Syrup hold the Pancakes

This week we will cover the scoring of music I implore you to listen to this song before reading anything I have to say.

This song is exactly as it sounds, a beautiful piece of artwork made intentionally with a cinematic indie feel in mind. Milo Greene has most of their songs from their album Milo Greene scored to TV shows or films, that isn’t to say they aren’t great without the later developed visual stimulus, that just speaks to their versatility. This song as ambiguous as it is has a sound not seen in any specific style of music that is vaguely specific, suburbia. Many of their songs have that isolated high schooler trapped in a dead-end town feel but this one in particular resonates amazingly with that idea.  This song played into it so well that the song was graft to Suburgatory (it’s a play on suburbia and purgatory, cleaver I know) a show about a moved family from the city living in suburbia, and plot twist the daughter doesn’t like it. (who would have guessed?) The main idea of this song is the general applicability to many situations and the chorus driven breathy faded feel suits many angles, one of the key aspects of creating music that is score able.

This art form of precise ambiguity, distance yet relevance, is tremendously important in cinematic moments, you don’t want music that makes the seen any less memorable. You want the music to help convey feelings. Perfectly Aligned is a great example of beautiful ambiguity. Having been used in two completely different situations, one being the trailer for the movie, Big Eyes the other being the show Nikita, it shows people that the listener’s experiences leading up to the song is what shapes their interpretation of the moment and that the song isn’t over powering. That it can be used in an action show or a documentary about artwork is a tremendous power, the power of interpretation.

I know that almost any song can be used to be set to a scene, but not any song can be used to multiple different scenes, a song like thunderstruck, by ACDC is type casted to action roles and won’t see play outside of that, and zombie skin has the exclusive roll of being used by people walking out of hot topic. This this type casting of music only starts to happen when these songs bring in too much personality, or are too lyric driven and remove focus if they visual stimulus doesn’t match.

If you have herd this song once you have heard it 100 times, this amazing song is defiantly top 10 for drunken karaoke favorites and captures something about me as a person in its remarkably short, 9 lines of non-chorus lyrics. Before you go “hey you know this song is written about a hooker” I’m going to say this song is, above all else, about love, no matter where it comes from, or who it’s from love is love.

               This tremendously simple song manages to captivate its listeners with a short chorus driven story. This bombastic tango rock song sports a bit where Sting sits on the piano, the band laughs and then starts, it oddly only has 8 lines of lyrics that are not repeated and yet still gets across Sting’s (lead singer of the police and writer of the song) position in this love escapade. This song makes stings position of unrequited love clear in the second verse of “lyrics” (bellow) where he claims

“I loved you since I knew ya I wouldn't talk down to ya I have to tell you just how I feel I won't share you with another boy I know my mind is made up so put away your make-up I told you once I won't tell you again it's a bad way”

This claim of love at first sight and knowing what’s best for them is something that is generalized across all relationships but his demanding nature in the second to last line is something that shows the immatureness of his make “relationship”. Either way this Stings relationship aside this song is easily one of the most memorable police songs out there, sting at one point said “When we got to Roxanne, we were a bit embarrassed because the song was a bit of an anachronism, because compared with our usual material it was slow, quiet and melodic.” this is by no means saying bad, it was an unusual movement in their sound and changing something as iconic as sound of the whole band is big step. Roxanne was a step towards this sound, and in all likelihood it was cause of Roxanne that they changed their sound so much, moving from their earlier songs like Fall Out to Message in a Bottle.

Roxanne sold and a lot of die hard fans of the police may dislike the song cause it changed their music and made them seem like sellouts, following the style of music that made them money, but in actuality if they stayed the same and stagnated they probably would have died out and have been some indie band that never broke the top 40, they made a decision that all bands had to make somewhere along their path, the decision to change their direction and they picked the best heading and no one can legitimately criticize them for it.

The song “For What’s It’s Worth” was written by Stephen Stills and it was performed by Buffalo Springfield, was inspired by rioting and civil right infringement. This song has become tremendously well known for its advocating of protesting. Its lyrics has no explicit insinuation rioting; however, based events that were happening at the time it can be interpreted as a battle cry for mutual understanding on difficult social issues. At the time a 10 pm curfew and loitering laws were put in effect to stop youth from pursuing active night lives. This was clearly seen as an infringement of rights by the youths and as a result there was active protesting at Pandora’s Box, a local club, where around 1000 protesters took their stand.

