Explosions In The Sky

Nothing is more enlightening and refreshing than going on a walk in the cool November night air while listening to Explosions in the Sky. Explosions in the Sky are a post rock band based in Houston Texas. Their music is extremely inspirational, meaningful, and emotional even though it's purely instrumental.

They have eight full length albums including "The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place" and the official soundtrack for the movie Friday Night Lights. I highly recommend listening to their music but when you do choose an album of theirs and listen to it from start to finish.

Explosions in the sky is the perfect music for any occasion. Whether you're happy or sad, seeking spiritual, emotional, or intellectual enlightenment, it really fits any mood. How you hear the song seems to reflect and amplify your current mood whatever it may be. I can listen to the same one of their songs several times and perceive the feeling of the song differently every time. There is something truly profound about their music.

I love they way that these guys think. They have a very rare mentality when it comes to music as well as life. I love the fact that you can read the story behind each one of their albums under the discography tab on their website.

Once again if you liked this post give it a +1 and share it using the buttons below. It's much appreciated!

Cheers,
    Michael

Velour Live Music Gallery

I'm an avid concert goer, I've been to dozens of shows at several different venues but a little venue in Provo Utah called Velour Live Music Gallery is my favorite by far. It's not a big venue, it's actually fairly small, but size doesn't matter. Velour was created by a brilliant man named Corey Fox, who I look up to a lot because one day I want to own a music venue.

Velour is smoke and alcohol free which I really appreciate and it has a really great atmosphere, when you're at Velour, you feel at home. It has a lot of very unique decorations and it truly is a magical place. Whoever said that Disneyland is the happiest place on earth had never heard of Velour.

Velour has done something that seems very rare in the music world today. It has created a family of sorts out of various bands and artists. Whenever I'm at velour I see members of various Provo based bands there to support their fellow bands. It's a network of musicians that is truly amazing.

I could go on for hours about how great Velour really is but it's one of those things that you have to experience for yourself. Go catch a show at Velour. In fact a longtime tradition called Cowboys & Indies is happening this Friday and Saturday night! Both night will be great, I've seen most of the bands that are playing and I can't wait to see them again!

Cheers,
    Michael

Turning Into Stone

Phantogram is an electronic music making duo from upstate New York. They have some crazy good beats overlayed by some wacky, somewhat psychedelic vocals.

All of their music is worth listening to but I wanted to focus on their song Turning Into Stone in this post.

Turning into stone is a powerful song with a great beat and some meaningful lyrics and it's one of my favorites. It starts off with some saxophone like chords that lead into a powerful synth bassline followed by a groovy danceable beat. In this song Phantogram seems to find the perfect balance between vocals and instrumentals that definitely gets the message out there. There are some great guitar riffs and drum breakdowns and it's a very emotionally powerful song if you ask me.

In the lyrics the song refers to a "line" it says "it's just a line, line that i feel, that's splitting me apart" and I think we all have a "line" something that we're torn about that we feel is tearing us apart. For me the first time I heard this song the "line" meant the line between life and death. I was struggling with some serious depression at the time and I was somewhat suicidal. This song, along with a lot of other things, helped me beat that. This song helped me realize that that "line" is real for so many people and it empowered me to beat that line.

If you've never heard this song I highly recommend you give it a listen using my spotify widget on the sidebar. if you don't know what spotify is read what I wrote about it here.

If you have any questions or recommendations for me feel free to drop a comment below, and if you've enjoyed what you read here today please share my blog with friends using the share buttons below.

Cheers,

    Michael

Talamak

Toro Y Moi is a great electro-pop artist with some fairly obvious disco roots. On his album Causers Of This there is a groovy tune called Talamak, which happens to be a love song.

It's a really good tune with a really bouncy sytnth wave and a thumping drumbeat and some catchy lyrics. I personally love this song because of the fact that it reminds me so much of KPGR the local radio station that I'm part of. There are a lot of good memories that go with this song for me.

Not only is Talamak a great song but Toro Y Moi has lots of other good music too!

I recommended this song so why don't you recommend something for me? Drop a comment if there's any thing specific you want me to review/talk about.

Cheers,
    Michael

Tin Man

Future Islands, a Boston based electro-pop group, is one of my favorite bands. Tin Man is one of their songs that really speaks to me.

