It's OK

Tonight was shaping up to be a pretty good night. I bought some new Converse, and was going to watch the last episode of season 5 of The West Wing and then…something upset me. This summer was good in some respects but it was mostly crap. The thing that upset me was something connected to situations from the summer and it was not something that I expected or really wanted to think about. Some people don’t really think about how other people feel about certain situations and this was what put me into my upset feelings tonight.

After I had called and talked to my Dad, who understands my feeling very well, I sat back and turned on my TV. As I watched TV I noticed my new converse that I was wearing to break in, I started to think about Eddie Vedder who was the person who made me want to wear converse in the first place. Then I remembered this song that Pearl Jam tagged this one time called “It’s O.K.” and I put the song on and listened. I felt better instantly.

It’s OK was tagged onto the song Daughter on the Touring Band 2000 DVD or I guess it was first released on to VHS but I have it on DVD. For many years now Eddie Vedder has been one of two people whose voice has been able to calm me…I suppose. When I am feeling stressed I put on Pearl Jam and I start to feel alright. The other voice being that of Roger Daltrey but I am sure that is a whole other blog altogether.

Daughter is an incredibly important song and if you don’t know it you should take some time to really listen to it. Then the tag of It’s OK is probably one of the best tags that I have ever heard in my life. It speaks to me on so many levels…I want to write out the lyrics for you.

It’s OK

It’s OK

You don’t have to run and hide away

It’s OK I’m going to love you anyway

This is my chance, this is my life
And my opening hour
This is my choice, this is my voice
There may be no tomorrow
This is my plea, this is my need
This is my time for standing free
This is my step, this is my depth
In a world demanding of me
But it's okay.......

It’s Ok

It’s OK you know I love you away

It’s OK

It’s OK you don’t have to run and hide away

It’s Ok
 
There have been times when songs have spoken to me for different reasons and I guess that at this moment I needed Eddie to say “I’m going to stand up here with you” and then sing about how It’s OK.

Clapa Your Hands, Stompa Your Feet

This week I have been obsessed with Serena Ryder’s new album Harmony, getting each song stuck in my head as various times. I first got into Serena Ryder in 2008 with her album Is It O.K. came out. I was lucky enough to have the chance to see her at the Charles W. Stockey Centre in Parry Sound during her tour of the same name and enjoy every second of her performance.  When it comes to Canadian artists that are underrated I believe that she is one of them.

Serena Ryder has always seemed to do whatever she wanted and not what she thought would sell. She has a unique voice, and she doesn’t sound like another Fiest wannabe. The music that Ryder writes is beautiful and Melodic. Her lyrics are deep, relatable and the vocals convey every bit of emotion that is held within them. I love having strong female musicians to listen to and Serena Ryder definitely fit that description.

One of the best songs on Harmony is the first single Stompa, which is just so groovy that it makes you feel cool just listening to it. When the distorted guitar kicks in you feel like bobbing your head to the beat, which I actually am doing right now. Man, it has such a great beat; this is one of those songs that love to walk too. It gives me confidence and makes feel like I can face anything. If there was ever a Serena Ryder song that I would call and dance song this is it. I always feel like dancing when I listen to Stompa, which I suppose is sort of the point of the song.

Stompa is such a different and unique song. Serena Ryder’s voice is so great, the way she sings in her lower register, and I can’t help loving it. I think that you should love it too!

I've Been Meaning to Call You, Then I Do

“Phone rings once

Phone rings twice

Phone rings three times”

Once, years ago, I had a stroke of genius concerning the ringtone on my cell phone. I had just got a phone that came with a program that allowed me to edit a song so that I could have a certain part, instead of just the beginning, play whenever I received a phone call. My brilliant idea was to use the four lines that are written just above this paragraph, which are from the song In View by The Tragically Hip. Yesterday, I heard this song on the radio and immediately began to wonder if I would be able to put the ringtone from years ago on to my new Blackberry. The experiment was a success and I now get to hear Phone rings once…every time my phone rings.

When World Container came out back in 2006 I remember that everyone thought that it sounded so different from what The Tragically Hip usually offers, but mostly I remember loving In View most of all. The song starts out with something that sounds like a synthesizer or a strange setting on a keyboard, which sets the tone. The music is great, it makes me want to dance, and the melody gets stuck in my head very easily. The lyrics are probably my favourite part and at first you think that it is just about a guy who keeps forgetting to call a girl back, but after you listen to it a bit more you hear that it is not just about meaning to call someone but also about the relationship between the caller and the person being called.

The music video for In View is also pretty great. It was filmed in China and follows Gord Downie through the day. It gets really funny when Gord is having lunch and snatches a cell phone off the table next to him and then is chased through the street of Shanghai. I can’t help but smile every time I hear In View, it is such a happy, fun song, and if you want to get me out of a bad mood just turn it on and turn it up! I firmly believe that it is one of those songs that once you hear it you’ll love it, even if you not the biggest Hip fan!

Check out In View by The Tragically Hip off the album World Container.

