Archive for the ‘ music ’ Category

drake – more life and clarks collab

drakemorelife

drake’s long anticipated more life dropped on saturday night.   i just read it broke the 24 hour streaming record with 89.9 million streams.  wow.  that’s insane.  i’m about 4 full spins through and i really really like it.  on a scale of 1 to take care, it feels like a solid 8 right now, but that rating could go up with each listen.  there’s a lot going on in this record.  it’s going to take some time to truly dissect it.  with that in mind, stand out tracks to me are: “passionfruit”, “portland”, and “ice melts.”  that should give you a nice start for your spring break playlist.

in other drake news (and also on saturday night), he posted an instagram picture of some custom made ovo clarks desert boots.  hmm.  very interesting.  is there an ovo / clarks collaboration on the way?  i’m not a hypebeast by any means, but i do love me some clarks.

ovoclarks1

john lennon

Lennon In Paris

“we need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections.  if we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others.”

– john lennon

december 8th is one of those dates i always remember.  it’s the day john lennon died.  obviously, i wasn’t around when this happened, but as a huge beatles fan it’s one of those dates i can’t forget.  his music and life impacted (and continues to impact) so many people.  he had a lot of great quotes about life and love, but i read this one the other day and it stuck with me.  it’s so important to love ourselves and feel good about who we are before we fully commit to loving someone else.  because i’m human i struggle with self confidence like everyone else.  part of me feels like all of my struggles with dating and love are god’s way of leading me to my true self.  i’m looking forward to the day when i can look in the mirror and truly love who i am, because when that happens i will be ready to love someone else in the way i’ve always dreamed about.  thank you for everything, john lennon.  we need you now more than ever.

required listening: t. rex electric warrior

trex

you know the song “bang a gong (get it on)?”  yeah, you do.  you’ve heard it every time there’s been a trailer for a movie about a 1970’s football or basketball team.  it would be hard not to put said song in said trailer because it sounds like the 70’s.  and if you knew nothing about t. rex and marc bolan, it would be easy to write off t. rex as some sort of gimmicky music from a forgotten era, but that’s not the case.

i bought electric warrior after hearing “jeepster” in tarantino’s movie death proof.  tarantino knows his music.  i figured if we was down with t. rex, then i should be too.  i had low expectations.  i’ve never liked the music of the 70’s or glam rock.  man was i wrong.

electric warrior gets better every time i throw it on the record player or in my car.  it’s full of catchy guitar hooks and trippy lyrics.  there’s a depth to this record – a feel to it – that’s hard to describe.  here’s a good analogy: have you ever had a sip of a stiegl beer on a spring day?  well, it sounds like that beer tastes (if that makes sense).  it’s party music for people that like to wear their sunglasses inside.  normally, i would call those folks assholes, but if t. rex was on, i would call them the coolest people in the room.

still not sold?  check out these jamz and get back to me: “mambo sun,” “cosmic dancer,” “jeepster,” “life’s a gas,” and “the motivator.”  if you don’t feel like you’re flying after listening to those songs, then i can’t help you.  electric warrior is this month’s required listening.  recommended on vinyl.  the ladies will love it.

chris stapleton and justin timberlake at the cmas

unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock the past week, then you’ve probably seen this video of chris stapleton and justin timberlake performing at the cmas.  if you haven’t seen it, then turn up your speakers and prepare to have your face melted.  i can’t stop watching it.  it brings a smile to my face.

i was in the audience last wednesday night.  it brought the house down.  it’s one of those things i won’t forget for the rest of my life.  i was lucky enough to hear chris stapleton back in the early 2000s when i worked in the a&r department at sony nashville.  i heard him sing through the walls and later told my boss that that was the best singing i had ever heard.  my boss replied, “yeah, he’s the greatest singer i’ve ever heard too, but he doesn’t want to be an artist.”

i’m glad he changed his mind.  he’s been one of nashville’s best kept secrets for a long time now.  i don’t think there was a person in that room last week that wasn’t pulling for him.  he’s worked his ass off and deserves every bit of success that’s coming his way.   i like seeing good things happen to good people.  now go buy traveller.

traveller

ue mini boom bluetooth speaker

ueminiboom

i feel like i’m always apologizing for not blogging in a while, so i’m not going to do that tonight.  it’s been a crazy spring and summer.  i’m hoping to get back on my grind for the rest of the year.  thumbs up.

tonight i’m going to recommend my new favorite purchase which has nothing to do with shoes or jackets or clothes or whatever.  i’ve been on the search for the perfect portable bluetooth speaker for the a couple of months now.  i patrolled amazon’s list of best sellers, bought a few, hated them and then took it back to the internet for more research.  the one i’ve landed on that destroys all other bluetooth speakers in its class is the ue mini boom that you see above.  it packs a punch.  i don’t know the technical aspects of this product and i honestly don’t really care.  just know that it plays music loud for its size.  it’s also around $100 which is how much you should be spending on an audio product of this size.  (you get what you pay for when go cheap.  trust me.)  you can get your very own right here.  you will love it.

