are albums still relevant?

so recently I have been conducting a little experiment with music and I would like to get everyone's personal feelings on the matter too. I'll give a little background to the situation: I stopped listening to music in Dec 2006 and didn't start again until about Aug 2008. When I came back to take a fresh look at my music I began by putting about 25 of my tried and true favorite albums (old and new) on an mp3 player and listening to the 300+ songs through headphones while cleaning windows.
I listened in just about every possible combination (e.g. album by album, each album repeatedly, all songs in random, all songs in alphabetical order)

By listening closely, I found some interesting things about music which I could prolly sum up with: Music is usually best when listened to in "album form" and from start to finish. Of course, this only applies to albums that you actually like most of the songs on as opposed to albums that only have 2 or 3 really good songs surrounded by blah songs. (I could argue that being able to repeatedly listen to an album closely might make you appreciate some of your less favorite songs, but that is a discussion for another day)
To me, it seemed that even songs that I liked pretty well within an album really lost their luster when played randomly mixed with other various songs and styles that i liked. A little more investigation revealed to me that where a song is placed on an album mattered quite a bit too since an album can be like a performance with ebbs and tides and it's mood is dependent on the type and order of songs. (try playing some of your favorite albums with the songs randomized to see if it is as good as the original order album)

All of this adds evidence to my fledgling theory on the state of music today (see early posts and comments on this blog). Sometimes it seems like there is very little new music out there that is good, yet at the same time the overwhelming evidence is that Myspace and Pandora allow us to find endless little-known-artists and tons of good music very easily. But I wonder if the abundance and ease of finding new music make us jaded and spoiled because there is just too much to listen to and when we do listen to it, we tend to just sample the smorgasbord buffet and never really get to enjoy a carefully crafted fine meal with carefully chosen courses of food that complement each other.

So I have to ask myself a few things... If all we ever do is download single-songs we like, and sample single-songs through streaming services, are we missing the whole point of music as a performance? In the future will artists just need to release one 'mega-hit' at a time to be downloaded by the masses instead of coming out with 8 or more good songs on an album of 12? If we only listen to lower-fidelity songs on our PC through a mediocre sound system in the background while checking our email will our appreciation for great albums eventually disappear? If our car stereos contain CD's full of 650MB of random artists played at low volume while our passenger talks about 'their day', will we actually be able to taste music fully or will it become just like the bland drive-thru food we eat because of lack of time?

All things considered, I am led to conclude that if I strive to listen to new music in it's full album form I will be best able to enjoy it's intended mood and hopefully be better able to find great new albums to add to my collection.
What do you think?

annoying hit songs

so since i forgot my mp3 player today i had to listen to a crappy warsaw fm station that basically played classic rock and 100% of it was the super overplayed songs that are famous. personally i hate hearing songs often even if they are some of my favorites.

but today they played back-to-back what have to be 2 of the most annoying songs:

Layla (Clapton) followed by Sympathy for the Devil (Stones)

now i'm not saying that these are bad songs (listen to clips yourself) but they sure seem annoying when you actually listen to all 6-7 minutes of them. Clapton solos thru the whole song and for about 4 mins at the end he is playing some really annoying bends way up on the neck that make my ears bleed. and thruout almost the whole Stones song the background singers keep saying "WOOOT WOO"

eghads!

So, what are your nominations for some of the most annoying famous songs? especially ones that the whole world just seems to love but that make you want to blow your brains out with a rusty pellet gun.

missed live performance you'll never see

I was recently listening to a CD of 'rare' live tracks of a now defunct band (Jellyfish) and thinking how sad it will be to never see them play a live show... then that made me think of other bands I'll never get to see play live, like: Alice in Chains with Staley would be one. Morphine is another dead singer band that i'll never get to see either which is a shame cause the ultra-low sax playing might have sounded amazing live cranked so loud. (youtube audio stinks!)

so, are there any performers that you wish you could have seen play live, but most likely will not ever be able to now (for whatever reason?) I'm not really looking for bands that were fairly impossible for you to see like the Beatles (since they quit playing live before some of us were born) but more the bands that you should have seen but never did and now it's too late.

American Idol - do ya watch it? who do ya like?

So my wife makes me watch American Idol and yes, sometimes I even like it :-D At times there are some very fresh takes on old songs. It's funny because each year they audition 100,000 people and then have an elimination starting with 36 then down to 12. Even at the point of the final 36, it's fairly easy to pick out who the final 2 or 3 are going to be. This year kind of threw me though. We thought for sure Alexis Grace was going to the final 3 but she got voted off early. She had some bad song choices but the link above shows what she's capable of.

Our picks for the final two are Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta.

Allison Iraheta - Papa Was a Rolling Stone - Motown week. One of my favorite songs by the Temptations anyway...this little 16 year old girl just totally belts it out.

Adam Lambert - Satisfaction - Difficult to watch cause we think he's probably gay or just completely narcissistic...but the guy can hit some crazy notes. Would've made a great 80's hair band / hard rock lead singer.

Adam Lambert - Ring of Fire - This is the version he did for country week...lol.

Allison Iraheta - Give In To Me

Allison Iraheta - Blame it on your Heart

Adam Lambert - Tracks of my Tears - Motown week.

Linda also likes Kris Allen. In case you didn't watch AI last year, check out David Cook - Billie Jean (the Chris Cornell version)

Gear: Guitar Amp?

