Thao with The Get Down Stay Down

Listen To "Know Better Learn Faster"

by Thao with The Get Down Stay Down

courtesy of their record label, kill rock stars.

Visit their website here:

www.killrockstars.com

Thao with The Get Down Stay Down is a really fun / musically interesting group that I just heard for the first time that I wanted to share.

On their MySpace Page (myspace.com/thaomusic) they describe their sound as follows:

"tangles of guitar, knots of singing, threads of beat and thump make a rope fit for hauling the heavy machinery of your day"

How can that not make you want to listen to them? Well, it does for me anyways.

What I love about this group is the use of a big variety of instrumentation but yet it all seems to fit in with their style. This is especially true with all the different stringed instruments layered into Know Better Learn Faster.

The different riffs they use are generally basic, but they are woven together in an intricate way. This gives the songs some complexity, and makes me want to go back and listen to them again so I can pay attention to the parts that I missed. This sort of thing, needing to experience it twice or more, scores big points with me in any work of art.

Something about the upbeat rhythms, the eclectic mix of instruments, and the lyrics / female vocals puts me in a good mood. Know Better Learn Faster just might have to go on my 'get out of bed in the morning' mix (along with Gabriel Rios' "Broad Daylight").

You should definitely check out more songs from Thao with The Get Down Stay Down, but I will leave you with one more song of theirs for your assigned listening...

"Fear and Convenience"

from their 2008 album, We Brave Bee Stings and All.

Go to their MySpace Page (myspace.com/thaomusic);

Click "Fear and Convenience" on their playlist.

Simple but fun guitar licks (especially the variations on the finger picking), also catchy, a bit upbeat, but subtly cynical lyrics which really resonated with me.

"I have seen fear and convenience

I have never glimpsed a romance"

Enjoy!

Sublime with Rome

Sublime with Rome

So I realize that this is a small departure from blogging about bands largely unknown to the mainstream, but this is too big of news to me and the music world to go uncommented on. Now that I have a small soap-box to stand on, here are my thoughts.

In case you hadn't heard, the remaining members of Sublime (namely Eric and Bud) are back together again. Unlike their previous projects since Sublime, this one is bringing back the Sublime band name. They have somehow hooked up with this kid Rome, from NorCal (respect), who is 20 years old and has some big ass shoes to fill; namely Bradley Nowell's.

This news might cause a knee-jerk groan of disapproval for you, as it did with me, but I'm not one to hate on the guy for no reason so I'm willing to give him an honest shot.

Now lets get one undisputed fact out of the way:

Rome is not Bradley Nowell.

There I said it. To save you some reading, the above sentence sums up about 50% of the internet chatter about this news.

The following is my honest assessment about whether or not Rome has the cajones to carry on as Sublime's front man.

I chose the song above because it's the best quality recording floating around the internet of Rome doing a Sublime cover. Sadly, no Bud on drums in this one.

The good news:

Rome is an excellent singer, and can play guitar well enough based on what I've heard. I honestly do like his voice. I generally like good lead singers with lower vocal ranges because the vast majority of lead singers have higher ranges so it is different and interesting. (I also like them because I have a bass range so it's easier for me to sing along.)

Rome seems to know his shit and is very polished, which is good if your about to join Sublime. There will be no garage band tours to ease him into the role. The name Sublime pretty much guarantees sold out concert venues the first tour. It's up to the guys on stage to sell out the second tour.

But...

There seems to be something lacking as of right now.

What made Bradley Bradley wasn't that he was the most technically proficient singer in the world. What made Bradley such an attractive person was the fact that he left every ounce of his soul on the stage. Bradley had a stage presence that brought so much exuberant energy that is always flirting on the edge of chaos.

Bradley's live versions weren't polished, they were raw, he would use a certain amount of vocal fry contrasted against his clean singing for accents. Bradly would screw up sometimes too, but it made it sound real. The energy he gave off was always so positive and exciting that you just want to bask in the good vibes the music puts out.

What other singer could sing the lyrics, "Baby you're a big blue whale" and make it sound romantic and endearing.

Or how about the following lyrics:

"If I had a shotgun,

you know what I'd do?

I'd point that shit straight at the sky,

and shoot heaven on down for you"

This sounds like one of those nonsensical drunken / stoned way of trying to express how much he cares about someone, but the message comes through 1000x more than saying, "I love you" because it's channeled straight from his subconscious completely uncensored or translated.

