Laid back

So, just listening to Pandora and a song came on I thought was worth sharing. I've heard it before but thought y'all might like it. It also reminded me of two others so I'm posting them too.

When I Dream- Shaimus
Look What You've Done- Jet
Brighter than Sunshine- Aqualung


Seeing as this isn't a full album, I didn't really want to make a playlist just for them and if you recall, I've been kicking around the idea of simply posting a random song every so often between main posts so I've now created a PLAYLIST for those random, one-off songs that don't really belong to a whole album. Thoughts? About the playlist or about the songs? What are YOUR laid back favs? Post in the comments and I'll throw them on the playlist too! Enjoy!

Fiction Family

So, here's a story. Once upon a time there was a Matt who was going to write about an amazing second album and an awesome concert he saw in support of said awesome album. Only thing is when he went to reference the first album, he found his coverage was dismal at best. So this Matt decided to redo his original post about the awesome band. That magical band, was and is none other than Fiction Family.

Here's the Playlist. The whole album's worth a listen but these are my favs.

It starts with when an incredible, powerhouse prodigy of a bluegrass/ folk guitarist meets one of contemporary rock's most devoted, intense, energetic and all around amazing-est (yes, it's a word) frontmen and songwriters to form a musical hybrid the likes of which have never been seen (no, even better than Tenacious D). It's not acoustic, it's not rock. It's music at its best & finest. Nothin' but talent and craft. Sheer. Awesome. MUSIC. Listen! Love it! Look out next Monday for the sequel post. Enjoy!

Here's an interview with the boys.


Here's a video for When She's Near:

What We Saw from the Cheap Seats

I'll try to keep this short seeing as I've already ranted and raved about Regina Spektor in another post (but let's be honest, she's AMAZING so it's not really possible to rave enough about her...)

Here's the PLAYLIST

Like I said in the Warning Post, we got to see her a few months ago but lost the concert set list when my phone crashed. So although it was awesome, you don't get a concert re-run here. You'll just have to see her for yourself, which you should do regardless. So playlist will just be my favorites from her most recent album "What We Saw from the Cheap Seats." Oh yeah, another thing that made this concert so awesome was that as we were walking into the venue, we passed the will call ticket pick up and guess who was there with his buddie? BEN FRIKKIN FOLDS!!! Got to meet him. No picture or autograph. Shook his hand and thanked him for his music and got the H out of there before I could make an idiot of myself. That was pretty stinkin' cool.

Sadly, I didn't like this one as much as I did her last album, Far. But that's not because this one isn't good. It's awesome. It's just that I loved Far so much is all. But this one's great. You might say it's by Far her best album... tee hee. Catchy melodies, amazingly talented piano, insightful/ touching/ humorous/ interesting lyrics, fun vocal experiments, etc. Everything that makes her music so enjoyable. I think the one thing that made this not as enjoyable is the version of Ne Me Quitte Pas. It was originally released on her second album "Songs." Don't know why she re-recorded it. I heard it was beign re-released and got excited because I love this song and not enough people know about it. Then I heard it on the radio and was let down. This new version, to me, kind of sounds a little soulless and flat. Kind of like she wasn't really invested in it (I like to think it's a "That thing you do" situation where the studio was demanding she do a new version. "I want something and I want it snappy" sort of thing). At any rate, I'm including both versions and you can make up your own mind which you prefer.

But other than that, the rest of the of the album is great. Just great. And OHMYFREAKINGGOODNESS you NEED to listen to "CALL THEM BROTHERS"!!!!! I have to be careful not to listen to it because when I do, I repeat it about 6 times MINIMUM. It's one of those songs you never want to end and can't get enough of it. The harmonies switching back and forth, the slow swinging feel, the bridge where they BELT out those notes... AWESOME!! On a scale of Not to Awesome, this is about 2 times Awesome. LISTEN! LISTEN! LISTEN!!

Enjoy and pass it on! Comment! What's your favorite Regina song and why?

Eric Hutchinson 2: Return of the Awesome

I'm on my lunch so I'll keep it brief. Eric Rocks. There you have it.

Here's a COOL PLAYLIST
Here's his WEB SITE

We got to see him in concert a while back and it's probably one of the best shows I've ever seen. It helped that the venue was a nice place (Hawthorne theater in Portland, OR. It's great. Go there). But even if it'd been a dump it would have been awesome. His band was very talented and didn't detract or distract from the music. He was very engaging and knew how to interact with the audience and keep their attention. In short he's an entertainer. But even better than that was the MUSIC. Oh MAN, it was good. I already liked his first album and had heard snippets of upcoming songs that I was excited to hear but all my expectations were completely blown away.

The blue one's mine that he signed and the
yellow one is one of his that he gave me.
Quite the nice "pick-ture."

