Miscellaneous Mondays: August 2019 Edition!

Hello everybody, and welcome back to another post! It's been over six months since I last did one of these, so I'm gonna go for it today. If you forgot what these are, it's where I pick out a handful of songs I've been enjoying lately, and just talk about them because I have a chance to. I picked out six epic songs I've been enjoying recently, so this one will possibly be fun. Let's dive into it!

INTRODUCTION

...well I kind of just did an introduction so this is pointless. Onto the fun part now.

1. Adema - The Way You Like It

Okay, so if you're just a hit music geek then it's pretty likely that you have never heard of this song. But if you are a nu metal fan or you followed the rock charts in 2002, then you might know it. I cannot remember how I found it, but I did, and I came to enjoy it. There are lots of things in this song that I like hearing. I like the bassline a lot, and I think it gives the song a nice vibe. The rapping in the verse is something that I don't hear every day, so it's nice to get something different in my rotation. And I really like the chorus. The song is about how fame manipulates people and can change them into a foreign person. I think that's a good topic for a song, so I enjoy it. But the big thing that makes me listen to this song more than average is the band's name. Now you're probably thinking, "WTF?" about that, but here's why: I sort my playlists by artist name, so the ones higher up in the alphabet show up first. And in two of my playlists I listen to a ton, this song is the very first one in the order, so when I am doing something like changing classes and need to play a song quickly, I can easily go to this one. And because I see it in my playlist all the time, I think about it more, and just want to listen to it more. It's really weird but true. I recommend this to rap fans that want a little something different, because it is high in quality.

2. Bad Religion - Mediocre Minds

This song is really random, but I wanted to put one Bad Religion song on here, and I feel like this one is one I'll most likely not come back to for a while, so I decided on it. I discovered it while listening to No Substance, and it was that album's standout song for me. I added it to my playlists, which meant that I would listen to it whenever I would go on a Bad Religion binge. It's under two minutes long, which is normal for this band, but what runs in that short period is catchy and filled with energy, which is also normal for this band (see songs like "Henchman" and "The Positive Aspect of Negative Thinking" to see what I mean). There's even time for a cool guitar solo in it, which I think is pretty impressive. Also, in this song you can hear some great background vocals, which is one of the reasons why I love this band so much. If you start going through their albums, you'll see that what's in the background does way more than you would think. But yeah, this song is pretty good, and I don't think it'll hurt you to take two minutes out of your time to listen to it.

3. Destroyer 666 - Live and Burn

And here's another song that's really random, but also really good. I can't remember exactly how this song came to me, but I'm pretty sure that it was a recommendation from someone on Discord. I think they told me about this band, and then recommended a couple of their newer songs that would end up being this and another song called "Traitor". But I don't really know. I made a playlist of fun songs for while I was on vacation in early July, and I didn't mean to have any songs by this band in there, but they somehow ended up there anyways. This song clicked with me pretty fast, and as I started listening to more death metal and thrash metal, this song became a good go-to. I don't think it's that brutal compared to other bands I've heard out there, but it has just the right amount of punch for my liking. I have considered listening to more of this band after enjoying what I heard from them, but for now I have this, which is fine with me because it is really good.

4. Five Finger Death Punch - No One Gets Left Behind

So, I somehow still remember mentioning this band on my Top 10 Offspring Songs post when mentioning "Gone Away". I still think their cover of it sucks, but that may just be because it's very hard to make a good cover of a song like that. Though that doesn't mean I think the band sucks. They have lots of hit songs that I think are worth checking out, including "The Bleeding", "Hard To See", "Wrong Side of Heaven", and one of the newest ones, "Sham Pain". I first heard this song when listening to War Is The Answer in full, and while I didn't think that album was all that great, this song stood out. After a few more listens, I really came around to it and started to "get" the song. If you really listen to the lyrics, you can tell that the band has a big connection with the military, which was inspired with rhythm guitarist Zoltan Bathory's experiences with growing up in military bases, watching military movies, and having fans in the forces. He also once said that the radio broadcast in the song was taken from the transcript from a medical evacuation that a fan serving in the military gave the band. That's pretty cool if you ask me. I think the instrumentals and vocals work well with this song as well, especially the guitar riffs, which really got me. I think this song is great overall, it's not my favorite from the band but I think it may be up there.

