New Hit Song

"You raze me up."

The Killers on SNL

A Saturday Night Live episode aired on October 5th featuring the Vice Presidential debate with Anne Hathaway hosting. I have been a partial fan of the Killers for a while, struggling to dechiper their lyrics and comparing them against the members' dubius profiles on the almighty Wikipedia. The musicians are skillful, but doubtlessly bored. This rides dangerously close to pop music, which is unusual for me, but then again it was a year ago when I first investigated them. I saw Weird Al, my other favorite artist, at Commion Ground last year and heard the song "Polkarama!". The chorus of "Somebody Told Me," the Killers' breakout single, is polkafied in that gloious pop medley.
Anyway, vocalist Brandon Flowers put on an erratic and robotic appearence during the first song, "Human." He looked rather frightened. Bassist Mark Stoermer showed promise in 2004's Hot Fuss by busting out the slap line on the first track, but the popular "When You Were Young" on the sophomore release Sam's Town (featured on Guitar Hero II) had a dismally boring bass line. When you have musicians that are this good, why wouldn't they want to actually utilize their skill? The non-band member in the back sang most of the background vocals and rhythm guitar, but wasn't allowed a space in the photo. Brandon Flowers was looking kind of skinny in his feather-shouldered jacket, and his performance was jittery and spastic. He didn't shift into performance mode until the end of the second song, "Spaceman", cracking a few smiles. The drummer, Ronnie Vannucci Jr., was very impassioned. He played an old-school kit and reminded me of Stanley Clarke. After many hours of pouring over their music and imaginative, cryptic lyrics, I've developed a fondness for his strange voice. It's got personality.
Let the flak rain in..

Review of Death Magnetic

I recently got Metallica's new CD from the library to see if their new bassist, Robert Trujillo, had the same positive impact on this washed-up metal band as he did on hardcore act Suicidal Tendencies (who has a song on Guitar Hero 2) and funk-metal band Infectious Grooves. Their songs are longer, which I like: Seven-minute songs are way cooler than the three-minute fluff dominating the hierarchical regime known as radio. Only the past glory of Metallica from the Cliff Burton years is the only thing that propelled this record to the top of the charts when it debuted a couple of months ago. The bummer is that their sound hasn't evolved much since the eighties. The riffs could've been conceived by a guitarist of a few months- whereas James Hetfield has been playing for thirty-one years. Kirk Hammet's solos are lame, pattern-based, unexciting, lacking musical value, and only express that their creator didn't put any thought into them. Also, Trujillo's monstrous skills are buried in the mix. Hetfield's vocal melodies insist on being tonic based. That means they focus on the root of the chord. This wouldn't be a problem if Metallica's songs changed chords with any kind of regularity. I don't pay attention to the words, but they probably suck. Kaitlyn, the girl sitting next to me right now in study hall, thinks that Britney Spears' music is better than Dream Theater. Unfortunately, this kind of unnerving ignorance is fatal. Yes, I am slightly kidding. The only treatment is to listen to the Britney Spears discography, taking several doses of Pepto-Bismol along the way. Then listen to just one song by Dream Theater. My case is rested.
*Disclaimer: I didn't listen to the whole thing, since the first four tracks were so bad. If there's a gem later on, my ruling stands. A band with so much experience has no business crafting these kinds of songs.

I've got about three posts almost completed, so detain those equestrians.

The Marine Band is amazing

Last Monday the U.S. Marine band played at the Wharton Center and it was an incredible concert. It was directed by Colonel Michael J. Colburn with Major Jason K. Fettig as the Assistant Director.

"The Fairest of the Fair", march by John Phillips Sousa- Apparently this awesome band leader wrote this after spying on some lady. It's a nice march, but not genius.

"A Fugal Overture, Opus 40, No. 1"- by Gustav Holst. I've played "First Suite in Eb" and "Mars" in band class.

"Colloquy" by William Goldstein. Trombwnage!! The nation was in the throes of Depression and this twenty-year old composer wrote a piece featuring trombone to lift spirits. Master Gunnery Sergeant Bryan Bourne made it look easy. The piece was not one of my favorites, but was delivered standing without music. It involved seamlessly stratospheric notes. He became the principal trombone in '91, I think, but he's not the section leader for some reason. Gunnery Sergeant Chris Clark is.

Now here we come to the highlight of the concert, and one of my new favorite pieces for band. "La Fiesta Mexicana" was written by former Director of Composition at MSU H. Owen Reed. He wrote it in 1949 after staying in Mexico for half a year. It's a phenomenal work of art. The arranging is so creative, the transitions so seamless, that I was prepared to denounce every other genre for its lack of artistry and creativity. I've only had that sensation twice before: In my younger years I shunned all secular music; and now as I come to realize that progressive metal is the greatest type of music being produced today.
After that musical onslaught, John Phillips Sousa sounds like an idiot. They played the official Marine Corps. song, written by JPS in 1889. "Semper Fidelus" was obviously going to be in the lineup.
After a short Intermission, the group returned with my second-favorite piece: “Three Dances from The Three-Cornered Hat.” Pablo Picasso designed the sets and costumes for The Three-Cornered Hat. Isn’t that something? Stephen Sondheim is evidently important, because the announcer lady that the audience presumed to be an orator and doter upon the group’s talent actually gave an admirable vocal performance. I didn’t actually know any of the songs though…
Following the obligatory national march and stand-up-veterans-anthem thing, my family departed, glad we didn’t stay home to watch Chuck that night.

