Tuesday Tunes - 30 Seconds To Mars

Last time we chatted about music, dear readers, I introduced you to Bruno Mars’ soulful voice and upbeat r&B style.

This week, we’re going to go a different direction.  A bit of a darker direction perhaps…definitely a little bit heavier.

My music tastes run the gamut, as we’ve discussed, so it should come as no surprise that I would slip from love songs to a little bit of harder edged rock.

This week, I want to talk to you about 30 Seconds to Mars.  The three man band is made up of drummer Shannon Leto, guitarist Tomo Milicevic and lead singer and guitarist Jared Leto.

Before we get to the music let’s just take a second to go back in time…remember that coming of age, angst ridden, teen show “My So Called Life” withClaire Danes? 

Remember Jordan Catalano with the soulful eyes and so few words? 

 

Ah yes, THAT Jared Leto.  

He grew up to be a rock star in his own right, and he still has those soulful eyes, but now, the man has words…many many words, and he sings them with a voice that reaches right to the depths of my own soul.

I’m not entirely sure how it is that I discovered 30 Seconds to Mars, but I believe it was with this video about a year or so ago:

The thing to note about this band is that all of their videos are works of art, mini-films if you will.  And I was so intrigued by the whole thing, I simply had to know more.  Also, there was that moment of “double take” where I went, “Wait, is that Jared Leto??” Then I knew I had to know more.

Since then, I’ve become an avid fan, and I can't think of a song of theirs I don't like.

Among them, some of my favorites; Closer to the Edge:

Beautiful Lie:


and the highly controversial video for Hurricane (which I won’t post here only because I don’t want to offend, but if you’re brave, you should totally check it out).

There’s just something about the tortured sound of Jared’s voice, the power in the lyrics, and the strength of the music itself that makes this band one of those that I can’t seem to get enough of lately.

It also doesn’t hurt that theirs is great running music.  I’ve used them as the soundtrack to many of my runs lately.

I realize this type of music isn’t for everyone, but if you like a little bit harder core rock music, with a soul…you’ll love these guys.

Plus, Jared Leto’s eyes? 

Sigh…

Tuesday Tunes - Bruno Mars

I love music. I mean, I honestly LOVE music.  I don’t know how anyone can make it through a day without some sort of soundtrack.  I listen to music as I get ready in the morning, while I work, as I drive around town, during my workouts, and before I go to bed.

Good music can easily bring me to tears, make me dance, or put a smile on my face. 

There are artists whose music touches the very depths of my soul.  There are artists whose voices make me swoon, or lose my sense of reality.

There are songs that bring me right back to moments in my personal history.

There are songs that describe what I’m feeling THIS VERY MOMENT so exactly, I think they must have been written for me.

I celebrate with music, I mourn with music, I pray with music.

Music, to me, is nearly as essential as the air I breathe.

And I have the most eclectic taste in music…from rap to rock, from pop to jazz, from country to Christian…

So there is always some new, or new to me, music to discover, and to share with others.

Which is why I’ve decided to do just that here…each week, I’ll introduce you to just a bit of the music I’m loving at the moment…


Not so much "album reviews" although sometimes, that's exactly what it will be, but more "artist reviews" if you will...

To kick it off, this week, I’ll start with an album that’s been on constant replay on my mp3 player for a few weeks.

Bruno Mars.

It's very likely you've already heard of Bruno, or at the very least, you've heard one of his many songs on the radio.

Such as: "Just The Way You Are"

A beautiful ode to a woman, and her perfection, well...just as she is.


Or "Grenade":





A heartbreaking song of loving someone so much, you would do anything for them, even if they, in turn, seem to only abuse and under appreciate you.


And Bruno Mars has also collaborated with some great artists of today, such as, B.O.B. on "Nothin' On You"



and Travie McCoy on "Billionaire" (yes, THAT'S what you know him from).  Warning, the video below is the uncensored not for radio version and contains the F word.





All of these are great songs. But it's some of the lesser known unreleased songs from his album that I've got on constant replay..."Runaway" which is actually a GREAT running song, "The Other Side"...a little bit Michael Jackson "Thriller" a little bit "ode to Twilight", "Count on Me" a happy melody about being there for your friends, and my ultimate favorite "Talking to the Moon" a pretty ballad that showcases the range of his voice and emotion.


So there you have it...an artist I think you should check out.

Concert Review - John Mayer

I’ve been a John Mayer fan for a while now. I know the guy gets a bad rap in the public eye, and I realize that people have really strong feelings about him, one way or the other, but personally, I like him. I won’t get into the why or how of all that, but I have written a post about my feelings about him, his persona, and his talent here if you are curious.

This is not that post.

This is about the concert I attended on Friday, August 6, and the fact that talent wise, this man is pure genius.

