Filed under: Free Music, Music | Tags: 808s & Heartbreak, Bon Iver, Common, Jay-Z, John Legend, Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Swizz Beatz
VISIT GOOD Fridays to get free Kanye West tracks
Kanye West had an interesting two years. Because of his blog posts and rude stage stealing performance at the 2009 MTV Video Music awards, America quickly realized that Kanye is a little crazy. His last album 808s & Heartbreak, and namely Kanye’s widespread use of auto-tune, was a disappointment compared to his other hugely successful albums. With all of that behind him Kanye could be making a comeback. For the most part he’s ditched the auto-tune and returned to what he does best, make songs that have solid rhymes and incredible beats. Through his website Kanye’s released nine tracks that feature more than a few hip-hop heavy weights. Jay-Z, Common, John Legend, Kid Cudi, Swizz Beatz, and even indie rock idols Bon Iver make appearances on these free tracks. These songs are great singles that will tide everyone over until Kanye’s next album drops.
Filed under: Music | Tags: Do You Love Me, Easy Wonderful, Ganging Up on the Sun, Guster, Tufts University
Despite meeting nearly twenty years ago on the campus of Tufts University, Guster released its sixth studio album entitled Easy Wonderful today. Even though the core members of Guster are nearly “over the hill,” they manage to maintain a major cult following, primarily on college campuses. The bands joyous and eclectic version of indie pop is what draws in young fans. It’s been four years since Guster‘s last studio album. Ganging Up on the Sun became the bands most successful debut when it hit number 25 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. Offering the music video for “Do You Love Me” as a free download through iTunes last week, and letting friends or fans direct music videos for each song on Easy Wonderful, are interesting marketing campaigns that may help Easy Wonderful debut higher than it’s predecessor.
– E.W. Hoffman
Edgar Allan Poe is another iconic American writer. He followed a lot of conventional style elements, but his overwhelming darkness is what makes him standout as one of the best poets of all time. Poems like “The Raven” incorporate dark imagery, and many of his other poems aren’t afraid of heavy subjects such as death. Tons of poets write about love, but when Poe wrote about love his lover was dead. A lost lover should be something sad, but this poem is still so beautiful. Poe’s rhythm, rhyme scheme, and use of repetition make this a great classical poem.
“Annabel Lee”
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me. Continue reading
Filed under: Music | Tags: Bonnaroo, Coldplay, Light Night with Jimmy Fallon, Mumford and Sons, Oasis, Radiohead, Sigh No More, The Beatles, The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, The Late Show With David Letterman, The Who
For such a small country, it’s quite remarkable how many awesome bands have come from England. From The Beatles to Radiohead some of the best rock bands in the world have come from a country that is 3/4 the size of California. Considering their homeland’s rich musical history it should come as no surprise that Mumford and Sons hail from London.
Since their formation in late 2007 guitarist Marcus Mumford, banjoist Country Winston, keyboardist Ben Lovett, and bassist Ted Dwane have quickly gained popularity all over the world. Their debut album Sigh No More was released on October 5, 2009 in the U.K., but didn’t hit the states till February 2010. In America Mumford and Sons have already performed on The Late Show With David Letterman, The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. They’ve gotten so big that they’re playing at this weekend’s Bonnaroo Music Festival.
Mumford and Suns is a folk band that uses a ton of energy to make their passionate jams. Warm folksy singing is accompanied by a number of awesome instruments including, but not limited to, mandolin, dobro, and banjo. Their songs are heartfelt, catchy and endearing. They may not be on the level of their famous countrymen, but give them time. If they continue to get better we may be able to mention them with the likes of The Who, Oasis, and Coldplay.
-E.W. Hoffman
Filed under: The Way I See It | Tags: BP, Gulf of Mexico, oil spill, The Daily News, The New York Times
Photo Courtesy of TIME
For the past seven weeks oil has been spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. Every day more and more oil is polluting the Gulf, killing wildlife, and hurting the coastlines of five states. If all of that wasn’t bad enough reports have been trickling out that journalists are being denied access to areas affected by the spill.
