=D

Just heard of her just now.

Lisa - All of Me (original song)

Expressional

Modjo - Lady (here me tonight)

Indie band from Irvine!

First heard one of their songs on Youtube called "The Persuaded". This is Faded Paper Figures--a band that is apparently from Irvine (according to their MySpace). I love their stuff! They are selling their album Dynamo for $10 on their website (also sold as MP3s).

(Also, they were going to perform at UCI back in May '09 but their gig was canceled. Look out for them in the future...)


Faded Paper Figures - The Persuaded

exploring

Getting songs from other people.

This one interests me.

The Twelves - Works For Me

All is Love - Karen O and The Kids

Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs did a song for the upcoming film Where the Wild Things Are. It's like indie kids music. I dig it.

nice

An ending theme in the anime "Bleach".

Ikimono Gakari - Hanabi

cheerful

Persona OST - Dream of Butterfly

Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks

In a few weeks (no pun intended), I am venturing to San Francisco, CA for a two day music festival known as the Treasure Island Music Festival. The first day will feature bands such as [to name a few]: Crown City Rockers, Dan Deacon, Girl Talk, Passion Pit, and MGMT. The second day will feature [to name a few]: Yo La Tengo, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Grizzly Bear.

This is my favorite song by Grizzly Bear. Sick piano line. Love it.

Calm

Nujabes feat Shing02 - Luv (sic) part 2

Tegan and Sara - Back in your Head

Tegan and Sara - Back in your Head

According to Wiki, Tegan and Sara (full names Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin) are apparently identical twins! AND it was their birthday on September 19! How ironic, especially since I hadn't listened to "Back in your Head" in a very, very long time.

However, "Walking with a Ghost" will always be my #1 Tegan and Sara song (as of now). The White Stripes version is great, btw! (Both videos after the cut.)


Tegan and Sara - Walking with a Ghost


The White Stripes - Walking with a Ghost

TBS

Taking Back Sunday - A Decade Under The Influence

The Mae Shi @ UCI?!

I recently made a Tegan and Sara post but I'll just re-post it tomorrow.

Why?

I just discovered that THE MAE SHI performed at UCI @ Phoenix Grille (in April 2008)!! How I found out? http://acrobaticseveryday.com/ (Ctrl + F "The Mae Shi").

They're awesome live, but it's a little difficult to hear them singing in the video.

Paramore

From their new album "Brand New Eyes".

Paramore - Ignorance

The Adventure

Angels & Airwaves - The Adventure

Soundtrack of Summer

Now that I've moved back to school and classes are just around the corner, I figured I'd do a bit of (musical) reminiscing over the past summer.

This past summer I had the chance to live and work in a new place with three of my friends. One particular roommate of mine has an especially romantic view of music, and shared with me his musical passion and dreams. He exposed me to a great selection of new artists -- and even some older ones that I had never really looked into.

So I wanted to share with all of you my "Soundtrack of Summer" -- my collection of the some of the cool and most memorable songs (and artists) of my summer.

• Franz Ferdinand
  I'd only ever heard Franz's songs on the radio, and I was never fully impressed by them. As far as I was concerned, they were just another British band with that same sound. I have to say that the songs they play on the radio don't do them justice. They have some really catchy tunes, and some of the songs I'll always associate with this summer are:
  
  
  
  • "The Dark of the Matinée"
  • "Michael"
  • "40'"
  • "No You Girls"
  
  


• The Ting Tings
  Good times with these three catchy songs.
  
  
  
  • "That's Not My Name"
  • "Shut Up And Let Me Go"
  • "Great DJ"
  
  
  
  
• Moving Units
  This band's entire album "Dangerous Dreams" is pretty good (it just gets a little slower towards the end). Cool, danceable tunes. And dance my roommate did -- even while driving. Yeah, it was a fun summer.
  
  
  
  • "Emancipation"
  • "Available"
  • "Going for Adds" (couldn't find a decent YouTube video for this one)
  
  


• The Mars Volta
  I'm not sure about some of their earlier stuff, but their latest album, "Octahedron", was breathtaking. They had me at the first song: "Since We've Been Wrong". Beware the long intro. Trust me: it's worth it.
  



• Rodrigo y Gabriela
  These two are just amazing. I love how they can make acoustic sound so hardcore, and can even breathe new life into a timeless rock ballad. I made a previous post about them, but here are a few more:
  
  
  
  • "Tamacun"
  • "Orion"
  • "Stairway to Heaven"

This one's for you, Swampy. :)

Stop Me

Mark Ronson - Stop Me



epic

Dragonforce- "Trail of Broken Hearts"

This is probably one of the best rock ballads ever. And I feel that strongly enough to stand by such an audacious statement.

