Song of the Day

Archive for August, 2010

Lusine is a guy from Texas who now lives in Seattle and has released 10 albums since ’99. If you like this track from his latest ablum A Certain Distance take a listen to the song Double Vision off the same album. I love the complexity and precision of the execution of the songs, and also the originality of the evolution and flow of each song. Intelligent stuff in my mind, and good listening.

I’ve got a lot of theories on how and why different people appreciate different music. I think most of it is about association, or what we associate with the music in our minds. For example, someone who says they don’t like techno music might watch the film The Matrix and really enjoy the scene where they walk into the bank, set off the metal detector, and proceed to have a really long and violent fight scene with tons of automatic hand cannons. And then if you play that same song to the person later they would say, “I don’t like techno music, but I love that song” because it reminds them of that fight scene in the movie that they really liked. But if they had never seen that scene in the movie with that music, they might never say that they like that song. The same would go for heavy metal music that people hear in battle scenes in movies like 300 or some Sci-Fi action movies like Resident Evil, but if you played that music to people outside of that scene they might still say they don’t like it, but just love that scene in the movie. This stuff fascinates me. Either way, if you want to really love a certain type of music, I think it helps if you have something to associate it with. Or in other words, if you’re just starring at a computer screen while watching a photo, you might not like it, but if you’re out running with your iPod, or watching a scene in a movie, or doing something then it becomes the soundtrack to that thing and takes on a whole new shape in your mind. Which in a way also means, you might think you don’t like a song, but maybe your imagination is just understanding it in the wrong context. I’m just thinking that some people might get turned off from Lusine because it’s not so easily digestible as most songs they’d hear, and I want Lusine’s music to get a fair showing because sometimes, even if something’s amazing, if it is different than what you’re used to, you don’t know how to associate it with something cool in your mind yet, but if you give it time, it will happen.

Lusine on… Ghostly International, MySpace, and Last.fm.

Unbeknownst to me until today, Miike Snow (pronounced “Mike Snow”) is from Sweden. He hit the scene in 2009 with his self titled album, although he officially made the band in 2007. His band was just 3 guys who wanted to make some music and then suddenly people started loving it. They’ve done a lot of remixes and have been remixed a lot in return. The band has been featured a lot in the UK and the US towards the end of 2009 and this year.

I strongly recommend also listening to their songs Animal, and my special favorite Cult Logic. I wish these guys would stop touring and start creating more music because they know what they’re doing and their stuff has that catchy energetic trip beat that I love.

I don’t know what’s up with the freaky rabbit with antlers branding that he’s using, but as long as they keep making good music everything’s cool.

Feed the brain with Miike Snow’s official website, on MySpace, Last.fm, and Pitchfork.

Buy Song: Black & Blue on iTunes
Buy Album: Miike Snow on iTunes

Gentleman is a Reggae artist out of Germany but is a Jamaican at heart. This song is off of his 5th album Another Intensity. He’s got 6 studio albums out now. His music regularly does well on the music charts in Europe, but mostly just in German speaking countries even though most of his music is in English, probably because he was using a German record label, but after changing to Universal this year it looks like his music is getting much more international exposure. His music tends to carry a spiritual message and makes references to “God”, although no specific religion seems to be mentioned.

It seems in this music video he’s saying that we should be careful not to lose ourselves or our relationships by becoming consumed in or alienated by technology; although I didn’t real the lyrics. There are tons of great reggae artists out there, I just happen to be posting his stuff today. I don’t listen to Reggae that much so I’m not too sure how well Gentleman is known among American reggae fans.

For more info on Gentleman check out these links.

Gentleman on MySpace, his official website, and on Last.fm

Buy Song: Serenity on iTunes
Buy Album: Another Intensity on iTunes

Buy Song: Toothpaste Kisses on iTunes
Buy Album: Colour It In on iTunes

There’s just something provocative about two people making out. But 10 people all making out with each other, all while watching in the same room??!! That’s a canker sore of a different color! But maybe it’s not so bad when you’re just doing it with all of your band groupies that have gone to every one of your shows for the last 4 years and with whom you’ve already had several drunken orgies, some of which were at that very same bar. Well, that’s life I guess. (or the life of a band from London I should say). Ok, ok, so I take it back, they haven’t had drunken orgies with each other. (or have they!!!???… jk)

Seriously though, you’ve got to respect these guys for putting out some quite titillating and provocative art here. It’s quite romantic in an interpretive modern dance kind of way but a bit more young and wild. They could have added some tooth brushing to really illustrate the
name of the song, but I think that would have been way too campy.

The song itself is beautiful, well produced, and reminds me of some light mix of IZ, Jack Johnson, and a slew of singer song writer vocalists who talk softly into the microphone.

