Penny & Sparrow

Penny & Sparrow is a band made up of the duo: Andy Baxter and Kyle Jahnke.  It is a very simple machine with Jahnke on the guitar with harmonies, and Baxter singing lead.  Their stage presence is relatively intimidating in that neither of them can possibly crack a smile while singing, and they are for the most part stationary in stance.  Their three albums: Struggle Pretty, Tenboom, and Creature are pretty good.  That being said you may be wondering why I would even choose to write about this artist who is just pretty good.  Well, I recently had the pleasure of attending a live performance by P&S and I had high expectations because many of their high points in the recordings come from their perfect and unique harmonies.  After their mesmerizing performance I have not been able to stop listening to their recordings- wishing that I could enjoy the live presence of their harmonies again.  I would have never had such a feeling if I had only been able to hear them through my Spotify account and a set of headphones.  The live experience was what set them apart.

 This experience has made me seek out more concerts and performances like this because I realized that an experience is something that can be shared with someone more than any possession.  So with my cheap frugal college lifestyle I plan on using my entertainment money to seek out experiences with others and seek out more gems like Penny & Sparrow.  You should check out P&S and also get out there and experience something!

Aziz Ansari: Master of None

Famous actor and comedian Aziz Ansari recently released his Netflix Original series titled Master of None.  A show that stars Aziz as the lead role- Dev- a 30 year-old making his way through life in New York City.  The show documents Dev's relationships and career, both having their own respective roller coaster-like progression.  The show is an entertaining ten episode first season, and deserves to be recognized as a beautiful combination of quirky seemingly fictionalized situations and very heavy (sometimes even dark) realism.  Situations that arise in Dev's life allow Aziz to show how his hilarious mind works in all types of scenarios.  Now I will be the first to tell you that this show is great, and after binge-watching it, I can say it is both entertaining and thought-provoking.  However I'm not here to just talk about the content of the show but instead how the soundtrack plays into the series, and how every scene was crafted very precisely with a song in mind.

I will not bore you with each and every song from the incredibly diverse and unique soundtrack but instead would like to point just a few out.  Writer Aziz Ansari and music supervisor Zach Cowie use "Don't Worry Be Happy" juxtaposed to a few songs from the Halloween (1978) soundtrack in episode "Ladies and Gentlemen."  The scene depicted is that of an attractive woman being followed on her walk home-this has the terrifying sounds of the Halloween soundtrack as the background- while two men (Ansari and Wareheim) are walking home through a sketchy park with "Don't Worry Be Happy" playing as their background.  Quick cuts from one to the other creates a very unique viewer experience in that you are having mixed emotions, mixing laughter with the stress of watching something terrible happen to the woman.  This episode continues on to carry a light theme of feminism, which can be seen clearly from the intro.  

As another example after a surprisingly romantic night with a previous lover, Ansari leans in for a much expected kiss and his counterpart in this scenario turns him down.  She explains that she already has a boyfriend and it would be weird if they kissed.  Immediately after this interaction the song "Master of None" by Beach House begins to play.  Very obviously the concepts displayed by the lyrics of this song are shown throughout the entire season, but this moment highlights a few.  The lyrics that seem to be highlighted by the scenario are as follows: 

"Jack of all trades

Master of none

Cry all the time

Cause I'm not having fun"

I do not want to explain exactly what occurs in the episode leading up to that moment, but you should definitely check out this artistically stunning and mentally probing Netflix Original series as soon as you can.

Don't believe Me? Believe them:

Pitchfork on Master of None soundtrack

New York Times on Master of None

Metacritic on Master of None

#notmyorgans

For lunch on Sunday I went to ECV dining hall with a few of my friends and we got onto some pretty strange topics as a group.  One in particular was organ harvesting and how extremely terrifying the concept is.  We also began to talk about how Facebook has had its fair share of hoaxes.  We then decided it would be hilarious if we combined the two in our words then posted it and spread it.  After some brainstorming and "wordsmithing" we came up with a seemingly real Facebook hoax.  The following is what we posted as our status around 1:30 pm on Sunday: 

"It's official. It has been published in the media. Facebook is changing their policies. Facebook is now legally authorized to harvest your organs if you do not set your page to private and release a personal statement of discord like the following:

'I do not give Facebook or any associated entity permission to harvest my organs in any way, shape, or form- before, after or during my death. Due to the changes in Facebook's social interaction policies I am posting this statement to LEGALLY DENY the harvesting of organs from my body.'

PLEASE COPY AND PASTE THIS POST.
Protect yourself and spread awareness to your loved ones about Facebook's new policy.

