Cheers!

I have a follower! Hip, hip, hooray!!!

I will write a longer post soon, but I just wanted to express my excitement and gratitude :)

Welcome to Americana!

All the everything - perpetual groove
American Idiot - green day
American Saturday night - brad paisley
Americana - the Offspring
And now... the Verbs
Anticipation - Lewis Black

We are making progress through the A's and I enjoyed the diversity of genres since last posting. From the 2000's favorite controversial "rock opera" to a new country record to an "optomistic" comedic rant, this listening session proved to be very interesting to my eardrums.

All the everything was everything I ever wanted in the sounds of spacey melodic jam rock. There are plenty of riffs and motifs that I enjoyed on this album, and plenty that keep replaying in between the ears. Top three: "Long past settled in," "Scooter," and "Crockett and Tubbs." Seeing pgroove live is a great experience and if you ever have the opportunity to see them, try not to miss out because it will blow your mind!

"American Idiot" was my "rock opera" allusion in the opening paragraph, and I enjoyed hearing this collection of tunes after not hearing them for a while. Always a fan of Jesus of suburbia and whatsername, this cd has brought back great memories from high school. A rudimentary high school rock band, in which I was involved, used to play this cd from beginning to end and we had a lot of fun doing it! Its all about fun :)

This is the first country cd in the review, and a pretty decent one to start with! I have become a bit of a country fan since coming to school in the south and that is the majority of what is played on the FM dial. Brad is definitely one of my favorites due to his musicianship and great lyrics. His mix between satire and sentiments, blues and ballads, always makes his albums a great listen front to back. This record was no exception, I was very content with Brad's efforts.

Americana from the Offspring is in my opinion where they kind of started to shift their gears as far as their musical qualities. Therefore, there are some unoffspring creations that are nice nonetheless. The always fun to listen to "Pretty fly for a white guy" and "why don't you get a job" are great tunes. I want to cover one of them I think...

And now... the verbs is a fun "project" from drummer Steve Jordan. He also adds bass, vocals, and possibly keys to the unique sound. Most of the songs feature light rock grooves, but they dust on a slew of genres and flavors. Its a good listen for once in a while..

Anticipation, a straight stand-up set recorded for home audio, was filled with rants and raves from Lewis. His humor, very logical, intellectual, and darn right offensive, got me chuckling quite a bit. My favorite bits included his ideas to elect Santa Claus as POTUS, losing his virginity to a skipping record, and obviously the routine about golfers.

That is it for now noble readers.. This weekend is going well so far, but it is way to cold and it is keeping me unmotivated... Lets get a heatwave Clemson,... I want 40's next week PLEASE!! Time to kill that keg!
Until next time...
Take care of...
yourselves..
and don't..
forget...
to tip..
your.
wai-
tr-
e-
s-
s!

Ah Via Musicom

Absolutely - Sister Hazel
Absolutely The Best of the 1970's - Various Artists
Acoustic Africa - Putamayo Presents... Various Artists
Acoustic Soul - India.Arie
African Groove - Putamayo Presents... Various Artists
AfroFlow - Mike E.
Ah Via Musicom - Eric Johnson
Akoustic Band - Chick Corea Akoustic Band

These albums have been listened to yours truly this week so far... I really enjoyed most of them, and they somehow fit my mood pretty well in the order when I listened to them. I am sure this will not be the case throughout the year, but it was a pretty neat coincidence.

Absolutely from Sister Hazel was very interesting and the songs are very catchy. They are fun when you want them to be and they have a couple of really heartfelt ballads thrown in there as well. I think I like this album a little better than some of their others, but I will definitely get back to you with that answer when I re-listen to the other S.H. records a little later in the year. Thumbs up!

Absolutely the best of the 1970's was a nice description of this compilation hits album. Most of the diddies made me either want to dance or love.. if you catch my drift. Good stuff, definitely a keeper.