This is the first verse, “There's something happening here, But what it is ain't exactly clear, There's a man with a gun over there, Telling me I got to beware” The lyrics don’t directly state that that this is about protest, when he mentions “there’s something is happening here” he is talking about how the elders and community leaders joined together to isolate the young population and manipulate the laws in their favor.  Then the song mentions, “There's a man with a gun over there, Telling me I got to beware” this statement doesn’t have any direct inference to police officers maintaining order at the expense of the civil rights of young activist, but that is how it has been interpreted, and that is not out of place. I never interpreted this as the intention of the song on my first time listening to this I thought that the singer was talking about being mugged, only after reading about the current events happening in the area and time this song was being written in that I was able to see what it was about.

Lyrics Here

The distance features of this song are the psychedelic guitar sound in the background it almost sounds like a Drop into a half filled electric bucket resonating whenever a ripple hits the side. This sound is only complemented by the deeper strumming of another guitar. I have found myself questioning the ambiguousness was it to be more relatable by allowing people to interpret it differently like some sort of Rorschach, or if his intentions were to have it be applicable to all events of revolution and protest. Either way this song has ended up as the latter, becoming an anthem of protest and being held down by a system built against you, and being oppressed.

              Snazzy snare drums layered with resonating robust claps, Sexual Healing, was and, is one of the best Motown songs to ever be released. This funky 1980’s throwback is the soulful manifestation of a man at his lowest point struggling to make a comeback. Marvin Gaye was in a tight financial situation and struggling to fight his cocaine addiction and coping with his recent divorce was very depressed but he was able to channel his desperation into a song and this propelled his great musical talents to the next level.

               This song’s most memorable characteristic is most definitely its first chorus. Referenced in numerous places, including one of my favorite movies Chef, the opening immediately grabs attention of its listeners as soon as they hear “Ooh baby, I'm hot just like an oven” like a soulful eruption of pent up feeling, this explosion of almost dwarfs the rest of the song and to some degree it does make the rest feel mundane.

               Before he even starts there is a groovy boogie beat already laid down thanks to the use of a drum machine which made this otherwise impossible intro very manageable, running the perfect synchrony between the timing of the primary drum instrumentals, the constant timed claps, interjecting harmonious distortions at the precise moments. The drum machine although rarely heard consistently is there making its presence known, stressing certain lines deliberately, this complex instrumental intensive song was woven skillfully around the lyrics leaving not a moment for distraction.

               The lyrics, outside of the chorus, constantly develop and are consistently different, that being said they have they have that sellable quality of seeming repetitive without being obnoxious by saying the same thing in different ways. This is primary due to the swerve distortions and guitar playing stressing the sound of certain lines, almost instrumentally drawing parallels through the twang of the string plucking. This can be observed when looking at the lyrics:

“Whenever blue teardrops are fallin' And my emotional stability is leaving me There is something I can do I can get on the telephone and call you up baby And honey I know you'll be there to relieve me The love you give to me will free me If you don't know the thing you're dealing Ohh I can tell you, darling, that it's sexual healing”

               This instrumental presence of the guitar nearly dies out as the lyrics approach the chorus only to be resuscitated to bring to life to the next divergent lyric section.

               This song, easily one of his best hits, commands attention and its bangin’ rhythm easily forces the most intolerant funk haters to give it a listen over. To anyone who claims to have a strong disinclination I challenge you to cry out its seductive lyrics for a verse or two.

Shout out for all the world to hear,

“Ooh baby, I'm hot just like an oven I need some lovin' And baby, I can't hold it much longer It's getting stronger and stronger”

This week we are taking a look at some songs that capture some unique experiences. You know that feeling you get when you hear something you never knew was a thing and not only do you like it but it changes your mood somehow, and it tickles some area of the mind that you were not fully aware even existed? For me that’s these songs and whenever I hear a song that gives me that same feeling I add it to a playlist titled feeling provoking, these are some of my new favorites.

