Cover Song Saturday: Into It. Over It. - "Need You Around" - FILTER Magazine

This feels like a perfect song for Evan of Into It. Over It. to cover. The vocals fit his voice just right. I love the passion he's singing with, and it's a cool way to cover a song sitting in an alley with your guitar and your voice.

Wednesday Local Artist Spotlight: They've Shot Flanigan

They've Shot Flanigan

An awesome shot video for this song featuring the recording process. I'm a sucker for local bands that rock, videos that feature studio footage, and songs that make me head bop. This fits the bill!

New Release Tuesday- Eve 6 "Curtain"

Eve 6 "Curtain"

File this under "That Band Still Makes Music", but AOL Music, and file that under "AOL is Still Around", is premiering a song from Eve 6. You know that band that had that hit song, "Inside Out?"  And that other song "Here's to the Night."  A middle of the road rock band that had hits to thrive on, but who knows what the other songs sounded like.  This new song feels like something I could get behind as its that bouncy beat. So maybe I will give a listen to the new album when it drops.  

Memo Monday- Frank Turner to release behind the scenes photography book

Frank Turner to release book

When I saw this piece of news, I had to share it with you lovely readers. As a music fan, and especially a fan of Mr. Turner, this looks to be great.  I love seeing photos of live shots, studio shots, and candid shots of musicians. If I had the talent and ability to do photography, I would be shooting musical stuff all the time.  I think there's something to be said when you see a picture of that muscian holding their guitar or playing a shot and all the people are right there with smiles on their faces.  To me, those are the best moments, and to capture them with a camera is amazing.  We all like to take those pictures in our minds, but when you see them in a digital setting, you can really see it and live it.  

Cover Song Saturday: Can you cover the Beatles?

I was a bit of a Beatles kick earlier this week, and decided to find some good Beatles cover songs. Even though, in my mind, the Beatles songs shouldn't be covered unless you're going to do it justice. Therefore I decided to hunt for those worthy cover versions.

Stevie Wonder "We Can Work It Out"


The Jam "And Your Bird Can Sing"


Al Green "I Want to Hold Your Hand"


It doesn't surprise me there have been a few R and B covers since the Beatles are influenced by that music, and their music can translate well to that vein. These are just three of the MANY cover songs out there, so go find your own, and let me know how it is.

Live Albums: Love them or Hate them?

Based off a discussion topic I was reading on AbsolutePunk.net, I got to thinking about live albums and how most of the time I enjoy them. The key is buying the live album of a band you really love because why wouldn't you want to hear them live? I think back to listening to MxPx's "At the Show" and you could feel the energy of that band and the show that was going on. I still have fond memories of Blink 182's live album as I decided one night to play it on our loud speakers at Borders Bookstore after hours, and got the plug pulled on it during a certain song.

A great live series to check out for your punk rock needs is Live in a Dive, which featured Fat Wreck bands and their goodness. I've listened to this Lagwagon one, so much that I can still fill in the banter between songs. Strung Out has a fantastic one out there as well that always makes me feel like I am right there as that's one band I've never seen live.

Brings me to this next point that live albums are great for those bands that I've not witnessed in the live setting. I can get the feeling of how great their shows can be and how much I would love to experience it.

What are your feelings on live albums? Any one of them stand out above the rest?

Wednesday Local Artist Spotlight: Ryan M. Brewer

Check out this handsome fellow Ryan M. Brewer and his weekly Music Monday series. He's a great singer songwriter that I think you will enjoy. Really puts together great music and has a singing ability that reaches all levels high and low. But don't let me say all of this, check out this song from Monday.

Brendan Kelly and the Wandering Birds "Suffer the Children, Come Unto Me"

Brendan Kelly and the Wandering Birds Song Premiere

Well I remember hearing how Brendan Kelly saying how he wanted to put out a solo album that was different, and after hearing some of the song samples, this stuff is different.  It's not the typical punk guy goes acoustic and plays just a guitar, which works for some of the punk rock crowd.  But I know how Brendan Kelly is and this doesn't surprise me that he's stepping out of his comfort zone to do something different.  Here's a song to check out so you can get a feel for the album, which you can pick up next week. I am definitely going to be checking it out, and excited to hear everything come together.  

Memo Monday- Rancid Streaming Entire Music Catalog

Stream Rancid's Music Catalog

Today's memo for you is that Rancid recently made their catalog of music available for streaming.  That's right, you can get on their website, and stream any song from any album.  To me, that's a big deal having any song available to listen to from that band. I used to play And Out Come the Wolves a lot in my early punk listening days.  Granted I grew out of that stuff, but there's no denying the influence this band has had in the punk rock community.  You can debate on whether the influence is good or bad, but the fact that you would debate it means the band is doing something.  Not sure what is in the cards for Rancid goes as far as new music, but it's fun to go back and listen to some of their older classic stuff that really meant something to the music scene.

Observations on the music community

You know not sure what got me thinking about this, but the music community is bi-polar.  Being a punk rock lover, I frequent punknews.org a lot, and that crowd there is either way high on something or way low on something.  There's never a middle ground.  And if they love something, they want the whole world to know it.  And if they hate something, they want the whole world to know that?

Not sure why that is.  Myself if I like a band, I'll tell someone maybe some people about them, and leave it at that.  But I never go into the game of hyping something up because once you start building something up and it doesn't meet those expectations, you will think it just sucks.

Which brings up the other thought I had going, why is it when a song gets overplayed, people suddenly think oh that songs sucks.  To me a song is good or not off the bat.  Sure you can get sick of hearing a song, but does that mean you change your opinion about its quality. I don't understand that logic, which when it comes to musical taste, there's probably not logic.

Your feelings will change all the time, hence your listening habits will change.  I am sure there are bands ten years, five years, and even a week ago that I thought I loved, but now am not in love with some much. And I know that will change in the next week.  But it is music, and it's like I always saying if it brings an emotion, good or bad, that's doing something.

Suggestion Saturday: Every Time I Die "Ex Lives"

Every Time I Die "Ex Lives"

This band has always got my attention with the way they can mix the genres of punk, rock, hardcore and still be melodic in that sense. It's a heavy sounding album that gets you nodding along and singing along with the soaring choruses.  This album just seemed to drop out of nowhere, but it's a great one. Definitely check out the song "Partying is Such Sweet Sorrow" as that's my favorite track off the album.

Favorite Records for the month of February from Punknews.org

Punknews.org Favorite Records from February

If you want my pick to listen to based on this list, I am with the fans and think Menzingers "On the Impossible Past" is the one to hear. It's a great mixture of pop punk and indie rock.  The vocals are well delivered.  Songs are catchy. There's a good variety of tempos happening on this album, so you don't think everything is fast or everything is slow.  I love the song The Obituaries and think you should give that song a listen to get a feel for what this band can do.