?uestlove.

Another blog courtesy of "drinking" and "driving." Pitchfork recently interviewed ?uestlove and as always, it is an entertaining and incredibly informative read. The guy is an absolute music genius, one of the few of our generation whose music references I take very seriously and view as must-adds to my music collection. He's got this intense knowledge of music; today's various music scenes as well as a deep intimacy with soul music of the '60s and '70s. It blows me away.

This blog is inspired by two interviews with ?uest that I read today. One is from 2003, and one is from yesterday (8/19/11). The guy is this mad scientist/chameleon/jack-of-all-trades of music. I certainly would not want to restrict him to a hip hop box because he clearly knows the world outside of it, even though his band (The Roots) is a hip hop group. He makes music references like all he does all day long is listen to music. It's amazing. I want that job. I want the music research job, where you listen to records all day long, read liner notes all day long, figure out who played drums on what record while producing another record, how music connects, how musicians align, continually grow the big picture view of this giant web of music of the last 100 years. It's obvious by how he talks that ?uestlove has this kind of over-arching, encyclopedic knowledge of music.

But what I love the absolute most about ?uestlove is when he talks about D'Angelo. ?uestlove was integral in the creation and production of D's landmark album Voodoo and all I've ever wanted is for a musician to put out something as good as Voodoo in the last ten years. I think some have come close, possibly even matched it, but so, so few. This album is just out of control good. I am talking a kind of good that percolates. Good that sneaks up on you. Good that shows up after the fifteenth listen and gets better every single time. I still hear stuff on this album that I haven't caught before. I've never heard anything as layered as this.

But this isn't the time to actually write about Voodoo in a review sort of way.* What I want to highlight here is how important ?uestlove is to the current music scene. The first interview is eight years old now. ?uestlove and the interviewer chat about the then-current state of black music and how sociopolitical aspects of the day play into black music, but the good stuff comes when they start to chat about working with D'Angelo during the recording of Voodoo. It's such a cool concept; Voodoo was made on the principle that music is art and should be made with the utmost respect to those pioneers who have come before and the unknown visionaries that are to come and always with respect to the art itself. All of these incredibly musical people came together and made this mind-blowing album. It wasn't about money or gaining fans, it was about releasing a product, this work of art that could change how someone listened to music. "If creating music were a political party, then we were sort of being socialists." Why can't more artists think this way?

What I love is how he reinforces this ideal. He mentions going into the studio to record with John Mayer around the time of the interview (?uestlove played drums on "Clarity" off of the Heavier Things album in 2003). And ?uest actually says it was the most fun he'd had playing since recording Voodoo. He said he went in to record the one tune and they ended up jamming out like six new songs. That's incredible. It makes me so excited to know that these two musical brains have collaborated in the past and they are both still making music today, albeit not together. It is a giant relief to me, and it's one of those moments I have so infrequently nowadays when I think "Oh yeah, John Mayer used to be make amazing music and still has the potential to put out a completely life-altering record." Here's to hoping.

Also equally as interesting in this interview is how he profiles the breakdown of D'Angelo. How releasing "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" as a single off of Voodoo contributed to a very sexualized public persona that D'Angelo found hard to overcome. How the tour to support Voodoo quickly unwound because of all of this public hype. It's a sad story, but one that is pretty common in genius artistic circles, as ?uestlove puts it, "...they sabotage their shit."

Fast forward to August '11. In this interview with Pitchfork, ?uestlove speaks a lot more about The Roots and where they are, what it's like to be a house band of a late night host, etc. He does delve into the Soulquarian era a bit at the end, but overall this whole interview shows less his involvement with D'Angelo and more his ground-level view of rap over the last 20 years and how it has changed. This guy has been an integral part of hip-hop for over two decades now, and he has been in various circles as that time has gone by. This is a really interesting read for anyone who likes music, and especially anybody who likes hip hop.

I'm happy we still have ?uestlove around. I desperately hope he continues to coax D'Angelo out of semi-retirement, but at the very least, I hope he keeps collaborating. That is where I think he comes up with the greatest stuff. He has this uncanny ability to pull real music out of artists; he is our generation's Quincy Jones and D'Angelo is his Michael Jackson. I just hope they eventually reconnect and make their Bad.

-Jon

*Not sure I ever will, only because it's hard to write about something that good. All it seriously would be is me repeating over and over how awesome the whole freakin' album is. Each track, "Wow this one is amazing." Doesn't make for the best read. What I should do is accumulate every time I've mentioned it in passing in another post and you'd have basically my every thought about the insanity and genius that is that album.

Open Letter to John Mayer

Dear John,

I watched the 2011 Grammy's last night. What has happened to our music culture?

I am glad I kept watching through the first quarter of the show, because it got far better as it went on. But it started out rough because Lady Gaga performed. And more than anything I was confused. I have been for about a year now actually. I've listened to her stuff; I enjoy dancing to it about once and then it fizzles out for me. How has she become such a powerful force in the industry? It's her persona. It goes so far beyond her music. She is all spectacle; rather than just releasing killer dance music and not dressing it up, she promotes her persona through everything she does. It has never seemed to be just about music with her. Releasing a new album isn't her end product, and unlike musicians in the past who have used their music to promote some sort of social ideal outside of themselves (I don't need to give you a music lesson here, but Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come is the first one that comes to mind), Lady Gaga seems to use her music as one facet of her persona for the end result of promoting herself, but it's dressed up in the garb of "Be whoever you want to be! For me that means shoulder spikes, fake blood, and dinosaur eggs." I've seen her performances on different televised events and rather than seeming inspirational, it all comes back to her. What would a performance of hers be like without looking like an extra off of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine? What would be left of Lady Gaga if you took away all the pomp?

Same with Justin Bieber, but in a different way. Everything I see this kid do seems contrived. His documentary just came out this weekend. Wait, his documentary? He's sixteen years old. How does this kid deserve to have a documentary? He has no story yet! Someone found a cute young kid on YouTube, realized how well he could be marketed in the right hands, and the gamble paid off. How many sixteen year olds have as much musical talent as Bieber has? Lots of them. And most of them go on to music schools or perform in orchestras or sing in church choirs. I didn't see any real musicality from him last night, all I saw was some slick dance moves and a baby playing left-handed guitar chords. Not enough, Justin.

What about spectacle done right? Look to Cee Lo's performance with Gwyneth. I loved it, mainly because they both have the chops to back up how visually grandiose their performance was. They both sounded amazing and it was so much fun to watch. Yeah it was over the top, there was a fake rocket ship on stage and Cee Lo was dressed like a giant rainbow-colored chicken. I laughed each time the back up puppets shushed to keep the performance TV friendly. That's the kind of spectacle I want to see in our culture. Glam done right, not shock value for shock value's sake.

I need more of good stuff, like Dylan's performance with Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers. Sure, Bob Dylan is old and his voice isn't what it used to be, but he has earned his place on that stage. He gets to go up there and sing whatever he wants and however he wants to. It was great to see an old legend perform with new talent; they looked like they were having a blast.

So here's why this is penned to you, John. I wish the real talent in our culture produced more. I know real music takes longer to write and produce and output but it's disheartening to see what a powerful market force Justin Bieber is and how he is dominating everything when all I wish I had was a new Coldplay album or a new album from you. I want less choreography and more playing. I want to see collaboration and creativity in a musical sense, not who can come up with the craziest dress. I loved seeing Raphael Saadiq dancing around on stage with Mick Jagger. I want to see which musicians D'Angelo has back him on his new album and figure out as much about them as I can. I want more albums like The Roots/John Legend's Wake Up! from this last year. I can't wait for Adele's album to come out next week. I know it's selfish of me as a consumer to demand so much output from the talent, but what is a consumer without a producer?

And ultimately, the Grammy's weren't as discouraging as I thought they would be. I cheered when Esperanza Spalding won Best New Artist over her tough competition and when Arcade Fire beat out the other huge smash records for Album of the Year. And please don't stop making music. Your performance with Norah and Keith was my favorite of the night. Rhythmic, sexy, succinct, understated. Such an awesome tribute. And it was nice to know you don't have the lyrics to Dolly's entire discography memorized.