“Last week, a reporter and photographer from The Daily News of New York were told by a BP contractor they could not access a public beach on Grand Isle, La.,” says Jeremy W. Peters in an article in today’s New York Times. “The contractor summoned a local sheriff, who then told the reporter, Matthew Lysiak, that news media had to fill out paperwork and then be escorted by a BP official to get access to the beach. ”
From the beginning of this oil spill BP hasn’t been forthright with images and information. For example, three weeks passed before images of the damaged oil pipe were release by BP. “The most detailed images did not become public until two weeks ago when BP gave members of Congress access to internal video feeds from its underwater rovers,” says Peters. “Without BP’s permission, some members of Congress displayed the video for news networks like CNN, which carried them live.”
There is no reason a journalist should be barred from covering the oil spill. In no way are they hindering the cleanup by standing in a marsh, or by taking a sea plane over these enormous oil slicks. There is no issue of disrupting national security, and no ones rights are being harmed. The only thing at risk is BP’s reputation. Shouldn’t we be holding them responsible for what they’ve done? Even if were not looking to place blame we have the right to know what’s going on in the Gulf of Mexico.
– E.W. Hoffman
Filed under: Movies | Tags: A.O. Scott, Academy Awards, Best Motion Picture of the Year, Elizabeth Weitzman, hype, improvised explosive devices, Iraq, Jeremy Renner, New York Daily News, The Hurt Locker, The New York Times, war
The Hurt Locker surprised a lot of people this year. There wasn’t a lot of hype about the movie before it came out, then it ended up wining six Academy Awards including the big one, Best Motion Picture of the Year. After that everyone had good things to say about The Hurt Locker. Hype, at least for me, can poison any good piece of art. When you pick up The Hurt Locker DVD and a quote right above the title reads “A near-perfect movie,” it leaves your expectations pretty high. This is a good movie, but it doesn’t live up to the hype.
This movie was called “an adrenaline-soaked tour de force” by A.O. Scott of the The New York Times. People all over the country were talking about how suspenseful and exciting this movie was. As the movie follows a team of soldiers that dismantle bombs all over Iraq audiences are drawn to one character. Jeremy Renner plays the wild and slightly insane Sergeant First Class William James who isn’t afraid to walk right up to improvised explosive devices (IED) that could take out one quarter of a city block or more. This guy likes metal music, fighting, and he loves war.
Renner did a spectacular job of acting in this movie, but the movie’s hype still gets in the way. All the people praising this movie aren’t entirely wrong because some scenes are action-packed, but others are downright dull. The movie was too long. Scenes could be cut down or completely removed, and the film would be better for it. In the middle of the movie Sergeant James’ unit runs into a team of special contractors in the middle of the desert, and they end up getting pinned down by a group of Iraqi rebels. This scene is excruciatingly long, and not much happens. Situations like this happen sometimes during war, but it doesn’t need to happen in a movie about war. It slows down the plot, and takes audiences away from what this film does best, defusing IEDs.
This isn’t a bad movie. The subject matter is cool. A movie about IEDs, soldiers addicted to war, and soldiers dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder hasn’t been made before. Add in the awesome performance that Renner turned in and you’ve got a good movie, but The Hurt Locker is not great. The hype it’s received is a little too much. It’s a movie that people should see, but don’t expect it to “stand as one of the defining movies of the decade” as Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News says it will.
-E.W. Hoffman
Filed under: Movies, The Way I See It | Tags: Jerry Maguire, Renee Zellweger, Tom Cruise
I happened to watch the end of Jerry Maguire the other night. It’s a really good movie, but is has to have the cheesiest lines ever recorded on film.
In the midst of giving this amazing speech Tom Cruise says, “You complete me.” Before Cruise can even continue Renee Zellweger says, “Stop. You had me at hello.”
Without doubt, this is cheesy, and since the movie’s release in 1996 these lines have been parodied ad nauseam. That being said, this is tremendously beautiful.
