Monday, February 28, 2011

Town Line: Aaron Lewis’s Album (2011): Track List – All Songs



Track List of “Town Line” – Album by Aaron Lewis:
Tracklist:


1. The Story Never Ends
2. Vicious Circles
3. Country Boy (feat. George Jones & Charlie Daniels)
4. Tangled Up In You
5. Massachusetts
6. Country Boy (Radio Edit)
7. Country Boy (Acoustic Version) 



innovative song in the world the beatles a day in the life



Let’s be honest here, no compilation of innovative songs is complete without a Beatles track. That much is a given. My problem then really presented itself – which song would I choose?! There are so many that could be classed as ‘innovative’: I am the Walrus and its use of words for their sounds, rather than their meanings; Eleanor Rigby and one of the first examples of telling a story through popular music; Strawberry Fields Forever and its use of recording and mixing techniques that were incredibly new…I could go on. In the end, however, I decided to plump for A Day in the Life.

A Day in the Life appears on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, as the final track. Sgt Pepper is arguably one of the most important albums in popular music history, using an enormous variety of musical styles and recording techniques. The cover is iconic and the whole thing is probably the closest that the Fab Four ever got to a concept album. A Day in the Life is my song of choice for the innovative way it evolved from something quite simple into a complex piece, that was banned by the BBC!

A Day in the Life was another McCartney/Lennon partnership. The interesting thing about this song is that the song comprises distinct segments that were written totally independently by each man. Lennon’s opening segment was influenced by a newspaper article written at the time about the death of Tara Browne who died in a car crash. McCartney’s segment is rather more whimsical and reminiscent of his youth – taking the bus to school and smoking. The line “I’d love to turn you on” which concludes both segments, was seen by the BBC as being a drug reference, and the song was subsequently banned from radio.

I suppose for me the really exciting bits of this song are the bridge between the sections, and the final chord at the end of the song. The bridge was originally a real struggle for the band and, by the end of the recording session, consisted of a repeated piano chord and voice of Mal Evans counting the bars. They added a bit of echo to Evan’s voice, but suffice to say that this song wouldn’t be the recording that it is if they had left it at that. Paul McCartney had the brain wave of bringing in a full orchestra to fill the gap. George Martin wrote a very loose score for the musicians to follow but ultimately, they were free to improvise. The piece builds to a crescendo, ultimately ending on an E major chord. The instruments in the orchestra all built to this point in their own way, leading to the rather discordant, but ultimately satisfying conclusion. The segment was recorded 4 times and then overlayed into a single recording, giving the piece an incredible richness and depth. I love this bridge – it totally takes you by surprise the first time you hear it. I also love that it ends with a ringing alarm clock, signally the start of McCartney’s section. Normally such a crescendo would illustrate the climax of a piece, rather than sitting slap bang in the middle of it. I love the contrast of the richness of sound, with the simple sung sections.

The orchestral crescendo is repeated at the end, and following it is arguably one of the most famous final chords in musical history. This piano chord evolved as a replacement for a failed vocal experiment - they had recorded an ending of their voices humming the chord, but despite multiple overdubs, wanted something more powerful. The chord was created using three different pianos with Paul, John, Ringo and Mal Evans. George Martin was on the Harmonium. Together they all played an E-major chord simultaneously. The chord is made to last by increasing the recording sound level as the vibration faded. At the end, the level was so high that if you listen closely you can hear the sounds of the studio, including rustling papers. I love the boldness of this chord – its such a statement of finality. It really signals the end of the album.

I still get shivers up my spine listening to this song. For me, it’s the contrast of the simple lyrical sections, with their stories of ordinary people woven through, with the bold orchestral statements. I love the discordant nature – something that not many people have ever been bold enough to do. For me, McCartney and Lennon managed to do so many visionary things – lyrically, instrumentally, and technically. This song brings all those elements together beautifully and epitomises for me why they are still, for me, the most creative and innovative musicians in history.

