Brand New – Deja Entendu

This album is my favorite album by Brand New, and I already miss the days where they play their shows with these songs.  This album never gets old, Brand New’s unique style of california punk and whatever they’re turning it into fits together absolutely amazingly in this record.  Every song is beautiful and this album will always remain a classic.  Brand New is still making music (just came out with a new album a few months ago, really good but not better)

The Velvet Underground & Nico

This was the Velvet Underground’s debut album with Nico, and it’s one of my favorite albums of all time.  The velvet underground was such an amazing band, and especially for when they were around.  This will always be a masterpiece.  From Sunday Morning to Heroin, every song is completely awesome and you need to have this in your collection.  If you like this album, I’d also recommend Lou Reed’s “Transformer”.

Underoath – Acts of Depression

This (and Cries of the past) is the only metal music I listen to.  This is Underoath’s music before any of their CDs and before any of their popularity amongst 14 year old girls all across the nation.  This album is just straight raw hardcore music with songs up to 10 minutes long.  I don’t know anyone else that enjoyed this album like I do, but it’s a classic and I think no matter how distant I am normally to any other metal music, this one will stay in my collection.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik

This album is definitely in my top 3 favorite albums ever (and probably with another John Frusciante album).  I’ve been a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers before I was even really into music, and if anything i only love their music more.  This is my favorite of their albums, it is a great fusion of funk and rock, they did it like nobody else.  The only song I dislike by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Give it Away) is, however, on this album…but my favorite song of all time (I Could Have Lied) is on here as well.

Massive Attack – Heligoland

This album just came out yesterday (I believe) and I can’t stop listening to it.  Every song on this album is fantastic and I think it’s a great idea for you to go check it out right now.  Massive Attack does collaborations with many artists and the album as a whole turned out amazing.

Previous:  Part I – Part II

I’ve had a Twitter account for a couple years, going through use phases, and I’ve noticed a few things.  The first is that simplicity is the reason it’s so big, short status updates and following artists or friends is extremely easy.  Twitter is the social online version of texting, where you can reach any friend, band, professional athlete, or actor with an account.  I’ve also noticed that I get a lot of spam followers, and not just spam businesses but random local businesses from Grand Rapids (where I’m originally from) and Minneapolis (current town).  I’ve noticed that while a lot of people have Twitter accounts, people are more interested and devote more time to Facebook, and I doubt the benefit of my Twitter account after 2 years.

I’m sure almost everyone has used Youtube at some point or another, but I bet most of you havn’t signed up for an account.  I never had until just recently, and it’s because it’s easy to sign up, and I like to keep track of certain people’s videos.  I’m currently going to a school for production and recording, and I’ve found a few people’s youtube pages that have a lot of good tutorials on software and gear reviews and whatnot.  So if you’re not surfing for kittens playing with string or Obama/T-Pain’s auto-tune song, there’s tutorials on just about anything you want to do, and having an account is a good and easy way to keep track of these.  This link, and the next 3, may not be interesting right now but I’ll be updating them shortly with more information and use.

I’ve never used Vimeo before today, but while Youtube is the most used video site (#2 most searched online right after google), I like Vimeo much more.  As far as functionality, there’s not much disscernable difference between Vimeo and Youtube, but Vimeo is easier on the eyes and has customizable embedded videos, and there is also no time restriction.  This means you can upload any video that your camera can get onto Vimeo, while Youtube has a limit of 10 minutes.

I just signed up for a Flickr account last week to see if I liked it (more than Photobucket, which I’ve used since my girlfriend freshman year in high school made me get a Xanga).  I like Flickr so many more ways more than Photobucket, although for strictly just uploading pictures for the links to embed, I think photobucket is easier.  Flickr has many very talented users that I’ve seen that have really nice pictures or artwork, and I never know when I’m going to need a picture for later use.  Flickr has a nice interface, and better than Photobucket or other similar online photo places, the social interaction between users is better executed.  It’s very easy to find someone you like and to add them as a contact.

John Frusciante – Niandra Lades & Usually Just A T-Shirt

This is probably my favorite album of all time.  John Frusciante (recently left the Red Hot Chili Peppers) is one of the most talented artists of all time and has a large collection of solo albums that are completely amazing (I’ll be putting another one of his albums in a later post).  This album may be hard to listen to for some, since it was in his drug addiction life phase and it shows in his music, but I think that just adds to the raw emotion of the album.

Grieves – 88 Keys and Counting

Grieves does some Neo-Soul/Hip-Hop type music that nobody else can even relate to.  The production on this album (With help from Budo) is absolutely awesome and every track is nothing to complain about.  This is his second album (the first is also really good) and you can tell that he put a lot of work into it.  The instrumental and vocal melodies are original and just straight amazing.

Yppah – You Are Beautiful at All Times

I don’t know a whole lot about this band, but I discovered this album about a half a year ago (released in 2006) and still listen to it on a regular basis.  It’s all instrumental, and completely insanely good.

