Thrice (The Alchemy Index: Air)

So once again, long time no anything. I need to work on this....
Especially considering that I hardly do much of anything these days.
Sorry for this too, its kind of lengthy 


Anyways, since I went to see Thrice pass through on their farewell tour
I figured "Hey why not write about Thrice?"
You guessed it....Its about Thrice.
If we're being honest here the next few will probably be.


Lets get started.


First off, live?


Holy crap. 


They are pretty incredible putting on a live show. They sound just as good live as they do on a CD, which to me says something about their musicianship. A lot of people are straight up crap live. Its a pretty sad thing that they're so produced but it happens right? However on the other hand it says quite a bit about the people who choose to actually make the music themselves and choose not to alter it too much with programs and such. 


Anyways back to Thrice.
As far as making a setlist goes, I think Thrice did really well. Especially considering that out of 100+ songs they were able to narrow it down enough to fit something in for every kind of fan (from their heavier stuff to the chiller songs) and still keep your attention.
Not only did they sound great, they also put on a show. But it wasnt a phoney synchronized headbanging at breakdowns and all that stuff. (Yes, I know) You could just tell they were really loving being there playing their music. 


At the end everybody was chanting "ONE MORE SONG!" of course, its what you do. Much to the pleasure of all of us they came out and played another three, which I thought was cool. Afterwords people started to head to the exit while others kept screaming for one more song. You cant blame them, this is the last time they'll see a band they love play live for a very very long time. 
And once again they came back out and played a couple more. Not alot of people can pull off a double encore of five songs and make it seem okay. 


Anyways, I'm running out of things to say.....
So you know what that means


Music time


First off The Alchemy Index is a concept album they did. It consists of four mini albums of about 5 or 6 songs each. Named Fire, Water, Air, Earth. 
Each has a different tone, which once again shows off the musicianship of these guys, and a different feel, story and style. I would probably call the Air album kind of an Indie Rock kind of sound. But once again I'm not good at putting Genre's to sounds. But everything on the Air album sounds kind of Airy and has something to do with it. (for example songs about the sky falling, wings, etc. you know, air stuff)


Okay So First Off!
Daedelus: Super chill song about Icarus and his father. Its from the fathers point of view too. It pretty much just goes over the whole lets make wings and fly away from this prison but oh no you're flying to high now you're dead thing. I thought this was really cool idea, I'm into mythology So I liked it

Second:
The Sky Is Falling.
The song title says what its about pretty much. But I like this one alot. Its got that kind of chill indie rock vibe I talked about. Kind of like Bloc Party but in darker keys? anyways, Enjoy

Third!
Broken Lungs. All around solid song. Pretty chill but keeps your attention

Lastly
A Song For Milly Michealson
Pretty chill song, its got a good vibe and is an all around good listen. 

So thats all I have for this one sorry it was so long.
There are two more on the Air album I didnt put on 
As The Crow Flies & Silver Wings.
If you like the other stuff go listen to those too, they are super good. I just thought this was getting too long so I didnt put them up.


Also if you Have spotify, go check out the rest of their stuff. 
If you dont have spotify, go get it. its free and the best.

Anyways As always, everything I say on here is my opinion, nothing more. Acceptance of it as my own personal opinion is all I ask for, and if you want to disagree you can go to town, but my opinions will stay my opinions.

Much Love,

Jes

Dustin Kensrue

So its been a while since I posted anything, and I figured I should probably get back on it.
Anyways, this one is going to be short simple and to the point.


At least I'm hoping it will go that way. 


I've been listening to alot lately and for some reason Dustin Kensrue stood out these past couple days so I thought I'd write about him.


Dustin is the lead singer of Thrice, who I've written about before, but he decided to go off and do a solo project on the side. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but I know I like it. Some of it definitely has a countryish vibe to it, but not the lame twangy country you hear over loudspeakers in fast food restaurants. I can't stand that kind of stuff, if you like it though....well hey thats great for you, personally its just not my cup of tea if you follow me. I've heard a few people say he can be put in the Americana genre, which I suppose I could understand. But don't go by what I say, I've realized over the years that I'm terrible at genretizing music (I realize genretizing probably isn't a word, but I'm okay with that)


Anyway, I think its worth a listen. Of course I am a little biased because I'm a huge fan of Thrice, almost to the point where it might be weird, but I'm not quite there yet so no worries. But generally, I like anything Thrice or any of its members has done and I'll probably like anything they do. All that aside though, Dustin's "Please Come Home" album is pretty good. And if you like it he's got a christmas album that isn't too shabby as well if you're into Christmas music in the Spring.


