So... here's the fifth week. To be honest, I hadn't thought things out this far so I'm writing this intro I'm also trying to think of a song to write about.
Meanwhile, in other news, since this is the only feature I'm actively doing on this blog and because I want to keep doing this, I'm working on constructing a new blog site specifically for Revolt Against Radio. It'll be awhile before I know what all I want to do with it but I figured I should start this now so there's less to transfer over to it when all is said and done. More news on that once there's more news to report.
Well, I was listening to The Classic Crime earlier so I'll just go with that I guess.
Now, The Classic Crime being one of my top 3 favorite bands of all time, having three albums worth of material, and only recently starting to get a little radio exposure, as far as I'm concerned I have a lot of songs to choose from. Not to mention they have a wide variety of beautiful songs as well as awesome alternative rock songs. They pretty much don't have a song I don't like. Ah, choices...
10 minutes later... I have decided on the song "Who Needs Air" which should be no surprise to you since it's in the title of this post. This is one of the first few songs from their debut album "Albatross" and may be one of the band's most well written songs of all.
I spent some time researching opinions on the meaning of this song of which there is no real agreement and I too have my own thoughts on this song so I'm not going to really expound on that this time. One of the beauties of this song is that it can be seen many different ways and mean different things to different people. So I'm not going to try and tear the curtain down but rather leave it up and leave up to you what to make of the song.
The next beauty of this song is the music itself. I can only speak for myself, but there's a number of emotions this song touches on. The lyrics mesh perfectly with the instrumentation as everything builds to an amazing bridge that paints the most beautiful picture of something simple and familiar yet strangely out of reach.
It drives me up the wall that The Classic Crime hasn't hit the mainstream yet. I've been following them from practically the day "Albatross" was released (without even knowing it was brand new at the time) and I've only heard their single "Salt In The Snow" from their second album on the Christian station Air1 and the first single, "Solar Powered Life," from their third album on a station out of Seattle (which is no surprise considering the band originated in Seattle and have a certain fondness for it.) Their songs could easily fit on Rock, Pop, Alternative, Christian... and maybe even Country radio and I truly believe any number of their songs could be huge mainstream hits. So many emotional strings are tugged on when listening through any of their albums. Everything from sadness to nostalgia, and desperation to happiness all on the same album. Can you tell they're one of my favorite bands?
I'll wrap up my ramblings here and just let you listen to the song at this point. I've realized that I've written about a lot of "beautiful" songs lately. (Well, since I've started actually.) This is mostly because of my real hate for Pop radio and all the gold they exclude from their playlists. I mean, how many times in one day can we play through the entire Top 40 countdown? But this isn't to say that I don't have problems with Rock radio either. To clarify this next statement, I don't just listen to local Sacramento stations. I stream a few different stations out of Seattle, Texas, Nevada, and even Alaska as well as a couple Sirius/XM stations I get to hear occasionally. So, having said that, Rock radio is not as bad. The stations I listen to seem more willing to play a wider variety of songs but that's not to say they're perfect either. So next week I'm going to take things up a notch and write about a total rocker song from my number one favorite band of all time. Until then...
Originally posted on Thoughts From an Internal Monologue on 11/13/2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Song Highlight | Red - Lost / Pieces
Yeah so I took last week off. I wasn't home and wasn't sure if I wanted to do one of the two songs I'll be highlighting last week and then the second one this week or if I wanted to just combine them. I'm going with the latter. And that's as close to an apology as you're going to get. It's my blog. And at the time of writing this, it's not like I have any readers anyway.
Alright, back to the music. So, tomorrow I will be going to Red's Nothing and Everything Tour featuring Disciple, Brian "Head" Welch, The Wedding, and Silverline. In honor of that, I figured I would highlight one of my favorite, under-appreciated Red songs. However, I'm going with a double feature this time around because these two songs appear next to each other on the album and, in my opinion, transition into the second song quite nicely.
The two songs are "Lost" and "Pieces." Now both of these songs have actually had a small amount of exposure each. "Lost" was one of the five singles released from Red's debut "End of Silence" album but never made any of the charts and as such never received any significant radio play. Nevertheless, "Lost" was still voted best rock song at the Dove Awards.
