Author Archive for SandraPage 25 of 30

Quirky Singer-Songwriter Chicks

published
on February 25, 2008
by
Sandra
in artist/album reviews, genres, music, and video
. 7 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

You know the ones – sweet voice with maybe a hint of defiance, lyrics that are playful but actually say something, girl-next-door approachability, quirky personality. Maybe this trend has been going on for some time and I’ve been oblivious, but I feel like recently there are a growing number of artists who fall into this category. They write their own music, find fans online, and forge ahead without the help of big record labels or shows like American Idol, doing the thing they love on their own terms. Personally, I don’t love all of their songs, but I respect what they are doing and how they are doing it.

Here are 5 examples (in no particular order):

Colbie Caillet
The Malibu, California native – whose Myspace profile catapulted her to fame primarily due to her hit song, “Bubbly” (which I think I remember hearing was the number one song used at weddings in 2007) – is the first one I noticed. Her mellifluous voice has a tiny bit of raspiness to it, which is something I’ve always dug in females singers. I’m sure her critics probably write her off as just another feel-good annoyingly saccharine pop artist, but I think she’s pretty solid.
::Official Website::

Sara Bareilles
Here is another Cali girl who I just realized that I went to college with. She sang in the kick-ass a cappella group, Awaken, there. Actually…now that I think about it, I remember her performing at our annual talent show, where another up-and-coming act, Kara’s Flowers (now Maroon 5) also showcased their skills once upon a time. The story behind Sara’s hit, “Love Song”: Her record label, Epic, requested that she write a marketable love song to which she responded defiantly with a song saying “I’m not gonna write you a love song cause you ask for it”. Ironically, it turns out to be…well, quite marketable. Then again, having it featured as the free download of the week on iTunes in June 2007 certainly didn’t hurt either. After that her first major album shot to #1. There is something intoxicating about her voice – that husky lower register and crystal clear tone when belting the high notes. If you watch her in the “Love Song” video, watch for my favorite parts: her confident key-banging piano-playing style, how she stares right into the camera boldy as if she’s saying “what?”, and that mischievous glimmer in her eye.
::Official Website::

Ingrid Michaelson
Best known for her songs on Grey’s Anatomy and One Tree Hill, as well as that Old Navy sweater song, “The Way I Am“, the New York native is an excellent example of another artist who self-produced her albums and found fame on the internet. Her sound is edgy but simple, her lyrics are honest and unapologetic, and even her look is quirky and just real.
::Official Website::

Lilly Allen
One of my favorites is this English singer-songwriter, another Myspace darling, but that might be because anyone who sings with an accent automatically gets a ton of street cred and extra stars in my book. Her hits, “Smile” and “LDN” are deceptively catchy and sweet tunes, but the lyrics give you a little insight into the girl and her somewhat rocky history.
::Official Website::

Regina Spektor
Another international import, Russian-born Regina Spektor is classically trained in piano and initially gained recognition in New York’s anti-folk scene, where “the music tends to sound raw or experimental, and generally mocks the seriousness and pretension of the established mainstream music scene and also mocks itself.” Her music is diverse, from the light girly sound of songs like “Fidelity” to her more edgy and whiny sound in “Us“.
::Official Website::

Guitar Rising: Guitar Hero Minus the Plastic Toy

published
on February 15, 2008
by
Sandra
in music, nerd, and technology
. 6 Comments Tags: , , , .

Holy Crap. Put this on your wish list for Christmas.

If you’ve ever played Guitar Hero before, you’ve probably wondered – like others have – if using a real guitar would be possible. As it turns out, not only is it possible, but the game will also teach you how to play.

Guitar Rising, which won the Developer’s Choice Award at the Independent Game Conference, was developed by Game Tank, a San Francisco studio which is all about “games that enable players to acquire real-world skills while being thoroughly entertained”.

Coming to a store near you in late ’08.

