Saturday, December 17, 2011

Once again, I will be talking about The Beatles c':

hey guys! so, if you're not sick of me talking about The Beatles yet, you should listen to this one thing when I say:

IF YOU LISTEN TO ONE BEATLES ALBUM IT SHOULD MOST DEFINITELY BE WITH THE BEATLES.


and oddly, enough, it took me literally half an hour to come to the conclusion to which Beatles album people should listen to if they only listen to one.  BUT THEY ARE ALL GREAT AND PERFECT IN THEIR OWN WAY~



The album was released November 22, 1963.  After it's release, the album stayed at the top of the charts in the UK for 21 straight weeks.  The album was also rated #420 on Rolling Stone Magazine's top 500 albums of all time.

The album listing is as follows:

I think the reason this album is a great one is because I think it is where the Beatles really started refining their songwriting skills (although Till There Was You, Please Mister Postman, You've Really Got A Hold on Me, Roll Over Beethoven, and Money (That's What I Want) were covers) that propeled them into the mass amount of popularity they gained.  These songs were right before The Beatles popularity skyrocketed during "Beatlemania" and the songs are just really quality. They are really catchy and still have a little bit of that '50's swing leftover in them.


But, the two albums that came in a close second place were Help! and Rubber Soul.  But, really, there is not a Beatles album released that doesn't have a musical masterpiece on it. just listen to all their stuff c;

























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Monday, December 5, 2011

"you're lucky enough to be different, don't ever change." -tay swift :]

HULLO. so first off, based on my title, you proably coulda guessed i'm gonna be talking about Taylor Swift for a little while. pretty much, i don't know, everything's seemed pretty stressful lately.  a lot of people i've thought would always be there for me haven't, and a lot of things have really put my life into perspective and made me realize just how lucky i am.

and a lot of times, when i get super stressed or upset i honestly feel like taylor swift is my therapist or something, because her songs say EXACTLY how i happen to be feeling at the moment, A LOT of the time.


hahah that may sounds weird, but that's what happens. haha & in addition to having really good songs, she seems like one of the most down-to-earth celebrities EVER, and i like her because of that too. c:

She's pretty relatable too, she came from a humble start just living with her family on a christmas tree farm when she was little, and started singing at festivals and such when she was 10, then moved up to singing the Star-Spangled banner at the '76ers game when she was eleven.  She then learned a few guitar chords from a family friend and began writing songs. She later moved to Nashville and got her current record deal with Big Machine Records. And viola! There's Taylor Swift.

Saw her live when I was in eighth grade ;D take a gander at my amazing photography skills c;

She recently released a music video to go along with her single "Ours", and despite many criticisms that's it's boring or just more of the same thing she's always done, I LOVE IT~

here it is, you can decide for yourself~

Some other great songs of Taylor Swift's you should listen to are:

So, I just have to say, I'm super super indecisive about whether she's good live or not.  Because there is clips out there or when I've seen her on TV and she's sounded sorta....eh. But when I saw her in concert she was absolutely fantastic! But I figured that maybe it was just cause I was so excited about the concert that she just sounded awesome. But, these next two videos are about the two coolest videos ever, I'm super happy I found them and can't stop listening. I guess there sorta proof that she can be really good live c:

Drops of Jupiter Cover


Fearless/I'm Yours/Hey Soul Sister Mashup

dat be alll for now.
emily c:
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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

some things are just timeless...

And one of these things is the band


The Cars.


The Cars were a "New Wave" rock group based in Boston that began in the late 1970's.  "New Wave" rock was at first considered synonymous with punk rock, but then became it's own genre when it was consistently characterized by synthesizers and electronic sounds. 

The band originally had five members:
Ric Ocasek, the lead singer and rythym guitarist,
Benjamin Orr (he was also born in Lakewood, which is pretty cool), the other lead singer and bassist,
Elliot Easton, the lead guitarist,
Greg Hawkes, the keyboardist, and
David Robinson, the drummer.

The foundations for the band was laid when Ocasek and Orr met in Columbus, Ohio in 1973 and decided to cover rock n roll songs as a duo.  They soon relocated to Boston, thinking it was a better place to break into the music buisness.  In Boston they met their future keyboardist Greg Hawkes, and the three performed in several bands together over the next several years.  They later met their future guitarist Elliot Easton in Boston and formed the band Cap'n Swing along with several other musicians.  They later booted out the other musicians and brought in drummer David Robinson, and The Cars were born.

So, why were they called The Cars?
Robinson came up with the name, and Ocasek said in a later interview that they all loved the name because,

"It's so easy to spell; it doesn't have a 'z' on the end; it's real authentic. It's pop art, in a sense."

