Trollheart

I would like to award this journal the Lazarus 2012 Award For Unexpected Resurrection! TWO YEARS later! Man, that's some lunch hour!

Good to have ya back! Never say die...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Antonio

hahahaha yeah thanks for reminding me

it feels good to be back though. so yeah, thanks.

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Been making some new music lately, check it out

My MB Journal-I talk about music and stuff!

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Antonio

Good morning everyone (or good afternoon/evening depending on when you're reading this). As I write this journal post, it's 8:30 am in my neck of the woods, which is funny because I didn't even go to bed until 4:30 last night (4 hours of sleep is the new cool, ladies and gentlemen). Usually, in my summer state I don't really get up until about eleven o'clock (more like 2:30), but today is different, special even. You see....

I've been completely slacking off on homework for my summer class and it's due tomorrow.....hehehe.

So yeah, what better music to have for the big rush than some good, high energy pop punk?

Well there's metal, hard rock, drum 'n' bass, hot jazz, swing and the little-know genre of thrash-samba, but that's not the point. This is an album that I wanted to review for a while and I'm gonna do it now, to help me get into the writing mood for the more serious paper stuff that I'll inevitably have to do.

The Story So Far is a pop punk band from Walnut Creek, California. With a name from a New Found Glory song, these guys are an unabashed pop-punk band, with alot of the best elements of the genre; there's choruses and song elements that immediately grab you, but the way that they are done don't feel formulaic or forced; the composition manages to be tight and at the same time interesting and complex, and the songs themselves are uplifting as well as genuine about what they are and what they want you to feel.

Now, when you press play, you should get a good feel as to whether you would like this album or not with the first song, States and Minds, with a very familiar sounding guitar tone for the genre and the singer just belting out the lyrics with tons of emotion to spare. While it is one of my favorites on here and the song that got me into the band(I found this near the end of a Gmod video, Team Fabulous 2, that I liked),The only negative I have to give it is that at 53 seconds it feels all too brief. The ending chord then starts off the next song, Roam which further exemplifies the singer's emotion and singing ability with a riff to ride through the whole thing and a nice break in the middle. What I also love about this song(and the rest of the album) is the dual harmonies with the backup lending a distinctly different voice but equal ability. After this, Quicksand injects more energy with some hardworking drums that jump into a really uplifting chorus. The rest of the song has some cool melodies as well, but that was the part that I found the most awesome.

Swords and Pens starts off with a pounding riff that bursts into some spastic drums and once again the chorus delivers by being instantly pleasing but distinct as well as some multiple harmonies that call for repeat listening. This is a song that just wants to get up and feel the music and I want to do just that. The song then fades out into High Regard, which brings more of the guitars to the forefront with the vocals. This isn't the most dynamic song on here, but the vocals help to keep it afloat with alot of different melodies stuffed into one song, showing just how much creativity can be put into a melody. Still, it doesn't grab you as much as previous songs. Daughters is also a song that helps to show how into it the singer is, as he's practically screaming with earnesty. At first this seems like something that may not grab you like High Regard, but the vocals and the guitars can keep you interested. Afterwards, Mt. Diablo takes you with intro drums, and just how unified the music and the singing can be. Stinging with anger in the lyrics, it still manages to keep you full of energy and good feeling throughout. The chorus isn't as strong this time around, but other vocal melodies do much to work best together.

Four Years breaks in and for the first time the instrumentation takes center stage, but that doesn't mean the vocals are slacking, as more dual harmonies are present here than any other song on the album, and it works. Next up is my favorite song on the album and a song that I just have to listen to at least once a day now, Rally Cap. If I had to say why I love this song, I would say that it's just great as a whole. The vocal melodies, while not as numerous as previous songs, are all great and immediately stick with you. The dual harmonies work well with this and highlight just how awesome the melodies are, and while I'm not big on them usually, the lyrics here are something that grab me and work so well. The composition and instrumentation keeps you in it and catches you by surprise, especially with the drums which really charge through this. Hell, I just put it on repeat for the third time now, so that should tell you something. Placeholder follows up as an acoustic number and shows how these guys even have the energy on an acoustic track, with the singer putting out barrels of emotion and the drums and guitars going crazy in the background. Definitely a surprise, but not something that's jarring. Closure is the song at the end and is more of the same that you've heard throughout the album, which is fine by me, but I can see how it might be kind of meh for other people. Still, it goes by quickly and doesn't overstay it's welcome.

