Ukulele

I borrowed a ukulele from a friend as part of my Jason Mraz costume. I've been learning some chords and trying to play some songs, which is kind of cool. The only thing is that it kind of sucks to have a ukulele when all you feel like playing is really depressing, sad songs.

The Coolest Mix of Folk and Techno Ever

How can you not think this is cool?

A Rock Symphony With A Weird Moment

So, one other thing from my night that I kind of left out: a few months ago I discovered a song called "New Morning" by a band called Alpha Rev. I heard it again tonight on the radio, which leads me to believe that it's becoming more popular, which is pretty cool. In my opinion, this is a song that actually makes worthy use of all of the strings and wailing guitars that, in many songs, just sounds trite and makes the song's delivery overstated. I think I would like to hear this song performed by a full orchestra. There are just two weird things about this song to me--particularly weird things, actually:

• The words, as a whole don't really make sense. This usually bothers me. In this case it doesn't. I really do like many individual lines, though, like "all the gold that we could eat." Kind of makes you think about how some people try to fill themselves up with money.
• The music is perfect except for that weird piano that comes in about 40 seconds in to the link above. It takes away from this whole grand symphony sound the song has going for it with the strings just before it. It sounds very folky, almost country-ish. It's also a very boring, staccato arpeggio. I just find it kind of lame because it sounds exactly like what I played on my electric guitar one time to avoid just strumming a D chord--I just played the top three notes that way. Just kind of weird how it's placed.

Anyway, this song's merits and faults both make it extremely interesting, more so than any other song that has something that normally really gets on my nerves.

Just An Overall Strange Experience...With A Few Musical Observations

I have resolved, in my lack of diligence and preparedness, to be Jason Mraz for Halloween. It is, make no doubt, out of admiration for the man's vocal and lyrical abilities, but it's also because I'm pretty sure all I have to really do is stick a fedora on and carry some sort of stringed instrument and *BAM* I've got a sweet costume that everyone recognizes.

Even for all of my costume's simplicity, it still required me to mount a bus and kick it down to the mall and--whoa-ho-ho, was that ever fun. It was a very strange experience for me for a few reasons: it was the first time I've been to the mall while "at college," so it was a strange reminder that suburbia and shopping malls and that whole world still exists so close to college-land. It was also very strange because there were so few people there and I was alone. The only other time I ever go to department stores or that sort of thing is with my mother, because that's the only time I have a reason to. But there I was. On my own. I was ashamed enough being in those places when I was dragged there, let alone of my own volition.

And yet being there on my own without distraction allowed me to make some musical observations. First of all, the music playing in Sears was actually very interesting and stimulating; as I recall, it had a sort of hip-hop beat and sounded kind of Latino, almost too cool and apart from the mainstream for a department store. It almost made me want to stay there longer than I had to.

But aside from Sears, other stores proved to be completely predictable. I was in such a hurry, not having much time to find my precious fedora, that I was rushing in and out of stores, tasting their environments and playlists rapid-fire. It's like having a shot of milk, then a shot of Mountain Dew, then a shot of grape juice. Each sip is so distinctive and irreverant of your confused taste buds that each drink seems silly, self-indulgent, and useless for your satisfaction. I walk into American Eagle and what do they have playing? A song that says the words "girls," "boys," and "like" about five times each per second. I don't think there's a song out there that's more fitting for a teen clothing outlet. I would have forgiven this absurd frivolity if they would have had a fedora for me to purchase, which I thought they would, being a store that's played Mr. A-Z's music before, but no such luck. Other teen clothing stores were more of the same, and the gothic stores played gothic music, and on, and on. There is nothing new under the sun.

Finally, after going through several stores selling fedoras for $30-$40, I got a nice, well-fitting white one for $7.50 from H&M. On my way out, I passed by a juice bar and caught wind of some quick-hitting poppy guitar riffs paired with a voice I recognized.

Me: Hey, what radio--err...is this a radio station playing, or, uh, what is this?
Juice Bar Lady: Yeah.
Me: What station is it?
Juice Bar Lady: 107.1.
Me: Oh. Ok. Is this the new Steven Page single? I was just wondering because it sounds like Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what it is. Sorry. You're probably wondering what this guy is doing talking to you right now. [Departs].

And so I came back and looked up the new Steven Page single, "Indecision." It basically sounded like an upbeat Barenaked Ladies song. Except not as innovative and quirky musically. And I didn't know whether I was supposed to take Steven Page seriously now, now that he's grown up or whatever and has moved on from BNL, presumably because he's got some important stuff to say that he couldn't before with that jokester Ed Robertson and the whole comedic reputation of his old band.

Writing Off Lifetimes of Work In One Line...

One of the things I like to do is think of phrases to describe a band's style, to pinpoint their place in the whole scheme of musical chaos. I realize that this can be nearly demeaning to the diversity of a band's catalogue, but I think it's a fun and interesting thing to do. I like doing the same things for individual songs, too. For example, I consider "Grace" by U2 from the album All That You Can't Leave Behind to be "new millenium ambient 12-bar blues."

Some tags I've come up with for bands/performers:

The Doors - psychedelic keyboard blues
Red Hot Chili Peppers - gimme-some-mo-bass punk-funk
O.A.R. - sugary pop-rock goodness
Pat Monahan of Train - the last castrati
David Gray - piano popmaster
Goo Goo Dolls - acoustic hardcore

These are all I can think of right now, but I expect more to come to my mind soon.

The Musings of an Amateur Modern Musicologist...

My name is Brad, and one of my biggest passions is music. Music captivates me so much that I somehow find myself, at times, learning quite a bit about various bands when I am supposed to be doing physics homework, listening through a boisterous conversation in a packed car to pick out the lyrics to a song I've never heard, or randomly sputtering out the words to a song just by hearing its bassline from afar. I've decided to try to create some sort of dumping grounds for all of the quirky musical thoughts or reflections that cross my mind.

This is not supposed to be a music review blog. This is just me commenting about music in general, and about bands, musicians, the music they make, and how it all comes together. That last part is something I'm particularly interested in--how one band influences another, how certain elements of music or musical genres relate. That's why this is The Music Tree.