meandthestereo

Roy Hargrove

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJNN-YmaJ8I

Roy Hargrove is a music sensation. His albums define the true creativity that Jazz can express. He has used hip-hop and funk, as well as R&B artists to contribute to this American Art Form.  You will find that Roy has been playing the trumpet ever since he was a little boy. He has been influenced by the greats, like Wynton Marsalis and David “Fathead” Newman. He has performed with legends such as Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, Common, D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Diana Ross, Natalie Cole, and John Mayer among many others. You will hear a lot of these artists on his recordings.

The RH Factor’s “Hard Groove” is one of my favorite albums; this was actually the first Roy recording I had ever heard. One song that I can’t stop listening too is called “Kwah/Home”, featuring Anthony Hamilton.  His sounds have such full eccentric sounding chords that always manage to evolve. He is very soulful, and any true lover of music will enjoy Roy Hargrove.  When I first heard he was coming to Blues Alley in DC, I was excited. When my friend and I got there, the line was practically around the corner. We had to wait a good while before they let us in. Blues Alley is known as one of the top performance venues for Jazz artists, so I felt glad that I was able to attend this event. Our seats were right in the front, because my friend actually knows Roy and has had the opportunity to play with him. The scene inside was very intimate, the place is only but so big, so everyone was able to see the stage.  The audience was in awe of his performance.  Each song gave them a chance to give him a warm and full applause. This night the music was truly straight ahead jazz with a little bit of funk at the end. He allowed guest musicians to come and perform with his band. His band members include: Justin Robinson (sax), Jonathan Batiste (piano), Ameen Saleem (bass) and Montez Coleman (drums).  Each musician on stage was able to carry their own show if allowed; their solos were full of rhythms, distinct melodies, and dissonant harmonies. I truly had a great night seeing and hearing this wonderful art form at it’s best.

If you do not know Roy Hargrove’s music you must begin your journey now!!!

More info about Roy Hargrove: http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/royhargrove

Video Game: The Beatles: Rock Band
Publisher: MTV Games / Electronic Arts
Developer: Harmonix
Systems: PS3, Wii, XBox360
Release Date: September 9, 2009
Decision: 4/5 All in All

1. Background:

Since the release of the game Rock Band, it has seemed like the Holy Grail of music games were the Beatles.  When Rock Band came out it allowed for four players to play at the same time and there were four people in The Beatles.  Also, the same year Rock Band came out Guitar Hero released its first band specific game in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.  But getting the Beatles to even allow their songs to be played in a game seemed like a pipe dream, let alone allow a full game to be made.

The aforementioned Aerosmith game was not exactly a quality product, and the Beatles, who have always been shy to release their music online, did not seem receptive to the idea.  At the time it seemed far more likely that they would join the growing chorus of detractors of the music game genre.  Apparently, though, it was Metallica that convinced the Apple Group, the name of the group of holders to Beatles music rights, that a quality representation of the Beatles’ work could be produced.  Specifically it was the guys at Harmonix playing a Metallica song on an early version of Guitar Hero that did it.

So after so long the game was finally released.  And its easy to see the care that was put into it. Read the rest of this entry →

When Vodes posted his Desert Island list last week, Joey and I thought it was a good list and a great idea.  Joey immediately commanded me to write up my own list for this week’s article and since I had begun thinking up my list immediately after reading Vodes’ post, I thought, “Woohoo easy article!”

Unfortunately, this article was not as easy as I thought it would be.  It turns out deciding on only five songs that I will listen to for the rest of my life (as in as long as the supplies on the plane last cause I’m not much of a survivalist) was not that easy.  My first list mostly represented music from the late 90’s and early 00’s but then I realized I would eventually get tired of all that angst.  I needed to diversify my list and include some more toe-tapping numbers.

My new list is better.  It includes music from more time periods.  It includes some singable songs (for when I get tired of simply talking to my volleyball) and is more of a broad sampling of Rock and Roll.  So here’s my list in no particular order and without any references to LOST.

Come On Lets Go – Ritchie Valens
Its singable, danceable, and gets bonus points for being sung by a Mexican.