If you’re at all familiar with John Mayer’s music, then you know that with him, it’s all about his guitar, and his voice. There’s no fanfare, no light show, no costumes…he just plays his instruments and sings. It’s also, very much, about the lyrics.

Anyway, after a pretty unexciting opener by Train, John Mayer took the stage. I suppose, in all fairness, I should note that it wasn’t that Train weren’t good, I’m just not a big fan, and wasn’t overly attentive to their performance. I think they did a fairly good job, people seemed to be enjoying them and having a good time.

But I was there for John Mayer.

He took the stage and started off with "Vultures", followed by "Clarity", and then his current hit "Heartbreak Warfare".

At one point he launched into this crazy guitar solo. When he took the guitar off his torso and placed it on the floor, and continued to play, I knew we were in for a treat.

Seriously? Raw talent, right?

The rest of the Set list was as follows: Ain't No Sunshine "Bill Withers Cover", Who Says, Why Georgia, Perfectly Lonely (one of my favorites by him, and a point in the concert where he really connected with the audience and had us all laughing with him); War Of My Life, Waiting On The World To Change, Gravity, Do You Know Me, Raspberry Beret (Prince Cover) - Which was SOOOO good, Half of my Heart.

When the lights went out, we knew he'd be out for an Encore. because, after all, when does a concert not include an encore now a days? Encore: Free Fallin' (Tom Petty Cover). Your Body is a Wonderland. Edge of Desire.

The surprise here was that for his Encore, John showed up not on stage, but amidst the audience, with just his guitar, singing a cover of Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’, quite possibly my favorite moment of the evening.

He then returned to stage for a few more songs (Your Body is a Wonderland - another favorite of mine) and Edge of Desire, before signing off for the night.

In between sets, John colored the show with his easy banter with the audience. He told a few stories about his songs, he related to this particular audience reflecting back on his days in Boston, when he was attending Berklee, he talked about love, heartbreak, success and hardship. And he was humble, and sweet as he thanked his fans for supporting him and standing by him even when he stumbles on this road through fame.

He was exactly as I expected him to be on stage. Serious and joking. Giving his ALL to his performance, but not taking himself too seriously. He connected, and he delivered. And I think I’d rank this at the top of my favorite concerts attended. Yes, it was that good.

I’d definitely go see him again. Maybe not 27 times, like the lady in line in the bathroom has…but a few more times, yes.

Concert Reviews - 2 for the price of none.

Recently I posted about my lucky streak winning concert tickets on Twitter (of all places). What I haven't done yet, is tell you about the concerts themselves, so here we go:

The first concert was on Thursday, January 7th at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston. SafetySuit and Parachute were the acts. To be honest, before this concert I'd barely heard of Parachute, and knew only one song by SafetySuit, this one:

Which I loved the minute I heard it.

By the way, this is Parachute:

So, the concert: SafetySuit came out first, and right away I was glad I had the opportunity to see them live before they blow up big. They are fantastic live, they put on a great show, full of energy and interaction with the audience. The lead singer has a great voice, and I really enjoyed their performance.

Parachute's music, I'll be honest, is not really my "style", but that being said, I thought they also put on a great show. They can certainly sing, their music is good, and there were definitely really great moments in their performance as well.

Overall, it was an enjoyable evening, and both bands made the free tickets a really nice "score"!

Moving onto the next concert. Last night I attended the Timbaland Shock Value II show at the House of Blues in Boston. This concert, I was REALLY looking forward to. I'm a big fan of Timbaland's work and couldn't wait to see what he would put together for his audience. After all, how can the man behind these hits:

And so many others, not put on a great show, right? Right...

Except...

Well, let me back up and start by talking about Honor Society, the opening act. I had never heard of them prior to the show, but let me tell you, a whole bunch of little "fan girls" sure did. They had quite the following at the show. In the event that you were as unschooled as I, this is Honor Society:

And as it were, they put on a great show. Nothing spectacular, but they engaged the audience, they were having the time of their life, and overall, it was a great show.

And thank goodness for that, because after that, it all pretty much went downhill.

Once the guys cleared the stage, Timbaland's "DJ" I guess you would call him, stepped on stage to prepare the audience for the main act. He proceeded to play old and new school hip hop, while he awkwardly talked over it asking people to Tweet him so he could give them shoutouts from the stage, and then just randomly reading people's Twitter names. Awkward.

Eventually, not after a short time, he introduced "Sebastian", Timbaland's brother (I guess) a rapper (I guess) who came out to perform (I guess). Sebastian did this awkward (there's that word again) performance where he mostly talked to the audience and a first for me basically, the first rapper I've ever seen lipsyincing, he sort of karaoke'd over his own tracks. And not well at that. At some point Petey Pablo came out on stage to perform one of his songs, and finally I was excited, thinking the show was about to start.

