One of my favorite bands of all time is definitely Franz Ferdinand. Their comepletely european sound just sounds like magic to me. They have a sound that I just relate to entirely. Often times when listening to them, I begin to question whether or not I am even American. If you’re ever looking for some good new music just listen to UK radio.  This band always astounds me with their music.

Well tonight I was just messing about with the mixtape post and I stumbled upon a set of mp3’s I pulled from a Franz Ferdinand live DVD.

So without further ado, here it is:

Franz Ferdinand - Your Diary (Live at Brixton)

And here we are. The end of May. May wasn’t necessarily a big month for me. Nothing huge happened, well except:

1. My car broke
2. School ended
3. My job started to suck alot
4. I gained a little wait
5. Completely changed my room

Maybe it was a bigger month than I thought. But I’m not here to babble about me, I’m here to babble about music. I discovered a lot more of the music I truly loved in my collection this month. Probably the biggest example of this is Stress by Justice but also reaching back into bands like Relient K, Franz Ferdinand, and Jack Johnson. So for my dear friend Megan, I have composed a selection of wonderful songs that have filled my May with splendor and delight.

Patrick Watson - Luscious Life
Relient K - Faking My Own Suicide
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Mae - The Ocean
Coldplay - Politik
Guster - Demons
Embrace - Gravity
Jim Noir - I Me You
The Bravery - Split Me Wide Open
Franz Ferdinand - 40′

I found a song that literally transposes the feelings I have when I’m stressed out. Massive thanks to French underground electronic gurus Justice for their massively awesome brand of culture. I’ve been jamming to this tune for weeks now, and I honestly can’t get enough of them. According to my listening history I’ve listened to that song 22 times this month, and I could hear it hundreds more.

And also a copy to take home for your music collection.

Justice - Stress

Okay, so here I am again. It has literally been more than a month since I was last on here. I finally fixed all the problems I was having, and it couldn’t have come sooner, cause I have some serious music journalism I gotta dump.

So I’m starting a new type of post. It’s going to just be songs and artists that I normally wouldn’t consider myself a fan of.

And to start it of, I picked my favorite electric-reggae-rapper.
A London born, Sri-Lankan artist, the girl has a talent all her own. Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, better known as MIA, is the kind of artist that even when you hear a song you don’t like, you still appreciate it.

I’m not sure if words explain her as well as she explains herself.
So without further ado.

M.I.A. - Paper Planes

After the upgrade and the move to guru.codybrom.com I’ve run into some bugs in the software that I need to iron out.

Be back up and running real soon.

So the blog changed names, and will soon be changing the address.
When you see this site come up as a failing feed take note that we are moving to:

http://guru.codybrom.com

Later,
The Earbud Guru

David Bowie - Changes

Okay so I’m new to this whole music blogging thing, and I got so caught up in the idea of reviewing an album for the first time that I totally missed the mark. So I’m starting a new category called, Re-View. So today I’ll be taking a second look at what I hastily gave a poor score.

The first thing I noticed about this album was that it had three more tracks than Bright Like Neon Love. But that faded away pretty quickly. This album is a gapless album, meaning that when played back there is no blank space between tracks. Well in-order to properly maintain the flow of the album, four flow-maintaining tracks had to be added. So that decreases the actual song count down to eleven. I marked through those songs, because they don’t even get to count.

1. Feel The Love
2. Out There On The Ice
3. Lights and Music
4.We Fight For Diamonds
5. Unforgettable Season
6. Midnight Runner
7. So Haunted
8. Voices In Quartz
9. Hearts on Fire
10. Far Away
11. Silver Thoughts
12. Strangers In The Wind
13. Visions
14. Nobody Lost, Nobody Found
15. Eternity One Night Only

I’m gonna work my way though the list here.