5. Mudvayne - Death Blooms

Well, I've always wanted to talk about Mudvayne sometime on here, and I guess I have a chance to now. I really like them, not only because of how catchy their songs can be, but also because of the complexity of them. A big part of what makes this band so great in my opinion is bassist Ryan Martinie and his amazing complex basslines. And remember the first image I posted today that says "BRBR DENG" on it? Well, that is him in the picture, and that meme comes from the opening bassline in the song "Dig". I think "Dig" is a great song, but this song is another story. Not only is it a lot longer than "Dig", but it is also more of a good math rock song. It not only has the good complex basslines, but it also has some odd time signatures and changing tempos. I love hearing that stuff. One of the things on my current bucket list is to learn how to play this entire song on bass (as you can see from the second video I posted), and because this is Mudvayne, it may not be easy, though I have already gotten a lot of it down. As for the lyrics, they have to do with singer Chad Gray's grandmother and how she was neglected as a child, and that when she got older, Gray was the only one who cared when she was ill. She was also the one who began taking Gray to choirs where he learned to sing. She passed away in 2005, but since this song was released around 2000, she may have had a chance to hear it, and I think she would've been proud. If you don't like harder stuff, then I wouldn't go into this band, but if you want something different, then I suggest you go for it. You never know what will be your new favorite song.

6. Slipknot - Solway Firth

Oh hey, here's a song that's not something totally random from 2002 or so! In fact, it's only been out for a little over a month. It is the second single from Slipknot's sixth album We Are Not Your Kind that was released about two and a half weeks ago. I loved that album and may review it sometime in the future, and I think this song is a great way to close it out. It starts off sounding like a really slow and uninteresting ballad with nothing but some "Duality"-type vocals in it. Then at about the 58 second mark, it suddenly kicks in and starts you off on a wild ride. Speaking of 58 seconds, after the song came out, I remember seeing lots of memes on the band's subreddit that had to do with "when 0:58 hits" or something like that. They may be hard to find now but I thought they were pretty good. After that mark, the actual song starts. When I heard that a lot of the band's new album was supposed to sound like the band's sophomore album Iowa, I didn't believe it considering that this is 2019 and it's extremely rare to hear heavy guitars in songs. But I'm glad I was wrong. The song is really heavy, and I think the guitar team of Mick Thomson and Jim Root did a great job of making the song sound that way. The drums on this track are phenomenal, too. Former drummer Joey Jordison's departure from the band in 2013 left a huge hole in the band's lineup that many thought would be difficult to fill, but I think that Jay Weinberg was the perfect man for the job. You can tell just from hearing this song. And as usual, Corey Taylor sounds great, and I'm sure he thinks greatly about this. Love this song, love the new album, and I'm glad it was such a success because it was well-deserved.

And that does it for this post! Thank you to everyone who took the time to read it, and if you have any comments or recommendations then just let me know. You can check out any of these songs with YouTube links I provided for you. I have about two other posts and then a couple more post ideas in the works, so stay tuned for more things in the future. Other than that, I think that's all I have to say. Thanks again and I'll see you guys again soon!

Miscellaneous Mondays: January 2019 Edition

Hello music fans, and welcome back to another Miscellaneous Monday post! I kind of explained what this is all about last time, so I don't feel like I need to do it again. Let's get started!



INTRODUCTION

This month has been kind of boring for me in terms of music. I did go back through the alternative charts over winter break, though, which gave me lots of fresh songs to add to my playlists. And it turns out that six of the seven songs I plan to talk about in this post were ones I discovered from doing that. The other one is one I planned to talk about last month but decided not to for certain reasons. I really just went through my rock playlist and picked out seven songs I don't see myself talking about in future posts, and those are the seven songs I will be discussing. Most of them are from kind of little-known artists because I want to save the bigger artists for possible top 10 posts, but we'll just roll with it and see how that goes. I have these songs ranked in alphabetical order by artist, by the way. So yeah, time to grind!

1. Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down
This is not a song I should be enjoying because of the edgy nature of it, but I do anyway. I remember hearing one of their other songs, "Vindicated", along with some other songs I talked about last month for that rankdown I did on Pulse. I enjoyed that song, and I think that somehow got me to this one. I'm pretty sure it was someone on Discord that told me that this song was better or something like that. So I did listen to this song, just randomly, and I really liked it. I think I prefer it over "Vindicated" actually. I think that the verses sound cool, with the different nature that it has over the chorus. The chorus reminds me a lot of a weird emo song, but that's because it kind of is one. And I don't really mind that. It still sounds really cool. I always felt weird listening to songs like "Vindicated" because of how emo they sounded, but this is more towards my comfort zone and I enjoy that. Really cool song overall, and it's one of the only emo songs I would recommend to anyone who doesn't like emo music.

2. Lifehouse - Spin
I don't really know what to say about my overall thoughts on Lifehouse. I am only familiar with about four of their songs, although I have listened to a few of their albums, which is why I feel hesitant to say I really love them. But I guess I can say that considering how much I love their two hits "First Time" and "Hanging By a Moment". "You and Me" was always good, but not great to me. Those three were the only three Lifehouse songs I was really familiar with, up until about a month ago when I found this. It doesn't nearly blow me away like the former two of those songs do, but it is a nice little listen. The chorus doesn't make it a super awesome banger, but it's not kind of slow and mellow either. It's right in between and I like that. I think I can say the same for the rest of the song. It's showed me some things about Lifehouse that I didn't know before. That's really all I have to say now. Definitely not their best song, but it's good to hear something else from them for a change.

3. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get
Ever thought ska was a cool music genre, but never got a chance to hear what it sounds like? Well, don't say that anymore now that you've read this, because I'm hooking you up right now. This is the perfect example of a great ska song. The only other one I can think of that was in my rock playlist at one point was "Sell Out" by Reel Big Fish, but I prefer this song. I've tried to interpret the lyrics by myself because they sound like they sound be telling an interesting story, but I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter because of how happy the song sounds. It just has all kinds of cool instruments and stuff in it that makes it sound like something extremely uplifting that will make you feel good no matter what occasion it is. I'm pretty sure that might be what ska is all about, so if that's true then I might want to check out more of it. But yeah, there's really nothing bad about this song, other than that it might be a little weird compared to what was popular at the time. This song was in the top five most popular alternative songs of 1997 list compiled by Billboard, along with some legendary songs like "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind, "Fly" by Sugar Ray, "Walkin' On The Sun" by Smash Mouth, and "Push" by Matchbox Twenty. I do love all of those songs and still think that the first of those four is the best of them, but this song does play a huge part in making that loaded group of songs as good as it is, which says a lot. And along with "Sell Out" I think there were a couple more good ska songs on that list, so you can check it out if you want to. I think I've said enough now, let's move on.

4. The Offspring - Can't Repeat
Okay, call me a fake stan or whatever you want, but I cannot BELIEVE I didn't know this song existed until about a month ago when going back through the alternative charts. I guess that's what I get for not listening to greatest hits albums ever. I am kind of disappointed that this had to turn out this way, because I'm a month in and I still can't get enough of this song. And if I redid my top 10 Offspring singles list...yeah, this would've been pretty high on it. But I guess I can thank myself for these posts because now I get to talk about it! I think the bass intro is really cool and helps set the stage for the song pretty well. Then the guitars and drums come in and things start getting awesome. I like that guitar riff that comes in after that short build-up, and like I do with pretty much any Offspring song I listen to and find cool, I start playing it on the guitar all the time, and that just gets me closer to the song. I love the lyrics in this song. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the song is just about getting older and moving along in life, and I enjoy how Dexter Holland wrote about this theme very much. The chorus of this song just strikes me so much because of how good it is. It's full of energy and does a great job in showing the theme of the song. It really defines it and helps make it what it is. Everything else throughout the song is amazing, especially the bass that holds it all together. The song is also really fun to play on the bass, at least for me. This is an overall awesome song that doesn't really have any flaws in it, which is always good. I don't really know when I'll finally get enough of it, but I don't see that being soon because of how much I love it. Great job, guys. You really made me happy with this song.

