Month: March 2024

This song is such an interesting mental-health/anxiety ridden take on love!

“I don’t know why I’m attached to all of my doubts, and I don’t know why I’m too rough on myself, you seem to float several inches above the ground, and you move always as if to music, love me till my legs can’t move, and I’ll sing till my face turns blue, I know it’s only love, but I’ll never get enough, I know it’s only love, but I’ll never get enough, and I don’t wanna fuck it up, and I don’t wanna fuck it up”

Something about the “I don’t wanna fuck it up” just stands out in this song. That anxiety is so palpable right? Just big sound for big feelings in that part. I love it so much. That’s the best part about Yoke Lore honestly.

BIG SOUND FOR BIG FEELINGS.

This band definitely strives for atmosphere with their sound…and it shows in their catalog. I really don’t think there’s a bad listen in it.

What are you gonna do for yourself today, friendo? Let’s set that intention.

Have a flippin’ fantastic day. I’m putting out that energy for you.

There’s a hardness to this song and lead singer Caleb Followill’s voice. That hardness allows for some really cool belting in this song, and gives it a sort of edgy love-song sound.

There’s some poetic lyrics, some really amazing guitar work, and just some incredible vocals from Followill.

“You who shimmy shook my bone, leaving me stranded all in love on my own, do you think of me?, where am I now?, baby where do I sleep?, feels so good but I’m old, two thousand years of chasing taking its toll”

For some reason, that opening part just reminds me of someone driving at night on the highway, and the visual of headlights pointing off into the dark as the car speed along. Maybe we’re viewing it from above. Imagine that. Set the scene.

“Stranded in this spooky town, stop lights are swaying and the phone lines are down, floor is crackling cold, she took my heart, I think she took my soul, with the moon I run, far from the carnage of the fiery sun”

The more I listened, the more I also got the vampire vibe from the music. So let’s say this song is about a vampire out west, let’s say desert Arizona, driving headlong into a romantic reckoning of some sort. It gave me Neil Gaiman American Gods’ vibes.

At this point, I had to look it up to confirm because it just all sounded so cinematic and darkly pining for someone. Sure enough!

LITERALLY screaming into his guitar to make the sound! What a perfect atmosphere to create! I think they absolutely nailed it. They took that idea, synthesized it in sound, and planted it in my head. Well done.

Hope you have a great day! Be good, do good. Thanks for reading!

I got big into Silversun Pickups last year, and I’m excited to see them live for the first time at Higher Ground Friday, March 8.

I feel like there is so much to unpack with this band and this song.

It sets a torrid pace from the very beginning.

“You hear us come and go, we know, you wonder if we’re not alone, we’re alone, you think about us all the time, don’t, because it doesn’t matter why we’re known, we’re just known, we’re just known“

So it’s clear this song is about ninjas. 🙂 I feel like it’d make a good soundtrack to some sort of anime.

The standouts in the song for me are the violins towards the latter third and the drums throughout. (Highlights around ~3 min/3:10 for both!) Overall the song just sounds kind of alien to me. TSP sound is definitely a distinct one.

“And if it all goes right, see in our eyes, we finally made it out alive, will you wait for a sign?, still do have some piece of mind, wait!, you let your love go, and in your eyes, we finally see we’ve all been blind, have we all gone blind?”

Enjoy! Have a great day! Be good, do good.

Nimble wordplay and smart musical theming are the two hallmarks of this song.

It stood out for me in the beginning of this song when I first heard those reverse notes.

Clear as a bell yet somehow off-putting. We recognize the note both ways I think.

Every time you hear it, it seems to dig into you more, and makes each one more resonant.

Had to include that cute caption. Beautiful photo too!

“SeveN days a week, I still miss you, how we’d stay up late watching reruns, I’d watch your reflection on the TV screen, I could see us falling in love, I was getting lost in the seasons, you’d already seen ’em, you bee in and out of love wIth me since college, we did this often, I could see us but you Couldn’t, and now I can’t even sleep, if I’m honest, get freaked out by the feeling of falling, now it’s over, I’ll get over it, I promise, but until then, I rEplay the whole thing”

Enjoy the beautiful composition that is this song, Reruns, by Rosie Darling.

Shout out to loyal readers 😉 the Suarez boys, Malcom and Alex. You both just popped into my head for some reason (She Calls Me Back, Noah Kahan and Kacey Musgraves on as I finish up this post? I dunno!), and I figured the world needs more positivity at every possible moment, so why not capitalize on it when lightning strikes. Two upstanding young men true to their authentic selves. I admire them both. We’ve come a long way from them being in my elementary PE classes and me not being able to tell them apart and just yelling “Suarez”, they’d both look at me, but the one I was making eye-contact with was the one I wanted to talk to. And then when they were both on my modified cross-country team, and me not being able to tell them apart…LOL. Always great to see you boys. Keep being good and doing good.

This song, for me, was a time machine to junior year bumping to Hip-Hop circa 2000. A golden age.

Back then, one of the best parts of the CD-R/Napster/Limewire days, was just searching for one rapper, and finding a ton of files where they did a collab with another rapper. Often you’d find a ton of songs that had like 9 guys rapping over the same beat on it. I don’t remember when that died off, but fuck did we lose that exchange!

