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So Pittsburgh and John Fogerty really have nothing to do with each other, except for the fact that I have seen both in the past 5 days. For those of you who know and those who don't, I just moved to Pittsburgh yesterday. It's actually a pretty cool city, with a decent skyline, some cool parts, and really nice people (I already got two free beers in one day). So come on and visit me on the Southside if you so desire.
And for the music, if you don't know who John Fogerty is, you actually do. He was the lead singer/guitar player for the very famous Creedence Clearwater Revival. Fogerty left the band in the early 70's after some buisness disputes (and by most accounts, he is kind of an asshole). He now tours solo with a backing band and plays lots of old Creedence tunes along with new ones that he has written. He still hops around the stage like a 30 year old, and his voice hasn't lost too much, which made for a great show a few days ago in Milwaukee. I would highly recommend catching this legend in concert while you still can, I'm sure you'll be able to sing along to more songs than you think.
As many of you probably already have the 'Revival' album by Creedence, I'm going to post a few of my favorite 'covers' of Fogerty tunes below. The first is a cover of 'Proud Mary' by soul singer Solomon Burke. It is quite smooth with an acoustic guitar accented by an electric, and Solomon Burke keeping everything nice and velvety. The second is a cover of 'Bad Moon Rising' by Steel Train. We've done a previous post on Steel Train, so check that out...but here is another silky-smooth rendition of a Fogerty tune. A good late summertime tune, so I feel that it's pretty topical. The last tune, 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine' was actually written by songwriter Norman Whitfield, who had Marvin Gaye sing it. It became a number one hit, and has obviously been covered itself many times (and once by Fogerty and CCR). Enjoy the tunes!
Solomon Burke - Proud Mary
Steel Train - Bad Moon Rising
Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through the Grapevine
This is going to be kind of a quick post because I am getting ready to leave town and ran out of time, but I wanted to share a little gem that I stumbled on the other day. I was flipping channels when I came across "Ricky Martin Unplugged" on MTV Tr3s. Now before you rush to judgment, hear me out on this. I know Ricky Martin has infiltrated the US airwaves with his Latin-infused style of pop music, but there's another side of him.
The MTV series showcased a less poppy Martin performing songs of his Spanish albums; songs which have a much stronger Latin influence in their style and rhythm. The songs were full of the infectious rhythms and horn lines that make Latin and Salsa music so irresistible. I was never a Ricky Martin fan before, and still am not entirely, but I did discover a newfound respect for his musical abilities. I downloaded the cd later to give it a second listen, and he truly has some good songs that probably land somewhere between Latin American pop and Salsa.
Here's a couple of the better songs off the album. In particular I like the songs that are more upbeat and based heavily upon Latin rhythms. Some of the other songs on the album are more just straight pop songs and really aren't that good. I think I would really like Ricky Martin if he would cut the cheesy pop stuff, but still he can make some pretty good music. And even if you don't want to give Ricky credit, at least listen to the backing band, because they are pretty impressive. I think of these four my favorite is Pegate, its pretty much impossible to listen to this song just once, the chorus is just too addictive.
Ricky Martin - Maria
Ricky Martin - Pegate
Ricky Martin - Lola Lola
Ricky Martin - La Bomba
Hope you enjoy, and please don't hate me for writing about Ricky Martin.
- Alec
So I just got back from a whirlwind trip of Europe, which was quite an experience. I ate lots of strange yet delicious food, did some sauna, slept in an airport, threw up once, drank copious amounts of strange and familiar beers, and saw lots of old friends from my year abroad. What does this have to do with music? Well, I had to travel to all of these places, and my favorite CD to listen to on the plane rides/in the airport was this one.
The band is Dear and the Headlights, the CD is Small Steps Heavy Hooves. They play a brand of music that is hard to be classified as pop or indie or rock really. It has the voice that is a bit strong and difficult to get used to for some (indie-esque), it has some verse-chorus-verse-chorus-break-chorus tunes (pop-esque), and you get some guitar solos and rockin out (rock-esque). I think that they blend it together pretty well, and put forth quite a few compelling songs and a very solid album. It's one that as I listened to it for the first time, I had my finger on the 'next track' button after the first 10 seconds of pretty much every song, but never pressed it because all of the songs somehow got interesting to me in the next 5 seconds.
Here are a few that I didn't even lay my finger on the 'next track' button for. The first, called 'Sweet Talk', opens up showcasing their rock-ish side. It switches between emotional and strained rock segments, with indie breaks throughout the song which provide a nice contrast the whole way. Then in the end they are combined in a real nice break, where he holds his notes much longer and ends the tune. The second is called 'I'm Bored, You're Amourous.' This one will get your leg bouncing right from the start. When you hear the first chorus you may be a bit turned off...but give it a shot, it's an addicting tune. The last is "Run in the Front', which is a Third Eye Blind-esque pop tune. It's probably the easiest one to get into, and a fun one to cruise along to in the car (most preferably in autumn).
Dear and the Headlights - Sweet Talk
Dear and the Headlights - I'm Bored, You're Amorous
Dear and the Headlights - Run In the Front
Saved you from Alec at last.
-Kyle
I'm back from a break at home where my computer refused to connect to our wireless, so I can now resume posts. I admit I haven't been listening to a ton of new stuff over the past month or so, but I did get my hands on the latest release from southern rap star T.I. The album is titled T.I. vs T.I.P., which chronicles the rapper's internal battle between his cultured, intelligent personality T.I. and his streetwise, rebellious personality T.I.P (the moniker he formerly used before dropping the P in respect to fellow rapper Q-Tip).
I really felt this album was quite similar to his last release King, in many ways, both good and bad. For the most part T.I. brings back the same style and southern swagger that brought him to the spotlight in the beginning. The cocksure young rapper has a knack for combining hooks with great beats. My problem with this album is that some of his ideas seem to be recycled from time to time. There are many parts that sound similar, and often times I was reminded of stuff from King as well. This is related to the album's other problem, and that's too much filler. Just like King, this one comes in at 18 tracks, about 6 more than needed. A few of the weaker tracks could have easily been removed without drawing from the album as a whole.
The one other thing I didn't like was the lack of the slower songs. While T.I. is well known for his rapid style delivery, his slower songs in which his southern drawl is really brought out are powerful as well, such as What You Know. I felt this style of song was lacking here.
Here are a couple of my favorite tracks so far, including the single Big S**T Poppin' (Do It), the first single.
T.I. - Big S**T Poppin' (Do It)
T.I. - My Swag (feat. Wyclef Jean)
T.I. - Show It To Me (feat. Nelly)
Also I think I'm just going to post the links for downloading now. Embedding the links for streaming was more time consuming and I don't think it adds that much.
- Alec
