1994 and Jeff Buckley

Took a long break, but here I am, attempting to get back into the routine of blogging about stuff. The last post I did was on the 30 day challenge, but that is what got me stuck, so instead of going back to that, I'm gonna go back to just doing album reviews of all the albums I have on my computer. That was the main purpose of the blog in the first place, right? So going back and looking at where I was, it looks like I'm going into 1994, and Jeff Buckley is the first on my list with his album Grace.

Grace is one of those albums that I don't think everyone will love, but it has grown on me, and it is now one of my favorites of all time, so if you don't at least give it a good try, I will have to kick you from my blog or something along those lines. I hope to be seeing plenty of comments that are along the lines of, AHHHHH I LOVE THIS!!!!

So anyways, here are a few of my favorites from the album, and I hope you enjoy them too.
This is Last Goodbye


I wish everyone I knew loved this guy, 'cause I personally think he made some truly fantastic music.And if I have any other Radiohead Fans out there, here's a fun fact for you: Thom Yorke was inspired to write Fake Plastic Trees right after he came back from a Jeff Buckley concert.

Here's Hallelujah, which I think everyone will recognize, because the song is on the Shrek soundtrack.


Hallelujah was originally done by Leonard Cohen, so this isn't an original of Jeff's, but Jeff did cover it before pretty much anyone else, and if I'm not mistaken it was his cover that really popularized the song.

And the last song for the post, Lover, You Should've Come Over


Jeff Buckley is one of those musicians that I really wish could have lived longer. He had only released one album, and was getting ready to record new material when he disappeared in a river and drowned.

Hope you all love it. Next up I have The Very Best of The Eagles, unless people want me skipping Best of CDs, then I have Four by Blues Traveler, so let me know in the comments, and I will try to finish the next post as soon as possible. I *should* be able to keep up on blogging now, since I'm out of school and and have free time in the evenings, so expect these posts to be more regular than they ever were before.

Turntable and Day 24 - A Song I Want Played At My Funeral

I guess I have to apologize for not posting again. I got a job, and I've had plenty of time to do posts, however, I've found a new music thingy that I'm kind of addicted to now. There is this site called Turntable.fm, and if you love music, this site is a blast. So instead of blogging about music, I've been playing music on there and learning about a whole bunch of other artists. If you're ever bored and just feel like sitting back and listening to music, get on there and sign on with your Facebook account, and if you're friends with me come find my room and say hello.

Now, to get this 30 day song challenge done. Hmmm... For this day I have a couple songs... one is a probably, and one is a maybe. And the other one I wanted for a funeral song got taken by someone else.

This one... 

And.... this one. 

Day 23 - A Song I Want Played At My Wedding

Well I got behind, and here's me starting again now that I have a job and don't have to spend my evenings scouring the internet for job openings.

Hmm... A song I want played at my wedding... hmm. I could make a whole playlist, so I'll try to pick just one...

....

....

....

....

....

ok, got it. This one is it. It must be played. I love it, and it's The Beatles.



So... if anyone reads this quickly enough to give feedback, should I do the next one today too and just try to start getting this challenge done since I'm so behind? Or just leave the next one for tomorrow and keep doing them by days?

Day 22 - A Song I Listen To When I'm Sad

Sigh... this song is depressing. Don't listen to it if you're sad. It's not a good idea.

Day 21 - A Song I Listen to When I'm Happy

Umm... I dunno. I listen to a lot of songs when I'm happy. This song however popped into my head first. Not sure why. It's as good as any I guess :) I LOOOOVE trying to sing along with it, 'cause it's just kinda crazy and weird...    "Oh I see a man in the back as a matter of fact his eyes are as RED as the sun! and the girl in the corner let NO one ignore her cause SHE thinks SHE'S the passionate one!" 

Day 20 - A Song That I Listen to When I'm Angry

I hardly ever get angry.... Most people have never even seen me angry. So.... yeah.... There isn't any music I listen to when I'm angry, cause I don't get angry really... So this one just gets skipped I guess.

Day 19 - A Song From One Of My Favorite Albums

I may have changed the challenge a little bit for this one, cause I really don't know what my favorite album is. However, I really love Radiohead, and Hail To The Thief is probably my favorite Radiohead album at the moment. So here is There There, which is a really fantastic song.



And it sounds really good when it's really loud on a nice soundsystem. I tend to blast this song every time I listen to it.

The Piano Fort

So, last night was really kinda awesome. My brother held a benefit concert in his workshop over in Sellwood, and he put together this really awesome stage (that you can see above) from pianos. As you can see, the pianos are sticking out on the front, and he got the piano up in the top left, and he made the steps up on to the stage from old piano benches and the piano keys from one of the pianos underneath the stage, so that there was a clang every time someone walked on. The shop just looked amazing and he's planning on having concerts there every month.

