You might have noticed if you'd been paying any attention.
Though my love of music hasn't waned, I haven't really heard any new music for a while. Moving to NY screwed up my music connections, no car meant I wasn't listening to the radio, no TV meant I had no music channels, and I just sorta faded out of all of my internet music haunts. Deciding I desperately needed to get more stuff added to my playlist after discovering that Say Anything had come out with a new album while I wasn't paying attention, I started following links on YouTube.
Old news ahead.
After listening to Say Anything's Baby Girl, I'm a Blur about fifty times, I hit up Cobra Starship. I remembered hearing The City is at War a while back and really liking it. From there, I discovered Bring It! (Snakes on a Plane). My first thought was, 'God, she is HAWT.' Followed by, 'That long haired boy is prettier than any boy has any right to be.' Then, 'That rapper guy is AWESOME!' And, 'WTF? Random Fall Out Boy?' Clearly, some research was in order since none of those people seemed to actually be a part of Cobra Starship.
I looked up the girl, Maja Ivarsson, first. I figured if her music was any good I had a friend who'd really like to see a hot blond dance like that in a video. Lo and behold, her band, The Sounds, is better than good.
Next came the rapper guy-- Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes. Songs like this are absolute GENIUS! I seriously don't even have words to describe how much I love this band. They're just fucking amazing. This is just the audio, but it's got William Beckett singing the chorus. Which means the song almost hits the same awesome level as Bring It!. I'd like to say it needs more Maja and Gabe, but it's a really nice song in it's simplicity.
Then I got to the unrealistically pretty boy. William Beckett. For real, people like this don't exist. They can't. It just isn't fair to the rest of us. As if it weren't bad enough that he looks like that, he's got that smile and that head turn thing he does and... I can't even type about it. My brain just goes all stupid. Not since Blake Fischer of Minutes Too Far (blue t-shirt and jacket/hoodie) has anyone made me this dumb with a smile*. Anyway, so William Beckett is the front man of The Academy Is... I couldn't decide which video to link. Honestly, lyrically speaking, I'm not a big fan of them. But William's voice... just... God. To see William being pretty like he is, I give you Slow Down. But I think The Phrase that Pays is the better song.
As it turns out, Pete Wentz is in the video for Bring It! because he knows everyone in the music industry from Ashley Simpson to motherfucking Robert Smith. And he owns the label that Cobra Starship, The Academy Is..., and Gym Class Heroes are on. I can't decide if this makes me adore Pete Wentz more or less. It is pretty fucking amazing though.
This last band was suggested to me by a friend. It took me a few days to finally sit down and listen to it, but... wow. Handlebars by The Flobots is just drop dead fantastic. The video, the music, the lyrics... it's, like, make you stop in your tracks and listen to it. Don't just stop at Handlebars though. Seriously, get the album. My favorite s are Anne Braden, Stand Up, Handlebars, and There's a War Going on for Your Mind.
This is a good time for music, I think. Maybe I'm just older and understand things a little better now than I did back in the nineties, but it really seemed like there was a musical drought. Sure, you had a few stellar bands, but for the most part there wasn't much happening. With the way the bands I grew up with have grown (see Good Charlotte's Little Things versus the newer sound of Keep Your Hands Off My Girl, Green Day's Basketcase to their politically and socially charged new stuff) and these newer faces (Panic At The Disco's new album is a little Beatles-esque, Shiny Toy Guns bringing back new wave with shiny style), I really believe we've got some good things to look forward to.
*After seeing Minutes Too Far, I went up to their merch table to get a t-shirt or something. As I approached, Blake turned around and smiled at me. I meant to say, "You guys were really awesome. How much for that CD?" What I actually said was, "Oh my God, you're hot."
Old news ahead.
After listening to Say Anything's Baby Girl, I'm a Blur about fifty times, I hit up Cobra Starship. I remembered hearing The City is at War a while back and really liking it. From there, I discovered Bring It! (Snakes on a Plane). My first thought was, 'God, she is HAWT.' Followed by, 'That long haired boy is prettier than any boy has any right to be.' Then, 'That rapper guy is AWESOME!' And, 'WTF? Random Fall Out Boy?' Clearly, some research was in order since none of those people seemed to actually be a part of Cobra Starship.
I looked up the girl, Maja Ivarsson, first. I figured if her music was any good I had a friend who'd really like to see a hot blond dance like that in a video. Lo and behold, her band, The Sounds, is better than good.
Next came the rapper guy-- Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes. Songs like this are absolute GENIUS! I seriously don't even have words to describe how much I love this band. They're just fucking amazing. This is just the audio, but it's got William Beckett singing the chorus. Which means the song almost hits the same awesome level as Bring It!. I'd like to say it needs more Maja and Gabe, but it's a really nice song in it's simplicity.
Then I got to the unrealistically pretty boy. William Beckett. For real, people like this don't exist. They can't. It just isn't fair to the rest of us. As if it weren't bad enough that he looks like that, he's got that smile and that head turn thing he does and... I can't even type about it. My brain just goes all stupid. Not since Blake Fischer of Minutes Too Far (blue t-shirt and jacket/hoodie) has anyone made me this dumb with a smile*. Anyway, so William Beckett is the front man of The Academy Is... I couldn't decide which video to link. Honestly, lyrically speaking, I'm not a big fan of them. But William's voice... just... God. To see William being pretty like he is, I give you Slow Down. But I think The Phrase that Pays is the better song.
As it turns out, Pete Wentz is in the video for Bring It! because he knows everyone in the music industry from Ashley Simpson to motherfucking Robert Smith. And he owns the label that Cobra Starship, The Academy Is..., and Gym Class Heroes are on. I can't decide if this makes me adore Pete Wentz more or less. It is pretty fucking amazing though.
This last band was suggested to me by a friend. It took me a few days to finally sit down and listen to it, but... wow. Handlebars by The Flobots is just drop dead fantastic. The video, the music, the lyrics... it's, like, make you stop in your tracks and listen to it. Don't just stop at Handlebars though. Seriously, get the album. My favorite s are Anne Braden, Stand Up, Handlebars, and There's a War Going on for Your Mind.
This is a good time for music, I think. Maybe I'm just older and understand things a little better now than I did back in the nineties, but it really seemed like there was a musical drought. Sure, you had a few stellar bands, but for the most part there wasn't much happening. With the way the bands I grew up with have grown (see Good Charlotte's Little Things versus the newer sound of Keep Your Hands Off My Girl, Green Day's Basketcase to their politically and socially charged new stuff) and these newer faces (Panic At The Disco's new album is a little Beatles-esque, Shiny Toy Guns bringing back new wave with shiny style), I really believe we've got some good things to look forward to.
*After seeing Minutes Too Far, I went up to their merch table to get a t-shirt or something. As I approached, Blake turned around and smiled at me. I meant to say, "You guys were really awesome. How much for that CD?" What I actually said was, "Oh my God, you're hot."