Again, it's not that Bradley was the best lyricist, singer, songwriter, or musician in the world that makes him one of my all-time favorite artists. It is the pure emotion that he puts into his songs and his performances that can't help but get me excited to live life and love everybody.

Rome on the other hand strikes me as someone who is very talented at what he does and executes it well. However, his style of singing bears much more resemblance to Jason Mraz with a lower vocal range than it does to Bradley Nowell. Rome is almost more of a pop singer than a rock/reggae singer.

In fact, after I made this comparison between Rome and Jason Mraz I found a Jason Mraz cover that he did to illustrate the point. (Bear in mind, this isn't Rome's best cover and he rushed the hell out of this song, but it makes a good comparison between singing styles.)

Check out the two side-by-side:

The Verdict on Rome:

So my argument ultimately comes back to the point that I already knew going into this, which is that Rome is not Bradley Nowell. We can only fault him so much for not being born the reincarnated spirit of Bradley.

I like his sound and I think it fits well with the band. I don't think he is 100% there with the intensity and emotion that needs to be brought to the stage, but he's not far off. With some more practice I could see him nailing it.

Am I ecstatic to hear that Sublime is getting back together? Yes.

Rome also wins points in my book for his singing ability, his timing while singing w/ the guitar, and for being a fellow NorCal native.

Alright kid, you have my blessing. Go kick ass as the newly formed Sublime with Rome. Lay it all on the stage because this is your shot.

Here is one last video of Sublime with Rome performing STP live. Enjoy!

Sublime w/Rome STP live at the Cantina Sparks NV FEB 28th 2009

¿¡New Contributing Editor?!

Hello Everybody!

You may know me from my characteristically long philosophical musings taking up much of the comments section on this blog.

Well, good news! I've been promoted from commenter to blogger. Hmm... nix that, let's call it, "Contributing Editor." That sounds more like something you could put on a resume.

So I'm the new Contributing Editor for this music blog.

The good news for you, our loyal readers, is that in theory, this should increase the frequency of postings.

Without futher adeiu, here is my first post...

---

Bïa Krieger - Momento de Graça

Listen on MySpace Music

(Click on the above link, then click on Momento de Graça to play.)

There are some songs that make me stop what I am doing and give the full attention of my senses to listening and experiencing the moment constructed by the artist. This is one of those songs.

The word soulful seems like a vague musical cliche that is tossed around a lot to describe prominently featured singers in an acoustic group.

Overuse aside, I can think of no better term to describe this recording done by Bïa Krieger.

Whatever she's feeling, whatever she's saying, you feel it. Longing... waiting... there's subtle tension in every note.

This song takes it's time. The sounds are deliberate and rich. It slowly fills you up with sense of mellow tension the way smoke would slowly fill a room with no ventilation.

Here are the lyrics:

Ando esperando

Esperando tanto

Por um momento de graça

Coisa que passa?

(Ou que fica

Mas só

Porque não sabe onde ir)

Andei procurando um mar de areia

Pro meu corpo pousar

Quando dei por mim, madrugada já

Quando dei por mim, madrugada já

Other reasons why I am instantly in love with Bïa and her music:

The instruments used in her arrangements as I also play and love to listen to. In particular acoustic finger-style guitar, acoustic bass, and saxophone.

The more I read about her the more I fall absolutely in love with her life. Take this excerpt from her bio on her website:

"Bia spends a few years sailing around the Atlantic and Mediterranean, learning more about nature, literature, languages, music and politics than she would in any school. In 1995, she decides she won’t be anything else but a musician, and starts going professional. She is living in France and so she sings in French as well as in her mother tongue, Portuguese, or Spanish that she had learned as a child."

Bïa Krieger's Bio

Finally, something about that picture with the guitar is just... well you get the idea.

Cheers!

-Ron

tonal.

any of you who have been fans of this blog for an extended period of time likely know that i can only really describe the way that i listen to music as, "tonal." i want my music to make me feel something.
long-time fans will also be aware that i write these blogs nearly stream of consciousness...float w/me for a bit? as always, the music is down below.