Learn To Play:Remebering Sunday By All Time Low On Guitar

Learn To Play:Remebering Sunday By All Time Low On Guitar

Friday, February 25, 2011

Catching Up With... Danielson


During his final year at Rutgers University, Daniel Smith turned his senior thesis into a full-length album. A collection of offbeat pop melodies with Christian overtones, A Prayer for Every Hour sparked a prolific streak for Smith, who released six more records under a variety of surname-based monikers—Danielson, the Danielson Famile, and Brother Danielson—during the decade that followed. He also launched a label, signed several upstart bands, hung out with Sufjan Stevens, and started a family. Then, following the release of 2006’s Ships, Daniel Smith took a break.
Five years later, Smith returns with Best of Gloucester County, a new album that straddles the (rarely crossed) border between oddball indie pop and evangelical neo-gospel. It’s also a tribute to Smith’s South Jersey hometown, where Patti Smith spent her teenage years before moving to New York City. Smith will leave Gloucester County next month, when he launches a four-week countrywide tour in support of the album’s Feb. 22 release.
There’s much to do before then, including a partially constructed studio to complete and a label, Sounds Familyre, to run. While finishing some pre-tour home repairs last week, Smith caught up with Paste about the album.
Paste: How’s your morning going? Did we just pull you away from something?
Daniel Smith: We’re building some things in our studio. There’s some more work to do before another session starts, so I’ve got my construction clothes on this week.

Paste: It’s a new studio, right? Lots of traffic already?
Smith: Last year was spent doing a lot of in-house projects for Sounds Familyre, as well as the new Danielson album. Those projects really filled it up. We’ve got another four things booked this year, though, so it’s looking pretty busy.

Paste: And you recorded Best of Gloucester County there?
Smith: We did the first half in my old studio, which is my parents’ basement. We did many of the overdubs and all the mixing in the new studio, though.

Paste: What’s the place like?
Smith: It’s a full, proper recording studio in a building behind my house. Eighteen-foot ceilings. Big live room. It has a decent sized isolation room and a separate control room, too. It’s set up so bands can record as live as they want to, which is pretty important for me.

Paste: And it’s located in Gloucester County, New Jersey, which is part of your new album’s title. Did the location inspire the music?
Smith: The music came as it always does; it’s just a process of collecting bits of songs, melodies and chord structures. You take lyrics from everyday life, and then you just need to find time to put the songs together. As the album was shaping up, we decided to release it ourselves, making it the first Danielson release on Sounds Familyre. So there was this immediate shift in the way we were thinking about the album. It started off as a practical thing—just putting all our chips into our own label, including my own music—and from there, I started to get excited about being back in the town I grew up in. As a frustrated teenager, I only saw what it lacked. Now, I’m able to enjoy an area for what it is, not what it’s not, and the album turned into a fun challenge to appreciate a very unromantic kind of area. As we continue to make art and release it on our small little label, I think that’s what we’ve decided to do: to enjoy everyday life and the mundane, and to turn it into something good rather than get frustrated about what it’s lacking.

Paste: What’s Gloucester like?
Smith: It’s pretty rural. In a lot of ways, it’s a suburb of Philadelpha. A lot of people work in the city and then come out to the country because it’s cheaper living out here. But even though it’s close to Philly, there’s still a lot of farming out there. There are some developments going up, but it’s still very much a farming area. Open fields and greenery and trees—it’s all part of what I love around here. And that’s what I mean when I talk about the challenge of looking around and trying to appreciate something that maybe I’d looked past before.

Paste: It’s been five years since you’ve released an album. Has the process of putting out a new record changed since 2006?
Smith: There are different people involved this time, but the basic approach to making a Danielson record hasn’t changed very much. It’s clearly changed on the business side, though. The business is just a really strange one, and in my mind, I’ve come to a place where I’m not expecting my own music to sustain me financially. I have to do many other things for it to pay the bills, so I don’t have that unreasonable expectation that one’s own music alone is gonna cut it. And I think that takes pressure off the music-making process, too. It doesn’t take it out of the equation—you always have to think about business a bit—but in terms of the approach to writing and recording, if you’re making an album while hoping it’s gonna reach a certain number of sales, it can really ruin the process.

Paste: Given your involvement with the label and the studio, is it hard to set some creative time aside for songwriting?
Smith: It’s something I have to carve out time for. But at the same time, it’s the thing I love to do the most. For this record, it’s been five years since we put out the last one, and a lot of that time was just me not writing at all. I wasn’t feeling it yet. My approach has never been to sit down and try to churn something out. At this point, if there’s something happening in my gut, I’ll take the time for it. But if I’m not feeling it, I can’t just force it to happen.

Paste: What got you writing again?
Smith: It was just time. It was a year and a half ago that I started, and I had some song ideas I wanted to complete. I’d been collecting stuff for a couple years. For me, it’s a pretty mystical experience. It comes when it comes, and that’s the way it is. I don’t really question it.

Paste: Now that your kids have gotten older, do they play a part in that process, too?
Smith: Of course, because I’m always trying to write from a perspective that pays attention to everyday life and tries to look out for the moments that might easily pass on by. Family life, everyday chores, and relationships in general play a key role.

