Tag Archive for 'Music'

The Swell Season in Concert

What? This is my first post in over two months? nah. That’s not true. You’re telling lies. liess lieesss.

Sooo I saw the Swell Season in concert the other day at Radio City Music Hall. They were amazing. For the unenlightened, the Swell Season is a band-group-thingy made up of Glen Hansard (of the Frames) and Marketa Irglova, and whoever else they happen to be playing with at any given time. For the semi-enlightened they were the guy and girl in the amazing film Once. So, since Once they’ve been touring together as the Swell Season, and put out a new album called “Strict Joy” in addition to Once’s soundtrack and the album “The Swell Season” which they made before it.

So, what kind of music is this that it is so imperative to hear it live? Well, Glen Hansard has this really gruff voice but then he just goes all out with it and sings all about heartbreak and sadness with all his might. Then, Marketa Irglova has a beautiful voice and counteracts all that gruffness. They are an incredible musical duo, and it’s because of that that Once was so good. Oh, they also dated for a little while after Once came out, but that’s over now. But they’re still musical partners!

SO ANYWAY. The concert. Well, no. Back up. Before the concert, they were playing outside on the street, like street performers. They were just standing outside of Radio City Music Hall, an hour before the concert they would perform right inside, just singing on the street with a large crowd of people around them. They then walked towards the back entrance, still singing and being followed by everybody and literally went into the doors still playing music. Look at the picture I got on my cell phone!!! You can sortaофис столове tell that it’s them.

swellseason

So. Oh, yeah, the actual concert. Even in the fairly large Radio City Music Hall the intimate music really got across. They sang a lot of their songs (since they really don’t have that many, only 2-3 album’s worth) plus some stuff from the Frames and unrecorded tracks. But the best part was the stories that Glen Hansard told between the songs, for 5, 10 minutes at a time they’d all take a break from singing and he’d just tell a story about what the song was about, and really good, involving stories too.

One of the things about the Swell Season’s music is that it almost always, starts out very mellow and pathetic-sounding. But over the course of the song, it completely builds up, slowly but surely, into what seems like an entirely different song. One of the coolest examples of this during the concert was a very intense rendition of “The Moon”, which builds up pretty nicely in the real song but it still kind of retains a mellow tone. But during the concert, they went completely crazy, going one more verse (is that the right word?), then another, and just when you think they’ve hit the last verse, and they couldn’t possibly go any farther, they couldn’t possibly reach a higher peak of emotion, they go again, bringing in an electric guitar and then revving up the bass to supersonic levels up to a point where you think your soul is going to explode from too much emotion. And then, the song just dies down and you feel almost relieved, but in a really good way.

Here’s the original song.

And here’s a different live version, doesn’t go quite as far as what I saw in concert, but you can get the idea:

Another great performance was “Say It to Me Now”, with no mic on the voice. Just Glen Hansard singing out at the top of his voice to the entire hall. So, if you’ve never heard of them you should start out by seeing the film Once. It’s a perfect introduction to them and shows how beautifully music and film can merge sometimes.

And if you do know them then you should check their concert listings on their website to see them live because they are exceptional in concert.

HA! I went the whole review without saying “awesome” once! I am proud of myself.

Harry Potter 6

4340_103476254459_62417689459_2631854_558365_nI saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince tonight. I think it was the best movie yet. It was dark, yet funny and real. The acting of the trio has improved greatly over the course of the movies, and the teenage social scenes were perfectly executed and acted.

It was also incredibly funny, because the situations which the characters found themselves in are just like those of “muggle” teenagers, yet it exists in this magical fantasy world. That’s exactly what made the books work, and that’s why most everyone my age became so immersed in the Harry Potter universe.

The movies, this one specifically, has gotten that aspect across incredibly well. It’s about more than the good vs. evil story – that you can find in any run-of-the-mill movie. It’s that it’s taking place in different way, but with the exact same relationships and dynamics as our world.

I counted one instance of the original John Williams Harry Potter theme. Despicable. And it wasn’t even during the main title. I realize that the original theme is almost 10 years old and that the music needs to evolve – but they can’t spare to use a bit of old (but great) music for the main title anymore? Hopefully if John Williams returns for the final two movies (as he is rumored to) there will be proper musical accompaniment. The scores for the last few movies by other composers have been mediocre

Still, aside from that the movie was a great adaptation of the book, and it didn’t feel nearly as rushed as the last one. There are only 2 more movies to go, and for the most part they look like they’re going to be really good based on this one.

A note about the advertising campaign for the movie: I love the way that the logo is slanted and cropped out of the frame for all of the movie posters. Being the sixth time around, it’s an acknowledgment that this has all happened before, and we don’t even need to see the whole logo to know that it’s Harry Potter.

Beatles for Sale

I’ve been listening to the 1964 Beatles album “Beatles for Sale.” It doesn’t have any of their really famous tracks, but it’s a really good album, from before they became super-duper famous, and evolved in their music. The rock melodies feel really traditional and basic – but in a really good way. I especially like “No Reply” and “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party.”

Obama’s Elf (Video)

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_B5UrI7nAI]

I will never hear that song the same again.

My Top 15 Guitar Solos

So the following songs are my top 15 guitar solos. I’m definitely no expert, but I think that every song on this list is awesome, mostly because of the awesome guitar parts. I began writing why  I liked each one but I pretty much just ended up copying and pasting “guitar solo awesomeness” for every item. So here they are, comment-free:

The third song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is not the version I prefer. The one I know was from the live recording of the “Concert for George” a year after George Harrison’s death with Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton.

The Evilnator (Movie)

Here’s a quick little movie I did with my dad. Can you spot the cuts?


The Evilnator from swruler9284 on Vimeo.

Think of it as cloverfield + my dad. Music from Lost and The Dark Knight. Does that really suprise you?

Great B-Side: Quixoticelixer

I hope I spelled that right…

Quixoticelixer is an awesome b-side off of the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Californication. And with Grooveshark’s new embeddable player, I can play it right here in the player below.

It’s the type of song that grows on you over time.

They Need “Awesome” Versions of Songs

Okay. You know how there’s really good rock music that are much longer than any other regular rock song? Especially in classic rock, there are so many great songs that (luckily) go on for a long time. For instance:

Hey Jude (7:04)
Jungleland (9:35)
Layla (7:06)
She’s Gone (5:19)

They’re all awesome songs because – well, they’re awesome – and they also go on for a while and really rock out and do guitar solos and other awesome stuff. So now here’s my idea. What if they made versions of other great (although shorter) rocks songs that go on for that long? I’m talking 10-minute guitar solos – just an artist completely going crazy with their song.

Kind of like the live version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps* that was played during the concert for George by Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney. It’s 6 minutes and awesome. Couldn’t artists come in to a studio and play their songs – but 3 times as long and just be going crazy? Kind of like the TV show Abbey Road, except a more fine-tuned version, and also kind of like those “Unplugged” albums, except instead of mellowing down songs, they go crazy with it.

I’m saying this because there is so much good music that would be so much more awesome if they went on for more than 4 minutes. I’m sure there are a number of reasons why the 3-5 minute range is so popular – but wouldn’t it be awesome? So, what songs would you like to be awesome-fied?

*Click the play button to hear the song in a cool Yahoo flash player