as someone who studied (and indeed, wrote) poetry in school, i appreciate and am moved by lyrics. as someone who grew up a beatles fan, i know a good melody when i hear it. this should have a third example for proper crescendoing, but nothing's springing to mind. BUT, for a song to slap me across the thigh and tilt my chin up, and more importantly, to shut my eyes...it's got to feel like something.
this calls to mind 'punch drunk love'. i looked online to find an example of PTA's use of color w/Jon Brion's 600 x brilliant soundtrack (which includes 'here we go' which i just listed as my favorite song of all time on a 'get to know me' newspaper for my fifth graders) but i couldn't find one. PDL is all about tone. sure, it's about a dude who buys tons of pudding, but it's REALLY about tone. i don't care how much you didn't like it (or liked it!) as a popcorn accompaniment... watch it again and pay close attention to sound/color/tone. every color matters! every sound matters. they all cast deep shadows.
it also calls to mind an interview i read way back in the day with john mayer. apparently, the boy sees music as colors (officially, and uncooly, called synesthesia.) how amazing is that?! now, in his case, i wish it would lead to better music (he was asked what the most interesting looking music was and he said dave matthews band) but, what a cool "disease"!
understand?
listen to the song...then maybe it'll get clearer.





Andrew Bird. See the Enemy. Lyrics.

this song kicked my ass like none has in i don't know how long. seriously, it's been years since a song took hold like this. i don't even really want to talk about it.
so pretty. i just loops and swirls. words, tucking each other in so tight and then tossing each other into the air. i just want to sway in the front row and pound my head into the power of it all. tight little balls of music and english.
god, i love andrew bird. i hope he's getting rich. songwriters, singers, musicians of all types should have shrines to this man. it's all gold. how could you not love someone who describes himself as a "chicago-based multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and whistler." if you don't know and honor him daily...fix it.
this is a sparse remix of his song 'anonanimal'.
that's it...i told you i didn't want to talk about it. it's been on repeat for the last hour and i could leave it on for 20 more.

__________________________________________________________________
Ron said...

Deric, your sporadic music blog posts are always a pleasant surprise. You do an amazing job of stripping away the layers of formality and expressing a feeling that the music inspires in you without ego. It's raw, and really adds insight to music that I might not listen to on paper. I feel it too, and one of my criteria for a characteristic of what I consider to be good art is conveying a feeling or an emotion.

Interesting point about the music-color relationship. I know I certainly associate different musical chords or tones with color. However, when I talk about the color of music, I guess I think more of the traditional definition of Color or Timbre.

A good explanation of musical Color / Timbre can be found here:

Timbre, the Color of Music.

Basically, Color / Timbre describes all of the aspects of a musical sound that do not have anything to do with the sound's pitch, loudness, or length.

My favorite things to do in music is when I've completely learned a song inside and out and I get to play around with the color of the piece, adding in crescendos of brightness and decrescendos into sweeter darker sounds. This can be done conjunction with actual crescendos to accent or in opposition to them. That's the difference between technically and mechanically playing a piece and playing with feeling. That is where the soul is captured and expressed through the music. It is rare that most people even hear the difference, let alone be moved by it, but when another person really gets it and shares in that moment in space and time, that exact sound and feeling and place that is being experienced for the first time and will never be experienced again... that's one of the best feelings in the world as an artist.

I don't remember the last time I felt that.

Sometimes I'll seriously just play one guitar lick over and over and over and over again exploring every aspect of musical color that I can.

The synesthesia thing sounds cool, it sounds like basically a strong association between sound and color (that said, John Mayer, good musician that he is, is kindof a big blow-hard so I wouldn't be surprised if he was embellishing in order to seem cool and mysterious to get chicks, which I wouldn't necessarily hold against him).

I think I refer to that as 'sound-space' or the head-space that it puts you in. I don't know if I really have a definition for that.

If I were to describe the sound-space that See the Enemy creates for me I guess it would be mellow at first but then you are thrown just a little off kilter when they switch from 4/4 time in the beginning to 7/8 as they go into the verse (someone can feel free to correct me if that's wrong). It's playful, and the bass line doesn't change that much so it leaves you antsy and thought-provoked. The off-beat rhythm and pace of the lyrics threaten to just leave the song behind, but even when it sounds like they aren't, they are still in time and come back to realign with the bass.

If something could be be chill, chaotic, and playful all at the same time, then that would be this song.

Saturday, September 12, 2009 2:17:00 PM PDT

__________________________________________________________________
Deric:

see?

and.......i'm too busy w/stupid hw to really respond at the moment. however, thank you for not only commenting, but substantially contributing w/a blog of your own. you're the best.

i will say that this particular album by Bird is a reworking of songs from another album. could there be any better subject for a discussion of timbre/color? love andrew. he really does cut to the quick of me.

check it out:

Andrew Bird. Anonanimal.