Weezer, what the HELL IS THIS??
I love this, holy freaking crap. That chorus is catchy as hell.
Van Weezer – which I’m assuming will contain songs with this type of sound – comes out on May 7th. Contrast this sound with the sound of the OK Human album they just released at the beginning of the year:
I like when bands experiment with different sounds like this. Coldplay has gotten a lot of crap for this kind of thing, but people need to lay off because Coldplay is untouchable goodness allowed to experiment just like everyone else.
I don’t have anything else to say today, haha. I just wanted to make you aware of this fantastic song in case you hadn’t heard it.
Jingle Bells 2: Jesus’ Revenge
Back in December 2019 (GOD, REMEMBER NORMALITY?????), I posted this awesome 7/8 time version of Sleigh Ride:
Well, now you get this beautiful piece:
Welcome to TIME SIGNATURE HELL, CHILDREN
I don’t know if it’s the sleep deprivation or because today was horrible or what, but that key smash in that first 1/8 time bar is hysterical.
Some of the comments are great, too.
- i was like “hey this isn’t so bad” then i was proven extremely wrong
- Everybody gangster till the quadratic formula finds its way into music theory
- First 10 second I thought “well it’s not the worst”, couple of seconds later I got anxiety
- “Oh it’s actually not that bad” Key smash “Oh ok”
- I can’t get over the 25 whole notes at 1000 beats per minute in 100/4 time.
- Ah yes, the snare solo is my favorite part of jingle bells
Love it.
Music-Driven Nostalgia
I don’t know why DJ Earworm has suddenly ramped up his non-Decade of Pop uploads, but I am DIGGING IT.
Here’s his latest:
I love that this mashup contains music from decade right before I started my Decade of Music Project (well, okay, it contains 2009 which was technically in my Decade, but whatevs). This is music from junior high, high school, and undergrad for me. Thus, TONS of nostalgia. There’s a lot of those early- to mid-2000s songs that I only ever got to hear on the radio while I was in my room making stupid stop-motion movies. I didn’t yet have an iPod and because CDs were too freaking expensive. There are also a good number of songs in there that were some of my first purchases on iTunes.
Super cool! Is it nostalgic for you, too?
It’s Anosmia Awareness Day!
So have something completely unrelated: saxophones!
I have mixed feelings about the sound of saxophones. A saxophone might be my least favorite instrument to hear on its own. I don’t know why. There’s something kind of grating about its sound, at least to me.
But this guy plays all four of those saxophones very well and I don’t mind how they sound. This is also one of my favorite Holst pieces, so yeah.
WOO!
WHO GAVE WEEZER CELLOS????
I’m a mild fan of Weezer. I like them but I’m not like OMFG WEEZER like I am with Coldplay or Muse (but mostly just Coldplay). So when I saw that they had a new album, OK Computer, on iTunes, I was like, “okay, cool, let’s check it out and see if there are any good songs.”
There are a LOT of good songs.
Apparently Weezer decided that strings were a good addition to their sound and holy hell, what a good decision. There’s so much cello on this album. Here are some favorites:
The strings in this are sooooooo goooooood yooooooo. That low note at the start gives me feels.
More strings! Also, super sing-able chorus.
This is one of the most “Weezer” songs they’ve ever made. 2020 hipster vibes.
Another one with a very sing-able chorus.
UGH, Coldplay
I would so love to go to one of their concerts. Look at how amazing this looks. All the people singing and crying. Chris Martin being Chris Martin
I would lose my mind if I heard this song live. I couldn’t handle it.
Good Job, California. You Made a Haunted Road
It’s pretty wild how such a “small” error makes the result so horribly wrong.
Edit: here’s one in Hungary that’s done correctly.
2020 Music?!?!?!?!?
Happy last day of 2020!
I’d say good riddance, but I suspect 2021 will be just as much of a garbage fest (if not worse), so weeeeee!
Anyway, this is the first year since my Decade of Music project ended, so I have not downloaded a new song for every day of the year and thus can’t give you a full summary of the year’s songs to the same extent that I’ve been doing since 2010.
But I can give you my favorite songs (and maybe favorite music vids?) of the selection that I did download this year.
Yeah, let’s do that.