The Maccabees are not to be confused with the Jewish rebel army that took control of Israeli land long ago. (But I’m sure that would also make for an interesting music video.) They grew from tiny seeds in the fertile soil of London proper in 2005 to become the most popular band in the world headlining shows on tour with Michael Jackson, Prince, Opera, and The Beatles. (oh crap I’ve gotta stop this, here’s my official apology to the Maccabees, “sorry The Maccabees for being super sarcastic and ridiculous on the one day when I happen to be posting your songs. You’re a great band and will go far in life and sell tons of albums and do other things that will make you feel fulfilled”. Damn.)

Anyways, so these guys are good, check ‘em out. Here’s how to get more of this sweet sweet nectar that one might call “The Maccabees”.

The Maccabees vs MySpace

The Maccabees vs their own website

The Maccabees vs Last.fm

The Maccabees vs Twitter

The Maccabees vs Facebook

The Maccabees vs some website on the 10th page of google search results for the keyword “The Maccabees” who’s offering free downloads of their song. I don’t think that’s legal.

Buy Song: A Celebration on iTunes

A few years ago when I was listening to Sigur Ros a lot, maybe in 2005 I found Mar on MySpace somehow and came to really appreciate them. It’s one of the few bands that I know of and recommend that I’ve actually contacted personally, or at least written to someone who worked with the band. This song A Celebration is my favorite song of theirs for sure. Although I appreciated them before this album was released. I think this is their 2nd studio album which was recorded in the US. The 1st being recorded in Iceland with some help from Sigur Ros actually. When I bought their album I could listen to this song on repeat and my imagination would go crazy. Made me feel like I was having a spiritual experience, maybe I was. The music video itself was fairly well produced and makes for good company.

Most of Mar’s songs have a slower and more gentle development and feel than this song, but their music makes for good listening. Although I wouldn’t recommend playing it at a party unless you wanted everyone to either leave or fall asleep. I recommend listening to more of their songs on MySpace, particularly their songs Icarus and Lover.

Here is a list of some useful links I found for Mar.
The band Mar on MySpace
Mar review and free song downloads at Last.fm
A Mar music review on RockandRollReport.com
Record Label for Mar music RingRoadRecords.com
More info on Mar from some weird Encyclopedic website

Buy Song: Nine on iTunes
Buy Album: Give Me a Wall on iTunes

So this is bittersweet. Just when I discover a cool experimental band and start to really dig their stuff, I learn in the same breath that they’ve since disbanded and joined new bands. So the sweet that, “Hey, here’s some cool new songs!”, the bad news is “Hey, what you like this band, well guess what my child, you’ll never get to see them in concert again!”. Ok, well maybe it’s more like bittersweet/sweet, which is like two parts sweet and one part bitter because you COULD still technically see the individual artists through the sounds of other bands, like the Minnaars which the lead singer joined as their producer and Duels which the guitarist joined. Minnaars has a feeling of desperate lyrics and experimental roughness akin to ¡Forward, Russia! but with a slightly more emo/electro/pop vibe.

I think I found ¡Forward, Russia! on Last.fm yesterday. I can’t remember though. Either way, they stuck out to me. Their songs are definitely a bit chaotic in structure but return to very well composed chorus or interlude homebase that gives me the impressions of something really musically successful. Maybe you’ll find your own diamonds in the rough. Here’s another music video of theirs that I think you’d appreciate for their song Nineteen. Although, I recognize the amateur characteristics of the content of the video for the song Nineteen, the song is still effective and the video enjoyable.

¡Forward, Russia!’s first album Give me a Wall has the track Nine on it, and their second and last album Life Processes has a more refined and smoother feel. Take a listen to some of the songs off that album, it’s easy to know which songs are from their 2nd ablum because they all have real names and aren’t just numbers. Here’s one of the called Breaking Standing.

Regarding this song, Nine by ¡Forward, Russia!, if you like the guitar riffs I’d recommend checking out the song Banquet by Bloc Party as I can hear a lot of similarities there. I don’t normally listen to music with raspy screaming vocals but I know there are tons of bands out there with similar sounds. Maybe you could help me out and identify some of those other bands for me since my head’s not recalling any.

Well, if for some reason you don’t like this song you should at least check out the other song of theirs, Nineteen, that I mentioned earlier. For some reason they named their tracks by the numbered order they were written in.

If you wanna learn more about this extinct band check them out on MySpace or on their “we’re an extinct band but we have an official website” website, FORWARDRUSSIA.com.

Share new music with your friends, like ice cream in a cone that melts so fast you couldn’t possibly lick it all by yourself before it drips on you so you have to employ the help of your friends and neighbors, but then some rude guy comes up and takes a huge bite of it and makes everybody else feel like they wish they had a solution for the plight of the commons until the ice cream truck man shows up offering free ice cream to everybody. Yeah, sharing this site is EXACTLY like that!