-Jon

Musical Connections

Uncovered a new gem in my music collection last night. As is my custom with the new year, I am currently listening through my entire collection in a systematic fashion. I have two different playlists I choose from: all albums with 0 play count (just ones to which I haven't listened), and albums with a "last played" date from the year 2010. I was getting ready to read in one of my class books so I went to my jazz section to choose something light. I stumbled upon Cannonball Adderly's classic Somethin' Else. I've listened to this one quite a bit, it's a really great album featuring Miles Davis. I've had this album in my library for probably five or six years, at least since 2005. And originally, I only got this album because the cover art for John Mayer Trio's album Try! was essentially an exact copy of the cover art for Something' Else. Cool connection there. Thanks John.

Anyway, I play the first track, entitled Autumn Leaves. Again, nothing special, I've listened to this tune quite a few times and have enjoyed it. But this time, I hear the melody kick in right around the 1:30 mark. Normally with jazz tunes, my ear isn't good enough to actually know what the melody line is unless I've heard the tune in some other context (i.e. John Coltrane's cover of My Favorite Things, as that's a famous song outside of Coltrane's recording, I know when he plays the melody line). This was the case with this song. The previous times I'd heard it I wouldn't have been able to pick out the melody line. This time, however, I heard something familiar around the 1:30 mark that pricked my ear. I couldn't figure out where I'd heard it before. I checked the song title (I hadn't really thought about what I was listening to other than the album title) and realized this was a song I fell in love with a few months ago after I got Eric Clapton's latest album, Clapton.

It was a pretty good album; I'd given it a few listens but didn't go nuts over it. Except for the closing track, Autumn Leaves. I didn't know when I first heard it that it was a cover, I just thought it was a beautiful, heart-breaking, gorgeously-played tune written by Clapton. It didn't seem like an off-base assumption; many of his songs feature chords that fit so well together iced with breathtaking guitar lines. I listened to this song over and over when I first got the album, I could not get over how simple and how beautiful the chords sounded. And his solo at the end just blew me away. More than anything the tone of his guitar sounds so rich.

So I loved the song. I had no idea the song was 65 years old. It was originally a french tune written by Joseph Kosma entitled "Les Feuilles Mortes" ("The Dead Leaves") and English lyrics were written by Johnny Mercer, a stalwart contributor to the Great American Songbook. It has been recorded by a variety of different artists, and is a fairly common jazz standard due to its simple yet creatively beautiful chord progression.

This was mainly an exciting find to me because of the potential that still lies in my music library. I've been listening to it, adding to it, trimming it, editing it for years now, and still, I just now found a new musical connection that blew me away between two completely unrelated albums. What other awesome links are waiting for me to find?

Here's what I found:

-Jon

Top 25 Albums of the 2000s

I was hoping to get this one done closer to the beginning of the year, but this list is so freakin' long that it took me awhile to write. So here we go.

25. Rockin' The Suburbs - Ben Folds (2001)

This album became a go-to album during my first year at Iowa. I remember standing at the bus stop right outside of Burge after dinner, waiting for the bus to get back to my room in Mayflower, and listening to The Ascent of Stan over and over. The harmony starting right around minute 3:00 and especially at 3:10 just floored me, and listening to it now still hits me in a crazy way. There was just so much great stuff on here, and I hadn't heard the piano used in such an effective, pop way before.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Not The Same

2. The Ascent Of Stan

3. Still Fighting It

24. Feed The Animals - Girl Talk (2008)

Watch out boys and girls, this one's definitely not one you play on a family vacation. Girl Talk is just one dude, a computer, and the most brilliant mind for mash-ups ever. Greg Gillis has taken samples of music from the last 60 years and mashed them all together in a way that makes me want to start riots. This whole album is the most high energy thing I've ever heard; it's basically just straight club gangster rap over samples like The Carpenters, The Band, Chicago, Earth Wind & Fire, etc. The beat never stops. It just goes, and goes, and goes, and the listener is just happy for the seemingly endless onslaught of pure rhythm and movement that is shot like a heroin syringe right into your musical arm vein. Awesome.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Set It Off (the Bubba Sparxx's Heat It Up over a sample of Dexys Midnight Runner's Come On Eileen is pure brilliance)

2. In Step (the Earth, Wind, & Fire sample of September underneath Ludacris rapping in Fergie's Glamorous sounds SO good here)

3. Give Me A Beat (when Ice Cube's AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted starts over Daft Punk's Face To Face, it makes me want to dance for seven years straight. Unbelievably great.)

23. The Odd Couple - Gnarls Barkley (2008)

Their first album was good, but man this one was so awesome. It is such a bizarre album; I have no idea how exactly to describe it or label it because it has so many different sounds. It's like soul electro pop cartoon circus music. Whatever you want to call it, it's awesome. Cee-Lo's voice over the production of one my favorite producers, DJ Danger Mouse, fits so perfectly.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Charity Case

2. Who's Gonna Save My Soul

3. A Little Better

22. Back To Black - Amy Winehouse (2006)

Aside from her decadent lifestyle filled with drugs and alcohol abuse, Amy Winehouse belongs in 1968. Or maybe with that stuff too. The reason I loved this album so much is because it has so much Dusty Springfield/Aretha Franklin/etc. soul with just the right pinch of '00s beat. It's really just Motown for Generation Y. And while Winehouse has got one hell of a voice, I have to give credit to Mark Ronson for that incredible production. He pulls some favors here, as you can hear the rich sounds of the Daptone Horns playing on most of these tracks. No wonder there is so much Rhythm & Blues on this record.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. He Can Only Hold Her

2. Back To Black

3. Tears Dry On Their Own

21. Room For Squares - John Mayer (2001)

I loved this album when I was in high school. Listening to it now, it's still good, but certainly a first record. I will say this though, I'm really glad I found this album when I was 16 and not 23. If I heard this record for the first time this last year, I would've probably set it down right away and not even gotten to the good stuff. On it's own, it's a fine album, but compared to his later work, it's pretty bland. Far more poppy than anything else. But if nothing else, it's really a great indication of what a great artist John Mayer is. This was his first album. How does a guy write a song like 3x5 on his first record? Impressive.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. 3x5

2. City Love

3. 83

20. FutureSex/LoveSounds - Justin Timberlake (2006)

This is one of the best second records I've ever heard. Justin Timberlake went from the bubble gum pop of 'NSYNC to pop with a bit more of a hip-hop edge (thank you Neptunes) on Justified, and then holy cow did he upped his game with this one. I didn't get into this album at first, mainly because another of my very favorite records (spoiler alert, it's #1 on this list) came out on the same day (my bday coincidentally). But once I really dug into this, it had so much to offer. There are layers upon layers of sexy, soulful, electro-pop on this album. The interludes alone are worth the purchase price.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. LoveStoned/I Think She Knows Interlude

2. Until The End Of Time Feat. The Benjamin Wright Orchestra

3. What Goes Around.../...Comes Around Interlude

19. 19 - Adele (2008)

I don't want to sound sexist here, but I don't groove on female vocalists as much as male vocalists. Maybe it's just cause I can't sing along. Adele is a grand exception (to the me liking her, not to the me singing along). She has one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. Period. And to hear a voice of this caliber in our age of auto-tune and paint by numbers pop starlets is just astounding. Adele has such control in her voice, it's remarkable. And on top of being floored by her voice, the music on this record is really great. It's great modern British pop sounds with lots of homage to late '60s soul. Plus one of the best Bob Dylan covers ever.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Hometown Glory