Unfortunately, I lost the playlist in the cell-phone crash of '12 but I at least remember that he opened with Best Days. My other personal faves are Basement (he closed with this and it was BIG. He was jumping around, he worked in the "Na na na na Na" riff... he was a friggin' live wire), Not There Yet (and worked in Ob-la-di Ob-la-da), People I Know (which he didn't play but it's still awesome. The chorus is particularly fun to blast on max volume) and In the First Place. Needless to say, we bought the whole album then and there. He even stuck around after the show to sign it and gave me one of his guitar picks!! He's a really nice guy. Totally chill. PLEASE!!! Do yourself a musical favor and listen to his stuff. See him live. He's incredible.

Check out the videos (not mine, just found good ones on Youtube) and enjoy. Pass the word on. Comment! Share! See ya! PS- Am I the only one who thinks his bass player is Corbin Bleu in disguise? (See below)

Warning Rant

This one's kinda weird... and long. Just a heads up. But I figured it's okay because it's not a regular Monday post. As an offering of goodwill, I'll give you the playlist upfront. And as spoiler/ incentive to make it to the end, there'll be a (not so) big reveal at the end of a new developments to the blog.

PLAYLIST (it involves Warning, Rambling, Philosophy & an End)

So, I've (not so) recently experienced musical tragedy. I'm talking a SERIOUS first world problem that no music lover should EVER have to endure. I have also recently been thinking (not so) deeply about (not very) important things to the extent that now I think I'm an expert about stuff. So I'm going to offer up words of warning and rant.

The terrible, awful, no good, very bad tragedy that occurred is... almost too painful to speak of. But I must. Last year, and the year before as well, now that I think about it, I went to several concerts. We saw, Sara Bareilles, Josh Groban, Eric Hutchinson, Regina Spektor & Switchfoot. That's not the bad thing. These concerts were AWESOME; some of them down right life-changing (corresponding posts to follow in the coming weeks). But the "terrible awful" that happened was that I made the mistake of trusting; trusting in technology too much. 

This is me yelling at my phone.
(not really me)

I'd always thought technology was my friend! Granted I'm not the most advanced dude out there but I take the fact that I've seen the sun in the last year, am happily married to a (real) girl and that I don't belong to a guild of any sort to be a fair trade. At any rate, I figured I was "savvy" enough to get away with something so simple... What I did was, when we would go a show, I would write down the set list in a memo on my phone for memory sake and so that I could eventually blog about the show and re-create the concert in playlist form. This was working fine. Hadn't actually blogged about any of the shows but that's beside the point. I had all my set lists safe and sound. So I thought. Then my phone had problems. I ended up needing to reset it. "No problem," I thought. "I've got my apps synced to my google account and supposedly "backed up" there... NOPE!! Not even Chuck Testa could save me. Lost it all. 

Needless to say, since then I've resorted to pen and paper to make sure I have a hard copy which is how I am able to bring you a recreate the Fiction Family show for you in an upcoming post. Basically I LOST EVERYTHING AND YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BACK YOUR CRAP UP!!!!That's the warning.  No, that wasn't the rant, although it might have seemed like it. Now I will rant. You've been warned (again). 

Like I said before, I've been thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know). I've come to some (semi-solid) conclusions and I wanted to share my thoughts but didn't want to have two separate posts of such ridiculous length and wanted to get it over with. Also, considering that of the small number that actually follow this blog, only about half will probably read this and only about half of them will actually make it this far and only half of them will actually have an opinion one way or the other of my ramblings, (wheeeeeew... *deep breath*) I figured I was safe in writing whatever the heck I wanted. I will now mount my imaginary soapbox (See? there it is over there) and wax semi-philosophical as I proceed to think out-loud (?) to the worldwide interwebs. Let the rambling begin!

So, those of you who actually know me or have read the feeling behind what I've written on this little ol' blog know that I don't just like music. Love it. Not just a hobbie. It's kinda my life. Aside from my religion and wife, there's nothing I love more in this world. I've thought several times that I really need a job where I do something involving music. Thought recently that it'd be fun to be the guy who picks the music for movies & tv shows. Or be a content manager at a radio station where I can get paid to just listen and listen and make playlist after playlist....(trails off with a glazed over look in eyes...) I've also thought in the past (and still a little today) that it'd be fun to be a professional music blogger. "Have you seen Matt's Music Blog? It's where I get all my new music. He's really funny/ entertaining/ whatever and has the BEST taste in music I've ever seen. Oh, and I hear he's really handsome." 

Yeah, that'd be cool. That might come someday but for now, I'm happy to just write for myself. It's less stressful and disappointing than writing to try and get people to subscribe. I figure if people like it, they'll pass it on. Sort of a "if you're awesome, they will come" field of dreams thing... "Blog of dreams"? Maybe I should get in touch with Kevin Costner... 