"Pieces" was never released as a single. However, it does have one small claim to notoriety in that it was used in trailers for the successful movie "The Blind Side." Although, as far as I can tell, this is widely unknown by most people. Which is unfortunate because it is very effective in the trailer and not as overused as The Fray's "How To Save A Life" which also appears in the trailer.
Anyhow, I've spent some time tweaking the embedded YouTube players to the configuration seen below for optimal space usage as well as convenient ordering. If it were up to me though, the album artwork would have been split up between the two videos to create a single image. Maybe once I get around to making my own YouTube channel for this feature instead of using other people's videos, I'll replace these with my own versions. Until then, enjoy the songs. Pictures from the concert will go up here in some way, shape, or form eventually.
Originally posted on Thoughts From an Internal Monologue on 11/6/2010
Alright, back to the music. So, tomorrow I will be going to Red's Nothing and Everything Tour featuring Disciple, Brian "Head" Welch, The Wedding, and Silverline. In honor of that, I figured I would highlight one of my favorite, under-appreciated Red songs. However, I'm going with a double feature this time around because these two songs appear next to each other on the album and, in my opinion, transition into the second song quite nicely.
The two songs are "Lost" and "Pieces." Now both of these songs have actually had a small amount of exposure each. "Lost" was one of the five singles released from Red's debut "End of Silence" album but never made any of the charts and as such never received any significant radio play. Nevertheless, "Lost" was still voted best rock song at the Dove Awards.
"Pieces" was never released as a single. However, it does have one small claim to notoriety in that it was used in trailers for the successful movie "The Blind Side." Although, as far as I can tell, this is widely unknown by most people. Which is unfortunate because it is very effective in the trailer and not as overused as The Fray's "How To Save A Life" which also appears in the trailer.
Anyhow, I've spent some time tweaking the embedded YouTube players to the configuration seen below for optimal space usage as well as convenient ordering. If it were up to me though, the album artwork would have been split up between the two videos to create a single image. Maybe once I get around to making my own YouTube channel for this feature instead of using other people's videos, I'll replace these with my own versions. Until then, enjoy the songs. Pictures from the concert will go up here in some way, shape, or form eventually.
Originally posted on Thoughts From an Internal Monologue on 11/6/2010
Song Highlight | Three Days Grace - Lost In You
Three Days Grace usually picks excellent singles. "I Hate Everything About You," "Pain," "Animal I Have Become," and "Break" just to name a few. But aside from "Break" I find myself disagreeing with their latest choices for singles from their latest album "Life Starts Now." "Break" was a great first single. "The Good Life" was a decent follow up. A good song but not the strongest track on the album. Not to mention it got overplayed on the stations I listen to so I quickly grew tired of it. So far, the same thing is happening with the third single, "World So Cold" in that it's a fine song in itself but not the best on the album. Though thankfully it hasn't been ridiculously overplayed. Yet.
So, this bring me to a series of two songs I want to highlight from the "Life Starts Now" album. Both are some of my most favorite Three Days Grace songs and both are musically incredible and far too overlooked. The one I'll be writing about this week is "Lost In You."
"Lost In You" is a beautiful love song but it's not so easy to determine exactly if it's about a lost love, a longing love, or a new love. It captures an emotion that anyone at any stage of love can relate to. Capitalized by a fantastic bridge, this is easily one of the most well constructed songs on the album.
And what I don't understand is that here's a song that would do amazingly well on pop radio. Breaking Benjamin's "Give Me A Sign" has been doing well on the charts and getting good exposure on pop radio. A song like "Lost In You," I imagine, would do very well in that environment. But that's just my opinion.
Thanks for reading and as always, check out the song right below.
Originally posted on Thoughts From an Internal Monologue on 10/23/2010
So, this bring me to a series of two songs I want to highlight from the "Life Starts Now" album. Both are some of my most favorite Three Days Grace songs and both are musically incredible and far too overlooked. The one I'll be writing about this week is "Lost In You."
