Stealing Topic Ideas

Not much to write about these days so I'm stealing topic ideas from M2M. But it's OK, she stole it from someone else.

It's kind of amazing that I haven't really discussed music yet on the blog. I love music. LOVE it. Almost from the womb, it seems. My mom loves telling the story about how when I was very young, I would sit at the family piano and play two note chords over and over again. She'll always be sure to mention that I never banged on the keys like most kids do. I would just sit there playing two notes until I found a combination that sounded good and then play it over and over. This led my parents to have me start taking piano lessons at the ripe old age of 4 years old. Yes, 4. I took lessons up until I was around 16, I think, minus a year or two where I was burnt out on it. I don't play much these days, but I think I can still sit down in front of a piano and play a song or two. I don't know.

I started playing trombone in the 5th grade and played all the way through high school. The most fun was jazz band and, if I may brag a little bit (hey, it's my blog) I was pretty damn good. Haven't touched a trombone since though.

Also while in high school, I messed around on percussion a bit and taught myself to play drums to the point where I am able to hold my own behind a drum kit. Certainly not a great drummer though, very average and I haven't played one in years.

When I was a senior in high school there was a kid a couple of years younger than me who was a virtuoso at guitar and he gave me a broken electric guitar that he had glued back together. I learned a few songs but didn't play it that much. I think it was age 22 that I bought my first acoustic from a pawn shop and started teaching myself to play. I still play today and would classify myself as an average guitar player. Maybe slightly above average.

I'm a halfway decent singer too. I think I've got an OK voice.

This post has become very much me bragging but I'm just trying to say that I'm a very musical person. And I can't really brag about it too much because it is obviously something that I was blessed with from birth and I have very little to do with it.

So anyway, music is a huge part of my life, I love it and I love finding new music. A friend of mine was once trying to convince me to listen to a certain artist and said, "You'll like this guy, he isn't popular at all." Laughing, I responded that it isn't the fact that a band or artist is obscure that makes me like them. I just think that there is a lot of great music out there that most people haven't heard of. The mainstream music business generally sucks.

So I'm stealing the topic idea but modifying it a little bit.

Side note: My taste in music is generally limited to Rock. Granted, that covers a huge variety in styles and my taste within the rock genre varies wildly. But for the most part I don't like country, pop, hip-hop, R&B or rap. There are a few exceptions like this song which I think is great.

So, finally, the list. Here are

Seven Of My Favorite Songs By Bands That Most People I Know Have Never Heard Of

1. Solaris by Failure - That video is not the band video but just made by some random person. It's the only one on youtube I could find with the album version of the song. The song is from their amazing album, Fantastic Planet. I love the unconventionalness (I don't think that's actually a word. Spellcheck is angry at me.) of this song. Very odd chord progressions, changes in tempo, some strange dialogue in the middle that I don't know the source of.

2. How Near How Far by ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - First of all, how awesome is that band name? This is another amateur video so just let the song play in the background or something. This is a band that I can't fully embrace because the guy is generally pretty bad at singing and it ruins a lot of their songs. He manages to do a decent enough job in this song that it doesn't detract from the amazing music. The transition in the middle where it just builds and builds is one of my favorite moments in all of music.

3. Turn The Lights On by Pilot Speed - Couldn't find the studio version so this (pretty good) live version is all you get. This is a very good Canadian band that used to go by the name Pilate. The chorus of this song has this amazing crescendo that just carries all kinds of emotion. Gives me chills. The song starts out sounding a little like Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars but in my opinion blows it out of the water. I certainly think the studio version is worth a buck on Amazon.

4. Stars by Hum - Be careful if you turn the volume up to hear the beginning...it's going to get loud. This was by far their biggest "hit". I might have picked another song of theirs but this one is the easiest to find for you to listen to. Kick-ass rock made by nerds. This song typifies the band's sound. Huge wall of guitars but great harmonies at the same time, weird science-related lyrics. I was looking through my former roommate's music one day and came upon their CD. He's the only person I know who's even heard of them, let alone likes them.

5. Annabelle by Heavens - Just discovered this band about a week ago and I really like them. I guess one of the guys is in Alkaline Trio if that means anything to you. I've heard of them but haven't heard any of their music. I like the guy's voice and the song has nice chord progressions and I like how they add and take away layers as the song moves along. The song really just hits me right for some reason.

6. Fashionably Uninvited by Mellowdrone - Another band I discovered in the last week. Actually sounds a bit like the band in my seventh entry. Love the changes from the soft verses to the loud chorus. And he pretty much plays the same note throughout the entire verse but all the other little things thrown in make in interesting. I like it when bands can take a minimalist approach but still make the music good.

7. Love Will Come Through by Travis - Love this song. I read someplace (maybe wikipedia) that Travis paved the way for bands like Coldplay but I think that they are a really good band in their own right. The vocal work on this song is great. They take a lot of different parts and bring them all together just right

So there you go. Hopefully you like at least one of the songs enough to look into the band some more.