2. Tired

3. Right As Rain

18. Alive 2007 - Daft Punk (2007)

I had a hard time not putting this one higher on my list, but in reality, I only truly fell in love with the first half of this record. But holy cow what a first half it is. I think going to a Daft Punk show would be the best way to burn calories, EVER. They put on a hell of a live show which really just equates to one colossal dance party. This show consists of just a mash-up of killer Daft Punk songs. My only beef with this is my normal beef with Daft Punk: they give us too much of a good thing. Some of the later tracks are too long and too monotonous to stay focused and into the music but that is not the case for tracks 3-5, the most glorious continuous seventeen minutes and thirty-seven seconds in music I think I've ever heard. The triumvirate ofTelevision Rules The Nation / Crescendolls, Too Long / Steam Machine, and Around The World / Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger is breathtakingly and relentlessly awesome. Awesome the way my grandparents use the word. The whole time I'm just filled with wonder at how incredibly cool these songs sound. It is just an onslaught of sound and beat and melody and robots and guitars and cheering and beauty. Probably great for working out.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Around The World / Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

2. Television Rules The Nation / Crescendolls

3. Too Long / Steam Machine

17. The Black Album - Jay-Z (2003)

If you ever want to hear an artist at his zenith, listen to this album. One might argue that The Blueprint is Jay's best work, but I have to stick with The Black Album. The Blueprint was the game changer for Jay-Z, and this one is the one that solidified his status as King of the Rap Game. First off, the production on this thing is just insane. He's got Kanye, Just Blaze, Timbaland, Eminem, the Neptunes, even Rick Rubin produces on this record. What a line-up. And then on top of some of the sickest beats I have ever heard, you've got Jay at the top of his wordplay. This is like watching Michael Jordan play basketball in 1996. His verses are just crazy good. Jay's got swagger cause he knows this is his "last" album and he's going out on top. You can hear a bit of sadness on December 4th when he says "Goodbye to the game, all the spoils, the adrenaline rush." This album was truly Jay's "grand closing."

Top 3 Tracks:

1. December 4th

2. Encore

3. 99 Problems

16. Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future - The Bird And The Bee (2009)

I heard the first single from this album back on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (the original, not Part Deux) and it absolutely blew me away. I even blogged about it I think. Yup I did. This woman's voice is just perfect, so soft and pretty and melodic and overtaking. Her harmonies are gorgeous. The chorus on Diamond Dave has some of the prettiest vocal layering ever. And the music production is so weird, it's like jazz/pop rooted in electronica. It sounds like an odd mix, but the sound combinations produce such a huge wall of breathtaking music.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. My Love

2. Ray Gun

3. Diamond Dave

15. Try! - John Mayer Trio (2005)

Who knew John Mayer could play the guitar? I did. And so many of his fans did too, but this album, along with the arrival of the Trio was the moment we could hold our heads up high and no longer be reviled for being fans. This is a powerful album from the guy whose record company had released Daughters as his previous single. He breaks out of that mold completely though, introducing his young fans to hits by Ray Charles and Jimi Hendrix, as well as showing them what Daughters was originally written as (slow soul tune). And a seven and a half minute slow blues tune too? From the Wonderland guy? John Mayer effectively avoided getting pigeonholed with this album and started to dictate his own career rather than having it dictated to him by his record label. And in the process, you gave us a pretty bad ass record. Well done, John.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. I Got A Woman

2. Wait Until Tomorrow

3. Gravity

14. X&Y - Coldplay (2005)

The Joshua Tree for my generation. Coldplay had had a small hit with Parachutes, gained some notoriety with A Rush of Blood to the Head, but this was the album with hype. Everybody wanted to see where they would go next and they took it to another dimension with this one. A dimension where bands only play arenas. Every song on this album seems like it would fit a giant stadium better than anything else (coincidentally, Coldplay just performed an acoustic version of A Message on the Hope for Haiti TV special months ago, and it was SOOO great). I fell in love with this album. So many immense sounds and instruments and melodies and harmonies and it's just so great. No one can write emotion that bursts out of your soul into song like Coldplay. And this album proved that.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. What If

2. Fix You

3. The Hardest Part

13. Miles Remixed - The Apple Juice Kid (2008)

This one is maybe the least well known on my list. Okayplayer.com (The Roots website) featured this album as a free download by kind of famous producer The Apple Juice Kid. I had never heard of him but the album cover looked sweet and I had a fairly large Miles Davis collection, which I enjoyed listening to from time to time so I thought I'd give it a try. Glad I did. This is one of the smoothest sounding albums ever. It combines the jazzy melodies of Miles Davis from the '50s and '60s with some beautifully smooth hip-hop beats. AJK has just taken bits and pieces from some of Davis' seminal works and cut them up, rearranged them, and mashed them together in a way that is just so easy on the ears. That's one reason I liked this so much. I listened to this when I studied, I listened to it playing darts in our duplex garage, it was perfect mood music. There were so many nights that Kevin and Colleen and I would stay up late, throwing darts, drinking a bit and just talking while this was playing in the background. It creates a very tranquil atmosphere in which to hang out. Jazz often turns lots of people off due to its grand or seemingly pompous nature. This is an album that takes jazz and makes it completely listenable.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. SnapMusic

2. Masco

3. ViolinGreen

12. Catching Tales - Jamie Cullum (2005)

This album finds its strength by being very catchy pop, but rooted in something that isn't ubiquitous in today's music scene. Jamie Cullum has the jazz piano chops to pull this album off super well. He's got crazy chords all over the place and sexy progressions and melodies, it's just so much fun to listen to. His voice can be a bit grating at first listen, but with time, one comes to realize how much control he's got and how easily he can manipulate his voice. And hoo boy can this guy scat!

Top 3 Tracks:

1. 21st Century Kid

2. My Yard

3. Nothing I Do

11. Parachutes - Coldplay (2000)

It's remarkable that Parachutes is a debut album. Coldplay writes and sings and plays with depth, emotion, and some real sexy piano music. Chris Martin might not have the most technically perfect voice ever, but he does exactly what he needs to do song after song here. Listening back to it, it's amazing to hear how much depth these guys wrangle out of their acoustic guitars. One of my favorite records ever.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Trouble

2. We Never Change

3. Sparks

10. Late Registration - Kanye West (2005)

Another great sophomore album. I liked The College Dropout fine enough, but this is when I knew for sure that Kanye could deliver and his debut wasn't a fluke. There are so many great tracks here, and the music is insanely eclectic. Kanye brought in an outsider not really known for producing hip-hop, Jon Brion. He is known for scoring movie soundtracks such asMagnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (one of my personal favorites), and Synecdoche, New York, among many others. And his influence on this record is key. Kanye is great but pushed the boundaries of his own style with Brion's help. This is a bizarrely eclectic albums with sounds you'd never expect from a huge hip-hop star. Also, Kanye lays down some amazing samples all over the place here, including, but not limited to, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Curtis Mayfield and Bill Withers. How much more soul can you fit onto one record?

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Gone Feat. Consequence and Cam'Ron

2. Crack Music Feat. The Game

3. Gold Digger Feat. Jamie Foxx

9. Heavier Things - John Mayer (2003)

There is so much growth between this record and Room For Squares. He went from writing pretty run of the mill pop songs to songs with some punch to them. Sure, these are mostly all pop songs again, but with just enough soul hidden inside that they can catch you off guard. One of the strengths of this album is that it matches sonically with what he's singing about. The feelings evoked by the words of Wheel is exactly the feeling evoked by the music of the song. And many of these songs just hit bullseye in that regard. Clarity, Something's Missing, Split Screen Sadness. There is emotion that lines up just perfectly between music and lyrics. It is a very satisfying listen.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Clarity

2. Wheel

3. Something's Missing

8. Discovery - Daft Punk (2001)

I know I've written about this album somewhere else. Thinking about it now it might be in an unpublished Top 5 Favorite Artists blog somewhere. Anyway, this album rules. For me, it's the sum of everything good about Daft Punk's strengths. In their older stuff, the "techno" sound of their music overtakes everything and they don't use any restraint. On this album, they take the techno sound and turn it into songs that are listenable. Real songs, not just seven minute club tracks. Songs with different parts, verses, choruses, the occasional bridge here and there. It's that complex of a thing, but when they start writing real songs in their crazy robot sounding style, it's so awesome.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Digital Love

