres can be considered rock and roll too. Overall, Black Sabbath is not a band for me but it's extremely impressive how successful they became when they started out really poor.