Song of the Day

Posts Tagged ‘beards’

Despite the lack of explicit publicity and direct expositionary language from the creators of this video, there is a lot still communicated through the song and video, several other music videos with similar themes were released on the same YouTube channel for “iamamiwhoami”. The artist in the video undoubtedly is Jonna Lee a Swedish singersongwriter. The YouTube phenomenon saw this video “y” release after others entitled b, o, u-1, u-2, n, t; all spelling “bounty”. There are some additional anonymous and mysterious things surrounding the project, which can be read on the Last.fm description, including the anonymous acceptance of the Swedish Grammy Award for “Innovator of the Year” in 2011.

There are several aspects to the creation that is this music video, the meaning of the lyrics in the context of the music video, the music video itself and what it portrays, and the greater relationship of this music video to the others released by this artist and what it means for us as music fans, listeners, and lovers of art and things of beauty.

First to summarize everything, to save you from reading everything I write, below, let me say that I love this song, on many different levels and that all are due their own respect. The music video portrays an abstract fantasy world without very much explained, however, my best interpretation is that the artist is an individual who has become aware of the truths of our world, the lesser known or fully understood horrors of our world that humanity has reaped over the years and still today against the natural environment on which we all depend and also upon each other. However, there is hope, not great hope, but still chance for us to find salvation and to heal the damage that has been done to us.

The knight represents the ignorant systems of our world carelessly fulfilling a mission of violence upon a misunderstood enemy, ourselves and our world for short term gains and pride. While the king represents a humbled and destroyed earth that has suffered greatly and whose kingdom is near its end. The impaling of the knight is a just revenge from nature executed by some unknown force. The tone of the video is somber, and the lack of exposition or (explanatory language) forces us to try to make sense of it. Maybe the average person might not know what any of this might mean and that’s why I’m writing about it.

I will write more about the other aspects of the video later. Feel free to write your own interpretations in the comments below. And please share this Song of the Day blog with others.

The latest video that they released is entitled “;john“, watch it below.

HELLO VEGAS – No One Knows by hellovegas

Hello Vegas is actually from Los Angeles, under their own Treehouse Vibrations Group record label. The four man group consisting of Adam Reiter, Jason Pavilanis, Jesse Gurtis, and Zach Davis recently released their latest song “No One Knows” for free download.

Their music is a free living LA indie rock blend of clean rising guitar riffs and wind swept vocals. Their tracks sound like a live show on a grassy hill on a sunny west coast evening. The melodic sweeps and soft vocal interludes feels a bit like the Inspiration of Christian Rock mixed with the smooth easiness of classic soft rock, however, they are far from a Christian band (which makes me wonder what it would mean to be the farthest possible thing from a Christian band… imagination gears turning). The band keeps a fresh profile and I’m sure would love to connect with you on their Twitter on Facebook page which serves as their official site. For a kick you’ve gotta check out their concert posters and band images on their MySpace page. These guys have a great sense of humor. And just because they sent it to me, here’s their band photo, featuring several tenacious neck beards.

This playful tune comes from a band that got its humble start in the form of a mix tape for a girl. The band, Throw Me A Statue grew from 2005-2007 on a local Seattle DIY record label Baskerville Hill with a friendly local following of friends attending shows which grew and started getting press. In 2007 the group got picked up by another record label out of Indiana Secretly Canadian and re-released their album in February of 2008 which has led to good reviews and an international tour.

I’ll just copy the rest of their story directly from the space age font on their Official Throw Me The Statue bio page.

In the beginning of 2009 the band began work on the follow-up LP and headed into the studio for the first time. With Phil Ek (The Shins, Built to Spill, Band of Horses) on board as co-producer, the group consisting of Reitherman, Aaron Goldman, Charlie Smith and Jarred Grimes sought to enlarge the scope of TMTS’ lo-fi bedroom pop. The resulting full length record entitled Creaturesque will be released in the US and Europe by Secretly Canadian on August 4th, and soon thereafter in Aus/NZ by PopFrenzy and in Japan by MerryGate Records.

After reading the lyrics for this song and watching the music video a few times I feel like I just had a fruit wonderful smoothie rich in love-sick adolescent hormones and high-school memories, it’s healthy for the body but the sugar high leaves my thoughts a little fuzzy. I can’t quite put my finger on a proper clinical analysis of the whole affair but I found a line here in my notes that seems to sum it all up, “I love this song, stop thinking, just enjoy it”. I guess when you’ve got a Lolita on your brain there’s not much thinking required.