Top 5 Favorite Songs
Blinding Lights by The Weeknd
This is THE song of 2020. This is also, as I mentioned in a blog back in May, my pandemic song. I heard it just as COVID was starting to burn through Canada at the start of all this madness – back when no one knew how bad it would get – and I still get that little pang of anxiety I associate with that feeling whenever I hear the start of this song.
(Still love it, though.)
Sogno di volare (The Dream of Flight) by Christopher Tin
This is an amazing, beautiful, soul-lifting song. I mentioned this one in an earlier blog, too, talking about how I felt like I’d heard it before somewhere long ago.
FloriDada by Animal Collective
This song is so freaking weird and so freaking cool and so freaking WTF that I have to like it. Also, don’t look up the music video unless you want to have multiple seizures.
Bummerland by AJR
I love the energy of this song. AJR does great things with drum beats.
DVNO by Justice
The bass pounds my ears and it hurts so good.
Top 5 Favorite Music Videos
DVNO by Justice
Logo parodies/homages with smooth transitions + killer song = YAY
Bummerland by AJR
The only thing better than an AJR song is an AJR song with an accompanying fun music video.
Dynamite by BTS
I am definitely not “army” as this is the only BTS song I have (I heard it in a commercial and had to look it up, haha), but I love the song and I love how fun the video is. Also, Jung Ho-seok (dude in the “OBEY” shirt/red shirt) has an awesome smile.
365 by Katy Perry
Y’all know I like music videos that tell a story.
The Rest of My Days by S+C+A+R+R
Hypnotic dancing!
DJ Earworm, you magnificent soul
This is so freaking cool.
I love that it’s an instrumental so that you can hear how the basic sounds of songs have evolved over the past 50 years.
I also love that once it hit the early 90s I was like “I KNOW MOST OF THESE YAY!”
Earworm is amazing.
ZOMG MASHUP TIME
It’s here it’s here it’s here!
I live for these.
He used Blinding Lights as the main beat, which makes me SUPER HAPPY because that’s my top song of the year. I would have guessed Dynamite as the main beat, but I was wrong.
As usual.
I know I’m not doing my Decade of Music project anymore, but would y’all still like to see an end-of-the-year music recap?
(Does anyone care?)
(Does anyone even read this blog anymore?)
Are you there, god? It’s-a me, Mario
So ever since I searched for “Mahler Hammer” for a blog in, like, July (this one), I get Mahler-related recommendations on YouTube every once and a while. And every once and a while, I watch them.
Today I watched this one:
Okay, two things:
1. What a freaking beautiful performance of a beautiful piece of music
2. I absolutely love musicians and conductors who get the hell into it. This conductor (Christian Vasquez) is so enthusiastic and so into it and it just makes it all so much better slfjslfghalfhakghdakfh
I don’t know. It just makes me so happy to see people feel music. It makes me feel the music even more.
ALSO, 2:59 is Frisson Central, holy hell.
Alright, I’m done.
Wowza
I found the most distressingly haunting song and it works so well with one of the end scenes in my NaNo. Check it out:
Nightmares, anyone?
(Sorry, that’s all I’ve got for today)
Halp
Somebody needs to explain why this song is so painfully familiar to me.
Like…I’ve never played any of the Civ games, and the only other song I’m familiar with by this composer is his “Baba Yetu” for Civ IV, but that doesn’t sound anything like this.
It is seriously freaking me out. Why do I feel like I’ve heard this song many, many times before? I’m usually really good at remembering when I’ve heard a song, but I’m having hella troubles with this one.
There are aspects of it that are familiar to other pieces of music I know, yes. 1:54 to 1:56-ish sounds very much like part of “The Launch” from Apollo 13 (especially with the chimes). 2:13 to 2:16 is like part of that fanfare thing they play for the Olympics (edit: which is literally called “Olympic Fanfare,” sorry, John Williams).
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I DON’T KNOW.
It’s a fantastic song, though. Fantastic. I can’t get it out of my head.
Edit: apparently “Baba Yetu” was the first music made for a video game to win a Grammy. I think this song is way better, though.
Edit 2: Here’s a live version. Live versions are always better.
