Thursday, March 17, 2011

Glee-tastic

SO, as the title entails, I watched I watched the latest episode of Glee. My favorite part was Quinn telling Rachel "how the story ends" because from the previews, it sounded like she was going to be a complete not-nice person about it. In reality though, Quinn was saying that Rachel was too talented to be stuck in Ohio for the rest of her life. Was she trying to be honest and caring, or was she just trying to be blunt and rude? Guess we'll have to find out.


Since I'm in school right now (on a break, mind you) I'm not listening to any music, although I do have a Josh Groban song in my head, "Voce Existe Em Mim", which I've blogged about before. All I knew was the song made me want to move. Now, I'm more appreciative of the Carnival theme that Josh and his other collaborators came up with. The drums in the song are AMAAAZING, and I definitely recommend listening to it on YouTube with the lyrics for you (it's in Portuguese so having them there as he sings them is really helpful, plus one of the comments has the translation).

So Glee last night, as I said was pretty awesome, and out of the show came some pretty awesome songs (can you tell it was pretty awesome yet??) My favorite song though, wasn't on iTunes: Trouty Mouth. Santana's jazzy ballad to her boyfriend Sam, was utterly high-sterical.  Cue lyrics, please:

Guppy Face, Trouty Mouth
Is that how people's lips look where you come from in the South
Grouper Mouth, Froggy Lips
I love suckin' on those salamander lips
Wanna put a fish hook in those lips so cherry red
If you tried hard enough you could suck a baby's head
Wooh!

Well written, is it not?

Okay, so on to the actual stuff I downloaded (All from Glee). The first, "When I Get You Alone", originally done by Robin Thicke (which REALLY surprised me when I found out because all I've heard of his stuff is slow, sex, "I'm about to get some" songs) was actually done a while ago, but I've just been dragging my heels to download it. When the actual song came out, Jake actually made me listen to it cause he loved it; I liked it, but I forgot about it and when Glee did the cover, I found that the a capella performance of the song changed the way I looked at the harmonies that I couldn't hear before it came out.


The next two are just cause they were really well written for the show: "Loser Like Me" and "Get It Right." Loser was a good explanation of the attitudes that the characters as a whole found in themselves over the show's run. Get It Right explained Rachel's situation completely and totally. I'm really hoping that each of the characters gets a song like that; explaining who they are and what they care about. It would be really cool to see that happen.


"Sing", originally done by My Chemical Romance was on the anthem-themed show a few weeks ago, and it rocked. I hadn't heard the song before, but it didn't surprise me because I'm not really into My Chemical Romance that much. I do have "I Write Sins, Not Tragedies" on my iPod, but other than that, they kind of blipped off the radar for me. Since it's been on the show, I've caught it on the radio a few times, so I'm thinking that it either became a single before the show and the show hyped it up, or it wasn't released until after the show was aired. Glee vs. My Chemical Romance? I think that the song definitely needed vocal harmonies to fill it out more, but the supports of guitars/drums/bass kind of lacks in the Glee version, so I think it's all about what you're in the mood for.

And finally, "Raise Your Glass" originally by Pink, became an a capella song. I mainly bought the song for the background vocals saying one of my favorite games "jenga jenga jenga, jeng, je, je jeng, je je je jenga...." I have the original on my iPod so I know the song, but the energy the Warblers brought to the song is a different vibe.

A little note about a capella music: I believe that it either hurts or helps a song. Seriously, I've heard some songs that are great with music that absolutely inhale vigorously as an a capella song. An example would be "When I Fall in Love" By Celene Dion and [insert name that I have totally blanked on and can't google right now]. But then, Katy Perry's Teenage Dream gets covered by Glee and it's changed into a better song for it (plus Katy Perry gets not only royalties from iTunes for her version, but from the Glee version as well, plus she said that she loved the song even more when Glee had done it). 

