RULES:
1. Put Your iTunes, Windows Media Player, ETC on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name.
5. Put this on your journal.
1.If someone says, "Is this okay?" You say?
Thank You and Goodbye - Lennex
2.How would you describe yourself?"
Lost in You - Garth Brooks
3.What do you like in a guy?
Don't Stand So Close to Me - The Police (soooooooooo wrong!)
4.How do you feel today?
Like a Virgin - Madonna (seriously...that is what came up...DYING)
5.What is your life's purpose?
Livin' on the Edge - Aerosmith
6.What is your motto?
Little Miss Can't Be Wrong - Spin Doctors (oy...)
7.What do your friends think of you?
Mother's Little Helper - The Rolling Stones (could be...)
8.What do you think of your parents?
Feel Good - Pretty Baby
9.What do you think about very often?
Happiness is a Warm Gun - The Beatles (uh oh...)
10.What is 2 + 2?
Twilight Zone - Golden Earring
11.What do you think of your best friend?
Let's Wait Awhile - Janet Jackson (so fitting...she's always running late)
12.What do you think of the person you like?
If Looks Could Kill - Heart
13.What is your life story?
Tonight, The Heartache's On Me - Dixie Chicks
14.What do you want to be when you grow up?
Cosmic Girl - Jamiroquai (hee!)
15.What do you think of when you see the person you like?
I'm Only Looking - INXS (damn if that isn't true...*sniff*)
16.What will you dance to at your wedding?
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses - U2 (hmmmm, riding wild horses at my wedding, huh?)
17.What will they play at your funeral?
Rock Steady - No Doubt (BWAH!!!!)
18.What is your hobby/interest?
Suffer Well - Depeche Mode
19.What is your biggest fear?
My Life - Billy Joel
20.What is your biggest secret?
Tellmewhenyouthinkthatitstime - Calhoun (*snort*)
21.What do you think of your friends?
I Hate Everything About You - Ugly Kid Joe (um...ha ha ha?)
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Monday, April 21, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
SXSW: Calhoun at Docs
I got to go to SXSW (South By Southwest) in Austin this weekend, briefly. I was with my mom and grandmother, so it wasn't quite how I would have done SXSW on my own, but I still had a good time.
Calhoun, a Fort Worth band, is one that I've been meaning to go to see live for quite some time. I discovered them on myspace about a year or more ago, and I love their music. The lead singer's voice is gorgeous on recordings.
I had no clue that Calhoun would be playing in Austin this weekend though, so it was a pleasant surprise. We headed down to Congress and started walking around to see what was going on. When we walked past Docs, we discovered that a band was about to start performing and there were plenty of places to have a seat. I wound up right up front.
The band started to play, and I really enjoyed what I was hearing, primarily the lead singer's falsetto. After the first song of their set, they mentioned that they were Calhoun from Fort Worth!!! Pretty cool. Some of their other songs were ones that I recognized. All of them were fantastic. I had a lot of fun. I'm going to have to go see them around here the next time I notice that they are playing in the Denton/Fort Worth area.
You should definitely check them out! You can find their music at their MySpace page. Or check out their official website at calhounmusic.com.
More on SXSW soon!
Calhoun, a Fort Worth band, is one that I've been meaning to go to see live for quite some time. I discovered them on myspace about a year or more ago, and I love their music. The lead singer's voice is gorgeous on recordings.
I had no clue that Calhoun would be playing in Austin this weekend though, so it was a pleasant surprise. We headed down to Congress and started walking around to see what was going on. When we walked past Docs, we discovered that a band was about to start performing and there were plenty of places to have a seat. I wound up right up front.
The band started to play, and I really enjoyed what I was hearing, primarily the lead singer's falsetto. After the first song of their set, they mentioned that they were Calhoun from Fort Worth!!! Pretty cool. Some of their other songs were ones that I recognized. All of them were fantastic. I had a lot of fun. I'm going to have to go see them around here the next time I notice that they are playing in the Denton/Fort Worth area.
