Christmas Music

I've been listening to Christmas music in the car for the past three days, thanks to my mother, and know I never want to hear the stuff, but it's not even December yet. The worst is Wolf, this horrible country Christmas station. If I hear Faith Hill and Josh Groban on First Noel one more time, I will stab somebody with my flash drive. It's a truly painful sort of experience, torture I wouldn't inflict on anyone, except maybe our vice president. Some stuff isn't bad. Oldies and rock Christmas music. Don't cringe in horror. Surprisingly, Bing Crosby and Judy Garland have really good voices for those horribly romantic Christmas ballads and nothing can compare to Dave Matthews or John Lennon singing about Yuletide. Even so, I really don't want to hear Deck the Halls again. It would probably make me ill. So spare me and let me listen to my good old rock music.

How To Listen to Music

Most people do not how to listen to music at all. They try to look cool why blowing out their ear drums. So I've come up with some fool-proof steps for listening to music. 1. Listen to something you actually enjoy. What's the fun if you hate the song? It's a waste of time. 2. Listen with good headphones or speakers. I hate it when my stuff sounds grainy and I'm pretty sure everyone else does as well. Good stuff is like listening in HD. Headphones tend to be a little clearer than speakers, just as a note. 3. Don't be afraid of looking like a fool. Tap your feet, dance, rock out. It's your music, so do what you want when listening. That's one of the best ways to enjoy music. 4. Learn to play something by a band you like on an instrument. It's really cool to be able to play along, trust me. Follow my four steps and watch your life be changed.

Guitar Lessons

For a couple weeks, I've been taking guitar lessons. They've been fun, I guess. So far, I can play some chord progressions, U2, and Time of Your Life. Pretty basic, I know, but enjoyable. Right now, I have two guitars, an acoustic and an electric. The electric is a Fender Strat, one of the best types of electric, and the acoustic is a concert-sized Walden. It smells really good. But anyway, learning is totally fun. Sure, I can't read anything but tab, but that's okay with me. Like 99% of guitarists are musically illiterate, so it's not that big a deal, except to my mom. But playing is a ton of fun. I'm not one of those people who learns a chord or two in order to impress their friends. I love music and want to be able to make some of my own. I'm a guitarist who is pure at heart, a breed slowly, but surely becoming extinct.

iTunes Free Single

In order to appease the masses of teenaged fan girls, wanna be rap artists, and bored kids like myself, iTunes releases free singles every week. And most of the time, they suck. Week in, week out, horrible, whiny pop stars or bands trying to pass as cool and indie, when really they are just another Vampire Weekend or Cold War Kids, who I, by the way, despise, in spite of their name. The only ood part of the free singles is the Discovery Download. Discovery Download tends to be soft rock or jazz or classical, something new and or different. Thanks to Discovery Download, I discovered Steve Reynolds, The Yelling, and other amazing bands nobody else has ever heard of. Sometimes these bands become popular, but more often than not, Discovery Downloads remain in obscurity. Just how I like them.

Playlist

I used to make playlists of artists and give them cool, creative names. That's where all the titles of my earlier posts came from, at least. Now, I've matured. My playlists will be great mixtures of some amazing songs. If you couldnt tell, I actually haven't made any playlists. So give me suggestions. So far, I've got a few ideas, mostly based off of Genius playlists I've gotten courtesy of iTunes. You, know, mixing that My chem song with Steve Reynolds with U2 with the Stones. They will be unpreditcable, yet tied together in a new, fun way. Mainly by themes, I believe. Songs actually have good themes, if you bother to listen closely. Especially indie/Irish songs. Cool stuff happens in unexpected places. Listen to a song closely. It will change your life.

Danny Ellis

if you know me, I have a crazy thing for Irish singers. And one of them is Danny Ellis. To make a long story short, he's this guy in his fifties who grew up in this crazy orphanage ran by insane monks and he learned to sing and play the trumpet or something. Anyway, his album, 800 Voices, is amazing. The songs pretty much tell the stoy of his childhood. I'm not an emotional person, but a couple of them are pretty sad and harsh. Most of the songs are pretty cool, but my favorite would have to be Bold Christians Brothers or Tommy Boner. Buy those two songs if you have any money left on iTunes. And go online to read the stories of the songs. They can be pretty funny, as any all boys' orphanage stories are, but pretty sad as well. But that's all I'm going to say. If you want to know more, listen to it yourself.

Acoustic Rock

I have a new love. It is acoustic rock. Before you go wondering if such a thing exists, you have to understand I love any rock, except for pop rock. That stuff is just nasty. Sorry to all you fan-pires out there, that includes your nasty R-Patts. He sucks worse of all. But that's not the point of this post. Acoustic rock. Standard guitar rock, except acoustic. Mostly it's just bands unplugged or new inide bands or acoustic covers of songs. There have been some good beatles covers and Steve Reynolds has made an apperance. Check out the station on iTunes radio, sub-category Alternative. The station is called, no surpirse, Acoustic alternative. Check it out and tell me what you think!