Besides, anyone who can sing on pitch without any help from the backup band is awesome in my book. It's one of the hardest things to do. Think about this: when singers audition, most of the time it's without any music (think American Idol or any other singing competition). People who sing a capella sing without any music ALL THE TIME. Plus, because the human voice is most of the time more recognizable then say, a full band behind you, it's easier to hear the harmonies to different songs.


Okay, so any suggestions of what songs I should download/listen to?

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Hmmmmmm....

So I'm thinking that I need to really have a purpose to blog, and I need to come up with not only things to talk about (let's be safe and say that my life is pretty bland at the moment), but things that interest other people. OH AND BTW: You can comment now even if you don't have a blog on blogger....I didn't know that was a setting, so GO AHEAD AND COMMENT PLEASE! <3 Thank you.

In this instance, I am thinking of changing things around the blog a bit, and making my posts be about not only what's going on in my life, but posting on some interests of mine. The first change? Posting about the music I'm buying/listening to/being exposed to/liking (lot of slashes there, huh?). I feel like the music I listen to tells stories about my life and maybe I can explain why I listen to what I do.

The whole goal of this is to get some more readers, mainly because I have nothing else to do, lol. But seriously, I'd like to get people to like what I write and to comment on some of the things I'm interested in too. 

So, I'm thinking that because I usually blog at home, listening to music as I type, I'll probably be putting the song that I'm listening to first and commenting on it. THen I am thinking about putting what music I've bought on iTunes lately and critiquing that, and if I haven't bought anything in a while, put in something that I've heard on the radio lately or what I've been listening to a lot. Sound okay?

So, right now I am listening to "Right in Front of You" by Celine Dion. Yes, I do like Celine Dion, but this song wouldn't really be on my iPod or anywhere else if it wasn't for ECHO and my cousin's experience at ECHO (go to their website to find out more about ECHO). "Right in Front of You" was her theme song for her first weekend, and when she told me this, the song took on a faith aspect, and the song's more like a prayer than anything for me. She's actually on a weekend right now, and I pray that she will be a model of faith for all the other girls there.

Recently, I've been downloading a bunch of new stuff to listen to. The last four songs I downloaded were "Little Lion Man" by Mumford and Sons, "Never Had a Dream Come True" by S Club 7 (I know the GALL I have...), "Born This Way" from GaaaaaGaaaaa herself, and "Stereo Love" by Edward Mya and Vika Jigulina

"Little Lion Man" is a good "let's go drink and sing along at our loudest volumes but still be civilized doing it" kind of song. It's a two for one deal in that you can have it loud and jump around to it, OR you can put it on a low volume and have it as background music as you do work or surf the net. Plus they're CUTE Irish men who can sing and play instruments...that's kind of an amazing combination and always gets me (Sorry, hunny!)

"Never Had a Dream Come True" was a combination of things: The fact that I had 49 cents left on my account that I wanted to spend, and S Club 7, sadly to admit was royalty to a 12-aged Aimee. I adored them (Jon was my favorite). Every Saturday I would watch Fox Family (before ABC took it over and screwed it all up) to see what all seven members would do that week (and I think secretly, I was seeing who would be good together, when in reality they all probably hated Jo cause she would get all the solos and they'd hate each other cause they were actors for kids in the States). Now as I listen, I am reminded of 00's pop that should stay in that decade and be reminisced only when I'm with Nikki or Erin. That's it.

"Born This Way" : Okay, so for those who are sensitive to the issue of homosexuality hear this now: I did not download this song because it's a song about gay rights. I downloaded the song cause it's an awesome song... saying that God makes no mistakes and that He made me perfect the way I am? I'll take it. Lady Gaga only mentions gays once in the song, and the rest of the time it's about being okay with who you are as a person. Although I have to say that video is SCA-REWED UP!!! Don't watch it, I was kinda traumatized.


Okay, so the last song is "Stereo Love" and it reminded me of a French accordian to dance music and it was too interesting to pass up and you know what? It's the first dance song that I've downloaded in a while. It makes me want to find a dance place somewhere, turn off all the lights and rave it up. Yeah.

Soooo any music I should download/check out? Now that you can, comment please. :-)