2. Something About Us

3. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

7. Fly Or Die - N*E*R*D (2004)

This album is the summer of 2004 for me. There is hardly anything that makes sense on this album musically, considering who N*E*R*D is and the kind of music they made before this. Since some of N*E*R*D's members make up the hip-hop production team The Neptunes, you'd think this album would be rooted in hip-hop. Not at all. While there are some flavors of hip-hop throughout, this is far more of a crazy pop-rock album than anything else. Am I supposed to dance to these songs or "rock out" as the saying goes? Who knows. You listen and you love it.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. She Wants To Move

2. Maybe

3. Breakout

6. Once - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova (2007)

Most soundtracks are comprised of songs from which clips were featured in the movie. This one is different; almost all the songs from the soundtrack are performed in their entirety in the movie. Which, now that I think about it, makes the movie more of a musical than anything. Tangent. These songs are breathtaking. The voices are simple; his voice warbles from time to time, but you can tell he means every word he sings. That is truly a rare trait in music today. Her voice is beautiful; so simple and it fits right where it needs to. She doesn't overpower him and only adds to him. It's perfect. Their combination is so well-matched. It might be such an emotional album for me because it's so intimately tied to the movie. When I hear these songs, I think of the relationship between these two characters and that they are really singing these songs to each other. They are singing about hurt, about loss and pain and failure and love and hope. When The Guy really lets his voice loose in Say It To Me Now, it is chilling because you hear what he is feeling. That is where the strength in this album lies. There isn't anything technically out of this world, it's mainly just two simple voices over simple instruments. The beauty lies within the feeling behind each voice and how much they can communicate with just their voices. Amazing.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Say It To Me Now

2. Lies

3. Once

5. Graduation - Kanye West (2007)

Highest ranked rap album on my list here. Kanye reached his zenith with this album. He had a great sound on The College Dropout, tweaked it just enough with Late Registration and hit the nail on the head with this album. Just great production here, all the way through. The craziest samples ever. Steely Dan, Daft Punk, Elton John, Curtis Mayfield, and one of my absolute all time favorite samples ever, Michael Jackson's P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) samples in Good Life. Maybe the hottest sample ever. So clever too. P.Y.T. is such an incredible pop song, and Kanye just took it and slowed it waaaay down, until it's almost unrecognizable. It took me lots and lots of listens before I realized he was even sampling anybody, and then I had to really focus to catch the sample. So subtle but man the end product is just so hot. And can I talk aboutFlashing Lights for a second? I don't even think I should. This is definitely on my Top 5 Hip Hop Songs list. It is undeniable how great the beat in that tune is. This album isn't perfect (Drunk And Hot Girls and Big Brother are two huge blemishes), but where Kanye gets it right, he REALLY gets it right. Beats and rhymes both. He was completely on top of his game here.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Flashing Lights Feat. Dwele

2. Good Life Feat. T-Pain

3. Homecoming Feat. Chris Martin

4. Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends - Coldplay (2008)

It has to be hard to release albums each better than the last. Coldplay has pulled it off for the last decade. Impressive. I had a lot of high hopes for this album and was totally blown away by it. The sounds here are just crazy. The intro song, Life In Technicolor, just starts with the craziest sounding weird piano instrument and opens into a huge rolling sea wave of sound that overtakes you and doesn't let you come up for air until the end of the album. The band paints so many landscapes with the songs. If I was to make a music video for Cemeteries Of London, I would have the band playing the song amidst a giant Revolutionary War battle. Cannons firing all around them, soldiers bayonetting each other. The song just sounds like a colossal battlefield to me. And how about Viva La Vida? Maybe the most inspirational sounding song I've ever heard. Really though, this whole album boasts songs that are just big. They belong in another universe. Just like X&Y, I feel like the only place they could ever truly live is in a giant stadium arena. I can't imagine Death And All His Friends any other way than the whole band performing it in front of tens of thousands of fans. All the way through, this album just sets my heart on fire.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Lost!

2. Viva La Vida

3. Life In Technicolor

3. Voodoo - D'Angelo (2000)

Remember that sexy music video from about ten years ago of that super buff black guy singing the song with no clothes on? The camera rotated around his whole body, just showing his insanely ripped torso? That was D'Angelo. And that video basically communicates what this album is all about. SEX. But it really is so much more than that too. But the sexy is the most obvious element of this album. I'd never heard music made of silk before this one. Each song is a study in not just how to get a certain feeling behind the music, but how that feeling can be communicated by the musicians. True, the feeling here is sexual/sensual soul, but it's so well communicated by how the instruments are played. The bass is pushed so far back behind the beat, it's like a game between the musicians to see how off kilter they can take the music without completely tearing everything apart. Imagine musical notes dancing around each other like they know some sexy business is going down soon. That is this album in a nutshell. Reading over that again, that's the worst comparison I could come up with but it's the only way I can communicate how much soul this album has. So much.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Greatdayindamornin' / Booty

2. One Mo' Gin

3. Feel Like Makin' Love

2. Al Green - Lay It Down

Al Green is one of those classic artists that has enough credibility from the last fifty years that basically most anyone you ask would say "Oh yeah, I love Al Green!" when really the only songs they know are Let's Stay Together, Love And Happiness, and if you're lucky, Call Me (Come Back Home). I used to be one of those people, at least until two years ago. And then he released this album. After the opening bass riff of the first track, I was sold. Not only on this album, but on Al Green as a musician in general. This was the album that did it though. Produced by ?uestlove and James Poyser, both from The Roots, this album is like the incarnation of the '70s Al Green soul imputed into the R&B of today. Holy moly is it fun to listen to. Soft guitar, bass lines that are just out of this world, horns that could only have come from James Brown's band, and all of this lays the setting for that silky falsetto of Al Green. A few great guest spots too, John Legend, Anthony Hamilton, and Corinne Bailey Rae. And the songs are just good songs. Songs about love. No politics here. No messed up relationships. Just simple love songs, of which good ones are very hard to find nowadays.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Just For Me

2. Lay It Down Feat. Anthony Hamilton

3. What More Do You Want From Me

1. John Mayer - Continuum

It might be a while before Mayer tops this album. This one came at just the right time; he was at just the right spot in his musical timeline to coalesce so many different genres and influences into a modern masterpiece. He touches on blues, jazz, funk, lots of pop, and in general just music that can be enjoyed by such a wide range of humans. And that's just the music. Lyrically, he reaches into the deepest depths of anything he had done (and even stuff he's done since this album). There are truly universal themes here, themes that at some point or another, everybody thinks about this stuff. Everybody has issues with seeing their parents age. Everybody has issues with dealing with the good and the bad in life. Everybody deals with the concept of belief in one form or another. Everybody deals with fighting off the world in order to hold onto their confidence. There is genius writing all over this one. And back to the music again, every song can be traced back to its influence if you listen closely enough. This album sent me on a hunt to find what inspired it. Here's a short list: Curtis Mayfield, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, George Harrison, Steely Dan, Coldplay, and Ray Charles. And that doesn't even cover all of the songs. It's hard to find things that aren't really, really great on this album. And that's why it's on the top of this list. It's so difficult to pull together such a great mix of elements and pull it off so perfectly as Mayer does here. Great album art too.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)

2. Slow Dancing In A Burning Room

3. Stop This Train

Battle Studies.

Well, that's an embarrassing way to start this review.

Quite an event last Tuesday. John Mayer finally released his fourth studio album, Battle Studies, and I got to experience hearing brand new, non-live, studio-made, John Mayer-written music for the first time in three years. Pretty exciting stuff for me. And admittedly, I was a bit nervous, as John's become quite the douche in the last three years, but it turns out my fears were unwarranted.

JM hasn't branched too far out here. If nothing else, he's taken a few steps backwards in regards to his other music. But this isn't a bad thing. His pre-Continuum music is great, so these new songs are really just a nice addition to his body of work. Most of them are anyway. As a whole, Battle Studies isn't as cohesive as Continuum, in terms of musical style and song quality. The only thing that really does bind most of the record together is a general (I use that term loosely, see Crossroads, Who Says, War Of My Life, none really pertain to the ->) theme of breaking up. Musically, he definitely dabbles in quite a few areas, but as a whole he's stepping back towards the pop scene. Continuum was just so soulful; soul emanated from every part of that album. Not so here. Overall it's much more of a pop music, radio-ready type of feel.

