Fun is the new brainchild of Nate Ruess (The Format) and Andrew Dost (Anathallo). News of this project has helped keep me from spiraling down into a deep dark depression over the loss of one of the greatest pop bands of all time. While I love the name, I am slightly annoyed that yet again I will have a hard time finding anything on them with just a google search. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to hear this album. Nate has written in a blog post that these are some of the best songs that he has ever written. Not to mention that he has been getting the help of Andrew Dost for the arrangements. And if for some reason you are unfamiliar with Dost or his former band Anathallo, the guy is a musical genius who can play pretty much any instrument, “switching from singing and playing the glockenspiel to playing the piano and flugelhorn” all mid-song. Not a joke, I’ve seen him do it. So far they are still unsigned, which I am assuming is by choice, cause I don’t know why all the labels wouldn’t be fighting over them. But as long as the new album gets finished and makes it to my ears, I don’t care how they do it. Unfortunately, I don’t have any more information to share with you all. But I will leave you with this great demo version of one of their new songs.
Unfortunately they have only updated their studio journal 3 times in the past three months, so I’ve learned a whole lot of nothing about this new record. Except that it is going to have a reggae song in it and that Ryan plays an omnichord on one of the tracks. But honestly all it takes for me to get excited about a new Guster album is to know that it is being made. These guys put on one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen (easily top 3) and their last few studio albums have just blown me away. There are tracks on Keep It Together that still give me chills. Like the track I sampled below for those poor unfortunate souls that have yet to discover the wonders of Guster.
Here is a video of some guy named Larry playing a fluglehorn on one of the new songs that is tentatively titled “Lost at Sea.”
Yeah I know, I am behind again. Another of my most anticipated albums got released before I could write about it. And unfortunately I have been too busy and too poor to listen to it. But I will tell you why they made it all the way into my top five. It is because somehow Bono and his crew have not only managed to have an incredibly successful and lucritive music career that has spanned over 3 full decades now. And all the while they have managed to attain the attention and the respect of both music critics and the mainstream media. So for as long as they are in the business I am sure that I will get excited about anything that they create. Not to mention, they were like my second music love as a child. Although I must say that I am slightly disappointed with “Get on your Boots.” It seems to be a less awesome “Vertigo” in my mind.
The creators of our favorite album of 2006 are finally back with their fifth studio album, The Hazards of Love. I absolutely cannot wait to hear what apparently started out as a musical, and has turned into yet another themed record from The Decemberists. According to frontman Colin Meloy, it is a “mossy and evil” record, that tells the story of a woman named Margaret. I absolutely adore how nearly every song they write tells a story, and I am excited to know that this new album has a cohesive story to tell. I am also glad to know that My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden, has lent her gorgeous voice to a fair number of tracks.
So I don’t know how I missed this project the first time around. This is exactly the kind of music that I love. I mean my Gnarls Barkley cover by Ray Lamontagne and that acoustic cover of Hey Ya have become two of the most played songs in my library. So in fact I am even upset that I didn’t discover this collection of covers til now. But not too upset. Because now I have lots of incredible new cover songs to love and cherish. I will let the music speak for itself. But first I want to complain a little about the title. Yeah it’s really clever and all, but I just really don’t like the idea of guilty pleasures. I mean why feel guilty about liking a song. So what if it’s not cool to like it. So what if there’s an Avril Lavigne song that you secretly love. Or that you listened to that One Republic collaboration with Timbaland over and over. Now I’m not saying that I’m about to start praising these artists and comparing them to The Beatles or any of the other greats. But I will freely admit to both of those confessions. Without guilt.
Anyway. Back to the matter at hand. Engine Room Recordings has announced the release of the second edition of the Guilt By Association cover series. The cd is set to hit stores on February 17th, but it has already been released for download on Itunes. But for those of you short on cash, you can go ahead and stream it over on the Engine Room Recordings web-site. Also here is My Brightest Diamond’s installment in the series. I know that I just wrote about here not too long ago and that I had thirteen others to choose from. But I was just so excited that she chose to record this song, because I actually saw her play this song when I saw her open for The Decemberists a couple years ago and it was seriously the highlight of the show. Shara Worden is an incredible performer, with one of the most amazing voices I have ever heard. I cannot recommend seeing her live enough. Or the Decemberists for that matter. Well to wrap things up, here is the tracklist for Guilt By Association Vol. 2. I hope your ears bleed (but not really).