"Lost In You" is a beautiful love song but it's not so easy to determine exactly if it's about a lost love, a longing love, or a new love. It captures an emotion that anyone at any stage of love can relate to. Capitalized by a fantastic bridge, this is easily one of the most well constructed songs on the album.
And what I don't understand is that here's a song that would do amazingly well on pop radio. Breaking Benjamin's "Give Me A Sign" has been doing well on the charts and getting good exposure on pop radio. A song like "Lost In You," I imagine, would do very well in that environment. But that's just my opinion.
Thanks for reading and as always, check out the song right below.
Originally posted on Thoughts From an Internal Monologue on 10/23/2010
Song Highlight | Disciple - Invisible
I may be jumping the gun on this one because a part of me has a strong suspicion that this song will be their next single after the amazing "Dear X, You Don't Own Me." Is so, yes I am a prophet. If not, forget you ever saw the preceding statement.
I was originally going to write about a different song this week but I started listening to Disciple's newest album Horseshoes And Handgrenades a few days ago and have been absolutely hooked on "Dear X" and "Invisible." At the time of writing this, Disciple recently announced that they're going to be re-recording "Dear X" with Howard Benson sometime in the near future. The notion of "Dear X" becoming even better than it already is, is exciting and you should check it out. (Howard Benson is a fantastic producer. Click the link I conveniently placed in his name for a list of albums he's worked on. Chances are you'll find plenty of amazing records he's worked on.)
But this isn't about "Dear X." It's about "Invisible."
The lyrics are what made this song incredible for me. The rock music is definitely good and I really hope they play this at the show I intend to go to in 3 weeks but the lyrics make it a complete package. Disciple is a Christian band and this song is sung as God talking the listener reminding them that no matter who they are, what they've done, or how they feel, that they are not alone in the world. I'm compelled to add in the lyrics of the chorus here because of how moving they are. So I will.
"You wish you were someone else / Every night you fall to pieces / Knowing you can't save yourself / I can see you, I can hear you / There's a place where the broken go / There's a room full of second chances / You're not stranded on your own / You're not... Invisible"
I am a Christian and am going to be highlighting songs by more Christian artists in this feature but while I love the message of this song, I'm not going to dwell on only that facet. No matter who you are, this is still a good rock song.
That's it for this week. Check out the song right below this closing sentence.
Originally posted on Thoughts From an Internal Monologue on 10/18/2010
I was originally going to write about a different song this week but I started listening to Disciple's newest album Horseshoes And Handgrenades a few days ago and have been absolutely hooked on "Dear X" and "Invisible." At the time of writing this, Disciple recently announced that they're going to be re-recording "Dear X" with Howard Benson sometime in the near future. The notion of "Dear X" becoming even better than it already is, is exciting and you should check it out. (Howard Benson is a fantastic producer. Click the link I conveniently placed in his name for a list of albums he's worked on. Chances are you'll find plenty of amazing records he's worked on.)
But this isn't about "Dear X." It's about "Invisible."
The lyrics are what made this song incredible for me. The rock music is definitely good and I really hope they play this at the show I intend to go to in 3 weeks but the lyrics make it a complete package. Disciple is a Christian band and this song is sung as God talking the listener reminding them that no matter who they are, what they've done, or how they feel, that they are not alone in the world. I'm compelled to add in the lyrics of the chorus here because of how moving they are. So I will.
"You wish you were someone else / Every night you fall to pieces / Knowing you can't save yourself / I can see you, I can hear you / There's a place where the broken go / There's a room full of second chances / You're not stranded on your own / You're not... Invisible"
I am a Christian and am going to be highlighting songs by more Christian artists in this feature but while I love the message of this song, I'm not going to dwell on only that facet. No matter who you are, this is still a good rock song.
That's it for this week. Check out the song right below this closing sentence.
Originally posted on Thoughts From an Internal Monologue on 10/18/2010
Song Highlight | Sick Puppies - All The Same
The day of the album is dead. At least, that's what modern radio seems to have done to the music industry. Ask anyone about any given artist's newest hit single and they'll give you their awful opinion about it as well as some moderately fascinating factoid that they learned from the DJ who probably ruined the intro of the song by talking over it. Start talking to them about other songs on the album and they'll stare at you as if they'd just had a stroke.
