Weezer

I realized how terrible it is, that I have not yet blogged about the band Weezer! Weezer is a fantastic alternative rock band. Some of their most favorite songs consist of, "Island in The Sun","Beverly Hills", "Buddy Holly", and "Undone(The Sweater Song)".  My favorite of those songs is "Undone(The Sweater Song)". However, there are so many reasons as to why these classics, along with other pieces of their music are admired.
  As far as "Island in the Sun" and "Beverly Hills" go, both songs can relate to the desire to be elsewhere, or at a better state of present life. "Island in the Sun" describes what you can release of your stress, and putting into action a place we've all wanted to go to at some point to avoid life's difficulties. There are times where we just want to be happy, and life isn't easy but imagining a place to run away from your problems is not uncommon. "Beverly H
ills" can relate to this desire as well, however less of escaping the unfortunate parts of life, but living a better life. Wanting to be in Beverly Hills, is like saying you want to be a queen or king, or treated higher. The song refers to wealthy movie stars who make a lot of money, (basically media kings and queens) and are shown as so clean and perfect and popular, but the perspective of the song realizes that maybe they aren't qualified for that, and shoul enjoy what they do have, even though it is still a dream.
  "Buddy Holly" has such radical guitar apart of it, it's ridiculous. The song is about being a protective boyfriend, and disregarding peoples' opinions for love. The song is sweet because he is talking about the happiness brought upon having one another, protecting this girl, not caring about others but each other,  and showing that they might not look like the coolest people on earth, but they have each other and the violence that wasn't necessary should end, because they don't care. At the end of the song around 30 seconds being left, there is an awesome riff that is personally my favorite part of the song.
  "Undone(The Sweater Song)", is my favorite out of their most popularized songs because not only is it interesting the way that the voices of people were consisted to add an audience to the song, but a lot of what is spoken of before and during the song, corresponds to the  meaning,  and events happening within the song. The song deals with frustration and destroying a sweater. My guess is the sweater is symbolic to a jacket boyfriends give to their girlfriends sometimes, and destroying that is symbolic of the ways an upsetting relationship would "unravel" a person.
  In conclusion I love Weezer so much, and hope to be blogging more about them, because they are a band I highly suggest.

Eddie Vedder Ukulele Album

  Eddie Vedder is absolutely one of my favorite musical composers. He is not only the singer of Pearl Jam, but a very talented man as an individual artist.  He has done the soundtrack for "Into the Wild", and his Ukulele album is an extraordinary work of music.

  Every song on the album has nothing but his soothing voice and the tranquility that is brought with the sound of a Ukulele. The album consists of softer covers of songs like "Can't Keep", (from Pearl Jam's album "Riot Act"), and "Sleeping by Myself", (from the album "Lightning Bolt"). The album also has some originals such as "You're True", "Tonight You Belong to Me", and so many others. I love how not only the sound is so silent and peaceful, but Eddie even incorporated sounds of the ocean. The album not only emphasizes love, but a rest of mind, and whenever I am discouraged I let go of the world around, and go to this happy place through his music.
  My favorite songs on this album are "You're true", and "Longing to Belong". The reasons I feel such admiration towards these songs is because they focus of the positive aspects of the lover, as opposed to anger brought out in the hard rock band. The first song shows a commitment, and the second a desire for such commitment.
 In conclusion, I highly recommend this album to turn to when life has you feeling sad, it allows you to establish peace and enforces tranquility and positivity.

The Animals

   At this time I am currently into the artist "The Animals"'. This band was a rock band that started in the 1960s. They are very popular for their song, "House of The Rising Sun". The song can have many interpretations, but personally I believe the song is about ideas of a house of negativity or desperation for hope, as a representation of rarity and problems that are unsolved. The house is a representation of the impatience we all need to disregard, in order to overcome the challenges brought upon our shoulders throughout life. The need to be forgiven, and to be able to move on from the house of the rising hope to seek that hope. Other songs I admire by this group include "When I Was Young", "Spill the Wine", and my favorite "It's my Life", which was the first song I heard by this group."It's my Life'', can strongly connect to the social world,  because there are times people want to be so involved in impacting who you are, and society is constantly altering the "normal'' or ''cool''. Sometimes people would prefer questioning everything, and using positive influence to make them become who they want to be as a person, and accepting that being different is something that should be embraced. Regardless of society and it's impacts, we all live our own lives.

Guitar Techniques

  Today in my guitar lesson I used a technique that was often used by Jimi Hendrix. Instead of using your index finger to hold a fret, or section divided by the metal rods of a guitar, by using your thumb you have more control and power over the sound of a chord. If you use your index finger, it can be difficult to have a full sound, in the circumstance the top frets of a sixth string are being used. You can also mute and increase sound. In songs like "Purple Haze", "Little Wing", and "Castles Made of Sand". By using this style of guitar playing, the songs he played would have more power and a more announcing presence. 

 The reason I learned this was for an extension of the song, "Californication", and it's guitar solo. Because of this technique, the song became so smooth and simplistic to play when it came to times where a note on the sixth string was a challenge to overcome. 

The other technique I used was bending notes. Every time you hear a guitar play a note that sounds like it is falling or going up and down, the note is being bent. In order to make this noise, you go to the fret and string, and push the string and fret as upward as you can to allow a specific note to emerge. Bending notes is extremely common in rock music. Even in one of the most popular classic rock songs, "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zepplin, there is note bending in the solo. 

In "Californication", by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, both techniques can be applied in the solo, are easy to apply, and very important as far as the sounds of rock go, especially Classic, and Alternative.