So other than my addiction to tv on dvd, there hasn’t been hardly any tv watching for me over the past year or two. But with the constant syndication of the Olympics on NBC I have watched more television in the past month than I have in the past year, at least that is commercialized television. And to my delight I discovered that over the past year commercials have developed great taste in music. My buddy JC wrote a couple days ago about the relationship between music and movies. So today I would like to highlight the relationship between music and commercials. Well I actually don’t have a lot to say. We all understand and have even experienced how it works. You see a commercial, you like the song, not only do you look up who sings the song, but you also find yourself thinking about that commercial more often. It’s a win win situation for all. I’m actually surprised it has taken so long for it to catch on the way it has. Because I think most of you all would agree that there have been a plethora of great songs in big name commercials over the past month. So today I am going to highlight some of the ones that I loved the most. And then if you want you can share any that you have seen and loved.
First of all I would say that for the most part the car manufacturers have shown the most improvement in their musical taste. Like for instance the new GM commercial that features the ever so talented Brandi Carlile singing the title track off her most recent album.
Then there is the ever so addictive song by Sea Wolf that is found in the new Chevy Malibu commercial. I seriously cannot get enough of that song. I first heard it over a year ago and it is still in constant rotation on my ipod. For some reason I can’t find that one on youtube. But here is the song.
And I can’t leave out the AT&T Olympics commercial that ever so wisely features a song off of The Crane Wife by The Decemberists, not to mention the incredibly talented Gold Medalist Nastia Luikin. Which this one doesn’t surprise me. AT&T have been filling my sporting event breaks with creative and entertaining commercials for years.
And last but certainly not least, my favorite commercial that I have seen during my many hours of watching the Olympics. The very touching and inspiring Coca Cola commercial that shows tons of athletes from both the Olympics and the Special Olympics bowing to receive their medals. It makes me think of my absolutely fantastic and brilliant little cousin who has down syndrome, and it almost makes me cry every time. And they seriously could not have picked a better song. This song evokes so much emotion out of me even with out the images it accompanies here in the commercial.
Now I realize that unless you are incredibly unpatriotic and have chosen to watch the trash like Deal or No Deal instead of the Olympics, that you have already seen these commercials. But I thought you might enjoy learning who the artists were behind this great marketing scheme. And feel free to let me know if there are any you were disappointed to not see on here. Or if you there was another commercial that you liked the song but didn’t know what it was, maybe I could help you out. Until next time…keep bleeding.
Fun is the new brainchild of Nate Ruess (The Format) and Andrew Dost (Anathallo). News of this project has helped keep me from spiraling down into a deep dark depression over the loss of one of the greatest pop bands of all time. While I love the name, I am slightly annoyed that yet again I will have a hard time finding anything on them with just a google search. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to hear this album. Nate has written in a blog post that these are some of the best songs that he has ever written. Not to mention that he has been getting the help of Andrew Dost for the arrangements. And if for some reason you are unfamiliar with Dost or his former band Anathallo, the guy is a musical genius who can play pretty much any instrument, “switching from singing and playing the glockenspiel to playing the piano and flugelhorn” all mid-song. Not a joke, I’ve seen him do it. So far they are still unsigned, which I am assuming is by choice, cause I don’t know why all the labels wouldn’t be fighting over them. But as long as the new album gets finished and makes it to my ears, I don’t care how they do it. Unfortunately, I don’t have any more information to share with you all. But I will leave you with this great demo version of one of their new songs.
Yeah I know, I am behind again. Another of my most anticipated albums got released before I could write about it. And unfortunately I have been too busy and too poor to listen to it. But I will tell you why they made it all the way into my top five. It is because somehow Bono and his crew have not only managed to have an incredibly successful and lucritive music career that has spanned over 3 full decades now. And all the while they have managed to attain the attention and the respect of both music critics and the mainstream media. So for as long as they are in the business I am sure that I will get excited about anything that they create. Not to mention, they were like my second music love as a child. Although I must say that I am slightly disappointed with “Get on your Boots.” It seems to be a less awesome “Vertigo” in my mind.
The creators of our favorite album of 2006 are finally back with their fifth studio album, The Hazards of Love. I absolutely cannot wait to hear what apparently started out as a musical, and has turned into yet another themed record from The Decemberists. According to frontman Colin Meloy, it is a “mossy and evil” record, that tells the story of a woman named Margaret. I absolutely adore how nearly every song they write tells a story, and I am excited to know that this new album has a cohesive story to tell. I am also glad to know that My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden, has lent her gorgeous voice to a fair number of tracks.
