NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

In keeping with a recurring theme of emotions, I elect this song as a song of the day. Songs like " Blue " and " Rose-colored Boy " explored sadder emotions, but "Float On" by Modest Mouse takes on a cheery disposition. If it's bad, thank God it's not worse. It's the lyrics of this song that would have Paramore's Haley Williams upset, as Issac Brooks's lyrics certainly are rosy. While bad things happen, they could be worse. If it didn't kill you, you can get over it. Just float on, man. After all, isn't it the hardships ending that make the good times better? I BACKED MY CAR IN TO A COP CAR THE OTHER DAY. An upbeat guitar rhythmically starts this indie-rock classic. Singer Isaac Brock's vocal style works out great for this track and only a few other Mouse tracks. The lyrics are funny, but not so Weird Al to make you stop singing along out of laughter. Sometimes bad things happen to us. Other times they happen out of an acci

March 15th is the Ides of March, the day when Julius Cesar was stabbed. I realized that I didn't celebrate Casimir Pulaski Day (March 1st, also a Sufjan Stevens song), nor did I celebrate Pi Day with a song about circles yesterday, but I thought that it would be fun to analyze Stevens's most ironic song of all, in which he states to his fans that he doesn't want to be their "Julius Caesar... [nor their] personal Jesus." The pairing of the two figures I found fascinating because in Dante's Inferno  we meet Judas (betrayer of Christ), and Brutus and Cassius (betrayers of Caesar) in the deepest layer of hell, tortured by Satan himself. Beware indeed the Ides of March. I DON'T WANT TO BE THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE. Just when we thought we firmly established Sufjan Stevens as a folk singer, perhaps an heir to Woody Guthrie or Gordan Lightfoot, he goes and makes an electronic album. While the singer-songwriter had incorporating synths into his folk sound prior

  Some people listen to music casually. It’s on in the car, you dance to it at the club, you sing it at church. Maybe there was a song you love from high school. Then there’s those for whom music is a Multi-sensory Aesthetic Experience. If words on a page can evoke every sense, can’t music do the same? Throughout history people have reported seeing colors when they listen to music. In 2003, a group of musicians from Norfolk, Virginia debuted on Tooth & Nail Records with Destination:Beautiful . After their second release, the band’s success scored them a deal Capitol Records, but the band landed in the purgatory of distancing themselves from Christian radio but being too Christian and too indie to be marketed to the pop or rock markets. After the release of the independent eps (m)orning , (a)fternoon , and (e)vening , the band took a break and came back to Tooth & Nail Records releasing their second* Self-titled record. IT'S A LOSING GAME. Unfortunately, Mae ’s passion doesn

Kye Kye released two albums in the early 2010s. My earliest memory with this indie-electronic band was their single "Broke" on RadioU , which took a while to grow on their listenership, failing to beat the other singles of the week on their " Battle of the Buzz " program. However, when the single was finally released to regular rotation, it quickly topped their " TMW " (Ten Most Wanted) program. That summer, I saw the band perform at Cornerstone in the Come & Live tent before or after Showbread. Lead singer, Olga Yagolnikov Phelan, seemed a little shy when talking to the audience, but the band sounded great when performing. The band's strength lies in their atmospheric sound rather than their spiritually cryptic lyrics.  TAKE YOUR TIME; I ALREADY SEE IT. One Saturday night in college some of my friends and I were invited to one of our professor’s homes. That night the professor taught us a game involving classic issues of National Geographic and

When I sat down to write, I was going to pick Katy Perry's "Hot 'N' Cold," which is kind of become a mantra at school along with the old song "Fever," as it's hot in the classrooms until the central office turns of the heat, then it's freezing. I'm sweating and then freezing. That being said, I watched the "Hot 'N' Cold" music video and was starting my research, when the "Last Friday Night" video autoplayed. This was another song that was one of my college jams, but this one was more of a guilty pleasure for two reasons: one, I was an anti-pop hipster who only liked cool bands, and two, Katy Perry, and this song in particular, stood against everything I believed in. THINK WE KISSED, BUT I FORGOT. Growing up Seventh-day Adventist, my mom taught my sisters and I to keep the Sabbath. Seventh-day Adventists worship on Saturday rather than Sunday, like most Christians. The church teaches the Old Testament practices of n

For a short time in the early '00s indie rock was king. I loved turning on MuchMusic (later Fuse) and seeing the latest cheaply made videos. Some of these groups pierced the Top 40 radio stations, like The Strokes, Modest Mouse, and this band, Franz Ferdinand. The song "Take Me Out" was the only song I knew of this band. This album came out in 2004, but it wasn't until junior year of college in 2008 that I listened to it fully. From start to finish, the band's self-title debut was energetic and puts you in the mood for college parties. The only problem was, I was kind of a loner and sober back then.  SHE'S NOT SO SPECIAL. In 2003 a Scottish rock band that took on the name of the assigned heir to the throne of the Austria-Hungarian Empire recorded their debut album in Sweden. The track I chose to write about,  Auf Achse,  is a German saying that literal means "on the axle," but idiomatically, it means "on the road." The song is a reference t

In Season One of The Big Bang Theory,  Leonard is moping after his love interest, Penny, starts seeing another man. He comes into the apartment singing this song , quite horribly. "Boston" is Augustana's biggest hit. It placed on the Billboard Hot 100, it was a Top 40 hit, and a top 10 Adult (light rock) hit. The band formed at Greenville University, a conservative Christian college where Jars of Clay formed before them and Paper Route after them. While the two other bands were comfortable with the Christian circuit, Augustana's lead singer, Dan Layus, talks about breaking free from the strict rules of Christian college and choosing not to be a Christian band.  BOSTON, WHERE NO ONE KNOWS MY NAME . This piano ballad is not only a breakup with a lover, but a place too. If you've never moved to a city where no one knows you, it's freeing. You possess the ability to rebuild your reputation and become whomever you want to be. I've done this several times in my