It's About Time to Let That Music Flow

Yes, it's about time for some music creation to hit the front burner. I've always wanted to be super productive and create music that I'm proud of and people will enjoy, but I've never really put in that true commitment. Now is the time. I'm taking an online course that is going to jumpstart this brain of mine and the music will soon follow. I can't wait to get rolling.

One of my first exercises is to fuel my unconscious brain. To do this I've simply been listening to music. For starters I stuck in my favorite album "Clumsy" by Our Lady Peace. I strapped on my Bose headphones, laid down on the couch and pressed play. It's an amazing feeling to just lay back with nothing else on your mind but the music that is pumping into your brain. You notice all of the little details that you might never have noticed before. You feel the emotion, you picture the raw sound behind your closed eyes. Such a great feeling, especially when it's your favorite album. You truly get lost. It was like Raine was pouring out that signature falsetto just for me and as Big Dumb Rocket had it's turn, it took all of me energy to stay relaxed and lay there, just appreciating my favorite tune and not rocking around the room belting the lyrics.

Next I picked another album from my cd shelf. I dug a little deeper for this one. I searched for a disc that I hadn't spun in a real long time but still had that way of tugging at my internal rock strings. I came across "Lemon Parade" by Tonic and knew I had to give it the treatment. Man, was it worth it. You tend to forget sometimes how good music is when you haven't listened to it in a long time. As Open Up Your Eyes, Mountain, and Wicked Soldier blasted through my headphones and drove it's way into the pleasure centers of my brain I was taken back to high school when this album was on constant rotation in my cd player. The heavy guitars, full acoustic strums and soaring vocals had me floating in musical bliss. No offense to Tonic, but I was so relaxed I even fell asleep for half a song. Considering how loud it was in my ears I see that as a compliment anyway.

The third and final album of this exercise is going to be something a little different. It's going to be an album that I've never heard before from a genre that isn't usually my cup of tea. I combed through Grooveshark for a few minutes and decided on "Hands All Over," the newest album from Maroon 5. I enjoy their radio singles for the most part but their music has never really driven me to keep listening. Hard rock has been my thing ever since I picked up "Sunburn" by Fuel and "My Own Prison" by Creed back in my high school days. But I'm excited to give it a shot and feed my brain with something that I would never listen to otherwise. I'm hoping moving to another genre and taking in the music for the experience of doing it will truly be a good step in making my own music that much better.

So now it begins. I can't wait to get this program going and get some music pouring out of my head, hands and throat and out into the world. I don't think I've ever wanted anything so badly in my life and there is no stopping me now. I mean come on, if my current homework is just chilling and listening to awesome music how can I complain? I can't, that's why music is so incredible and I'm itching to make some of my own. I look forward to giving updates of my progress.

Rock on!

Slutterfly, Slumblebee, Slirate, and Our Lady Peace

I have to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of Halloween. Sure, I love candy (and roasted pumpkin seeds, oh so good), but the stress of finding a costume and the idea of dressing up to begin with hasn't been my thing for a while. That and I never feel like I'm even close to creative as the other guy. I'm always one upped, or totally skanked out, which brings me to this Halloween.

Since I'm not much for Halloween, I never really get out and do anything. I'm the kind to chill and watch a couple of scary movies. A little boring, I know, but that's how I roll. This year was a little different as my favorite band, Our Lady Peace, was playing a free show in downtown Kansas City. They played a covered outdoor stage at a place called the Power & Light District. I'd heard some mixed reviews about the venue but overall it was pretty sweet with it's restaurants, clubs, giant courtyard, heat lamps mounted to the ceiling, and the jumbo big screen television tuned to a college football game.