OK the songs. If I had my way, I would cut three songs off the record, completely retool one song, and leave the other seven exactly how they are. That's not the best percentage, but still alright. It's the middle stretch that is just plain bad. The triumvirate of Who Says, Perfectly Lonely, and War Of My Life really pains me, and Crossroads might be one of the most disappointing covers I've ever heard. Who Says sounds like an extension of his a-hole lifestyle set to a pretty little acoustic ditty, which is catchy enough that it's annoying how bad the song is. Sorry John, but very few of your fans relate to planning trips to Japan by themselves and canceling them at will. Perfectly Lonely is one of those empowerment songs that I find so inane. It'll be the one at concerts that all the lonely people pump their fists to and sing along too loudly with, trying to fool themselves and everybody around them that they're so happy they're alone. Annoying. I know this might seem like a dumb thing to say since I'm married but why can't he write one song about actually finding love or being in love where there aren't any negative little asides, or "this is great BUT..."? Just one John. I only want one.

Crossroads is a real bummer for me too. When I saw this on the track list I was psyched because of how great his Hendrix cover was on Continuum. This cover sounds like he pulled it directly from Guitar Hero. I seriously think Steve Jordan sat down to a drum kit with four parts, each a different color. And the guitar tone is so awful, which only makes the solo worse than it already is. This is just a really uninspired cover, which bums me out because usually JM does covers so well (see Free Fallin', Bold As Love, Kid A from the old days). He chooses awesome tunes, not always the most well-known, and makes them even better, injects them with something unique. This is just sonic mush. Wish you could have a re-do on this one John.

But if you listen to the good parts of this record, he really starts to shine again. The strongest element of this whole album is his voice, but only when it's bolstered by the melody lines he sings. He has seemed to hit on really quality melody lines, that are not only gorgeous, but fit his voice perfectly. Assassin and Heartbreak Warfare are the two I'm thinking of most here, but also listen to All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye, Edge Of Desire (anybody else think this song sounds like Jimmy Eat World circa 2004?). All beautiful melodies.

Assassin is shaping up to be my favorite song off the album, and thank goodness it's smack dab in the middle to break up all those crap tunes. This one really demonstrates the little things that put John Mayer above most pop artists recording today. Just like 95% of popular music, the first chorus of this tune is underlined by some pretty simple power chords. It's at 3:41 when the second chorus starts right after his guitar solo, holy cow he adds just the second note of each chord to each chord he plays and it elevates the foundation of the song to a whole new level. It's a subtle addition but it really distinguishes it from the humdrum music that we hear so often.

And I have to note the bass playing here. Bassist Pino Palladino is out of this world. To get the full effect of his playing, throw on some headphones, turn them up just a bit more than you normally would, and listen to the introduction up through the first chorus. Listen to the bass. Pino is the most controlled bass player I've ever heard. No matter how many notes he seems to bounce over, every single one fits within each chord and leads the listener along without them knowing where we're going. Listening to this song for the first few times, I could never predict what was coming next in the bass line. So great. Pino kills it here.

One quick note about Half Of My Heart, almost certainly coming to a radio near you very soon. The song is fine, nothing too special, but the back-up vocals are sung by freakin' Taylor Swift. Alright JM, I've got beef with this. She's got a fine voice, clear and pretty, but she's hardly even in this song, and the only reason I can really see that you added her in this is to grab a few new country music fans and tween fans who weren't at music-purchasing age when Mayer released Wonderland eight years ago. At the writing of this, Half Of My Heart was at #7 on the iTunes Singles chart. And I guarantee it's only because the title is followed by (with Taylor Swift). And with all of his clout, all of his street cred in the music community, he gets Taylor Swift to guest on his record? The man has worked with Billy Preston, B.B. King, John Scofield, Herbie Hancock, is friends with Buddy Guy and Eric Clapton, and he gets pop-tween-queen Taylor Swift to guest on his record. Just kind of a bummer to me.

Other random thoughts: War Of My Life wins the award for gayest John Mayer song title, while Friends, Lovers Or Nothing is definitely a great track and it will be a great show/encore closer. In very much the same vein as I'm Gonna Find Another You, just more Beatles-ish. Bold move too, leaving out that ol' oxford comma.

So I don't think it's not his best work, but overall it fits well into his canon. And now that I've had a week with it, I can say that it's worn well already. The first two days I gave the songs I didn't like five or six listens to give them a chance and then started skipping them, the last few days they've all definitely grown on me. So go buy it. Support good music, because the month of November will have seen album releases from Weezer, 50 Cent, Bon Jovi, Fall Out Boy (a greatest hits compilation, are you kidding me?), Lady GaGa, Adam Lambert, Rihanna, and Lil' Jon. When the music scene is that bleak, you've got to stand up for what's right and good in this world. John Mayer might not completely fit those two adjectives, but he's far better than all of the other stuff I just listed.

-Jon

Countdown.

The wait begins. John Mayer has put the first single off of "Battle Studies" up on his website. (If you want to give it a listen, it's right here.) With his last two albums, I managed to wait until the release date to hear the entire thing for the first time (excluding a few listens of the single, which is hard to avoid due to the radio, music TV, etc.), and it definitely paid off. I grew to know each album as a whole rather than The Single and then The Rest Of It, commonly known as The Good Stuff. I don't want the single living in a different space in my head than the rest of the album. This almost always pays off for listening to most full albums for me, and I don't want to make Battle Studies any different.

That being said, 1 month and 22 days until the album is released. Good grief.

-Jon

2 videos.

i've come across 2 videos lately.

1: this one is 10 minutes from jay-z's 9/11 benefit concert at madison square garden in new york. he had loads of guests but this is a clip of my favorite guest.

now while i love john mayer, i'm a little iffy about his performance at the show. i don't know what it was, he just didn't seem totally on. he didn't seem to add tons to the music. and he was a little too styled out. leather jacket and tight pants? it just didn't seem very representative of how he usually is. but whatever. he played guitar for jay-z. talk about cred.

2: cat massage.

man i find this funny. i'm assuming this is just a edited version of an awful longer version. this is from the twitter page of neal brennan (created chappelle's show with dave chappelle). hilarious at 2:37 when the cat looks to the cameraman for help.

-jon

heads up.

hate to harp on about john mayer but he just released very big news.

the latest album, "battle studies," will be released on november 17, with the first single to be released ahead of that.

HOLLER.

-jon

tell 'em that it's.....

i'd like to state first and foremost that as a nation, we should move on from michael jackson's death. yes he was a pop icon, but the guy hadn't released anything really good since '87's "bad." his talent was not taken from us "too soon," as is always said when a celebrity dies. he wasn't murdered, there is no conspiracy, we don't need to hear any interviews with his personal chef. he was just an old dude who had some health problems and had a heart attack. move on, mass media.

that being said, i want to bring attention to this performance of "human nature" from the mj tribute show. say what you will about john mayer, the dude is such a versatile musician. love that guitar tone.