Music time!


First off: Consider The Ravens.
I heard this song one day at work and right off the bat I liked it. Its just a good and simple song. Not much to it, but it's still a favorite.

Secondly: Please Come Home
Its the song the album was named for, which is usually a good sign. Once again, simple yet all around solid song. Supposedly its about the Prodigal Son from the bible, but I havent exactly sat down and asked what the song was about so I guess I can't say that for sure. It wouldn't surprise me though, he has a lot of lyrics that have to do with things from the bible so who knows.

Last: Knew You Before

A much more fast paced song. Thats about all I can think of to say, but it's the first one I heard of his solo stuff and I'll always think its good. Sorry for the lame lyric music video thing, I couldnt find one with good quality that wasn't one.

Just kidding, I'm throwing one more in there

I Believe:

I like the song structure of this one again, to me its nothing unique or super special, but I like it. Lyrically its a good song. 

So thats all I've got for this time. Hopefully someone somewhere actually read this and checked him out and liked it. Some other songs I would recommend checking out are "Pistol" and "Blood & Wine" Blood and wine kind of has a Johnny Cash feel to it. 

Anyways As always, everything I say on here is my opinion, nothing more. Acceptance of it as my own personal opinion is all I ask for, and if you want to disagree you can go to town, but my opinions will stay my opinions.

Much Love,

Jes

Jonsi

So this week I've been listen to Jonsi a lot. Him and Sigur Ros (which is his full band) and it's made this week a pretty relaxed one.

Iceland puts out some weird stuff, most of which I'm not a super huge fan of, but this guys got it right in my opinion. He's got a super high voice, but its so clean and full it works for him, its not super high in the annoying sense. Also his Sigur Ros stuff is way good, so check that out if you feel the desire.

Its a little hard to explain what kind of stuff he makes because its super unique, but once again, its super good. But overall its some of the most chill and relaxed stuff I've heard, and yet some of it is pretty upbeat. From the slow to the upbeat, its all all around good music. To my knowledge he's only got one album and thats the "Go" album. He also did the soundtrack for "We Bought A Zoo" so I guess that would make two CD's. Both of which are amazing. The only reason I even went and saw We Bought A Zoo was because Jonsi did the music for it actually now that I think of it.

And live performance....whoa! I went to see him when he came through a while back in September I think? But HANDS DOWN it was one of the most amazing things I've ever witnessed. Indescribable really. But its time to let the songs speak for themselves.

Okay so first off

Henglias: I don't know what it is about this song, but it's safe to say its my favorite on this album. There's something about it i just find incredibly relaxing.

My next choice would probably have to be Tornado

Once again, i just find this song to be super chill. Not much else to say about it except that its just a really good song

Around Us:

One of the more upbeat songs. This one just puts me in a good mood

Last up is "Go Do"

Another song more on the upbeat side, all around a good listen. The beginning is actually pretty weird, but this is probably my favorite song behind Henglias. 

Also the live version is worth checking out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wkYJdpbJtg

Thats my pick for today, I personally think its worth your time to check out the rest of his stuff. They're some good tunes.

As always, everything I say on here is my opinion, nothing more. Acceptance of it as my own personal opinion is all I ask for, and if you want to disagree you can go to town, but my opinions will stay my opinions.

Much Love,

Jes

Sleeping With Sirens

First things first, these guys have some stuff a bit on the heavier side compared to what I've posted previously, just an FYI.

But these guys are definitely worth checking out, I tried to make it out to their show the other night, but it got sold out before I could get in. You know their good if they're selling places out right? But anyways, from what I've heard in videos and word of mouth Kellin Quinn (Lead Vox) pretty much tears it up live.

He's got a crazy high voice that when a lot of people hear most say it's over produced and autotuned and things of that nature, but if he can hit the notes live then its pretty legit in my book. And on the plus side he's got some soul to it. I feel stupid saying that, but thats the only word I can think of to describe it. Listen to their stuff and you'll get what I mean.

I'm finding it hard to write much today for some reason, but the long and short of it is these guys are pretty prime. They've got the melodic guitars mixed with heavy rhythms and breakdowns. Throw a high voice in there and you've got a pretty good listen in store in my opinion.

So its song time,

First off: Fire
its off their 2nd album and its one of their less heavy songs. The reason I love this one so much is because of the delay pedal used throughout the beginning and entire song really. Anyways, Tis a good'n.

Secondly: The Bomb Dot Com V2.0
I love the way this song starts, and pretty much everything about it. Easily one of my favorite by them
(sorry quality's not so great)

Third: If You Cant Hang.