The point is, if you're reading this and nodding along in agreement, you're one of the seeming few that still value the whole album and appreciate the music and the artist's effort and vision at a deeper level then most.
I find it interesting that more bands these days are releasing versions of their newest albums on vinyl records. Seriously, check out a place nearby that you know has a vinyl section and flip through it. Vinyls I've seen of heard of lately to attempt to give you an idea what's out there, are Breaking Benjamin's "Dear Agony," Disturbed's "Indestructible," We Are The Fallen's "Tear The World Down," Anberlin's "New Surrender," and even "The Dark Knight" soundtrack. (Yes, by the way, I do have a bit of a bias toward Rock music but stick around long enough and I may surprise you.)
The thing with vinyls, that a friend pointed out to me, is that, in a sense, there are no individual tracks on a record. When you sit down to listen to a record, you're committing to listening through and absorb it differently then just downloading the one or two tracks you think you like.
My point in all of this is to say that I have some fundamental problems with the way radio works. So many good songs go largely unnoticed by the mainstream world and so many otherwise good songs get ruined by overplaying. So what I intend to accomplish in this new "Revolt Against Radio" series is to [roughly] once a week, highlight incredible songs by artists that no one seems to know about. I'm going to attempt to try and stick to songs by artists that should be fairly well known but as my tastes and favorite artists are all over the place, chances are, before long you'll find something completely new.
I'm starting this week with the song "All The Same" by Sick Puppies. This is a beautiful, under-appreciated song that really shows off the talents of the three members of the band. Everything about the song is intoxicating. The acoustic version truly accentuates the beauty of the song and the music video gives an even more complete picture that goes wonderfully with the song.
EDIT: Working on getting the music video back. Embedding was disabled on the music video because Virgin Records and anyone else that does that is a b!tch. Song's here at least.
I hope you liked the song. The list of more songs to highlight is growing by the minute so stay tuned.
Originally posted on Thoughts From an Internal Monologue on 10/9/2010
The point is, if you're reading this and nodding along in agreement, you're one of the seeming few that still value the whole album and appreciate the music and the artist's effort and vision at a deeper level then most.
I find it interesting that more bands these days are releasing versions of their newest albums on vinyl records. Seriously, check out a place nearby that you know has a vinyl section and flip through it. Vinyls I've seen of heard of lately to attempt to give you an idea what's out there, are Breaking Benjamin's "Dear Agony," Disturbed's "Indestructible," We Are The Fallen's "Tear The World Down," Anberlin's "New Surrender," and even "The Dark Knight" soundtrack. (Yes, by the way, I do have a bit of a bias toward Rock music but stick around long enough and I may surprise you.)
The thing with vinyls, that a friend pointed out to me, is that, in a sense, there are no individual tracks on a record. When you sit down to listen to a record, you're committing to listening through and absorb it differently then just downloading the one or two tracks you think you like.
My point in all of this is to say that I have some fundamental problems with the way radio works. So many good songs go largely unnoticed by the mainstream world and so many otherwise good songs get ruined by overplaying. So what I intend to accomplish in this new "Revolt Against Radio" series is to [roughly] once a week, highlight incredible songs by artists that no one seems to know about. I'm going to attempt to try and stick to songs by artists that should be fairly well known but as my tastes and favorite artists are all over the place, chances are, before long you'll find something completely new.
I'm starting this week with the song "All The Same" by Sick Puppies. This is a beautiful, under-appreciated song that really shows off the talents of the three members of the band. Everything about the song is intoxicating. The acoustic version truly accentuates the beauty of the song and the music video gives an even more complete picture that goes wonderfully with the song.
EDIT: Working on getting the music video back. Embedding was disabled on the music video because Virgin Records and anyone else that does that is a b!tch. Song's here at least.
I hope you liked the song. The list of more songs to highlight is growing by the minute so stay tuned.
Originally posted on Thoughts From an Internal Monologue on 10/9/2010
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