The band's prime years were from 1976 to 1974, where they had many great hits.  The one that is probably the most well-known and loved is "Just What I Needed"


And, yes I as well wish I had as much dancing talent as that audience.


Other great hits from the band include


See what I mean? (;


The Cars broke up in 1988, and they vowed they would never, ever, ever get back together.  Ocasek even said in an interview,  "I'm saying never and you can count on that."  But, I'm sure many people are happy he was wrong, because then in 2010, the four remaining members of the band reuinted and released an album, Move Like This.  Benjamin Orr had unfortunatly passed away in 2000 due to pancreatic cancer :'c


Their new album was actually really good, despite the band taking a 24 year break c;  The best songs on the album are Blue Tip, Too Late, Free, and Hits Me.  But here's the whole album lineup:


That's all for now. kthxbaiiiii. c:

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

Randomnesssssss

Alright. I'm SO ready for this week to be over.
I pretty much feel like poop today, I even went home sick. I think it's the first time I've actually gone home sick since the third grade or something like that. So, get yoself prepared for quite the random blog cx

So, to start off, here's some songs you should definitely listen too :]


 "Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance, five hour phone conversation, the best soy latte you've ever had, and me?"

Anyways, moving on.  So second thing is, I'm pretty excited cause this Saturday, after I sell some mattresses for band (I really don't understand how that's gonna work. I mean how many people could possibly need mattresses at the same time? A lot of organizations do mattress sales I guess though...) I'm going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the first time EVER. SUPER PUMPED. :D

I'll probably blog about that next time :D


And third, I might as well blog about this because it's fresh in my mind. But anyways, so for my movie review assignment I watched Across the Universe.  It might be surprising that I haven't seen it all the way through, seeing as though I'm a pretty big Beatles fan.  But anyways, here's pretty much what I thought of it.
So, first off, I thought they did a FANTASTIC job with all the songs. Their wasn't any cover I was dissapointed with.  I especially loved Hold Me Tight, With A Little Help From My Friends, Hey Jude, I've Just Seen A Face, All My Loving, and All You Need is Love. 

The story plot is centered around the star crossed love affair between Jude Finney (Jim Sturgess), a poor artist from Liverpool, and Lucy Carrigan (Evan Rachel Wood), an upper class American girl from New York.  They fall in love, but their face many problems that are focused around the Vietnam War.  Lucy is actively involved in the anti-war movement because her first boyfriend, Daniel, was killed in the line of duty and her brother, Max, was recently drafted.  The film is pretty historically accurate, portaying riots and protests in New York and at universitites, and showing the Detroit race riots.

Of course, the movie is filled with all the best Beatles songs. And there's some pretty cool Beatles references in the movie too.  The main characters have names that all reference Beatles songs, such as Jude (Hey Jude), Lucy (Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds), Max (Maxwell's Silver Hammer), Sadie (Jude and Max's landlady, named for the song Sexy Sadie. She is also supposed to be a reference to Janis Joplin), JoJo (The guitarist in Sadie's band, named after "JoJo" in Get Back. He is supposed to be a reference to Jimi Hendrix), Martha (Jude's mother, a reference to the song Martha My Dear), Doctor Robert (played by Bono, a reference to the song Doctor Robert), Molly (Jude's girlfriend back in Liverpool, is a reference to "Molly" in the song Ob-La-Di, Ob-La,Da), Prudence (Jude & Max's friend, a reference to the song Dear Prudence), and Rita (Prudence's friend, in reference to the song Lovely Rita).

Other than that, there's some dialouge spots in the movie that reference Beatles songs even if they weren't sung in the movie, such as when Prudence first enters Sadie's apartment through a window. When Sadie asks where she came from, Jude responds, "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window."

But, I would warn you that although the movie is very well done, it's sort of, "artistic" I guess you could call it.
In other words, it sort of made me feel like I was on an acid trip.
Not that I know what that feels like, but I imagine this movie gets pretty close in some scenes when it gets crazy with all the psychedelic colors and random dancing trolls and circus people.

But, other than that, I thought it was pretty good. Wooo :]



Anyways. That's all for now. Deuces.
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

This Day in Music History...

So, this blog's due Friday, but I'm gonna do it today cause this week is BUSYYYYY.
So, I decided to see what happened today that was significant in the music world.

In 1963, The Beatles kickstarted their tour in Sweden by recieving bad reviews from a local pop reviewer, who said that the "Fab Four" should be grateful to the obnoxious screams of their fans that drowned out the group's "terrible performance".  He then added that The Beatles "were of no musical importance whatsoever and that their local support group, The Phantoms, decidedly outshone them."