“You complete me.” So without Zellweger would Cruise die? Maybe that’s going to far, but at the very least Cruise wouldn’t be whole; something would be missing from his life. He needs her, and that’s beautiful.”You had me at hello.” How perfect is that? From the first words he said, she was in love. That might be better, or at least comparable, to love at first sight.
Does anything like love at first sight exist? I really wish it did, but I don’t think true love happens in an instant. True love takes time to grow. However, I do believe that something incredible happens when you meet someone special.
The ending of Jerry Maguire is definitely cheesy, but that’s ok. Movies are supposed to be entertaining. They’re a distraction from real life, and at times a fantasy of what we’d like our lives to be.Furthermore, it’s ok for movies, music, books and other art forms to be cheesy. An immense amount of art is created because of love. I wonder what the state of love would be like without art. Art helps us believe in love. Without art love might be in shambles.
Despite the ridiculous dialogue Jerry Maguire is still a good movie. Everyone wants someone in their life that completes them. Overall, this movie presents a great description of love. It may be a chick flick, but Jerry Maguire is guy approved because the plot includes sports, and the soundtrack is awesome.
-E.W. Hoffman
Filed under: Music | Tags: "The Death of Me", Alexisonfire, Bring Me Your Love, City and Colour, Crisis, Dallas Green, Sometimes
VISIT City and Colour’s MySpace
Being the “acoustic guitar, singer songwriter guy” can be extremely difficult. Almost everyone knows a guy who’s got an acoustic guitar, knows how to write a few catchy songs, and plays in your local mall or coffee house. A good singer songwriter is rare, but when you find a good one it’s like finding buried treasure. Dallas Green is well known because his main project Alexisonfire started turning heads in 2005. That same year Green released the first City and Colour album Sometimes. After another Alexisonfire album– 2006’s Crisis, and seriously beginning to gain ground in America– Green released City and Colour’s second album Bring Me Your Love in 2008. Green’s voice is soulful, his acoustic guitar playing is somewhat simple, and his lyrics are about true life things that most people go through. All of this makes his music endearing and something that you can’t step away from. “The Death of Me” is probably my favorite City and Colour song, but the truth is I’ve been obsessed with nearly every single one of Green’s songs for weeks.
-E.W. Hoffman
Filed under: Music | Tags: "All The World Is Mad", "Circles", "Doublepeak", "The Weight", Beggars, Dustin Kensrue, The Godfather Three, The Godfather Trilogy, Thrice
VISIT Thrice’s MySpace
Beggars, the seventh studio album from Thrice, is a more straightforward rock album than the bands previous releases. As time passes Thrice is becoming more confident and comfortable with making music. Incredible musicians that know exactly how to play together plus spectacular lyricism is the equation Thrice used to make Beggars.
Thrice might just be the smartest rock band in the world. Every song they write has a vision and a purpose, which is always achieved. Song arrangements don’t follow a tired, worn out pattern. With other rock bands it seems like they casually throw separate guitar, bass, and drum lines together to make a song. Every note on Beggars has a purpose, and nothing seems forced. Thrice can play an alluring, elegant ballad like “Circles,” a loud, riotous anthem like “The Weight,” and even mix the two styles on “Doublespeak.” As a whole the members work together to create music that is so far out of other band’s leagues.
Thrice is a well-rounded band, but frontman Dustin Kensrue is definitely the all-star on this team. His lyrics are one part social commentary and one part passionate allegories that we should all take to heart. His voice can be as jagged as shards of glass, or as soft as fleece. Continue reading
Filed under: Music | Tags: Brand New Eyes, Hayley Williams, Paramore, The Only Exception
VISIT Paramore’s MySpace
“The Only Exception” is the latest single off Paramore‘s Brand New Eyes. It’s a love song, but it’s something new for Paramore. Sure they’ve done slow ballads before, but none this raw and stripped down. Because of it’s honesty this song is refreshing. Lead singer Hayley Williams basically tells the story of how she’s given up on love, but that she’s on her way to making an exception to that rule. This is one of those songs that cuts you deep. This song is beautiful, and I’m obsessed with it.
-E.W. Hoffman
Tearing Down Stars 