Once upon a time, a very beautiful blogger met a ruggedly handsome Internet. Some time later, after many escapades and lots of love, a music blog was born.
Something terrible has happened, Internet. Something that combines one thing that I like very much and one thing which I despise. Never far enough.
Yes. That's right. Nickelback is headlining the 2012 NHL hockey awards.
If you want to find out the specifics and see Chad Kroeger's new, ugly-ass haircut, you'll enjoy this.
The NHL website called Nickelback the "Top Group of the Decade," as well as the following untruth:
"As die-hard hockey fans, we can never get enough of the NHL, even when we're on tour. And there is nothing more exciting for hockey fans than the Playoffs. The NHL Awards is the culmination of celebrating the best players and moments the season has produced. We're honored and humbled to perform at the 2012 NHL Awards in Las Vegas," said Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger.
This is a lie. Chad Kroeger doesn't know how to use the word culmination. Oh God do I hate Nickelback.
What's that? You haven't heard this song yet? Goodness me.
I usually don't like haunting tunes like the ones Good Charlotte tends to put out recently. (Side note, I would like Synyster Gates for Christmas. Make it so, Readers.)
That being said, I am freaking in love with this song and with Gotye in general. In preparation for the rest of my musical obsession, I listened to some more of his music, including his big hits, Eyes Wide Open (one of my now-favorite songs), Easy Way Out, and Smoke and Mirrors. They're all actually quite good, and they have the same dreamy overtone as this one does. But, I would advise you to listen to his music before watching the videos. Some of them are really unusual.
But, the real reason Gotye gets almost an entire blog post to himself is because of two things; first, the following video of the very same song I posted above.
UNF.
I had a violent eargasm at 1:36.
This was recorded live, which means that, yes, boys and girls, his voice is just amazing, no smoke and mirrors. (pun intended.) This also means that Kimbra has some weird performing habits. #handgestures EDIT: Does anyone else notice that when he says "like it never happened and that we were nothing," he puts in a good many unnecessary M sounds? "like it never happmenedm and that we werem nothing."
The second reason is something I must preface. You all know that I am not a superficial person. All the same though, I can appreciate a pretty face.
Gotye has a pretty face. I like it a lot.
This goes to show that you don't have to be extremely attractive to get ladies.
I usually don't have a thing for foreign men in tight pants. Eh, there's a first time for everything.
That concludes this portion of the program. But, as promised, I do have one more good-lookin' Australian I'd like to steal away. His name is Daniel Johns, and he is an Australian musician from the band Silverchair. His music is not that good, in my opinion. But, check it out yourself. His style is not my thing, and I don't like that at times he gets uncomfortably close to being flat. It makes me cringe.
Regardless, HERE is a huge, great photo gallery for those of you who like boys. (And for those of you who like ladies, there is Kylie Minogue. I'd love to post a link to a gallery, but I can't find one that doesn't star her breasts. Google is a thing.)
That's all. I hope I exposed you to some good, new music and/or some beautiful faces.
Keep the messages coming. By the way, I found out that I had comments blocked, so you can now write comments. Sorry about that. I'm not always as smart as I think I am.
See you next time.
For those of you who grew up in the 90s, today we're going to talk about Pretty Ricky, an R&B band formed in 1997 that gave us such wonders as "Grind On Me" and "Wet Dreams." They were one of those groups that all the hip hop ladies called "Sexi" and "
I've been hearing a lot about Skrillex recently, and I thought I'd sit down and give him a try. I like to give all kinds of music a try, and I don't like to dismiss something before I listen to it. Even though I'm not a big fan of Dubstep, I gave it a shot.
I discovered that Skrillex does a lot of remixes, and, frankly, many of them sound quite similar. I suppose, though, there's only so much you can do with somebody else's song, so I decided to give his original music a try.
This (below) is a photo of our friend Skrillex.
As you can see, he seems to have decided that screamo is no longer "in," and decided to shave half of his head and be a Dubstep DJ instead. I usually acknowledge the fact that looks have nothing to do with sound, but in this case I believe that he was suffering severe headaches due to the constantly thumping bass that must be coming from his place of residence and had to shave part of his head to relieve some of the pressure. Perhaps that also explains why he's turning to caffiene to satisfy his migraines.
Though I am not as cultured as some people who will listen to anything just for the sake of doing so, I have listened to Dubstep before, namely Deadmau5. I have to say that Skrillex and Deadmau5 have a lot in common. It might just be the nature of the music, but it's hard for me to distinguish between the two. (I even tested myself by creating a playlist and seeing if I could tell one sound from the other. I could not.)
While I was less than pleased with some of his remixes, I did find one Skrillex song (do they call them "songs" in the super-hip Dubstep world?) that I feel is appropriate enough to represent his music in general. It's called "Disco Rangers." The title itself might have been the reason I selected it over "No mercy, only violence" and "Drugs are cool."
Usually, at this point I would critique the artist's lyrics. But, after googling "Skrillex lyrics," I realized that I am silly. This music, while not specifically "instrumental," would fall under that category. There are very few words at all, which I guess is part of what makes it difficult for me to understand it. I prefer music that I can sing to in the car on the way to class. It's hard to make fax machine sounds in my car.
For example, here are the lyrics to one of Skrillex's songs:
That's worse than Justin Bieber only because of the tiny amount of words actually used. (Though, in Skrillex's defense, At least none of his words are repeated. i.e. baby.) An exception to this is Bangarang, which actually does have some words like, "Yo, I'm eatin' fun dip right now."