Needtobreathe is a Christian rock band out of South Carolina that has released three studio albums. This song comes from their latest album The Outsiders which is an all-around amazing album that I would highly recommend purchasing if you like their stuff. Another song of theirs that I’d recommend you check out first is Hurricane which is from the same album. Their music has a very high production quality, which would help to make any band sound better, but whoever it is that’s writing their music knows what he’s doing. Another quality that I commend about them is the inspirational and positive energy that their songs generally produce (perhaps this is typical of the Christian Rock genre). Nothing lifts the spirits more than seeing a bunch of fans singing along to an uplifting through a montage of fan collected videos. I also appreciate any band that shares the love by giving their video to their fans in this way as opposed to keeping all the airtime glory for themselves.

The cover of their album reminds me of the band Kings of Leon too. I think it’s the minimalist provocative abstract image with a black background. Both bands might also appeal to the same audiences and have a large American fan base and the lead singers have extremely similar voices.

One distinct difference between Kings of Leon and Needtobreathe though might be that a lot of Kings of Leon songs sound like they could be used as the anthem for Arizona trailer park residents or studded leather clad cross-country bikers with lyrics talking about unplanned pregnancies meandering into bars and making drunken decisions, where Needtobreathe songs have a sound that appeals more to an individual’s sense of personal happiness, understanding of self, and the importance of humility and retrospect self-reflection. Take a listen to this Kings of Leon song Knocked Up and you might see what I mean.

If you like this music, and appreciate it, why not share the love and send the link to your friends? Maybe you forgot to get the a Birthday present this year, or every other year too, and you haven’t written to them in a while and you’ve been procrastinating but you would really like to be in touch with them again and need some small little encouragement or excuse, and you could say something like, “oh, hey, I was on this new music blog a friend of mine made and I thought of you and thought maybe you’d like it.” Now isn’t that just a swell idea? It’d be like sending them a card, only you don’t have to pay anything and it’s free! Plus it’s the gift that keeps on giving. hahahahahahaha, I love entertaining myself. But seriously folks, what do you have to lose?

This is Owen, signing out. Song of the Day style… Whatever that means. Ok, I should stop writing before I embarrass myself. LOL

To learn more about the band Needtobreathe check them out at MySpace and at their Official Website Needtobreathe.net, which actually looks a lot like a MySpace page coincidentally!

Buy Song: Hey You at iTunes

Here’s another European band for you. From France. I’ve got to thank my friend Marcio for introducing them to me. Thanks Marcio. I like this band. I particularly like their music video for this song. I recommend listening to another song of theirs called Walking on a Line.

Don’t expect them to be touring in the US soon, right now they are on tour, but just in eastern Europe.

Well, I don’t have too much to say about this band though, mostly cuz it’s late and I’ve gotta get off to bed, like the guy in this video. hahahahahahaha

But here’s their MySpace page.

And their Last.fm page.

This is a song about picking yourself up and finding the magic in yourself and in your relationship, which is why I decided to post it, but that’s besides the point. Maria’s originally from Norway and has released 5 studio albums since 2002. Her music is very personal and easy to take in. Especially if you’re a girl who has conversations with her inner voice a lot. Her music can be refreshing at times, and I appreciate it’s uplifting lyrics and positive energy. Her latest album appears to not yet be available in the US, although you can still purchase it for $20 as an import CD from Amazon.

I strongly recommend listening to another song off of this same album called Belly Up on her MySpace page. Although her latest album appears to be hard to purchase right now, you can still buy the Mp3 tracks from her latest album on Amazon. And I’d recommend buying her song “You’re the Only One”, which I’ve added an image link to in this post.

If you want to find out more about her, I’d recommend checking out her Wikipedia page here.

And again, if you like this music and appreciate my Song of the Day blog, please share it with your friends!

Buy this music video: Keep an Open Mind at iTunes
Buy their music at Last.fm

Ok, so this is another thing that’s really funny. This band, which formed in London in 2005 is a little odd. Or rather, they aren’t a well known band, although they had a song that hit 24 in the charts in the UK. They’ve got good music and a pretty good looking MySpace page that works. The two funny things are, their Wikipedia page is marked for deletion because of a potential lack of notability (ouch) and their official band website which is linked to from both Wikipedia and their MySpace page, is an advertising blog that just has a bunch of fake articles about shopping online and e-commerce sales. It’s a bit strange. I’m sure there’s a story behind it, and perhaps it’s not the band’s fault that they have a misfit dyslexic in charge of their marketing. Oh well, it seems they do have somewhat of a fan base, and the one place that seemed to really have their act together and where I found you could actually buy their music is on Last.fm, although on their MySpace page they did say that you can find them on iTunes if you do a search for “Keep an open mind”.

The video is pretty fun, but mostly I just liked their song and wanted to share it. Ta da!!! If you enjoy Song of the Day and read all the way to the end of this post, thank you! Please help share the music by sending the link http://www.SongoftheDay.co with your friends, or clicking the “Add This” links near the top right of the blog.