Posts tagged lesser known musicians
five finger death punch (a song write up)
Feb 13th
I am not sure if I am truly writing a song review because I like the song or if it is because I always have wanted to begin a post with ‘five finger death punch.’
I guess I should begin with something my mother often says about today’s music world … where the hell do some of these bands come up with their names?
(note: this is an update 2/18 because one of the cool guys in my office – interactive of course – explained the five finger death punch. it is the mysterious move in Kill Bill that only she knows as the death punch. so. now at least we all know the reference point for the group. just wanted to fill in a gap as i found more information.)
So.
Where the hell did these guys come up with this name? (no clue but i bet it has some karate/ju-jitsu type reference). The band music typically lives up to its name. It feels like a death punch to your head.
Okay.
Next.
The song. Its not a “make your head explode hard rock song” (although they are quite capable of that type of song). This is a ‘make your head explode’ band playing a ballad. And a pretty good one.
Walk Away: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS803Oc2DCY&feature=related
And … for all you old folk … they also did a remake of Bad Company’s “Bad Company” that was the first song of theirs that caught my ear.
Enjoy.
new song: Light Outside by WAKEY!WAKEY!
Jul 26th
So. About the only thing I am a sucker for in songwriting, beyond a bass player who writes songs, is a keyboard singer/songwriter. This guy is a dynamic personality at the piano and isn’t afraid to wrap different instruments (violins and strings) to fill out a pretty frenetic writing style. 
Also has a wonderful habit of filling in the harmony with a female voice which is interesting because his voice has a higher quality anyway.
Anyway. Light Outside is a simple but complex song which probably makes it interesting.
Simple in that at its core it is just a piano player singing a minimalistic lyric story.
Complex because it has a parallel frenetic and calm musical style.
Anyway. His singing style isn’t really conducive to a love ballad but his song has a heart wrenching thread to it that kind of tugs at your heart and makes you think. (I include another track at the end of the post too.)
Light Outside youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD02bI09dOM&feature=related
(i don’t particularly like the official video so I didn’t include it)
The lead singer is really interesting. This comes from their website:
“I was a scrawny, dopey kid—the worst athlete on the face of the planet,” says Wakey!Wakey! frontman Mike Grubbs. “You know tee ball? I got to first base one time.”
Grubbs grew up in a house learning to play a burgundy baby grand in a music room that also housed a French horn, clarinet, violin and autoharp. In his youth his mother—a longtime piano teacher and choir director—would ask the kids to sight read songs before they could even think of eating cereal.
“For every school subject done,” he says, “I could play the piano for an hour. It was almost like video games for me.” The games got a bit more complicated in high school, as Grubbs stumbled upon the songbooks of Billy Joel and Elton John. Not to mention the arena-ready anthems of Led Zeppelin as well as Bach, Beethoven and Brahms (you will note a classical thread in his music).
“One of my main influences now is the fact that I didn’t have someone teach me proper jazz or rock playing,” explains Grubbs. “I had no idea how to put a song together; no one telling me, ‘Hey, you should check out Gershwin,’ but it was all so fascinating to me. So I found my own style by experimenting with what works and what doesn’t.”
It is a different style of music. It is an infectious frenetic pop sound with classical (or maybe jazz) undertones. Pick up the song. Heck. Pick up the cd.
Oh.
A bonus. “Almost Everything.” It is the second song I heard from Wakey!Wakey!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiQo6DoXknY
It sounds really good. It will be interesting to follow these guys.
public radio music surprise
Jul 25th
It’s an 11 hour drive from San Francisco to Portland Oregon. You can listen to a lot of music and check out a boatload of crappy music stations. So when I wandered into the bottom end of the dial and the public radio station was ending a talk segment and moving into music I almost skipped over expecting either some random African metal drum timpani yodeling group or maybe some sung poetry scat thing but when the opening chord to Night Train (Bruce Cockburn) came out of the speakers I stuck around to hear what they had to play. What an awesome three song set. Three great songs and three great deliveries (Cockburn’s and Adams songs are particularly good). Here you go:
- Bruce Cockburn “Night Train” from 2003 Charity of Night album. Great driving song because it uses that train chugging along the tracks beat and has this beautiful sparse guitar picking across the top of the rest of the band chugging along behind the vocal. He will never be an opera singer type voice but he has that rustic sound that fits perfectly with the overall feel of the song and driving and … well … big countryside. And after such a nice simple clean almost forlorn feel it ends with this really messy guitar overlay. It’s a 6 minute + song and it doesn’t feel too long. Oh. And Bruce adds in a nice female voice to fill in under his vocals which smooths a couple of portions of the song and adds in a nice softening element.
‘Night Train’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYxnNG2dxMw
- Carrie Rodriguez “I made a Lover’s Prayer.” I am fairly sure this is a remake (but I am too lazy to check). While it is slightly different than the first and the third in this three song set it fits in the middle perfectly just like the marshmallow middle in a moon pie. It is a simple song. It’s a beautiful song. It’s a heartfelt song. And she has always had a great voice and sang okay songs (I have always wondered if she would ever make it big) but in this song it’s like she found the perfect song to sing.
‘I made a lover’s Prayer’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOk6CpAfXcw (I couldn’t find a studio version to link to and the beginning of the video will give you a headache but she plays a sweet guitar)
- Ryan Adams and the Cardinals “Cold Roses”. Ok. Ryan Adams is maddening. He writes so much stuff and at least half of it is crap you want to give up on it. And then a song like this comes on the radio (and I even had this cd and didn’t realize it was there). Cold Roses is everything great about Ryan Adams. Beautifully crafted song. Multi layered with a variety of different instruments and Ryan’s voice kinda keeping it moving along melodically with those wistful words he writes (the type when they are written well are impeccable). But. What makes this song is this guitar that almost sounds like they asked old Neil Young when he was playing Cortez the Killer and asked him to sit and jam. It is this kind of clean jangly strong sharp sound that weaves in and out (or someone could suggest it has a little Grateful Deady type guitar feel). Awesome song.
‘Cold Roses’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7qMaiFNTPM&feature=related (this is the full song … the last minute of this song will show you synchronized guitar playing at its best)
- This is a bonus ‘cold roses.’ It is only a 1:24 live clip but it captures the guitar sound AND if you want to hear possibly the most amazing live vocal harmonizing this clip is worth listening to – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3swTRypEUEQ
Awesome set.