 

required listening: the good, the bad and the ugly soundtrack

goodbad

is there an album that makes you feel more like a badass than this album?  the answer is no.  i had surgery a month ago and was laid up for almost a week.  during my couch stint, i revisited the man with no name trilogy and it made me realize what an unbelievable composer ennio morricone is.

my first exposure to the good, the bad and the ugly was in 8th grade when one of our close family friends let me watch it with him.  he was a couple of years older than me and i thought he was the coolest dude ever i.e. whatever he liked i liked.  i asked for the soundtrack for my birthday and my parents delivered.

you don’t have to have to see the movie to appreciate the film score.  you’ve probably heard most of it in the hipster coffee shop you frequent on weekdays.  you know what i’m talking about.  it’s that music mixed with gunfire, whistling and yodeling that stops and makes you wish you were riding to work on a horse – guns at your side – instead of your toyota prius.  you can’t miss it.  it’s one of a kind and should be in your collection.

FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE

you may have missed: the exploding hearts

guitarromantic2 copy

i remember the phone call like it was yesterday.  a friend of mine called me back in 2003 and said, “dude, you’ve gotta check out this band the exploding hearts.  you’re going to love them.  they’re right up your alley.”  he described them as sounding like the clash.  i f**king love the clash, so i drove to tower records during my lunch break and bought guitar romantic.  he wasn’t wrong.  i love everything about this album: the cover art, the attitude, the melodies, the jangling guitars.  it was the record i’d been waiting for since i first discovered punk rock in 8th grade.  the best part was that at this point in time they were my little secret.  the internet was in its infancy stages as far as discovering new music was concerned i.e. i still relied on word of mouth for new bands in the early 2000s.  i was going to spend the next several weeks telling everybody about the exploding hearts, but 3 months later their budding career came to an end when their bus ran off the road, flipped over and killed 3 out of 4 members of the band.  that was the end of the exploding hearts.  i go back to guitar romantic every couple of months.  it’s a short record – 10 songs that average about 2.5 minutes each.  you can listen to it over and over and hear things you missed on the last listen.  it’s a classic and one you should have in your library.

explodinghearts

the last of the ramones

tommyramone1

i woke up this morning with an alert on my phone that tommy ramone, the first drummer for the ramones, passed away last night.  he was 65.  it’s hard to believe that all four original members of the ramones are now gone.

i discovered the ramones in 1995 after ¡adios amigos! came out.  i ordered it from the columbia house record club not knowing a thing about these guys.  i was hooked instantly.  from there, i bought ramones mania (a greatest hits compilation) and followed that up with the ramones, leave home and rocket to russia.  tommy only played on the first three records which are also their best.

the ramones created a sound and a style that will forever be imitated by kids in garages that like to play their music loud and fast.  thank you for contribution to rock and roll and to my life.  you will be missed.

The Ramones

buy this album: metamodern sounds in country music

sturgill

hello again.  you might not remember me.  i used to write here all the time and then suddenly stopped.  i hope you didn’t think the worst.  anyways, i’m back and i’ll be 100% back in a couple of weeks.  i wanted to go ahead and recommend an album for you to purchase: sturgill simpson’s metamodern sounds in country music.  you’re probably thinking to yourself, “he hasn’t written anything in a month and a half and this is what he comes back with?”  solid point, but this album is that f’ing good.  it’s not bro country or that other kind of cunt-try you’ve heard on your local radio station.  this is throw-back, balls-out, outlaw country.  you know the kind of country your dad used to tell you about over a couple of pbrs.  go download it, crack open a cold one and thank me later.

yeezus indian headress t-shirt

yeezust2

i bought this t-shirt.  this is not a joke.  i think it’s f**king awesome.  it reminded me of the grateful dead x wes lang t-shirt that i neglected to buy last year.  leave it to kanye to create something so next level that it almost completely contradicts his personal brand (or does it? i can’t keep up).

i missed his show in nashville the other night.  it looked amazing from what i saw on instagram.  i hope i can catch it in another city, but if that doesn’t happen, at least i’ll have this badass indian headress t-shirt (that’s funny on so many levels).  you can get your very own here if you’re interested in that kind of thing.