Living Legends – Classic

Living Legends = LuckyiAm, Murs, Sunspot Jonz, Scarab, Eligh, The Grouch, Bicasso, and Aesop.  What the hell is not to like?  It’s an underground rap super group.  The living legends, from what I know, don’t do much together anymore besides play a show or two a year, but they still have a decent size discography with amazing music, this album being my favorite.

Cake – Comfort Eagle

Cake is so good, one of my favorite alternative rock groups.  This is my favorite out of all of their great albums, if you havn’t listened to it (which you should), chances are you’ve still heard at least a song or two from it.  Amazing record.

Part III coming soon!!!

Previous: Part I

The Octopus Project with Black Moth Super Rainbow – The House Of Apples & Eyeballs

Black Moth Super Rainbow, and Tobacco (the solo project of the master mind Tom Fec, who made the music for BMSR) are musically nowhere near anyone else.  This is my favorite album which was collaberated with The Octopus Project.  I find that it’s near impossible to try and classify his music into a genre, or even 3 genres for that matter.  If you enjoy this album, I highly reccomend the 4 Black Moth Super Rainbow albums and Tobacco’s 2, there’s not one of those albums that isn’t amazing.

Gorillaz – Gorillaz

Gorillaz is one of the freshest and original bands ever.  I’ve found that most people have at least heard of the Gorillaz songs Feel Good Inc. and Clint Eastwood, but don’t know anything else about this band’s work.  Well, every album this band has come out with has been amazing (including their D and G side CDs).  I didn’t want to put up two albums for any of these artists for this post, but if I did, you can be sure that Demon Days (Produced by Danger Mouse) would be right up here with this one.  This album (and Demon Days) are a couple of my favorite albums that any artist has ever made.

Jurassic 5 – Power In Numbers

Jurassic 5 was around for a while, until their break up in 2007, and they always had the dopest grooves and had 5 vocalists that fit together perfectly to make one of the freshest and most original alternative hip-hop groups ever.  This album was realeased in 2002 and I still listen to it on a regular basis, fantastic album.

Danger Doom – The Mouse and the Mask

Another one of the best hip-hop albums to ever come out is the only album from the masked villain Doom and one of the best producers around today, Danger Mouse (who also produced the Gorillaz album Demon Days which I mentioned earlier).  This album not only features some Adult Swim characters (Shake, Meatwad, Carl, Space Ghost, Brak, Zorak…) but also has some of the most original and insanely awesome tracks from Danger Mouse.

Yann Tiersen – Goodbye Lenin

Yann Tiersen makes some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard in my entire life.  This album was created as a sountrack for a movie I’ve never seen, and probably isn’t even in English, but this instrumental music is insanely beautiful.  If I was to choose someone to produce music for the soundtrack of my life, I’d go with this guy.

Part II comes tomorrow with another 5 albums!

iTablet

Since Apple didn’t go with the name iTablet, this UK company called first dibs.  They seem to think that Apple’s iPad isn’t any more special than this iTablet, which runs Windows 7/Linux.  It’s screen sizes will be between 10 and 11 inches, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, up to 250GB hard drive capacity, built-in stereo speakers, three USB ports, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI output, a 1.3-megapixel webcam and 3G connectivity.  Honestly I’d much rather be with this thing than the iPad, I think for me the operating system is the dealbreaker.

JooJoo

Reports show that JooJoo’s hardware features a 12.1-inch capacitive touchscreen with a 1366 x 768 resolution, 4GB SSD, USB 2.0, audio/headphone jacks and Bluetooth.  JooJoo’s operating system is a custom build by Fusion Garage, capable of web browsing, web services and apps that add functionality to JooJoo’s core offering.  The Joojoo is very slim and has the option to switch between portrait and landscape views.

HP Slate

Expectations for the HP Slate are not too high, after it was announced.  It has Windows 7 but was related more to a color kindle than a super deluxe tablet.  Still in the making (no tech. specs yet)

MSI Tablet

This Tablet has been announced that it will be “around $500″.  This tablet is running Android type software and features multi-tasking, which is something the iPad desperately needs.  Not much more info has been released.

I think it’s safe to say that at least 95% of my music library is dominated by dudes, so I made a list of a few great female vocalists that you should know about, and this isn’t the type of music that is sold because the chick is hot (mostly), but because the music is genuinly good.  I’ve posted a song for each artist that I really enjoy.  [Artists in alphabetical order]

Amy Winehouse

I’ll be honest, I didn’t give her 1 second of my life after her crappy “Rehab” song was everywhere for a couple months.  It wasn’t until we listened to a song of hers in an audio production class at my school that I actually took an interest.  After that class, I downloaded Back In Black and absolutely loved it.  Her style of music is awesome, it’s got some funk/soul/doo wop and it blends together to make a fusiony awesome album.  The B-Sides of that album are just as good too.  Here’s probably my favorite of her songs, also, MOD Sun did an awesome remix of it, so check it out if you’re a hippie and like rap.  EDIT: just checked that MOD SUN song, it’s called “Check My Bag” and it’s on the mixtape “How To Make A MOD Sun” which you can download for free on the internets.