So last night the first act was a guy named Seth Kinzie, and then we had Lone Madrone, and then we had Marty Marquis of Blitzen Trapper, with his friend Doug Fessler on the drums.

Seth only did a couple songs, but they were pretty awesome. Seth said he was a part of a trio, and I really wanna hear the rest of their stuff now. He did a bit of his own percussion throughout the performances, either using his hand on the benches or kicking his feet against the floor to get a bit more of a scratchy sound. Here's a video of him at the Piano Fort.


Next we had Lone Madrone who did quite a few songs. Someone got all of them up on Youtube which is really awesome. One song in particular I have really been loving, and I'll post that here in a sec. I'm looking forward to seeing what they have on their cd which they're gonna be releasing soon, and I'll have to let you all know what I think when I get it. Here is that song.


And the last act to get up was Marty Marquis with his friend Doug Fessler. I had already met Marty once before, and I had seen a video on Youtube of him performing Jericho, but man, videos do not compare to being there live. He did some songs I had never heard before, and then he did Jericho towards the end. This is the only one I could find of him at the Piano Fort, and there are also some of him doing Jericho with Blitzen Trapper if you want to look for that. Here's Marty and Doug.



It was just a fantastic night. Sam and I went and created a Facebook page for the Piano Fort, so if you're reading this and think this sounds fun, go to Piano Fort on Facebook and like it, and we'll keep you up to date on when the next show will be!

Day 18 - a song that I WISH I heard on the radio

There's a lot of bands I've heard on the radio, but Wilco is one I don't think I've ever heard on there. I wish Wilco got some play time on the radio, that would be awesome.



I mean, come on, Wilco is one of my favorite bands, and I have to talk to people older than myself to find people who even know who they are it seems like. They're one of those bands I like to introduce people to when they wanna know what kinda stuff I like to listen to. After Radiohead that is.

Day 17 - A song that I hear often on the radio

Elton John is always being played on the oldies station, and so is the 4 seasons' song Oh What A Night. On other stations though, I happen to hear The Dog Days Are Over by Florence and The Machine a lot.

Day 16 - A song I used to love but now hate.

Hate is a strong word. I don't really hate this song, I just strongly disagree with some of it. Sure, I agree with peace and a unified world and such, 'cause as a Christian, that's what we should be going for, right? However, the way Lennon describes it doesn't sound so wonderful to me. No heaven or hell? no religion? nothing to kill or die for? We need purpose in out lives, and without it life wouldn't even be worth living, even if it were in a peaceful world. Having a life without meaning sounds worse than living in a world with problems.

Day 15 - A song that describes me

Well, I was having trouble finding a song that lyrically described me. This song however, pretty much captures my mood most the time, happy, laid back, but excited at the same time.

If anyone else can think of a song that you think describes me, it would be awesome if you could let me know, 'cause now I'm gonna be trying to think of one for awhile.

Day 14 - A song that no one would expect me to love

This is hard to decide. However, I think most people know I don't like super loud music that much, and know I'm not a big fan of Disturbed. However, I kinda love this song....

Is this one that people wouldn't expect me to love? I really have no idea what no one would expect me to love, but I think that song is a good guess.

Day 13 - A Song That Is A Guilty Pleasure

I really shouldn't like these songs.... but I do.... Normally I don't make it public though :P But anyways... yeah... I kinda like some Justin Timberlake songs :P they are the only guilty pleasures I can think of :P

Day 12 - A song from a band I hate

Well, I already said Poker Face was my least favorite song, so you know I don't like Lady Gaga. Let me tell you I also really dislike Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers, Ke$ha, Katy Perry, and all those kinda people. But, out of all those, I think Ke$ha's Tik Tok song annoys me the most.... every time I hear someone say "I wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy" I want to find wherever their music library is and purge it, and then make them listen to something else. WHY would you choose to listen to Ke$ha over all the other music that is out there? COME ON!!! ok. I can stop now. I'm tired. and just thinking of that song and even writing those lyrics kind of bothered me. and I am not gonna post a video of it....

Day 11 - A Song From My Favorite Band

Well, my favorite band is Radiohead, and this is hard cause they have so many fantastic songs. I guess I'll do this live performance of Weird Fishes/Arpeggi



I was considering doing one of their weirder ones, like Paranoid Android or There There, but this one is just kind of beautiful, and I'll get to those other songs once I get back to doing full albums.