Over all, I have to say that Skrillex is not going to be on my playlist any time soon. While I do appreciate the steady beat and can rarely resist bobbing my head like a funky chicken, I'm just not that big a fan of Dubstep in general. I must just not understand it, because clearly it's very popular with people who are cooler than me.
Sidenote: If any of you readers are into Dubstep, be sure to leave a comment and explain it to me.
Is it still cool to like Adele? Yeah? Okay. Just checking.
Even through all the pop culture that surrounds Adele, I love the hell out of her.
First, obviously, I love her music. Her lyrics are ridiculous and powerful. I mean, come on.
You had my heart inside of your hand
Andyou played it to the beat
I hate to turn up out of the blue, uninvited But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it I had hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded That for me, it isn't over
Seriously? That's poetry. You'll not find that in any other artist.
Besides her lyrics, I love Adele for her pipes. She can fill a room with her powerful, beautiful voice. She can command an audience and keep their attention fixed on her for an entire performance.
Second, Adele is, herself, beautiful. She doesn't dress like a skank, like other artists she is frequently compared with. Adele is a real woman, and she is a lady.
One of the many things she has on the other artists in her category is her pride and her modesty. Every time I see Adele, at awards ceremonies, in music videos, on television, etc., she gets more and more beautiful.
And, the final reason I love Adele:
I don't care if everyone on Earth has seen this picture a hundred thousand times. It's still another wonderful, powerful, beautiful reason to appreciate Adele.
Oh, Internet. Don't you just love cute musicians who decide not to enunciate? Of course you do. Isn't that how Fall Out Boy got so popular?
Fortunately, Bruno Mars did not actually succeed in cancelling the greatest holiday of the year. The cause for this fairly witty (thankyouverymuch) title is a misheard lyric from his song It Will Rain. Here are the words from the chorus:
'Cause there'll be no sunlight if I lose you, Baby. There'll be no clear skies, if I lose you, Baby. Just like the clouds, my eyes will do the same. If you walk away, every day it'll rain.
Ignoring how unmusical these words look once injected with standard English grammar rules applied, these are the actual words. I now shall illustrate how the words appeared in my head.
'Cause there'll be no sun, right? If I lose you, Baby, there'll be no Christmas. If I lose you, Baby, Just like the clowns, my eyes will do the same. If you walk away, every day it'll rain.
I know, right? Am I kidding? No. Am I deaf? Perhaps; I spend a lot of time around loud instruments and loud people.
This interpretation paints either a very sad picture of Bruno Mars or puts him in a questionable serial-killer position. In the first way, he explains that the subject of the song is his sunlight, and without her there will be no sun. Additionally, without her, there will be, nay, can not be a Christmas. If she leaves, he will have sad clown eyes. Perhaps he will paint his face to match the comparison he artfully makes.
But, if you think about it, (which, clearly, I have) we could be witnessing a subtle confession or threat of severe bodily harm. There'll be no sun, because I'll lock you in the closet. There'll be no Christmas, because if you last that long, I'm not buying you any presents. Just like the clowns, my eyes will do the same. But not the cute circus clowns, Baby.
I like to believe that our friend Bruno is not a viscious murderer.
I am not alone in mishearing these lyrics, either. A conversation with my inferior sibling illustrated that she misheard those words, as well, just not in the same way. (Hers also had something to do with Christmas, though it did not allude to violent crime.) And, since I am wildly in love with the Internet, I found some other chortle-inducing misheard lyrics. Here are some of them.
Her nips, her nips I could kiss them all day if she'd let me. (Just The Way You Are) Her eyes, her eyes, make the stars look like Van Nuys shining. (Just The Way You Are) But every time she asks me, do I love cocaine? You know I'll say...(Just The Way You Are) Had her ass wide open. (Grenade)
What does everyone have against the music of our grandparents?
This post was inspired after a conversation with an associate* of mine. I asked him what he did this weekend, and he rolled his eyes dramatically and told a story about his grandma and how she sat him down, forced him to listen to grainy old records, and made carrot cake for him and his family.
First of all, if my grandma made me a carrot cake, I would not gripe about anything; especially something that would potentially impede her willingness/ability to continue creating the cake.
But, why is old music such a torture for young people to listen to? What happened to make it such a turn off?
Well, partially, I believe it's a preference thing. If you listen to the music on the radio, you will notice that there is very little piano, and very little quiet singing. Moreover, it is hard to find a bit of music that is not technologically altered in some way or another.
Take a look at this video that makes me wish I was better at the piano.
If this song doesn't make you want to put on a flapper dress and shake your legs wildly, nothing will.
So, it's no wonder that our grandparents loved this stuff. This was the pop music of their days. When we browse through pictures of our grandparents in old, dusty photo albums, we see grainy, black and white (or worse - sepia!) photos of people in old-looking clothing. Of course these look old. They are old. But, as one of my favorite history professors once told me, "It's not just old; it's history."
Perhaps it's just me. It very well may be, because I am an old person trapped in a young person's body. But, this music that our granddaddies grew up wagging their white-gloved fingers to is not actually bad. It's just a different style of music. For example, if a (very unfortunate) person had grown up listening to only a pandora playlist based on the Happy Days theme song, he would be appalled to discover such wonders as Bruno Mars and Adele.
That was a long tangent. The moral of the story is just because your granny likes it, doesn't mean it's bad. Put away your iPod. Listen to some Nat King Cole for awhile. In fact, you know what? I'll give you a head start.