The excitement died down quickly when they all exited the stage and left mr. DJ doing his awkward Twitter roll call for another 20 minutes or so. The show "started" at 8, finally at about 9:45 or so Timbaland hit the stage.

Although, HIT might be too strong a word. More like moseyed on in. Sat down at his equipment and sort of "mumbled" "Okay, I'm going to lay some beats down for you guys". Anyway, I figured he was just warming up. Soon enough, it appeared all the waiting had paid off when he launched into "Timothy Where Have You Been" one of the songs from his new cd. The performance was great, high energy, with an extensive light and video show. Timbaland hits the stage with a FULL band, and this honestly led to the belief that this was a show with great potential.

Unfortunately, what it turned out to be was a show full of starts and stops. After that first song, he launched into an extensive babbling conversation with the audience. After that, a few more songs, again, great showing, great potential. And then...well, then he completely lost me.

For about 25 minutes he launched into an exchange with the audience. No, let me be more specific, with particular female members of the audience. He proceeded, in the next 25 minutes, to ask specific ladies in the audience their names and age. Suddenly we were transported to Timbaland's Private/Very Public Dating Game. After an excrutiating 25 minutes of "who will Timbaland hook up with backstage tonight", he simply walked off the stage, quickly followed by his band members, leaving his "dj" to play more hip hop and shout out Twitter roll call.

No inclination as to whether or not he'd be back. no "i'll be back, I'm taking a break" he just simply walked off. Mind you that at this point it was barely 10:30 PM...considering we, the audience, had been standing (no chairs at a club show) since 7pm, he certainly did NOT need a break that badly, you think? also, a quick note, after he exited the stage, we saw him peak back around the corner with another guy and point out one of the girls in the audience...

So, for the next 30 minutes, while we waited in the audience to find out whether or not the show would continue, he was probably having a good old time backstage with said girl...or not, we'll never know, will we?

We left at that point. We'd had enough of this completely disorganized, disappointing and self-indulgent show.

Thankfully, the tickets were free.

Only The Good Friday - Music To My Ears

It’s Friday! And that means that after a short hiatus, I’m back with Only the Good Friday! YAY!!!

In case you don’t know, Only The Good Friday (heretofore OTGF because I’m too lazy to type it all out) was dreamed up by the one and only Shelly of This Eclectic Life.

In case you also don’t know, I love Shelly, she’s funny, and witty and a great blogess, but more than that she is an amazingly generous and giving person, always looking for ways to do good in the world.

She will tell you otherwise though. She’ll tell you she’s snarky and sarcastic and maybe even a little bit mean (she’s not), and she will tell you THAT is the reason behind OTGF. She saw it as an opportunity to take one day a week where she (and in turn we) would only post good things. No snarkiness, no sarcasm, no meanness. Not on Fridays. On Fridays we post GOOD things. Happy thoughts. Helpful hints. Positive links, etc. etc.

Of course, I had to jump right on that bandwagon, because a wagon full of goodness? How could you not want to go for a ride?

So, here I am, spreading the good. Some Fridays I’m a bit more altruistic, and I share with you things that can help you do some good, good links to visit, tell you about good folks you should know, etc.

Other Fridays I get a bit more personal and tell you about the good stuff going on in my life.

And then some Fridays I stay simple and just share with you things that make me smile. A good photo, a good joke, a picture of a really hot guy…hey, whatever works right?

The point is, it’s all good. And it all depends on the kind of Friday I’m having.

SO, what kind of Friday will today be, you ask? AH…well…today is all about music.

Because I recently have acquired an addiction (seriously somebody stop me) to discovering and downloading new music. I think a good song can change the way I feel about life, so I want to share with you some of my current favorites.

Because it’s easier for me to share youtube videos on a blog than it is to share mp3s, you get the video as well as the song…what a “good” bonus. And if you can’t watch videos where you are at least you have enough information about the song that you can go look it up and listen for yourself, right?

Enjoy.

First of all, I’m so very excited about Daughtry’s new album which comes out in July, and love their new song “No Surprise” so here is that:



And if we’re going to talk about American Idols, I can’t leave out my favorite ever rendition of a rap song…Kris Allen’s “Heartless”:



And one last American Idol, David Cook’s cd is pretty much in heavy rotation on my mp3 player, and I truly love the entire thing, but “Permanent” in particular is quickly becoming a favorite song for me.



Pink may not be an American Idol, but I think she is an incredibly talented songstress who is HIGHLY underrated, and I LOVE her new song “Don’t Leave Me” for it’s raw pain and emotion:



This post is getting pretty long already, so I’m going to save some of my other finds for a later date, but moving off the beaten path a little bit, I think it’s only proper that in the spirit of OTGF I promote an Indie artist. Right? Right. So, I’ve got to tell you about someone I discovered via Twitter. Don’t even ask me how I came across him on there, because I simply don’t remember, but the fact remains that I’m glad I did.

