Tuesday, June 16, 2009

final blog entry

What I have leaned

There are so many things that I have learned from this class, and so many skills that I can apply to future writing. At the beginning of class I did not proofread my work; I made grammar mistakes, and often could never think of what to write about. Now nearing the end of class I have a chance to reflect on what I have learned, and how I have improved. The process of writing is something I have learned a lot about, CD/CM chunks and thesis statements. Before this class, if I had to write an essay I would never write an outline. I have made many improvements in my writing and I no longer say I think, or in my opinion. I have learned a lot about how to write and interpret an essay, from the homework assignments. Before this class I didn’t know about good introductions or the difference between literary, personal, or compare and contrast essays. In the future I plan to continue writing and using these skills in English classes and on my own time.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Free Downloading

Many people believe that downloading free music is stealing money from record companies and artists, but it may be putting some more money into the pockets of the artists than people think. There also seems to be some confusion as to what is actually illegal and what is not illegal. Sources like Napster are in fact legal. Because the original file was purchased and somebody uploaded it, these services are protected under law. These web sites are known as file sharing sources or peer to peer sharing programs, web sites. What you may not know is that, for every song you download from a peer to peer sharing source such as Torrentscan.com, you can actually upload a certain amount of the song after you have downloaded the song. This is refereed to as seeding. The truth is that seeding, is not actually illegal, as long as you are not making any money by selling the mp3 file. Napster's attorneys say that finding and downloading copyrighted songs for free is protected by law, as long as Napster members are not making any money themselves.

Free music downloading can serve as a great promotional tool for any musical group. Artists may be actually making more money if people are downloading their musi. If someone is downloading an artists music they would be more likely to tell their friends and go to concerts. People are able to sample music easily and then will go out and purchase the CD because they like what they hear. This is much easier than going to a store and listening to a sample of the band's music. People are getting exposed to new music much faster which means artists and record companies will be making more money. This is an excellent source of exposure for the lesser known or underground bands or musicians. It is really tough for unknown artists to break in to the big record companies. According to a survey done by a professor at Wharton School of Business, seventy percent of Napster members polled, reported to have used the service to sample music before going out and buying it. A study was done by Harvard students that showed that free music downloading had no direct impact on music record sales or profit of record companies. In the past year the amount of downloads continued to increase but so did record sales.

Most people that are downloading music from the web today would not actually go out and buy the song. So record companies cannot claim it as lost money. The amount of money that the artist receives from a bought song is only a fraction of a cent. The most amount of money that an artist receives is from concerts and merchandise sales, and ticket sales and merchandise sales are more likely to go up with more people downloading music.

Many bands such as Wilco even encourage the free downloading of their music. Wilco's front man Jeff Tweety said "We don't care download it, share it, just don't sell it".

507 Words

Monday, May 25, 2009

Flight of The Conchords

Flight of The Conchords are one of my favorite bands that I have heard. They are best known for their show on HBO that has released two great seasons. The show is how I first heard of "Flight of The Conchords". The band is so great because they can make any type of song funny. The two members, Bret McKanzie and Jemaine Clement, both play folk guitars, sing, and play other instruments like synthesisers great together. Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie are a great duo to listen to both musically and comedy wise. In 2005 they were named Best Alternative Comedy Act. Their best song in my oppinion is called "The Most Beautiful Girl in The Room". Take a look at a section of lyrics that I took from the song.

Looking at the room, I can tell that you
Are the most beautiful girl in the...room.
In the whole wide room.
And when you're on the street, depending on the street.
I bet you are definitely in the top three
Good lookin' girls on the street.
Depending on the street.

A funny and somewhat true quote that Flight of The Conchords said is "We used to be "New Zealand's 4th most popular guitar-based,digi-bongo,acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo". But now they are much more popular and get a lot more attention from viewers, fans, and the media. This categorization is actually stunningly accurate. I could not stick Flight of The Conchords with a more fitting genre if I tried.

The first season of the show was hilarious and filled with subtle humor and witty comments about city life and Australians. The most recent season of the show has become very Americanized and lacked the witty hummer that the first season had. The quality of the music in the show however was still just as good as the first season of the show. Every episode of the show features at least two or three songs, that are featured on their CD's and live performances.

Another great song from this Flight of The Conchords is called "Business Time", which is great song about what sex is like after a long period of time in a long term relationship. These are some of the lyrics from the song

It`s business time.
Next thing you know we`re in the bathroom brushing our teeth.
That`s all part of it, that`s foreplay.
Then you go sort out the recycling.
That`s not part of it but it`s still very important. Then we`re in the bedroom.
You`re wearing that ugly old baggy t-shirt from that team building exercise you did for your old work.

Flight of The Conchords is one of my favorite musical performers, because their hilarious songs and TV show are able to make fun of any type of song or event. Their show is also one of my favorites out there. I love the way that Flight of The Conchords in their songs make fun of everyday life.


