Anberlin

I have been gone seemingly every weekend this quarter visiting tons of different cities from Houston to Pittsburgh to San Diego. Fittingly one of my favorite rock bands, Anberlin, just released their highly anticipated album, Cities. Anberlin is one of those bands that reinvents themselves with each record, yet manages to keep their own distinct feel.

Their debut Blueprints for the Black Market has some almost 80's metal touches to it combined with soaring choruses, strong guitar fills, and driving drums. From their first album on, they are able to show their versatility in rockers like 'Readyfuels" to ballad-like tunes such as "Naive Orleans." Their second effort Never Take Friendship Personal adds much more of an uptempo element to the songs. They don't necessarily rock as hard as in the first album, but they make you want to run around your room and roll on your bed and mess up all the sheets and then run around some more like a ghost with your sheets over your head...not like I've done it before.

Their newest effort, Cities, produced by Aaron Sprinkle adds a more refined and darker element to Anberlin. The album kicks off with the wicked 'Godspeed" that really kicks you in the face. Perhaps a little overproduced, but nonetheless a solid song that really drives into and through the chorus. Throughout this album Anberlin's versatility really shines between slow songs such as 'The Unwinding Cable Car' and faster ones such as 'Adelaide'. One thing that really sticks out for me in this album is the improvement in the drumming. I really like the varying beats...not just hi-hat, snare, and bass...they really mix it up, use tight fills, and complement the melodies incredibly well. Take a listen for yourself and rock out a bit to Anberlin.

Anberlin - Glass to the Arson off of Blueprints

Anberlin - Time & Confusion off of Never Take Friendship Personal

Anberlin - Godspeed off of Cities

Anberlin - Dismantle.Repair. off of Cities

On the road again

Well we're back from sunny San Diego. The weather was perfect outside of Monday and I had a great time just being outside and playing Ultimate. Now its time for a 180 as I'm heading up to Michigan for some skiing this weekend. You know what that means....road trip. And there's nothing more important to a roadtrip than the music. If your drive is anything more than a couple hours, it's essential to have some good tunes to keep you going.

The key to good music for a car ride is that it should be something you love to sing along to. If you just zone out and sing along to the tunes then the time can just fly by. That's why I love the band Limbeck. These Orange Country rockers have an addicting style of country-influenced indie rock that will get you tapping your toes and singing along in minutes. Their 2003 release Hi, Everything's Great is an extraordinary album that entertains from beginning to end. While not quite as good, 2005's Let Me Come Home has some excellent tracks as well.

Here's a couple tracks, the first two off of Hi, Everything's Great and the last one off Let Me Come Home. Limbeck is a great band to listen to in the car. Their music isn't anything complicated or overdone (they like to joke about how they write all their songs in the same key), but rather simple songs that are easy to love.

Limbeck - Gamblin' Man

Limbeck - In Ohio On Some Steps

Limbeck - Parking Lot

Goin to Cali

So Alec and I are both going to be in San Diego, California until late Monday playing some ultimate under the sweet sun and over the green grass. Forecasts are lookin pretty good...75, 75, 70.... Because of this, I wanted to post a few songs that have something to do with California. These bands should probably each get a post to themselves (and they may in the future)...but check these tunes out and try not to look at all the snow outside your window...unless you are pumped to play snow football or go sledding, which is understandable.

Spitalfield - I Love the Way She Said "L.A."
Probably the most "sunshine-y" of all the songs. Just a straight up pop-punk tune with some good bass inflection and really solid drumming that mixes it up and drives the entire track. Addicting as hell too.

Alkaline Trio - San Francisco
Arguably the fan favorite song from this Chicago-based band that has been around for a while. A raw, mid-tempo, emo, punkish tune that relates the story of being across the nation from your lover.

The Band of Annuals - San Francisco, Take Me Back
A much more endearing vision of San Fran than the previous tune. I really love this band and the slide-stylings, alt-country storytelling, and beautiful harmonies. This one makes me want to go to San Fran.

The Beach Boys - California Girls
If you want to know about girls all over the nation, listen up. Classic...enough said.

Big D and the Kids Table - L.A.X.
This one will break you out of any daze. The F-bomb is probably dropped here more than in any song...my favorite ska band playing one of my favorite tunes of theirs. You can really tell how much they love the LA lifestyle....and by the way, this song is INSANE live.

The New Amsterdams - From California
These guys are my personal favorite band, and this whole cd is absolutely incredible. This is a good place to start, as most of my friends who hear this song when I play the cd comment immediately on how much they like it. It's beautiful, check it out.

The Game - California Vacation
Off his new album, which is actually really solid and well produced. Guest spots by Snoop Dogg and Xzibit are well executed, and the flow is solid throughout. This is the one we cruise around in the rental cars with right when we land....because it's a west coast vacation baby.