Best Songs- States and Minds, Roam, Quicksand, Four Years, Rally Cap, Placeholder
Worst Songs- High Regard, Daughters, Mt. Diablo

What I like the most about this album is the amount of energy and emotion that comes at you. It's an album that you would have to really get into, blasting it in your car at 11 at night while jumping around and singing every word. This is the kind of energy that being at a local show where the band can just stop singing and the audience could recite whole songs from memory. That being said, if you're not a fan of pop punk then this is won't change your mind or convert you, but if you love bands like New Found Glory and like your music equal parts catchy but rocking, then this is for you.

To make long things short(heh heh) I'm going to give this a 7 out of 10. If you asked me personally what i feel it is I would say a solid 8, but I know that this is more for someone with a specific taste for this type of music.

But yeah, here's some songs, and if you like what you hear, there's plenty more where that came from.

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Been making some new music lately, check it out

My MB Journal-I talk about music and stuff!

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Antonio

Can you tell I'm on a pop-punk kick yet? Can ya?? Well, i wanted to keep it going with what I feel is one of the best songs in the genre. New Found Glory is one of the quintessential bands that combines awesome and cohesive instruments with awesome, pop melodies and singing. Forget My Name is just that and it's a song that I can't get tired of. With a beginning lyric like "Tell all my friends I'm dead", how can you go wrong?

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Been making some new music lately, check it out

My MB Journal-I talk about music and stuff!

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Antonio

Hey y'all wanted to get one more write-up before I got back to my work that I need to do.(can you tell I'm procrastinating yet?? )

Anamanaguchi is a chiptune rock band from New York City. I first heard these guys when a friend of mine gave me a copy of the soundtrack to Scott Pilgrim Vs The World The Game and I was instantly hooked. What's interesting about these guys is how they literally use a cracked NES console and Game Boy to create their distinct sound rather than that faux sound you might get when someone tries to do "8-bit" in Reason or FL Studio. Along with that are guitar, bass and drums which help to round out the sound and make it much a great mix of electro-rock. That's what really separates it from other music of it's genre in how rocking it can be while still having this very electronic sound.

What I really love about this band isn't the 8-bit sound, cause these days stuff like that can come a dime-a-dozen, but it's how well composed the songs are. They utilize the 8-bit sound to really bring out their songs and give them life as well as having enough complexity with song structure and riffs that you won't find in alot of this music. All of their tracks are instrumentals, and they really use that to their advantage, making the riffs and melodies jump out and more than any singer could for them. They are a great example of how you don't always need a singer or lyrics to make great music.

The music also gives loads of energy, and with what I hear about their live shows, they not only have a very tight set, but they leave quite the impression with a high-energy performance. The music is also happy and colorful as sh*t; I can put it on and can be out of a bad mood in no time.

Along with the Scott Pilgrim game, their song "Blackout City" was used for the 2010 indie game Bit.Trip.Runner, they have an album by the name of Dawn Metropolis and an EP called Power Supply, and they have released several singles that are available for free on their website

ANAMANAGUCHI

In short, if you like happy and energetic tunes with some serious chops, give these guys and earful and let me know how you like it.

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Been making some new music lately, check it out

My MB Journal-I talk about music and stuff!

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Antonio

REFLECTION:
I Don't Give a Fuck About Your YouTube Cover

YouTube is a great place. I think it is one of the most important websites ever, and it is also has a monolithic presence in our current society, whether we know it or not. One of the most interesting (read:ironically hilarious) things about YouTube is how it's basically become a glorified music player over the years. At this point people more consistently use it for streaming music than for watching anything that shows up on it. I mean, while it isn't the most optimal form of sharing or listening to music, it's still the most accepted by everyone as a whole and it still works at an ok level to keep most satisfied. So yeah, I would say that (seeing 99% of the links I have in this thread) I use YouTube for my quick play needs and for my musical enjoyment.....


…..And the last thing that I want to do is watch some fucking asshat butcher one of my favorite songs in some arbitrary manner that's of use to NO ONE.


Now, I'm not talking about people doing a cover because they genuinely respect/like an artist and want to show their love for a song they feel should be heard. Sharing others' music with people is what helps them be successful and a well done representation of it is what can keep it alive, not to mention kicking.