Read the rest of this entry →

A few years ago, there was a local radio station that had a nightly feature called ‘The Desert Island’. The idea behind this segment of the show was this: if you were trapped on a desert island and you could only bring five songs with you; what songs would you bring? I always enjoyed this segment of the show and listened to it often. I even sent in my five songs, but unfortunately, my entry was never chosen. But I enjoyed listening to it nonetheless. With this thought in mind, I have proposed the following five songs as my choices of music to be marooned with.

Life by the Drop by Stevie Ray Vaughan. This song is from the album entitled ‘The Sky is Crying’. It is the last track on the album. It’s a very simple song, seemingly sung from the heart. It is just Stevie Ray and a twelve string acoustic guitar. I have to guess that it’s a song that reflects his struggle with substance abuse and how he finally overcame all the addictions and realized what was really important in life. Put this song on, turn it up, close your eyes and lean back and enjoy. I get goose bumps every time I hear this song…no lie. Read the rest of this entry →

“Sing me a song, you’re a singer…”; the opening line from Black Sabbath’s song ‘Heaven and Hell’. I remember seeing Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio doing the vocal duties. He was impressive, but pretty far down on the list of what I would consider great singers. I’ve always thought that singing for a band is one of the most difficult jobs because unlike other instruments in the band, it doesn’t require physical dexterity to execute it well. It requires very strong vocal chords…just two little strands of muscle to either sound great or just be another average singer. So, who are the best singers in rock today? Read on and allow me to award medals to the best of the best!

Gold Medal: Geoff Tate. For those of you who may not recognize the name, Geoff Tate is the amazing voice, and backbone, of the group Queensryche. The first time I heard this guy sing, I was blown away. His range is absolutely astounding. And he sounds just as good in concert as he does on the recordings. I was lucky enough to catch Queensryche on the Operation Mindcrime tour. Are you freaking kidding me?!?! My jaw was on the floor the whole show. For some classic Geoff Tate high notes, check out the early stuff like ‘The Warning’ and ‘Rage for Order’. The newest release, entitled ‘American Soldier’, is very good stuff also (and will be a future album review). If you have ever wondered how high the male vocal range can get and still sound as powerful as ever; listen to some Queensryche! Read the rest of this entry →

Since 1981, Mötley Crüe has been cranking out hard rock and metal music to rabid fans around the world. Now, twenty-eight years later, the Crüe is still banging heads with the best of them. They released a new album and have put together a music festival, modestly named after themselves, with a lineup of some of today’s best and brightest rock musicians. I was lucky enough to catch Crüefest 2 last week and I was not disappointed. Let me take you on a tour of the White Trash Circus:

Crüefest 2 consisted of five bands on the main stage: Charm City Devils, Drowning Pool, Theory of a Deadman, Godsmack and, of course, Mötley Crüe headlining the event. There was also a second stage featuring some good, up-and-coming bands. I checked out a band called Schram, out of Detroit. These guys put on a good show. They had a ton of energy and seemed genuinely happy to get out on stage and play. I also caught a band called Silver Stone, out of Arkansas. They also put on a really good show. The singer was good and the guitar player shredded some pretty killer riffs. They also had a third band on the second stage, but I only caught a few of their tunes. Okay, okay, so I was waiting in the beer line and didn’t get over there in time. What? I was thirsty! Thankfully, the second stage was jamming while the main stage was setting up for the next band. I made my way back and forth from one stage to another all night long…with an occasional stop at the concessions. Read the rest of this entry →

If you like the sounds of Janet Jackson, Amerie, or Rihanna, than you’ll love the music of this up and coming artist, Miss Amani. She is a very energetic performer with a promising music career ahead of her. She is 21 years old, comes from Honolulu, Hawaii and has settled, for the time being, in Los Angeles, California. Read the rest of this entry →

A large leak...kind of...

It has been a big couple of weeks for leaks.  Radiohead and Weezer both experienced song leaks last weeks with varied results.  Radiohead’s song, “These Are My Twisted Words”, was a very good song reminiscent of Kid A, which is my favorite Radiohead album by far.  Weezer’s leak a few weeks ago was less successful musically.  “The Girl Got Hot” was just more run of the mill Weezer from the Green Album rather than brilliant Weezer from Pinkerton (will we ever see that Weezer again?).