AJR
So I am super into AJR as of…today. I spent the afternoon watching a bunch of their music videos and I love them now.
I posted this “Bummerland” video like a week or so ago, but here it is again ‘cause it’s glorious.
This was the first music video I saw from these guys (last year, I think?). I think Jack sounds a lot like the lead singer of Fun. in this one.
I like how this one feels like a bad dream.
They MASHED UP THEIR OWN SONGS I FREAKING LOVE IT
Carrot Power.
Yay!
What a Wonderful 2020 Song
The more I listen to these guys, the more I like them. And the energy in this song is fantastic.
Sorry, everything else in the world is terrible right now.
Shostakovich, what the fuck?
This is why I’m anosmic. Because my nose is off doing this kind of stuff.
But yes, this is from Shostakovich’s first opera, “The Nose,” which is based off of a short story by Nikolai Gogol. Basically, dude’s nose develops sentience, jumps off the dude’s face, and quickly attains a higher social rank than the dude.
Yeah.
I don’t know.
It’s pretty great, though.
WOW
This song is an experience. I really like it.
Sorry, that’s all for today.
My SOUL
I’ve been in some sort of “Handle With Extreme Care” mode as far as my emotions go due to this whole COVID thing. I don’t know if that’s why I was bawling uncontrollably throughout this whole song or if that is a completely natural reaction to how beautiful this is.
Edit: I love how some of the singers were signing. That’s awesome.
Hark! A Pointless Blog!
So this song came up on shuffle today:
I hadn’t heard it in a while and I forgot what a tremendous feeling of anxiety that opening gives me.
Why, you ask?
(Shut up, just pretend you asked.)
Well, we were going to play this in band in 7th grade. We didn’t have any oboe players to play that opening solo thingy at 2:18, so being the nerdiest band nerd that ever nerded, I said, “hey Mr. Garrett, I’ll learn oboe, an instrument I’ve never even touched!” So I got my hands on an oboe and had about three weeks to learn how to play it (and play it well enough to do the solo thingy). I remember being so incredibly anxious about it every single time we practiced and, of course, when we performed it. I can’t remember how badly I botched it, but I’m sure I botched it quite nicely.
Anyway.
Also, cannons have nothing on the MAHLER HAMMER!
I think I found my theme song
So remember a few days ago when I posted that FloriDada song and I mentioned that I couldn’t decide if I liked it or was deeply disturbed by it?
Well, I found a lyric video to it and now that I know the lyrics, I absolutely love this freaking song.
Here is said lyric video, which is substantially less seizure-inducing than the actual music video, so if you were a feared of this song because of the music video, fear no longer!
“I don’t even know where to begin
Or how I should start these days.
The green mountain south or
The Clay of the westerns”
“I wanna discover the key
And open the everywhere place
A mix of sky from Montana
Dipped in FloriDada”
“Oh let’s go get lost in the image
I made of the everywhere place”
I freaking love these lyrics, oh my g o d
This might just be a five-star.
FloriDADA
I can’t decide if I kinda like this or if I’m deeply disturbed.
Also warning for INSANE FLASHING between 2:30 and 3:17
Edit: the comments are great:
- its as strange as the state of florida itself
- DEAR GOD HOW MANY DRUGS WERE INVOLVED IN THIS
- imagine this being the first time you found out you had epilepsy
- I like the fact that this isn’t even the weirdest thing these guys have done.
- i love how both art styles have equal amounts of time and complement eachothe- 2:31 OK I DIDN’T MEAN THAT MUCH OH GOD MY MOUTH IS FOAMIIGHUH
- I’m going to have a wonderful death
Edit again: I CAN’T GET THIS SONG OUT OF MY HEAD AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SONG?
AND WHAT THE HELL IS THIS MUSIC VIDEO??
And why have I been physically incapable of listening to any other song all afternoon after hearing this?
What Song Did COVID Ruin for You?
For me it’s The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights.
Do I still love it? Absolutely. It’s a five-star (and the first five-star since my Decade of Music project ended).
But I discovered it right at the end of March of this year, which was when COVID was starting to really hit Canada. The U of C had moved to online classes and I spent a lot of my free time watching the news (bad idea, I know) and seeing the daily cases climb, not knowing how bad it would get.