‪#‎notmyorgans‬ ‪#‎Zuckerburglar‬"

We came up with some pretty hilarious content as well- trying to apply our current campaigns/projects/conditions to highlight #notmyorgans and convince more people to post it to their Facebook.  One of my friends used his current Instagram campaign #threewisewords to display the movement (as seen below).

We were obviously curious as to how our hoax was traveling so we had noticed that those hashtags had maybe a few posts but not any more than ten or fifteen posts.  We checked the hashtag every so often and by about 2:45pm the Facebook search of the hashtag produced the number "1000+ posts."  Unfortunately we could not see exactly where the posts were made, but we were getting texts from old high school friends all around the country saying they had posted it and thought it was hilarious.  It spread like wildfire for about 48 hours and we were even seeing parents post it to their Facebook.  This idea was just a funny joke to us, and we expected a good laugh in our community but after only a couple hours it was very clear that people all around the country were getting to have a nice laugh at this "new Facebook policy."

'Thank Your Lucky Stars'

(See title) that another new Beach House album is coming out!  This album is being released just under two months after their recent album release: Depression Cherry (Aug, 28th 2015).  Any passionate Beach House fan is excited out of their mind for another full dose of velvety space tones so soon after the release of Depression Cherry.  Beach House handled the Depression Cherry release with a relatively classic approach in that they released a single and announced the album kind of early on, but the way that Thank Your Lucky Stars is being handled is way out of the ordinary.  Just a few days ago the official twitter account for the band (@BeaccchHoussse) tweeted out some exciting news to its fans and followers.  The tweet read as follows: "We are releasing our 6th full length LP on October 16th!!! It's called Thank Your Lucky Stars. More info soon....." and caused a great deal of confusion because of how soon the band was releasing another full length LP after the recently released Depression Cherry.  That confusion did not last but a second and was followed immediately with a great deal of excitement- I'll let you read the twitter responses on your own to see just how explicitly excited the fans of Beach House were when this tweet went out.  I do not fully understand the band's tactics in this release; the only possible strategy is that they are taking advantage of the small wave of popularity that was created with DC and hoping to increase the diversity of their fan base with a quick boost of variety.  Whether I understand it or not: I am an excited fan and I can't wait for the release of Thank Your Lucky Stars on October 16th (see tracklist and album art below)  

Thank Your Lucky Stars Tracklist:
1. Majorette
2. She's So Lovely
3. All Your Yeahs
4. One Thing
5. Common Girl
6. The Traveller
7. Elegy to the Void
8. Rough Song
9. Somewhere Tonight

(Fetty) Wap Wap Wap Waaaaaap

If you're confused as to what the title is referencing check out this link: (Wah wah wahhhhh)

Willie Maxwell is the new(ish) face on the scene of hip-hop, you probably know him as Fetty Wap.  His first hit song "Trap Queen" was released in 2014 and gained instant popularity overnight.  The evolution of social media has allowed for hits like "Trap Queen" to surface overnight, but more importantly social media has given us a window into the personal lives of celebrities like Fetty Wap.  Seemingly simultaneous with the release of Fetty's self-titled debut album was the news on Twitter that Fetty Wap had been hospitalized after a bike crash (see title video) near his hometown in New Jersey.  Luckily the singer was not seriously hurt and was stable soon after the incident.  And the accident did not stall or slow Fetty Wap's album sales with 129,000 unit total earned from the popularity of the albums' singles and the album as a whole.  Without social media forms like Twitter, fans of Fetty Wap would not know the play by play of how their favorite artist is doing during or after a serious incident.

That brings up an important feature of social media: how quickly relevant and current information can be communicated and broadcasted to millions.  Obviously the status of your favorite artist is not that important in the grand scheme of things, but this feature of social media allows it to be used in situations like natural disasters or mass terror acts to keep the public informed.  When hurricane Sandy came through people used Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media to seek aid, check on the status of certain rescue areas, and communicate with loved ones about their current status.  Updates were constantly being sent out to keep the public informed about the progress of the hurricane.  Another example is the Boston Marathon bombings that occurred in 2013; the public used social media to identify potential culprits and find them as well (Boston Marathon Article).

Social media is connecting the world more and more each day, and now its beginning to save peoples lives and help people stay safe in dire situations.