When I heard this song, I was instantly transported back to being 17, in my room, in veritable metropolis Redford, NY, bumping Hip Hop loud and annoying my parents.

The sweet delivery of A$AP Rocky in this first verse hits hardest for me in the verse that starts with:

“Bag made of Goyard…

Cheff’in like I’m Boyar, Dee… Hehe.

I just love that subway train beat throughout that all these guys rap over. It’s the closet this 42 yr old Redford, NY redneck will get to the “STREETS”. The beat is grimy. Like all that collected dirt and STUFF around train tracks in the NYC subway. Like…FILTHY. That’s what this beat somehow gets across, right?!

It’s a great example of the best collaboration tracks from almost 25 years?! ago. (DEAR LORD). Such an awesome sensory experience to be taken on a tour of these artists different styles and swagger. Changing cadence in the middle of lines? It’s ridiculous.

Enjoy it for what it is…an reverent ode to an eon past. They don’t make them like this anymore…unless A$AP Rocky and Co. are on the track.

Have a fantastic fuckin’ day. Love you.

Slow and soft beats building to big crashes and drops. You love to hear it.

So, we don’t come to this party for deep lyrics or complicated guitar picking. This is an amusement park ride of dance energy. Starting off slow and building, building, building, DROP. Gets me every time.

So today, I just want you to take 4 minutes out of your day, go into whatever room you can play this loudest, and just MOVE for 4 minutes. Like, LET SHIT OUT. I mean like interpretive dance!

Make it work for you. Love you lots. Be good, do good.

Hello again, Zach!

This song hooked me from the “if you need a tourniquet, or if you wanna turn and quit, know that I’ll be by your side”. Such a great lyric. I know it’s silly to say this, because they are literally made to match, but I feel like there’s something special between the lyrics of this song, and the song itself. We run through such a gamut of emotions with the instruments. This is a REALLY good song to listen to in that way I described before where you listen to one specific instrument the whole playthrough.

“There’s delays on the planes out of Eastern Montana, where you told me you were leavin’ from, you’ve been stabbed in the back and the rest of your body, won’t you tell me where you’re bleedin’ from?, if you need a tourniquet or if you wanna turn and quit, know that I’ll be by your side, you bled your whole soul into things you can’t control, in a world you’ll never satisfy”

I don’t get sick of this song, and I think it’s because of the smart writing and the beautiful instrumentation of it all. From that delicate piano in the beginning to the electric guitar towards the end. It’s all just so perfectly done in my opinion.

Enjoy this song, take care of one-another, and have a great day.

300 to go! Thanks for reading.

I didn’t listen to blink much back in the day. Whatever was on the radio but I didn’t really seek them out. Other than Adam’s Song probably being the seed planted in mind that grew into my life’s mission of making everyone I come into contact with feel seen.

I lucked across this song in a exploratory jaunt through Spotify last year, and was struck by a Hoppus’ verse.

“Just a fucked-up kid with a skateboard, a cheap guitar, and Nintendo 64, trying to figure out what I stand for, fast-forward 20 years and I’m not sure, some people lock themselves in a black box, some people like to drown their sorrows in a laptop, I’m the kind of guy who walks down my street, bottling feelings deep inside me.

I felt that first lyric. I used to be the guy in the last one.

It’s relatable. For a lot of us, I’m sure.

This song, though, turns out to be a rally-cry.

“Ay, ay, I just wanna hear you say, say, that I’ma make it out someday, day, I just had to find my way, I just had to find my – , I’m trying to the this, person I never reach it, this time I admit it, denial fix my sickness”

It’s growth, and much needed. The realization that everything you’ve been through mentally to this point is a victory in itself. You’ve survived, and if that’s all you’ve been doing, it’s ok.

You got this. I love you. Be good, do good.

To recover from yesterday’s stumble where WordPress ate my post, we’re going to drop a song here today that just makes us want to move and forget about the BS!

This song has an infectious beat and a dazzlingly fun mélange of sounds. There’s funk, there’s a cool constant guitar chord structure, and there’s some captivating vocals from Jain herself.

I probably discovered this song from Tik Tok if I’m remembering right. But the story behind it is pretty cool! Miriam Makeba was a singer and songwriter, nicknamed Mama Africa, is referenced in the song with reverence. Here story is actually pretty awesome:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_Makeba

The result of this song is an essentially an ode to an African Goddess of song and dance. When you listen to the song with the background that Makeba was South African and a fighter of apartheid, it makes the song even more of a call-out to the influence and character of Makeba.

“Ooohe, Makeba, Makeba ma que bella, can I get a “oohe” Makeba, makes my body dance for you”

PLEASE set aside time to dance to this song today, because I am bouncing in my computer chair writing it. TURN IT UP.

Be good, do good. Love y’all.

I am heartbroken to hear and see that my 450 word post either never saved, disappeared somehow, etc.

But, we’ll get back to business tomorrow. Please enjoy a great song from Twenty One Pilots.

Be good, do good. Much love.