And now whenever I hear this song (especially the first few bars, for some reason), I get that little twinge of anxiety that I associate with the start of the pandemic in Canada.
So that’s great.
Did COVID ruin a song (or songs) for you?
The Cull: Re-evaluating my Top 50 Songs (Five Stars)
What is UUUUUUUUUUUUP???
So it’s finally that time.
My Decade of Music project is done and, like I promised I would, I must face the difficult (?) task of thinning out my Five Stars. Why am I doing this, you ask? Because a Five Star song is a very special thing to me, and I feel like while I truly enjoy all 50 songs that are currently Five Stars, not all of them bring me unadulterated joy every single time they come up on Shuffle. And that’s what a Five Star should do: bring unadulterated joy.
So we have to cull the herd.
Originally, I figured I’d have an idea of how many songs could truly be Five Stars and I’d just go from there and cut out songs until I hit that total. But I’m not sure if that’s the best way to go about it. So how about we do it “naturally” and just go through the list and see what we end up with? I’mma bold the ones that should remain Five Stars.
NOTE: Blinding Lights is on here even though that is technically a post-Decade of Music song because I’m doing this thing so late after the end of the project that I’ve already managed to get another Five Star. So yeah.
- Airwaves by Airplanes
- Algorithm (Alternate Reality Version) by Muse
- Any Way You Want It by Journey
- Blinding Lights by The Weeknd
- Breathe (LMC Extended Club Mix) by Erasure
- Call On Me by Eric Prydz
- Canada Dry (Acoustic) by Barenaked Ladies
- Check It Out by will.i.am & Nicki Minaj
- Damn Son by Tobu
- Dare You To Move by Vitamin String Quartet
- Death Sentence Lost! (Coldplay vs. Dethklok) by …And Sushi! Productions
- Doin’ It Right (feat. Panda Bear) by Daft Punk
- Door by Caroline Polachek
- Get Over It by OK Go
- Gold (Thomas Jack Radio Edit) by Gabriel Rios
- Golden Dandielions by Barns Courtney
- Gone by JR JR
- Hello (Single Edit) by Martin Solveig & Dragonette
- Here It Goes Again by OK Go
- Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap
- Hide and Seek (A Cappella Cover) by Dan Wright
- Hula Hoop (Mark Ianni Bootleg) by Omi
- Ice Cream by MIKA
- Infectious by Tobu
- Jealous (I Ain’t With It) by Chromeo
- Jealously by Robert DeLong
- Life by Tobu
- Lights and Music by Cut Copy
- Madness by Muse
- Mirrors (Radio Edit) by Justin Timberlake
- O Magnum Mysterium by Robert Shaw
- Paradise by Coldplay
- Paradise (Gabe Flaherty Remix) by Coldplay
- Peanut Butter Jelly by Galantis
- Pieces of Me by Ashlee Simpson
- Pressure (feat. the UCLA Bruin Marching Band) by Muse
- Run for Cover by The Killers
- Running Away by The Royal Foundry
- Send Me on My Way (Jesse Bloch Bootleg) by Rusted Root
- Sleepyhead by Passion Pit
- Sleepyhead (Cillo Mix) by Passion Pit
- Sleepyhead (Jazzsteppa Remix) by Passion Pit
- Something Human by Muse
- The Riddle by Gigi D’agostino
- This Is So Good (Radio Edit) by Ehrencrona
- Tightrope by WALK THE MOON
- Tilted by Christine and the Queens
- Valdres March by the Eastman Wind Ensemble & Frederick Fennell
- Viva la Vida by Coldplay
- When I Need a Friend by Coldplay
- Work This Body by WALK THE MOON
There. There are 25 that are bolded.
But I feel like this is a much tighter Five Star list, which is what I was looking for in the first place. I want it to be really hard to knock a song off of this list – which, looking at the 25 bold songs, is true. I’d have a hard time picking any of those to be demoted. Especially compared to the original list of 50; there were a good number that were very easily removed from Five Star status.
So yay? The real test will be when I find my next “ZOMG THIS IS SO FANTASTIC” song and I have to go in and actually kick something off of the bold list above. But we’ll get there when we get there.
Eigenblogger 