Grammys 2013

Well that sucked ass. I mean the performances were alright. LL Cool J was a bad rapper as it is, but as a host he was the worst.
The opening was Taylor Swift, (doing a Lady Gaga impression) singing that annoying We Are Never Getting Back Together which sounds like a song played in an Old Navy commercial. There was like circus shit flying around and off tone singers and it just made me uncomfy.

Then Fun. tore shit up. They weren't playing anything that was overplayed on the radio, they played there other great song "Carry On". And as it was about to drop to the last chorus, it started to freaking rain on the stage. So it was pretty cool.

Next was Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z and I was expecting a mediocre performance. But JT did it right. He brought out a huge jazz band and it was tight. His singing was good, dancing was awesome, and plus he knew how to outreach to the crowd.

Next was this guy I never heard of called Miguel. He had like a 5 minute performance with the god awful rapper Wiz Khalifa. Good thing Wiz didn't really do anything cause Miguel did everything. He started out in the crowd wailing crazy notes, and then he made the beat himself. He ran up on stage and started singing more to this crazy good song. Then Wiz "rapped" for about 20 seconds then it was over and I was like "The Fuck?"

Next was Jack White and he killed it. For the first part he had an all guy band then for the second half an all girl band. Ridiculous skills.

Then I was looking forward to a nice tribute to Bob Marley. It had a pretty good lineup, Sting, Bruno Mars, Damien and Ziggy Marley. Sounds like a good time. They're singing the famous "Could Be You Loved" and then Rihanna shows up. I try to ignore her. Then they stop. One Marley song??? Really??? Despicable.

Overall the grammys were alright. Frank Ocean was good. Won 2 awards, Im happy.

Nirvana: Nevermind

First time I've ever listened to this album all the way through, and I love it. Like you and Sage said, every song is a single. The only song I really didn't like was "Territorial Pissings". That song to me sounded like a bunch of noise. But overall the album is a 9/10. That 10 minute pause reeeaaalllly tripped me the fuck out. I thought I finished the album and I thought "Hmm. That was a weak ending." Then I looked at my iPhone and it still was playing, I thought "Is this song broken or what?" Then the drop to the hidden song started and that was amazing. And also the album starts off with the best song of the 90's "Smells Like Teenage Spirit"

My favorite song on the album and possibly my favorite Nirvana song is "In Bloom". At first I thought that song just had a good melody and sounded good and catchy. Then I really listened to the lyrics and those lyrics were describing what I was doing. It was awesome. Great album. I liked it cause the bass playing was straight nasty with Kurt Cobain's unpretty, grungy, voice it was the shit.

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell's voice is incredible. It's pretty much rediculous how wide her range is vocally. She is one of the rare singers that have to break point between their regular singing voice and their falsetto. She is rediculous and her song writing is pretty genius. Although sometime throughout the album, I feel as if alot of the songs sound the same. Maybe that's just me but I tended to get bored with it. I would listen to Joni Mitchell after an intense breakup. Because a lot of her songs just have this sad depressing mood with depressing lyrics.

I like the songs All I Want, California, and River. To me those were the songs that spoke to me personally.

In one of her songs, she delivers her lines in a way where it's like she's not really singing. She is singing, but it's mostly like a conversation, like the words aren't even meant to rhyme. And it reminded me a lot of this Deadmau5 song I like. It's about miscommunicating on the phone and all that. It's not exactly a DJ dance song, more of a ballad like Joni Mitchell does.

My favorite Joni Mitchell song on that album was "All I Want"

And that song where they basically don't sing, It's more like a conversation is this one. It's "Telemiscommunications" by Deadmau5

Imagine Dragons

I just downloaded their new album last night, and it's not bad. The only thing wrong with it is that all the songs sound alike, plus I know the radio is gonna kill and rape the shit out of this album. Because while I was listening to it I was like, "oh, there goes another hit" which isn't a bad thing. It's just I hate it when it is a hit because the radio is gonna ruin a perfectly fine song by forcing it down my throat. Overall I like it because it's a new sound. They have a variety of sounds they use, a lot involve claps with sythesizer, which i love. But then they'll throw in elements of electronic/dance/dubstep and it sounds nice.

