Music Now!

Archive for July, 2011

Formed in Sayreville, New Jersey, in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of lead singer, Jon Bon Jovi, Tito Torres, Richie Sambora, Dave Bryan and Hugh McDonald. They were originally likely to call themselves Johnny Electric, but a friend suggested the name Bon Jovi, within the vein of Van Halen.

They recorded their first album back in 1984, which spawned their first top forty single, “Runaway.” Their second album, “7800 Degrees Fahrenheit”, in 1985, didn’t produce any top forty singles, but, in 1986, they released their third album, “Slippery When Wet.” This album gave then their first number 1 single on Billboard’s weekly charts also it had become the biggest selling album of the season.

In 1988, they released their “New Jersey” album, but when this tour ended, this guitar rock band was ready for any break. So, the members of the group took a 2 year hiatus from each other, at which time, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora recorded solo albums. Read the rest of this entry »

If you feel about R&B artists since 2001, who one thinks of? Likely people who stuck around in the 90s, like Boyz II Men or Mariah Carey. For any who started their careers post 2002, few really stick out. Possibly Alicia Keys, Pharrell, Rihanna. Perhaps Drake and Trey Songz will join that list. What did these artists have in common? They broke the mould.

As R&B isn’t likely to ever match the gloriousness from the 90s, it makes sense that urban artists play it a little left of centre and embrace uniqueness. The urban genre isn’t what it really was. Songs are often forgotten. Let’s be honest; new artists just aren’t just like the earlier versions. To have any chance of longevity artists need to not seem like anyone else.

It is a big call, but Bruno Mars might just make that list. For just one, he wins the title for coolest album name of 2010 with Doo-wops & Hooligans. The American singer-songwriter and producer of Puerto Rican and Filipino descent released his debut album in October this season after garnering attention for singing the hooks on radio favourites Nothin’ You by B.O.B and Billionaire by Travie McCoy. Read the rest of this entry »

As the world of hip hop turns more and more into the mainstream music and has become, in my opinion, “pop music”, real Hip-Hop went underground. These are the most useful rappers alive at the moment.

The first hip hop artist that, is one of the greatest ever, is Method Man, also called Meth or Tical. With classic albums such as ‘Tical’ (1994), ‘Tical 2000: Judgment Day’ (1998), ‘Tical 0: The Prequel’ (2004) and ’4:21… Your day After’ (2006), Meth gained the respect he deserved and it has become a legendary East Coast icon. He’s also won a Grammy award for the ‘Best Rap Performance with a Duo or a Group’ for that song ‘You’re All That I have to Get By’, featuring Mary J. Blige. Finally, he’s very well known as being a member of the New england rap group Wu-Tang Clan, one, otherwise the best, rap group ever. Tical is placed release a his next album in March, 2011, entitled ‘The Crystal Meth’.

Jumping from the New england right to the West Coast, the next rap artist that made it into my ‘Best Rappers Alive’ list is Ice Cube. He started as a person in the West Coast rap group, N.W.A. Even though the group released only 2 albums, they’ve been successful as they are considered one, otherwise the first ‘gangsta rappers’ within the hip-hop world. He has released 9 albums to date, many of them achieving platinum statuses. His most successful album from both an industrial point of view (double platinum status) along with a lyrical perspective is ‘The Predator’, released on November 17th, 1992. Read the rest of this entry »

Pop music is like junk food. It isn’t very substantive, however when you’re in the best mood, there’s practically nothing more appetizing.

In the last 3 years, Lady Gaga’s mixture of costumes, performance art and claw-heavy dance moves (as well as her tendency to play classical piano while wearing a leather bikini) have helped her get to be the biggest pop act around. Katy Perry might be cuter and Beyoncé can be a better dancer, but Gaga is definitely probably the most entertaining. She writes her own music. She sings rather than lip-syncs. And it’s refreshing to determine a lady pop star prepared to forgo candy-colored outfits and songs about wanting a ring on her behalf finger in favor of chains, spikes and creepy nun outfits which make her sexually unappealing. Gaga is much more bomb than a bombshell. We like her that way.

