"I was laughing and drinking and smoking and singing"

Aim & Ignite - fun.

After a cautious first listen and open mind, fun. has won me over with their brilliant lyrics and indie rock spirit. There is a sense of fearlessness within their first album, Aim & Ignite, based on their eagerness to break rules to create something worthwhile. If you are willing to broaden your horizons beyond Justin Beiber and Fall Out Boy to a band that will force you to think and challenge your ears, I urge you to listen to this album.
            Once hitting the play button, an accordion breaks the silence joined with a single violin. Lead vocalist, Nate Ruess, starts singing the steady first verse of “Be Calm”. An array of other interesting instruments including cello, viola, trumpet, calliope, and various guest vocals is used to add to an emotional tale of panic and chaos that the lyrics unravel. The chorus is soothing at first, but as tension builds throughout the verses, so does the chorus. The song reaches its’ highpoint of melodic disorder when Ruess struggles to reach a high note that I could only describe as a beautiful contradiction, that leads into the uproar of the final chorus. An orchestral commotion ends the perfect song to lead off this album.
            Aim & Ignite, while only about 43 minutes long, holds a dynamic collection of 10 songs. It infuses styles of the three members of the band, Nate Ruess (vocals), Jack Antonoff (guitar), and Andrew Dost (piano). Ruess’s distinct voice and unique composing techniques transferred directly from his former band The Format. Collaborating with Antonoff, who is also in the band Steel Train, and Dost, formerly in the band Anathallo, merged together similar sounds that blend effortlessly.
            Each song has a purpose and quality of sound that compliments the others. Whether it is sweet and simple like “I Wanna Be The One” and “Light A Roman Candle”, or lively and spirited such as “Benson Hedges” and “Barlights”. Using the story of how his parents fell in love, Ruess created “The Gambler”, best-described as a cute heartfelt love song. Track 3 “All The Pretty Girls” holds a contagious ‘dance around your room, sing at the top of your lungs’ feel-good sensation. Probably one of the most notable songs is the single “At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used To Be)”. There is just some kind of magic in the combination of personal story-telling, emotion, and a fun, upbeat melody that they construct. Aim & Ignite manages to arrange brilliant songs in such a way that make each stand out above the other.
            The album ends in a complete resolution with the song “Take Your Time (Coming Home)”. It is the ease of uncertainty and chaos that started in the first song. The lyrics are reassuring and the tone is free. It suggests letting go of the past and moving forward.

Check Out: At Least I'm Not As Sad (As I Used To Be)

Hello fellow human beings - this is Paige

I'm sure the two or three people actually reading this blog are very curious about the mysterious life of such an interesting person, such as myself. And if you did not catch any sarcasm in that opening sentence, we are no longer best friends. Okay...  let's try that again.

Hey, I'm Paige. My favorite color is red. I discovered the joys of music when I was eleven. A brilliant band named Jack's Mannequin rescued me from the evil clutches of Radio Disney. The album 'Everything In Transit' brought me into this world that I never knew existed. Music. It meant something... there was more to a song than just giving you the chance to dance around your room or sing along at the top of your lungs. I had realized that there was this secret power that music contained. And with that discovery, came a desire to learn everything and anything there was about it. Five years later, I still feel as though I haven't even scratched the surface.

Throughout the years, my ears have been fortunate enough to fall in love with many various musicians, albums, genres, and sounds. It's a daunting task attempting to listen to and analyze all the music circulating throughout the world, past and present. It never ends!! But that's what keeps it interesting I suppose. My iPod is continuously stocked so I always have something new to be exposed to and learn from. I try to stick to my belief that there is something to appreciate in any form of music, although at times that can be difficult. There have been countless times when I have hated an album the first time I heard it, came back to it a few months later, and had it become my new favorite album. It's definitely an on-going process.

Alright, now I will sum-up my thoughts. I will admit that I am not a musician, not even the slightest bit. I'm that girl who reads tons of books about music throughout history and biographies of talented artists. I hate how everything is going digital, I still can't resist a new CD or vinyl record. There are significant differences between hearing a song online to hearing it through a stereo to hearing it on vinyl, trust me. My favorite place to be is at a concert. There is just something brilliant about standing in a crowd of people breathing in the same atmosphere of hope and noise... wow. Okay, I think I've introduced myself enough, I'll stop boring you with my words. Alec and I shall be posting some stuff soon.

--p.benson

Brandon Flowers you're my hero!

So, this weekend I went to Bismarck, North Dakota to visit family. Over the course of 3 days I had plenty of spare time, most of which manifested itself within the 6 hour car ride there and back stuck between a 10 year old and 13 year old. Away from my instruments I decided to accomplish some other musical things while I had so much time. I set out to work on an idea for a composition, read some of a book about music and atonality (title? ask and you shall receive), and also listen to my entire collection of The Killers on my Zune.

