Bob Schneider

Last week my family and I went to Shady Grove's Unplugged at the Grove series featuring Bob Schneider aka my family's favorite. His set was amazing. I never realized how many albums he has released and how much they vary. He is a mix of blues, rock, punk, and even some rap-ish stuff. Because this is unplugged, everything was acoustic and that was really cool. Since he was the only person up there he recorded so many different instruments. He would start on the piano and record a riff that would play throughout the whole song and then he would shift to the harmonica or the other mic to beet box on and by the end of the song there were like 4 instruments playing with 1 guy on the stage. My favorite song, Big Blue Sea, is recorded below. He did a small adaptation to it.

Valerie June

Last night, my mom and I attended Valerie June's ACL taping. I had no idea who she was going into it but thought it'd be a cool experience seeing that Rolling Stone ranked her album among the top 50 best albums of 2013. She is not only crazy talented but also crazy beautiful! She has this twang in her voice that pairs with a bluesy, folksy, country feel. Every single song she played was so different. There were so many instruments up there including horns, violin/fiddle, mandolin, banjo, electric guitar, acoustic guitar and a stand up bass. It was really impressive. She spoke so softly and gently and her singing voice has a really wide range. Listening to her album versions now, her live songs sound exactly the same, I love that. Moody theater is probably the best place to see an artist. The atmosphere is very attentive and the place has great acoustics. Let me know what you think of her because I am really impressed.

The King's Dead

This group is making its way up to the top of my favorites list. I haven't listened to a full album yet but they have a ton of good songs. I really like how clean cut a lot of the songs are but also how many layers there are in some of them. I also am a fan of the topics of his songs, they aren't the stereotypical topics like girls and partying and I appreciate that. Revenge of the Beast (their newest album) is probably my favorite (again, haven't listened to the whole thing but so far it is) has a lot of variety on it and has some artists featuring on it. In particular, I really like the songs where The Kings Dead adds a female vocalist to contrast with their rap, it adds variety.

Spotify Playlists

These past three weeks, I have been constantly studying for IB tests so that has kind of sucked a little bit. To get me through, I needed some music. Not to study to but for my breaks. I also didn't want to look hard for music to listen to in those weeks because I was so busy. And I discovered a ton of playlists made by Spotify! One I listened to was "Feel Good Indie Rock" which has like 3 days worth of music on it so I was set. One thing I like about all the choices of playlists is they are sorted by mood/theme of event so it's very convenient.

Dax Riggs

A friend at work introduced me to Dax Riggs, a "folk metal" singer. Interesting genre choice right? My friend, Gabriela Burns, was lucky enough to interview him after SXSW 2011 and he described the type of music he plays and it's an interesting explanation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOAPVEYGr50
explained at 1:09 ish

He's interesting to me because folk is one of my favorite genres and metal is probably my least favorite genre so I think you can see why I was intrigued. He's actually really good. I really like how the band is not so overpowering and his laid-back tone.

Kanye West

College Dropout is probably the best crafted of Kanye's albums. The only thing I don't really like are the skits. I just don't really understand the purpose of putting skits on an album? But this album is really good, I like how the instruments work together with Kanye's voice (like on All Falls Down). I think as Kanye releases more albums the more repetitive he gets with his lyrics and the less story that gets told on the album. Personally, I do not like Yeezus one bit. It's just a lot more showy / auto tuned more I think. It has some good songs but it is definitely not the same Kanye.

The Fugees

Really like this group. I really like how in all of their songs it doesn't seem like they are yelling or angry at me like some modern rappers sound like. All of their songs give off a really laid back/chill vibe and  I like that a lot. Also something I noticed while listening to this album is how familiar some of the riffs are. I've heard some of them on more modern "poppy" music. On How Many Mics I really like 2:55 when all of them come in and overlap and little bit in the vocals. And then some of my personal favorites are Ready or Not and Zealots. I really like Lauryn Hill's unique voice and the personality her voice has.

Music on the streets

I stumbled along this video the other day and wanted to share it! This is an amazing example of how music can bring people together.

http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/three-guys-jam-session/

One thing that pisses me off a little bit is the woman that walks right through the whole scene and doesn't even stop to listen! Like what! I don't get that. Anyway I am in love with this video, it makes me smile and I hope it's proof that there are good people in the world even though you may think that we are all doomed. I really like how the guy on the guitar slaps his guitar to make more of a beat, makes the song seem more three dimensional in a way.
It really reminds me of downtown Austin and I love it! And will definitely miss this next year