Musical Influence #2: Mr. Bob Dylan and Bob Marley

Now I think no one will ever put together Bob Dylan and Bob Marley in the same sentence. There are too many reasons that make it a cosmic blast of rock heroism. First there are two different styles of music.  Secondly that is too much iconic rock for one to listen to at once. The reason I put the Bob’s in one sentence is because in this recent election year many bands and singers stated their views or tried sticking it to the man. Even the Grateful Dead did a concert for their political party. But these two men revolutionized music in so many ways that to transcend it all in one blog is impossible. But their musical force lead people to free themselves from the political realm and it alone started political free speech issues in songs.

First Bob Dylan was a new renaissance of music. He was also the last force of folk music in America with Woodrow Guthrie. Dylan, a now Pulitzer prize winner, moved and transformed music if we like it or not. When he went to electric in 1965 with one of his greatest songs “Subterranean Homesick Blues”. In the same year he released his highest U.S. hit with my favorite song “Like a Rolling Stone”. Then in Rolling Stone magazine named Dylan’s ” Like a Rolling Stone” the number one song of all time in 2004. His career was not a highlight film for his entire life. His career almost did get off the ground especially when your real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman. So he started introducing himself as Bob and later added Dylan to his greatness. Also having a name like Johnny Cash help you out as an ally does not hurt either. Dylan saw his lyrical poetry to help listeners envision a story of life that all could understand. He captured the meaning of the times and they were “changing”.  Not only is Bob Dylan an iconic figure he was a story teller that led a generation and future generations into their lives with their own personal soundtracks.

He can be known as one or “the” greatest musical artist of all time. Also he brought electric sound into the mainstream other than Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry in American culture. He made pop music and culture’s gateway into the 60’s for the new musical revolution of drug-enthused  music. But his lyrics were so poetic and still are today that he has been nominated for many other awards even a Nobel prize. Bob Dylan was smart in how to connect to a generation of people. And his generation was a confused young nation of music lovers. Though his songs talked about life, culture or politics he and this next artist knew what culture really meant.

On the other hand, Bob Marley was not just a face or a but a nation too. His music uplifted a culture and its message in many ways. His story-telling ability allowed his Jamaican peoples and all his listeners to see  the struggle he  and his people consistently went through. But Bob Marley and Bob Dylan moved a culture of musical rebellion. This rebellion was one of tyranny of musical power. His Legend album is one of the most gross selling albums of all time. His music became the face of a musical sound of the entire world. Their is no mention of reggae music without bringing up the music influence of the Marley family. Though maybe some of his ideas seem obscure his grace and style led a nation’s story to be told. When trying to describe the man, Bob Marley, into words many come to mind: Music, reggae, lyrical genius, marijuana, revolution, optimism, anguish and hero. Hearing the music of Bob Marley for the first time is like an exploration of feeling that a music listeners has never gone on. His music is like a drug that can make anyone feel a universal well being of optimism in any mood.

Bob Marley once had said, “Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny”, he choose his life everyday and even Dylan had chosen to do the same thing. Both have lived a musical dream that many wish they could endure but there were many tests each had to pass to live out their dreams. their music lives on forever. Many bands and artists have tried to teach themselves with the lyrical story telling of Dylan to the musical passion of Marley, but only few have mastered close it. Only artists like Ben Haprer and my favorite band, O.A.R,  come to mind. Some bands to try to cover but few can replicate. If anyone wants to see a great concert this summer see the sound of Bob Marley then head to a O.A.R. concert with opening guests on selected dates because The Wailers are their opening act this tour. And during the concert there will be covers of Bob Marly songs with his band. So check it out…

Beat Freaks on ABDC Week 6

In the sixth episode of the America’s Best Dance Crew Season 3, it became known as the battle of the sexes. Unfortunately the Stricker All Stars were eliminated and the Fly Khicks keep moving on. The top two vote getters this week were Quest Crew and once again the Beat Freaks. The all girl group did a performance to Katy Perry’s “Hot n’ Cold”. They once again used their break dancing skills with great prop usage. Lil Mama went crazy after the robotic movement intro and applauded excessively. Second was J.C. Chavez’ remarks. He said they performed very well and they are “the  masters of props”. Third was Shane and again was absolutely stunned by their performance. At the end of his remarks he finally said, “J.C called you the ‘masters of props’ you should be called ‘America’s Best Dance Crew”. The crowd went crazy but their were still a lot of boo’s going on. Anyway here is there epic performance……check it out