Drake's Future Diamonds Are Looking Dull

Rapper, actor, singer, song writer? I barely know her!  Aubrey Drake Graham otherwise known as Drake is a Jack-of-all-trades and has, in the last 10 years, become one of the biggest hip-hop/rap/RnB artists in the recognizable history of rap.  Drake has the Midas touch when it comes to entertainment forms, and everyone is always waiting for his newest songs knowing that they will be major bangers.  If you're unfamiliar with Drake's work then you have probably been living in a cave with sound canceling earmuffs on and without access to any form of social media.  That being said you have probably heard of Drake's work and know about his new mixtape with up-and-comer Future.  Their mixtape was recorded in Atlanta and is titled What a Time To Be Alive.  What is most impressive about this 11-track mixtape is that it was recorded over the period of just six days.  They chose to release it to a very select group in the initial release - Drake's OVO sound show on Apple's Beats 1 radio and then allowing it to be exclusively downloaded and listened to on iTunes and Apple Music (Paraphrased from The Verge).   The album has had an immense amount of success since its release on September 20th, it debuted at number one of the US Billboard 200, and sold over 350,000 copies in its first week (Facts).   

While this album is very popular and combines two artists that are known to be leaders in the hip-hop/rap world, it doesn't quite deliver as well as I had hoped.  I was looking forward to having trouble switching away from the album for at least a few weeks, but I found myself leaving after just 30 seconds of each song.  None of the album's 11-tracks sucked me in like Drake's "Energy" and Future's "Turn on the lights" had in the past.  I was sitting and pondering how an album with two greats ended up being so normal and even, dare I say, boring.  Then it hit me!  The way that this mixtape was released and the fame of the artists added up to be the perfect outlet for an outrageously overrated album.  Songs like "30 for 30 freestyle" and "Diamonds Dancing" seem to be on the mixtape to showcase Drake's specialties, while most of the other songs are supposedly to allow Future to flex, but I think that it all ends up delivering relatively flat.  There are no moments in which I was drawn up or down into the song, so even if the lyrical content is there: the motivation to understand and truly listen is not.  I will definitely still be excited for anything that comes out from these two (separately) but as for this mixtape?  It's a flop in my eyes (and ears).

What A Time To Be Alive Album Artwork
What a Time To Be Alive Album Stream

Burnt out

Music in my life is as vital to me as the blood in my veins.  I listen to music in almost all scenarios in my life, regardless of current emotion- music always seems to have an answer.  This love of music has come from being constantly surrounded by music: whether it be the "golden oldies" and NPR Music, or hardcore rap it has always been around me.  That young love of music blossomed into a love for playing music as well.  I played trombone for seven years and now I have played guitar and banjo for about four years; music is one of my biggest passions.  After listening to so many beautiful songs over and over again they lose their meaning, and that is such an interesting facet of music to me.  I used to listen to a lot of music on the radio, and then on my iPod Shuffle, then it advanced to using Pandora, but now I have transitioned to a new form of social media: Spotify.  While Spotify is an amazing service and I do use it to its very utmost, I can see how it has changed my consumption of music and the length of time that I appreciate music.  I find myself constantly clicking the Spotify app on both my computer and my iPhone, even in scenarios where I think it would be faster or easier to work or be in silence, I still click it.  The level of music consumption that is occurring allows me to bounce from song to song and discover or share new music all the time, until I get sick of it.  Unfortunately the idiom "too much of a good thing can hurt" is very true and I am currently experiencing a burn out of one of my biggest passions.  I believe it is because of the introduction of this new Social Media form of Spotify.  I believe that after a break from constant listening I will enjoy using Spotify again because it is a great project.  I think it is an interesting point to note that social media has affected my life outside of its social use, and that even though I see the negatives in overuse of social media music- I still use it.  Spotify has cracked the code to my musical consciousness and it's scary yet beautiful.

Lord Dumpling

Facing and embracing obscurity is a phenomenon that is capturing the nation by storm.  Over the last few years this trend has been recognized and spoken on and is being recognized as more than just a trend but instead an actual movement (spoken of in the article from The Atlantic: Twee Revolution).  