Being the kind of boring guy I am I showed up sans costume which I can't say about a good chunk of the people there. Even the opening band, Company of Thieves, was dressed in full Wizard of Oz gear. There were some pretty inventive costumes (Jesus hanging out with the Pope and the Devil to name a few.) There were also quite a few of unoriginal costumes that made me feel good about not wearing one. (Come on guys, you're only supposed to find Waldo once, not 6 times.) But the ones that are always stand outs are the young ladies who find Halloween as an occasion to skank-it-up. These are the ladies that I will never be able to compete with. I can't say I can complain, if they want to dress like that who am I to stop them (wink, wink), but it does baffle me a little thinking what some people will wear in public. The whole thing is a game for me, coming up with names for these wonderfully skanky costumes that seem to get racier every year.

Example #1: slutty + butterfly = slutterfly

There were a quite a few of those this year.

Example #2: slutty + bumblebee = slumblebee

I think I spotted a handful of those. Now, I think you get the point, see if you can figure out slirate.

Overall, the show was great. It was a cool atmosphere, especially with everyone dressed up. This was the third time I'd seen Our Lady Peace and it definitely won't be the last. I'm anxious for the next show I'm attending in December, a show I just spent a little too much money to be able to attend. But what's the point of having money if you don't spend it every once and a while and what's the point of being young if you don't get out, stay up late, and take advantage of it? There is none. So let's rock on!

"Burn Burn" Burning Up The Car Stereo

It's good to hear Raine's voice again in great new tunage. Burn Burn, Our Lady Peace's new album isn't really what I expected, but expectations tend to ruin perfectly good albums, so I didn't let them. Burn Burn is a great extension of OLP's repertoire with a great songwriting and performance. No matter what I thought the music would sound like, I expected no less from my favorite band.

Last Tuesday (July 21st), I couldn't wait to run out and pick up the new record. Though it's a good way to start spending way too much money, it's nice having Tuesday's off considering Tuesday is the most common CD and DVD release day.

After sleeping in a little too late (I tend to do that on my day off, but hey, that's what it's for) I decided to hit up Best Buy. Their new albums are usually $9.99, which is hard to beat anywhere else around here. I was actually looking to find the deluxe edition which contained a handful of bonus tracks but not only did they not have that, they didn't even have a copy of the regular album on the shelve. I said, "Screw it," probably out loud too, under my breath of course, and left for Target.

You're probably thinking, why didn't you just ask them for a copy? Well, I was in a bit of a vindictive mood that morning and I wanted them to miss out on a sale for not having something on the shelf that just came out and should be on the shelf. Pretty simple. I hate it when I get in moods like that but it felt kinda nice heading over to Target, which is right across the street, and picking up a copy.

After handing over an hour's worth of pay to the cashier at Target, I headed straight to my car and carried out my patented roll-down-the-window-and-rock-the-new-disc ritual that I've talked about before. (This is back in April when I snagged the new Hinder album.) As I left the parking lot and dialed up the volume to fight against the wind blasting me in the face, Raine's voice was nothing short of angelic to my OLP-new-tunage deprived ears. (It's been 4 years since we had a new OLP album.)

I drove around for quite a while, but in the concern for my emptying gas tank I decided to park and continue to listen. I was immediately hooked to the songs "Dreamland" and "Never Get Over You". So I played 2, then 7, then 2, then 7, quite a few times before finally listening to the album at least 7 or 8 times over the following few days.

Though the album wasn't the rock that I was looking for from their first album Naveed, the songs carry that chill yet catchy and soothing OLP sound that I've always loved. We even get to hear a bit of Raine's trademark falsetto that's been set aside for the past couple albums in the final tune "Paper Moon".

So that's enough of turning a simple album buying story into a novel. I need to get back to packing, we're moving out of our apartment tomorrow and there is plenty of packing to do. One thing is for sure, Burn Burn will be playing in the background as I pack everything away for another exciting yet frustrating move.

Check out Burn Burn or just Our Lady Peace in general, you won't be disappointed. Rock on!

New OLP Single "All You Did Was Save My Life"

My blog has been all about sharing lately, more specifically new music and videos. I'll continue the trend today. I've been anxious for the new OLP album to hit the shelves and I've been listening to the new single like it's my job. Check out the new single, "All You Did Was Save My Life," below along with clips from all the other tunes on their soon to be released album Burn Burn.