Paste: What do the kids think about the new album?
Smith: Oh, they love it. My son’s two, and he’s already listened to it so much that I’m getting sick of the record. So if he’s any indication, this thing is gonna be huge!

Paste: As always, you’ve got some family members playing on the album. Will the touring lineup be the same? Will Sufjan Stevens, who plays on the record, also be involved?
Smith: We’ll have the core lineup of the album, in terms of basic instrumentation. The female backup singers will rotate between my sisters and my wife, depending on who can make it for each night. Sufjan is too busy, of course, but everyone else will be there on tour.

Paste: Even with your family members involved, this is a very different lineup from your past projects. Does playing with new people allow you to do new things? 
Smith: I don’t know. Whoever I’m working with—whether it’s family or friends—they’re all individuals who bring their personalities and immediate reactions to the interpretation of each song. And I want them to do that. Everyone’s a unique character. They’re all gonna bring interesting things because they’re interesting people. Hopefully, every record we make is gonna bring something new, whether it’s new musicians or new sounds.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

M. Frog - M. Frog (1973)

I have been enjoying this album for awhile now. Below you will find a review. Enjoy and comment!

Born in Clermont-Ferrand in central France, M. Frog Labat began life simply as Jean Yves Labat de Rossi. The grandson of composer Raphaël de Rossi who authored the evergreen romantic theme, “Strangers In The Night,” Labat fell in love with the church organ music he heard during his early schooldays at Catholic Seminary School. He went on to attend the Met-de-Penningen studio, Académie Charpentier and the prestigious Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris. It was at this last-named location of higher arts education that Labat discovered and studied avant-garde, concrète and electronic music. He then came in direct contact with Gregorian chants during a spell in a Benedictine monastery and all of these forms would wind up informing much of his immediate musical future.

After a one-off EP of his own material was released by French CBS in 1967, Labat then joined an early progressive Rock group called Baba Scholae on keyboards and woodwinds. The group was British except for Labat and a Hungarian musician, and they recorded one (as yet unreleased) album in 1969 in London before splitting up. However, ex-Baba Scholae guitarist John Holbrook would remain in contact with Labat and would wind up as a consistent collaborator in many of his sonic endeavours to come.

Moving to Woodstock in upstate New York, Labat’s instrument of choice for much of the seventies was the Synthi-A, a portable synthesiser produced by EMS in 1971. Best known by its near-exclusive use on European space Rock albums like “Obscured By Clouds,” “Join Inn,” “Cyborg,” and “Rubycon” it was capable of subtleties of miniscule gradations and the ability to achieve an extremely wide range of colourations. Labat found a nearby friend in Woodstock possessed a Synthi-A and subsequently borrowed it for an extended period of gestation with experimentation and work on several pieces that would wind up comprising much of his first album, “M. Frog.”

In the meanwhile, he was dishwashing in a nearby restaurant owned by none other than Bob Dylan’s former manager, the imposing Albert Grossman. A chance meeting with Rick Danko during work resulted in an offer to pass on whatever recorded material he might have to Grossman, who recently had set the Bearsville Record label with its own studio. Courtesy of Danko, a tape of the Baba Scholae album arrived at the Bearsville offices. Grossman was away on business, so it was previewed by his wife, Sally who thought enough of it to then pass it onto a Bearsville Records artist, Todd Rundgren. Both were immediately impressed by it so that upon Grossman’s return and subsequent review, Labat was contacted with an offer of a contract. Once the deal was struck, discussion turned to a more palpable name for the young French synthesist. But when Grossman suggested ‘Maestro Frog’ Labat’s lighthearted reply of “No, just ‘M. Frog’” stuck. And as a newly-christened Rock’n’Roll artist, M. Frog Labat would begin the most overt stage of his career.

Once finished adding synthesiser applications to Jackie Lomax’s “Three” album, Labat returned to Bearsville Sound Studios to embark on recording his first solo album, “M. Frog.” It was at these sessions that he first met Todd Rundgren, who was immediately taken with his informed, unorthodox strategies and freewheeling spirit. The first fruits of their musical partnership would quickly follow with: Labat’s “M. Frog” and Rundgren’s “A Wizard/A True Star.” Rundgren contributed guitar and vocals to “M. Frog” and wound up doing the final mix while Labat contributed EMS synthesiser and synthesised treatments to “A Wizard/A True Star.” The comparisons of certain sounds on both albums indicate not only the use of the same EMS Synthi-A but are markedly similar as if the resonances between Labat’s avant-garde-to-rock and Rundgren’s rock-to-avant-garde approaches were entirely complementary.