Suggested Covers

 Many times there are covers of songs, that were originally popularized by a different artist. A cover is a term used to describe a song portrayed by another band than the original, indidualizes it, or tries to recreate its deep meaning. My personal favorite covers are Beatles covers.

  The first cover I love is "Happiness is a Warm Gun". Originally done by The Beatles, and taken over by The Breeders. As opposed to having happiness be a warm hug or something less empty and cold, a warm gun was set out to symbolize the way society is. Many times there are more pessimistic ways to view the world, which the song was trying to emphasize. In the original song, ideas of cannibalism, death, breaking, and falling apart were illustrated. The rhythm included tambourine, and half way through the song it sounded all cheery despite what it was truly saying. Similar to many nursery rhymes that sound happy but really have a more broad and realistic messages, this song was trying to warn you about how trust isn't something you should have with another person, unless of course you are okay with falling apart and realizing the fact that things are not what they appear as. The reason I love this cover is because the instruments tell an entirely different story and make the song and it's meaning more powerful, in addition to the sound of a gun locking in the beginning.

"Pod" the Breeders Album that consists of this cover. Some covers are done live, but this one was recorded. It was on a song off of the Beatles "White Album".

Another cover I really love is one by Eddie Vedder. I love his music so much because his voice is so clean and powerful, and the fact he covered this song is incredible to me. Eddie Vedder covered "Imagine", by John Lennon. Imagine is a very peaceful and happy song in great contrast to "Happiness is a Warm Gun", depending on how you interpret it. "Imagine", is a song for very open minded people to give them a second to have an image of a world different than the one they surround themselves with. Political humor was embedded as he said "Imagine there's no country.. it isn't hard to do", in reference to the conflicts destroying peace at that time, along with opening eyes to the values of the listener. "Imagine no possession.. I wonder if you can". Both Eddie and John remaining entirely powerful artists, delivered the meaning of the song at an equal level of importance.  The song is a source to advertise tranquility amongst us, as we question,  or imagine what the normal is, and I still am amazed how well of a cover it was. 

There are so many wonderful covers done of songs by my favorite band The Beatles, but the last one I was in awe of was "Oh!Darling" by Florence and The Machine. "Oh!Darling", was a very sweet promise to a lover not to hurt them, and how empty their life would be without them. The original version had the emphasis of dedication to this lover in terms of instruments as the drums and guitar sounds heightened, however, Florence had used her voice to deliver the strong meaning towards the end as opposed to instrumentals. The second I heard that cover I fell in love with it.

 In conclusion, these are songs by The Beatles, that had extraordinary covers portrayed by other artists I love as well, allowing the meaning and beauty not to fade over the course of time.













  

"Do the Evolution Baby" Pearl Jam Video

Today I have decided to write about an insanely bizarre music video, by the radical grunge band Pearl Jam. The music video had corresponded with the song "Do the Evolution Baby", from Pearl Jam's album "Yield" in the year of 1998. Unlike other music videos, such as ones by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers or the Foo Fighters that involve members of the band, similar to the Gorillaz the music video was all virtually designed.
    What I personally found interesting was the message the video was trying to give off. Regardless of the design or lyrics, the video showed the world through the eyes of a very pessimistic person. It showed a representation of the theory of evolution over the course of time, showing humans growing more monstrous, terrible, and frightening. It represented some of the morbid  wars and events that have happened in the world. The people society have known to hate, or wars that have only generated more darkness over the world. The human race in the video, had been evolving certainly. However, evolving closer in relation to death.

This female character is shown throughout the video. She is enjoying the terror amongst the people and darkness that has thrived. I believe she is either a representation for death itself watching and taking the life out of the people and world, or so dark and terrible to show how the world has turned away from love and life, causing her to become close with death. (As the world in itself is dying.) 

    If you have watched the news or heard of the horrible things that happen, there are times when you can be afraid of leaving your own home. The world is full of so many mistakes and selfish people, and  it can be viewed as a very sinister sense.

This face was exposed behind a mask of an attacking battle  person. An empty look into the skull, smiling at the face of pandemonium and pain. Similar to the times we can be blind to the harm we can do to others. 

The cover of the album as title was represented in the video as well. The sky had been flaming and terror was being caused throughout the nations, and the yield could have been a representation for people to surrender into the dark acts and choices of society, and overcome what they have become.

The reason the video was interesting to me, is how dark ones view can be, and how

 I fancy the unusual, despite the dark messages within, this view of the world is sinister, confusing, and leaves me inquisitive as to, is this how we really are?

Grohl

Dave Grohl is the man in the center. Accompanied by Kurt Cobain and Krist Novelselic. 

Dave Grohl is a major figure in the rock world. He was the drummer for the band Nirvana, and now lead singer of the Foo Fighters. 

This is him as a drummer a few years back.

Believe it or not, this morning I was less than a minute from my home, and he drove right past our car! I was so excited because in my guitar class I have been learning a song by the Foo Fighters called "Everlong". If that wasn't enough, the night of the oscars he did an amazing cover of the song "Blackbird" by The Beatles. (My favorite song!!) 

This is a more modern photo of him.

Sadly, rumors about this man wanting to separate from his band and become an independent artist have spread all over. The Foo Fighters have been a strong group as a result of Dave Grohl's strong musical background in Nirvana, and imagining them breaking separate after all the records I have purchased along with admiration towards them, is such a miserable thought. 

In conclusion, I felt writing about this artists because of the consistent presence his music has left in my life, and sending strong hopes for the well being of the band, hoping they do not spread apart.