So track one, Feel the Love has a strong open to In Ghost Colours. It maintains a majority of the original sound, while slowly starting to morph into the new disco-esque sound of the rest of the album. The lyrics are easy, and keep me wanting more. Before you know it though you’re slid right into Out There On The Ice. This song is more downtempo, more emphasis on the vocals. Up next is one of the singles, Lights and Music. This song is very disco-esque, meant for dancing, and is just a good rock out. After thoroughly enojoying myself, we run into our first little transition track, and then into Unforgettable Season. Unforgettable Season has a more indie-pop feel to it than most of the Cut Copy catalog. The first half of our next song sounds and feels like a transition song, but eventually Midnight Runner will be this nice soft song. So Haunted is the kind of song that if you’re not familiar with the band can be a little weird. The first time I heard this song I though they were saying, “get so horny”, but under the Australian accent is the correct lyrics “get so haunted“. It’s a pretty nice medium tempo song. Vocals are kind of covered up by the music, but it’s still a pleasing mix. After another transition track, we find ourselves at Hearts on Fire, which shares a lot of general feelings with Lights & Music, very disco, very house. Far Away is very different as far as its sound goes. At first impression it feels like it doesn’t belong. But as time goes by in the song, it feels like a natural fit. Strangers In The Wind brings a completely different sound to the table, but does so in a way that is both perfect, and awesome. This song showcases the true talent of the guys. And this is my new favorite song by them too. Nobody Lost, Nobody Found reverts to the disco sound, with a very 70’s spin this time. The previous ones sounded like disco-nue, where this sounds very retro disco. Eternity One Night Only is the best song they could have used to finish out the album. And when you hear it you will understand why.

This album is awesome, and is best experienced when played from start to finish. The fact that the album is gapless is proof that they want you to listen to it that way as well.

For me, i re-rate this album a 9 out of 10.

Again, here are the MP3’s.
Hearts on Fire - Cut Copy
Lights and Music - Cut Copy

The Scientist is the iconic Coldplay song. So it’s almost natural that I’d pick a song so recognizable for it’s sound and style for the first edition of On The Cover, a selection of songs that are cover versions.

So I’m not here to talk about the beautiful lyrics and the wonderful poetic voice behind the original. Instead I’m here to talk about someone I rarely have good things to say about.

I’m talking about Avril Lavigne.

I don’t care what you normally have to say about her, I instead ask that you give her some mad props for not ruining a wonderful song. I’ve heard cover versions that both ruined and degraded the original for me. This version of The Scientist does not have the problem thankfully. I could talk about all the technique in vocal stylizing all day, but it’s really just the same but with a good female vocalist at the helm.

I’ve also got a second version for you today by Natasha Bedingfield. This version is different with more of a lounge sound to it. This is the kind of cover which makes you really listen to the lyrics, because there really isn’t much else to listen to.

Enjoy both of these tracks.

The Scientist - Avril Lavigne
The Scientist - Natasha Bedingfield

A friend of mine got to see the great prophet Ben Folds in concert recently. The concert was full of local college students who all got in for free, so they didn’t give “the Ben” all the respect he deserves.

Well this got me to glance back through my Ben Folds collection, and after a couple songs I hit Still Fighting It. This song is a perfect example of who Ben Folds is, and what his sound is.

“Everybody knows it sucks to grow up
And everybody does”
Still Fighting It - Ben Folds

I am a connoisseur of music. While I may not stick my nose into the really high brow stuff, I can tell the good from the bad. This blog is an experiment in whether on not the things I think really are true, as well as if they are worth sharing. So this is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. I don’t know why I haven’t. But that is all the introduction I require.

Cut Copy.

Meet my favorite band. Well, they used to be. As I will teach you, the sophomore album can be a real doozy. Of my favorite artists, all went through a major stylistic change between album 1 & album 2.

But first we need to start out on a good note of what I think to be some really classy stuff. In my mind, the song & video for “Going Nowhere” embody the true meaning of Cut Copy.

Plus then there is also my favorite song of theirs, “Saturdays”.

Those two videos should give you an idea of part of the album, but here’s a little bit more tasting.

Autobahn Music Box - Cut Copy

So I think it’s pretty safe to say that they had a pretty solid sound from that album. Not too weird at all. But then they had to change it all for the sophomore album.

Lights and Music - Cut Copy

I mean, it’s growing on me.. but it’s different.
They went from electro-groove-pop to post-disco-indie-rock. A pretty stellar jump.
I mean you can really hear the difference in songs like.

Hearts on Fire - Cut Copy

Well, anyways I happily give the original Cut Copy album “Bright Like Neon Love” a perfect 5* out of 5*. And the new album, “In Ghost Colours” a 4* out of 5*. The fact that it has fewer stand out songs hurts it that extra star.

Update:
I just re-reviewed “In Ghost Colors” so check that out. I’ll re-review “Bright Like Neon Love” soon. Check out the review for details of why I re-reviewed them.