Comprised of local Woodstock musicians, fellow Bearsville labelmates and his old friend John Holbrook on electric guitar plus engineering tasks, the assembled contingent that appeared on “M. Frog” were about as unlikely as the album itself. Not only did Todd Rundgren guest throughout on vocals and guitar but Rick Danko contributed bass and violin while fellow Band mate Garth Hudson appeared on uncredited Lowry organ. Seeing better days, Paul Butterfield dropped by to add some harmonica, Joe Simon played prepared piano, Fanny vocalist/guitarist June Millington contributed vocals while the trio of Dennis Whitted, Christopher Parker, and Michael Reilly rounded out the proceedings on drums.

“M. Frog” is as kaleidoscopic as its multi-coloured cover of Labat’s own synthesiser notations plotted out on graph paper. Although the songs touched upon many different styles and distinctly different shapes, taken together they sounded like the end result of the same endorphin time release capsule in LP form. Labat’s confident compositions and attention to detailed tonal colourations drew together the many disparate sections and refracted them back from the same source of robust warmth. In the accompanying 8-page cover booklet glue to the front of the album, Labat described the aim of “M. Frog”: “I want the music to pop out. It’s funny music. It’s alive. It is for the living” and the album’s opener, “We Are Crazy” achieved all of the above and then some. A sensationally catchy exercise in sonic extremism, “We Are Crazy” is like Jean-Pierre Massiera backing a spirited, 3-chord/3-IQ band of heavy metal kids by blasting holes through their efforts with excruciating Synthi-A zappings, squiggles and explosions that discharge with random precision in between both your eyes AND the gleefully moronic chant-lyrics (brayed out twice thusly):


“We are crazy!
We are stupid!
We are lazy!
We are dirty!

If you understand / You’re gonna win a prize!
If you understand / You’re gonna win a prize!
If you understand / You’re gonna win a prize!
If you understand / You’re gonna win a prize!

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na / A washing machine!
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na / A date with the Queen!
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na / A sewing machine!
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na / A date with the Queen!

We are crazy!”

Monday, February 21, 2011

Sad Day For Puppets

Sad Day For Puppets – Sorrow, Sorrow
The continual stream of identikit indie pop from the States often makes it difficult to tell bands apart. Within seconds though, ‘Sorrow, Sorrow’ reveals Sad Day For Puppets. The old sweet / sour combination is in evidence, with the disconsolate lyrics buoyed by the most uplifting of melodies. Far from fashionable, the band’s songwriting sits midway between The Beach Boys and Teenage Fanclub, ending with a screech of feedback. Frayed at the edges, ‘Sorrow, Sorrow’ is all the more affecting for it.
Sad Day For Puppets - Sorrow, Sorrow

Saturday, February 12, 2011

How to buy a piano

If you are learning how to play piano, it is very important that you have a piano at home for you to practice. Without it, you will not be able to practice constantly and it will hinder your progress.
And considering the fact that the cost of piano is not cheap, you will need to be very careful in selecting and buying a piano; you will want to ensure that your investment is going to last for a long time.
Below are some tips for you to consider when you plan to buy a piano:

1. Decide your budget
The price of piano can vary wildly, depending on its make and quality. It can cost between a few hundreds dollars to several thousand dollars. So, you need to determine the maximum amount of money that you will pay for the piano and stick to it.

2. Decide the type of piano
You are basically looking at two options: electric piano or acoustic piano? Acoustic piano will take up more space than an electric piano, but, the sound will be better. Besides that, you need to make sure that you have room in your home for the piano.

3. Check out the market
Never buy something that you don’t know the price range. Find out about the pricing of new and used piano advertised daily in the newspaper or you can go online and search for prices as well as reviews from several piano website. Have a feel of the cost of the piano will be helpful.

4. Decide new or used piano
New piano will be more expensive than a used or second hand piano. If you have budget constraint or new to piano and don’t know if your interest will last long, why not consider getting a used or second hand piano. Before you buy any used piano, make sure that you get someone to check it out for any possible defect or problem.

5. Seek advice
It is good to ask someone who has experience in piano on which piano to buy. They can be your piano teacher, piano tuner, music teacher, friends or relative. Seek their advice before making any decision, especially if you are getting a used piano.

6. Visit showroom
Go to the musical instrument showroom and ask the sales persons for help. Find out which piano is the most popular within your budget and which is the most suitable for beginners.

7. Play and listen
Most important before buying piano, you need to try playing it. If you don’t know how to play the piano, ask someone to go along and play for you to listen. Make sure that you feel extremely comfortable with the sound and piano as ultimately, you will be the one playing it.