So, first of all, I wondered why he could ever think that. And second, I decided to muddle through the interwebs and find out just who "The Phantoms" were.  This is literally the only video I could find...so here I give you the group that "outshone" The Beatles:


But, to be honest, I don't think it's half bad ;D


Today in 1964, The Rolling Stones performed for the first time on the famous Ed Sullivan Show, playing their hits "Around and Around" and "Time is On My Side".  “I promise you they’ll never be back on our show again,” were Ed Sullivan's exact words after riots broke out in the studios during their performance.  But, they ended up returning another 5 appearances on the show. 



Then, in 1986, for the first time in the history of EVER the top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100 were occupied by female artists. Cyndi Lauper's  "True Colors" triumphed at the No.1 position, followed by Tina Turner's "Typical Male" at No.2, then Janet Jackson's "When I Think Of You" settled at No. 3.
So, kudos to these three lovely ladies.

And, in conclusion, Happy 27th Birthday to Katy Perry! 
Your arm got bitten off by a shark? you're a firework. Hailey. *
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Sunday, October 16, 2011

My Life...

So, I guess there's a couple of things I'm gonna blog about tonight.  One, I'm going through one of those phases where I feel like I can only listen to like, five songs. and that's it.  So right now, I'm currently obsessed with:






So, onto the second part of my blog.  I included Good Life in my playlist because I've listened to it pretty much constantly for the past week. This past Friday was Senior Night, and it was actually, surprisingly, pretty emotional for me. Us underclassmen in band made the seniors a slideshow that showed them from their freshman year until now, and Good Life was the first song that played.  We also made them each a little plaque thing with their name on it, and everyone could sign it.  I never thought I would actually cry, but I did.  It's so weird, because these are the kids that helped me around the high school my freshman year, and made the past two years of high school as enjoyable as they were, and next year, they won't be here.

I'll always think of them as my sophomores, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to meet all these amazing people and can call some of them my best friends. I think I speak for a bunch of people when I say, Class of 2012, you will definitely be missed <3



And in other words, before I go, I also have more sad news.  Paul McCartney is now married. Again.






Oh well. Maybe someday he'll realize we're meant to be ;]

That's all for now :]
Emily.
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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

OK Go

I'm sure all of you have seen Here It Goes Again music video. You know, the treadmill one.  This is video that first got me into the band OK Go, and I've pretty much been obbsessed with them ever since.


Their music videos are crazy and inventive, and I could literally just look them up for hours.  Damien Kulash, the lead singer, and Tim Nordwind, the bassist, met at Interlochen Arts Camp when they were 11 years old. They kept in touch after camp because of their similar tastes in music, and often sent mix tapes to each other.  They met Andy Duncan, who was to be OK Go's first guitarist and keyboardist, in high school (He would later be replaced by Andy Ross in 2005). They met their future drummer, Dan Konopka, in college.  OK Go was officially formed in 1998.  Kulash and Nordwind's art teacher at Interlochen would always say, "OK...Go!" whenever she had them start an art project, and this was the inspiration for the band's name.


So far, OK Go has released three albums. Their first album was released in 2002 and it was self-titled.  Their second album, Oh No, was released in 2005, just before the departure of guitarist and keyboardist Andy Duncan.  Then, with Andy Ross under their wing, OK Go released their third album, Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky, in 2010.

So far, I have like their first self titled album the best. The others are good, but I just like their sound the best in their first album.

Some really good songs from their first album you should listen to are:
The whole album is defintely worth listening to, but those are just my favorites :]


My favorites from the album Oh No are:
A Million Ways was sort of what kicked off OK Go's popularity. People saw their simple music video online and it started sort of and "internet feud" where thousands of people posted videos of themselves doing the dance.

And just another sort of interesting side note, Kulash, who is the official lead singer in the band, does not appear to be singing in the music video for A Million Ways or Here It Goes Again, but he really is.  They had the bassist, Nordwind, lip sync over Kulash's recording for these two videos.  Nordwind does get that chance to express his vocal talent, though, in the song C-C-C-Cinnamon Lips, which appears on their first album.


And, finally, my favorite songs on the album Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky are:
And, when they released a remastered version of the album later on, they included several bonus tracks.  One of these songs is called Shooting the Moon, and I'm OBSESSED with it.

So, I hope you enjoy their music as much as I do! Sadly, OK Go isn't touring anytime soon, because I can only imagine how AWESOME one of their concerts would be.












That's all for now :]


~Emily
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