Music Wednesday: ska music; Reel Big Fish

Today I'm going to be talking about ska music. It orginated from Jamaica during the late 1950s infusing jazz, rhythms and blues; giving it a groovy, head-bopping feel. While it may sound like rock at times, there'll be trumpets blowing melodies, giving it a reggae groove. Reel Big Fish is such a band, they're my favourite ska band. Check out this song, titled "Take On Me" enjoy!

My Week and Music: Indie shouldn't be a genre

Ahhh! I love my life, thank you God! Everyday I've 24 hours to spend, and these days I use it all up! It feels very productive; most days I'll hit the gym, some days I'll have a doctor's appointment, other days I might go out with friend(s), which happens pretty seldom. Oh and I'll also practise playing the piano.

Alright, now I feel like talking about music - my favourite topic. Whenever a song is classified "indie", I feel that it is a very vague description about the song. Indie is short for independant, and normally when a band is classified indie, it is just referring to its record label. An example is Warner Brothers, in fact it is the most popular. Hence, any band with Warner Brothers as its record label, isn't indie. Alright but that's beside the point I'm trying to make. To me, indie music is simply unique, totally opposite from mainstream music. In which, it appeals to the public, while indie music appeals to a minority; hippies. That's just my opinion.

That aside, here's my second point as to why you simply can't classify music as "indie". There's indie rock, indie pop, I'm fine with those as they're trying to be specific. It's only when a band is labelled "indie", when I get slightly frustrated. Like Death Cab for Cutie, the Arctic Monkeys, and the Killers, they're called indie; one, they don't sound alike, does that tell you what indie music sounds like? Two, the Killers were indie, but now they seem to have blended into the mainstream sound. As for Death Cab for Cutie, they do have a unique sound and a few big hits, but they sound more pop-ish to me. The Arctic Monkeys... I can't say much because I haven't heard much of their songs haha.

Anyway, till next time!
Mark

Introducing: Music Wednesday!

Hello everyone! I'm going to start a new segment to my blog; Music Wednesday! This is where I talk about a band; any band; any genre of music. To start this new segment off, I'm talking about a relatively new indie pop-rock band named Grouplove, or also known as GROUPLOVE (yeah big deal right hahah).The group was formed in 2009, they're a 5-piece band; two guitarists/lead singer, a keyboardist/vocals, a bassist/vocals and a drummer.

The lead vocalist, Andrew Wessen, who's one of the guitarists, has a unique voice that suits the music genre really well. As you know, the whole band sings (except the drummer), often found in probably all their songs, they'll sing the chorus together. Altogether, it sounds wonderful; you can hear a harmony or two, I'd say it's a trademark of Grouplove's.

Grouplove is rather interesting, some songs have distortion guitar and that changes the mood of the song. They have a song titled "Love Will Save Your Soul", it has a clean guitar playing the introduction. The introduction sounds very similar to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Y Control". A song I really like from Grouplove is "Ways To Go" from their "Spreading Rumours" album. I just really like how the melody progresses. They have brilliant songs, but this song "Colours" really struck me. Check it out.

I Don't Want To Be

Hoo boy, I've listened to Gavin DeGraw's "I Don't Want To Be", but only the past few days have I been craving this rockin' song. I also support the lyric meaning. My interpretation of the song is this; you don't have to be an important person's child, accept who you are, strive towards the goal you desire to achieve. Here above is a lyric video of the song, enjoy!

DEFTONES!!

I'm back to the Deftones' music phase in life. Love the White Pony and Around the Fur albums. Totally kicks ass. I've been pretty outdated; I still love the grunge scene, strongly dislike today's music. I can't get enough of it, I guess this is what "too much of not enough" means. However, ever since the Deftones' bassist, Chi Cheng, had a coma and died at an age of 42, I didn't like the Deftones' music. Apparently he had a car crash which left him in the coma and died later on. It's sad. The Deftones' have recently published published a new album which I dislike. Now, the amount of current music I like is only a few, mainly it's the indie scene and Nine Inch Nails; Trent Reznor.

Alright, I'm going for a swim, till next time, Mark.