I know i probably came off the wrong way with my last dragonforce post, but just give this song a chance. I won't ramble much, just ask that you listen to it. It's a great change of pace from their typical thundering songs. It also shows they can write some good lyrics ripe with metaphors and symbolism.




There's also an acoustic version if you're interested, but i won't post it due to the one video limit. I'll just put a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk77wRGnwZM

FFVII

If any of you guys play this in the piano for me, I'll be happy.

Final Fantasy VII OST - Cloud's Theme

lol

Parody to whenever you go to a club and you hear a new tupac single go on.

Dave Chappelle - I Wrote This Song A Long Time Ago

Phoenix - Lisztomania

Heard this in a Forever 21 not too long ago. Love it.



Phoenix - Lisztomania

...

Utada Hikaru - Stay Gold

RIP Mary Travers

Peter, Paul, & Mary - Leaving On A Jet Plane



It is early in the morning (way too early), but I found out that Mary Travers from Peter, Paul, & Mary has passed away. I love this group because I used to listen to them when I was a kid, and I still listen to them at times. Their songs have this calming feel; also, they are one of the greatest folk music groups around.

blueprint 3

He's back!

Jay-Z feat Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind

U-U-UVERworld!

UVERworld - Just Break The Limit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coz5Y1wgm4w

Also good from UVERworld

UVERworld - Endscape

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUyTC8To19M

The embed link won't copy and paste with the school computers so I provided the links for you guys.

Blur - Coffee & TV

I think the general population is knowledgeable of Blur's breakout hit "Song 2." While it is an infectiously good song, I think the material that followed was far better. Analogously [to my own life], Blink 182 is to Radiohead as Blur is to Green Day. But the thing is, I hate Green Day. I meant in terms of ushering an age of alternative rock. While Oasis was churning out rehashes of old Beetles songs, Blur was doing something that would pre-date the indie-rock scene. Anyways, this is one of my favorite songs by them. Watch the video here.

Coffee And Tv - Blur

Crosby, Stills & Nash

Happy Birthday, Dad! In honor of my dad's birthday, I'm posting a few songs by one of my dad's favorite bands--Crosby, Stills & Nash (the group included Neil Young at one point, but he left the group). This band is perhaps my favorite 70s folk rock band of all time (you know where I get my influence). Wish YouTube had the album recordings but CSN is great live!


Crosby, Stills & Nash - Just a Song Before I Go

(Expand the post to hear more!)


Crosby, Stills & Nash - Teach Your Children


Crosby, Stills & Nash - Cathedral


Crosby, Stills & Nash - Dark Star

Traphik

Traphik - Peace of Mind

Cool

I don't really listen to this kind of genre, but it's nice to listen to different genre's once in awhile.

Drake - Best I Ever Had

La Familia

Mirah- La Familia (Guy Sigsworth Remix)

Lyrics are pretty suggestive haha

Peaceful

Toonami: Deep Space Bass - Gundams are on Earth

Chill Autumn

People Under the Stairs - San Francisco Knights



Labor Day traditionally marks the end of the summer season (even though summer technically ends September 21). Autumn is usually a very chill season in my opinion both in the weather and the events to come. I'm posting this song because I feel chill whenever I hear it.

Here's to you, autumn.

orange range

First song I heard from Orange Range.

Orange Range - Hana

the blues make me so happy

korea

Big Bang - Haru Haru

Modern Art

We played this song in high school and it easily became on of my favorites. Of course, I was one of very few in my orchestra that really liked the song. Lots of things to say of this:

This is the second movement of Bela Bartok's "Concerto for Orchestra." The unique thing about that is that it's a concerto for an entire orchestra. Typically concertos are meant for a solo instrument, but this piece is meant to act as if the entire orchestra were a solo instrument. A second interesting part of this is that it's a modern era piece. Bartok and Picasso were born in the same year and their styles of art in paintings and music matched the style of their era. The song is fairly abstract and uses some of the more interesting techniques that came about with the modern era.

Lastly, Bartok helped found ethnomusicology and probably helped inspire this guy.

Worn Me Down

First heard this in The OC.

Rachael Yamagata - Worn Me Down

debussy

One think the guitar and the piano have over other instruments is the ability to not act in either an accompanying or solo instrument, but also the ability to accompany itself in some cases. Not many other instruments can do both at once.

Of course, this is a duet. So that doesn't really apply here.

Though impressionism is great. Both in paintings and in music.

FFX-2

First heard this song on the piano collection of FFX-2.
First time I heard this song in the original soundtrack.
I like both songs equally.

Final Fantasy X-2 International: Last Mission OST - Wind Crest: The Three Trails

David Choi - Won't Even Start

Another song with a video created by WongFu. It's a pretty sad song, but I guess that's how life goes sometimes. Enjoy.