You should definitely check them out! You can find their music at their MySpace page. Or check out their official website at calhounmusic.com.
More on SXSW soon!
Friday, November 2, 2007
Identity Crisis
I like Classic Rock music. I like Classic Rock music a lot. Over the years, I have often found myself tuning in to the local Classic Rock stations while I drive down the road. It is familiar and comfortable and you always know what you are in for when you turn it on. Right? Well, that doesn't quite seem to be the case anymore.
Back in the day, when I would tune in to a Classic Rock station, I knew what to expect. I would hear rock music from the 1960's and 1970's, with the occasional early 1980's song thrown in from a band that had been around since the 1960's or 1970's. I could expect to hear some Led Zeppelin, early Aerosmith, Beatles, Eagles, Doors, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Queen, Rolling Stones, The Who, Fleetwood Mac, Boston, and the like. Sure, they might play Start Me Up (from 1980) by the Rolling Stones...but they weren't playing any of the music from the 1980's by bands who weren't part of the Classic Rock Canon.
A few years ago, that started to change a bit. I believe it was in 2003 that I noticed one of the Classic Rock radio stations around here begin to play music from the early to mid 1980's by bands who would not have previously been considered to be CLASSIC ROCK. Suddenly, they were playing some of the music that I grew up on...early U2 and Bon Jovi music, maybe a few of the hits from some of the 1980's hair metal bands. That initially threw me for a loop. I wasn't so sure I was ready for the music that I grew up on to be considered to be Classic Rock. Granted, times change...and at that point, most of that music had been around for more than 20 years. They still weren't playing even music from U2's Joshua Tree album or Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet...it was still music from the very early parts of their careers...not even from when they hit their peak, commercially. I eventually got to where I could accept that those things could be considered Classic Rock, even though it was music from my generation. Especially when I considered the fact that the Oldies station my Mom tends to listen to had shifted from playing music solely from the 1950's and 1960's to include some of the 1970's. Suddenly, they were playing Disco. If Disco was on the Oldies station, I suppose that early U2 and Bon Jovi can be considered to be Classic Rock.
Well, it wasn't even three years later when that started to change again. I guess they decided they liked being able to play some of that music, and they wanted to change the boundaries of Classic Rock yet again. All of a sudden, they flew through the entire decade of the 1980's and broke into the 1990's. They were playing stuff from late 1980's and early 1990's Guns 'N Roses and U2 and Bon Jovi. But that wasn't the end of it. Music from the Grunge era was suddenly getting airplay on Classic Rock radio. Pearl Jam and Nirvana on Classic Rock radio? Seriously? What on earth? They were playing music that was barely 10 years old. That started to disturb me. I stopped listening to that station, because I felt that they were becoming confused about their own identity.
But I tuned in again recently. It didn't jar me too much when I heard Pearl Jam shoved up between Stairway to Heaven and Sweet Child o Mine. But then a few songs later, I stopped dead in my tracks. They were playing U2's Beautiful Day. Yeah, I know they've played U2 before...they've been playing U2 now for about four years. But this...this was from 2000! Beautiful Day was only released seven years ago!!! Come on now people. How on earth can that be considered to be Classic Rock??? Not only that, but then I noticed my Mom's Oldies station playing music from the 1980's. Yes, they were playing Michael Jackson's Thriller. Seriously. That bothered me. How can music that is from my generation be considered an Oldie? I am not yet 30 years old, so I am not old!!! Either is that music. Sure, call it Retro. Call it a blast into the past. Something like that. But do not call it an Oldie.
I have decided that Classic Rock is in the middle of an identity crisis. Either that, or I am. I'm not entirely sure which.
Back in the day, when I would tune in to a Classic Rock station, I knew what to expect. I would hear rock music from the 1960's and 1970's, with the occasional early 1980's song thrown in from a band that had been around since the 1960's or 1970's. I could expect to hear some Led Zeppelin, early Aerosmith, Beatles, Eagles, Doors, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Queen, Rolling Stones, The Who, Fleetwood Mac, Boston, and the like. Sure, they might play Start Me Up (from 1980) by the Rolling Stones...but they weren't playing any of the music from the 1980's by bands who weren't part of the Classic Rock Canon.
