Hello everyone,
Welcome to a brand new edition of the Music of the Day newsletter. Ah spring, a time of rebirth and renewal. But it’s also tax time, which can totally ruin the mood of an otherwise wonderful time of year. In honor of tax day and the pain and frustration that can usually cause, the theme for this newsletter is Hard Rock. When I’m pissed off and angry, nothing makes me feel better than the rumbling bass, heavy guitar riffs, and powerful vocals of some good-old hard rock!
I have a few standards for picking music, especially for hard rock and metal. First of all, there must be a melody. You have to be able to hum or whistle the tune. I can’t stand songs that are nothing but chugga chugga on guitars and some dude eating the microphone singing something that sounds like “morf dorf orf Whaaaarf!” Musically speaking, beauty is in the ear of the beholder, and everyone has their own tastes. While some of the bands in this edition are usually classified as heavy metal, most of the songs I picked are more of a power ballad style, with respect to those of you with a softer audio palate. If you need a fix of the harder stuff, just look deeper into the catalog of any of these artists.
The links got a little out of hand with my last newsletter, so this time I’m trying something a little different. I created a playlist on Youtube.com that you should be able to just click once and play through. Hopefully you won’t need to create a Youtube account to view it. It seems to work pretty well, except for a couple cases when there is a long empty pause or a commercial at the end of the video. There are controls for the playlist so you can skip to the next video or jump around the list to different songs if you like.
Of course with this format you will miss (or maybe you won’t) my witty commentary on each of the bands and songs. I’ll do my best to fill in some quick details before the link. Also, since most of these videos are submitted by users, the sound quality isn’t always up to my exacting audiophile standards. You may have to ride the volume knob from one song to the next, but hey, it’s free, and it works so I ain’t knocking it. If you find something you like and want to hear a better version of it, check out lala.com or last.fm.
When Chevelle approached their label to make a video for “I Get It,” the label turned them down, so the band got their friends together and made a video with their own money. It’s a great video and probably better than they would have gotten with studio influence anyway. Paramore’s “Decode” is featured on the Twilight movie soundtrack. I think it’s cool because they filmed the video (and the movie) in the rainforests of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, not too far from where I live. Saving Abel is a great band, and they’re also Peavey endorsers (Woot!).
Finally, one of my favorite recent discoveries Is a band called Hurt. This is an awesome new rock band that I have been absolutely loving. They sound a little like the lead singer of Live, mixed with the dark tone of Stained, and just a touch of Tool thrown in for good measure. By the way, I have to apologize for the static picture videos. Not all the songs I wanted to include have an actual video. So, what are ya gonna do?
Alright, on to the main course. Throw your horns up, bang your head, and get ready to RAWK!
Youtube Video Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_
-Marc
