Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Needtobreathe New Album - THE RECKONING

Needtobreathe is one of my all time favorite bands, as previously noted. THEY HAVE A NEW ALBUM !!!(clap clap clap) called the Reckoning. I love every track, as I have on every album they have ever put out. (Is it wrong to still call them albums? Whatev...) They have such a diverse sound. On A Place Only You Can Go there is a moment that almost goes bagpipe and organ. On Maybe They're On To Us the feel turns Maroon 5. There are blues tracks, and country influences. Needtobreath is like a box of chocolates (cue Forrest Gump). But their lyrics are never banal. The posted excerpt from their own website is a good explaination of why.






♫There's a host of hurts we come across
None of which alike
From the air inside the birthing room
To the darkness where we die
Though I feel I'm just as strong as any man I know
I'm not able on my own

Carry round the secrets
Only heaven knows
Crawl into our darkened rooms where only victims go
Though I feel I'm strong enough to carry all this load
I'm not able on my own

All my actions, false or true
Selfish motives I will use
We were born with knives in hand
Trained to kill our fellow man
If we're not better than the rest
How will children do their best
Find your patience, find your truth
Love is all we have to lose

I'm not able on my own♫

__________________

“There was always this creeping reminder that we needed to show what the last ten years on the road had taught us. If we couldn't do that, everything we had worked for was meaningless.”

“We considered every note, every sound, and every lyric that went on this album,” Bo says of their fourth album The Reckoning, which was co-produced by the band with Rick Beato (who worked with the band on their records The Heat and The Outsiders), and was recorded over seven months mostly at their Plantation Studios in Charleston, SC. “Everything was put through the ‘Do we really believe in this or not,’ filter. We never settled. We were looking for a spark. Sometimes in the studio you’ve got to keep searching until something happens that feels magical. We were waiting for that moment to strike on each song before we called this album finished.” Bear adds, “At one point, we had done 10 different versions of the same song, but that process is what the record came to be about. We felt like no one could take this moment from us. I think you can feel the pressure we put on ourselves in every note of this record. The songs and the album became something much bigger than us ... something we had to live up to.”


Lyrically, all roads lead from the album’s title, which Bear says has several different meanings, one of them being the justification of accounts. “I like the idea that you put in all this work and at some point it comes to a peak -- that’s the reckoning time.”


What the band emerged with is a timeless-sounding album rooted in classic American rock and roll, unafraid to veer off into unexpected directions. Songs such as “Maybe They’re On To Us” address the paranoia of wondering whether people know too much about the band. “It also asks, ‘Are we still driven in the same way?’ We’re always questioning ourselves,” Bear says. Even the songs that may sound light-hearted on the surface, like “White Fences,” “Slumber,” and “Drive All Night,” explore serious themes. “’White Fences’ is about the American dream of growing up in a big house with a white picket fence, but when the dream is broken and things don’t pan out the way you planned, asking who’s going to fix it,” Bo says. “’Slumber’ is meant to be about how beauty is all around you but you just can’t see it because of the funk you’re in,” Bear says. “It speaks to something that we really care about which is giving yourself a chance.” And there’s “Drive All Night,” a galloping barnstormer that Bear sees as a statement on the false idea that one can run away from one’s problems. “The truth is, the more you run away, the worse it gets, whereas if you embrace the things around you, the more joy you’re going to have,” he says.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Ena Na Lena - AOMUSIC




From the 2011 album "...and Love Rages On")

“Ena Na Lena” contains various syllables taken from Polynesian, Gaelic and Swedish languages (translated as “Little flame, my flower of light”). The song features the Bishop Bavin St. George’s Children’s Choir from Johannesburg, South Africa, and the Rainbow Mountain Children’s School Choir from Asheville, North Carolina, USA.

Thanks to Liza for sharing this video with me. The photos are remarkable!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Jack and White - Telephone Games (Live Acoustic)




Brooke White (a beauty school drop out - cue Grease soundtrack) was first seen on American Idol...at least by me. I liked her voice. I didn't really think about her after that until I checked out her first album release High Hopes and Heartbreak. I wasn't particularly impressed, or should I say nothing made an impression on me, as I chose not to download any of the songs and can't remember them.

Brooke was blindly set up for a song writing session with Jack Matranga, who was born and raised in Sacramento, CA...a mere 45 minutes from me! He had formed an Indie pop-rock band that I never heard of (shock!) "They were to co-write a song for what was supposed to be Brooke’s next solo record. The pair had no expectations and minimal knowledge of each other’s history, musical or otherwise. But they found an almost instantaneous creative chemistry and spent the first hour just talking, sharing their influences and favorite songs. In just a few short hours, JACK AND WHITE penned their first tune.

This collection of songs that has been described as “reminiscent of the Buckingham/Nicks pairing of the 70's.” With Jack’s luminous guitar picking and Brooke’s warm airy vocal style, the two have harmonized to create something completely modern and relevant, yet classic sounding."