Putamayo Presents is a really neat series of compilations that presents worldly music to the ignorant music appreciators such as myself in a very accessible medium. I really enjoy these two editions (Acoustic Africa and African Groove) and I found myself very connected to a completely different people, culture, and continent. When I feel my world is too small around me, I will just put one of these on and "take a trip" to remind myself the vastness of this globe.

Acoustic Soul.. Damn, I felt like I was just in the presence of a completely stripped and naked and exposed artist here in the form of India.Arie. I do not have much experience with her music, but I really dig her vocals, her voice, and quite literally her soul. Further investigating into her music will be on a list of things to do!

I saw AfroFlow at the CU Relay for Life last spring and picked up there CD after really enjoying their set. They made me move in ways I didn't think a white boy could. And their rhymes are tight as hell, not to mention really meaningful and unlike most of the raps I hear on the tube or radio. I think the hip hop world could grow immensely with more artists like Mike-E. Props man.

Cliffs of Dover was featured on one of the Guitar Hero games, and it is also featured on Ah Via Musicom, a nice collection of shredding, funky riffs, and mindblowing solos. The skill level that Eric plays with truly inspires and the genres he plays are generally enjoyed by many people. Hard to describe his sound, because he kind of plays whatever is on his mind, at least that is the way it sounds. Very groovy though... I liked.

Akoustic Band would have probably enjoyed more by me if I was listening more intently because I was busy doing some skoolwork when I gave it a listen, and I didn't catch all of Chick's intricasies. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the jazziness.

And so ends this posting. First day of classes was today,... I liked them so far! Only had two, but they seem to be interesting. I have never taken a Psych. course and now I have two in one day (3 times a week). My mom thinks I might get psyched out... <<>>

Listening to some splendid P>Groove right now and I will comment on it for my next post... I hope my audience has read long enough to read this, and I will say THANK YOU for reading :)
Until next time...

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to the best year of the decade... We are now living the 21st century teens, but in all reality, the decade has not matured yet, and I would say it is still a "pre-teen." 2010 marks the start of a decade we can almost call by a normal name, as there is confusion mentioned in the previous sentence. However, at least we do not have to call it the "zero's" or the "naught's" or any of the other ridiculous names that were used to describe the first 10 years of this millenium.

So, my new year started in my homestate of New York, and as I am completely sick of the cold, M.N. wanted to send me off with a little something to remember her by. I think I have been sick (however minor it might be) with a head cold since I came home just before Thanksgiving. Oh well, I arrived in South Carolina last night after a long day of driving. I also went to Philadelphia on the way down to see my sister. She took me out in downtown Wilmington, Delaware, which was surprisingly fun! The bar we went to was hosting Kristin and the (mother f'in) Noise, a great cover band that played in my sister's college town a lot when she was enrolled undergrad. I had a really nice night filled with dancing and keeping my sister and her friends entertained. Yesterday, I drove down the eastern "oceanboard" (instead of seaboard, because its an ocean). I did have company for a change though, as my last few drives up and down to school, Florida, and other cross-country ventures have been by myself. My friend from Jersey drove with me and we were a good driving team, details do not to be explained, but there were no fights in the car for 11 hours. Watched Pineapple Express with Teeb's last night and there were some parts where I couldn't stop laughing... It actually started to hurt! Anyways,... I have a lot of unpacking to do today and getting settled. Exciting stuff today: grocery shopping, textbook shopping, parking permit shopping, etc. I don't know if you can consider all that "shopping" but it needed a common bond.

Brief album note ---> I started my album listening experience and haven't gotten very far, but I did listen to the Abbey Road album and truly felt enchanted by this work of art. With songs like "Oh, Darling," "I Want You (She's so heavy)," and "Here Comes the Sun," this Beatles work is one of the greatest in all of music. So ahead of their time and so freakin' timeless...
*Side note*** I recently watched the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" movie and was very pleased with it.. The plot and cinematics were slightly lacking, but the music is great and the cameos are unforgettable. Steve Martin singing "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" was quite creepy, but very memorable. And Steven Tyler fighting with Peter Frampton, now that was a great scene!

Thanks for Reading! ;) Until next time...