Cream

I wasn't a big fan of Cream to be honest. At first I liked the way they sounded and thought they were pretty good, but then I really started listening to the lyrics and read them and realized that they were pretty awful. Overall I like to hear a mix of good lyrics, and good vocals, like most of the Beatles songs.

Sunshine of Your Love- Cream

Macklemore x Ryan Lewis

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, are a group consisting of two artists, that I found while looking up bands that were featured on this years FunFunFunFest lineup. I have to say, at first I was sort of skeptical when I heard their first song Thrift Shop (feat. Wanz) however, when I started to really listen to the lyrics and the humor intertwined with Macklemore's nice rhyme flow, and Ryan Lewis's beats, I became a fan.

Thrift Shop - Macklemore x Ryan Lewis



I assumed just from listening to this song that the rest of their music, was basically humorous rap songs about random stuff, however I was wrong. After I downloaded their latest album, "The Heist" I was suprised to find that the humor with Thrift Shop was really one of a kind for Macklemore, with most of his songs having real meaning like that of Jimmy Lovine, or what is now my personal favorite being a basketball fan myself, WING$.

WING$- Macklemore x Ryan Lewis



I have become a serious fan of Macklemore now, after fully listening to his entire album, listening to his broad range of styles of rap. From humor, to a more serious tone, I think Macklemore is great however he has recieved some mixed reviews for his songs, like Thrift Shop, being stupid and pointless. Whats you opinion? I personally think its great, and love his style of humor.

Pet Sounds

I really enjoyed listening to Pet Sounds the other day in class. Even though I enjoyed it, I still don't exactly understand all of the hype that surrounds it. I thought it was a great album don't get me wrong, but it just wasn't life changing like I was expecting it to be. Hopefully later, like in college or later I will really appreciate this album. My favorite song off of it was, the opener "Wouldn't It Be Nice"

Wouldn't It Be Nice- Beach Boys

ACL 2012

This year at ACL, I had a great time. I saw some great DJ's such as Bassnectar and Avicii, some great singers like Ben Howard, some rappers like Childish Gambino and Big Krit, and lastly whatever style you would catagorize Big Gigantic as.
My best of the fest would have to be both Big Gigantic and Childish Gambino. I was really suprised at how some of the guys in my class recieved Childish Gambino, however I can sort of understand. See, I am a huge Childish Gambino fan, so I made sure to get front row against the gate to his show, which automatically makes the experience that much better than if you could hardly actually see him. Second, he mostly played his old stuff, which a big fan like me loves, rather than someone who just got into him and was expecting him to play some stuff off of his newest mixtape ROYALTY.
Big Gigantic was amazing, they really got the entire crowd really into the whole performance, going crazy. Added with the pouring rain, within the front three rows everyone was just going absolutley nut's, when he would drop the bass, after a nice saxophone solo.

Get Em High (Remix)- Big Gigantic

This is my personal favorite Big Gigantic song, and when they played it at their show, you know the entire crowd including myself went crazy. Overall I thought it was another successful year at ACL.

The Evolution of 'Bond'

The James Bond movies, have always been personal favorites of mine. I have seen every single one, from 'Dr. No' to 'Quantum of Solace.' Throughout all of the movies, one of my favorite parts was the intro where they play the theme song.

This past week, they released the upcoming movies, theme 'Skyfall' done by the amazing singer Adele. In my personal opinion I think it is amazing, and Adele is definitley the perfect singer to be singing the Bond theme.

Skyfall- Adele

I was so glad to hear that they were getting a great singer such as Adele, to sing the theme. In past years, the Bond themes have just really not done it for me. In 'Casino Royale' they had some guy I had never heard of named 'Chris Cornell' do the theme and it recieved mostly negative feedback. One because no one really knew who Chris Cornell was, and two because in the intro you expect to see hot girls dancing in the background, however in this one it was just a bunch of guns shooting spades and clubs.

Casino Royale Theme- Chris Cornell
 

I didn't think the song was that bad, I just didn't feel like it had the real James Bond feel to it like other themes have had. In my opinion I see James Bond themes as either, rock songs like what Paul McCartney and the Whigs did when they did 'Live and Let Die' which in my opinion was by far the best Bond song out of all of them. Or I see Bond songs, as a woman with an amazing voice just singing a song with sort of a mysterious tone like, Shirley Bassey with 'Diamonds are Forever'

Diamonds are Forever- Shirley Bassey

 

I personally like both styles of Bond themes, with the mysterious woman singer feel, and the rock one, (minus Casino Royale) overall though I feel like the people who worked on Skyfall did a great job of picking the perfect singer for the job being Adele. Which one do you prefer? The rock themes like McCartney's that provides for an intense feel to the movie, or the slower more mysterious themes, like Adele and Shirley Bassey's?

Help! The Movie

Honestly, I did not really like the movie, Help! I am a pretty big Beatles fan myself, and don't get me wrong I think they are hilarious, however I found the humor in this movie for me personally just too stupid to handle. The whole idea of this weird Indian tribe, trying to sacrifice Ringo because of the sacred ring he had on. It all just seemed to me that it was honestly written while they were on something, I mean come on Paul McCartney got shrunk to the size of a penny from a 'magic shot' that would save Ringo's finger, and don't even get me started on the childish humor surrounding all of the Indian's plots to capture Ringo.
Even though I didn't particularly like the movie Help! I love the music for it off the album by the Beatles, Help! With the first song being Help, a very up tempo fun song which was also the first song they played in the movie.

Help!- The Beatles

However The Beatles, installed different feelings of music within the entire album, going from the upbeat 'Help', to the slow classic love song, 'Yesterday.' Overall, in my opinion I felt that the album Help! made up for its stupid counterpart, Help! the movie.

Food and Liquor II - Lupe Fiasco

This past week, Lupe Fiasco released his latest album, Food & Liquor II. I wasn't a huge Lupe fan before, but I heard that this new album was pretty good, so I decided to check it out, and I was amazed. I thought that the whole album from the first song "Strange Frution" to the Outro "Hood Now." Some people say that the best rappers are the ones who can tell a story and make it interesting, Fiasco does just that in almost every single one of his songs. My personal favorite being "B*tch Bad" However don't let the title deceive you, as it seems as if this could be a song disrespecting women like a typical trashy rapper would it is the exact opposite. It tells the story of how a boy listens to his mother saying she herself is a b*tch, then the story of a young girl who listens to rappers such as "Lil Wayne" and "Wiz Khalifa" and believes that being a  "bad b*tch" is all that guys want these days. The song concludes with the boy and the girl meeting, and the boy not understanding why the girl thinks how she is acting is attractive to him.

B*tch Bad-

However even though I really like the album, it has gotten lots of mixed reviews from its critics. In my opinion it is a great album, and a must listen. Whats your opinion? Do you like Lupe's style, or do you prefer listening to other rappers over him?

Help!

The other day in class we listened to the album by the Beatles, Help! In my opinion I enjoyed it alot, however still not as much as I liked they're first, Please Please Me. This album added a flavor of pop to the Beatles, which I did enjoy for the most part. By far though my favorite song on the entire album, and also one of my favorite songs of all time is "Yesterday." I think the lyrics are amazing, and Paul McCartney's singing make it one of the best songs, ever written... ever.

Yesterday- The Beatles




The one Beatles song that I think is better than this however, in my opinion is "Hey Jude" Which doesn't come around until I believe 1967. Anyways, whats your opinion? Do you like the happier more pop artist like Beatles, rather than the sad "Beatles For Sale?'