A few years ago, that started to change a bit. I believe it was in 2003 that I noticed one of the Classic Rock radio stations around here begin to play music from the early to mid 1980's by bands who would not have previously been considered to be CLASSIC ROCK. Suddenly, they were playing some of the music that I grew up on...early U2 and Bon Jovi music, maybe a few of the hits from some of the 1980's hair metal bands. That initially threw me for a loop. I wasn't so sure I was ready for the music that I grew up on to be considered to be Classic Rock. Granted, times change...and at that point, most of that music had been around for more than 20 years. They still weren't playing even music from U2's Joshua Tree album or Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet...it was still music from the very early parts of their careers...not even from when they hit their peak, commercially. I eventually got to where I could accept that those things could be considered Classic Rock, even though it was music from my generation. Especially when I considered the fact that the Oldies station my Mom tends to listen to had shifted from playing music solely from the 1950's and 1960's to include some of the 1970's. Suddenly, they were playing Disco. If Disco was on the Oldies station, I suppose that early U2 and Bon Jovi can be considered to be Classic Rock.
Well, it wasn't even three years later when that started to change again. I guess they decided they liked being able to play some of that music, and they wanted to change the boundaries of Classic Rock yet again. All of a sudden, they flew through the entire decade of the 1980's and broke into the 1990's. They were playing stuff from late 1980's and early 1990's Guns 'N Roses and U2 and Bon Jovi. But that wasn't the end of it. Music from the Grunge era was suddenly getting airplay on Classic Rock radio. Pearl Jam and Nirvana on Classic Rock radio? Seriously? What on earth? They were playing music that was barely 10 years old. That started to disturb me. I stopped listening to that station, because I felt that they were becoming confused about their own identity.
But I tuned in again recently. It didn't jar me too much when I heard Pearl Jam shoved up between Stairway to Heaven and Sweet Child o Mine. But then a few songs later, I stopped dead in my tracks. They were playing U2's Beautiful Day. Yeah, I know they've played U2 before...they've been playing U2 now for about four years. But this...this was from 2000! Beautiful Day was only released seven years ago!!! Come on now people. How on earth can that be considered to be Classic Rock??? Not only that, but then I noticed my Mom's Oldies station playing music from the 1980's. Yes, they were playing Michael Jackson's Thriller. Seriously. That bothered me. How can music that is from my generation be considered an Oldie? I am not yet 30 years old, so I am not old!!! Either is that music. Sure, call it Retro. Call it a blast into the past. Something like that. But do not call it an Oldie.
I have decided that Classic Rock is in the middle of an identity crisis. Either that, or I am. I'm not entirely sure which.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Writing Yourself
In Literature, we are strongly discouraged from assuming that the main character or narrator of a piece is the author himself. In fiction, a writer has to create a personality, a persona, which fits the story that they want to tell. Often though, if you look at the life of the author, you will see a number of similarities between the writer and the character. Those similarities certainly don't mean that the character IS the author or vice-versa, but it can often cause me to question where the line is. At what point does the character separate himself from the writer (or is it the writer who separates himself from the character)? I certainly know from my own writing that it would not be as powerful as it is or communicate the message that I am attempting to convey if the characters did not have a little bit of me in them. On the other hand, if the characters were me entirely, my writing would be very boring! I am not all that exciting a person. So how much of a writer is present in their characters, and in their works? This is an idea that intrigues me. When reading Don Juan or another poem by Lord Byron, with a Byronic Hero, is it safe to assume that the Byronic Hero is Byron himself? Not exactly. Though he was described to be "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know," this isn't exactly what a Byronic Hero is. When looking at poetry such as "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath, can we assume that the speaker is Plath herself? Not exactly. While there are certainly a lot of similarities we can draw between Plath and the speaker, they are not expressly one and the same, for certain. In music, the same questions appear. Is the lyricist the one speaking, or is it a persona that they have adopted who is speaking? This, it seems, depends largely on the lyricist.
