NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  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

Formed in 1994 first as Shrug and then as Polarbear but finally changing their name to  Snow Patrol  due to other bands by their former names, the Northern Irish band became very popular in the early '00s. Their first single " Run " was a hit in the UK. But in America, the band would become famous because of their song " Chasing Cars " when it was included in the  season 2 finale of  Grey's Anatomy .  " Chasing Cars" is the song most people know by Snow Patrol, and most wouldn't be able to associate the name with their hit song. The band continues to produce music, most recently releasing 2018's  Wildness .    TRAIN THIS CHAOS, TURN IT INTO LIGHT . If you've had time to get into Taylor's Version of  Red ,  you may have noticed a feature by Snow Patrol's  Gary Lightbody . Once the Indie Rock band became recognized, the band members started working on pop music, and Lightbody writing for  Taylor Swift  and  Ed Sheeran . The Snow P

  Sleeping at Last   is a band that almost made a song of the day two days ago for their   cover   of " Chasing Cars " until I made time to listen to the Snow Patrol version and their music, eventually settling on " You're All I Have."  Like   Snow Patrol , Sleeping at Last came to fame, albeit not Snow Patrol-level of fame, from a well-placed appearance in Season 3 of   Grey's Anatomy .  The indie-rock band turned solo project of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist   Ryan O'Neal   has had many songs included in the ABC drama and its spin-off,   Private Practice .  Their cover of   "Chasing Cars" was used to add a dramatic counterpoint in the series, as the audience had already heard the original in the Season 2 finale. O'Neal stays busy producing lots of music, composing albums based on larger concepts, such as the solar system, the Enneagram, emotions, land, oceans, and many other topics.  WAR IS OVER, IF YOU WANT IT.  In the band

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

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

Today is St. Patrick's Day. The holiday is celebrated around the world. Although the holiday holds religious significance and had been a religious holiday in Ireland for more than 1,000 years, the celebrations today have more to due as a celebration for Irish heritage. About 70 million people have some Irish blood, and the Irish diaspora due to the potato famine in the mid-19th century brought a large number of Irish immigrants to many countries including the United States. Because of the large Irish-American population, holidays like Halloween and St. Patrick's Day became popular in America and spread around the world. TRAIN THIS CHAOS; TURN IT INTO LIGHT. The following playlist was made to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, not in its original form--celebrating the slave who became a priest only to return to the land he was enslaved (Ireland) to convert the natives to Christianity--supposedly driving all the snakes out of Ireland along the way. Instead, we're taking this li

Hearing IU always reminds me that spring is on the way. Commonly called South "Korea's Sweetheart," the 30-year-old singer-songwriter and former teen singer, born Lee Ji-eun (이지은), explains the meaning of her stage name as "You and I become one through music." Today's song comes from her 2014 EP of covers of folk/rock ballads made popular in the '80s and '90s, A Flower Bookmark . The song was written by Kim Chang Wan and originally recorded with his punk-rock band Sanulrim (산울림, meaning Mountain Echo ), which was a hit in 1984. Kim also is featured on the IU cover version. Although the IU version was not released as a single, it was featured in an SK Telecom commercial and was often played in cafes, grocery stores, and everywhere in Korea in 2014 and still today. The original version was used in the zeitgeist drama Reply 1988 (음담하러 1988)   SADNESS BLOOMS AS COSMO FLOWERS AT THE TRAIN STATION. Today I'll present my final Romantic Mix  version

In 2020, Stephen Christian released his fourth Anchor & Braille album, Tension .  When he released his third A&B project, Songs for the Late Night Drive Home in 2016, many of his fans were still mourning the disbandment of Anberlin . But starting in 2018, Anberlin had started to play one-off shows and even started touring the next year. In 2020, the band was supposed to announce a tour with Memphis May Fire and perform at several festivals. But in lieu of the pandemic, the band started a livestream concert series. While Anberlin was active, Christian released Tension, an album of the most straight-forward pop songs Christian has released to date.  TRY TO EXPLAIN YOURSELF TO A STONE WALL. Last year, I wrote about 13 love songs leading up to Valentine's Day. This year, I'm not sticking to that format, but as Valentine's Day approaches, I thought I'd make a few playlists compiling the love songs I've written about.  1. " Madness " by Anchor &a