No, I'm talking about stuff like this


and this


and this


Oh, you can play Beethoven's 5th Symphony with your tongue while juggling? Great, now can you play the Legend of Zelda theme with pipe cleaners while singing “this is gimmicky bullshit”?


Being a guy who plays a number of video games and enjoys reading up on them and their history, I find this a lot with old-school game themes. Countless times have I had some video shoved into my face of “Metal/Bluegrass/Acapella cover of Mario/Zelda/Sonic/etc.” and people around me fawning over it. I usually find that these people also have little knowledge of or don't really care about music and are just watching it to see the one tune from their childhood being “re-imagined”.

But it's not. It's not at all. The only difference is that the instrument or method may have changed, but many times the ideas that make up the songs are played as straight as an arrow. There's little deviation except for the outlandish manner that the song is being played in, and that's not as musical as it is just visually different.

What really pisses me off is not that people do stuff like this (to each his own, I guess) but that they get POPULARITY AND RECOGNITION for doing so. Even if the cover isn't bad I still feel like it cheapens the experience of the original song, turning it into some sort of punchline for the musically retarded to go “OMG LEIK, THIS IS SO ORIGINUL AND GOOD BCUZ IT WAS DONE IN ON BONGOS WHILE UNDERWATUR DURRR”.

I believe that if you have to tack on some needless visual stuff to get people to watch your cover of a song then it's not really worth watching in the first place. I especially feel sorry for the original artists, many of whom have tons of other songs that are equal or better in quality but people only want to hear the one song that they can immediately recognize. Not only that, but 9 times out of 10 a lot of those people don't even know the name of the artist and just see them as the “<insert song title here> guy”.

Really, it's kind of a kick in the teeth to see a great song by an artist that should be respected reduced to some idiot thinking that he needs to add a needless gimmick to become “Internet famous”. Most of the time when people do this they think that they can keep up the same gimmick with different songs, but once the novelty wears off they just become another flash-in-the-pan expendable musician. Think the next generation of the One-Hit Wonder.

And as a musician of about 8 years, it feels like my craft has been cheapened to the point where I'm messing with my guitar and someone who wouldn't know an oboe from their asshole thinks I'm immediately shit just cause I didn't learn how to play random ass song from random shitty game.

In short, if you're going to do a cover on YouTube please have something to offer me that I wouldn't be able to get on the street or at some side show for 5 dollars. And if you try to show me a “re-imagining” of a song, I’m not going to watch it, but I'm going to listen to it, and if it doesn't interest me musically then it goes right back into that part of the internet where uninteresting crap goes to die.

Goddamn do I have a headache now..... :S

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Been making some new music lately, check it out

My MB Journal-I talk about music and stuff!

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Antonio

Happy Independence Day everyone. I'm just poppin in here right now to add a little something to my journal, and what better to celebrate the day that the United States declared independence than by listening to a song written by a British band and performed by a Cuban singer?

But yeah, this is something I've been listening to constantly, a salsa version of the Beatles' classic. I caught the video for this one Saturday while my mom had the television on and when I heard the familiar chorus it made me stand at attention and do a double take. I'm glad I noticed it too, cause damn do I enjoy it!

It's got a really infectious groove, solid instrumentation and smooth singing in the part of the singer here, where it feels that his accent (I'm assuming he has a Spanish accent) really gives a new look to a timeless song, not sounding like anything else.

While some may not really feel this reworking of the original, I feel that it is well done and enjoyable enough to deserve at least a listen.

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Been making some new music lately, check it out

My MB Journal-I talk about music and stuff!

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http://steamcommunity.com/id/commandercool

Antonio

Hey everyone, just popping in to let you know that no, I'm not dead. I've been pretty busy for the last few months due to work and a couple of changes with my life, but here's an album review to chomp on.

For those not in the know, Big K.R.I.T.(or King Remembered In Time) is a rapper and producer from Mississippi who released his first mixtape, Krit Wuz Here back in 2010. I first heard his music on the critically acclaimed Return of 4Eva, and the main thing that makes him standout as opposed to many other mixtape rappers is that his work is almost entirely self produced, both rapping and production (and even singing). Along with that is how versatile of a rapper he is; being able to spit verses on money and hoes and still be able to talk about racial issues, problems with relationships and the state of Hip Hop and the rap game today.