“Merry Go Round of Life” feels like strolling down a long cobble path through old village as the sunsets, as the violin picks up with the tempo it transforms from a stroll to ballroom dance down the streets of dying festival. Just as the tempo begins to slow and violin strokes grow longer it picks up for a brief second painting new life into the song, and allowing it to begin again granting a rebirth. This new founded pace is held rather well like a second chance not being wasted the song its rather consistent in tempo till the end where it suddenly like a roller-coaster dies out with one last swoop. This is a beautiful enchanting picture (at least for me) and because of that I find this song absolutely enchanting, perhaps it’s the nostalgia of a long lost child hood but I could listen to this song straight for weeks.  

 “Dawn” by Sublime is remarkably ambiguous and I love it, I can’t seem to relate it to anything I’ve experienced. (probably why I love it so much) the song gently opens with a sound that is almost wooden chimes rustling against each other this kinda instills an earthy feel throughout the rest of the song. The unique opening fades and doesn’t reappear in the song but its impact is felt, the rest of the song is the same vocals in a loop till the end with slight differentiation in background tempo and chorus pitch.   

 I just heard “Breathe me” by Sia two months ago, maybe I will lose my taste for it but at the moment I really appreciate this song. I have a nasty habit of being an unnaturally happy tempered person and because of that I never really get to feel the full range of human emotion. This song for me fills that gap.  The deep audible breath in right after the piano playing gives this song a very implicit human feeling, sometimes we forget that good music is done by soulful artist meant to take you on a journey. When I listen to the melodic voice of Sia I’m nothing less than captivated and moved.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover”, that is exactly what I did after hearing the first two seconds of Chemical Kids And Mechanical Brides . I listened to the intro of the song I had been introduced to by a peer and half expected it to be an Indian ethic song that was the farthest from the truth I could have guessed.  After the first 5 seconds I heard a guitar and I knew I was safe from the treat of being well cultured. That intro although unwonted was rather telling of the direction Peirce the Veil veered in this song. They had unusual religious feel, with the bellowing voices after sound leaving a trail of sound behind it. This song wasn’t nearly as culturally shocking as I thought (I’m pretty sheltered though) it featured screaming chorus that complemented the lead singer, as soon as it began to take attention it cut out, this song had a very reminiscent feel similar to Julian Casablancas “human sadness” this song’s ability to lure me in and surprise me with something I didn’t know I needed is easily enough to earn it a spot.

This last one isn’t a pity placement I promise, the song is worthy of merit on its own, however it this song would have never caught the attention it did without its amazing AMV (anime music video) the songs fast pace, at times nearly random tempo synced perfectly with scene changes has earned it a in the playlist, perhaps not entirely for all the right reasons but it gets my heart pumping and from the perspective of some kid sitting in a room with headphones on staring at a screen to do that is all it takes.

Here I walk down the streets of New Brunswick I’ve never been to any basement shows before and I’m not sure what to expect. When I arrive at the house it seems completely inconspicuous I would never have known that there was anything happening here. Knowing from my own parting endeavors to check the drive way I walk up it to find a couple kids taking fives at the door. As I walk down the stairs to the basement I’m greeted by my friend who set up this marathon of bands, the basement smells of beer soaked stone, and the wood support beams of the upstairs had a mixture of luminescent orange Halloween/white Christmas lights, gently twinkling this beautiful set up was kind of ruined by the occasional black lights scattered across the ceiling offering unusual contrast in certain parts of the basement.  As I walk to the front of the basement I notice that the band is still setting up, ironically the drummer had his full drum setup assembled before the rest had even come remotely close to finishing. The lead singer/bassist had been fooling around I’m assuming cause he was done as I watched them finish their setup he came up to me to ask what color his bass was it looked like dark maroon but to my surprise it was jet black and merely been distorted by the black lights, he continued running around telling jokes and such.