But she comes with one weakness: the studio album. She’s a talented singer and her 2009 Cherrytree Sessions EP features an incredibly moving acoustic version of “Poker Face” which should shut up any music snobs who think she’s all show. But her full albums have always fallen a little flat. On her third album, Born By doing this, she relies too heavily on synthesizers and vocal effects, which lessen all her rough edges until she seems like a Eurodance version of Madonna (“Scheiße”), Sister Sledge (“Born This Way”) or early Whitney Houston (“Fashion of His Love”). Read the rest of this entry »

For every people from the sixties, seventies, and/or eighties, the Bob Marley legend takes on various and specific meaning, rife with peaceful love, spiritual reclamation, as well as, at the conclusion, melancholia (at losing Marley to cancer). For many of us, Marley involved supreme reggae- invigorating music and profound lyrics; for other people, he was accompaniment to the studies, our search for self, or our spiritual seeking; for still others, Marley was about pure love. The Bob Marley legend began with him, due to him, and continues with those of us who remember him.

We are saying Bob Marley legend because Marley managed to get inside a conformist culture by first gelling to that particular milieu (take a look at his pictures within the sixties: he and also the [other] Wailers wore the suits, the thin ties, the shortly-cropped hairdos…) then by evolving, physically, emotionally, spiritually (consider the dreads, yeah, but remember the philosophy, the religion, the attitude, what). Read the rest of this entry »

Music workstations have come a long way ever since the beginning of electronic musical technology. The Yamaha S90XS Workstation uses the real performance features of a high quality keyboard to a higher level. This powerful device is clearly designed with the performer in mind instead of just for creating a sound to be applied inside a studio nonetheless it measures up in each areas.

The audio quality is as high as you’d assume from Yamaha tools. The giant 142 megabytes worth of Piano wave forms carries the audio from the S6 Concert Grand Piano coupled with the excellent weighted keys will make you overlook that you aren’t sitting down behind an actual piano. The performance creator function is used to develop rich soundscapes with a single press of a key, adding various voices and also arpeggios over the top of the main sounds.

The planning with the system is certainly geared towards live musicians. Every one of the quickly reachable controls work in real-time without clipping or glitching out the sound. Adapt the reverb or chorus when playing and the audio currently being produced doesn’t miss a beat. Other great performance characteristics are a Microphone source which lets you record and add effects to vocals also.

Going from the stage into the studio, the Yamaha S90 XS does not dissatisfy. An unbelievable attribute enables you to record straight to a USB backup device in an music data format. No recording software is needed, merely push Record, Play, Hit end and you possess an sound file on your USB system of whatever you just performed. You may also make use of this function in order to save a previous recording and then play over it, best for backing up your own solos with a chord progression or maintaining atmospheric feel running in the backdrop of a song. You will find excellent methods for producing VSTs and integrating with computer composition and recording software package.

The Yamaha S90XS Workstation places the bar very high for competitors. Dedicate some hours to learning to use this exceptional machine and you’ll be all set for the stage and the studio.

The exceptionally talented Rock group Goo Goo Dolls have released their CD entitled Jed. I am very confident and happy to announce that I believe Goo Goo Dolls fans, and Rock fans alike will be pleased with this one. With the release of Jed their artistic excellence is on full display as they have once again delivered a brilliant collection of tracks that could very well be their best work to date.

I wish it weren’t the case but, it’s not everyday that I get a CD for review that I can just pop in and comfortably listen to from beginning to end. There is usually a song or two that I just can’t force myself to get through. Not at all the case with Jed. Every track is enjoyable and was pretty easy for me to listen to from start to finish.

Jed has a pleasantly varied, mix of 14 tracks that are very well written and brilliantly performed songs by these clearly superb musicians. Most of the songs display a lot of the kind emotion that makes for a really great listen. Seemingly drawing from what I can only imagine are their own real life experiences. At different points touching on the most real emotions of love, and the pain of failed relationships can certainly be heard.

Jed is a first rate CD, delivering a little something for everyone. I give it two thumbs up. It’s quite simply great listening. A must buy if you’re even mildly into Rock music.

While this entire album is outstanding the truly standout tunes are track 4 – 7th Of Last Month, track 7 – Down On The Corner, and track 14 – James Dean.

My Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore [...as in "Stuck On REpeat"] is track 1 – Out Of Sight. Great track!

Jed Release Notes:

Goo Goo Dolls originally released Jed on February 22, 1994 on the Metal Blade label.

CD Track List Follows:

1. Out Of Sight 2. Up Yours 3. No Way Out 4. 7th Of Last Month 5. Love Dolls 6. Sex Maggot 7. Down On The Corner 8. Had Enough 9. Road To Salinas 10. Em Elbmuh 11. Misfortune 12. Artie 13. Gimme Shelter 14. James Dean