Pretty solid all around song. I wouldnt say its my favorite, but its up there.

Lastly: With Ears To See And Eyes To Hear (Acoustic)

Its an acoustic version, but its still way good. He makes alot of weird faces though, lets be honest. But i'm not even that mad about it.

So those are the songs I Decided to choose, which was kind of hard seeing as how I like most of their stuff. But a few more recommendations are these and I'll put the link so you can go have a listen to those too if you want.

In Case Of Emergency Dial 411: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5mf7ApU-9s&ob=av2n

If I'm James Dean, You're Audrey Hepburn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddQZVSfz95M

With Ears To See And Eyes To Hear (acoustic):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG9asuIYmHM

With Ears To See And Eyes To Hear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3p4LXdQxas&ob=av2e

And if you dont mind some swears being dropped in your ears I would definately recommend that you go take a listen to their cover from PGP4, they did a good job with it. 

F**k You (Punk Goes Pop 4 Cover): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBLhGcMrP6g

Really I like all their stuff, so if you like them go figure out how to get their music, buy it, download it, whatever you want,  they're some good tunes.

As always, everything I say on here is my opinion, nothing more. Acceptance of it as my own personal opinion is all I ask for, and if you want to disagree you can go to town, but my opinions will stay my opinions.

Much Love,
Jes

Time For A Little Self Promotion

The long & short of it is tonight I'm feeling pretty lazy and don't want to try to actually write anything about anything.

So my solution to that is this weeks band to be things I was involved with
What kind of musician would I be if I didn't indulge in some shameless self promotion?
Not a very good one thats for sure.

So here we go

First up is JFTR.

Kind of a gay picture, but hey I'm okay with it. I know we aren't a band anymore, but it doesn't mean I cant show people the stuff. JFTR ( Just For The Record ) has been a huge part of my life, almost Eight years in the making. Alot of crap, and I mean A LOT, but I wouldn't trade a second of it, not even the sucky shows that we played for maybe 3 people tops, some of those were the best.

And those five guys are family, I love those guys....no homo. And while we're on the topic of love, I'm eternally grateful to anyone who supported us throughout those years, ESPECIALLY those who were there from when we started (and sucked so much it was ridiculous) right up to the end! We wouldn't have made it so far without people like that. So here's where you can check out our stuff!

Just head on over to www.facebook.com/jftrmusic SIMPLE. AS.PIE YO! :)

This is a picture from our last show. We closed with "Avenue Earthquake" Which I thought was quite fitting with it being the first song we ever wrote (since we changed styles) it made sense for it to be the last song we ever played as JFTR. I'll be straight up, when Garrett said "This is the last song you'll ever hear from JFTR, etc." I almost cried haha. I Love every single person that was there for that moment and everybody that came up on stage to share that with us. you're the best.

SECONDLY!
The Bonus Bandits.

Me and Matts rap group, I know you're probably thinking "Rap? Seriously?"

Yes. Seriously. Not about pimps & hoes though, we figured we would rap about what we love. which is beards, yo yos, mario, zombies. things like that. We were pretty much 100% serious about joke rap, and those shows were some of the funnest i've ever played, and the easiest. Plug in an ipod and rap, done and done :) (I'm aware that funnest isn't a word.)
you can go listen to some of our stuff at www.facebook.com/thebonusbandits

Oh and also, we made a music video, most awkward thing I've ever done, but I love it more than a puppy. It was probably the best 3 days of my life.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST!:

This Is Paramount

Something Me Chris & Garrett have been working on.

We just finished up our cover of Set Fire To The Rain by Adele. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The other song "Hit & Run" we just decided hey lets go record something just to be playing music again, and Hit & Run was born. We may be going up to re-record it pretty soon so thats always good news.  Anyway, you can listen to both at www.facebook.com/thisisparamount

Thats it, I'm done for the day! If you want any of the stuff let me know and I'll figure out how to get it to you, thanks for reading this 

As always, everything I say on here is my opinion, nothing more. Acceptance of it as my own personal opinion is all I ask for, and if you want to disagree you can go right ahead, but my opinions will stay my opinions.

Much Love,

Jes

Thrice: Beggars

Okay First off, this ones kinda long, so I apologize for that.

