It Ends Tonight

The Big Fishes

Looking at this year's ACL lineup, the big fishes are not that exciting to me. I think Eminem's new stuff is pretty bad, it lost the good inspirational undertone that was present in his earlier stuff. Pearl Jam isn't my style of music. Listening to Beck yesterday, I didn't find it particularly stimulating either. I'm willing to give Outkast a shot. Listening to Calvin Harris and Lana del Rey was disappointing. To me, both of their styles are boring pop. Izzy Agalea has good dance music but her lyrics are absolutely sub-par. The Replacements are before my time and will be super crowded so I'm tempted not to go. I can see myself having fun at Skrillex because they'll probably have a good light show and fun music to dance to, yes it's that simple. Foster the People needs to leave Austin... I'm willing to give The Avett Brothers, Zedd and Major Lazer a chance, they each have a unique and very different sound. That was my assessment of "The Big Fishes". I personally think they could have gotten better headliners. ACL went for some fairly boring pop artists this year with Lana del Rey etc...

Guitar Round 2

Apologies ahead of time!

Nirvana

What connects Nirvana and The Beatles on a spiritual level? Nirvana's title is derived from a Buddhist/Hindu philosophy, the absolute clearing of the mind that achieves "egolessness" or a release from the suffering of the world. The Beatles dabbled in meditative yoga, a Hindu practice. I'm not sure what draws these great bands to the Hindu religion but I find their fascination very interesting. There seems to be a huge amount of respect from Western artists for the tranquility of the Hindu practices. I guess one valid question to ask here is if the bands' have success because they reflect interests that are already present in their fans or because they bring a "new" way of thinking, a new culture to their audience.

However, I think that Nirvana, as they weren't as big as The Beatles, had a much smaller target audience and sung songs of protest that were more domestically aimed than The Beatles. The Beatles, since they traversed the globe, naturally composed more worldly tracks. Regardless, both bands had a respectively revolutionary impact on the music of their time and should be appreciated for their cultural contributions.

I apologize, this may be the worst blog I've written all year...

First Attempt at Collaborative Music

This is the first time I've tried to seriously put something together with other people. It's the very beginning and essentially what we accomplished after 30 minutes but considering those facts, it's not bad at all. I apologize for the delay but this is the earliest I could get my hold on this.

30 MINUTES- NO JUDGING

Tupac's Murder… Authoritative Corruption?

When watching Tupac's murder documentary, it became fairly clear very quickly that the circumstances of his death were too suspicious for it to be carried out by accident. The car that pulled up alongside him would have had to have known in which seat Tupac was sitting and the fact that insufficient evidence was produced for a murder that occurred within city limits suggests that something is off. While I don't think that the US government would secretly assassinate Tupac themselves, I think it could have easily turned a blind eye to the knowledge that it was happening. I find it likely that one of the police officers under Suge Knight's control could have done it. The scary part of the assassination is that it is extremely likely that someone in a position of power abused it and got somebody killed.

While not the same, the escalating scandal of what the NSA has been capable of doing and what hasn't been disclosed to the public is frankly terrifying. It makes me want to not use the internet for anything financially or privately important, although in this day and age, that is essentially impossible. Here's a link to recent developments regarding the NSA. I understand the need to keep these operations secret but a little bit more public disclosure would make an astounding difference.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-11/nsa-said-to-have-used-heartbleed-bug-exposing-consumers.html

Journey- Hair Metal?

So from watching the performance of Don't Stop Believing by Journey. I feel like they may be on the edge of Rock and Roll and Hair Metal. Keep in mind that I have a very limited perspective on the history of all of this music. Dress wise, some of them seem like they could definitely be hair metal. Although this is a video of their performance in 2005, take note of the shirt of the singer… if you call that a shirt…

Now to the songwriting part: (honestly there's not much...)

Just a small town girl

Livin' in a lonely world<- this girl is looking for a partner, notice the repetition of L's here though, so far this looks like it may be the biggest lyrical accomplishment of the song

She took the midnight train

Goin' anywhere<- and she's VERY DESPERATE

Just a city boy

Born and raised in South Detroit<- hopeless, in search of hope

He took the midnight train

Goin' anywhere

A singer in a smokey room

A smell of wine and cheap perfume

For a smile they can share the night

It goes on and on and on and on<- the two find "dirty" (smokey, cheap, smell of wine) love

Strangers waiting

Up and down the boulevard

Their shadows searching

In the night

Streetlights, people

Livin' just to find emotion

Hidin' somewhere in the night<- this joint is desolate

Workin' hard to get my fill drinking?

Everybody wants a thrill addiction to: drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex?

Payin' anything to roll the dice GAMBLING

Just one more time

Some will win

Some will lose

Some were born to sing the blues the gambling doesn't really matter but they're stuck in a cyclical game that's draining their life

Oh, the movie never ends

It goes on and on and on and on

Strangers waiting

Up and down the boulevard

Their shadows searching

In the night

Streetlights, people

Livin' just to find emotion

Hidin' somewhere in the night

[Instrumental interlude]<- the entire song if you think about it

Don't stop believin'

Hold on to that feelin'

Streetlights, people

Don't stop believin'

Hold on

Streetlights, people

Don't stop believin'

Hold on to that feelin'

Streetlights, people

Honestly, not much to gain from this song except some good guitar playing at points… This was pretty disappointing once I revisited

Revisiting My Own Song