NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

When Acceptance released "Cold Air, " last summer, I was immediately taken by the catchy, '80s New-Wave electronica meets The Outfield -style harmonies sang by lead singer Jason Vena . However, the rest of the album failed to pack the punch that their 2005 debut and 2017 sophomore record had. Acceptance had become known for their lyricism, Vena's near perfect execution in his mid-to-high range vocals, and often haunting/mysterious guitar parts--all mixed and produced by Aaron Sprinkle . However, what Wild, Free  offered was clipped guitars, electronics, and gruffer vocal takes by Vena. There were certainly some highlights, but other than "Cold Air," there hasn't been much to come back to--except for a song that got stuck in my head today: " Wasted Nights ." A FADED MEMORY THAT I STILL KEEP IN MY HEAD. There are two types of people: process people and product people. Product people see task A and complete it right away and take a break until it

  Last month I talked about NYVES, the Ryan Clark/Randy Torres electronic project. Today is the day after Easter and from all of the family Facebook posts about Easter, I feel a nostalgia for the holiday, which is not really celebrated in Korea, at least in the few churches I've attended here. Unlike holidays like Christmas and Halloween, none of my Korean students know about it, even though I teach in a Christian school. As for Adventists in America, most celebrate or at least acknowledge Easter, and there is often a special service the Saturday before Easter Sunday. Some Adventists also attend other Christian denominations on Easter Sunday for the special services, but we were always told to beware of the pagan traditions that include all of the fun stuff, like egg hunts and chocolate, although my family and many other Adventist families did celebrate Easter in that way.  I BELIEVE IN RESURRECTION. Ryan Clark’s music and artwork consistently deals with darkness. Even the most eas

  Andrew McMahon  has led three successful musical projects over the span of 22 years, starting with the pop-punk band, Something Corporate , the piano-driven band Jack's Mannequin , and his solo project, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness . I first got to know Jack's Mannequin in college during a class trip for my Intro to Caving class, a class you take when you need a P.E. credit to fit into your 16 hours of literature, education, and history classes, but it becomes more intrusive because you have to schedule caving trips. The class made me never want to crawl through another cave again, but I still listen to Jack's Mannequin's The Glass Passenger  fondly. I dug into their first album, Everything in Transit, but my favorite is their final record, People and Things , in which McMahon's lyricism and the piano/guitar melodies are the strongest.  I FOUND A TIDAL WAVE BEGGING TO TEAR DOWN THE DAWN. The Glass Passenger was written and released after McMahon's recovery

Early last year, Taylor Swift released a documentary titled Miss Americana which talked about her music up to the release of 2019's Lover . While Swift's country music past and her latest ventures with Folklore and Evermore  certainly can touch on Americana , if you placed Taylor Swift's CD leaflets on a table next to Lana Del Rey 's and asked anyone on the street to which lyricist better embodied the dictionary.com definition of "things associated with the culture and history of America," Lana Del Rey would probably be crowned the real "Miss Americana." But being the real, unrecognized "Miss Americana" can be just as problematic as the tainted past of the great country. Lana Del Rey is no stranger to controversy or acclaim. She is a polarizing star on the pop charts (when she chooses to release a hit) and pop culture. Sometimes called regressive to feminism, Lana Del Rey has been cancelled more times than most celebrities. Yet there is

  Between their debut album Destination: Beautiful and their fan-favorite sophomore record The Everglow , Mae released Destination: B-Sides , which includes live and acoustic renderings of some of the standout tracks, songs that didn’t make it to the record, and demos that would make it onto The Everglow.  The chorus of “Sun” contains the the lyrics  “Destination Beautiful,” making “Sun” like the title track of the album, and one of the the most memorable tracks in the middle of the album, and it has one of the finest melodies on the album after " Embers and Envelops " and "All Deliberate Speed." IF YOU’RE WILLING, LET IT GO . In a 2018 two-part episode of Labeled (now available only to Patreon  subscribers), Mae's lead singer Dave Elkins talked about the inspiration for the songs on Destination: Beautiful . Many of the tracks had to do with a disagreement between Elkins and members at his church. Elkins wrote many of the songs, including the first track “E

  In the summer of '99 I was 12 years old. I spent the first half of the summer with my dad, a truck driver, as he crossed the U.S. delivering camper chassis and steel. A lot of kids would get bored looking at the Interstate for hours, but I always loved the journey. I loved maps and geography, and I was getting a firsthand experience of seeing what America looked like. Of course there were some boring parts. But what was best about the miles of cornfields was that the radio stations lasted quite a while-- a lot longer than they lasted in the foothills of North Carolina. With my dad, I got to experience new (old) music that my mom didn't approve of at the time. On the road I first listened to Led Zeppelin , Pink Floyd 's Dark Side of the Moon , Steve Miller Band , George Thorogood, America, and so many others I could fill a whole blog post listing. We also listened to new music--Red Hot Chili Peppers, Goo Goo Dolls, and Sugar Ray.  IMPAIRED BY MY TRIBAL LUNAR SPEAK. One of

A meme is a piece of cultural information that is spread through copying and imitation. These days we know memes mostly as the funny or political pictures people post online. However, by definition, Gotye 's 2011 hit, " Somebody That I Used to Know " is on the level of musical meme-hood. The mega hit which has charted in the top songs of the decade, has left the artist, though, as a one-hit wonder. Gotye has yet to release a follow up record to Making Mirrors , but somehow no one can forget this song. It's been covered, remixed, and parodied all over the Internet, and listeners still can't get enough. Last year, YouTuber Hildegard von Blingin' released a " bardcore " version of the song. Bardcore is a style of music imitating Medieval/Renaissance music, using older instruments and often adapting lyrics to sound more Chaucerian. While the line "send a wagon for thy minstrel and refuse my letters" didn't quite beat the synth wave remix b