More telling than the quality of the songs, though, was the reaction to the leaks or the almost non-reaction.  Leaks have become almost commonplace these days.  Its the price of doing business in these modern times.  And both bands seem to have come to terms with that. Read the rest of this entry →

About a week ago, a legendary music figure passed away. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this, but it was many years before I realized that Les Paul was a real person and not just a conceived name for a particular model of electric guitar. I remember the first time I laid eyes on a Gibson Les Paul guitar; it was the classic sunburst coloring with the inlaid mother-of-pearl on the frets. Oh yeah, and it was being shredded by none other than Jimmy Page. One of my favorite pictures of this Page-guitar tandem is when Page breaks out the violin bow and works his Les Paul sunburst like a mad scientist! I came to realize that Les Paul, the man, was also a heck of a musician and an even more impressive innovator of style, recording and instruments. Many people may never realize the impact this guy had on music and the force he was in influencing future guitar players.

Lester William Polsfuss was born in June of 1915. You may know him better as Les Paul. He apparently had an uneventful childhood in Wisconsin until around age 8. He then discovered music by way of the harmonica. He moved on to the banjo and eventually settled in to play the guitar. By the age of seventeen, Les Paul was a professional musician who had played guitar and harmonica on many recordings and radio shows under several different pseudonyms. As successful as he was, he was unsatisfied with the limited sounds that he could create on a ‘traditional’, acoustic hollow body guitar and set out to produce the first solid body, electric guitar. It was dubbed ‘The Log’ because that’s basically what it was; a regular old 4-by-4 piece of lumber with a bridge, neck and self-invented pickup attached. I don’t want to muddy the waters (no pun intended), but Leo Fender was working on a solid body guitar around the same time (so was a fellow named Adolph Rickenbacker). I mention this fact because the folks at Gibson were not interested in Les Paul’s ideas regarding solid body electric guitars until Fender put out an instrument that was well-received…Gibson didn’t want to take the chance. Eventually though, the Gibson folks relented and in the early fifties, Gibson and Les Paul struck a deal and designed the first Gibson Les Paul guitar. And the rest is history, as they say! Read the rest of this entry →

As an avid fan of videogames, I have a soft spot in my heart for video game music.  I’m not talking about video game soundtracks, though.  Those I will write about at some later date.  I will also save covers of videogame tracks for a later date.  Today, I am talking about artists who create original music inspired by, and sometimes using, classic videogames.

Anyone who was born after Pong (1972) probably grew up playing videogames.  So their influence should be reflected in music, just like we see the influence of movies and books in music.  Some bands reflect that influence into the themes of their music.  Both Horse The Band and The Protomen liked the classic game Mega Man enough that they decided to write music about some of the characters.  Horse The Band wrote a great hardcore song called Cutsman.  As the name implies it tells the story of the Mega Man villain.

The Protomen went even further.  Taking their name from Protoman, the recurring character of the Mega Man series, The Protomen composed a rock-opera expanding on the simple story of Mega Man.  When they play live shows they do it in costume.  They even stay in character when they are interviewed.

While these bands show their roots through their lyrics, other bands do it through the music itself.  A lot of bands use the sounds of classic videogames in their music.  This style of music has come to be known as Chiptune.  Chiptune artists use the sound chips from classic systems like the Commodore 64 or the NES to add sounds to their music or compose new tracks altogether.  While most Chiptune artists are relative unknowns, some well known artists have released Chiptune remixes of their music.  Namely, Beck, everyone’s favorite Scientologist, released an EP of remixes of four of his songs from his album Guero.

Beck “Gameboy Homeboy” from wyldfile on Vimeo.

My favorite of the Chiptune bands is Anamanaguchi.  Incorporating Chiptune music into their songs,  Anamanaguchi creates a hard rock sound unlike anything you’ve heard.

Finally, Bitshifter composes original music from those little chips.  But don’t confuse this with regular electronic music.  These compositions would feel more natural playing during a level of Double Dragon than during a rave.

If you want to hear some more great Chiptune artists and/or you wanna hear Chiptune artists in a more comfortable setting, check out this album of Weezer covers from Chiptune artists HERE.