Beat Freaks on ABDC Season 3

On this season of America’s Best Dance Crew, there has been some serious competition now heading to week 6 this year. For the first part of the season, Striker All-Stars were the front runners being praised by the judges J.C. Shane, and Lil’ Mama. But after this past week in which every routine must have a performed magic trick, one group stole the show. With the first performance of the episode, Beat Freaks, did just that. This all girl group used a magic-floating silver ball which was unbelievably used through their performance. With their kick ass performance to a megamix of T-pain’s “Freeze feat. Chris Brown” they made the judges lose their mind especially Shane. He proclaimed their Week 5 performance as the best ever out of all 3 seasons of ABDC. Seriously, the performance is awesome so go get to their campaign called  “Freak the Vote” and keep them going through the show. Here’s the video…

New Found Glory is Back!

From Coral Springs, Florida, a band came to be known as New Found Glory. The now famous group of Jordan, Steve, Chad, Ian and Cyrus have been battling it out with the acts of Green Day and former Blink-182. When they hit the scene 12 years ago in 1997 their future was bright.  On their fourth album they struck a hit with MCA with backing of Drive Thru Records with their self titled release. Still today this can be heard to be one of the best all time punk albums. The album broke a hit with the studio and mastered recording of “Hit or Miss”. This self titled album is easily in my top 10. Not only was it a  brilliant in its rocking way but had strong influences on their cult following. It was the album that made me play the guitar and become a punk rocker.

It was until 2002 when New Found Glory made strides to becoming the knock out heroes that they are today. In that year they teamed up with their label, Drive Thru Records, to hit the mainstream. Their lead single “My Fiends Over You” on the album “Sticks and Stones” hit the charts hot and made a following on the now dormant TRL on MTV. The album has sold over 850,000 copies in the U.S. This skyrocketed NFG in punk rock history. But it also got their names recognized with Blink-182, Good Charlotte, Simple Plan and Green Day who were all big at the time. This also came with a cost though.

“Well, when Sticks and Stones came out and we were doing that Honda Civic Tour, we were getting compared to bands like Good Charlotte and Simple Plan we were angry with that […] At that point, we were getting compared to more pop bands and we aren’t a pop band […]^“

After that tour in which they out played the other acts, they moved onto more albums like “Catalyst” which came with the hit “All Downhill From Here” .Now the band has become the ultimatum of the punk rock world. They had become the punk rock band’s band. Similar bands wanted to know their secrets to stay at such a rapid pace in their creative geniuses to produce such punk rock but never could match NFG’s prowess.  In 2006, NFG settled down with the release of “Coming Home” which the single “It’s Not Your Fault” debuted. It held a little softer sound on this album which presented ed the diversity that the band can play at different tempos and with more meaning.

Now for 2009 the band has made more plans to become the heavyweight champions of the punk rock world. This will be their sixth studio album for NFG as it was helped and produced with Mark Hoppus of +44 and former Blink-182. The new release is dated for March 10th and it seriously cannot come fast enough. It will be titled ” Not Without a Fight” and its sound is not only for all their fans but especially the ones who love the self tilted album of 2000. Their lead single has been released and it is called “Listen to Your Friends.” It is already on their website/MySpace in one with a cool fighting game with a pseudo-like UFC theme. Plus it’s hilarious just like the guys are in real life. So get pumped for a fuel filled punk rock album that will revitalize the punk rock world.

O.A.R. rocks Chicago

On July 24th at 9 pm, O.A.R rocked Charter One Pavilion at Notherly Island in Chicago once again. The opening act was great with a solid performance by The Beautiful Girls. They gave a great boost for the main set by O.A.R. Playing a set that was over 2 hours long and included 20 songs, it was the best concert that Charter One has seen in 3 years. To get the mood set right they started off with a couple of solid songs like “Heard the World”. But once their new song “This Town” was played a craze began throughout the crowd. They were up beat all night and sang all the words. The music was great. And the weather was amazing. Thus making the concert a perfect night. The set ended in a powerful performance of “52-50”. Then the concert was blown to shreds with an unbelievable concert. The pulled “Night Shift” out of their bag of hits and ended the concert with a 15 minute rendition of “Crazy Game of Poker”. If you want to check the full set list and reviews, then visit oarsa.org to get the the July 24th song list.