This growing trend is indicated by the increasing popularity of films by Wes Anderson, of music by unknown shoe-gaze bands, and of hole-in-the-wall foodie paradises.  Everyone wants to be obscure: different and misunderstood just enough to be seen as their own person.  People are constantly branding themselves in different ways- especially with the amount of social media that we use in our daily lives- and people taking place in this new movement typically seek out the dark corners of the internet for facts, pictures, videos, or unknown anythings to share on their own sites.  This has led to more creative and obscure advertisements in any form of media, and doing new, "undiscovered" things has earned more popularity and acclaim than in the past.  As an example I will tell you a story from my own life:

A google search I recently executed led me down an interesting path of internet news and articles. After about thirty minutes of clicking from link to link I stumbled upon an article that inspired me to ask- Why?  That article was a Wikipedia page about North Dumpling Island- I clicked on it because I thought to myself: "Why is a territory located off the coast of Connecticut coming up in a Google search for obscurity?" After reading it, I began to investigate into the source of this micro-nation.  I began reading articles about the ruler of the "Kingdom of North Dumpling," an American entrepreneur and inventor from New Hampshire: Dean Kamen.  He is most famously known for his inventing of the Segway scooter.  Dean Kamen and his combination of silliness and intelligence has created an obscure being.  Personally I was interested and entertained by his embrace of obscurity in his founding of his Kingdom.  That caused me to seek out more micro-nations and eventually look into the rules and regulations of creating a micro-nation.  I am slowly embracing this new concept and seeking out the irregularities and hilarities of obscurity in my own lifestyle through the use of many forms of social media and digital media scrounging.

Pictured: (Top: Wes Anderson- Director of the Grand Budapest Hotel)

(Lower left: Dean Kamen)

Articles:

- Today Article about Dean Kamen

- Twee Revolution

- Wiki on North Dumpling Island

#KANYE2020

"Bro. Bro! Listen to the kids." is the bold beginning to Kanye West's acceptance "sermon" for his Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the MTV Video Music Awards last week.  Kanye "Yeezus" West has, since the beginning of his stardom in 2004, had a very unique approach to publicity.  Whenever he releases something new people are shocked by what he does but then proceed to love it.  He is on the forefront of rap, fashion, and culture in all that he does.  His albums have consistently broken new ground and brought interesting new trends to his constantly changing genre of hip-hop and rap.  From The College Dropout to his most recent studio album Yeezus Yeezy's music style has consistently evolved- no two albums are alike.  He samples from obscure sources, whether they be the newest underground artist, or an oldies classic.  After winning almost 100 awards from various sources including 21 Grammy awards, Kanye is without argument: an amazing musician.  

To end his VMA acceptance speech Kanye decided to shock America by saying "Yes, as you probably could have guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president."  Immediately after this statement #KANYE2020 began to blow up on twitter, which is scary because while Kanye may be a critically acclaimed musician and hip hop artist, and even though a few of his hit songs have a political stance that is implied or explicitly stated; is he really ready to be a full time politician? and even more, is he ready to be the POTUS?!  

My personal opinion is that he is a genius when it comes to creativity and creating groundbreaking content, and he is one of my favorite creatives (I would even venture to say he is my favorite).  When it comes to real issues I believe it takes a certain amount of background knowledge and experience, both of which Kanye is lacking.  

What about you? Does Kanye West have your vote in the 2020 election?  

Kanye West VMA Speech

Beach House: Depression Cherry Album Release

Beach House recently released their fifth studio album: Depression Cherry.  Each song on the album is built out of an ethereal blend of vocals and guitar with a constant drumbeat as the foundation.  The album's style is similar to that of the band's previous album: Teen Dream (2010).  This album was co-produced by Chris Coady who was responsible for a majority of the work done on the band's previous two albums.  Depression Cherry ranges from an ominously beautiful 24-part choir in the song "Days of Candy" to the almost dirty introduction of a heavily distorted guitar solo in the song "Sparks."  This album as a whole has been relatively successful and has received many positive reviews from the critics as well as the users.  

Bands are always trying different methods for releasing their material, many methods now-a-days use social media to announce and then eventually to advertise for the sale of the album.  Beach House decided to release the song "Sparks" from the album as a single on Spotify and other music markets on July 1st, 2015 -over a whole month before the album was to be released.  Then in addition to building interest with the release of a single they also decided to give NPR Music the opportunity to make a First Listen post with an available album stream link attached to the post nine days before the true release date of August 28th, 2015.  Using these markets allowed Beach House to reach out to the more passionate niche market of hipster-esque music listeners that consistently check NPR Music's First Listen posts for new bands and get more exposure by word of mouth.  The album has been used to promote the recently announce U.S. tour and to sell tickets for that.  Without the simple social media strategy i might not have even known that the band was having a tour. Luckily I got tickets to one of their shows and I cannot wait!

So whether you have or haven't heard of Beach House you should get tickets for the October 6th, 2015 show at Buckhead Theatre in Atlanta, GA and experience something mystical. 

( Ticketmaster link for Beach House @ Buckhead Theatre: http://www1.ticketmaster.com/event/0E004EB5F549A99D )