Oh, you thought I was done talking about them in this post! Key word: you THOUGHT.

5. The Offspring - Defy You
So my story with this is very similar to my story with "Can't Repeat": I did not know that this song existed until I heard it when going back through the alternative charts, mainly because this is a greatest hits-exclusive song. However, I just want to put down that no matter how much I praise the song and how good I think or say it is, it is not, and never will be, better than "Can't Repeat". Anyway, this song didn't click with me too much at first. It just didn't sound like a typical great Offspring song to me. But with a few more listens I got into it, especially after paying close attention to the lyrics and understanding what they meant. I have two possible interpretations of it: A. It could be about standing up for what you believe in, like in a political or argumentative situation, or B. It could be about a bully that you're more than tired of dealing with. I like to think of it as situation B because I can relate way more to that one, but regardless, I still think that what the lyrics are talking about is cool. The guitars don't stand out nearly as much as they do in "Can't Repeat", but I still think they're cool. The chorus is the main part of this song that gets me hyped, as it's energetic and more typical Offspring than I thought. I can see myself finally getting enough of this song way sooner than with "Can't Repeat", but for now it's something fun that I will always enjoy listening to.

6. SR-71 - Right Now
This song, to say the very least, is weird. It's definitely on the weird and flashy side of pop punk music rather than the one I'm used to. But that doesn't bring it down. It has just as much of a great pop punk vibe as I hear in a lot of other pop punk songs I enjoy. And I really don't have a personal connection to this song, I just sometimes like hearing the lyrics for the entertainment factor. Mitch Allan has a great voice and it fits well with the style of this song. The guitar riff also sticks out. It gives the song a good amount of energy. And I don't really know about the lyrics or what they mean. They just sound well-written. It's no wonder that Allan was the original songwriter for Bowling For Soup's hit song "1985", because this song proves that he has talent. And looking even more he also co-wrote many hit pop songs, including "Heartbeat Song" by Kelly Clarkson, "Want to Want Me" by Jason Derulo, "Irresistible" by Fall Out Boy, and "Heart Attack" by Demi Lovato, so maybe I should check out more from them. But we'll see. I do enjoy this song quite a bit and was glad it was somewhat popular.

7. Tantric - Breakdown
This is one of two songs called "Breakdown" in my rock playlist at the moment (the other one is by Seether). That's getting to be a common thing for me, as I also have another song in my playlist called "Right Now" (that's by Korn). Then I have two more songs called "Pain"...and stuff like that. But out of the two songs called "Breakdown" that are in my rock playlist, this is easily the more superior one. I like the Seether one, but it has a little something in it that brings it slightly down for me. This one doesn't have that. I enjoy pretty much everything about it. It's kind of a chill song, and that's nice. It has a really cool acoustic guitar riff that sets the song up pretty well. And I don't know why, but something about this song or this band sounded familiar to me when I first heard it about a month ago. So I did some research on this band, and I found out why: It's because this band was formed by three former members of another band I am somewhat familiar with, Days of the New. It didn't have the singer of the band or anything, but it still had something I felt like I knew in there. I can tell from listening to this song that Hugo Ferreira is a pretty talented music artist because he does a great job in this song. I haven't paid attention to the lyrics of this any so we won't talk about those. This isn't a hugely catchy or insanely energetic song, unlike a lot of others I discussed in this post, but that's okay because not every song is like that. Sometimes, something slightly different like this can be good to hear, and I like that.






And with that, we are now done with this post! Thank you to anyone who read this, and don't forget that if you want to suggest an idea for a future post, feel free to do so because I am extremely open to your suggestions. If any of the songs I talked about in this post sounded cool to you and you think you want to give them a listen for yourself, then you can use the YouTube embeds I posted when introducing each song, or just search up the songs on whatever streaming services you use. But yeah, that was this month's post, and I will see you guys next time! Peace out!

