This week in my headphones

This week I have been listening to a LOT of Nirvana. Seriously just not stop.

It all started with this cover song:

It's incredible. It's a cover of a blues song from the 40's called, Where Did You Sleep Last Night by a guy called Leadbelly. Leadbelly is famous in guitar history for his work with 12 string guitars. This acoustic session is just pure genius and pure soul. Especially this song, it's a straight up blues minor chords change and very simple lyrics, but it has so much power.

It would be impossible for me to pick a favorite Nirvana song, but definitely this past week it has been:

Heart Shaped Box off of the In Utero album. This song is so Nirvana. It showcases the musical prowess of Kurt Cobain in his voice and guitar riffs and also Krist Novoselic with his funky ass bass lines and the power drumming of Dave Grohl.

Fun fact about this song: This was the last song sung in concert by Kurt Cobain before he took his own life. During that entire show, Cobain had Bronchitis.

Another great Nirvana song is Polly off of the Nevermind album (the one with the naked baby in a pool grabbing at a dollar on a fishing hook on the cover). Kurt Cobain saw the story in the song on the news and was so touched that he wrote this song, so the story goes.

This is the unlugged version, although there's a dirtier version on the actual Nevermind album, I actually like this one better.

How sad that Kurt Cobain died right? I think about this a lot actually. What if Kurt Cobain never used drugs and wasn't depressed and didn't want to kill himself and were still alive.

Well, there simply wouldn't have been a Nirvana. At least not like we know it today.

I'm not advocating drug usage or suicide. Not even a little bit. But I think those things highly influenced the songwriting of a genius.

That is all.

This week is some lovely rock

This week I found some of the songs on my iPod that I haven't listened to in a while and put 'em on.

Man I forgot how much I love classic rock. I was jamming to Zeppelin, AC/DC, the Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix non-stop all week. I definitely like how all of these artists can take you back in time in a way. The attitude of the music shows what the attitude of the time was. Also, these artists were true professionals, all musicians in their own right.

So to start off, we've got some Led Zeppelin:

Over The Hills and Far Away is one of my favorite songs of all time. It has everything you would expect from an all-star band like Zeppelin. It starts off with a sweet guitar melody by Jimmy Page. He uses a straight acoustic tone and the chorus effect makes you feel like you're in the studio with him until the second harmony guitar parts come in. The soft melody changes slightly right before Robert Plant's sweet, raspy vocals come through strong.
When John Bonham and John Paul Jones come in to finish off the groove, there's not a sound like it. Only Led Zeppelin could pull off straight jam songs in studio and on stage.
Overall such a quality song.


Next we've got a song with a story:

The first time I ever heard AC/DC was by complete accident. I was at Arrowhead Day Camp and as I was walking by the drinking fountain I saw a CD. I went over and picked it up and all it said in messy Sharpie writing was, "Classic Rock". I put the CD on my stereo the moment I got home and cranked up the volume. The first song was Hells Bells by AC/DC.

I couldn't believe that such a sound existed. It was the most bad ass thing I'd ever heard in my life. And just as Angus Young was ripping into the guitar solo, my mom came downstairs singing at the top of her lungs:

"HELLS BEEELLS! ACROSS THE SKY!"

I was like, whaaaat, mom you know this song?

That day, I learned that my mom was a head-banger.

Awesome.

Some other songs I listened to this week:

Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite- The Beatles
Paint it Black- The Rolling Stones
No Satisfaction- The Rolling Stones
Castles Made of Sand- Jimi Hendrix
Like A Rolling Stone- Bob Dylan
In My Time of Dying- Led Zeppelin

Anyway, here's the picture I drew this week. More of a sketch really. I don't draw with pen very often, so I figured I'd give it a try.

It's a devil sorta thing. But as always, you can interpret it however you want.

A little more bluegrass... and a switch

I was so hooked from last week I was listening to bluegrass all this week too. So I'm gonna go ahead and post a couple of songs and some comments before going into the new stuff.

This first video is of two of one of my all time favorite bluegrass players. Chris Thile (prnounced thee-lee) is the mandolin player/vocalist who looks like an un-bathed version of Robert Pattinson. Suffice to say, he's fantastic. Everything about the music just seems to flow with this guy, and I don't know how many of you guys have ever tried to play a mandolin, but it is freaking hard. There are 8 tiny little god damn strings and these little frets and I can't imagine this instrument was meant for adult fingers. But he rocks it.
I can't say I know very much about the guitarist/vocalist, but I sure do like his playing. He seems to have incorporated a banjo claw picking technique to his guitar picking which gives an interesting sound to the rhythm.

This next video is awesome. I am literally at a lack for words. And it's through surfing Chris Thile videos on youtube that I even found it. For some background, all of these players are considered to be top of the world at their instruments. Yo Yo Ma (cello) and Edgar Meyer (Double Bass) have been hailed as two of the best players to ever pick up their respective instruments. This classical bluegrass fusion is just, in my humble opinion, nothing less than perfection. Everything about it. That these artists are able to come together and make a sound like this is a fantastic thing.

Okay, new stuff and a picture.

This is Sigur Ros. The first time I heard them I was literally in awe of the shear sound that was coming out of my speakers. It's relaxing yet engaging.
To start, this band comes from Iceland, but it is not entirely Icelandic that they are singing, sometimes the lyrics are literal nonsense.

The ethereal, yet hype beat driven sound is very common of Sigur Ros (which by the way is prnounced See-gore, and rose with a soft "s"). In my opinion, this is the music of the imagination. If I'm just sitting around thinking about stuff, this is the kind of music I want running through my head.

This band is called, Godspeed! You Black Emporer. I have no idea why they call themselves that. I really don't. But they are incredible. A little more of a progressive sound than Sigur Ros. They not only have the same eerie, ethereal sound, but they utilize sound clips and "outside" (non musical) sounds. I guess you could consider this the "avante-garde" of whatever genre of music this is.

Anyway, this is the picture I drew this week:

Sorry about it being on its side, that was the only way to get a decent image. It looks much better in person in my opinion. It's supposed to represent imagination. It's two boys sitting in a sandbox together sailing through imagination.

But you can interpret it however you like.