Abbey Road

This is my favorite Beatles album EVER. Come Together was the perfect opening song for this album. Oh! Darling is my favorite song on this album. I think just because the parts where he says "oh darling" is just so awesome and it grabs your attention right away. Abbey Road is the perfect mix of songs. It's mainly upbeat songs but it has a mixture of serious and quirky songs. The way the album ends with Her Majesty is so different than anything on the album. The best part about it is that it is like 20 seconds. I think that it would've made such a great song if it was longer though. The fact that it is only 20 seconds though, shows the Beatles weird personality so it suits them.

The Song Game

Bob Schneider is the artist that I have grown up listening to in my family. My dad introduced him to us at a young age and at first, being musically unintelligent and only wanting to listen to Kelly Clarkson, I didn't like his sound because it wasn't what I called "upbeat." As I grew older and I explored him on my own I fell in love with his music. One of my favorite things about Bob is that he lives in Austin! One song that really confused me was Bicycle vs. Car. I tried analyzing the meaning and just didn't get very far. One thing that is awesome in this song is the piano throughout the beginning and how each instrument adds to the same beat. "head versus heart equals bicycle versus a car" this part STILL confuses me. I came across an article where I discovered the "meaning" of this song title. Basically, Bob started a game called the Song Game where there is no winner or loser but the name of the game is productivity. Every week, the challenge is to write a song. But not just any song. Bob sends the other artists involved (which include Patty Griffin, Jason Mraz, Matt Nathanson etc) an abstract phrase that does not have any literal meaning and challenges the artists to incorporate the phrase in their songs. Bicycle vs. Car was one of the phrases that Bob received and apparently struggled the most with. Jason Mraz describes this game: "But what it does is it takes your ego away for a second and says, 'don't be so precious about this, just write a song.'" Basically, instead of trying to write a song filled with a deeper meaning, just write it and see what happens.


http://www.npr.org/2013/11/24/246755925/for-a-few-musicians-beating-songwriters-block-is-all-in-the-game
Here's one of the many articles on it.

Bastille

Bastille has been making an appearance in popular radio lately. I was listening to some of their old stuff and it is COMPLETELY different than their newest album. It sounds like they almost switched genres. Their old stuff there wasn't as much vocals and kind of electronic sounding, while their newer stuff has a lot of vocals and alternative pop backgrounds. My favorite tracks include the Weight of Living, No Scrubs, and Flaws.
This is a recording of No Scrubs that I love!

Small versus Festival versus Large Venues

I personally am not a huge fan of big venues at all. The Frank Irwin center does not appeal to me one bit. In big venues I don't feel like I can get the concert experience. The atmosphere of festivals is so fun to be around and you get MORE than your moneys worth of bands. Festivals bring in a lot of different genres whereas concerts have strictly one genre most of the time. Small venues are awesome because a lot of the artists personality comes out because they have more time to perform and talk to the crowd. Personally, I like general admission a lot better than assigned seats because it is a lot more exciting to wait for an artist to come on and know that you had the opportunity to be right in front of the performer.