Why DragonForce Sucks

A lot of people like DragonForce because they sound awesome and godlike on their guitars. Too bad, they suck. All of DragonForce's songs sound the same. Their solos are mostly unmusical. The only bass contribution is a horribly out-of-place slap bombardment in "Body Breakdown". There aren't enough guitarists to pull off the songs live, they use Whammy Pedals instead of pinch harmonics, they always have a "whoa" section, they suck live, their drummer plays in double-time almost exclusively, they pride themselves on producing noise, not in a musical way like Hendrix. Their lyrics are homogeneous and devoid of real meaning, they can't stop wanking even in a slow song. They repeat riffs, always use the same tone, and are always in 4/4 except the intro to one of the songs on Inhuman Rampage. Their verses always contain single-note tremolo picking and their songs are formulaic. Sure, they sound perfect in the studio, but fail live.

Let's pit them against the best band ever, Dream Theater.

Dream Theater, on the other hand, has chops to spare and knows when not to use them. They are incredibly tasteful and groovy, and know how to compose long songs, concept albums, clever lyrics, and fast and slow passages. Every single member is incredible on their instrument. Oh, yeah, they aren't crap live. They're awesome. Their singer occasionally has difficulty, but their songs are miles from predictable. They know what they're doing and fans appreciate that. Instead of a Samus rip-off among Tetris blocks for cover art, Dream Theater's art is full of symbolism. http://dt.spatang.com/octavarium.phpThat's why Dream Thetear will endure and StudioForce will fade away into the annals of Tasteless Wankers history. Compare "Through Fire and Flames" with something like "Octavarium", "Take the Time", or "Dance of Eternity". Here's a dialogue:

Sam: "Hey Herman, do want to do 'Cry for Eternity' tonight?"

Herman: "Is that the one with the melodramatic intro, frantic verse, chorus-like prechorus, endless solos, 'Whoa' section, vague lyrics, and dramatic end?"

Sam: "I don't know, you just described about fifteen of our songs. I can only remember our solos from 'Fire and Flames', the song that made the world worship our scales. How about we just repeat the solos for the whole night?" Then there's Dream Theater.

Mike: "Hey Jordan, want to do Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence as a whole tonight?"

Jordan: "Sure, I practice for six hours a day to memorize our whole setlist so you can change it to provide a unique concert experience each tour stop."

Which do you think is better?

Pandora- The Best Online Radio Ever

OK, my first post in the all-new music blog.
Pandora is a free online radio that is tailor-fit to suit your musical preferences. Just enter any song or artist and a station will automatically created containing music that matches it. You can then customize the output by giving feedback to the songs, indicating your preference with a raised or lowered thumb. There are premade genre staions you can listen to, as well as stations created by other users. The variety of music is amazing. They have bands not present on Wikipedia, which is an uncommon experience for me. Although they continually add new songs toi the database, I was disappointed that the International House of Prayer artist Misty Edwards as well as the Christan progressive metal band Touriniquet didn't exist. I've discovered so many new bands on there, it's cool. They analyze each track for characteristics, i.e. time signature, solos, structure, arrangement etc. and find songs with simliar traits. This site is an interactive part of a larger project called the Music Genome Project, which attempts to find the reasoning behind musical taste. Although their music liscenses don't permit rewinding or selecting a particular song, it's possible to bookmark interesting songs and purchase them through iTunes. My profile is here. Some sweet bands I've discovered include: Citriniti, The Third Ending, Behold...the Arctopus, Kamelot, the Black Mages, Guapo, Fromuz, Circus Maximus, King's X, Arena, Racer X, Nightwish, Vanden Plas, Sonata Arctica, Enchant, Blind Guardian, Andromeda, Derek Sherinian, Pravda, Ebu Gogo. Many are obscure and you probably will dislike most of them. Some people rave about iTunes' new Genius thing...Pandora's far superior. Sorry, Apple geeks.
Yeah, so anyway, check it out, you'll be glad you did. That's all the time we have for today, folks.
Until next time, God bless!
-Will

Introduction

Hello, Internet community! My name is Will, and I like music. Hopefully you like music too. So let's talk about it!!
I'll write about a venue, album, artist, composer, song, instrument, or genre, and you'll give me feedback and suggest new topics. I'll try to update this more than once a week so it doesn't get stale and crusty with nobody paying attention anymore. I'll also attempt to give you an informed opinion, because nobody likes idiots. Hopefully a new post is coming soon. I don't have time at the moment. Thank you!!