syzygy

Feb 13th 2010 Concert Review - Johnny B Jaded

2010-02-17T20:37:00.000-08:00

I already know what you're thinking.
Trust me I agreed once upon a time. But believe it or not, this man is ridiculously good live. I admit my expectations were already a little hightened having watched JM's 'Where The Light Is' DVD, which is a three part concert of acoustic, full band and John Mayer Trio blues. WTLI showcases the best of his abilities, and leaves you wishing you had been in LA that evening. Don't believe me? Here.

With the new album ranking rather low on my listening stack, I was at a bit of an impass knowing I had missed the JM Concert Glory boat, but hopped on the Fingers-Crossed canoe all the same. You know, just to say I had. Naturally this time around he chose mostly Battle Studies tunes, which chafed at my inner love for his soppy anthems of old.

Alas, no faves like Gravity, The Heart of Life, Neon, Good Love Is On The Way, Daughters, Free Fallin' cover, Stop This Train, In Your Atmosphere or Your Body Is A Wonderland. As it turns out, we in lowly London Ontario got duped; Johnny boy played Gravity, Free Fallin AND The Heart of Life the following day in Toronto.

As his newest songs were written post-Jennifer and his other picks were not exactly swooners, I am going to go out on a limb and say that Johnny wasn't in the mood for love.

Despite the random, un-Valentine-esque set list, I was blown away by his abilities. If you can resepect him for nothing else, respect his affinity for the blues. Stevie Ray Vaughn is written all over the man. He shredded every solo he played, which were in no short supply for the evening. One to be noted was Who Did You Think I Was which he played completely independently but still managed to play the skeleton of his own rhythm and bass.
The man's hands can do no wrong.

However...

His mouth - proportioned to his cranium - is quite capable of it. JM wreaked of ego. And not the fresh laundry brand of ego, the week old sun baked trash ego that leaks and stains everything it touches. No humility, not even the well practised self-deprication some rockstars go for.
Not John Mayer, no sir.
He did everything from declare himself the Valentine of all singles in the crowd, reminded us a "Mayer concert" was the best part of our shitty week, and finally gave us his latest metaphysical mid-song interlude talk about how he used to think he could use 85% head and 15% heart to get through life (that definitely explains the size of the thing). But now, he's changing his ways: he rather follow someone who is all heart "into battle" (nice and subtle album reference).
Sure John, sure.
We all believe you.

Despite his massive talent, the man is his own show horse. And it seems as he grows more and more shallow, his music dries up in the same puddle. "Who says I can't get stoned?" The police do, John. And your mother. Such a silly question, more suitably asked by a 16 year old...

...Apparently asked too late.

Sadly I was a little unmoved by the concert as a whole. Maybe it was simply because, being Feb 13th, I was hoping for more lovie dovie John Mayer, not jaded self-important John Mayer. Being only on his 4th album, I will cut him a break. Coldplay managed to get their shite together for VLV, so here's hoping for a lucky #5 for Johnny Boy.

Battle Studies... BS... interesting...

There is a beat-heavy place in my heart for hip hop.

2009-12-17T20:24:00.000-08:00

Someday I will make a musical project which blends folk and hip hop. It will work, trust me.

Ya know how I know? Look at Monsters of Folk's single 'Dear God'. Amazing track. There should be more of this crossbred musical voodoo! {{who-do? you do. do what? remind me of the babe...}} this unavoidable musical movie reference is brought to you by David Bowie and his spandex pants. For those of you who haven't seen The Labyrinth, shame on you.
Enjoy:

Monsters Of Folk - Dear God MP3

Monsters of Folk is the combined effort of three modern folk frontmen: Conor Orberst (Bright Eyes), M. Ward (She & Him), and Jim James (My Morning Jacket). You might think "Gee, things could get a little crowded with that many brains in one skull!" Why yes, I agree. And we will see how long this little collaboration boat stays afloat...
In any case, of all their colourful tunes, nothing pops quite like 'Dear God'. I would wager it's got something to do with the sampled loop and heavy beat. Completely addictive. So let's give credit where credit is due: HIP HOP

In the spirit of musical diversity and genre meshing, here's some hip hop on the house. Crank your speakers ;}

Black Star - Definition MP3

Atmosphere - Shoulda Known MP3

CunninLynguists - Lynguistics MP3

Dead Prez - Bigger Than Hip Hop MP3

The Roots ft Mos Def - Rising Down MP3

Talib Kweli - Get By MP3

Here's to a bright future full of hip hop infused goodness.
Play on, my playas.
- SYZYGY

Down the rabbit hole, Alice!