Mungolian Jetset

Click here. Listen to the song "Glitches N' Bugs." I haven't been this entranced by a song in a long time. It's a manipulated version of the song originally by The Shortwave Set. This version is better. A lot better.

This song was playing while I was watching Deathmole Jacques draw his comic (which is fairly entertaining, by the way). This song is just amazing in every way for me.

Going Back

It feels good to go back.
Lately I've been just trying to find music that I haven't listened to yet.

But just going back listening to what I normally listen to, it feels good as if I were listening to this song the first time all over again.

Nujabes - Hikari

Uffie - Hot Chick

I heard this song on my friend's myspace a couple years ago. It's got a really good, catchy beat, but the lyrics are so-so.

Paper Rival!

First of all, I just want to say that the quality on Vimeo is so much better than YouTube!! Man, I think I'm going to start going on Vimeo more. Thanks for sharing Vimeo vids on here, everyone :P.

And! These are the only two songs I really know by Paper Rival, but I like them a lot. The first video I'm posting here is their music video for "Bluebird", which I believe Paper Rival performed at Chain Reaction once! After the cut is one of my favorite songs, "Cassandra". I've been meaning to post it but I think YouTube disabled the embedding code.
(Also, Paper Rival is no longer together. Aww :/)

The video for "Bluebird" is hilarious, btw.

PAPER RIVAL - Bluebird from Photo Finish Records on Vimeo.

PAPER RIVAL - Cassandra from Photo Finish Records on Vimeo.

Mos Def

One of my favorite MC's.

Mos Def - California

RHCP

This song was in my friend's playlist when we were bboying today.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Otherside

Husker Du - Dont Want To Know If You Are Lonely

I saw Adventureland, and it's easily made my top ten favorite movies. This song was in it. I grew up skateboarding, and man, Husker Du really remind me of The Descendants, so it's pretty sweed.

Husker Du - Dont Want To Know If You Are Lonely

GEICO

I love this Geico commercial song. This song was first sung by Rockwell.

Mysto & Pizzi - Somebody's Watching Me

D.C

Dashboard Confessionals - Don't Wait

Improv in Classical Music

Normally, I read Andrew Sullivan's blogs for politics, pictures of windows, and interesting videos, but Jonah Lehrer decided to post an article about the history of musical improvisation. An excerpt:

When most people think about musical improvisation, they imagine Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, inventing melodies in smoky jazz clubs. But the act of musical improv isn't a 20th century invention. As Alex Ross notes in this fascinating article, "classical" music has long reserved a spot for improvisation by the performer. The cadenza, a spot at the end of the piece reserved for a display of virtuosity, was designed to encourage improvisation, as soloists figured out, on the fly, how to finish off a Mozart concerto:

More after the jump.

Also, someone decided to make an opera out of Alberto Gonzalez's congressional hearings. Umm, lol.

cool

Meaningful song, enough said.

Modest Mouse - Float On

A Modest Proposal

First of all, Clara Chung won the ISA concert. Hooray for more UC Irvine representation.

Anyway, I heard this song on the radio:
And a few things came to mind:

ONE: The song is incredibly pop.
TWO: The song uses a ukulele which is strangely popular recently.
THREE: The chord progression.
FOUR: The lyrics song go about like it's a love song from the whitest guy on the planet to a black girl.

Contest Details after the cut!



But mostly, I want to talk about the chord progression. If you listen to it, you'll feel like you heard it before, and it's beyond just ukulele covers of that Jason Mraz song.

They call it the "50s Progression." And it goes I-V-vi-IV. If you don't know what that means, know there are 8 notes in a major scale and that lowercase means a minor chord. But basically, the song's real chords are E-B-C#m-A for the Intro, Verse, and Bridge. The chorus is a change to A-B-(E-B)-A-B.

To say the least, the song couldn't be more easy to mess around with unless it was only a one chord song.

Four Chord Wonder Covers

To say the least, I wasn't happy with the covers on youtube. So, what I'd like to hear are different manipulations of the song. Do something different with it using your general knowledge of music.

I'm not just saying grab a guitar and webcam and play the song. That's boring. No one wants to hear that. I want you to actually do something with it.

And you don't necessarily have to cover the song. If you know how to manipulate audio, please do see if you can do so if you don't wish to cover the song.

Basically, I want to see if you guys can make a song better when it's pretty clear that the original artist hasn't tried.

Hopefully someone will try this out. Haha.

calm

I first heard this band when they played the song "Duvet" as the opening theme song of the anime "Serial Experiments Lain". This is another song that I like from them

Bôa - Get There