Former INXS frontman Michael Hutchence was one who liked to write lyrics that could be interpreted in a number of ways, to mean a number of things, depending on who was reading them. They may have started out as a very personal experience or thought, but he worked to turn them into something universal. While he certainly achieved that, how much of himself did he leave in the songs? On the band's album Elegantly Wasted, Andrew Farriss said that Michael was in a very different "head space" than what he typically would be, and his lyrics were far more about what he was dealing with in his personal life than usual. Songs such as "I'm Just a Man" and "Searching" certainly point to this, especially when considered in relation to his life circumstances at the time.
U2's Bono began to adopt a persona through which to sing at some point possibly as early as the 1988 album Rattle and Hum, but certainly by the 1991 album Achtung Baby. The lyrics on that album began to touch too closely to his real life, and he found them too personal to be able to perform them as himself. At that point, he became The Fly for the ZooTV tour, and was able to sing those lyrics as someone other than himself. Each persona he has adopted over the years has shown itself not only in his dress, but also in the voice he uses to sing the lyrics. By being someone other than himself, Bono is able to sing about himself.
Taking a look at a newer band and singer, Justin Furstenfeld of Blue October writes intensely personal lyrics and attempts to take himself back to the moment he wrote them when he performs live. When the band first began to write songs, Justin took his personal journal and diary entries and turned those into songs. His lyrics speak of addictions, mental breakdowns, anger, and so much more.
Even knowing how intensely personal these lyrics are by these singers, can we assume that they are entirely THAT PERSON? I think that it is doing them a disservice to make that assumption, because while they may have come from a very personal place, an intense part of their lives...there is so much more to them. We can't know everything there is to know about Michael Hutchence or Bono or Justin Furstenfeld by listening to their lyrics. We can however relate to the emotions which their lyrics express. Just as in poetry, we can find things within the song which touches us on some level and take from it what we will.
Former INXS frontman Michael Hutchence was one who liked to write lyrics that could be interpreted in a number of ways, to mean a number of things, depending on who was reading them. They may have started out as a very personal experience or thought, but he worked to turn them into something universal. While he certainly achieved that, how much of himself did he leave in the songs? On the band's album Elegantly Wasted, Andrew Farriss said that Michael was in a very different "head space" than what he typically would be, and his lyrics were far more about what he was dealing with in his personal life than usual. Songs such as "I'm Just a Man" and "Searching" certainly point to this, especially when considered in relation to his life circumstances at the time.
U2's Bono began to adopt a persona through which to sing at some point possibly as early as the 1988 album Rattle and Hum, but certainly by the 1991 album Achtung Baby. The lyrics on that album began to touch too closely to his real life, and he found them too personal to be able to perform them as himself. At that point, he became The Fly for the ZooTV tour, and was able to sing those lyrics as someone other than himself. Each persona he has adopted over the years has shown itself not only in his dress, but also in the voice he uses to sing the lyrics. By being someone other than himself, Bono is able to sing about himself.
Taking a look at a newer band and singer, Justin Furstenfeld of Blue October writes intensely personal lyrics and attempts to take himself back to the moment he wrote them when he performs live. When the band first began to write songs, Justin took his personal journal and diary entries and turned those into songs. His lyrics speak of addictions, mental breakdowns, anger, and so much more.
Even knowing how intensely personal these lyrics are by these singers, can we assume that they are entirely THAT PERSON? I think that it is doing them a disservice to make that assumption, because while they may have come from a very personal place, an intense part of their lives...there is so much more to them. We can't know everything there is to know about Michael Hutchence or Bono or Justin Furstenfeld by listening to their lyrics. We can however relate to the emotions which their lyrics express. Just as in poetry, we can find things within the song which touches us on some level and take from it what we will.
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