Not only am I a fan of his music, but I’m also a fan of his Tweets. This could veer the whole post off on the direction of why I love Twitter for allowing you to get up close and personal with people you might not otherwise ever have an opportunity to meet, but…well, I’ll save that for another time.

Anyway, Chris Blake is his name, and this song is "Mean" which I'm really loving.



Here’s a link to where you can check out the rest of his music: Chris Blake. And no, I’m not getting paid to promote him or anyone else in this post, I’m just doing this for the love of music, and because us struggling artists (singers, writers, photographers, whatever) need to cheer each other on and help each other on, don't you think?

Okay, that’s it, that’s my good for today…go forth and spread good cheer. And be sure to visit Shelly and see what Good she’s got up her sleeve and who else is in on the game.

Concert Review

In keeping with my new year’s resolution to LIVE life a bit more this year, I went out on a “school” night this week! Yep, I’m living dangerously folks.

My friend N had mentioned at the beginning of the year that Lifehouse would be playing at a Boston nightclub in February, and did I want to go. Not really sure who Lifehouse were, but being familiar with their one song that the radio plays INCESSANTLY “You and Me”, and actually really liking the song, I agreed. I then actually decided to make the concert ticket her birthday present, and so the plan was made. In case you don't know, this is lifehouse: http://www.lifehousemusic.com/

I used to love going to concerts. I love music, and I love live music that much more. For years, starting in highschool, all the way through the end of college, there wasn’t a summer that wasn’t populated with various concert attendances. I’ve seen everyone from New Kids on the Block (yep, I said it) to Aerosmith. One of these days I’ll have to do an entry about all the concerts I’ve been to, but that’s for another day.

Anyway, as I’ve gotten older, and funds have gotten tighter, time and money have prevented me from going to as many concerts. So, it’s always nice when a reasonably priced opportunity to see a live band presents itself.

Not wanting to be clueless at this concert, I borrowed N’s Lifehouse cds, burnt them onto the mp3 player, and studied up on the band. Turns out I really like their music. BONUS.

So, the concert was last night. After a “so not on my diet” dinner at Boston Beer Works, we headed over to Avalon for the show. The opening act, a girl by the name of Mozella, was performing when we got there. She was actually pretty good. Sounded a bit like “Nelly Furtado” but more rock then pop. Folksy. Different. If you’re curious, go here: http://www.mozellamusic.com/

This being a general admission show, we managed to work our way all the way to the front, a little off to the side of the stage. We were pretty much standing right by the velvet rope to the area where the bouncers were hanging out to keep crazy fans from...I don't know...rushing the stage or something. We wound up having a fun time just joking around with the bouncers before the show even started. Except for this one guy who was on a major power trip. He was an idiot.

Anyway, then Lifehouse came out. Huh, these guys are pretty young. I had no idea what they even looked like, so it was kind of fun to even just see them and find out what they looked like. They’re an odd bunch, the lead singer has a “Charlie from Lost” look to him, the guitarist looks like a surfer dude, the drummer is more of a punk rock, shaved head looking guy, and the bassist had that rough n’ tough look to him. But they sounded great. You know how sometimes you’ll go see a musician live, and you realize that the only reason their album sounds good is because it’s all digitally re-mastered or whatever? This wasn’t the case at all. These guys sounded better live than on the cds. The lead singer has a great voice, and they all play with passion. They take this stuff seriously, but also have fun performing it. It was a great show, and I’m really glad we went.

I also had another one of those “man, I’m getting old” moments. Actually, I had a few of them last night. There were the obvious ones, when all the teenybopper girls (the show was an all ages show) were squealing in delight, and I thought my eardrums were going to burst, the fact that my back was killing me and I just wanted to sit down for FIVE minutes, those moments. And then there was the big one. At one point Jason Wade (the lead singer), jumped off the stage, and ran over RIGHT to where we were standing. He actually stopped about two feet from me to sing for a while. I thought it was pretty cool of him to do that, but that was the extent of my excitement. The little girls around me were all going insane, hearts aflutter “Oh my God I touched him”. And I thought to myself “huh…not so much”. Actually, truth be told, I also touched him, but I didn’t mean to, but IDIOT above mentioned bouncer decided that I was obviously a threat, and in his rush to protect Mr. Wade from me, actually pushed me INTO him. It wasn’t a full on collision or anything, just a “oh, oops, okay balance is back” moment. But it was funny, because all I was thinking was “please don’t let me get trampled”. Yep, I’m getting old.

All in all it was a good show, great night, and the best part is, I’m obviously not THAT old, because even though I was out until…gasp…midnight, I had no more trouble getting up this morning than usual (which is to say, it sucked, but not any more than it always does).
Hmmm, what concert can I go to next?