Earbuds in and we're a go. I hit play all under The Killers in my library and listen song by song, album by album until the last song on Sawdust plays out (the albums are arranged by alphabet, maybe I should redo this by album year sometime?). Unfortunately for you, this is all being reported after the fact, maybe I should have taken notes as I continued along...

Day and Age begins as the countryside flies past. I really enjoy the album art, the mosaic look is wonderful. Good first few songs, but standing out to me is Spaceman. This may be due to the fact that it stood out to me while listening to everything on shuffle, or that I just put it on a mixed cd for my sister's car. I'd consider it my favorite song off of the album, followed by The World We Live In. Anyways, let's keep it moving, next album.

...After a short interlude of one of their Christmas album, which is well done, but somewhat ignored at the moment (70 degree car rides through tan fields remind me nothing of winter wonderlands).

Hot Fuss is next. There's a powerhouse beginning to this album. 5 amazing songs in a row! I love the bass lines in these, go Mark Stoermer! Mr. Brightside has to  be my favorite song of the album. I love the guitar to it, and have played it and the bass line to great enjoyment. The riffs and chorus get stuck in my head for hours on end. The rest of the album is good, but doesn't overly stand out to me after the first 5. It may be The Killer's first album (2004), but it is my favorite of theirs.

Sam's Town is a good album as well. I do appreciate the idea that Flowers was trying to use, to chronologically show the events which brought him to where he was. I will have to listen to that album closely to get the real story. It's good, but the best song in my opinion is one which the album derives it's name from (or vice versa perhaps). Sam's Town is a good song that may have even introduced me to the band. A friend of mine (ironically named Sam) sought to learn the piano of it for an audition so that he could practice the vocals with the accompaniment. It sounded good, so I looked into it, and checked out the band, and they were good. Really good.

Sawdust was the final album to listen to. It's a compilation album and was pretty good. I enjoy Where The White Boys Dance, Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town, and most of all the Mr. Brightside remix that finishes out the album. What a great way to finish my listen through all of them. I'm quite often a fan of remixes, but it really does depend on the quality of the remix, you can't simply throw on some loud booming bass drums, but when a remix is done well it can be better than the original, though i do prefer the original in this case. The same goes for the rest of the album, being that some of them are covers (Ruby for example) they could go either way, but a different look at a song can improve it. There are some other covers of different songs which I find much better than the originals. This was a good album, I can't see why some of these didn't make it onto the main albums.

This long awaited listen has only added to my enjoyment of this band. They have a great style and sound. Looking back I could have written a lot more about Hot Fuss, but I may not have done it justice. Just go have a listen, it's worth it.

 Top listens: Mr. Brightside, Spaceman, and basically the first half of the Hot Fuss album. If you don't yet know them, give them a listen. If you do, take a second look, perhaps closer this time. Listen closely to Sam's Town to get what Flowers is trying to tell you about his life, but don't tell me, I haven't done that for myself yet.

Peace out.
Alec.

My name is Alec & I will be your blogger today.

I figure I should write a short introduction for myself (and I will recommend that my co-blogger do the same). I have a great love for this little thing we call music. I really began listening to music seriously around 6 years ago (I'm young, give me a break) and it was love at first listen. My step dad is an audiophile who that got me involved in it with classic rock. Foreigner, AC/DC, Zeppelin, Def Leppard, and the likes.

My favorite song back then was Jukebox Hero. I have since greatly branched out. I listen to all sorts of music (though I must admit, not much rap or country). Most recently I have found a great love of folk music, but listen to a lot of alternative music, but my styles vary greatly. I will give most anything a shot if it's recommended to me.

I also am a musician. I play the Tuba in the Symphonic Band at my high school as well as sing in the Choir. I formerly played trumpet in band and still do from time to time. Outside of that my main instrument is in Guitar. I play many styles, from 7 string metal to fingerstyle classical and many in between. I play a lot of bass as well. I play bass for my school's Jazz band as well as in 2 small friend's bands (I play guitar for them from time to time). I play a bit of piano on occasion, but I also like to dabble in other instruments, having picked up family instruments of clarinet, harmonica, banjo, and accordion. I hope to actually accomplish some on the latter 3. 

Basically, it's safe to say that my 120 gigobyte Zune is filled, my shelves are packed with vinyls and musical doodlings, and the floor space and wall space of my room is rather filled by instruments and my stereo.

Hopefully we'll actually begin to write some stuff here soon.

Signing out!

Alec