 It's just a lot of times their lyrics don't make a lot of sense. But sometimes you don't need that in an artists. Their songs are for sure catchy as fuck though. I looked them up live for their performance of "Radioactive" (an alternative dubstep track.... the radio has already raped it) and it didn't sound how I wanted it to. The singer wasn't belting like he does in the recording and the dub wasn't there either.

Overall, I give this album a 7/10. It was very good and a chill album with a different sound for sure, but every song sounded the same and the lyrics lacked depth. Also another personal point off for me because of the live performance no where matching the recording.

Their most famous song, with elements of dubstep, "Radioactive"

And another famous song, "It's Time"

Chiddy Bang

Chiddy Bang is probably within the future of rap. It's a group of two people, Chiddy (rapper) and Xaphoon (beat maker) They could be considered Hip Pop in a lot of ways, but I think in the future Chiddy's rhyming skills will get better. Right now he tends to go off topic in his songs and say a bunch of shit that doesn't even go with the title. But none of the less he comes up with some crazy analogies and similes that are genius.

The more underated beat maker Xaphoon is the one with perfect skills in his department. Rediculous beats. Better than any I here. If I were to pick one person to make my beats it would be Xaphoon. It's a shame he doesn't exactly get the credit he deserves. When I first heard them I thought it was just one person named Chiddy Bang. He is a genius on the beats. I think he could go off by himself and become a top rated techno DJ.

Chiddy Bang is more of a mix tape group considering that they only have 2 albums on iTunes, one with only 6 songs. And all the songs on their albums are on their mixtapes first. If you want a good listen for them, either listen to "Air Swell" or "Peanut Butter and Swelly" (my favorite)

I like Chiddy Bang because even though it has a lot of elements of Pop in it, it has some great sounds that make you feel different. Really good to listen to if you want to listen to something fun.

Their most famous song is one where they took a sample from MGMT's "Kids" and remixed the beat making "Opposite of Adults"

My favorite song by them is either "Cameras" (they took a sample from Matt & Kim) or "Talking To Myself"

K'Naan

K'Naan is a African native rapper/singer from Somalia. He moved to Canada as a child and spent his childhood there. He was a poet when he met a producer named Sol Guy and they became friends. His first official performance was a speech he gave to refugees criticizing and bashing on the way the UN. At that moment Sol Guy saw K'Naan's ability to connect to a crowd. So he introduced him to Nas and Rakim and their ability and K'Naan fell in love. Although he did not yet know the full English language, he started to study rap diction and free styling and similes. Since then he has been signed to A&M Records and Octane Records.

I love this guy. His story is remarkable, plus he's a great visionist. He knows how to connect to another person through words. We can all relate to his lyrics, and I have never heard one line about him having a car, nice jewelry, or pretty bitches. He is a plain and simple lyricist. And only few people can be called that. Nas, Lauryn Hill, Talib Kweli, Q-Tip, Common, Black Thought, and K'Naan are all lyricist and that is quite a roll call. Personally I like him rapping more than singing. But when he sings he usually raps in there too. But he has some pretty good songs singing wise. Some in particular are "Take A Minute" and "Hurt Me Tomorrow". His best rap song by far is "ABC's", such a good track.

Here is "ABC's"

Here is "Take A Minute"

And here is one of his recent songs, "Hurt Me Tomorrow"

Here is the one that everyone knows, the theme of the World Cup, "Wavin' Flag"

Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath

Well I can't say I was entertained by most of the songs from Sabbath.... the singing was really sloppy but I will admit the guitar was kick ass. My favorite song by them is War Pigs because me that what sounds most like Rock. And what sounds most like a song that defines them. Not a big fan of them, but that might just be my taste. It just sounds..... all over the place if that makes sense?

And we listened to Zeppelin III which I was entertained by, but not as much as I was listening to their first 2 albums. I kinda think the screaming at the beginning of Immigrant Song is kinda annoying and personally I don't really like the song. Not as good as classics like "Babe" "Whole Lotta Love" and "Black Dog". Overall I give Zep 3 a...... 3 out of 5. I give Zep 1 a 3.7 out of 5, and Zep 2 a 4.5 out of 5. Overall 3 was a decent album to me.... but some songs were really unmemorable and kinda boring. Not bad, but far from mind blowing.