Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton is an amazing guitarist. He started playing at a very young age. He began as a studio musician playing every kind of music you could imagine. This is what made him one of the most versatile guitarists of all time. He was the lead guitarist in Cream, he was also in the yardbirds, and then moved on to a solo career. As he grew older his music became a little quieter. When his son died from falling out of the window of a skyscraper he wrote the song "Tears in Heaven", one of the best finger picked acoustic songs ever written. He was had a very log career and influenced rock of all kinds, and he will forever live in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

At the Bottom of Everything by Bright Eyes

This is one of my favorite songs. In my opinion, it's one of the best songs Conor Oberst has ever written.

It begins with a simple story told by Conor Oberst. It's about a women in a plane that's crashing into the ocean, and the man next to her says they're going to her birthday party. The crashing plane is a metaphor for our lives. Just like a crashing plane, we are all headed to an unescapable death. The "birthday party" is heaven. But in the story it seems that the man is only saying this to comfort the woman. I think Conor is saying religion is just a tool to overcome the fear of death. It is a way to comfort us and encourage us to live our lives. Without it, we would be spending our lives fearing our death.

The song continues, talking about how we look down on criminals yet we all make mistakes. The main theme is how silly conformity is. Final stanza is my favorite

"Oh, my morning's coming back
The whole world’s waking up
All the city buses swimming past
I'm happy just because
I found out I am really no one"

Conor has realized that people have the wrong view of death. Death should be a feeling of relief. He realizes that once he is dead, he will be forgotten, and so will his mistakes. Life is temporary, and that is good. We won't have to live with our mistakes for eternity.

Great Song
'nuff said

Brand New- The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me

This is one of my favorite albums by Brand New. The title came from a conversation the lead singer (Jesse Lacey) had with a fellow musician Daniel Johnston who suffers from schizophrenia. He described his condition as though it felt like "the devil and god were raging inside him""

This album reflects a shift in Brand New's music. Instead of a follow-up to "Deja Entendu", Brand New created an album that examined themselves, departing from their past two albums that tended to examine the world around them. Jesse has sought a new topic, moving away from the overwritten love angst, turning instead to self questioning.

Favorite Track:
Jesus Christ
http://youtu.be/XyfkuM7AhTw

The Wombats

The Wombats are a indie rock trio from Liverpool. They are extremely up-beat and fun band. Their drummer is very talented and they put out a lot of sound for 3 people. Check them out!

Best tracks:

Patricia the Stripper:
http://youtu.be/h_BgCEfnvsY

Techno Fan:
http://youtu.be/w8l-9nuXkDo

Let's Dance to Joy Division:
http://youtu.be/gYkSkWdvxbE

Hit the Switch- Bright Eyes

One of my new favorite songs by Bright Eyes. Some of the best lyrics I have ever heard

Bright Eyes- Hit the Switch
http://youtu.be/dCXe1Hy-_2g

Hit the Switch is a great song. For me, its means that you can do whatever you want at any time you want, for the most part. Like at any moment, you can hit the switch and go somewhere else. No worries in the world, happy. Although, i dont like how the song kind of winds down toward the middle of the song. It may be like a trip down the wrong path, or atleast it sounds like a person is falling down a black hole with this instrumental in the backround. I just love the contrast in characters of the woman and then the narrator. "I'll trade you one, for two nightmares of mine ..."

Built to Spill

Built to Spill is a 90's post punk band. I started listening to them when Manchester Orchestra's frontman cited them as a band that made the biggest influence on his music. They have also influenced Brand New, Modest Mouse, and Death Cab for Cutie. You should check them out.

Car-Built to Spill
http://youtu.be/Nc6rEO6B5s8


Some

Manchester Orchestra

Manchester Orchestra is one of my favorite bands. I listened to them in 8th grade, but never really appreciated the quality of their music. They are "rock" but from there, their style is pretty unique. Check them out!

Some of my Favorite songs

Where have you been?: http://youtu.be/BF_F5974B7I

Colly Strings:
http://youtu.be/AS5-lXv_xU

Everything to Nothing:
http://youtu.be/KCttzQSsdWc

The Meaning of I Am The Walrus

I think the song means... what you want it to mean! ...which is normally a cop-out, bullshit thing to say. But, sincerely, it's pretty apparent that the song is another installment from a fairly established, tradition of opening up the skull and letting the subconscious mind spill on out onto the art one is digesting. Like an ink blot, it is what we decide it is.

It's interesting to compare this to John's earlier dues-paying as a songwriter; he wrote some of the subtlest, tenderest little songs that've ever been heard on this planet. But now with drugs and so many years making music, it feels like he has exhausted all the song ideas he has and is forced to delve into the deep corners of his mind which contains absurdity, and genius. That is the reason I think he is writing fewer songs for the band than he used to. It's just a very involved process for him to create an idea he hasn't already had.

Bombay Bicycle Club

Bombay Bicycle Club is one of my favorite band. They are extremely talented technically and can't write a bad song. They have a very mature sound for being so young. (Oldest member being 25) Their sound consists of very melodic 2 part guitar harmonies over rapid drumming thrown out by Suren de Saram.

Another great part of the band is their versatility. They can create both soft acoustic ballads w/a lot of folk influence and loud melodic rock. Every album they change their style, so the music never wears out.

Some of my favorite tracks...

Cancel on Me
http://youtu.be/0BkNR9szwZo

Ivy & Gold
http://youtu.be/aFfVzpiP4zw

Shuffle
http://youtu.be/Sp6F2YlopRU

Jimi Hendrix

By now we have all heard the Jimi Hendrix song "Purple Haze" but the story of how he wrote it is just as amazing as the music itself. PURPLE HAZE - JESUS SAVES The working title of the Jimi Hendrix guitar classic" Purple Haze" was "Purple Haze - Jesus Saves" and was based on a long manuscript, according to the late Monika Dannemann ("The Inner Life of Jimi Hendrix"), "Hendrix's lover at the time of his death." In the manuscript Hendrix stated that the entire meaning of the song came from a dream he had. Ms. Dannemann said, ".he looked down on earth and saw an unborn fetus waiting for its birth. At the same time he saw spirits of the dead leaving earth. Screams from the children were reaching into the heavens. The earth became engulfed in a great flood, and later in the dream he was walking under the sea. Part of the song was about the purple haze which surrounded him, engulfed him, and in which he got lost. He told me later what a traumatic experience this had been, but that in the dream his faith in Jesus had saved him. Jesus was in the purple haze. Hendrix corroborated Dannemann's claim in a January 1967 interview with John King for "Music Express." Another song of Jimi Hendrix "If 6 were 9" was inspired by Hendrix's interest in numerology, where all Numbers have a spiritual meaning. Some say the language of God is numbers, or math. The interesting thing is that music is just a bunch of math equations.