At any rate, I've been graduated for a year and working for a while so I've had more free time to get back into the "it's okay to spend time listening to music" mode instead of always thinking I've got an assignment of some sort due. It's been beyond glorious to be able to go to shows and listen to copious amounts of music but one adverse side effect has been a growing backlog of stuff to write about and share. Granted, what I write here ain't Shakespeare (it usually ends in caps and involves varying combinations of 'frikkin,' 'amazing' and 'awesome') but I do try to put some thought into what I offer up here and that can take some time. So one thing I've decided that needs to happen is... (are you ready for the semi-underwhelming reveal?) 

I need to write more. 

See what I did there? I need to write more? But it was such a short sentence... ha ha... okay. But, yes, it's true. I'm going to write more. It's not going to be just a Monday thing anymore. I'm going to start out slow and go two a twice a week thing but I've also played around with the idea of posting a song everyday and move away from playlists? Maybe an album on Monday's and individual songs every day? Who knows. Hence the "semi-firm" conclusions mentioned at the beginning. 

That's all. The end. That's the new development. So, be on the lookout for more frequent posts & more awesome music than you can shake a stick @! And I mean that literally. You won't be able to shake a stick at this music. Unless you actually bring in a stick, pull up each playlist and shake it at your screen/ speakers. In that case, touché. Please take & send pictures so I can post them here. I hope people don't think you're crazy but if you're shaking sticks at your computer to prove the man in your computer wrong, you might just be. Thanks for stickin' with me this long. Seeya Monday!

Cheer Up Charlie

Having sort of an interesting day/ phase of life and needed some happy tunes. Thought I'd share. Also, here's a happy picture.

Click HERE for the playlist.

Red-rubber Ball- I guess it's technically a "break up" song but I like the harmonies and the chorus.
Party Song- Upbeat, not too heavy. Listened to rest of the album & this was pretty much it but still. Love it.
Best Days- Saw Eric in concert last May and he opened with this. I'll do another post about the whole album later but for in the mean time, there's this.
Lemonade- I REALLY like his songwriting even if his lyrics are a little silly sometimes. Especially the bass line in this one.
Just for Me- Already did this one but that was a while ago and it makes me happy so you can lsiten again and love it.

That's it. What's your favorite cheer up, happy song? Share here or post on the FB page.

4/24- Just occurred to me that maybe not everyone got the Cheer up Charlie reference. Here's a link but I'm not going to embed the video because let's be honest, we all fast forwarded through this part to get to the rest of the movie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKd-07E6ses

Jukebox Aftermath

I know this shouldn't REALLY count as a post because it's so short but this is worth it. I forgot to add it last week so it get's it's own post. More Jukebox the Ghost. They're awesome. This is actually one of my favorites but it's not on any of their albums. It was a bonus track of sorts... here it is

A La La

Enjoy! Pass it on. Share! Happy music Monday!

Jukebox the Ghost

 Nope. No April Fools joke. I decided to finally start blogging again and I feel too strongly about how great this band is to joke. Although I suppose we could always go the route of "Joke"box the Ghost?... But like I said, no jokes, "this is for reals." (ala Nacho Libre... if you've seen that).

Anywho, here's the PLAYLIST

I first heard "Hold It In" on Last.fm, decided it was awesome but stuck in my head. So I listened to it 5 or 6 times to get it unstuck (usually works) then after it was GOOD and stuck in my head, I listened to more of their first album. Then a few days later I heard "Summer Sun" on Pandora and realized they were full on awesome, listened to the rest of their albums and then bought all of them.

I know, right? I've been racking my brain to think of the last band I came across that was awesome enough for me to buy ALL their albums and I couldn't. I've ranted about Switchfoot, Guster & Coldplay but I don't like all of their songs. The songs I like, I LOVE. They speak to my soul, you know? And even though I don't have the same, intense connection with Jukebox, I like ALL of their songs (well, more like 90%) but STILL! And it keeps getting better and better!

The first album was great. Heads up for some swearing (Beady eyes, Static to the heart, Matter of Time) but that aside, their music MOVES. It's dynamic, engaging, fresh, energetic, versatile, clever, extremely talented, entertaining, fun and just plain FREAKING AWESOME!!

Please, please, PLEASE! listen to the play list!!! (Can't put enough exclamation points on there) Then listen to their albums in their entirety. Best thing you could possibly do for your musical life right now.  If not the albums, at least the playlist, if not the playlist at least Hold it in, Victoria, Lighting Myself on Fire, Schizophrenia, Empire, Nobody, Somebody, Everybody Knows, The Spiritual, At Last.