Keeping It Fresh

Today I have music by another performer at Austin City Limits. This song is by a band known as Night Terrors of 1927. These guys are a really cool group because they have a nice off kilter sound to it. It has that dreamy attitude of Passion Pit, but it also has this great catchy feel to it and has this nice pop-synth sound as well. Honestly, this band is what a very indie Passion Pit would sound like, but it is also a very distinct sound. This song is one of those that really gets you to that chill state of mind and being. The title of this song may seem like a downer, but this song is actually pretty far from it. What is really cool about this song is that they weave male and female harmonies together very well. For a band this new, I am supremely impressed by the ability to create such complimenting harmonies. There are a lot of indie and synth elements that are meshed together in this song as well and I was very intrigued and eventually entranced by the sounds in this song. There is...

Today I have music for you by a small scale band performing at ACL called Spoon. This band actually formed and started up in Austin (holla!) and I have to say that it is very different compared to a lot of the other live music groups we hear in Austin. This is their newest single after being together since 1993. Spoon has definitely experienced an evolution in their music and I really like where that evolution has them at today. Spoon has this ambient sound and synth oriented feel to it. This song in particular is definitely relying on the synth and keyboards to make the beats you hear. There is a kick drum involved for sure, but, there is also this really cool aspect of having a synth style beat as well. One of the things that makes this song so cool is the use of the harp in the music. It is not very often that we hear harps in music at all, but this song has a really beautiful harp solo and the harp serves almost as a harmonizing melody for the song. It is kind of weird because this...

Today is day two of the Austin City Limits week. This song today is by the every phenomenal Sam Smith. This is a guy who really knows how to sing and I love how he has the ability to make things sound so passionate and vulnerable at the same time. I think one of the greatest assets Sam Smith has is the ability to be that vulnerable so we really feel what he is singing to us and trying to get us to understand. He has this unique quality of being able to sound very R&B which is a fantastic combination. This song actually does carry some of that soul with it which is simple beautiful. Sam Smith has a voice that is really unlike any other and I find him to be akin to Ed Sheeran. At least when it comes to the influence of genre. I think with this song we get to see the very romantic side of Sam Smith and the fact that he is pretty much a hopeless romantic. But part of me finds that really sweet in total honesty. Coupled with Sam Smith's lovely voice is a beautiful acoustic guitar ar...

Today's song is by the German house/electronic group, Mondotek. They got really popular in France too, so maybe some of you have heard of them. This group has really dancy songs and fast paced beats which really gets the adrenaline pumping.The music video for this song is also really cool because the dancing they do in the video is pretty sweet. This band is kind of awesome because it transcends across France and Germany. It is a little bit harder to find German electronic groups so this was quite the surprise. This song has a really good beat even though it is pretty repetitive. There is always just a slight variation to the beat which makes it both the same and different. This song doesn't use synth as much but uses more programmed music. For an electronic group, this is pretty different because usually they always have some sort of synth element to it. The vocals are very much like older Daft Punk songs in the fact that they don't really have that full human sound. It is...

Today I have music for you by Lorde. In honor of the great music festival Austin City Limits, this week all of my music is coming from artists featured in the lineup. Lorde performed today and I thought that it had been a long while since posting a song like this. Lorde has a great ability to make songs that have very complex harmonies between the vocals and the instruments. This song is no different and it has that darkness that you can hear from movie scores. Quite simply put, this song is brilliant. While I am not a huge fan of Lorde's very popular songs, you get to hear gems like this when listening to music other than the radio songs. But to be fair, this is a cover of a song by the English band Tears for Fears. You may have heard of them before because they are pretty awesome. This cover just has such a cinematic feel to it and it has the ability to be used in a number of areas. From movies, to tv shows, to video games, this song can fit. I think the timing of this cover is a...

Today's song is from Europe, more specifically, Italy! It is quite interesting because pretty much everyone I talk to are oblivious to Italian music, so I thought this was the best place to put it up! DJ Provenzano created a really catchy tune with this song. This song is pretty awesome because it has a really cool mix of electronic music and the violin. Not going to lie, if you translate the song, you will notice that the song has a really good meaning...or maybe that is me misinterpreting...But anyway, this song has a consistent bass beat and has a really catchy tune, and I really like when it goes into violin mode. DJ Provenzano also provides the voice to this song and I think the vocals are really awesome for this song. These vocals are a little bit higher pitched, but it is at that right pitch so as to provide a complimentary sound to the electronic sounds .When it comes to the style in which this song is produced, there is quite a bit of synth happening but the electronic vio...

Today I have music for you by the boy band The Wanted. A lot of their music is known for being very pop oriented and high impact energy. However, we do get songs like the one I am sharing with you today. This song still has some of those characteristics that define the musical style of The Wanted, but it also takes a backseat to more soothing and mellow sounds. To start, the song opes with this really nice orchestral intro with some stacatto string work. This serves as a huge part of the song because rather than using a lot of synth and keyboard, The Wanted focuses a lot on having that orchestral background and establishing this as part of the basis of the song before layering other things on. After having a lot of string work, they layered some synth work on top. But the synth work is more melodic and has a little bit more rhythm variation because the strings then turn into a kind of percussion. I think that is one of the best things about this song. The strings have an immense presen...