Maybe I should just call them Quinn. A Band Called Quinn is from Glasgow Scotland and probably uses the moniker “A Band Called Quinn” instead of just going by “Quinn” so that people don’t mistake them for something else. They’ve already made huge waves in the UK and have had their music featured in several shows and have already amassed some encouraging accolades.

Be sure to also listen to their songs DIY and The Glimmer Song, more of their songs can be found on the A Band Called Quinn MySpace Page and on Facebook.

I enjoy this song and really appreciate the beginning and end of it, but somewhere in the middle I just get distracted by the confusing cuts between the nurse standing over an injured guy on a bed and the drunken vampwolf stumbling through the woods. I appreciate the musical-like interludes in the song and the bohemian feel it all has to me. Watching this video is a little like watching a scene from the TV series True Blood in which the supernatural is just a normal everyday part of the lives of the characters and having to give up your own body parts. Sacrificing yourself literally to the stomach of your partner in a melancholy and tragic way brings me chills, it’s kind of sweet and super morbid, but that’s why I love it.

James Delay ‘Howl’ on Vimeo.

James Delay is an emerging electronic music artist out of London England whose debut on Russell Club Records is most likely making steady electronic pulses through the digital ether as we speak. His music is calm calculated and powerful like an unconscious force moving the energy of the world across the grid lines of our cities. The music builds and creeps, like a slow rising tide or stream of clouds rolling by, influencing your perception whether you realize it or not. It’s like a new emergent property, slowly assembling itself out of the bits and pieces of our electronic world, coming together, forming something new and powerful. And deep inside the heart of the machine there’s something very smart and very aware that knows exactly what it’s doing.

Check out the full description of this music video on Vimeo.

Read the RUSSEL CLUB RECORDS bio on James Delay too.

James is also working with Jamie Blanco in a project/group called Figures, listen to & watch the music video to their new song Velo, hot off the press!

And don’t let the music stop with you, pay if forward to your friends. Just click the social links below or in the upper right corner of this webpage.

This is what I’m talking about! Rich, deep, subtle but strong, creates memories as it moves through you, and makes you shutter as it leaps. And if that’s just how I feel about my coffee in the mornings, imagine how I feel about this song! Kudos to Freelance Whales for their excellent new single and for all their hard work playing in subways, or at least posing for photos with all their stuff in subways. Also, much love for any band that openly gives away some of their best songs for free, like Freelance Whales are!

So I encourage you to go take advantage and go to their page at Green Label Sound. I believe they’re giving away this track and another one for free! BONKERS!!!! What more can I say? They’re from Queens, New York… you can sample more of their stuff on their Last.fm page…. I’d love to see them live. Yep, that’s it for now.

OH that folky indie heart-felt sound!

Not much info on this band, but they are touring right now! Listen to more of their music, check tour dates, see their videos, and buy their albums at The Cave Singers official website.

Let me be your everlasting light. I know everyone’s heard of the Black Keys and maybe you wouldn’t put them in an indie category, but I don’t care, this is my music blog bitches! hahahahahaha

I actually didn’t really like their sound until I heard this song, now I like this song and they have my respect, what’s your favorite Black Keys song? Or don’t you got one?

From his 2006 album Goodnight William Fitzsimmons captures your ears and heart at the same time with this gentle humble and emotionally drawing songs. His songs well made lullabys remind me of the Weepys and Greg Laswell but he creates a softer more personal and intimate tone that seems to sit next to you and speak with you as if it were the actual voice in your head at the loneliest of times.

I’ve been trying to find this song online for years now and have finally by some stroke of luck found this song tonight. I’ve really been searching all over the place for it and I’m so glad I’ve rediscovered him and his music now. Hurray for keeping track of good artists, this song has been a long time coming!

If you have an artist that you want other people to discover, please don’t hesitate to share them with me and if I like it I’ll post it on my Song of the Day blog here. They don’t have to be an indie artist, but the idea is to share music that most people probably wouldn’t find out about by listening to the radio or watching TV.

You wouldn’t believe what I did to get this song. It wasn’t easy, I had to go to Tudou.com which is in Chinese, what a mess! Leave it to the Chinese to allow me to get a good audio file for sharing. What’s up US? Where’s the artistic beef?!

Well here’s this song, I was thinking of posting a live in (radio station) studio version of this track but the audio just wasn’t so good. I prefer production quality, there’s a reason for studios, they make better sound! And I even heard that using all battery powered equipment off the power grid is even clearer because there’s no distortion from slight jumps in power that you get when you plug equipment into the wall. I got that tip from Jack Johnson’s music label Brushfire Records.

Anyway, here’s the band and this song, ENJOY!!!!