Day 10 - A Song That Makes Me Fall Asleep

Well, it's late, and I'm starting to get tired. And so hopefully this song doesn't make me fall asleep.... There are lots of songs I can sleep to, but I really do love Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) by Billy Joel.

Day 9 - A song I can dance to

There are plenty of songs I can dance to... But a favorite? The first time I ever did a group dance at church it was to Human by The Killers. So now that song has a special place in my heart. We did the Virginia Reel and and that song was probably played 8 times before we were done with the dance. It was a lot of fun, even though I messed up a lot.



I was gonna try to find a video of the Virginia Reel too, but they were all wayyyy too slow. I am so glad we do the Virginia Reel to faster music. It looks boring at the slow pace everyone else does it.

Day 8 - A Song That You Know All The Words To

This one took awhile to memorize, but I finally got it cause it was just so much fun trying to sing along with him. It's an Evans' favorite. I think most of us know it.









It doesn't matter what I say
So long as I sing with inflection
That makes you feel that I'll convey
Some inner truth of vast reflection
But I've said nothing so far
And I can keep it up for as long as it takes
And it don't matter who you are
If I'm doing my job then it's your resolve that breaks

Because the hook brings you back
I ain't telling you no lie
The hook brings you back
On that you can rely

There is something amiss
I am being insincere
In fact I don't mean any of this
Still my confession draws you near
To confuse the issue I refer
To familiar heroes from long ago
No matter how much Peter loved her
What made the Pan refuse to grow

Was that the hook brings you back
I ain't telling you no lie
The hook brings you back
On that you can rely

Suck it in, suck it in, suck it in
If you're Rin Tin Tin or Anne Boleyn
Make a desperate move or else you'll win
And then begin to see
What you're doing to me
This MTV is not for free
It's so PC it's killing me
So desperately I sing to thee of love
Sure but also rage and hate and pain and fear of self
And I can't keep these feelings on the shelf
I've tried, well, no, in fact I lied
Could be financial suicide 
But I've got too much pride inside
To hide or slide
I'll do as I'll decide and let it ride until I've died
And only then shall I abide this tide
Of catchy little tunes
Of hip three minute ditties
I want to bust all your balloons
I want to burn all of your cities
To the ground, I've found
I will not mess around
Unless I play then hey
I will go on all day, hear what I say
I have a prayer to pray
That's really all this was
And when I'm feeling stuck and need a buck
I don't rely on luck because

The hook brings you back
I ain't telling you no lie
The hook . . .
On that you can rely

Day 7 - A Song That Reminds You of a Certain Event

hmmm.... there are a lot :) But, one that goes back pretty far and reminds me of an event every time I hear it is Pinch Me by Barenaked Ladies. There were some Japanese books that we got from one of our old Japanese students, and one day I was reading one of them while listening to the Barenaked Ladies, and now for some reason this song reminds me of that day I was down there reading it. The book was Doraemon, btw, if anyone wants to go look it up. It was pretty wacky.



That's a live version, and you can go find the other version if you really wanna listen to it. Embedding was disabled. I'm guessing most of you know that song though.

Day 6 - A Song That Reminds You Of Somewhere

okay, I know Nathan already did a song that reminded him of camp, but this song is the ultimate camp song. Every time I hear it I think of Family Camp. It was hard to think of songs that reminded me of other places, cause I normally link songs to events, not to places....

Day 5 - A Song That Reminds You of Someone

Hmmm.... there are lots of songs that remind me of people.... This song reminds me of Shay, because of that part where he sings, "She only drinks coffee at midnight, when the moment is not right. Her timing is quite... unusual." Most of the rest of the song doesn't remind me of Shay though, just that part :P

Day 4 - A Song That Makes You Sad

Nathan took one of the songs I was thinking of, and there are many that I could post, but there's one that I really love and listen to all the time despite the fact that it can send shivers of sadness down my back. It's this one by Fuel, and it's called Bad Day. You could take as her just having a bad day, but the way he sings about her leaving a note and all makes me think it's actually a note saying she's committing suicide. Maybe it means something different, but that's always how I looked at it, and it makes me depressed... After watching the video it actually looks like she dies in the back of the Taxi... either way, it still makes me depressed.

Day 3 - A Song That Makes You Happy

This one was still a bit harder, because there are a lot of songs that make me happy... but since it just said "a song," I just had to pick one so it wasn't too hard. I thought of doing Smiths, and I thought about doing a song by Modest Mouse, but I finally decided on this one. Jacksonville by Sufjan Stevens. Cause who doesn't feel happy watching a bunch of people wearing wings play awesome music?