-jon

conan's first week.

conan o'brien has officially taken over the tonight show franchise on nbc. he's gotten through his first week and i couldn't be happier. he moved in with little to no hiccups, and it looks as though he's gonna make a great host.

monday was such an exciting night for me. i'd waited three months with great anticipation to see conan back on the air and i was just amped to see the news anchors end with "stay tuned for the tonight show with conan o'brien on next!" right off, i've gotta say that seeing conan's new show, i was left with the impression that he really loves television. just as a medium, as an art form, as a way of communication, he loves television. his show started with a decades old nbc peacock logo stating, "the following program is brought to you in living color on nbc." super cool homage to an era of television gone by. his intro too has a very cool old-time microphone with a very vintage nbc logo on it and loads of flashy lights, and his new set really has the perfect mixed feeling of vintage and contemporary styles. for example, there is a mural wrapping around the stage above conan that's hard to see on tv, but it's a really trendy art-deco vintage mural with scenes from 1920s LA area and nbc logos. just really cool stuff. it's hard to explain but it just seems that conan loves tv and this whole new show is very much an homage to television from the past. such a neat thing.

conan's cold open was a great way to kick of his show too. seeing him literally run across the united states was really funny to me. the man has just the longest limbs you could ever imagine. it's incredible, and seeing him sprint across wrigley field was great. it was a great intro that i think was endearing to leno's old viewers.

the new intro is really cool too. i mentioned the old mic, but it's just a very hip, vintage montage of lights and sounds with conan's old pal and new announcer andy richter announcing conan and the band and guests. a fitting job for andy. and the theme song. oh man when i heard conan's old theme music from late night i was just ecstatic, but they've updated it with some real flourish and it kills now. it's such a great tune. seeing max weinberg and the tonight show band (previously known as the max weinberg seven) playing was great too, i'm so happy they came from new york to join conan on the show. they are such a great band.

so overall, conan was great. he seems really happy and really grateful for this new opportunity and is really excited to take the show over and make it his own. while he didn't seem completely at ease on the first night, by the end of the week he was really getting into his groove. i have no doubts he will feel right at home right away.

i guess what i mean by completely at ease is on late night, there was a lot more of him killing time during the monologue with just silliness. conan making jokes about his hair or how the audience cheered too much for him or how a joke bombed. so far on the tonight show, there has been a lot more pre-produced sketches, off-set segments (also called "remotes") which has conan interacting with just normal people, like universal studio tourists, workers on the universal studio lots, random LA citizens, etc. i've always found these segments funny, because conan has an incredible knack for improvisational comedy and finding the comical within normal situations with normal people. some of my favorite moments from late night were his remotes, like the old-tyme baseball sketch, anything that triumph the insult comic dog did, conan's bird-watching outing, conan's formation of a boy band, and conan's dinner with associate producer jordan schlansky. these are just a few of the absolutely hilarious sketches that conan has done off the set. if you have a chance, take a look at these sketches because they are thoroughly entertaining. if conan keeps this kind of comedy up on the tonight show, his viewers are in for quite a treat. what has been missing a bit, and was coming back slowly by the end of the week, was his off the cuff silliness on camera. during his monologue, conan plays the audience so well and often rambles just enough to say hilarious things. he comes up with ridiculous "impressions" of celebrities that are just him doing things like pulling on fake suspenders to do larry king. they aren't actually "good" impressions but they are funny. it's this type of silliness that has taken him a bit to ease back into since starting but i think the more he takes over the show the more we'll see it.

one thing that improved greatly as the week went by was the return of great old comedy bits from late night. when i realized they were doing in the year 2000 on wednesday, any of my fears for conan's switch to an earlier time slot were alleviated. i was unsure if they were gonna bring a lot of bits over or use max and the band in bits as much, and seeing them take a classic bit from late night and giving it just a little bit of pizzazz for the new audience was reassuring. thursday's show saw the return of max weinberg as more than just a great band leader but also a really weird and hilarious member of the show's comedy team and friday's show featured the old bit celebrity surveys. i'm not worried anymore. they'll bring over the funny stuff and leave aside the not as good stuff.

the first week was jam packed with celebs. will ferrell, tom hanks, gwyneth paltrow, ryan seacrest, and a few lesser knowns. musical guests included pearl jam (debuting a brand new song from their forthcoming album), green day (who gave conan a guitar as a house warming present), sheryl crow (performing the same song she did on her debut performance on late night with conan o'brien way back in '93 or '94, whenever it was), and most importantly for ME, john mayer trio. the trio hasn't played together in like a year and a half and to see them performing on stage was just really great. they covered california dreamin' by the mama's and the papa's and were backed by a los angeles children's choir. so awesome. leave it to john mayer to turn a '60s folk song into a real rock 'n roll tune. get a load of this.

so it's been a good first week. i want to call it great just because i'm excited to see conan doing the job he was born to do, but i'm gonna keep my grade at good for now, mainly cause i know he hasn't won many new viewers' hearts yet. but i know the show is only gonna get better. conan has only ever improved in his 16 years on television and this is his chance to really do what he wants with his show and with his comedy. can't wait to see what he's got up his outrageously long sleeves.

-jon

the grammys.

disclaimer: as my roommates and i do not pay for or have access to cable television, or any television for that matter, i was not able to watch the grammys. everything i know of last night's award show is hearsay from the internet.

let's start with the positive. or the dark cloud with a silver lining. quite a back story here. chris brown and rihanna were both scheduled to perform at the grammys. before the awards show, chris brown turned himself into the police for reports of alleged assault, so he pulls out of the show. rihanna, for reasons unknown, also pulls out of the show. there is a lot of speculation as to whether rihanna is the victim of the alleged assault. regardless, instead of having their performances, the grammys threw together one of my dream-come-true performances.

let's stay together - jt and al green.



skip the first minute. jt is horrible when he isn't singing, acting, dancing, or doing anything that involves more than just plain talking. this is so great. back when it was first announced that al green was doing an album with ?uestlove, i read a story from mtv that said justin timberlake was in talks to guest on the album or at least had made it clear he wanted to guest. for some reason it never happened, which is i guess good because the album is incredible without him, but this performance is really good too. the one thing that really would've made it just stellar would've been john mayer on guitar rather than keith urban. cool dude, you're good at guitar but you are a country artist. john mayer transcends genre, and that's why he's great. but still this is an awesome performance.

super great performance number two: lost? - chris martin, jay-z.



chris martin is such a so-so performer to me, at least voice-wise. he can't really hit his falcetto notes. his bouncing around the stage is sort of weird too. but for some reason i still really like him. and going into viva la vida is awesome, what a grand song for a band to play. i absolutely love seeing drummer will champion banging away on that bell. and their background vocals are super great. so coldplay rocks.

great performance number three: b.b. king, buddy guy, keith urban, and john mayer in a tribute to bo diddley.

Vid
by tryjm

notice it's only great, not super great. it's a cool line-up of old/new musicians, but it's sort of a ho-hum performance with nothing really special to write home about. plus it's really short.

worst juxtaposition of artists performance: burnin' up/superstition - stevie wonder and the jonas brothers.

i'm sorry, did you just say the jonas brothers? yeah, so they might be the new face of pop music, but come on. these guys in no way have the chops to be put next to stevie wonder, living legend of r&b, soul, pop, jazz, funk, or whatever other genre you could attach to him. the man is an incredible artist, and he is stuck playing "burnin' up" alongside two crappy guitarists and some iffy vocalists. what happens to nick, who is supposed to be the good singer in the group, when he first starts his verse of superstition? and kevin and nick both playing guitar...it's a bummer to me that in our culture, showmanship is favored over actual talent. you might not be able to play your instrument very well, but if you are a natural born performer, than you will probably be famous. shame. and joe needs to stop trying to growl when he sings. it's not happening buddy.



hip-hop performance of the night: swagger like us - m.i.a., jay-z, kanye, t.i., lil wayne



this is ok. m.i.a. is incredibly fat. jay-z clearly has the most class of any of them. kanye, since when did mullets become fashionable again? t.i. kind of just sucks. and lil wayne, my goodness i do not understand what the appeal of this guy is. he won some grammys last night, thank goodness he didn't win the big one, album of the year. granted i haven't heard his universally-hailed album tha carter III, but what i have heard is just bad. awful beats, like painful to listen to. i do not get why he is so freakin' popular.

so those were the performances i saw. there was one little "bombshell" dropped by some presenters. blink-182 is reforming. an ellipse is really the only way i can communicate my emotion for news. blink sucks. they are basically responsible for making that crappy pop-punk garbage that infests the radio nowadays phenomenally popular. but i mean come on, who doesn't love a band who releases albums such as enema of the state and take off your pants and jacket? and honestly, who can forget their cameo (the mere fact that it's a cameo just makes me fandom soar) in the classic coming-of-age movie american pie? HORRIBLE. all the way around they are a terrible band who should not make any more music or try to be relevant at all. in any way.

ok as far the winners of the grammy awards go, i was generally fine with it, with a few exceptions.