In my quest for a cheap Fender Tele I was also thinking about getting a new amp. My current amp is a Crate GX65. Nothing spectacular about it. Nice reverb, nice crunch, just nice in general. I want something that excites. I like some of the Fender tube amps that I've played at Guitar Center and I've been researching "boutique" amps. Soldano is mentioned alot.

What are your thoughts?

Poll: what would you like to see more of here?

everybody please vote on the most recent poll and if you have suggestions please add them to the comments on this post. thanks!

Who's your favorite drummer?

So I was working on learning the song Jenny Wren by Paul McCartney and my wife and I were reminded of how much we enjoy watching Abe Laboriel, Jr. play drums. His passion for the music is contagious. I love how he makes a contribution to the song even though his part of the song is very basic. The drums (drum) kick in at about 1 minute 15 seconds. Linda's favorite part is from 2:24 through 2:40.

• Also, check out Maybe I'm Amazed - Paul McCartney - Abe really gets into it about 2 minutes 25 seconds...so much though that the keyboard player and Paul can't stop smiling at him.
• Also, the dude can sing! He starts singing at :42.
• How about any of these three?

Who's YOUR favorite drummer?

(by the way...for the bass player topic, how about Abe's Dad, Abe Laboriel Sr? :)

most annoying frontman ever?

(edit: I found this list of annoying rockstars with some pretty funny comments)
comment to place your vote for the most annoying frontman (singer) ever.
multiple suggestions are welcome, and reasons backed by evidence (specific songs or audio/video clips) would be nice =)

the 51st grammy awards

this years grammy awards: what did you think about this years show, winners, and performances?

Morbid thought

What song (other than kingdom melodies) would you want to be played at your funeral ?

under the radar - guitar

name one "famous" guitarist who is very underrated or doesn't get the respect they deserve despite their talent.

keep it to national recording acts with relative fame (a recognizable name) and maybe even provide a specific example or even a link to a song or video as proof.

for research purposes check out this list with included audio samples from rolling stone's 100 greatest. (i changed the link to make it easier to read)

What inspired you?

What inspired you to play an instrument? Were there songs or an artist along the way that sent you in a different musical direction? My path:


1) Randy Rhoads (guitarist for Quiet Riot and Ozzy) - I was 15 years old and my buddy played me the Tribute album by Ozzy...specifically the guitar solo for the song Suicide Solution. The solo gave me chills, so the next day I went and bought a Hondo guitar and a small amp. Still can't play the solo to this day but I'm getting there :-D


2) Stevie Ray Vaughn - I was 21 years old, watching MTV unplugged and this very ugly man sits down on the show and starts playing Pride and Joy. Next day I go to Quantum Music on State Street and begin taking blues guitar lessons from George Ogg (John Forbing was teaching down the hall). /end heavy metal influence /begin blues influence.


3) Classical - This was always there but kind of in the background because I didn't have the dexterity at the time to play any of it. There were always pieces of heavy metal or hard rock songs that I would learn such as the Love Song intro by Tesla, When the Children Cry intro by White Lion and Dust in the Wind by Kansas. My focus on classical shifted when Johnny5 and I took a music class at IPFW. The prof taught us the correct traditional fingering and Linda bought me a classical guitar. This is most of what I'm playing/learning these days.


4) Cirque Du Soleil - The Beatles Love @ The Mirage - Las Vegas - A couple of years ago Linda and I saw this show in Vegas. I was always pretty closed minded about the Beatles but I found that I did actually like quite a few of their songs. Also, I wanted to learn easy to play popular songs for gatherings and such and the Beatles fit the bill. There is much more depth to their songwriting and playing than I would have ever imagined.



What inspired you?

Try This!

So with all of the talk about new music I am curious what is in your CD/.mp3 player at the moment? What album would you recommend that I should pick up? Right now I am listening to Kings of Leon's "Only By the Night". Personally, from beginning to end I think it is a four star record. I have their other stuff but I didn't like it all that much. The singer has a really unique voice and I don't think he got a handle on it until this album. They are a Tennessee band so perhaps some of you have already heard of them.

music is like an old friend

I was listening to a cassette that i haven't listened to in years. It brought up some old memmories and feelings. so ,I was thinking that we should list our cd or cassette or album that we used to listen to all day long when we were teens. heres mine........Sports (huey lewis and the news)1983............favorite song "walking on a thin line"..............so whats yours?

does rock make you ugly?

or is it that rock just allows the ugly to succeed? (see possible evidence in pic below)
although i'm not sure if eddie van halen was even decent-looking in his prime, i can easily say that he is far from it now if this pic from 2006 is allowed into evidence!
fortunately, more recent pics show a bit of improvement from his 'meth-mouth' look of 2006. i especially enjoyed some of the defensive comments from people on the blog.... wow those are some die-hard fans!

a theory in the works

the initial idea of creating a blog like this came from a conversation with nathan about the state of music today and a personal theory of mine which partially involves the topic of why some people stop listening to new music as they age. i believe the theory will eventually involve many possible reasons for this all-too-common occurrence and i will be working on fleshing out the general outline of my theory in coming days and look forward to hearing if you have any such personal insights right now. is it more than just the human tendency to look with disgust upon incoming generation's culture? is it that overall music generally devolves each year? is it the form and way we listen to music because of changing technology? is it genetic? etc...