Summer loving had us a blast summer loving noticed an interesting thing worth taking note of!

JC — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:07:43 +0000

Alas, the summer of ‘08 is rapidly coming to an end. It certainly has been a hot and expensive one (darn you opec!). It was a summer of flip flops; such as the changing stance of an effective energy solution from both presidential candidates, as well as the god of Wisconsin football Brett Farve deciding to yet again try another year in the nfl, after vowing earier this April that this past season was his last. It was a summer of darkness; This coming from Christopher Nolan’s truly great film “The Dark Knight” which has broken just about every box office record, and truly gave us a glimpse of the genius which was the late Heath Ledger……sorry i got a bit sentimental….deep breath…..and (exhale)…I’m ok. But one thing that really struck me late this summer (other than falling debree from trees, i helped landscape as a summer job) has been the impact a film can have on a song, or the impact a song can have on a film. I’m sure if your reading this your thinking, “man JC I’d like you to explain this ‘impact’ phenomon in greater detail” well guess what, I think I will.

First, I will start with the impact a film can have on a song by highlighting the song by Savage known as “Swing!”. Now this song has become very popular in the last three months. Yet as I recently began hearing it on the radio, I thought I recalled hearing it somwhere earlier. And guess what interested reader. I had heard it earlier. To be more precise, I heard it exactly a year earlier in the film “Knocked Up”. But the song wasn’t popular last year when Knocked Up was orginally released…hmmm why did it just recently gain in popularity? Upon thinking about how I remembered the song, I came up with a hypothesis: the song “Swing!” was played during the dvd menu for Knocked Up. So if I’m waiting to start the dvd, the song will continually loop over and over again. Well this summer, it must’ve gotten stuck in a lot of peoples heads as they bought/rented the dvd when it came out in december, and requests probably started getting made for local music stations to play this song. And four months later you have a massive snowball effect and a hit song due to a film.

Now ironically the song I’m highlighting that has made an impact on a film is another Seth Rogan movie and it is this years’ Pineapple Express. I have not seen the film and don’t plan to until it comes out on dvd, but what I can say is this is what most people looking at seeing the film have said to me in regard to film. “Yeah Pineapple Express looks funny in the previews, and I really like that song.” I have literally heard this from well over five individuals. The song is M.I.A.’s Paper Planes that has taken off by hitching itself to a highly anticapated film. But I genuinely feel that the likablitly of this song will impact peoples decisions on whether or not they want to view this film. I mean just look at the impact the symbiotic relationship had for the film Gardenstate, and look what Gardenstate did for The Shins!

Ok, so it’s not rocket science. Songs help films. Films help songs. But heck, I thought it was somthing worth taking note of. Oh and I want to aplogize to my readers for the lack of posting. I’ll be writing more reguarlly from now on, be looking for an album review of this summers hottest rap album Tha Carter…yeah that will be interesting until then, enjoy the summer olympics.

The Shins - Caring Is Creepy

M.I.A. - Paper Planes

Mr. A to Z, might be about the word play, but certainly not about making a decent album.

JC — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:07:13 +0000

So this is my first post (super exciting eh) since Mr. Mckinney asked me to contribute to this wonderful website. I’m an excited wrecking ball of joy about to be swung with great force into Jason Mraz’s most recent album, “We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things“. Ok here’s the deal, I want to like Jason Mraz, i really do. And to be honest, this album has some greats tracks, (as do all his albums) unfortnatley, 3 to 4 decent tracks on a record isn’t a passing grade. And for somone who has as much talent as he does, it is super disappointing. I mean seriously, the kid’s got a phenomenal voice, some unbelievably catchy rhymes, good looks, the whole package. Oh wait a minute, except for the fact that Rafee can put together a more equally balanced album. I think the reason this album peeved me as much as it did was the fact that it opens so strongly, and I truly felt like Jason had finally hit his stride. The first track, “Make It Mine” is great, fast, progressive and smooth. Then he follows it with “I’m Yours” which makes one assume that Jason is beginning to follow the Jack Johnson/ Jimmy Buffet smooth landback, islandy music i like so much. But after that is when things begin to go horribly wrong. Example: the song “Butterfly” is unbelievably catchy and has a big band sound, but is simply a song with no substance and the lyrics are one that should be played at a reno strip club. Then you have the track “Details in the Fabric”, which opens up with somone freaking out over an answering machine about an ordeal I can’t completely figure out, and then Jason Mraz comforting the individual through song. After all, what more would we, the listener, enjoy than a song that has absolutely no connection to us, giving us advice about a subject we barely understand. And then we have the depressing song “Love for a Child”, where we learn about how depressing growing up in the Mraz household was: when Jason started abusing drugs, neglect…. sounds like a bucket of trolli bright crawlers and chicken pot pie eh? Ok so its not a solid album, but if one does buy this album I have three tracks to recommend. 1. Make it Mine, 2. I’m Yours. 3. The Dynamo of Volition (I’m still trying to figure what on earth old Jason is talking about but its catchy and fun). Anyway the reason I’m so hard on Jason is because I really thought he had finally nailed the bullseye. I was obviously mistaken. But hey, i wont worry my life away!

Jason Mraz - I’m Yours

I Hope Your Ears Bleed » JC

Summer loving had us a blast summer loving noticed an interesting thing worth taking note of!

Mr. A to Z, might be about the word play, but certainly not about making a decent album.