Judson Laipply's Evolution of Dance

published
on February 11, 2008
by
Sandra
in dance, music, and video
. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

While this blog is centered around evolving music and the many factors influencing that evolution – emerging technologies, the deconstruction and reconstruction of the music industry, DIY culture and user-generated content, social networking etc – there is another art form that has always been and will always be intimately associated with music. Namely, dance.

Ever since our ancestors began grunting monosyllabically and banging rocks together, they were surely waving their longish arms and clumsily bobbing along to the unorganized music in their still primitive heads. Music and dance have been so intimately related throughout history that it’s nearly impossible to separate them today.

My father (a jazz musician) used to joke that musicians can’t dance, and despite their knack for playing music most of them have no sense of rhythm on the dance floor. He, of course, liked to think he was the exception to the rule. But whether you are a musician, a dancer, both, or neither, it’s hard not to appreciate the end result when a good song is paired with a good dance.

Just as music has continued to evolve in all sorts of logical and also unexpected ways, influenced by everything from digital technologies and political climates to art and fashion, dance has done the same. As seen in the roaring twenties, when “amusement, fun and lightness were cultivated in jazz and dancing, in defiance of the horrors of World War I, which remained present in people’s minds”, music and dance often express the collective mindset of a generation or a particular demographic at a given time.

Without launching into a lengthy discourse about the history of dance and its implications, let’s take a look at one man’s recap of just the last half-century of dance. Judson Laipply, an “inspiration comedian”, put together this little bit that has become the #1 most viewed (74+ million views) and #1 top rated video on youtube:

For more on the comedian or the video, check out the official site here.

How to Make an Old Song New

published
on February 6, 2008
by
Sandra
in music and video
. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

I love cover songs. Maybe it’s the awesome local 80’s cover band who woos their audience with their uncanny ability to emulate everyone from Journey to Madonna and still make each song their own. Or maybe it’s a well-known artist covering a well-known song to make something deliciously different.

There are myriad ways to make an old song new: speed it up and add a dance beat, change the genre to something unexpected – say, Frank Sinatra done as Dancehall, add/remove instruments and vocals, throw in some exotic scales to give the song a more worldly sound. Or…

You could do this.

If you need a frame of reference and want to hear the original song, “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple, here ya go:

Making Music. With…Bubblegum?

published
on January 30, 2008
by
Sandra
in brain, music, technology, and video
. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Why not? Making music is a unique experience. Whether you are an accomplished composer, dj, or songwriter OR you simply like to sing in the shower (watch the whole thing, it’s worth it) or showcase your desk drumming skills, hearing and experiencing something you have created is profoundly personal. Even just remixing other people’s music or – one of my favorites – singing karaoke…it forces you to listen to music in a new way: not passively. It forces your brain to process music in a different way. In a more stimulating way.

Although primarily an auditory experience, adding other sensory elements to the equation can complement or completely change how you experience music. Adding a visual element certainly enhances your perception of a song compared to the song by itself – Disney’s Fantasia comes to mind as an early (1940) example of the power of the audio-visual experience. Think of the pulsing lights at a rave or concert and how they can entirely change how a song affects you (unless of course you are already in an altered state of mind for other reasons).

Similarly, music can affect the visual experience significantly. Imagine if you remove the soundtrack for a battle scene in Gladiator, for example, and replace it with, say, a John Mayer song? Suddenly it’ll seem like a farce. The auditory element accompanying the visual can completely invalidate the intended mood of the scene. Conversely, sometimes the juxtaposition of two unlikely things makes for an even more unique experience. And therein lies the beauty of experimentation.

Here at MixMatchMusic, we want people to explore and push the boundaries of how music is created and experienced. We want people to not only watch as the music evolves, but to be a part of the (r)evolution. The following is a great example of some smart people thinking outside the box and tapping into the multi-facetedness of a musical experience. And this is just something that a couple of kids at Berkeley put together for a class project. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you…

The Bubblegum Sequencer:

For a full explanation of how this works, click here. Amazingly, because “the output is generated in the form of MIDI events, the Bubblegum Sequencer can be used to control any kind of audio hardware or software”. And it’s in real time.