1. jennifer hudson won for best r&b album. without a doubt, this should've gone to al green for lay it down, by far the BEST r&b, and nearly the best of any genre, album released in 2008.
2. raising sand and songs from it won record of the year, album of the year, and best pop collaboration with vocals, among other awards. now i get that this is a really good album. i've listened to it, and it was ok. i didn't fall in love with it. it's got a very distinct sound that i am surprised has garnered so much acclaim. but record AND album of the year? no way, especially when you look at both of those lists: coldplay, adele, radiohead. there was so much good music that probably should've won. and best pop collaboration with vocals should've absolutely gone to alicia keys and john mayer for lesson learned. i think i've written about this song before, how it is one of the most gorgeous pieces of music i've ever heard in my life. robert plant and alison krauss sound good together, but alicia and john KILLED it with that song. such a bummer. my biggest beef with raising sand winning so much, and are you ready for the bombshell here? IT WASN'T EVEN RELEASED IN 2008! it was released october 2007! and it won the grammy for best pop collaboration with vocals LAST YEAR! it's ridiculous. how is that even allowed? upsetting.

while i was displeased with those awards, i was EXTREMELY pleased when i found out daft punk had won for best dance recording AND best electronic/dance album, with around the world / harder, better, faster, stronger and alive 2007, respectively. SO deserving. that album is awesome.

so all in all, a pretty good show (i think, since i didn't really watch it). let's hope the oscars aren't any worse.

-jon

BEST WEEK EVER.

this week will be the best in a long time. for many reasons, but very much because of music. here's what i'm talking about.

- 808s and heartbreak. remember when i wrote about my favorite artists releasing music? tomorrow is one of those days. kanye west is dropping his fourth studio album, and i'm all sorts of excited/nervous about it. excited cause it's kanye, nervous because he doesn't rap. we'll see. either way it's something to get amped for.

- tonight i stopped by the cedar falls public library to grab the hobbit (hopefully will have that finished by the end of the week) and i happened to glance at their cd collection, which last time i was there consisted of lots of classical, babyface's mtv unplugged, and timbaland presents: shock value. this time was much better. i found john mayer's where the light is and joss stone's introducing joss stone, two albums interlibrary loan said they couldn't find. super exciting. exciting because the joss stone album is executive produced by raphael saadiq, who is awesome, and joss has a great voice so they will be a great mix, and also exciting because i finally have a legitimate version of john mayer's cover of free fallin' (so incredible.) and also his first released version of in your atmosphere, one of my original favorite songs of his. and even though i've got tons and tons of live jm shows, whenever he releases anything legitimately recorded, i get excited. i'm listening to free fallin' right now and it sounds so so good. the guy sure knows how to record an album. so these two are super great.

- ok as i was writing this next paragraph, i realized that coldplay's new ep, prospekt's march, is actually being released tomorrow (monday) like kanye's album. which means it is 2:43 am and i could go to wal-mart right now and buy the ep if i wanted. holy cow. it's so late but man do i want to hear the ep. i just checked websites of wal-mart, target, and best buy, and target for sure has it the cheapest so i think i'm gonna wait until tomorrow to pick it up. anyway. the ep consists of 8 tracks, 6 new recordings, 2 redos, and i am really excited. over the last five months viva la vida has become possibly my favorite coldplay album, and hearing material that almost made it on the record is really exciting. it's gonna be great.

- saturday night. my fiance and i are seeing al green live. LIVE. a legend. some adults talk about how they saw frank sinatra, after saturday i get to say, for the rest of my life, that i saw al green perform. i am ecstatic. he is playing at an old theatre in downtown kansas city, a real place with a bar in the back and nice seats. we will probably sit and watch. maybe get a drink. it will be a magical night.

what a week. i can't wait to write more about all this music. in the meantime, here's this gem.



nobody sings melody variations like john mayer.

-jon

summer jams, part II

if i was ecstatic when i saw the poster, think about my state of being now.



will i buy this in every format possible? probably. except maybe blu-ray disc, we'll see how much money i have when i get to best buy.

-jon

summer jams.

does anybody need another reason to be amped for this summer? i've got one:




God has now officially smiled on this summer and given it a thumbs up. here's some more info.

"The special, expanded John Mayer live-in-concert DVD/CD "Where The Light Is" will arrive July 1. The new "live" package will be available as a 2-CD set, a DVD (regular and Blu-Ray HD), a CD/DVD combo and a multi-disc vinyl set with an enclosed download card." - tryjm.com

how exciting is that? a new dvd/cd combo. this concert was held last december, and the killer thing is that it was part john mayer solo/acoustic, part john mayer trio (reuniting for the first time in like a year and a half), and part john mayer with his current band. absolutely a 5-star show. i've got the audience recording of it, and it's phenomal, so it will be extra great to get the actual soundboard show. SO GREAT. come quick summer. i'm waiting.

-jon

influences.

first off, i want you to watch this video. nothing could be better than starting a blog with this treasure:



i'll get to that later. moving on...

i love artistic influence. let me explain what i mean. on days when i have absolutely no obligations, there is nothing more enjoyable than spending hours at a time reading blogs, watching youtube videos, checking people's websites. granted, i am specific in all this; i'm not just a random youtube searcher or anything like that. i don't waste my time with crap. i love catching up with my entertainment world heroes. i enjoy it when these big stars, people whose creative work i greatly admire, put time into something personal like a blog or an interview that's on youtube or something like that. i love taking one of my favorite stars and checking their myspace, to see if they've posted a goofy new video or giving us a little glimpse of some new project they're working on. you have to understand the distinction though, because it's important. i don't like following up on who's dating who, who was seen at this club, look at how much this person spent on clothes and cars for their latest music video. that stuff is obnoxious and wasteful. i care about real artistic creativity. and i don't mind if it's a comedian or a singer or an architect or whatever. as long as it's somebody whose work i respect and i am seeing a bit of their thought process, the way they view their craft and the way they're committed to creativity, i absolutely love it.

i am mainly writing about john mayer here. for about the last two months or so, i have been getting really excited for whatever john mayer is doing next musically, because from keeping up with his blog, you can learn so much of what is going into his next record. and it's incredible how diverse this guy's influences are. first of all, his blogs are the most well-thought, well-written, personal, funny, creative, celebrity blogs i've stumbled onto. some of his posts are the most random ever (this is just one of numerous examples.)(<-you can click that, it's not a virus or anything. all the links in this blog are legit, i put them all up, and there are a ton of them, all of which i suggest you check out.) and some of his posts are much more personal, giving the reader a small window into his heart or his head. and i love that. he's so candid about what influences him. here is a run down of (to me) the most important blogs he's posted in the last few months.

(in chronological order):
1. Nov. 20th, 07 - Pop Rocks (read it here.)
this is a long ways back, but it's such gold, i can't not let you know about it. it's just a few words from john mayer about his then-current favorite songs on the radio. i love this guy as a writer, he puts things exactly how i would like to put things. in fact i'm usually jealous he beats me to the perfect thought. here though: "They're great. Not 'actually' great, as in I expected them to suck and I'm reluctantly giving it up' great." such a great thought. too many people talk about pop music this way. i hear it most when i tell people i like justin timberlake, and they reply with "oh yeah that new single he's got is actually really great." of course it is. you didn't need to throw in actually. who are all these haters expecting pop music to suck so bad? i also want to echo john's sentiment about the songs by paramore, sara bareilles, and alicia keys. all awesome tunes. i do want to give a big thumbs down to the jordin sparks song though. "you're on my heart like a tattoo"...? i heard it once and that was enough. other than that though, i think he's right on with this blog.

