Jim Hanft - Backyard Waltz

Album: Backyard Waltz
Artist: Jim Hanft
Release Year: 2007
Hails From: Philadelphia


Tracks:
1. China Doll
2. Down
3. Superhero
4. Blinking Watch
5. Caffeine
6. Magic
7. Thief
8. Girl in The Cashmere Dress
9. Southern States
10. Backyard Waltz

Favorite Lines: "The actor upstairs memorizes his scene, cut out his heart just to trade it for a dream." ~ China Doll
"In the city tonight I can't sleep, cause your face is some strong caffeine" ~ Caffeine
"Now my tongue is trapped and my eyes they scream" ~ Blinking Watch

My Thoughts: Jim Hanft is an amazing songwriter. His ability to string together words and thoughts is like poetry on ice. He is very talented and very funny, but this album doesn't show how funny he is. For that you would need to go to a live show. This is an amazing debut by a promising talent and it is not to be missed. Kids - by the time you are reading this, Jim will already be a huge star and you can say my mom knew him when....

Reminds me of: backyard waltzing. sitting around for a late night concert with close friends, listening to jim and drinking beers.

Random Fact: Alot of Jim's songs are very personnel and touch on subjects of life in LA, meeting homeless people, love, bitchy sisters and the death of his father. ~ me
"Laughter and pain are two very similar emotions" says Jim, "when you combine the two you make people completely vulnerable yet completely comfortable at the same time." Jim quote from www.jimhanft.com

Caffeine - Love this video.


Down

The Violent Femmes - The Violent Femmes

Album: Violent Femmes
Artist: Violent Femmes
Release Year: 1982
Hails From: Milwaukee


Tracks:
1. Blister in the Sun
2. Kiss Off
3. Please Do Not Go
4. Add It Up
5. Confessions
6. Prove My Love
7. Promise
8. To The Kill
9. Gone Daddy Gone
10. Good Feeling
11. Ugly
12. Gimme the Car



My Thoughts: The Violent Femmes are funny to me because they are so popular with alternative, hipster kids; yet the singer whine sings and alot of the songs are very dark. Which is probably why the alternative hipster kids love it. This album is such an influence on so many alternative rock groups through out the 80's & 90's. This album is the soundtrack to teenage angst. The lead singer Gordan Gano wrote most of the songs all in highschool, so that also makes sense.

Reminds me of: dancing your pants off. or wrecking cars and burning something down. or cutting myself. whatever comes first.

Random Fact:
They were discovered by The Pretenders when they found them busking outside of a theatre in Milwaukee and Chrissie Hynde invited them to do an acoustic set after their opening act. Femme at the time was slang for Wimp in Milwaukee. ~ (Wikipedia)

Add It Up - The Violent Femmes

Kiss Off Live

Michael Giacchino - LOST

Album: LOST Soundtrack Season 1
Artist: Michael Giacchino
Release Year: 2006
Hails From: New Jersey


Tracks:
1. Main Title
2. The Eyeland
3. World's Worst Beach Party
4. Credit Where Credit Is Due
5. Run Like, Um... Hell?
6. Hollywood and Vines
7. Just Die Already
8. Me and My Big Mouth
9. Crocodile Locke
10. Win One For the Reaper
11. Departing Sun
12. Charlie Hangs Around
13. Navel Gazing
14. Proper Motivation
15. Run Away! Run Away!
16. We're Friends
17. Getting Ethan
18. Thinking Clairely
19. Locke'd Out Again
20. Life and Death
21. Booneral
22. Shannonigans
23. Kate's Motel
24. I've Got a Plane to Catch
25. Monsters Are Such Innnteresting People
26. Parting Words
27. Oceanic 815


My Thoughts: Yes kids, this is kind of like classical music, but that doesn't mean it sucks. Michael Giacchino has made the soundtrack to so many video games, TV shows and movies and LOST is just one of the many. He followed JJ Abrams from Alias and in LOST's pilot episode he collected actual plane wreckage and made it in to percussion instruments. So alot of the sounds you hear is actual metal from the plane they used in the pilot episode. I have watched parts of the show where they showed it without the music, and I love the show and the actors, but it truly is not the same without the music. The scenes do not hit you the same way. Sometimes it scares the heck out of you, other times it gives you chills, other times it makes you cry. Michael Giacchino is an exemplary example of the power of music. The music is like another character in LOST.
Also - there is a soundtrack for every season, this is only an example of one.

Reminds me of: obviously the show, but I get chills every time I listen to certain songs. It is so beautiful and makes you feel in a way that only classical instrumental music can.

Random Fact:
The music of Lost is so popular that they held a special concert featuring the music from the show. Terry O'Quinn (John Locke) came to narrate the performance. It completely sold out the Hollywood Bowl which is a huge venue in LA. Giacchino won an emmy for his LOST score. ~ (Lost DVD's)


Characters & their theme:


This is played every time someone is born or dies:



Locke's Theme makes me almost want to like Locke, It is so beautiful:


If you watch lost, and everyone should, give this 1 minute and you will know which one it is:

Led Zeppelin - IV

Album: IV
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Release Year: 1971
Hails From: London, England

Tracks:
1. Black Dog
2. Rock & Roll
3. Battle of Evermore
4. Stairway to Heaven
5. Misty Mountain Hop
6. Four Sticks
7. Going to California
8. When the Levee Breaks


My Thoughts: Best. Rock. Band. Ever.
Though Led Zeppelin is often referred to as a heavy metal band, I have to disagree. Though they have many loud guitar driven songs and portions of songs, they are just as often very soft and acoustic. Their songs range from sounding country to folk to funk and more. They are pure genius. I will agree that they laid the groundwork for the future of heavy metal, but really, what rock genre did they NOT influence?
I will probably end up putting all but two of their albums on this list, I chose this one first for a few reasons. It shows their awesome diversity. It has a cool back story. It also includes arguably one of the best classic rock songs and guitar solos ever.