Hope you guys enjoy the tunes....we'll be back on Tuesday with something new. In the meantime, while we're gone...post some comments and let us know what you want us to write about. Do you like album reviews (a la Brand New), artist showcases (a la Phoenix or Sunday Jazz), playlists (a la Christmas Soul), themes (Cali theme), learning stuff about music (a la technical stuff)?? Is there a genre that you want us to talk more about (We've tried to give you guys a solid cross-section of what we listen to...we've got a lot more still in waiting)?? We just want to get you guys into and talkin about music...that's the purpose of this thing. And..thanks a lot for reading!

-Kyle

Sunday Jazz: Jimmy Smith

The organ is probably my favorite jazz instrument. There's something about the sound of an organ when it really gets cranked that just gets to me. It's an instrument full of power and soul, and one of the best at releasing these qualities was Jimmy Smith. I think it's incredible that organists like Smith were able to not only bring out the sounds and lines of their instruments, but also maintained a steady bass line at the same time, basically fulfilling the roles of two players.

The first track is an amazing rendition off of his 1972 album Root Down of Al Green's classic hit Let's Stay Together. The album is a live studio album in which the members just sat down inside the studio and ripped out the tunes, and the result is one hell of a cd. I love listening to this cd with the volume cranked to the point where you feel like the band is actually in the same room as you. This is one of the slower tunes on the cd, but still a great one.

Jimmy Smith - Let's Stay Together

And here's the original just cause it's such a good song too

Al Green - Let's Stay Together


And finally for the willing is the famous track The Sermon off of the likewise titled 1958 album. Smith was known for adding gospel and soul influences to his jazz playing, and this might be one of the best examples. The song clocks in at over 20 minutes (very sermon-like if you think about it) but is full of great solos and a solid groove that it doesn't seem to matter.

Jimmy Smith - The Sermon


-Alec

Turning the Corner

So I think that the weather is finally starting to turn the corner towards spring. I mean, it's gone from 0 with a -30 windchill to 16 degrees in about two days. That is pretty sweet. And, so with that...I'll put up some pop tunes that I have been listening to a lot lately.

The band is Phoenix. They are four natives of Paris, France who put out some catchy pop-indie tunes. Their 2006 release It's Never Been Like That has been getting some heavy spinning from me lately. I've heard them described as a 'poor-man's Strokes,' which I feel is pretty true. They, like the early Strokes records, tend to keep certain themes throughout their songs....like a constant guitar strum or vocal nuance. My favorite track from the album is one that is below called 'Long Distance Call.' In this song especially, I feel that Phoenix does an incredible job of layering sound. Each part is not too much, and each part is distinct...from the drums to the falling then rising bass line to the chord progression of the lead guitar. Not only that, but the intro is sick with the synth chords syncopating with the drums and singing...it's a really cool effect.

The second song, 'Consolation Prizes' is a more straight up pop tune. Once again, I find the interaction between the singer and guitar is quite nice, and the layering is very evident especially in the chorus...my ear seems to catch a new part every time I listen to it. Hopefully these tunes will get you in the mood for spring...because it's supposed to be a tropical 18 degrees for the rest of the week!

Phoenix - Long Distance Call

Phoenix - Consolation Prizes

A couple random notes

I never decided what I wanted to write about for this post, so instead I'm gonna just mention a couple things that Kyle has found out about recently that are pretty sweet. I know I'm stealing his thunder with this one cause he found them, but whatever, I don't care.

The first thing is a website called ruckus.com that provides free music downloads to anyone with a .edu email address. The catch is that the files are encrypted and can only be played using the ruckus player, which is a terrible program. But if you're willing to either sacrifice and put up with the player, or buy a converter that converts the files so they're not encrypted, then you have access to a library that is 2 million songs plus and growing. There's a lot of cool stuff on it all for free.

The second is a add on program for Itunes called Iconcertcal that installs a calendar in your itunes and lists any concerts in your area by artists in your Itunes library. This thing is really handy, it pretty much eliminates all the searching of websites trying to find who's playing where, and instead just places all the information right in one calendar.

These are two great tools to be able to listen to more music and see more live shows, which is pretty sweet.


So since this post is completely random, I'll just post a couple random songs that I've been really into lately.

Royksopp - Remind Me

You might recognize this song from the Geico commercial with the caveman in the airport. I love that commercial, but also the song. The song has a great synth bass line

Snoop Dogg - Think About It

This is a track of the new Snoop Dogg cd released earlier this year. It's the only song I have right now, but its a pretty damn good song. They slowed down a old Jerry Butler sample and put a nice beat behind it and just let Snoop go.


And Prince at the Super Bowl? Did not work for me. What did you think?