Miscellaneous Mondays: December 2018 Edition

Hey guys, and welcome to the start of this new series I will be doing called Miscellaneous Mondays! Basically, these posts will come out once every month on a Monday. In the post, I will choose 5-10 random songs I don't think I'll be doing an in-depth review for in a top 10 or other post and just talk about them and why I love them. That way, we can bring some light to our Mondays with some great music! So that's basically it, so let's get into it!

INTRODUCTION

Lately, I've been listening to lots of different kinds and ranges of music, but a lot of that music has been on the alternative side due to these games called rankdowns I do on a music forum called Pulse Music Boards. One theme I have done recently is some 2000s alternative songs that crossed over to pop radio, so because I have been into that, a couple songs in that list have been in my rotation because of that game. I also picked out a few songs from outside of that game I've been enjoying in the past month or two just so the post isn't only about these alternative crossovers. This equates to six songs to discuss in this post. That's really enough said for this, so let's do it!

1. The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Face Down

I liked this song from the first listen, but it took me a few months to really get into it. I first heard it in April when digging through old Billboard year-end charts, as this song was #52 on the 2007 edition of that chart. I listened to it once in May after adding it to my Spotify, according to my last.fm page. Then I had three more plays for it in September of this year because I was going back through the old alternative charts. The song was still really cool then, just not quite a keeper. Well, that changed about two weeks ago when I was listening to the songs for the 2000s alternative crossovers rankdown on Pulse Music Boards. This was one of the songs I had not heard or remembered much about, so I had to relisten to it for that. And that time, it not only clicked with me, but it stuck with me, so much that twenty eight of my thirty two plays for it have occurred this month. That's pretty crazy if you ask me. The song itself is extremely catchy and has great instrumentals throughout, and the story behind it is really cool. It's basically about a girl who gets abused by her boyfriend, but she still really loves him, so she hides her wounds with makeup and still sticks around with him, hoping for a change. But by the end of the song, the boyfriend discovers that his girlfriend will finally leave him if he doesn't stop beating her up. Pretty cool story if you ask me. All of this coming together makes for a pretty great song that definitely should have crossed over and become as much of a success as it was. I won't say any more here, but I found an article that discusses the song and why it still matters today. It's worth reading so you should check it out.

2. Three Days Grace - Never Too Late

I know I just did a whole post on songs I love from them, but I feel kind of bad for leaving this song out of it because it is really good. Plus, it is one of their most acclaimed songs, so I feel like I have to talk about it more in-depth than I would in an album review (yes, a One X album review is coming pretty soon). But anyways, I think this doesn't sound that much different from a normal great Three Days grace song. It just sounds a little better. I can definitely tell from listening to One X that they put a little more effort into songs like this, "Pain", and "Animal I Have Become", which is the first thing that brings the song up. It feels about as deep as those two songs do, too, which is cool because Three Days Grace are good at doing that. The meaning behind this song has to do with finding a way out of a very dark place, or just simply not giving up. And remember how much I talked about "One Headlight" by The Wallflowers in my top 25 songs of all-time post? Well, this song has a lot of similarities to it in terms of lyrics and theme. I also think that the guitars in this song work really well, and I like how it's mostly acoustic in the intro and verses but then gets heavier in the chorus. Same goes for the vocals. I like how all of that flows. This song isn't meant to be a huge banger, and I really don't mind that because of how cool everything else is. Amazing song overall, I would have put it on my top Three Days Grace songs list but there just wasn't room for it. But I still strongly recommend it.