It sets the mood with some bright steel drum chords with just the right amount of reverb followed by some subtle guitar chords. And then comes in Samuel Herring's very distinct vocals. The song has a really bright tone.

One of the best things about this song is the fact that it's so easy to relate to. The lyrics can mean anything to anyone. It talks of the tin man and I think that it's alluding to the Wizard of Oz and the fact that the tin man want's a heart.

If you haven't heard this song it's definitely worth listening to. While you're at it listen to their song Balance. It's a song that's all about the fact that time heals all wounds.

Thank you guys for reading and if you have any suggestions for my blog or songs you want me to review feel free to drop a comment on this post.

Cheers,
    Michael

Two Weeks

Grizzly Bear is a great band that has it's roots in Brooklyn, New York. I personally really like their sound and Two Weeks is a song of theirs that I absolutely love. It sends a simple message. Slow down, take your time, don't rush into things and it should work out.

This song brings me a simple joy from it's catchy piano part to the smooth voice of Ed Droste. It has a classic sounding guitar and is an all around feel good song.


This simple statement has helped me relax on many a stressful afternoon. It sends such a simple yet powerful message and personally I love it.

I was just listening to this song and I felt the need to post about it on my blog.

Cheers,
    Michael

Reflektor

This whole post is dedicated to the song Reflektor by Arcade Fire.

My plan is to break this song down into the bare elements that make it such a great track.

In the beginning of the track there's an abstract build that grabs your attention and leads in to the drumbeat with a super funky time signature that you can't help but like. When the bongo beat comes in there's some mildy modulated deep synth waves that lead into the guitar riff. The intro works because it forms a sort of mysterious dare I say eerie tone that sets the mood for the whole song, and also because of the fact that it's not so long that they lose your attention.

After around forty seconds of the intro, the vocals come in. Win Butler (lead singer for Arcade Fire) begins singing in an airy tone that becomes more distinct as he gets into the second line, this helps transition from the eerie sound in the intro to the more distinct bounce of the synth notes in the first verse of the song.

The chorus is brought in with some very distinctive almost gunshot like snaps that aren't overpowering but let you know that something is coming. In the chorus there's very catchy lyrics that are tied in by a droning saxophone.

In the bridge there's some saxophone harmonies and they talk a lot more about reflektors and stuff. And if I'm not mistaken David Bowie makes an appearance.

Then comes the outro, it's a seemingly perfect way to cool down at the end of the song and it brings it all together with a simple piano riff.

Throughout the whole song there are variations that keep your attention and add more layers of sound that overlap and flow really well.

Now that I've told you about the elements of the song itself I'll give you my opinion on it.

If you listen to the song you can tell that it had some influence from LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy, I love LCD Soundsystem so I'm perfectly ok with that, in fact I'm really happy about it.

I love this song, it meshes well and it's fairly minimalistic and I can dig that. For a long time music was all about how many layers of sound you could have and the more full the sound was the better. Now music on the mainstream is taking a minimalist turn, first with Kanye's Yeezus and Jay-Z's Magna Carta and the Holy Grail and now with Reflektor. I'm loving the turn music is taking towards minimalism.

Reflektor is one that will go down in the recordbooks. All of the hype for this album was paid in full. I love it!

Cheers,
    Michael

I'm going to give you some consistency.

From here on out. I will post at least once a week. There will be a post every Wednesday. That's a promise. Also I'm going to do more things to get my followers involved so if you want me to do a spotlight on you highlighting your favorite music feel free to drop a comment on this post or message me on twitter @unicycle_kid. I hope you guys enjoy reading my blog and I'll be better about posting regularly I promise!

Cheers,
    Michael

Hey one more thing.

Sorry I forgot to mention this in my last post but I would love to start doing some song band and album reviews. If you have anything that you'd like me to listen to and review feel free to drop a comment on any of my posts. And if you enjoy my blog I'd really appreciate it if you shared it with your friends via social networking. I love posting and I'd love to make it mean more to you by giving you a say in what I blog about!

Cheers,
    Michael

Sorry It's been a while guys...

Sorry it has been a while since I've posted... I've been crazy sick and really busy with school and stuff...

I thought I would talk about a few of the things that I look for to make a good song.