Not only did I promote for the O.A.R street team, I helped with the inaugural year of the Green Dream. This was O.A.R’s way to get people to start thinking about the environment. So look out at future concerts for people handing out 20% cards to the online store when you recycle at the venue. Plus the cards that I handed out were permeable and made with seeds so it can grow in the ground. Got to meet with Benj and Marc before and after the concert. They are super cool dudes and said the night was perfect.

Also “Wonderful Day” by O.A.R is featured in a new Ford ad which is kinda cool.

Of a Revolution…. Back in Chicago

A week from today on the 15th comes forth the newest studio release from the band O.A.R. (Of a Revolution…). This marks their 6th studio album since 2007 not mentioning 3 double disc live albums. Just a year removed from the release of Live at Madison Square Garden, the double disc/DVD, the popularity is on a major high. The new studio album is named “All Sides” to show the insanely diverse attributes of the band’s musical skill. With studio recorded versions of “Living in the End” and “What is Mine”. These two songs are already hits with their fans but its now time to let everyone else hear these great masterpieces.

With a fan base that is currently on the rise, these masterful musicians have found a resilience with the music industry. Having been together for over 10 years their love for music has not stopped. At the live performance on July 24th in Chicago at Charter One Pavilion, anyone in Chicago should go see an actual musical performance. Each song that was recorded at 4 minutes proceeds to be played for ten minutes in a jam band performance. Each band member has the ability to steal the show with a mind bending solo either it is Marc Roberge with ideas from the top of his head in every song, Jerry DePizzo on saxophone, Richard On with lead guitar solos, Ben Gershman on the bass, Chris Culos on Drums, or their traveling one-man-band percussionist Mikel Paris. This is not just a concert but it is a musical enlightenment. So check the their website or myspace to get more information or hear the new songs.

Download-Palooza

Nearing the start of a warm summer, musical festival propaganda is starting to heat up. The time when music becomes full swing in every fan’s heart. It’s a fantasy world of every type of music that is on the scene. Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza are still the major music festivals for great music. Also there are several new to the summer festival line-up this year like, Rothbury Music Festival in Michigan. But the main one that I always attend is Perry Farrel’s Lollapalooza. The lead singer of great bands like Porno for Pyros and Jane’s Addiction has come up with a line up with interesting new relevance to the music industry. Two of the three headliners for the festival are Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead. Both bands decided to make and release their new albums off their websites. When these festivals make the industry the most money, Lolla’s headliners revolt. Even though NIN and Radiohead are performing there are plenty other artists that should be named; Lupe Fiasco, Bloc Party, and The Raconteurs.

The most exciting band to see on this year’s lineup is the stylistic fabloo band, Tally Hall. With an industrial release of “Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum”, the title based off a weird museum made of the most random and exciting artifacts, broke way to fame. An album that ranges from harmonic vocals to a collection of the most intelligent lyricists today, Tally Hall will revive your musical yearning of creative music. In 2004, Andrew Horowitz who sings and plays numerous instruments won the John Lennon Scholarship of Music Writing for “Good Day”. The band is creative in so many ways that they even produce many webisodes of concerts and comedic videos on their YouTube site. Even each band member is creative with at each performance while calming fame by a different color tie ( Rob=Yellow, Zubin=Blue, Joe=Red, Andrew=Green, and Ross=Grey). So see these guys at Lollapalooza for their own hits and covers of Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend” and Fatboy Slims, “Praise You.” They already are a hit on YouTube with 42 videos so check them out and get their new studio re-release of “Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum”.

Loyalty to Royalties?

When loyalty is mentioned then life as service comes to mind. And to us, listening to music is the service we do to the music world. But loyalty like everything else has become contextualized. We are loyal as consumer, innovators, and most importantly listeners to music. Everything we do on any single day is affected by music. It’s the way we feel, move and think. Either we’re listening to our favorite bands or experimenting in new genres, we’re loyal to the artist. So you figure the music recording industry with the most loyal consumers have the same feelings towards the consumers?

WRONG:

Maybe you should be spelling ‘wrong’ with RIAA. This stands for the Recording Industry Association of America. About a month ago, the RIAA suggested to decrease artist’s royalties from 13% to 9%. If you don’t like this then you might start not liking the #1 business in America, Apple. The Apple company, who owns the reputable iTunes, wants to decrease the royalty rate to a measly 4%. The only idiotic question that comes to mind is Why? The most loyal consumer-oriented industry is basically screwing over the loyal artists. They say it has to do with slumping record sales and stop the piracy of music. But what you really don’t know is that they think pirating music leads to drugs and violence. Funny thing is … artists are sueing the labels because they haven’t see any royalty money. Go figure…