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Friday, May 8, 2009

Tool

Tool is one of my favorite rock bands out there. The band includes Maynard Keenan, Adam Jones, Justin Chancellor, and Danny Carey. Tool was one of the fist bands that I had heard that made me want to get into playing music. When I listened to Tool's first album Undertow and then their latest album 10,000 Days I was amazed at how different they sounded. Undertow’s songs were all thrash metal or rock, but on 10,000 Days the songs were more alternative and a lot less harsh. Out of the four albums, my favorite is Lateralus. The reason Lateralus is my favorite album is because it blends their early sound of thrash metal and their latest style of alternative rock.

Danny Carey, who is the drummer for Tool, is known for being an incredible drummer and artist. I think that out of all the members of Tool, Danny Carey is the most talented of the musicians in the band. Danny Carey often incorporates difficult and fancy foot work with his double bass pedal into his playing. Whenever I drum I try to use that same style of playing. My favorite demonstration of Danny Carey’s drumming is from the song “Ticks and Leaches”. The drumming in the entire blew me away.

Maynard Keenan is the singer for Tool and also an actor. Something I thought was ironic was when I found out he had joined the army in order to pay for the art school he went to. Maynard Keenan is also the singer for the band A Perfect Circle. A Perfect Circle is also an alternative rock band that consists of Maynard Keenan, the guitarist from The Smashing Pumpkins, James Iha, Bassist Marilyn Manson, and guitarist Billy Howerdel.

Tool’s concerts are known for being a great artistic and musical experience. The album 10,000 Days contains a set of slightly magnified glasses that when you look at the album artwork becomes three dimensional. One of my favorite songs by Tool from the latest album 10,000 is called “Vicarious”. The way I interpret this song is that people are so desensitized to violence and corruption that we need it to be interested. Take a look at some of these lyrics from the song.

Eye on the TV
'cause tragedy thrills me
whatever flavor it happens to be
Cause I need to watch things die from a distance
Vicariously, I live while the whole world dies
You all need it too - don't lie.

Tool’s lyrics all contain a little personal message or statement about society. The song Jimmy is about Maynard Keenan’s childhood. The song “Ticks and Leaches” is about record companies and how they drain a band of musical expression and ask too much. At the end of the song he says “I hope you choke” which is a way of saying that he knows he gave the music industry what they wanted but is not happy about it. The song The Grudge is about how people hold on to grudges just to make themselves feel important or worth something.

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Sunday, May 3, 2009

Punk

When people think of punk-rock today, bands like Blink 182 and Green Day usually come to mind. When I think of punk music I think of bands like The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and The Misfits. I do not consider myself an anarchist, a punk, or have extreme hatred toward the establishment, but I enjoy listening to punk music.

The Ramones are probably my favorite punk band, and were one of the biggest influences in punk music. The Ramones are not together today and most of them are dead, but there are hundreds of cover bands to preserve their legacy. The Ramones play the standard short, loud, and simple punk songs. Something I have noticed about the Ramones is that it seems like they never changed their clothes. I saw the DVD “It’s Alive” which is just a compilation of about twenty shows. In every show they are wearing leather jackets and ripped jeans.

The Sex Pistols I can best describe as being the English version of the Ramones. The Sex Pistols are composed of John Lydon whose stage name is Johnny Rotten, Steve Johns, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock. I first heard of The Sex Pistols when I heard the song “God Save the Queen” in my dad’s car about four years ago. I have been listening to them ever since. The Sex Pistols’ music is full of raw hatred toward establishments and Corporate America and is the pure definition of punk music.

The Misfits are a more recent band than the Ramones or the Sex pistols but are every bit as good. The first time that I heard the Misfits was when I watched a terrible horror movie called Bruiser and the Misfits music was featured in it. The movie was horrible but The Misfits music was perfect for the film. The Band created a new genre of punk music called horror punk. In a lot of the Misfits’ songs the lyrics describe horror films or strange horror themes, for example the song Astro Zombies or Night of the Living Dead.

Black Flag also created another sort of sub genre. Rather than being just punk music, Black Flag has more of a hardcore punk style. The first time I heard them was about one year ago and I thought that they sounded like the Sex Pistols, just louder and a lot more aggressive.I think the guitarist of Black Flag is more talented than other punk band guitarists. In his solos he has a sort of jazzy-hardcore style that I can only describe as just random not playing.

Punk Bands today just don’t cut it for me. Green Day and Blink 182 don’t have the same raw damaged sound that the original punk bands did. Let us take a look two samples of lyrics, one from Blink 182 and the other from Black Flag

She bought the perfect little house
And the lawn's well manicured
And she'd never missed a day of work

jealous cowards try to control.
rise above. we're gonna rise above.
they distort what we say. rise above.
we're gonna rise above.try and stop what we do.
rise above, when they can't do it themselves.
we are tired of your abuse.
try to stop us, it's no use.