2. Jan. 9th, 08 - Comedy Cellar (read it here.)
so simple. consists of a sentence and a half and three pictures. and it gets me so excited. he saw two of the greatest stand-up comedians of our time at a small venue in new york and posted this. neither of these comedians are working on anything big right now; no big stand-up tours, no tv shows. yet they are still two of the best the generation before mine produced, and to see them together is exciting for this day and age. it's exciting to see two giants interact when so much of what is out there today is no good. the other reason this is exciting to me is because it's affecting john mayer in the way he views stand-up and writing. for the last year and a half john mayer has been dabbling in stand-up comedy, occasional doing a short set at the comedy cellar in the new york or appearing on radio and talk shows as a sit-down guest rather than a musical guest. at first i didn't know what to think about it, but as i learned more about why he's doing it, it's so intriguing to me. stand-up comedy appeals to this guy because so much of his essence is a writer. he's a phenomenal musician of course but writing is such a huge part of who he is. and stand-up comedy is such a different vein of writing than writing lyrics or notes is. and to be good at something, it's important to look at it from every different angle possible; to examine it from all sides and to learn it back and forth and inside out. this stand-up venture is his attempt to better himself as a writer. and that's exciting. this just kills me though, "more musical than most music..." the way john mayer views creativity fascinates me. he doesn't seem constrained by any kind of fixed design of how to be creative or how to create. he takes in as much as he can, digests it, absorbs what he can, and his work is so much the better for it. this is the reason continuum was such an exceptional album; you can hear his influences in every single song, and yet all of it is so original. so that's why this blog is great.

2. Jan. 14th, 08 - Messin Round (read it here.)
this is a very, very exciting blog to me. one of my Top 5 Favorite Artists being directly influenced by another one of my Top 5 Favorite Artists. "Starting to get back into the production head, searching for new sounds on a Sunday afternoon..." and what he goes to for new sounds is justin timberlake. does this excite anyone else? especially because he is taking the best part of one of the best songs off futuresex/lovesounds and covering it. and it sounds amazing. going back to the "pop rocks" blog, i loved what he said about this tune because he actually did specify that the interlude was the best part of the song and i don't know, i just think that's a cool, important distinction to make, and it really makes me think he is keeping a very very close eye on pop music. so keep listening to that stuff john. it will only make you better.

3. Jan. 25th, 08 (read it here.)
not so much a blog about influences, but just a picture that keeps us aware that he is still a musician, and making music is still his passion. and what a killer studio too. whatever record he comes up with next will sound amazing.

4. Feb. 15th, 08 - MacBook Air. Gumball 3000 / Ford GT Road Test (read part 1 & part 2.)
the gumball 3000 is a gigantic car "race" among celebrities. a more accurate description is a bunch of rich celebrities take rich cars out, drive around the world together (literally around the world), and wine & dine together every night. basically a huge party for rich people, including lots of driving every day in ridiculously nice cars. and john mayer is going to be a part of it. the most exciting part of this blog for me is "Going to blog from the road from here [the honeyee blog site]..." this year the gumball 3000 is going to san diego, LA, las vegas, shanghai, beijing, just to name a few. how nuts is that? i guess i'm mainly excited about this because seeing the world is such a good experience for anyone. i know traveling will affect that guy somehow, which just means more good influences. and for real, look at that car. so awesome.

5. Feb. 22nd, 08 - Frank. (read it here.)
nothing makes me more excited about john's new music than this blog. it's good to know that he is keeping up with pop culture, keeping in touch with what's popular and what's current, but i feel so reassured after reading this that whatever new music he comes up with next, it won't suck. he's listening to frank. "... all i want is harmony." nothing pleases me more than reading this. his new album is going to be off the wall.

6. Feb. 23rd, 08 - John Cage's 4'33'' (read it here.)
while not as pleasing as the frank sinatra blog, this is still a really important one. my immediate thought was, "who cares about a 'piece' of music where nobody plays anything? how did this become famous?" but if you think about it in terms of each listener's experience, it's actually pretty cool. no two listeners will hear the exact thing from this piece. every single time you listen to it, it will be different. it's all about your environment, what you hear, what you experience as you listen to it. and that's a pretty cool thought. so while still not as cool as the frank blog, this one still gets me amped how this is all gonna add up in john's music.

7. Feb. 29th, 08 - Buddy Miles (read it here.)
just a quick one. it's significant because buddy miles never made it big in terms of america's pop culture. everyone knows jimi hendrix, maybe a quarter of everyone know buddy miles. the fact that john not only knows who he was, but also that he was funky? very good news. i knew buddy miles was the drummer for the band hendrix was in after the jimi hendrix experience, but i didn't know a single thing about him. i'm glad to know john knows he was funky. more musical influence.

8. Feb. 29th, 08 (read it here.)
this one i'm torn on. mainly because i don't like fall out boy, but i love michael jackson. and hearing that fall out boy covered michael jackson sucks, but hearing that john mayer covered the guitar solo in "beat it" is incred. it's also cool that at least john mayer has a varied music taste. he knows fall out boy well enough to give thumbs up to playing on their cover of a classic mj tune. overall i'd say the cover is dece. not anything crazy good, but alright. and john obviously kills it with the solo. i would love it if john blogged about mj, that would blow my freakin' mind.

9. Mar. 14th, 08 - A Pure Moment (read it here.)
i like this one because this is life. obviously i might not be able to go to japan, but i can have that same soul-cleansing moment, just wherever i'm at. i understand that moment. it's something i'm always looking for, trying to find. sometimes i don't even think about it, but whether or not i realize i'm in it, it's one of the greatest feelings in the world. the awareness of the moment itself doesn't even matter, which is one thing i love about it. but this idea, the idea of this moment of pure happiness, is such a beautiful thought to me, it's such a romantic ideal in our heart-breaking world that to see a writer/musician that i admire and respect so much aspire to grasp that moment and own it in his life and in his music and in his work, it's so refreshing and exciting to me. a few years ago he wrote a song about this moment; it is my absolute favorite he's ever written. to know that this concept is still important in his head and his heart is encouraging to me; i'm not worried about what he's gonna come up with next in terms of music. it's gonna be great.

10. Mar. 19th, 09 - Report (read it here.)
this is a funny little blog with something good inside. he mentions the newest radiohead album in passing, but says he listened to it straight for two weeks and then hasn't listened to it since. interesting. in the last year or so i feel like john's mentions of radiohead have really increased. during concerts, he added radiohead/thom yorke lyrics to his own songs, he posted a thom yorke music video along with the lyrics, and has mentioned them on other occasions. radiohead is such a weird group. to say the very least, it'll be interesting to see what kind of affect their music has had on john's music.

11. Mar. 22nd, 08 - Giant Steps (read it here.)
i'm glad i waited to post this blog until tonight because john just posted something else super great up. two videos of the song "giant steps" by john coltrane. the first video is SUPER cool. again, just another facet of music that john is absorbing. so great.

12. Mar. 19th, 08 - Billy Preston, Ray Charles: "Agent Double O Soul" (read it here.)
this is out of chronological order, but i'm saving this one for last because it's a such good finale. possibly my favorite post of this whole bunch. SUCH an incredible video. first of all, the title of the song is "agent double O soul". seriously? how could a song with a title like that even be remotely bad? ray just kills it on the piano, and billy preston... wow. his vocals are off the wall, that suit! unbelievably cool. and his moves! oh my goodness the way billy moves is just so fluid. like a freakin' blob of energy and soul on the stage. absolutely phenom. if i could dance like that... my goodness. none of these posts makes me happier about john mayer's upcoming music than this one. if this is the kind of music that is influencing him, i know he's got something good coming soon. this video is so freakin' awesome, go watch it again for your own good.

no other entertainer that i know of in show business lets their fans into their lives as much as john mayer. and not in a weird stalker "i wish i was famous so i'll follow famous people" kind of way but a really cool, fascinating, "this is what i'm into, what do you think?" kind of way. he's a guy that knows music so well, and his outlook on life is really unique, and seeing what he's into in tv, literature, travel, music, all this stuff is important to understand where he's been musically and where he's going. on the surface all this might seem like drivel, but to me it's so interesting because it's a glimpse into the way this guy's mind works. these are all little pieces of who he is, what drives his work, what makes his brain tick. so great. and i can't wait to see where all this stuff ends up. such an eclectic mix of media will certainly sum up to something great. keep an eye on this guy, he's going places.

-jon