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Featured Artist—Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd is one of the greatest bands of all time. Even if you don’t like them, you can’t argue it. When people list the legends, you’ll hear them say Zeppelin, Sabbath, Queen, etc…but Pink Floyd will also always be on that list. They have sold over 200 million albums worldwide throughout their career, making them one of the most commercially successful bands of all time. On top of that, they did it with amazing music.
Originally formed in 1965, the Pink Floyd many of us are familiar with is not actually the original band. The band’s original lead singer, Syd Barret was only in the band for three years, up until 1968. At that point, he departed from the group due to his deteriorating mental health. A few months later, David Gilmour would join the band and assume the role of lead guitarist along with co-lead vocals with Roger Waters. With this lineup, the band would go on to release numerous successful albums, such as Animal, Wish You Were Here, Dark Side of the Moon, and The Wall.
I’ll stop my post here before I turn this into another huge essay, because really, what it comes down to is the music. If you’d like to read more about Pink Floyd, especially about The Wall, click here to read my review of the wall live. http://dcasarella.tumblr.com/post/1351877658/the-wall-review. Take a listen to a few tracks below, especially if there’s a song you haven’t heard of.
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Song of the Day—Kingdom Hearts “Hikari Kingdom Orchestra”
This is a little different then what I normally do. This song is from the soundtrack of Kingdom Hearts, one of my all-time favorite video games. I’m a pretty big fan of classical music, i.e. Chopin and Tchaikovsky, and I absolutely love instrumentals like this one. It’s really powerful and a great song to just lie down and listen to. Also, orchestral/classical music is really the only kind of music I can listen to while studying/doing homework. If your like me in that sense, this is a great song to use.
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Day 8—A Song That You Know All Of The Words To
Linkin Park—“In The End”
Once again, there were quite a few options for songs I could put here. I decided to kind of switch it up and post the FIRST song that I learned all of the words to. Otherwise, I probably would have sat here forever trying to pick just one. “In The End” honestly might not even be the first song, I listened to a lot of Backstreet Boys and Hanson when I was younger, so who knows, haha. However, it’s definitely the first song that I learned all of the words to that I can still fully remember to this day. Linkin Park has always been one of my favorite bands (Hybrid Theory was the first CD I ever got). “In The End” has always been my favorite song off of that CD, and I still enjoy it as much as the day that I first listened to it.
P.S. I just rewatched the music video for the first time in a while before I posted it here. WTF is going on in this video??? Is that a whale flying in the sky?? Shit is crazy.
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Featured Artist—Muse
I feel like I’ve talked about Muse quite a bit on this blog so far, but surprisingly I’ve never done a full feature on them yet. I think you’ve heard it all from me before, but Muse are so greatly under appreciated in the United States. Reigning from England, Muse dominate throughout Europe, but have not broken through here as much. Now, don’t get me wrong, they still an enormous fanbase in the States, as they should, but it’s not as large as in Europe. It baffles me too, because they are one of the greatest bands I have ever listened to. Formed in 1994, the trio have been making music together for almost two decades now. They incorporate so many different musical styles, from hard rock to classical sounds to electronic and even rock opera.
I’m not even going to give you music videos or audio tracks this time. Instead, I’m going to provide live songs only, just to show you how amazing their shows are. Matt Bellamy has one of the greatest voices I’ve ever heard, along with some skilled fingers on the guitar.
So, for some reason, every other video besides the one above has embedding disabled on youtube…so unfortunately, I cannot provide more epic live videos. Here are a few more tracks, and I strongly recommend you look up their live versions on youtube. You won’t be disappointed.
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Song of the Day—Skrillex “My name is Skrillex (Skrillex Remix)”
Ok, I’ll admit it, Skrillex is growing on me. In general, I still really don’t enjoy dubstep, but this song, especially this remix, is really good (Also, I have to point out that it’s pretty fucking boss to remix your own song). The problem with this song and this kind of music, is that I can’t just listen to it whenever. Really, it’s only good while partying, driving, and working out. Thankfully, those are three things I do a lot of, so I have plenty of opportunities to enjoy the song. Besides that though, I really can’t listen to it.
Also, Skrillex is former lead singer of From First to Last, Sonny Moore. My mind was BLOWN when I learned that. I use to love FFTL when I was younger. Check out their track “Emily” if you get a chance.
What’s his name again?
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Day 7—A Song that Reminds You Of A Certain Event
Pink Floyd—“Mother”
Man, this is really another tough one. I had to go ahead and pick a concert as the event that I am reminded of, which is kind of an easy thing to do, but oh well. The Roger Water’s concert at Madison Square Garden last fall was by far the greatest show I have ever seen. Honestly, I had a hard time picking which song from The Wall I was going to use. The opening track, “In the Flesh?”, featured a model airplane crashing into the stage! Also, throughout the show, a wall of bricks was built up on the stage and during one of the final tracks of the album and the show, “The Trial”, the wall exploded and crumbled down before the audiences eyes. These two tracks were quite a spectacle to witness. In the end, however, I chose “Mother” for a few reasons. One is that it’s one of the more well-known tracks off of The Wall. A second reason is because during the concert, Roger Waters played the song over a double-track. What I mean, is that he projected an image of himself playing the song during the original touring of the album and he song along side it. It was a very very cool thing to witness.
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Featured Artist—Bad Meets Evil
Bad Meets Evil is the Detroit-based hip hop due of Eminem and Royce da 5’9”. They first collaborated together on Eminem’ album The Slim Shady LP back in 1999, on a track named “Bad Meets Evil”. Soon after that, Royce and Eminem wouldn’t speak for a while, as there was a falling out between Royce and Em’s childhood friends, D12. After the tragic death of their mutual friend, Proof (also a member of D12 and Em’s closest friend), the two reconciled and got back together. Earlier in the summer, they dropped their CD, Hell: The Sequel. Here are a few tracks from it that are just absolute fire. As much as I love Eminem as a solo artist, if this is all he focuses on for a while now, I won’t be upset.
P.S. I don’t really know why, but I find Eminem to be so awkward in music videos. I don’t know, he just never seems comfortable in them, it kind of makes me laugh. Oh well, the music is insanely good, that’s all that matters.
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Acoustic Spotlight—A Day to Remember “Monument”
Have I mentioned how much I love these guys?
I mean, only like two or three times, right…
Anyways, this is further emphasis on my statement that ADTR have amazing range. This isn’t an acoustic song originally, but they stripped it down and made it one (beautifully, I may add). Take a listen if you’re a sucker for anything acoustic, like me.
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Single of the Day—Coldplay “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall”
Well, not like I’m telling you anything new here. Seeing as how this song already has 8.8 million views on youtube, you’ve probably already heard it. BUT, my purpose here is to introduce people to music. Even if it’s not new, there may be a chance you haven’t heard it yet. And if you haven’t…what the hell have you been doing for the last two months? Listen to it. Now.
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Day 6—A song that reminds you of somewhere
J-Five “Modern Times”
Oh my God, it’s so funny to hear this song again. In Italy, there use to be this music festival called Festivalbar. When my family and I went in 2004, the festival was in full swing. We didn’t go, but we bought a bootleg copy of the festival’s compilation CD on the beach from some random dude. This CD was like, 40 tracks for a ridiculously cheap price. It had some pretty big names on it too, like Muse, Maroon 5 and Beyonce. Anyways, this track was on the CD and we would listen to it all the time in our rental car. I associate this song with my visit to Italia. I haven’t listened to it in a while, but upon hearing it again, I immediately think back to that great vacation.