3. Papa Roach - Who Do You Trust?
After going into two older alternative songs, here's a newer one to change things up. I haven't been into newer alternative music too much just because it's gone so downhill in the past five years or so, but this song shows no evidence of that. I first heard it on my local rock station a couple weeks ago, and while I thought the song would be forgettable after that listen, I kept hearing it on that station, and that's what made me come to really enjoy it. Eventually, I decided that it was just really good for a new Papa Roach song, so I added it to Spotify, and I have not hesitated any to give it a listen ever since. The song is just really catchy and has a fair amount of energy inside of it. Jacoby Shaddix has some cool vocals in it, too. I'm currently not sure how this song is doing commercially or on alternative radio, but I do know that they have a new album coming out next month, so that might be fun to review. We'll see when the time comes. But for now we have this song, which is very enjoyable because of how catchy it is. If you are not a huge fan of modern alternative music and want to hear something new from a band popular in the 2000s, then this song is for you. It's very good and deserves to be popular.

4. 6ix9ine/Fetty Wap/A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie - KEKE
Here's a newer song by an artist that is frowned upon by most music fans today because of his criminal acts and weird-sounding songs. But personally, I don't have a problem with his music. "GUMMO" was a pretty good song despite a negative vibe that the song has for some reason. "FEFE" is okay but did not deserve to be as big as it was in my opinion. Then there's this song. It is an average song from 6ix9ine, which is pretty bad for the average music fan. But because I respect music way more than the average music fan does, I enjoy this song quite a bit. It's very catchy and can get stuck in your head really easily. And I think that 6ix9ine is a really good fit for this beat and this song for some reason. I could do without Fetty Wap's parts, but A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, who I think is actually a pretty good rapper, comes in perfectly and makes up for that. Unlike the first two songs I discussed in this post, this song doesn't really have any meaning to it, which is fine because not every song has that. Some are just for fun, like this one. And I like that. This was the first 6ix9ine song I got into, so while he is not one of my favorite rappers out there, this is probably my favorite song from him that deserved to be bigger than some of his other songs.

5. Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue
My story with getting into this song is very similar to the one I told for "Face Down": I first heard this in May when doing a 2000s rock rankdown for Pulse, and I thought it was cool. In fact, I still have my rankings that I did then, and I ranked this #24 out of 40 songs, which is pretty good considering how amazing the list was. Then I had to listen to it again in September when going through the old alternative charts, and I racked up a couple plays for it then. But a couple weeks ago when listening to it again for that 2000s alternative crossovers rankdown is when I really got into it. The song is really upbeat and fun, for one thing. I also think the dude sounds good throughout the song. As for the lyrics, I didn't really know what was going on in the lyrics until looking it up, so not much to say there. I was surprised to hear that the song wasn't about a girl, though. But yeah, I don't immediately spot many flaws in this song, which makes it really good. It's always fun to listen to, even if it wasn't as popular or as good as a lot of other pop punk songs from the 2000s.

6. Migos/Drake - Walk It Talk It
This is not a song I loved from the first listen. The first time I heard it a few months ago, I didn't like it because I thought it was lazy or something like that. And I guess I can understand it. But more listens got me into it, and while it isn't close to my favorite Migos song, it's very enjoyable. It's definitely not the most upbeat song out there, but it's not the most boring song out there either. I think the chorus is really good even though it's repetitive. But as someone studying music production and how songs are made, I can tell you that songs by popular artists like this are often repetitive because that gets stuck in your head the easiest and makes you want to listen to it more, therefore making it more popular. So I can see why that's there. The verses are also cool and flow really well. I'm not sure which is my favorite, but I can say that all of them contribute to making the song great, including Drake's, which is especially cool. The beat isn't the best, but it helps give the song a pretty decent vibe. This is not one of my favorite rap songs released this year, because there are way too many songs in that category, but it is something fun to listen to when there's nothing else. I thought that Culture II would be a somewhat disappointing album, but with how enjoyable this and "Stir Fry" are, I doubt that now.




So that wraps up my first miscellaneous Monday post! It was fun to make, and I hope it was fun for you guys to read as well. If you want to check out any of these songs because they sound cool to you from what I said about them, I embedded their YouTube videos when introducing them, so you can listen to them that way. I might make a Spotify playlist with all songs I talk about in these posts, and if I do, it will be on the sidebar where you can access it pretty easily. But we'll see about that. Until the next post, see you guys later and have a great rest of your day and week!