2009-12-08T07:21:00.000-08:00

The Indie scene is like a box of chocolates - You never know if you're going to bite down on one of those really unnecessary flavours. Luckily, with a little trial and error, you start to learn the shape of the chocolates that really hit the spot.
Oh yes, I love my metaphors ;)

You see, when delving into the Indie scene, you may feel a little overwhelmed. How does one navigate an oversaturated, patchwork genre which avoids defining itself? With lots of free time and a little planning. First: know your tastes, and break them down (mellow, brit rock, electronic, hardcore, acoustic, pop, etc). Second: know where to look. This one is tricky and takes some time to figure out. Here are a few useful resources I have used in the past:

1. LAST.FM
For me, 'Pandora Radio' used to be the creme de la creme, until it restricted access to anyone outside of the U.S...*sniff* Anyways, Last.fm is excellent, but now requires a membership of $3 a month to stream their radio channels which made the whole 'finding musical matches' process much easier. Still, they have a 'similar artists' feature which is free, and quite helpful. If you stream your itunes through Last.fm, your recommendations will become more accurate over time. I have found plenty of artists through this site.

2. MUSIC BLOGS
Tricky part is, many of these bloggers offer music of a variety which they appreciate, not necessarily that you will appreciate. Guilty as charged. So once again, you have to dig a bit. The more official sites may also may be a little complex to navigate, but once you get over the media-overload, these blogs are quite useful and offer tunes to listen to/download for free (which is always nice!) Some of the ones I have enjoyed:

- Pitchfork
- IMEEM
- Slowcoustic (as hinted by the name, appeals to a very specific music taste)
- Blalock's Indie/Rock Playlist
- This is Fake DIY
- Indie Rock Cafe
- Spinner
- IndieFeed
- NMERadio

3. TORRENTS
These guys put out a mass of songs for you to download. I don't know where they get the songs, but often they are pretty diverse. Just go on google and type in 'INDIE ROCK TORRENT' and tons should pop up. If you rather not download the whole boat load to find you only enjoy 3 songs, to be honest, this can be a tiring process. But if you enjoy thrift shopping, you'll enjoy routing through songs to find the gems. It's addictive.
Copy and paste each song in LAST.FM or ITUNES search engines and listen to the 30 second preview to see if they're worth downloading. Or use the following free MP3 search engines, which give you a much longer preview:

-BeeMP3
- Downloads.nl
- Bomb-MP3

4. GOOGLE
In the end, Google is gawd. If you're 'looking for new indie music', type that exact sentence in Google search, and abracadabra, baby.

Good hunting.

- SYZYGY

Remixes&Covers// just waiting to happen?

2009-12-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

If Jeff Buckley and Jimi Hendrix have taught us anything, it's that sometimes musical concepts are a little like skeletons - the basic structure is nice and all, but perhaps it could use a little - meat?
Of course this 'beefing up' business can go horribly wrong much to the effect of giving your grandmother steroids [*cough* Lenny Kravtiz's attempt at 'American Woman' *cough*] But when it goes right, ohh baby, that's the good stuff right there.

One of my personal favourite examples of how a song can be covered to death or given a new lease on life is 'Islands In the Stream'. First, let's review the original written by the Bee Gees and performed by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton:

Let's just say I was never a fan.

But I was never so repulsed as when Pras took the bare bones of the music and reupholstered it with the not so fabulous 'Ghetto Superstar' anthem of the late 90's. If you had happily blocked it out, here's a cruel reminder:

Fast forward a decade and a few failed cover attempts later and - thank the heavens - somebody manages to do it right! The Constantines colaborate with Feist to put the spark plugs to this rust bucket:
Constantines&Feist - Islands In The Stream MP3
Ohh baby..

See? It CAN be done! Sometimes all it takes is revamping things a bit. And not necessarily by a different artist! Take the following remix, for instance. Jenny Owen Youngs is a charming young lady with potential blooming out of her ears, who is sure to pop up in this blog again. From her scantily named 'Take Off All Your Clothes' EP, Jenny produces a song which at first listen might be set aside as one of those 'break up' numbers; beautiful, but nothing quite fetching enough to write home about:

But given a little fine tuning by Jenny's electro-pop side project The Robot Explosion, 'Voice On Tape' is given wings:

Jenny Owen Youngs - Voice On Tape (Robot Explosion Mix) MP3

It just goes to show that there's no such thing as too much fine tuning. As far as this blogger is concerned, remixes and covers can go either way, really - but when things go well, they can take a skeleton, put some meat on it, and make it dance.

- SYZYGY

Funky fresh.

2009-12-04T13:11:00.000-08:00

So hey, there are thousands of music blogs out there. SYZYGY is no exception to the clogged internet arteries. So here's the scoop on how we run things.

Syzygy 5 Commandments.

1. Thou shalt not be overly wordy and pretentious.

2. Thou shalt not deify artists.

3. Thou shalt provide a variety of musical styles and media sources for readers to enjoy.

4. Thou shalt be good humoured at all times.

5. Thou shalt not covet/copyright infringe upon thy neighbouring music bloggers opinions.

So there you have it folks. This is the garden salad of music blogs. SYZYGY likes to toss it all up a bit; the new and the old, mellow and beat-heavy, reflective and fun loving. Buckle up.

-SYZYGY