He's someone who really puts his own self into his work, not some rapper who tries to personify a fake lifestyle or belief system in order to sell records. Yes, he loves nice cars and beautiful women, but at the same time he is one to tell you of his struggle making a name for himself and how connected to his southern roots he is. He is who he is.

This is another one of his free mixtapes, and the whole of it gives you just that. It has a very relaxed, laid back vibe that harkens back to Southern hip hop acts a la OutKast and Goodie Mob, but at the same time works in such a whole. What really impresses me is Krit's lush production, which has clearly grown in quality from Krit Wuz Here and Return of 4Eva, and how it bounces off of his smooth lyricism and tight rhymes. Tracks like Boobie Miles, 4EvaNaDay Theme, Country Rap Tunes, Me And My Old School and the ender Alarm have those type of multi-layered and soulful beats that blow you away on first listen and wash over you upon repeat, giving you such an impression as to where you don't know what part is sampled and what part is originally produced. Krit backs this up with some nimble lyricism that make you think as well as sit back and just appreciate it.

At this point in listening to him (my third mixtape from him), I can finally see Krit starting to break out of the shadow of those aforementioned bands and instead starting to be much more introspective and personal with his music. Songs like Yesterday, Down Out, and Handwriting show how good of a descriptive storyteller he is, with him talking about people close to him that have passed, his struggle to break out in hip hop as well as him before he got big, where he was worrying about keeping the lights on in his house. Tracks like Package Store and 1986 have Krit giving his view on the outside world, where he both laments the more downtrodden of us all while at the same time telling people to be proud of where they came from. Even on songs like Red Eye, Temptation and Insomnia indirectly shows his weakness towards the fairer sex that some rappers may not readily admit to as well as him saying that no, he isn't perfect and he has his own problems to work through.

Not everything is perfect in Kritland though, as some tracks, like Wake Up and Sky Club fall flat when compared to the rest of the album, in both production and lyrical content, and far too often you hear him falling back on the old money, cars, women template.

Overall though, this isn't just an album that gives you wonderful beats to sink your teeth into, but also some food for thought and slick rhymes that show you just how serious of an artist Krit is. In the end, even including the superficial elements, this is Big K.R.I.T. at his most personal, and that's something that I can certainly get behind.

8/10

Best Songs-Boobie Miles, 4EvaNaDay Theme, Country Rap Tunes, Down Out, Package Store, Handwriting
Worst Songs-Wake Up, Sky Club, Temptation

Here's some of the tracks to check out

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Been making some new music lately, check it out

My MB Journal-I talk about music and stuff!

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Antonio

So yeah, this is a song that I've just been putting on repeat after repeat after repeat. It has so much that I love in a rock song; catchy riffs with a great hook that pumps you up and makes you want to take on anything, and with that an interesting time signature thrown in for good measure.

For anybody here who skateboards(I've recently gotten back into it recently), you may know this song from the video for Thrasher Magazine's 2011 Skater of the Year Grant Taylor:


And that's the same way I found out about this song as well as this band, which I'm gonna get an album or two from pretty soon.

This is good, hard and fast Rock&Roll with no pretenses, and that's just the way I like it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta get my board and F**K SH*T UP

__________________
Been making some new music lately, check it out

My MB Journal-I talk about music and stuff!

add me on Steam!
http://steamcommunity.com/id/commandercool

Trollheart

Nice review, Antonio, and good to see you back in journalland again. I'm not at all interested in rap/hip-hop/whatever, but as with so many other posters here, I love reading good writing, and yours is very good. Your love for the guy comes through but not as a lickarse, and I love that you're prepared to accept the fact that as you see it, he has his failings and weaknesses too. About the furthest thing removed from a fanboy I can think of.

Well done: not completely unbiased of course, but then, my journal entries couldn't be accused of that either. We love our music (or hate it) and it shows in our writing, so of course it's going to be slanted in one direction or the other. But this shows you taking quite a balanced view, and without bigging him up too much or resorting to things like (now I don't know, maybe this guy has nothing to do with that style, I told you I know nothing of this genre but) "50 cent ain't fit to clean this guy's microphone", or whatever.

Fine writing; hope you'll favour us with some more real soon.
As they say I believe in that world, props!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018