Their practicing picked up pace the guitarist finished setting his pedals the spontaneous screaming from the bassist stopped, and then they all just walked out. They came back five minutes later (I’m assuming they went bathroom).  Right before the band stared the guitarist took one last long pull from his vaporizer (he wasn’t the only one who vaped in the basement) and exhaled I could tell they were about to start.as I can smell the smoke in the basement it was like Crisp cinders scattered into the wind it reminded me of my scouting days, suddenly the vocalist shouted “we are Arkways, this will be our last show for a while cause our drummer (Kevin Castro) is having surgery next week, so I hope you enjoy it”

Their music was wonderful they had this light metal rock feel that felt just right, I’ve never been a big 2000s rock fan but their music ended up being an exception, they had amazing instrumentals with amazing timing, it was very clear that they were well practiced, to the point that the singer need a drink of water in their song marathon and the other musicians instinctively slowed down he grabbed a water bottle had a sip and as soon as he put it down it immediately picked back up all that without a word signaling that he needed to stop to the others. My only qualm with their performance was that the lyrics for their songs weren’t very audible (I could only tell that they were happening).  This could be due to the bassist getting to into his playing to focus on lyrics but that would likely be false I think it’s much more likely that it was due to the mic volume not being adjusted to the proper volume.

https://youtu.be/Hh2V0dmfu08

(this is the audio from my experience, the band said it was cool to record)

The music felt like an inspiring journey the band really got into the playing, they were clearly enjoying the song, the singer/bassist was bouncing off the walls like rubber balls thrown into a tiny box, ricocheting from one side of the room to the other.  towards the end of their performance one guy started trying to dance which was interesting and more power to you dude but in the process knocked into 3 people spilling many drinks, and just as the band was closing I notice the pedaling stopped in their song, the drummer was still playing but standing the song stopped and all of the sudden the guitarist runs over and starts bashing in the drum set. Finishing he leaves the guitar in the drum and takes a drink.  And hugs the band, the crowd started applauding this act, I stayed to hear the others but after the third band after them got up I knew I wasn’t going to get any experience that would match the first performance and I headed back home.

The music was amazing I couldn't find anywhere to buy the songs but if I could I would, which is a statement cause I never buy music(I use Pandora).

Have you ever heard a song and wondered how the band ever became famous or where their humble beginnings came from? This week we are going to dig into Led Zeppelin’s first album to see why their start up into the hall of rock and roll fame succeeded and what set them apart.

Led zeppelin 1(their first album) one of the most underrated yet revolutionary albums of its time. Its initial debut released a double sided cassette sporting 4 songs on the front: “Good Times Bad Times”, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”, “You Shook Me” and “Dazed and Confused”. The back side of the cassette carried 5 songs: “Your Time is Gonna Come”, “Black Mountain Side”, “communication Breakdown”, “I Can’t Quit You Baby” and “How Many More Times”.

The album was received remarkably poorly by many critics 

(review here)

Brief history

Led Zeppelin 1 was done in nine days with 36 studio hours. (this is really fast) This was a remarkably small amount of hours and that is largely due to how well rehearsed the band was, having just done a tour prior. Led Zeppelin had amazing music but above all else they were performers. Peter Grant (manager) decided to pay for the album out of pocket, paying £1,782 to prevent any recording studio tampering that would mess with the pure Led Zeppelin sound (a lot with inflation). Led Zeppelin 1 was revolutionary with its psychedelic-blues feel that was one of the first to be captured with surround audio in mind (un like other albums this one only offered surround no mono option) Page had set up multiple mics in their recording studio to give a surreal ambiance vibe of physically being in the room.(this wasn’t common as you can compare between the two bellow videos)

bob dylan mono

led zeppelin surround

My favorite

My favorite song on the album is “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”, has an amazing intro where Page plays a light riff that continues to progress throughout the song giving it allot of life. This progressive riff captures the listeners’ attention with its gentle rocking back and forth and maintains the focus as the song development till the half way point where it drops off and the focus shifts to the lyrics and stays there even after the riff begins again. The drum beats are formatted in such a way that it doesn’t divert attention or distract from song but is there as a backup beat complementing the guitar when the tempo picks up. I love that the guitar sets pace during the beginning half of the song instead of the traditional subtle metronome like drumbeats in the background

This song is based on Anne Bredon’s rendition. One of the most characteristic things about their version is that there are recording bleeds around the line “Oh, I can hear it callin 'me” where the vocals from another track can be heard as moans this was unintentional at the time but it seemed to add to the song so it was left in.