While the pair are both happy upbeat types, I took an instant shine to the title track of their collaborative EP, Gemini, which straddles the fence between shadow and sunshine. But what I love most about this album is the under produced quality of it. It sounds as if I could be sitting in their garage listening to a practice session. The more I listen to these six songs, the more I love them. I would have liked to hear Jack on lead. I haven't a clear shot at his voice yet, and for equal billing in the name, he sure doesn't get equal vloume in the lyrics, though they blend beautifully.


♫My friends, your friends
Everybody's whispering
The same old telephone games.

High school is over
We don't grow up
No we just get older
Such a shame.

And we can't shake it.
Is there any truth behind what
They are saying, babe?

I'm here, you're there
Talk is cheap, it's everywhere.
Denial eases the pain.

But when the summer turns to fall
I won't be waiting for your call.
I'm only holding on, holding on
For so long.
You've got me holding on...
On the line.

It's the talk of the town
Has my heart turned upside down.
The same old telephone games.

Send a message thru the wire
Set the rumor mill on fire.
Watch it burn up in flames.

And I believe, when I see
You standing in front of me
Eye-to-eye, face-to-face.

Are you lovin someone new?
Has a change of heart changed you?
Maybe I'm going insane.♫

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Riot - Three Days Grace

FOLLOWERS FUGE - Annie

She's done a lot of writing
It's like saying she's run marathons
but no one would believe their equality.

She weight lifts the music.
It is isometric, the way she listens...
the strength required to hold such a thing for three minutes
or more.

She's not sure anyone understands.
Maybe 29 do.
But more like 4.

They are elite like that
and she prefers it to a crowd.







Three Days Grace, which was originally called Groundswell, was a post-grunge band that formed in 1992 in Norwood, Ontario. Most of the members were attending high school when the band initially formed.

By the fall of 1995, two band members left and the band regrouped and changed the band name to "Three Days Grace". According to Gontier, the name stands for a sense of urgency with the question being: if you had three days to change something in your life could you do it? I relate to this music from the dense forest, out from which I occasionally visit the meadow. I cannot listen to sweet music for long. I cannot stomach main stream praise songs for long. My ears are bent, and often the music or lyrics must be equally crooked.



♫If you feel so empty
So used up, so let down
If you feel so angry
So ripped off so stepped on
You're not the only one
Refusing to back down
You're not the only one
So get up

Let's start a riot♫

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Angels On The Moon - Thriving Ivory




♫Do you dream that the world will know your name,
So tell me your name (tell me your name)
And do you care, about all the little things,
Or anything at all (or anything at all),

I wanna feel all the chemicals inside,
I wanna feel (I wanna feel),
I wanna sunburn just to know that I'm alive,
To know I'm alive (to know if I'm alive),

Don't tell me if I'm dying,
Cause I don't wanna know,
If I can't see the sun,
Maybe I should go,
Don't wake me cause I'm dreaming,
Of angels on the moon,
Where everyone you know,
Never leaves too soon

Do you believe in the day that you were born,
Tell me do you believe, (do you believe)
And do you know that every day's the first of the rest of your life,
Don't tell me if I'm dying,
Cause I don't wanna know,
If I can't see the sun,
Maybe I should go,
Don't wake me cause I'm dreaming,
Of angels on the moon,
Where everyone you know,
Never leaves too soon,

This is to one last day in the shadows,
And to know a brothers love,
This is to New York City angels,
And the rivers of our blood,
This is to all of us,
To all of us,

So don't tell me if I'm dying,
Cause I don't wanna know,
If I can't see the sun,
Maybe I should go,
Don't wake me cause I'm dreaming,
Of angels on the moon,
Where everyone you know,
Never leaves too soon,

Yeah you can tell me,
All your thoughts about the stars,
That fill polluted skies,
And show me where you run to,
When no one's left to take your side
But don't tell me where the road ends,
Cause I just don't wanna know,
No, I don't wanna know,

Don't tell me if I'm dying,
Don't tell me if I'm dying.♫

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Beautiful Disaster - Kelly Clarkson:




♫He drowns in his dreams
An exquisite extreme I know
He’s as damned as he seems
And more heaven than a heart could hold
And if I try to save him
My whole world would cave in
It just ain't right
Lord just ain't right

Oh and I don't know
I don't know what he's after
But he's so beautiful
He's such a beautiful disaster
And if I could hold on
Through the tears and the laughter
Lord would it be beautiful?
Or just a beautiful disaster

He's magic and myth
As strong as what I believe
A tragedy with
More damage than a soul should see
But do I try to change him?
So hard not to blame him
Hold me tight
Baby hold me tight

Oh and I don't know
I don't know what he's after
But he’s so beautiful
He's such a beautiful disaster
And if I could hold on
Through the tears and the laughter
Would it be beautiful?
Or just a beautiful disaster

I'm longing for love and the logical
But he's only happy hysterical
I'm searching for some kind of miracle
Waited so long
Waited so long

He’s soft to the touch
But frayed at the end he breaks
He’s never enough
And still he's more than I can take

Oh and I don't know
I don't know what he's after
But he's so beautiful
Such a beautiful disaster
And if I could hold on
Through the tears and the laughter
Would it be beautiful?
Or just a beautiful disaster

He’s beautiful
Lord he's so beautiful
He's beautiful.♫
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