So hands down,
and I mean HANDS DOWN
Thrice is probably my favorite band, it's tied up there with Emarosa.
For many reasons, their music is just straight up amazing, and they are amazing musicians. The singer Dustin Kensrue reads a lot which makes everything, lyrically, really well put together, and there are tons of CS Lewis & Bible references which is always a plus in my book. CS Lewis is pretty mindblowing so songs that talk about his stuff are pretty neat in my opinion
on top of that they are really good live so more bonus'

However there is seriously absolutely no way I could put up just a few songs by Thrice and call it good.
So you'll have to bear
(or is it bare? pretty sure its bear, anyways)
with me because I'm gonna do it by albums. I figure thats the only way to do it so I dont have a million videos on one page, and it will give you time to actually appreciate the music.

So lets get this bih started!

First on the list: Beggars.  No particular ordering keep that in mind, I just chose to talk about Beggars first.
So I'm not sure what it is about this album, but when I listen to it it just puts me in a very relaxed mood. It has a sort of jazzy feel to it maybe? Well I wouldn't say jazzy but its pretty chill. And yet at the same time its got an interesting (for lack of a better word) upbeat side to it.

For example they have songs like "Wood & Wire" which is one of the chill ones in my opinion,
and then you have "All The World Is Mad", which has a very Muse-ish feel to it, with things like a very predominant bass line with a distortion on it along with the guitars and harmonies that once again make me think of Muse songs.
And on top of all that they have a few songs that sound almost bluesish or maybe jazzy? (The Weight & Beggars)

Anyways I could sit here going on and on.....and on some more after that about how much I love this band, and how great I think they are, but I'll just let the music do the talking for me. I personally feel like this entire album is something you should listen to, but I've narrowed it down to 3 or 4 that in my opinion are pretty great that you should have a listen to.

First off "Doublespeak" This song is one of my favorites. Everything about it, construction, melody, lyrics, various instruments, its all good. There's something about the verse's that is super chill, but at the same time has some swag to it if that makes any sense. Anyways, have a listen its good.

Secondly "Beggars" The album was named after this song so its safe to assume its pretty good. Once again something about how chill this song is and yet the style behind it is what makes it amazing to me. This is one of the ones I said had a chill kind of jazzish side to it fyi. Also sorry its one of those lyrics videos, I hate those, but its the best I could find.

Third "All The World Is Mad" This is one of the upbeat ones. As I said it seems like its got a Muse-ish feel to it right? I love the crunchy bassline in this song too

Last is "The Weight" An all around good song. Enjoy!

So thats Beggars! once again I think that you should get this whole album, its freakin great, but if you dont I guess I'm alright with that. And if you decide "Hey, I like Thrice lets hear more" don't worry, because there's like....Four more albums I'm going to talk about! But I'll space it out over a while.

And if you don't like it....well then that kinda sucks for you I guess? Sorry and I hope I put up something you do like.

As always, everything I say on here is my opinion, nothing more. Acceptance of it as my own personal opinion is all I ask for, and if you want to disagree you can go right ahead, but my opinions will stay my opinions.

Especially when it comes to Thrice.

Much love,
Jes.

The Head & The Heart.

The Head & The Heart.........

Holy crap.
These guys are straight up prime! I saw them for the first time when Iron & Wine came through and these guys opened up for them. If I'm being 100% honest here, they were probably my favorite part of the whole show.

Now don't get me wrong, Iron & Wine was freakin amazing. I was expecting it to be him and his guitar like the first time I saw him, but he was rocking the full band and everything this time and it was every bit as good as the first time. especially when he played "Your fake name is good enough for me" and it had the crazy crescendo and everything. Whoa, that moment in time is one I would definitely go back to.

But back to The Head & The Heart.

Everything about these guys was amazing. They had great stage presence, like they were eternally grateful to be up there playing for the crowd, which I'm sure they were, but they were up there playing music just to play music. Musically they were great too, everything flowed together incredibly, and the three and sometimes four part harmonies were pretty much mindblowing. As soon as they were done I went and picked up a CD and some shirts. Anyways I dont have much time so the long and short of it is these guys are great. I love every song they've done, but I'm gonna put up just a few I think are good. Give it a listen, pretty sure you'll be happy about it.


Rivers and Roads - First song I heard and still one of my favorite. This is just a live video of them playing, still way good though.

Ghosts - Not sure what it is about this one, I just think its overall a good one, especially at the last part. This one is another live video because I cant find a regular one or one of those dumb lyric videos.

Lost In My Mind - Out of their whole CD I would probably say this one is my favorite.

So there you have it. The Head & The Heart. Easily one of the best bands I've seen live, and one of my top favorites. Go ahead and take a listen and pick up their stuff if you like it. I wouldnt even be mad about it.

Much Love,

Jes