A song needs to have substance, there needs to be emotion linked to the song, whether it's through lyrics or the music itself. Some songs rely heavily on lyrics and others rely heavily on the music.

Some examples of this are Jesus Christ by Brand New and First Breath After Coma by Explosions in the Sky. In the song Jesus Christ the music is fairly redundant and but the lyrics speak so much to the soul about some age old questions the singer is asking. In First Breath After Coma the feeling in the music itself is enough to send chills down your spine, they capture the beauty of what it must feel like to wake up into our beautiful world again and send that feeling out through their resonating guitar notes and dynamic percussion.

Both of these songs are amazing. I love them both and if you haven't heard them it would be a good idea to give them a listen. They really pack an emotional punch.

Although these songs are great they can't even compare to the song Blood by The Middle East. This song has the musical appeal of First Breath After Coma and the lyrical appeal of Jesus Christ. There have been many times when songs by The Middle East have brought me to tears. They have made a huge emotional impact to me and I really love their EP The Recordings of The Middle East. In fact I just bought that EP on vinyl to add to my collection.

Basically what i'm saying is, in order for a song to be good, it needs to have some REAL emotional backing. Sappy love songs written by boy bands just don't live up to my expectations.

Cheers,
    Michael

What music means to me

Music is without fail the #1 thing that makes me feel emotions. Music is a huge part of my life. I don't play any instruments but I am very involved with music. I'm a DJ on a local independent radio station and I manage a small music venue. When i'm not busy with these things i'm usually hanging out with my friends or working on my car. No matter what i'm doing I almost always have music playing.

I'm an avid concert goer. I go to concerts as often as I can. I've seen some fairly big names in concert such as Alt-j, Passion Pit, Matt and Kim, Imagine Dragons, The National, Sharon Van Etten, Neon Trees, Grouplove, Young Empires, The Postal Service, Baths, and I've also seen many local independent bands.

I collect vinyl records and I have a small but good collection that includes, Alt-j, Radiohead, The Postal Service, Smashing Pumpkins, Arcade Fire, The National, Boots to the Moon, Eyes Lips Eyes, Swimm, and Desert Noises.

I like to think of myself as a music critic and I love to review albums songs and artists.

If you have any questions for me, any music for me to review or any thoughts on what I should blog about feel free to leave me a comment on this post.

Cheers,
    Michael.

Just some background on me.

I'm more of a music listener that someone who plays music but believe me when I say that I almost always have something playing.

I collect vinyl records and cassette tapes. My collection is small but i'm working on it.

I've been to somewhere around 30 concerts in the last 11 months.

I spend a lot of money on music. I've spent over $1,250 in the past year and that's quite a bit considering I'm a poor high school student.

I'm always willing to talk about music with anyone and I try not to be too biased. (Key word in that last statement is TRY)

When it comes to liking music the biggest thing for me is the feeling and emotion behind the artist. If a song has seemingly meaningless lyrics and generic beats and harmonies I have a hard time liking it.

If you want to recommend a song or artist to me I'm always willing to give something new a try! Just post your suggestions in the comments.

If you want me to review something suggest it in the comments as well.

Cheers,
    Michael

Spotify: why I recommend it.

If you noticed up on my sidebar I have this cool little gadget called the spotify play button. If you don't have a spotify account I highly recommend you get one!

Here's Why:

1. You can listen to all the music you want and it's free!

2. The artists who made the music get paid when you listen to their songs because of a thing called royalties.

3. It's a good way to test the water before you buy music. There are tons of songs by loads of artists that you can listen to and decide if you like them before you spend money on their music.

4. You can listen to my super great playlist on my sidebar!

Cheers,
    Michael

So... I'm giving the blog thing a try.

Hopefully this will all go well. I decided recently to start a blog about something that I'm really passionate about. MUSIC. Being a DJ for a local radio station and an avid concert goer, I decided that this would work.

I'm a self claimed music critic and I'm proud of it. I like to think that I know which bands will be up and coming into the spotlight soon.

I have a hard time when I try to describe how I feel about music, but I found a quote that do my feelings justice. This was said by Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher who lived from 1844 to 1900, he said, "Without music, life would be a mistake."

I could go on and on but I'll save you some time by saying be feel to have a seat and stay a while if you want to know what I think of music.

Cheers,

    Michael