Tag: keyboard

Owl City to be Blamed for Recent Popularity of Electronically Driven Music

I just thought I would post this here while I was thinking of it. I believe that Owl City is to blame for the recent propagation and proliferation of electronic and keyboard driven music making it’s way into the mainstream. Granted, keyboards and synths have been around for a long time and have always had a following. But I believe that keyboard and synth driven music is just going to become more popular over the next few years. Adam Young, I believe, was the catalyst that helped spawn this growing trend in the popularity of electonically driven music.

So let’s say a big thanks to Owl City. Personally, I think the world could always use more keytar.

Pick of the Week for August 5th

Alright. I decided that rather than pushing the pick of the week off to the end of the week, like I did last week, I would just post it right at the beginning. No excuses!

It took me a while to decide which song to post here. I knew I wanted to post a song by The Birthday Massacre, I just had no idea which one to post! Now if you don’t know who The Birthday Massacre is, you are missing out! You might not think so my the name, but they are awesome. The have a seemingly perfect blend of 80’s bands like The Cure with modern day rock. I dig them, and you probably will too!

As I mentioned, it took me a while to decide which song to post on here. I decided, hey it’s my blog, so I can always post another TBM song at a later date. In any case, the fact that I had such a hard time deciding is a testament to the band in and of itself. The fact is, the entire Pins and Needles album is good and you should probably go buy it, right now.

The name of the song is “Sideways” and the reason it won out over the other TBM songs is because of the intro. The intro to this song is dang good! Listen below and buy the song here.

Pick of the Week for July 29

Ok. So I’ve been fighting some crazy sickness all of this week and half of last week. This has left me under the weather and the thought of blogging just skipped my mind. You’ll have to forgive me. I said you have to so… I’ll assume it’s a done deal.

Now, the pick of the week comes from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. It’s the opening song. Now, I haven’t been able to find the actual song anywhere. It looks like the film used a modified version of “(That’s Your) Consciousness” by Dan Hartman.

The song constantly gets stuck in my head. The opening scene of this movie is one of my favorite opening scenes of ALL TIME! It’s just that good. This song just has a good ol’ 80’s feel to it. So, without further ado here is the opening scene of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II.

EDIT: Here is the youtube link to the Dan Hartman song. (The movie rendition is much better)

Pick of the Week for July 22

Oh boy, it seems as if I’m becoming really good at not posting the pick of the week at the beginning of the week… ah well.

So I used to play World of Warcraft… a lot. I remember racing home from work on lunch breaks just so that I could log in to my level 4 Night Elf Druid. I ran all over Teldrassil and there was a time when I thought that Teldrassil was all that there was to the game. I won’t even tell you about how amazed I was when I realized that there was a whole huge world out there to explore. But… I guess I just did. Woops, my bad.

Here’s the thing. The entire time I was running around the giant tree doing random things for random people there was one thing being pounded into my head. Can you guess what that was? Nope… it wasn’t a gigantic piece of Salami. I’m not sure why you would even think that… It was, however, the song that I’ve picked below. The song is named “Teldrassil” after the gigantic tree that we Night Elves all ran around in.

The song I’ve picked is actually different than the one that appears on the Original Soundtrack. So… because I feel a bit dishonest about that I’ve linked to both songs! There are definitely similarities between the two. My favorite part between the two starts at 1:10 in the first video. It definitely brings back some good memories. You can buy the song in the second video on iTunes. Here’s the songs already… sheesh no need to get violent.

The first song named “Teldrassil”

The second song named “Teldrassil”

Pick of the Week for July 15

Wow, the week has gone by fast. Last week I could hardly wait to post the new pick of the week, and already it’s Tuesday of this week! I blame this partly, or mostly, on selling our home and trying to buy a new one before we have to move out of our current one. If you have never done this before, let me tell you, it’s crazy! The thing is, we really did not want to move into a rental temporarily, we want to move directly into the new house. We only have until 08/15 to find a new place though!

Alright, alright. Enough about me and more about the pick of the week! This weeks pick comes from one of my top 5 all time artists. She quickly gained this spot a few years back and I’m guessing she will retain it for years to come. The artists name is: LIGHTS. And let me tell you, LIGHTS is awesome. She’s kind of like me in that regard.

Several things I like about LIGHTS.

  1. She makes awesome music.
  2. She is a gamer (openly confessing that she loves World of Warcraft)
  3. She is real in the what you see is what you get kind of way.

LIGHTS is a Canadian artist known for her electronic keyboard and synth driven music. Recently she has dabbled in dubstep creating a genre which she dubs “DreamStep”. She uses a Keytar as well as a microKORG (I really wish I had a microKORG actually). In addition to her electronic and synth driven music she is also has some amazing vocals and has released a number of accoustic albums.

The name of the song I’ve picked is “My Boots”. It’s a track that didn’t make it onto her Siberia release, and therefore I didn’t know about it until recently. I like the track because it blends some of her older stuff from “The Listening” with some of her newer stuff from “Siberia“. It’s not like most of the dubsteppish songs on Siberia. It’s got a lighter feel to it.

Take a listen to “My Boots” below and buy it here.

Pick of the Week for July 8th

Has it already been a week since my last pick of the week? Crazy how time flies!

Alright, so within the last week I’ve discovered an artist that I absolutely love! She’s got a great voice and when she sings it just flows like honey. It could also be that she sings in French… and French just seems to flow really well.

For those of you who are wondering the name of this artist is Cœur de Pirate, which, according to WikiPedia, is French for “pirate heart”. Her real name, though, is Béatrice Martin and she is 23 years old. She’s been playing the piano since she was three years old. That’s pretty awesome, I’ve got a three year old and I can’t, at the moment, imagine him sitting still in front of a piano for very long.

The name of the song I’ve picked is, “Saint Laurent”. It’s got some keyboard and accoustic guitar, but the instruments themselves pretty much fade into the background when she starts singing. You can listen to the song below. You can purchase the album or the “Saint Laurent” song here.

Pick of the Week for July 1st

Alright, this should be the first of many “pick of the weeks” that I will do. I love music and the pick of the week highlights a song that I like and that you might want to check out.

This weeks pick is the song “Lolita” by The Veronicas. I’ve liked The Veronicas since I first heard them 4 or 5 years ago. One of their songs came up on my Slacker Portable G1 (it wasn’t called the G1 when I got it, it was the new coolness, ok?!) and I was immediately impressed. What I first noticed about their music is that it contains a keyboard/synth sound that just isn’t present in a lot of todays music. In addition to the sweet keyboard sound I was surprised by the vocals. It’s not traditional pop music, these girls know how to sing!

Anyways, I could go on but I’m going to stop here. You can purchase “Lolita” here. The Veronicas are well worth checking out give ’em a listen below.