Reminds me of: Listening to rock angels sing. Perfection.

Random Fact: Led Zeppelin III was critically panned for departing from their harder sound in the first two albums and they were often criticized by the press for being over-hyped. So they released IV without a title and without a name. It was represented by 4 symbols that they each picked to represent themselves. They did this to prove that they didn't need their name to sell music. They wanted the music to speak for itself. It is the 3rd best selling album ever in the US.


The symbols, in order, represents - Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham, Robert Plant. Because it kind of looks like letters the album is often called ZOSO






Funky Led Zeppelin
Reference to Lord of the Rings & marijuana.


Bluesy Led Zeppelin
Derived from another song about 1927 Mississippi River flood.


Folky Led Zeppelin
This song is supposedly about Joni Mitchell because Page & Plant admired her greatly


Rockin Led Zeppelin
Having nothing to do with the lyrics, the title comes from a black dog that roamed around the studio grounds.

Tegan and Sara - So Jealous

Album: So Jealous
Artist: Tegan & Sara
Release Year: 2004
Hails From: Alberta, Canada

Tracks:
1. You Wouldn't Like Me
2. Take Me Anywhere
3. I Bet It Stung
4. I Know I Know I Know
5. Where Does The Good Go
6. Downtown
7. I Won't Be Left
8. Walking With A Ghost
9. So Jealous
10. Speak Slow
11. Wake Up Exhausted
12. We Didn't Do It
13. Fix You Up
14. I Can't Take It


My Thoughts: One of my favorite bands. They are super talented and smart twin sisters that formed their band when they were 13. This is their third album and their best up to this point. This album gets a little lighter and poppier than their previous albums, which does well for them. The songs are short, fun and all a little different from one another. Most songs are acoustic and electric guitar driven with some keyboards added in to give some songs an electro feel. Walking With a Ghost is their most popular song from this album and it helped that The White Stripes covered it and gave it more attention. Some others I love are You Wouldn't Like Me, Speak Slow, So Jealous, Fix You Up.

Reminds me of: T&S music always cheers me up when down :) Also it always reiterates my want of learning the guitar.

Random Fact: The girls are famous for their banter and diatribes that they go on during performances. They are very funny. The band originally was Sara & Tegan because their mom messed up when she signed them up for a war of the bands event. Which they won. They later changed it to Tegan & Sara, because she is older and they though it sounded better.


Walking With A Ghost


Speak Slow

Cypress Hill - Cypress Hill

Album: Cypress Hill
Artist: Cypress Hill
Release Year: 1991
Hails From: South Central LA

Tracks:
1. Pigs
2. How Could I Just Kill A Man
3. Hand on the Pump
4. Hole in the Head
5. Ultraviolet Dreams
6. Light Another
7. The Phuncky Feel One
8. Break It Up
9. Real Estate
10. Stoned Is the Way of the Walk
11. Psycobetabuckdown
12. Something for the Blunted
13. Latin Lingo
14. The Funky Cypress Hill Shit
15. Treq Equis
16. Born to Get Busy


My Thoughts: Children - Just because I really like this album does not mean I condone the use of marijuana or violence against police or violence in general or racism. However this some good mo fo shiz. It uses heavy sampling from jazz greats, to soul, to funk, to Jimi Hendrix. It is one of the best hip hop albums, from when hip hop was still good (unlike today). I listened to this "tape" through out all of grade school. Since Cypress Hill is sooo pro mary jane they made their songs to sound like you are stoned, if you aren't already. Even though they are rapping about violence and drugs, their delivery makes it sound almost humorous.

Reminds me of: sitting on the bus going to school. being out in the yard during lunch. gang banging with my homies in south central LA.

Random Fact:
Banned from SNL for smoking weed on stage during their show and for smashing their instruments after their performance. This album is one of "1001 Albums to Listen to Before You Die". Also I found it interesting that Rolling Stone only gave this album only 3 stars when it came out, but then named it "Essential Recordings of the 90's". I guess they had a change of heart. First latino group to have a multi-platinum album. ~ wikipedia

Hand on the Pump


Latin Lingo (combines both english and spanish with an ill beat)

Dave Matthews Band - Crash

Album: Crash
Artist: Dave Matthews Band
Release Year: 1996
Hails From: Virginia


Tracks:
1. So Much To Say
2. Two Step
3. Crash
4. Too Much
5. #41
6. Say Goodbye
7. Drive In Drive Out
8. Let You Down
9. Lie In Our Graves
10. Cry Freedom
11. Tripping Billies
12. Proudest Monkey

My Thoughts: I love Dave. He is and always will be one of my favorite artists and this album transports me to another time. Every single song is great. Well almost, sometimes I can't stand Cry Freedom. But other than that - half the songs are some of my favorites ever. Now children, a lot of people may tell you not to like Dave and that he sucks - Don't listen to them. One of the greatest bands ever. In fact before this album, I HATED Dave Matthews and made fun of my friends who liked him. I ate my words and now am one of the only people I know (only?) who still buys every Dave album.

Reminds me of: what doesn't this remind me of. Mostly of the the shore, the summer of 97 and early college.

Random Fact:
While researching this, I found that though the most popular, Crash is the most criticized, citing no strong melodies or hooks. Not really a fact - sorry that's all I got.

Say Goodbye Live

Lie In Our Graves - Dave Matth...