NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

There isn't much of a reason that I chose this song today. It's creepy, and Florence + the Machine is kind of witchy. In fact, Lungs, and today's song "Blinding" has a feeling that deals with the otherworldly, primitive pre-Christian Celtic world. It feels more like a spring song, though, celebrating the sun. However, as we are going into the dark part of the year, it's nice to remember that no matter what happens in the winter, spring will be back to reawaken us. The following story, though has to do with the spring. Happy Halloween. Stay safe and try not to succumb to the winter depression. A TOURIST IN THE WAKING WORLD, NEVER QUITE AWAKE .  I will definitely come back to the shift in the alternative sound as the year goes by, but I'd like to tell a rather embarrassing story about how Florence + the Machine and a bunch of other Indie Rock/new Alternative acts came into my music collection. It was the spring of 2011, and I was finishing up my senior year

  Two weeks ago, I was catching up on back episodes of Switched on Pop , and I listened to an episode that introduced me to the music of Faye Webster . The hosts had been in the middle of a music trip to Atlanta, exploring mostly the Hip-Hop, and most notably the Crunk, scene but the episode on Webster highlighted how multiple musical genres work together in the artist’s toolkit to create a compellingly unique sound. Defining Faye’s genre is tricky, which makes her most comfortably fit in the cop-out genre of Alternative. Born and raised in Atlanta and hearing bluegrass at home, some of Webster’s music feels at home on country radio. You can find her on certain Spotify Country playlists. But then there was the rap group she formed in high school. Hip-hop remains a feature in Webster’s music as does R&B, with slide guitars — a favorite of the Switched on Pop hosts. I WANT TO SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS AND THEN FORGET. Faye Webster is perhaps best known for the song “ Better Distractions ,

Earlier this month I updated my 추천한 K-pop Starter Playlist  for Spotify. Today, I’m going to update my Apple Music K-pop list. Of course, the term K-pop is broad, and today’s song “Exist” by Eric Nam is a pop song in English, I decided to include it because of the singer’s history with the genre. Earlier this year, music YouTuber Nick Canovas , or  Mic the Snare, created a video about how he came to appreciate the genre. The video is a good primer for music lovers who are new to the genre. One of the things that Canovas pointed out, though, is that K-pop usually refers to “Idol music”— like American Idol or teen idols from—well that’s a story for another day. For my playlist, I decided that an inclusive approach was more fun than an exclusionary one. Therefore, the “Korean teen idol” playlist may be fun to make, but I decided to include some outliers. Enjoy. Check out the playlist on Apple Music.  

Today we’re back to Nashville with the duet Escondido . The duo consists of Tyler James and Jessica Maros . The duo recorded their debut album, The Ghost of Escondido in a single day. They have released music between 2013 and 2018. The band’s song “ Darkness, Darkness ” has been featured in the NBC family drama This Is Us . Both working Nashville musicians, both James and Maros have a number of projects; however, Tyler James is perhaps best known as a former member of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. Many of the songs Escondido features Jessica’s lead vocals with Tyler’s backing harmonies and procussion. As many of the Nashville bands we’ve talked about, Escondido contributes to a scene of musicians who feature well in certain genres of television, but never blow up in the way that bands like The Fray or Snow Patrol did.  THAT’S THE OLD ME TALKIN’.  Yesterday I also posted a track that I first heard in NoiseTrade ’s Holiday Road Trip 2012 and it got me curious about which t

Back in college and a little after I used to get a bunch of free music from  NoiseTrade . This song was on  2012 Holiday Road Trip Mix.  In the mix there were artists from different states. None of the songs in the mix are tailored to a particular holiday, and I find that this song works just as well in the spring or fall as much as the winter. Canopy Climbers contributed to the mix with the song “ Far ” from their debut album, Distances .  THROUGH ALL THE NOISE AND THE LACK OF SILENCE. Canopy Climbers’ debut album Distances was released in 2011. Besides the NoiseTrade sampler 2012 Holiday Road Trip Mix, they were featured on JesusFreakHideout.com ’s 2012 compilation Songs We’ve Been Trying to Tell You About (And Others We Haven’t), Volume 2.   The band’s most recent EP Fever  was released in 2017. Today’s song, “Far,” is the band’s second most-streamed song. Like many NoiseTrade samplers I acquired in college, I didn’t take the time to look up the artists I didn’t know. However, 2012

In 2018, I met a young man who claimed to like “Indie music. You know, like Coldplay and Imagine Dragons ?” I hope I didn’t roll my eyes in the middle of the conversation because it was extremely hard to bite my tongue when he had just named two of the biggest bands in the world. The kid in his early twenties talking to me in my early thirties at the time did, however, remember a time when calling Coldplay indie was more accurate. My first exposure to Coldplay came in 2001 when they released their third single “ Trouble ” in America. Specifically, I remember watching the music video with my dad on MTV or MTV2. While “ Yellow ” may be the more remembered single from Coldplay’s early days, I only have recollection of hearing the song a while after hearing “Trouble.”   THEY SPUN A WEB FOR ME. Coldplay formed in 1997 when the members attended University College London . After releasing two EPs and signing to Parlophone Records , the band released their debut album Parachutes in 2000 an

In 2020, MUNA was dropped by their label RCA for “ not making enough money .” The queer-identifying trio had modest success with their first two records,   About U and Saves the World , but they would actually achieve a higher level of success on an indie label. The key to this renewed success was by partnering with an indie rock darling who had come to be known as a “serial collaborator” due to appearing on a range of projects from Paul McCartney to Taylor Swift . Phoebe Bridgers signed MUNA to her label Saddest Factory and functioned as the trio’s A&R person. MUNA quickly expanded their listener base with the hit featuring Bridgers, “ Silk Chiffon .” The song preceded  MUNA’s eponymous album by more than nine months and became the band’s most-streamed song. In March of 2022, MUNA released the second single from the album, “ Anything But Me .” YOU’RE GONNA SAY I ASKED FOR THE MOON. While MUNA is certainly overshadowed by Phoebe Bridgers and her own trio, boygenius , touring

  Some of the best musicians work in Nashville. Country music is famous for some of the best musicianship, and whenever a rock band or pop act wants some of the cleanest tones, they’ll record in Nashville. There’s certainly a community in Nashville that seems to be extending far outside Country music, but at the core is an ill-defined genre that is more of an identity. Unpacking that identity in a post-George Floyd America, though, is tricky. There are at least two popular models Country music is taking: 1) protect the status quo and 2)inclusion and diversity. The first model is rarely overtly racist or trans/homophobic, but when an n- word slip up happens the status-quo warriors are quick to defend themselves with arguments “This is just the way we talk.” This is often met with pushback from the second camp. THE PAINT COULD PEEL; THE GLASS COULD SHATTER. Maren Morris is an artist firmly in the second camp. Much like pop stars Kacey Musgraves and early Taylor Swift , Morris has flirt