(closest thing to her version I could find)

Why is this even good?

The most famous song on this album would be “Good Times Bad Times” known for its heavy sounding instrumentals, and kick ass guitar solos appearing in short bursts throughout the song. The lyrics tell a story of love lost and coming to age which isn’t uncommon in blues rock but the distinctiveness of its sound set it apart from all else at the time.

               This song was revolutionary to the psychedelic blues rock movement for three focal reasons. The first being that “Good Times Bad Times” had Page’s guitar being amplified by a Leslie speaker so the sound sounded as if it was swirling and gave it a psychedelic and heavy sound.

The second reason this song was amazing was that Bonham, by mistake, ended up playing what was previously done on a double bass drum on a single one, he heard Vanilla Fudge play a riff that he wanted to replicate and thought that Vanilla Fudge only used a single one, so that’s what he did only to find out later that he haven’t used a single but a double, but in the process he proved that he could do it with only one and that added another uncommon aspect of sound to the song not seen in any others at the time.  

The third and last is the sheer chord progression for sake of song the base had a very intricate sound throughout the song, one of my favorite examples is mid song around the 55 second marker there is a base progression that sounds almost as if there was a cello player there plucking the chords to make low notes.

This album was amazing to listen to and I only wish I could have seen their legendary performing skills back in their prime, to watch page play a 10 string double neck guitar must have been a near overwhelming site to see, and the album will never do justice to that.

Although these were just a couple of songs that were focused on keep in mind that led zeppelin's manager refused to release singles so if you appreciated a single song on the album you ended up buying the whole thing.

               I, like many people stopped listening to Kanye shortly after I learned anything about his personality. That isn’t to say his music wasn’t okay but it wasn’t worth wading through his personality to try to enjoy anything he had to say. I recently through an extremely short, unimportant to this story, stream of events heard one of his songs black skinhead. I don’t know why I never heard of it, perhaps I was on a classic rock binge when it was being aired but either way it was remarkably bearable and no more ridiculous than most other trending hip hop songs. Unlike most others it caught my attention and held it and before I knew it I was actually enjoying it.  

****music video here**** 

               This song starts strong this unusual revving of this bass motorcycle sounding reverberation hastily winding up only to slow down leading into heavy drum beats, this was captivating and could be an amazing intro to any number of songs at this point. I already was interested just from hearing the first 3 seconds of this unwonted Kanye song. Then came this yodel screaming chorus before you even hear the artist (referring to Kanye) this captivating intro was an amazing play on his part it was fast paced yet climax building leading to this drop that so happened to be Kanye. This drop seemed to never end, I kept thinking when is he going to let up, all drops stop sooner or later but the pace of the rhythm and minimal repetition kept this song going at an amazing pace.

               These chorus first intros are great they grab attention without telling you too much about the song. I had knowledge of the artist before I heard the song but should I have been tuning through channels of the radio, and stumbled across this I would give it a solid chance even if I hated Kanye. Many people have preconceived notions about Kanye and his music and consciously knowing who made this song will easily limit people from hearing this piece, but this intro dissipates some of that widening his listener basis. As an avid chess player this strategic move on Kanye’s part is like an aggressive castling forcing your opponent to choose between losing a pawn or aback bishop. He loses noting by making this approach and in the worst case scenario someone who doesn’t like him listens to his music by accident and changes stations and in a better case scenario he converts a hater over into a fanboy.

The lyrics are not anything remarkable compared to Kanye’s slightly earlier songs like “I am a God” which was a much more controversial song with much more media attention. None the less he still throws around his biblical reference of god all loosey goosey like a man without one. However, the constant bombardment of the rhythm and drum beat along with an amazing intro are really what solidified this songs holding and captured my attention as a listener. He could virtually say anything at this point in the song it was too late to stop listening for me. This song is the manifestation of ordinary rap style paired with an amazing producer (which just so happened to also be the rapper).

****lyrics bellow****

http://genius.com/Kanye-west-i-am-a-god-lyrics

http://genius.com/Kanye-west-black-skinhead-lyrics