April March

I made a post about this girl just a couple days ago (and posted a youtube video with another song), so check that out if you’re into it.  I’ve been liking this girl the more I listen to her.  This song is in french, but there is an american version called Chick Habit (also the album name) that was featured in the Tarentino film Death Proof, so you may have heard it.

Cocorosie

I’m not even sure where to start on how to describe Cocorosie.  Brazillian?  Weird?  I’m not really too sure, they just do their own thing with their tunes, but it’s great and I love it.  It’s a collection of experimental music, folk music, and trip-hop.  I like that description.  Here’s one of my favorite songs from Cocorosie, although this is an independantly done video.

Imogen Heap

I like this chick a lot, a lot of the reason why is because she makes all of her own music and records everything herself in a studio in her basement.  I remember reading she uses Pro Tools HD and I believe that’s it.  This also, is one of these artists that has been growing on me, the more I listen, the more I like.  I really love the way she uses her vocals and puts them together, she has a lot of creative ideas about arrangement and layering and it ends up sounding great.  Here’s “Swoon” from her newest:

Lights

Besides being the sexiest girl on the planet, Lights knows how to lay down a track.  There’s a lot of subtlety in her music that I really enjoy and like to listen for, but mainly she just looks good with a synthtar.  Here’s the song I wake up to every single morning of my life:

Moby – “Last Night”

I did a little bit of research and I have no idea who sings on this song, but I do know that it’s insanely beautiful:

Nicole Willis

Nicole Willis And The Soul Investigators made a fantastic album called Keep Reachin’ Up, and I highly reccamend that you check it out.  Nicole Willis was pumping out these Retro-Soul tunes before Amy Winehouse became famous.  Here’s one of my favorites:  Alright my favorite isn’t on youtube, but it’s called Keep Reachin’ Up.  So here’s a different one:

Portishead

I bet someone saw this coming.  I read a description of this album that I thought was perfect, that Portishead never leaned too far towards one genre, it’s a dancable record and yet experimental and very emotional.  This song is from Dummy

The Raveonettes

I’ve always loved The Raveonettes.  I don’t know any other band that is even close to where they are at.  This band is a duo from Denmark and takes 50′s or 60′s songwriting arrangements and chord patterns with heavy electronic instruments for the most part and it’s great.  Lust Lust Lust is still my favorite of their 3 albums, and that’s where this song comes from:

Zero 7

Again, the more I listen, the more I like.  Also very emotional, smooth, hypnotic music.  This song is one of my favorites, and it’s very possible you’ve heard it somewhere before.  It’s from the album Simple things (my favorite of theirs).  Simple Things is a great album all together, the production is amazing and I find the layering especially interesting.

Man I wish youtube had better sounding audio quality.  Well, what are you gunna do?  Also I just noticed that all of these songs have 5 stars on Youtube, and that’s how you know they’re pro!

I hope that these types of posts maybe help bring some fresh new music into your life, and I’m always open to suggestions or comments, so feel free to get at me.

[picture unrelated]

This isn’t music related, but I was just thinking…

You know what would be a good idea?  Gender Based Television Advertising.  I came up with this after watching more tampon commercials than any man would care to watch.  There should be a switch on your remote that says M, F, or Both.  Then whenever a commercial would come on, it would look to see your setting, and based on your selection, you might see a tampon commercial or you might see the newest technologies of electronic beard trimmers.  This seems entirely possible especially when you look at how the internet does advertising.  I’ll go to a web page I’ve never been to before, and yet somehow it still knows that the advertisements are for a christian male that lives in Minneapolis.  Now, I’m not saying that when you buy a television you’d need to fill out a form with all of your information, I just don’t want to hear the word period anymore…

April march is one of the only female vocalists that I actually enjoy.  Her most known work is the song Chick Habit that was featured in one of those Tarentino Grindhouse films.  She has a number of albums, all of which are very good in my opinion.  Edit:  It was Death Proof.

I havn’t posted much this past week because I’ve been studying my balls off for these pesky Mid-Terms…but I’m back and I have a lot of good stuff coming.

There’s a few instruments out there that I’ve read about that look extremely awesome, and there’s one in particular that just looks straight insane, I bring you the Reactable:

If I owned the Reactable, nobody would ever hear from me and I’d be locked in a basement for months with this thing.  The Reactable is a new electronic instrument designed to create and perform the music of today and tomorrow.  It combines state of the art technology with a simple and intuitive design, which enables musicians to experiment with sound, change its structure, control its parameters and be creative in a direct way unlike anything else.  It has a tangible interface, where the musician controls the system by manipulating these blocks and disks.  Just check it out in these demo videos:

Very slick.  By the way, there’s a ton of other videos on youtube of people with these things, here’s one where someone’s using it for a live performance: