Dance Gavin Dance is a Post-Hardcore and Math Rock band from Sacramento, CA, USA. They formed in 2005 and have released seven studio albums and one EP since then (also, their eight album will be released on 27th July 2018 and will be entitled Artificial Selection). Their latest album is Mothership, which was released on 7th October 2016. They were also featured on the compilation album Punk Goes Pop Vol. 7 for their cover of That's What I Like, originally performed by Bruno Mars.
Their current line-up consists on Jon Mess (unclean vocals), Matt Mingus (drums), Will Swan (lead guitar, backing vocals and rap vocals), Tim Feerick (bass guitar) and Tilian Pearson (clean vocals). The only members remaining from the original line-up in 2005 are Jon Mess (who was out of the band between 2008 and 2010, being replaced by Will Swan as the unclean vocalist during that time) and Will Swan (the only founding member who has never left the band) and they had a total of 5 vocalists (Clean vocalists, unclean vocalists and rap vocalists): Jon Mess, Will Swan, Tilian Pearson, Jonny Craig and Kurt Travis.
Dance Gavin Dance are known for mixing a lot of genres on a single track, with clean instrumentals suddenly becoming somehow violent. I'd guess their biggest influences are Circa Survive and At the Drive-In, two pioneers of the Emo and Post-Hardcore scene. This band's musical style has been described by the critics as Post-Hardocore, Math Rock, Experimental Rock, Progressive Rock, Screamo, Jazz Fusion, Emo, Pop Rock, etc...
The critics, specially Alternative Press, praise them, even saying they are one of the most promising bands today. They were considered one of the best bands/artists of the Vans Warped Tour 2017 by the fans of this concert tour, along with Fit For a King. Suicide Silence, Andy Black, 3OH!3 and Silverstein (between about 60 bands/artists, the only ones I know and like are George Watsky and The Adolescents).
Here's my opinion about Dance Gavin Dance: Awful. Their mix does not work out at all. They always start a song with a calm rhythm, like a rainbow coming out of the sky, and then it is interrupted by a violent but still poppish rhythm, with an unclean vocal coming in. I mean, it is a constant mess, they try too hard to be different and end up creating a chaos, a mix of good and bad that makes you cringe.I will try to exemplify this with a couple of songs: Betrayed By The Game has a reasonable instrumental, but the vocals make this song worse, going from clean to unclean and from unclean to clean, with louder drums and guitar beats when Mess is singing (at least the name fits); Spooks has the same problem, but it is even worse because of the rap verse by Swan, with awful, awful, AWFUL lyrics ("I'm a T.O.Y. F.O.R. you, on pleasure principle / We keep it on the down low cause public eyes are sensible / There ain't no outcome without illusion that I let you in the first place / Girls you know what we're doing, this is dirty sex / Back seats, over the tables, under the sheets / At the workplace, on the beach / In the hammock where I sleep / I know it's your birthday, but call me up at 3:30 / Damn, okay, where do you want to meet?"). It looks like they used a sentence generator for that rap verse. Also, the same old problem happens here: In the beginning, the guitar is playing calmly, with an acceptable instrumental, but then Mess starts singing and the whole song starts to drown in a massive chaos. Also, the way this song (and all the others) progresses is quite bad. It looks like they stopped playing that song without any warning and started to play another one, except... it is the same track (you can also see that at 2:48, on Inspire The Liars). But yeah, the worse problem here is the rap verse. Makes me giggle.
Also, the names of the songs are really stupid. Names like The Robot With Human Hair (parts 1, 2, 3 and 4), The Death of The Robot With Human Hair, Strawberry André, Surprise! I'm From Cuba, Everyone Else Has One Brain, Me And Zoloft Get Along Just Fine, Strawberry Swisher (parts 1, 2 and 3), Don't Tell Dave, Heat Seeking Ghost of Sex and Death of a Strawberry makes me think if they are really serious about this.
I was introduced to Dance Gavin Dance during my "emo" phase, when I loved bands like Anatomy of a Ghost (I only realized a couple months ago that Josh Gourley is the vocalist of both Anatomy of a Ghost and Portugal. The Man), Fit For Rivals, Fall Out Boy, Black Veil Brides, Slipknot, Sleeping With Sirens and... Dance Gavin Dance. It was 2015, I was 14 years old, and one day a friend of mine messaged me via Facebook with three YouTube links which directed me to three songs: Make a Move by Icon For Hire, True Friends by Bring Me The Horizon and Death of a Strawberry by Dance Gavin Dance. I didn't like Icon For Hire's song (and holy shit, I'm glad for that), but I liked the other two. I found Dance Gavin Dance very innovative and something that should be mainstream (I have no idea how that even crossed my mind) and Instant Gratification quickly became one of my favourite albums (but now it is one of the albums I hate, even though it is Dance Gavin Dance's "best" work so far). A couple months after being introduced to this band, I got sick of them and deleted every single song except We Own The Night, which is one of the two only Dance Gavin Dance tracks I'd give a score of at least 6/20, together with Young Robot. I think We Own The Night and Young Robot are the only Dance Gavin Dance music videos I'd consider to be good. Also, if the Post-Hardcore side wasn't always interrupting the Pop Punk side, I'd consider these two tracks good, with a score of about 12/20 ou 13/20.
Now, here's how I think the band could get better: First, they should only have Tilian Pearson as the vocalist and should abandon the unclean and rap vocals. This includes abandoning the Screamo scene and stopping once for all the occasional rap verses. Jon Mess is an awesome Screamo vocalist, but Screamo does not fit in whatever genre Dance Gavin Dance is trying to come up with. The songs would be much better if Mess wasn't singing, and with Mess not singing, they would be forced to abandon the Screamo scene and re-invent themselves in the Post-Hardcore scene; and they should keep Swan only as the guitarrist and backing vocalist. The rap verses that I occasionally listen on tracks like Spook and Eagles vs Crows are pretty bad. Will Swan is not good at rapping and Rap does not fit on Dance Gavin Dance's genre. Also, the lyrics of these rap veres are fucking awful, like I said above when I was talking about Spook. Also, they shouldn't try so many genres. There is some good Experimental Music out there, like I've Seen Footage by Death Grips, Virus by Björk, and Ruby Magic by Portugal. The Man. Dance Gavin Dance is not good at experimenting stuff, and that's totally okay! They can grab what they're reasonably good at (Art Pop, Pop Rock, Pop Punk, Post-Hardcore (but with a couple changes) and Math Rock) and make a good album with that. BUUUUUUT they seem happy with the music they do, so I can't really do shit about that. Despite that, I have this blog to express my opinions. I'm just doing my job, really.
So, what do you think? Do you agree with me? What else should I review? Comment below and I will reply!
quarta-feira, 28 de março de 2018
quarta-feira, 21 de março de 2018
"A Weekend in the City", by Bloc Party
A Weekend in the City is the second album of the english Contemporary Rock band Bloc Party. It was released on 24th January 2007 and it has four singles: The Prayer, I Still Remember, Hunting For Witches and Flux (a single released for the re-release of the album on 12th November of the same year).
The album was recorded in 2006 in various studios while they were on tour to introduce their 2005 album Silent Alarm. The main point of the record was to transmit some kind of night-urban-lifestyle feeling into it, since the band formed in West London. They addressed issues such as sexuality (Kreuzberg and I Still Remember), drugs (The Prayer and On), terrorism (Hunting For Witches) and discrimination (Where is Home?), four things that are always present inside a big metropolis like London's. In order to fortify this idea, they used one of the pictures of German photographer Rut Blees Luxemburg's work entitled A Modern Project for their album cover, which shows an aerial view of London Westway (and Bloc Party were not the only one to use Luxemburg's project as an album cover. This picture, from the same work, was used for The Streets' debut album: Original Pirate Material). Also, together with the album, they released a B-side record entitled Another Weekend in the City
After the record's release, the critics were divided. Some were disappointed with the band's partial forsake of the contemporary guitar riffs and with the addition of the electronic beats, while others liked Bloc Party's change, claiming that the album showed a grown up band, who matured a lot since their first album. The Guardian listed the record on their compilation list 1000 Albums You Need to Hear Before You Die. Despite that, it never reached the success of their earlier work, only reaching nº2 on UK charts, with the single The Prayer peaking on 4th.
Even though I am not as into Bloc Party as I used to, I have to recognize their skills. They are one of the big symbols of the Post-Punk Revival scene, together with bands like Franz Ferdinand and Interpol, and they usually put Indie Rock in the mix, which is always a good combination, as they've shown. Their lyrics are not something really special, but the instrumentals are nice, and they even have some spectacular songs (most of them are part of the first two albums), but between Silent Alarm and A Weekend in the City, I prefer A Weekend in the City. Why? Well, I agree with the critics who claim that this record portray a more mature version of the Londoner band, it is Kele Okereke's best work when it comes to lyrics, even though they are not something to be amazed about. My favourite tracks, when it comes to lyrics, are Waiting For The 7.18, which is about the routine of an individual working in London, constantly stressed out with work, sick of the day to day grind and wishing to go back to his youth while waiting until the 7:18 train comes; and On, which talks about the effects and after-effects of cocaine. Despite those two, there are not many lyrics that I find very good. I mean, it is not bad but not great either. He could have been more clear (I had to visit Genius to figure out the meaning of the lyrics completely).
About instrumentals: this album is way more calm than Silent Alarm, but it is has some more electronic beats and it invests more in Indie Rock than Post-Punk Revival, unlike the previous record. I loved the instrumentals, specially Song For Clay (Disappear Here), Hunting For Witches, Waiting For The 7.18 and Kreuzberg.
One thing I love about both Song For Clay (Disappear Here) and Waiting For The 7.18 is the fact that they start out as a slow melody and then, suddenly, become violent and full Post-Punk Revival with a very loud guitar, without ruining the song (it is something they did a lot in Silent Alarm) and Hunting For Witches is Bloc Party's one of the best singles ever (instrumentally), together with The Pioneers and The Good News), mainly because of its excellent guitar.
There's a really bad thing on this record, though, and that is the bass. The bass is very repetitive and sometimes almost non-existent. Same chords during all the song while the guitar is kicking hard. The best example is the bass of Hutning For Witches (one of the only flaws of the single). But that is not something new. You can see that on their earlier work (Price of Gas) and on their latest work (Into The Earth), so it isn't something really new, but it's still a flaw.
After this review, my veredict is: **15,5**/20. I meant is a good album (I have it physically, actually), with badass guitars and with a good message, but this message is not clear enough on the lyrics. Even though there is not one single bad song, most of the songs are not something SUPER special but are very listenable and enjoyable. I think it is a fair score.
What do you think? What should I review next? Comment below and I will reply to you, believe it!
About instrumentals: this album is way more calm than Silent Alarm, but it is has some more electronic beats and it invests more in Indie Rock than Post-Punk Revival, unlike the previous record. I loved the instrumentals, specially Song For Clay (Disappear Here), Hunting For Witches, Waiting For The 7.18 and Kreuzberg.
One thing I love about both Song For Clay (Disappear Here) and Waiting For The 7.18 is the fact that they start out as a slow melody and then, suddenly, become violent and full Post-Punk Revival with a very loud guitar, without ruining the song (it is something they did a lot in Silent Alarm) and Hunting For Witches is Bloc Party's one of the best singles ever (instrumentally), together with The Pioneers and The Good News), mainly because of its excellent guitar.
There's a really bad thing on this record, though, and that is the bass. The bass is very repetitive and sometimes almost non-existent. Same chords during all the song while the guitar is kicking hard. The best example is the bass of Hutning For Witches (one of the only flaws of the single). But that is not something new. You can see that on their earlier work (Price of Gas) and on their latest work (Into The Earth), so it isn't something really new, but it's still a flaw.
After this review, my veredict is: **15,5**/20. I meant is a good album (I have it physically, actually), with badass guitars and with a good message, but this message is not clear enough on the lyrics. Even though there is not one single bad song, most of the songs are not something SUPER special but are very listenable and enjoyable. I think it is a fair score.
What do you think? What should I review next? Comment below and I will reply to you, believe it!
quinta-feira, 15 de março de 2018
Band to Follow: Another Cynthia
Ever heard of Another Cynthia? No? Well, I don't blame you, they were a local band from Portland, OR, active during the 2000's and only known in Portland and its surrounding cities/towns.
They released two albums (Another Cynthia, in 2007 and Antique of Disaster, in 2009), an EP (The Mannequin, in 2008) and a non-album single entitled Inside, in 2002. Their most popular songs are probably Push Back, Dry Eyes and A Little Love.
I couldn't find a lot of information about them, but according to my research, they formed around 2002 and dissolved around 2010, having their last show on 26th September 2009 in Burnside, OR, together with Low vs. Diamond and Charmparticles, two other local bands. Their most persistent line-up (again, according to my research) consisted on Ian Mackintosh (Lead vocals and guitar), Abe Smith (lead vocals and guitar), Jason Mackie (backing vocals and guitar), Ian Mouser (bass), Jackson Coffrey (drums) and Ben Braun (keys, samples and backing vocals). Also, they characterize themselves as an hybrid band of Indie Pop, Electropop and Dance-Pop, but I can also see some Post-Punk Revival influences in a couple of songs.
I was introduced to this band by a person I know and I still have no idea how did she manage discover them, since they are incredibly unknown, but I fell in love with them as soon as I listened to Push Back and A Little Love. Unfortunately, YouTube only offers a limited number of their songs, but I discovered Inside, What You Want, Donkey Kong and some other songs in there. I was fascinated by their music, so I used Spotify, which I only use as my last resort, to listen to their full albums and I saw their potential as I felt bad for knowing they dissolved as an almost unknown group. They had potential to be one of the greatest bands in the alternative music industry of the 2000's. Actually, they even remind me of The Bravery (An Honest Mistake is a song that serves well as an example), but with a big difference: The Bravery were more into Dance-Punk instead of Dance-Pop. I'd even say they were influenced by them if they weren't active around the same time (Another Cynthia formed around 2002 and dissolved around 2010 and The Bravery formed in 2003 and dissolved in 2012), but I find them quite similar.
My favourite release of the band is, undoubtedly, The Mannequin. Every track in there is a 16/20 at least, and you can find masterpieces like Let Down, Push Back and 3AM in there (I can't give you the links for those specific tracks because they are not available on YouTube, or at least not in my country, except Push Back, but that one's link is up in the beginning of the post). They made songs that are quite simple but still sound genius. 3AM has a calm, happy and summer-like wave and it is a song that'd fit perfectly on some TV series.
Now, outside of The Mannequin, you can still find excellent songs like Dry Eyes (which is, by the way, part of the soundtrack of the tween video-game ourWORLD), Pretty Girl, Inside and New Skin. They all have a positive energy, with Ian's and Abe's voice mixing pretty well together, and they have found the perfect formula for Indie Pop, but were not recognized for it, which is pretty unfair, but that's the music industry in a nutshell! Still, they composed perfect songs to listen to at anytime. I'd even say they are one of my favourite bands of all time, and that's really something! Give them a listen, it is worth it. Trust me.
What do you think? Do you agree with me? What kind of post should I do next? Comment below and I will reply!
They released two albums (Another Cynthia, in 2007 and Antique of Disaster, in 2009), an EP (The Mannequin, in 2008) and a non-album single entitled Inside, in 2002. Their most popular songs are probably Push Back, Dry Eyes and A Little Love.
I couldn't find a lot of information about them, but according to my research, they formed around 2002 and dissolved around 2010, having their last show on 26th September 2009 in Burnside, OR, together with Low vs. Diamond and Charmparticles, two other local bands. Their most persistent line-up (again, according to my research) consisted on Ian Mackintosh (Lead vocals and guitar), Abe Smith (lead vocals and guitar), Jason Mackie (backing vocals and guitar), Ian Mouser (bass), Jackson Coffrey (drums) and Ben Braun (keys, samples and backing vocals). Also, they characterize themselves as an hybrid band of Indie Pop, Electropop and Dance-Pop, but I can also see some Post-Punk Revival influences in a couple of songs.
I was introduced to this band by a person I know and I still have no idea how did she manage discover them, since they are incredibly unknown, but I fell in love with them as soon as I listened to Push Back and A Little Love. Unfortunately, YouTube only offers a limited number of their songs, but I discovered Inside, What You Want, Donkey Kong and some other songs in there. I was fascinated by their music, so I used Spotify, which I only use as my last resort, to listen to their full albums and I saw their potential as I felt bad for knowing they dissolved as an almost unknown group. They had potential to be one of the greatest bands in the alternative music industry of the 2000's. Actually, they even remind me of The Bravery (An Honest Mistake is a song that serves well as an example), but with a big difference: The Bravery were more into Dance-Punk instead of Dance-Pop. I'd even say they were influenced by them if they weren't active around the same time (Another Cynthia formed around 2002 and dissolved around 2010 and The Bravery formed in 2003 and dissolved in 2012), but I find them quite similar.
My favourite release of the band is, undoubtedly, The Mannequin. Every track in there is a 16/20 at least, and you can find masterpieces like Let Down, Push Back and 3AM in there (I can't give you the links for those specific tracks because they are not available on YouTube, or at least not in my country, except Push Back, but that one's link is up in the beginning of the post). They made songs that are quite simple but still sound genius. 3AM has a calm, happy and summer-like wave and it is a song that'd fit perfectly on some TV series.
Now, outside of The Mannequin, you can still find excellent songs like Dry Eyes (which is, by the way, part of the soundtrack of the tween video-game ourWORLD), Pretty Girl, Inside and New Skin. They all have a positive energy, with Ian's and Abe's voice mixing pretty well together, and they have found the perfect formula for Indie Pop, but were not recognized for it, which is pretty unfair, but that's the music industry in a nutshell! Still, they composed perfect songs to listen to at anytime. I'd even say they are one of my favourite bands of all time, and that's really something! Give them a listen, it is worth it. Trust me.
What do you think? Do you agree with me? What kind of post should I do next? Comment below and I will reply!
sexta-feira, 9 de março de 2018
Artist to Folow: George Watsky
Have you ever heard of George Watsky? Well, I doubt you know this American writer, rapper and poet by his name, but there is a great likelihood that you have already seen him somewhere on the Internet. If you are subscribed to the YouTube channel Epic Rap Battles of History, then you have probably seen him because has appeared in three of their videos, portraying William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe and Doctor Who's 4th Doctor. If you are not familiar with ERB's videos but were a YouTuber user in 2011, then you are probably familiar with his viral video, Pale Kid Raps Fast, where he rapped at an incredible speed (11,9 syllables per second). Or, I don't know, you might know him because of his collaboration with twenty one pilots' drummer, Josh Dun, on x Infinity's single Midnight Heart, or by any other reason. Or not. This post is for those who haven't been introduced to his music career yet, anyway.
"And I can't really tell if I'm a good person or if I'm faking it very, very well" - Ten Fingers
"Because you know what's awesome? World peace! And you know what else is awesome? Catapults. And that's the goddamn truth. This world is so confusing! But you're gonna be fine." - Letter to My 16-Year Old Self
Okay, now more concretely, who is George Watsky? Watsky is an American rapper, writter and poet, who was born on 15th September 1986, in San Francisco, CA, together with his twin brother: Simon.
Watsky always had interest in hip-hop and alternative music, and he even made an amateur song back in 2002, as a teenager, entitled Nosy Clowns, but George only started to earn some popularity with his spoken word, when he won the 2006 Youth Speaks Grand Slam Final with his poem V for Virgin and after being featured on Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry's 6th season (HBO) in 2007.
Even though he was ascending on his spoken word career, he slowed it down in 2007 to start his music career by creating the Jazz Hip-Hop band Invisible Inc. with two friends (Max Miller-Loran and Daniel Riera) and on 1st July 2007, they released their debut album, Invisible Inc., which was not very successful. After that, the band split, only going back together in 2016 to be featured in Watsky's Anti-Trump single Pink Lemonade and in 2017/2018, to record a second studio album which is planned to be released a couple months from now.
Despite his first musical project's failure, Watsky didn't give up and decided to go solo and released his self-titled album, which reached the 7th place on Billboard's hip-hop chart. It was moderately successful, but nothing special (I personally didn't really like this record. Not because it was a bad record, but because it was pretty weak compared to his last three albums).
Despite his first musical project's failure, Watsky didn't give up and decided to go solo and released his self-titled album, which reached the 7th place on Billboard's hip-hop chart. It was moderately successful, but nothing special (I personally didn't really like this record. Not because it was a bad record, but because it was pretty weak compared to his last three albums).
In 2011, Watsky released his viral YouTube video, Pale Kid Raps Fast, where he raps extremely fast (11,9 syllables per second). He later put this video on non-listed, together with its sequel, G.O.A.T. (as an explanation for that, he replied to a fan's comment on Facebook, saying: "I took it down because every time someone reviews my album they lead with the fast rap angle because they search my name and see that video with 24 million hits. I'm not ashamed of it by any means, but I need to focus on having a music career that stands on its own merits (...)"), but before they were put to non-listed, he was invited to The Ellen Show twice because of those videos (here and here). In that same year, Watsky was considered one of the Big Sounds of 2011, together with Mac Miller, Kreayshawn and Skrillex, but between the four, Watsky is now the less successful one.
In 2012, Watsky released a collab album with his friend Kush Mody, entitled Watsky & Mody and two mixtapes: Nothing Like The First Time and A New Kind of Sexy. These mixtapes became more popular than Watsky's self-titled album because of tracks like Wounded Healer, Ninjas in Paris and IDGAF, but it was with the albums Cardboard Castles and All You Can Do, released in 2013 and 2014, respectively, when he finally earned enough popularity to be one of the best underground hip-hop artists of the 2010's. Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Moral of the Story and Sloppy Seconds became his signature songs (not counting Pale Kid Raps Fast here). After finishing All You Can Do's tour, Watsky announced he was on hiatus, and that hiatus was over sooner that expected. On 27th April 2016, Watsky posted a video saying that his hiatus was over and that he would be releasing a book called How To Ruin Everything and made a mini-film to portray one of his chapters to advertise it. Also, a future album release was confirmed by Watsky himself on 8th July with the release of the single Tiny Glowing Screens Pt.3, and that album was released on 19th August, with the name x Infinity. He then decided to make a music video for every single track, and the complete work was released on YouTube on 2nd March 2018.
This is one of my favourite artists of all time. I was introduced to him via Epic Rap Battles of History, and the first song I listened to was Wounded Healer, and I fell in love with it. I found Watsky VERY talented, and he only gets better, and better, and better and that is the main reason why I have been listening to him for nearly two years and a half without getting sick. I like his diversity. When you get introduced to Watsky, you can choose from: very depressive songs that address philosophical topics (like the four parts of Lovely Thing Suite (if you prefere, have this live studio performance, it is pretty good as well) and the three parts of Tiny Glowing Screens), songs about politics (Pink Lemonade and Stick to Your Guns), motivational songs (Never Let It Die) or nonsense songs/songs that will make you laugh (Ugly Faces, Exquisite Corpse and Pauly Shore Saw My Penis), and all that diversity shows you Watsky's personality. He opens himself on those songs, talking about his problems with epilepsy and with the drugs he has to take because of it (Chemical Angel and Tears To Diamonds), about his point of view about the human race, stating how irrelevant it is considering the whole universe (Tiny Glowing Screens Pt.1, 2 and 3), about his narcissism (Whoa, Whoa, Whoa) and many, many others.Also, his lyrics are pretty poetic, some even say too poetic for hip-hop, but do not forget he is a poet. He is one of the only rappers I have ever seen who are capable of creating a story that he has nothing to do it (most rappers, when telling a story, base on themselves on a situation they have seen from close, like I'm Not Racist, by Joyner Lucas, or When I'm Gone, by Eminem), stories that he just thinks must be told. The best example for that is Sarajevo, a song about a couple who were ethically and religiously different during the time of the Bosnian War, where Sarajevo was divided by two, divided with ethnic lines and so they were not able to see each other. They decided to see each other for the last time on a bridge that was divided between the Serbians and the Bosniaks. They were shot in the middle of the bridge by a sniper. Watsky did a great job telling this story, with great, great lyrics (for example, "People wanna put a wall to divide us/kinda fitting that we died on a bridge"). This is just an example.
Also, his dedication to both spoken work and musical career is outstanding! Since 2006, he performed slam poetry in more than 150 universities, released 52 music videos (and has three in-making for Invisible Inc.'s new album), released seven studio albums and has one upcoming for Invisible Inc. (between those seven, one was for Invisible Inc., five were solo, being one of them a hidden album available on www.kisswatskysgluteusmaximus.com and one with Kush Mody), two mixtapes, one book and he founded the record label Steel Wood Media together with Brad Simpson!
So, today's artist to follow is George Watsky. Wanna give him a try? Then go ahead! If you want to start with his most popular songs, try out Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Moral of the Story and Sloppy Seconds. I will now leave you with my favourite quotes by him:
Also, his dedication to both spoken work and musical career is outstanding! Since 2006, he performed slam poetry in more than 150 universities, released 52 music videos (and has three in-making for Invisible Inc.'s new album), released seven studio albums and has one upcoming for Invisible Inc. (between those seven, one was for Invisible Inc., five were solo, being one of them a hidden album available on www.kisswatskysgluteusmaximus.com and one with Kush Mody), two mixtapes, one book and he founded the record label Steel Wood Media together with Brad Simpson!
So, today's artist to follow is George Watsky. Wanna give him a try? Then go ahead! If you want to start with his most popular songs, try out Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Moral of the Story and Sloppy Seconds. I will now leave you with my favourite quotes by him:
"And I can't really tell if I'm a good person or if I'm faking it very, very well" - Ten Fingers
"Because you know what's awesome? World peace! And you know what else is awesome? Catapults. And that's the goddamn truth. This world is so confusing! But you're gonna be fine." - Letter to My 16-Year Old Self
"There are 7 billion, 46 million people on the planet and I have the audacity to think I matter! I know that's a lie, but I prefer this alternative." - Tiny Glowing Screens, Part 2
"Although the thought of paradise is very nice, in my heart I know I don't believe in magic, so maybe death is just an eternal TV static" - Lovely Thing Suite: Conversations
"I thought this was a party, but all my friends are leaving and I still wanna play" - Wounded Healer
"I thought I was an atheist until I realized I'm a God" - Whoa, Whoa, Whoa
"I'm not Jesus Christ, but I can turn water into Kool-Aid" - Drunk Text Message to God
"I can't rock your world, but damn can I cuddle!" - V For Virgin
"But if you love what you're doing, you've already succeeded" - Never Let It Die
segunda-feira, 5 de março de 2018
"Nevermind", by Nirvana
Nirvana! One of the most popular bands of all time, specially during the 90's, when their popularity was monstrous big, and even though they dissolved almost 24 years ago, they are still very popular.
The band was in active between 1987 and 1994, year when their vocalist, Kurt Cobain, killed himself. The most recognizable line-up consists on vocalist and guitarrist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl (who is now the frontman of Foo Fighters). During their brief existence as a band, they released three studio albums, but today we will talk about their second album: Nevermind.
Nevermind was released on 24th September 1991 and was the first Nirvana album with Dave Grohl as the band's drummer (Nirvana had so many drummers before Grohl it almost looked like they were collecting drummers) and had four singles: Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are, Lithium and In Bloom.
Before the album was released, the expectations were not high at all, but after the relase of the single Smells Like Teen Spirit, which is still today considered as one of the songs that defined 90's music, the expectations grew and the album eventually became a big success, charting as nº1 in January 1992 (surpassing the long-time leader Dangerous, by Michael Jackson) on Billboard Hot 200 and it never left the chart ever since then (as of 5th March 2018, it is in 162nd, which is outstanding, considering it is now a 26 year-old record).
Now, to my personal review: Nevermind has 12 tracks and it had a couple changes considering their first album, Bleach, but not too many. The singles are very different from Bleach, but they have a lot of songs, like Breed, Territorial Pissings and On a Plain that could be easily be on Bleach. They basically continued to invest in Grunge, but didn't invest as much in Noise Rock, partially abandoning the Noise Rock/Grunge mix that characterized Bleach and investing on a not-so-noisy Grunge like it is seen in Smells Like Teen Spirit and even starting to dig into Acoustic Rock in tracks like Polly and Something In The Way. It was a nice change and it somehow came to mainstream attention, even though Grunge was not the radio's wave at all. The lyrics are typically Grunge: Most of them don't make a lot of sense (like Kurt himself said in an interview back in 1993: "I don't intentionally write meaningful stuff"), but those that make sense address topics where Kurt Cobain (who writes, like, 99% of Nirvana's lyrics) criticizes mainstream music and talks about the people who listen to Nirvana but only know their most well-known songs (now quoting the chorus of In Bloom: "Hey - he's the one/who likes all our pretty songs/and he likes to sing along/and he likes to shoot his gun/But he knows not what it means/knows not what it means when I say:/He's the one/who likes all our pretty songs/and he likes to sing along/and he likes to shoot his gun/But he knows not what it means/knows not what it means/when I say ah...") or his feelings of self-hate (Lithium is the greatest example of that). But usually Nirvana's lyrics only make sense when reading separate sentences, because if you put the lyrics of a whole track, it is not even a puzzle, because the pieces do not make a puzzle together, it's just a really big mess with 1001 different meanings, BUT there is an exception: Something In The Way. This "last track" (I used parenthesis because it is an Outro for the album, yeah, but then, after 10 minutes of complete silence, you can hear the hidden track: Endless, Nameless) has lyrics that talk about the time when Kurt Cobain lived under a bridge. This one actually makes sense as a whole.
My favourite tracks of the record are Smells Like Teen Spirit (yeah, I mean it) and Something In The Way.
Even though Smells Like Teen Spirit is their mass hit, the song that was playing on MTV so many times back in 1991 and 1992 that made Nirvana get sick of the song and they even refused to play it in many, many shows and when they were forced to sing it, they would troll people by imitating Morrissey's voice or in any other way. I don't blame them, I'd get sick of it, too. But now that it is not played as many times on the radio as it used to, you can listen to it without getting sick too easily (but still, it annoys me when people say they love Nirvana and then they only know 5 songs in the max. Also, Smells Like Teen Spirit got so popular it has one of the most played guitar riffs of all time). I love the instrumental of this song, but I feel forced to underline the guitar, which is legendary, specially from the beginning of the song to the chorus. It mixes the voice and the other instruments pretty well, showing a feel of great anger. The lyrics, even though they don't have any true meaning, they show anger as well. Even though I can't understand SHIT about the meaning, I can see the feeling of anger in there and it is transmitted through Kurt Cobain's voice. Such feeling makes me feel forced to put the song on max volume and let myself get consumed by it. The title, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", has a meaning (Kathleen Hanna, vocalist of Bikini Kill and Kurt's friend, wrote "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" on his wall), but the title has a non-intencional meaning that makes sense, considering the song. It may be pure teenage anger. That's the vibe that the title and the song itself gives me. Teenage anger.
About Something In The Way: this is, in my opinion, one of the best Acoustic Rock songs ever made. The lyrics are about living under a bridge and they were written by Kurt Cobain during the time he was homeless and living under a bridge. It also has a really a slow-timing rhythm, which gave Krist and Dave difficulties on writing their part of the song. Actually, Dave Grohl even said once that the slow-timing rhythm of the track made the writing of his part really difficult and he was forced to repress his natural inclination to pound on the drums, but his part actually sounded pretty good in there. Also, like this wasn't good enough, they added Kirk Canning, who played the cello on the track. The cello gives the track a hopeless feeling, mixing well with the topic addressed: Being a homeless man living under a bridge, hopeless.
My less favourite track of the record is Come As You Are. I find it one of the most overrated Nirvana songs and I don't get how is it the second most popular Nirvana single. I think it doesn't show Nirvana's talent as a band, as they did a weird mix of Grunge with Acoustic Rock in there. The lyrics are the usual, with no intentional meaning and the song was a mess in the bad way. The bass is not bad at all, but it is super repetitive, the drums are pretty poor and in some parts of the song you can barely hear Grohl playing and the guitar solo comes out of nowhere and I find it quite horrible. The voice was actually fine there, considering the kind of song it was, but the track is way too overrated and I don't like it.
Also, I am not really fond with the album Bleach, and I think I mentioned that there are songs on Nevermind that could easily be featured on Bleach. Those songs are: Breed, Territorial Pissings, Stay Away, On a Plain and Endless, Nameless. I will not consider these songs exactly bad songs, because I actually get why people like them (but this is about my opinion, not people's, so yeah). I am basically not fond with the Noisy Rock/Grunge mix, but I like to listen to it when I am having a rage attack, ready to break a window with my bare hands. It is a good genre for that kind of feeling. When I'm calm, I find these songs way too noisy. I mean, Endless, Nameless is such a chaos! When I listen to it I just remember the videos I viewed when Nirvana destroyed their material on stage. Now, Smells Like Teen Spirit, on the other hand, reminds me of rage, but I can listen to it while I'm calm, but these Noisy Rock/Grunge-mix songs are the type of songs that I am only able to listen to when I am pissed off. The disorganized guitar, Dave Grohl pounding on the drums almost like if he was hitting them randomly, like "Now this one, and this one! And imma hit that, and that, and bang! There you go!". The bass is pretty nice, listenable, and the vocals are basically Kurt Cobain screaming and fucking his voice up. I get why people like it, I really do, but I am personally not fond with it.
After this review, I am ready to give you the final score of the album. Ready? You're sure?
Well... 14/20.
Why though? Well, this record is mostly good, there are some songs that are actually excellent, but most of them are not something TOO special and there are a decent number of tracks I am not really fond with, and there's one song that I found horrible. I find 14 a fair score, but I think Nirvana never really showed their full talent until the release of In Utero, which is possibly one of my favourite records of all time and certainly my favourite Nirvana release. Also, from what we can hear from the single You Know You're Right and demos like Do Re Mi and Poison's Gone, I think their fourth album would end up being even better. Kurt Cobain's suicide was a disaster to music, because he was 27 and still had a lot to show us, and I think he was about to show the best of himself as a musician, together with Dave Grohl, who was gaining relevance in Nirvana and ended up showing up the best of himself in Foo Fighters. I think this record is not even close from what they were capable of, and that makes me sad, because we were not able to see that work. And so, my final score is really 14.
What do you think? Do you agree with me? Comment below and I will gladly reply to you!
The band was in active between 1987 and 1994, year when their vocalist, Kurt Cobain, killed himself. The most recognizable line-up consists on vocalist and guitarrist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl (who is now the frontman of Foo Fighters). During their brief existence as a band, they released three studio albums, but today we will talk about their second album: Nevermind.
Nevermind was released on 24th September 1991 and was the first Nirvana album with Dave Grohl as the band's drummer (Nirvana had so many drummers before Grohl it almost looked like they were collecting drummers) and had four singles: Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are, Lithium and In Bloom.
Before the album was released, the expectations were not high at all, but after the relase of the single Smells Like Teen Spirit, which is still today considered as one of the songs that defined 90's music, the expectations grew and the album eventually became a big success, charting as nº1 in January 1992 (surpassing the long-time leader Dangerous, by Michael Jackson) on Billboard Hot 200 and it never left the chart ever since then (as of 5th March 2018, it is in 162nd, which is outstanding, considering it is now a 26 year-old record).
Now, to my personal review: Nevermind has 12 tracks and it had a couple changes considering their first album, Bleach, but not too many. The singles are very different from Bleach, but they have a lot of songs, like Breed, Territorial Pissings and On a Plain that could be easily be on Bleach. They basically continued to invest in Grunge, but didn't invest as much in Noise Rock, partially abandoning the Noise Rock/Grunge mix that characterized Bleach and investing on a not-so-noisy Grunge like it is seen in Smells Like Teen Spirit and even starting to dig into Acoustic Rock in tracks like Polly and Something In The Way. It was a nice change and it somehow came to mainstream attention, even though Grunge was not the radio's wave at all. The lyrics are typically Grunge: Most of them don't make a lot of sense (like Kurt himself said in an interview back in 1993: "I don't intentionally write meaningful stuff"), but those that make sense address topics where Kurt Cobain (who writes, like, 99% of Nirvana's lyrics) criticizes mainstream music and talks about the people who listen to Nirvana but only know their most well-known songs (now quoting the chorus of In Bloom: "Hey - he's the one/who likes all our pretty songs/and he likes to sing along/and he likes to shoot his gun/But he knows not what it means/knows not what it means when I say:/He's the one/who likes all our pretty songs/and he likes to sing along/and he likes to shoot his gun/But he knows not what it means/knows not what it means/when I say ah...") or his feelings of self-hate (Lithium is the greatest example of that). But usually Nirvana's lyrics only make sense when reading separate sentences, because if you put the lyrics of a whole track, it is not even a puzzle, because the pieces do not make a puzzle together, it's just a really big mess with 1001 different meanings, BUT there is an exception: Something In The Way. This "last track" (I used parenthesis because it is an Outro for the album, yeah, but then, after 10 minutes of complete silence, you can hear the hidden track: Endless, Nameless) has lyrics that talk about the time when Kurt Cobain lived under a bridge. This one actually makes sense as a whole.
My favourite tracks of the record are Smells Like Teen Spirit (yeah, I mean it) and Something In The Way.
Even though Smells Like Teen Spirit is their mass hit, the song that was playing on MTV so many times back in 1991 and 1992 that made Nirvana get sick of the song and they even refused to play it in many, many shows and when they were forced to sing it, they would troll people by imitating Morrissey's voice or in any other way. I don't blame them, I'd get sick of it, too. But now that it is not played as many times on the radio as it used to, you can listen to it without getting sick too easily (but still, it annoys me when people say they love Nirvana and then they only know 5 songs in the max. Also, Smells Like Teen Spirit got so popular it has one of the most played guitar riffs of all time). I love the instrumental of this song, but I feel forced to underline the guitar, which is legendary, specially from the beginning of the song to the chorus. It mixes the voice and the other instruments pretty well, showing a feel of great anger. The lyrics, even though they don't have any true meaning, they show anger as well. Even though I can't understand SHIT about the meaning, I can see the feeling of anger in there and it is transmitted through Kurt Cobain's voice. Such feeling makes me feel forced to put the song on max volume and let myself get consumed by it. The title, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", has a meaning (Kathleen Hanna, vocalist of Bikini Kill and Kurt's friend, wrote "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" on his wall), but the title has a non-intencional meaning that makes sense, considering the song. It may be pure teenage anger. That's the vibe that the title and the song itself gives me. Teenage anger.
About Something In The Way: this is, in my opinion, one of the best Acoustic Rock songs ever made. The lyrics are about living under a bridge and they were written by Kurt Cobain during the time he was homeless and living under a bridge. It also has a really a slow-timing rhythm, which gave Krist and Dave difficulties on writing their part of the song. Actually, Dave Grohl even said once that the slow-timing rhythm of the track made the writing of his part really difficult and he was forced to repress his natural inclination to pound on the drums, but his part actually sounded pretty good in there. Also, like this wasn't good enough, they added Kirk Canning, who played the cello on the track. The cello gives the track a hopeless feeling, mixing well with the topic addressed: Being a homeless man living under a bridge, hopeless.
My less favourite track of the record is Come As You Are. I find it one of the most overrated Nirvana songs and I don't get how is it the second most popular Nirvana single. I think it doesn't show Nirvana's talent as a band, as they did a weird mix of Grunge with Acoustic Rock in there. The lyrics are the usual, with no intentional meaning and the song was a mess in the bad way. The bass is not bad at all, but it is super repetitive, the drums are pretty poor and in some parts of the song you can barely hear Grohl playing and the guitar solo comes out of nowhere and I find it quite horrible. The voice was actually fine there, considering the kind of song it was, but the track is way too overrated and I don't like it.
Also, I am not really fond with the album Bleach, and I think I mentioned that there are songs on Nevermind that could easily be featured on Bleach. Those songs are: Breed, Territorial Pissings, Stay Away, On a Plain and Endless, Nameless. I will not consider these songs exactly bad songs, because I actually get why people like them (but this is about my opinion, not people's, so yeah). I am basically not fond with the Noisy Rock/Grunge mix, but I like to listen to it when I am having a rage attack, ready to break a window with my bare hands. It is a good genre for that kind of feeling. When I'm calm, I find these songs way too noisy. I mean, Endless, Nameless is such a chaos! When I listen to it I just remember the videos I viewed when Nirvana destroyed their material on stage. Now, Smells Like Teen Spirit, on the other hand, reminds me of rage, but I can listen to it while I'm calm, but these Noisy Rock/Grunge-mix songs are the type of songs that I am only able to listen to when I am pissed off. The disorganized guitar, Dave Grohl pounding on the drums almost like if he was hitting them randomly, like "Now this one, and this one! And imma hit that, and that, and bang! There you go!". The bass is pretty nice, listenable, and the vocals are basically Kurt Cobain screaming and fucking his voice up. I get why people like it, I really do, but I am personally not fond with it.
After this review, I am ready to give you the final score of the album. Ready? You're sure?
Well... 14/20.
Why though? Well, this record is mostly good, there are some songs that are actually excellent, but most of them are not something TOO special and there are a decent number of tracks I am not really fond with, and there's one song that I found horrible. I find 14 a fair score, but I think Nirvana never really showed their full talent until the release of In Utero, which is possibly one of my favourite records of all time and certainly my favourite Nirvana release. Also, from what we can hear from the single You Know You're Right and demos like Do Re Mi and Poison's Gone, I think their fourth album would end up being even better. Kurt Cobain's suicide was a disaster to music, because he was 27 and still had a lot to show us, and I think he was about to show the best of himself as a musician, together with Dave Grohl, who was gaining relevance in Nirvana and ended up showing up the best of himself in Foo Fighters. I think this record is not even close from what they were capable of, and that makes me sad, because we were not able to see that work. And so, my final score is really 14.
What do you think? Do you agree with me? Comment below and I will gladly reply to you!
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