 

I'll Send This Message to You

Hear me calling

On Fridays when I am leaving work I like to put something on that will get me pumped for the weekend. Today a song immediately popped into my head and I had to put it on, from that moment until I got home I had some pretty heavy rock blasting into my ears. It made me excited to have some time to myself to do whatever I wanted, and it put me a great mood.

The song was This is Yr Captain by C’Mon, and this is a pretty awesome song. It has this guitar riff that makes you want to jump around and head bang and I definitely did some head bobbing on the streetcar. The guitar is so distorted and hard hitting that when I hear it I want to run or something. I’m not really explaining this very well, but there is a reason that people play these sorts of songs before they play sports. I think that the thing that I love the most is that it is catchy without having a lyrical hook. There are a lot of bands/artists that rely on the lyrics and melody to bring people in, but This is Yr Captain is so guitar driven that you don’t need that same sort of hook to make people interested.

I suppose that This is Yr Captain is one of those songs that you have to hear to understand, and not everyone will like it I’m sure, but give it try it might surprise you. And if you get pumped up for whatever event is happening next then all the better!

Check out This is Yr Captain by C’Mon off of In the Heat of the Moment

Bring the Beat in

Baby it’s you

You’re the one I love

You’re the one I need

You’re the only one I see

I feel like I didn’t listen to a lot of music today, or maybe nothing really grabbed hold of me today, so I put off written the song of day until after 9:00pm. Well, I decided to just get my iPod and put on the first thing that made me smile. It’s Beyonce. I have a soft spot for Beyonce and I put on Love On Top and it made me feel happy. Sometimes I think that when it comes to music you can’t always get caught up in what is good and what is not and just go with your gut and listen to what ever makes you feel good. This is how I feel about Beyonce. She is crazy, and she isn’t what I usually listen to, but I love her.

Beyonce has a really great voice, and, although I hate to admit this, I have loved her since Destiny’s Child. Beyonce is so confident, and I find that really inspiring. She knows what she wants and she gets it. She doesn’t let anyone tell her what to do, and because she is fiercely independent she create some really unique music. Love on Top is the song that I put on because it is so danceable and cool. I love the way that Beyonce uses her voice and the crazy amount of key changes is also really awesome!

So here’s to guilty pleasures that aren’t really something to feel guilty about. I saw like what you like and be proud. Right now I think I am going to dance around my apartment to some Beyonce.

Check out Love On Top by Beyonce off of 4

Peanut Butter Pulitzer Prize

I’m highly suspicious of you.

As I left work today I put on my headphones and pressed play, but sound was only coming out of one side. After playing with the cord for a while I determined that my headphones had decided to stop working. Annoyed I made a detour to pick up some new headphones because I can’t live without headphones. Then on my way home the traffic on King Street took forever, it took me 45 minutes to get home when it should have taken 20 minutes. By the time I got home I was grumpy puddle, a puddle because I was sweating so much from being crammed on a hot streetcar for way to long, but then a song can on my iPod that made me smile.

Highly Suspicious by My Morning Jacket is a song that you can’t help but like. It is so ridiculous and so awesome at the same time. I can’t understand a word that Jim James is singing, and actually believe that he is saying peanut butter Pulitzer Prize through the song, but it’s the feel of the song that just grabs me. Highly Suspicious is so much fun, so silly, and at the same time such a hard hitting rock song that it blows me away every time I listen to it. The heavy guitars combined with Jim James’s crazy falsetto creates one crazy song, but I love every second of it.

The moral of this story, I guess, is that if you are grumpy make sure that you put on a song that is awesome and makes you smile. I can tell you that it works, or at least it worked for me today.

Check out Highly Suspicious By My Morning Jacket off of Evil Urges

Hey, That's A Morning Moon

“The sun is a light blub

And the moon is a mirror

There are times you can see both the blub and the mirror

And that’s a morning moon”

I always listen to music on my way to work, actually I just always listen to music, and this morning I put on the Tragically Hip album We Are The Same. The first track is Morning Moon; I have always loved this song, but it never spoke to me before in the way that did while walking to the streetcar at 7:15am.

Morning Moon reminds me of the morning, I can almost picture Gord Downie sitting out at the crack of dawn trying to make sense of life looking at the sun rise on one side and the moon on the other. Morning can be such a peaceful time of day, and it is always cool to see both the sun and moon in the sky. This is what popped into my mind this morning on the way to the streetcar; I often think about things, sometimes random things, on the way to work. Sometimes I get some really good thinking in, and other times I just get my crazy thinking out of the way.

I love how Morning Moon is so mellow; it is the perfect early morning song. The music sounds like morning too, the day is new and you never know what is going to happen. Gord Downie’s vocals are also so great! I love it when Gordie sings softly; you can really hear the tone and emotion in his voice. In this song Gordie almost sounds like he is contemplating out loud which really helps to paint the picture of him watching the sunrise.

Check out Morning Moon by The Tragically Hip off We Are The Same