Day 2 - Your Least Favorite Song

k, this one wasn't as hard, cause I can't think of as many songs I hate because I'm actually really good at avoiding them. I could have done something by Justin Beiber, or I could have done Rebecca Black's song, but instead I want to say that Poker Face by Lady Gaga is probably my least favorite song, just because it is just SO stupid, and for some reason people still love it. Also, I love this video of Jude Law reading it, cause it shows just how ridiculous it is. Christopher Walken reading it is pretty awesome too.

Day 1 - Favorite Song

So, I've been really busy with school, and graduation, and trying to get everything finished up, and I don't wanna take the time to write entire posts at the moment, but there's a "30 Day Song Challenge" thing I saw on Facebook, and since I don't think it will take me as long as normal posts do, I thought I'd do these for now so that my blog doesn't just die, cause I do fully intend to keep posting here when I have more time. For now you just have to deal with small posts though.

So day one of the challenge asks for my favorite song, but since I don't have any 1 favorite song, I thought I'd pick this one, since I've been really into the Counting Crows for awhile now. This is A Long December.

Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See

Mazzy Star, Mazzy Star, what do I say about Mazzy Star? I got in to Mazzy Star at the same time as I got in to Tom Waits, and I really do love some of their songs a lot. Their sound on this CD is very soothing, and I've used it to lull me to sleep to several times just because it never gets rough at all, or I should say it doesn't get very rough compared to most of everything else I listen to. Hope's voice always has that mystical sound around it that just holds me captivated in some of the songs.

Fade in to You is the first song of theirs that I heard, and that was back when Sam and I were working on a playlist, waaaaay back when I was doing the "Playlist of the day" thing on Facebook. I really loved that Playlist, and I found a few new artists by working with Sam on it. Those Playlists were a blast, and maybe I'll decide to start doing those again eventually if I have nothing better to do with my time.


This is the next song I really started to like after Fade in to You. Like the rest of their songs on this album, this song is just really slow and soothing, and once the other string instruments start joining in, I really love the sound they make together, this song is just beautiful I think. I really am a fan of violins and cellos in music a lot of the time, I just think they sound gorgeous in most cases.

And this next song is the last one I'll show you.



Aaaaand that concludes the year of 1993 for me, remember, if there were any other albums in that year that you loved, let me know! I'm moving on to 1994 next, and let me tell you, there are some true gems from that year.

As a last note, I'm sorry it's been like 3 months since my last post. I got a little busy, and then I felt bad that I had not posted in awhile, and I was afraid to post, 'cause then you would all realize how poorly I was keeping up. Then there were like 3 people who noticed I hadn't posted and said they wanted new things to read from me, so here I am, posting again. And now that I'm over feeling bad for not posting for so long I should be able to start keeping up again. So yeah, if I fail to post again, take their example and bother me about it and I'll get right back to it.

The Sign - Ace of Base.

Now, I have no idea what you're all gonna think of this band, unless you're like me and love them simply because they had a huge part in your past. Ace of Base was a huge success in the 90's as a popband, and one of those bands that I look back on with humor, and also love at the same time. I really don't listen to them all that often, I just have them on my computer so that I can say "I have Ace of Base, and you should be jealous, unless you have them too."


I'm pretty sure this is lip synced... in fact I'm pretty much positive it's lip synced, since it sounds exactly like the actual song, only with really bad quality. I have no idea what I would think of them had I not grown up with them, but because I grew up with them I love them... they're like candy to feed my nostalgia with. I always think of the Backstreet Boys when I think of Ace of Base... only I think Ace of Base was a lot cooler.

I'm still doing three videos, since I want to try and make that the norm. This video is actually sung live I think... which makes me wonder whether I was wrong about the first one, since they sound so good, and normally bands aren't able to sound exactly like their recording... You can decide whether you think they're lip-syncing or not, and let me know what you think as a comment. I think the first one is lip synced though.



man... just listening to this makes me feel like I'm 8 again... washing the dishes while Leah makes everything awkward by turning on Ace of Base and singing along to it as if she were singing to us. Wow... those were the days... yep... I bet no one else had siblings who made things as interesting as mine did... or maybe you did.

Hopefully I'll be able to pick up on the posting... but don't be surprised if it's another while before I post again since I have quite a few things to do these next couple weeks. Also, I am now part of another blog! Random Ideas From Plotters and Schemers. It's a joint effort between me and a few friends, and hopefully we'll be able to keep up on that one since we have more accountability, unlike me on this blog...

If you think it's time for a new posts here on this blog start sending me comments to nag me, and I'll get more up, otherwise I may just fall behind again. I hope you all have been having a wonderful week so far! And remember to let me know what you think of the music!