This is just an example of the many differences in punk music and what is considered punk music. I just don’t see how someone would prefer Green Day over The Ramones.

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Sunday, April 26, 2009

Rap

The Wu Tang clan is one of my favorite rap groups of all time. Rather than being artificial like most rap songs today Wu Tang's songs are not put through synthesisers and have more of an old school, classic, damaged sound to them. The Wu Tang Clan's members include The RZA, The GZA, Old dirty, Method man, Ghostface Killah, Inspecter Deck, U-GoD, Master Killah, and Reakwon.

Old Dirty aka Dirt McGert aka Ason aka Osirus aka ODB was one of the founding members of The Wu Tang Clan along with the RZA and the GZA. Old Dirty died from a drug overdose in 2004. Old Dirty was definitely different from all the other members and definitely more energetic.

Out of the nine members of the Wu Tang Clan the GZA is defiantly my favorite. Aside from listening to just The Wu Tang Clan, I frequently listen the GZA's solo music. The GZA is also called by his nickname,Genius,for directing most of the music videos.
Wu Tang Clan member RZA whose real name is Robert Fitzgerald Diggs is another great rapper that helps to make up The Wu Tang Clan. I recently downloaded the album "Digi Snacks" off of Itunes and I have to admit it was definitely not what I had expected it to be. It sounded alot less like Wu Tang and alot more like most of the rap today that goes through synthesisers and cumputers.

The first time I had ever heard of the Wu Tang Clan was about two years ago on a Chapelle Show skit called Wu Tang financial. In this skit The RZA and The GZA act as financial aids, and tell stereotypical white people how to buy stocks. After that I checked them out and found a liking to their music. One thing I find interesting about The Wu Tang Clan is how they blend in little clips of audio from old Corny martial arts films. The Wu Tang Clan's name came from a mountain from Japan called mt. Wu Tang.

Mos Def is another rapper that I listen to frequently. He has the same Hardcore Old school rap style as The Wu Tang Clan. I first heard of Mos Def two years ago on the Chepelle Show as an actor and performer. Mos Def's real name is Dante Terrel Smith. He performs both as a solo artist and he performs with Talib Quali to make up the rap group called Blackstar. Mos Def's album Black on Both sides seems to talk alot about Brooklyn which is Mos Def's hometown and talks alot about racism.

A Tribe called Quest is next on my list. They are another classic Hip Hop group that I listen to. They first started making music in the late eightys. A Tribe called Quest consists of three members named Q-tip, Jarobi White and Phife Dog. In my opinion A Tribe called Quest is one of the best clasic Hip Hop groups ever and I have yet to hear a better rap song than "Can I Kick it".

508 words

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Primus, Les Claypool, & bucket head

I would like to talk about a band called Primus, a band whose sound is like no other band that I have ever heard. With song names like "My Name is Mud" and "Professor Nutter-Butter's House of Treats" it is not surprising at all that Primus is known for having a unique and diverse sound. In my opinion, Primus is so enjoyable for me to listen to because of the bassist and singer Les Claypool. Primus's songs are centered around the bass guitar rather than a guitar.

I recently listened to Les Claypool's new album called "Of Fungi and Foe". All the songs on this album were great and just as strange as all Primus' other songs. Les Claypool recently went on a tour that was called Les Claypool's Oddity Faire tour, and when he was asked what was planned for the tour he replied "We're going to fill it full of freaks. I guarantee it's going to be a memorable event. Whether you love or hate the music or the performers, it's going to be very memorable".

I honestly would not know what genre of music Primus could be associated with. My Itunes library has some albums listed as rock, others alternative and others listed as metal. I would have to disagree. If I would categorize Primus with any one genre of music it would probably have to be a fusion of alternative, funk and metal.

To me, Les Claypool has an extremely unique sound that cannot be imitated by anyone. Primus has very diverse songs and especially diverse music videos. In the music video for the song called Mr.Krinkles, Les Claypool has a pig mask and a suit on and is playing an upright bass while people who could be stars of a freak show walk by him.

Now I would like to transition from talking about incredible and strange bass playing to incredible and strange guitar playing. Bucket head as he likes to be called is a guitar player who is known for wearing a K.F.C fried chicken bucket on top of his head and a Micheal Myers mask on his face, doing the robot break dance and swing around nunchucks. Despite these strange characteristics bucket head is actually a great guitar player known for being one of the fastest guitar players ever.

I watched a video from Ozzfest in 1999 on Youtube a while ago in which Primus played a few songs with Bucket head. It was great to say the least. Les Claypool and Bucket head have a very similar style to one another and are a perfect match. If I had to pick which one was better at what they do I would have to go with Les Claypool because even though Bucket Head is one of the fastest guitarists I think that he does not put enough rhythm and feeling into his guitar playing.

Many people think that Primus and Bucket Head are bad because of their diverse strange sounding music, but then again I am willing to bet that many of these people think that the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus's music is actually good.

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