Guitar tablature

How to read guitar tablature

Guitar tablature, or also known as Guitar Tab, is a type of music notation that is used to represent strings and frets of the guitar fretboard graphically. If you are a beginner learning how to play guitar, then it is necessary for you to understand how to read guitar tab as it will tell you how to play the guitar note by placing a number which indicates the fret to play, on the appropriate string.
A guitar tab consists of 6 lines, with each line representing a string on the guitar. The low E, which is the thickest string, is right at the bottom whereas the high E, the thinnest string is at the topmost.

e ———— Thinnest string
B ———— Next thinnest string
G ————
D ————
A ————
E ———— Thickest string

Numbers are then placed on these lines to represent finger positions on the guitar fret board. These numbers will tell which fret to play on that string. A number “1″ would mean 1st fret, a “2″ would mean 2nd fret and so on. A “0″ represents playing an open string., which mean you will play the string with no finger positioned on the fretboard. An “X” means the string is not played at all.
For instance, to play a “G” on the thickest string, the tab would look like this.

e————————-
B————————-
G————————-
D————————-
A————————-
E—-3———————

It is alright if you are lost at this stage, let explain a little bit more in details.
When you hold the guitar, and assuming that you are right handed, your left hand will be holding the neck or also known as the fret board, while your right hand will be the picking hand. On the guitar neck, there will have about 22 bars (some guitars have more) that run across the neck, with the bars getting closer to each other as they are nearer toward the guitar body. So, for the example above, you will place the third finger of your left hand just behind the third fret of the thickest string and then pick the string with your right hand.
Simple right?
Now let’s look at a tab for a group of notes.

e—3–5–3————————————————
B————-5–3—————————————–
G——————-4–2———————————–
D————————-5–2—————————–
A——————————-5–2———————–
E————————————–5–3—————-

The first note is a G. The TAB shows the number “3″, so, you know that the note is played at the 3rd fret. The next note is the number “5″ (an A note), which will be at the 5th fret. The third note brings you back to the 3rd fret, still on the 1st string. The fourth note is played at the 5th fret, but this time on the second string (the B string) of the guitar. Since the “5″ is on the second line, you will then play the 2nd string of the guitar and so on.
Next, we will look at how to tab out a chord, which mean playing at least three notes together. The tablature for chord will still be the same like the single notes, except that for chord, the numbers will be stacked together and you will strum the strings together in one motion.
Let take a look at a “C” chord tab.

E——0———————————————————
B——1———————————————————
G——0———————————————————
D——2———————————————————
A——3———————————————————
E——X———————————————————

In the example above, you would put your finger on the 1st fret of the 2nd string, 2nd fret on the 4th string, 3rd fret on the 5th string. To play the C chord, you would strum all the strings together in one motion, with the exception of the last string marked with “X”, which is mute and not to play.
That’s how guitarist read the guitar tab. It’s not that difficult to read the guitar tab, isn’t it?

Guitar - for beginner

Welcome to the beginning of the game for entertainment and find out all the guitar, not quite the learning curve of any one musical instrument playing, especially for people who do not have any experience, hard and difficult. the first stage, and tons of beginner guitar you are likely to have pain and pain in fingers, strumming, guitar tabulator learn to read something like. 

And it is not only the obstacles, you'll need to learn to choose songs and play guitar. To start playing a song on the guitar as a beginning, or select the right song, you can get discouraged and as a result give up parts make sure that the level of difficulty. 


For this reason, I have compiled a list of songs guitar easy for beginners to the game. 


1. Red Heart - (Chords used: C, D, EM, G), Neil Young


2. Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton (Chords used: G, D, C, EM)

3. What a good boy - Bare naked Ladies (Chords used: C, D, G)

4. At No Name - America (Chords used: EM, F # m7sus) 

5. Production Moon - Neil Young (Chords used: A, D, G)

6. A Jet plane in the summer - John Denver (Chords used: G, C, D)

7. No Rain - Blind Melon (Chords used: E, D, A, G)

8. Rose's arm is all this - Poison (Chords used: G, C, D, EM)  

9. Knocking 'On Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan, Guns N' Roses (Chords used: G, C, D, Am)

10. One - U2 (Chords used: Am, D7, FM7, G) I remember you

11 - Skid Row (Chords used: G, C, D, AM, EM)

12 Come as you are - Nirvana (Chords used: Em, D, G, AM, C) 

This is a list of guitar songs for beginners, as the name suggested, for beginners, and each song is why only 3 or 4 tons. They do all this game is easy and very easy to get in line guitar tabulator, is search.
easy songs to play guitar for the beginning it is very important to learn, more than 4 tons of the songs do not try. They are not ready for. continue after that, more convenient to perform these songs began when a step today.