Our Lady Peace has been such a huge influence in my songwriting and in my love for music for so long, it's hard not to get excited about new stuff.

3 or 4 years ago, on a live t.v./radio performance my old band Now Transmission did for a college station in Maine, someone compared my voice to Raine's (the lead singer of OLP) without even knowing my obsession with their music and I almost melted right there in front of the camera. It's not every day you get compared to your idol...that was a good day.

What that little story has to do with anything, I don't know, it's just good to remember.

Rock on!

Will Our Lady Peace's New Disc Drop Already!?

As you can tell from my listening habits, OLP is undoubtedly my favorite band and I'm about ready for their new album Burn Burn. (A lot of those plays have been OLP recently, including right now!) I don't want my month of July to fly by but it's about time for the 21st to come.

New Our Lady Peace Album Dropping On July 21st!

I don't know about you but I can't wait until July 21st! By no means do I want to wish my or everyone else's summer away, but I can't help but be pumped for a new record from Our Lady Peace. If you're a regular to ASWS you'll know that OLP is my favorite band, has been since I was 16 years old. (So about 9 years.)

Raine's powerful and distinct vocals, the exceptional songwriting that has always been an inspiration to me as a songwriter, and their overall sound has had me hooked since I heard my first OLP song on the I Know What You Did Last Summer soundtrack. (The song was "Clumsy".)

New music is something I always get excited for and when it's one of my favorite bands I pull out all the stops. There is no exception when it comes OLP's new disc Burn Burn. It's been a long wait between albums, one of the longest we've ever had to wait for a studio album considering their last album Healthy In Paranoid Times came out in 2005.

(This isn't including A Decade, a greatest hits compilation that featured two new and unreleased tracks. If you haven't heard Our Lady Peace I recommend checking out A Decade or my favorite OLP album Clumsy. At the very least check out OLP's Myspace and see what you're missing.)

I've read a lot of good things about this new album. For starters it's produced by lead singer Raine Maida himself. He's said that Burn Burn is a "proper rock album" that harks back to the rawness of their Naveed days, Naveed being their first album. It's also set to contain 10 tracks with the first single being "All You Did Was Save My Life".

To learn more, read this article I found about the release which you can find here.

Come July 21st my album buying tradition will be in full force as we get ready to pack and move (our lease runs out July 31st) and continue to enjoy a beautiful Kansas summer. If the album is as good as it's sounding from the couple of clips I've heard and all the hype, it will be a summer to be remembered. Music does that to me.

And as always with the release of a new album there's always the chance of a live show coming to the area. Now that we're living in the Kansas City area I like my chances. That would definitely make it a great summer.

Keep rockin'!

I Can't Wait!

I'm taking a quick break from the NCAA basketball tourney to share a little excitement with you (They didn't really give me a choice to take a break, the next game isn't until 6:00). It's not very often that I get super excited, but when it comes to new music, I tend to get pumped, especially when my favorite band putting out a new disc.

(Yeah, that photo on the left is signed by Raine Maida and made out to Eric. But unfortunately, not me. I snagged it on eBay.)

The excitement is kicked up a notch because my favorite band, Our Lady Peace, hasn't released a new studio album since they released "Healthy In Paranoid Times" in 2005. That's an especially long time for OLP as they usually come out with a new album every couple of years. Of course, this isn't including Raine's solo album and the greatest hits compilation.

I've talked about the upcoming album, "Burn Burn", in previous posts which only proves where my minds at. We still don't know when it's coming out, only that it's finished and that it will be out sometime early summer. While taking my little break, I also stumbled across the cover art, which you can check out here.

Since I really don't get excited about many things I'm going to try and be patient and not look up those crappy live recordings that are usually all over YouTube when bands come out with new material. I've heard some previews but overall I'd like to keep my ears fresh so when I finally get out to buy it I can stick it in my car cd player, roll down the windows and crank it like new rock should be cranked. It's been my tradition for years now and I look forward to continuing it out here in Kansas as I speed through some corn fields in the hot summer sun. It's going to be great, I can't wait!

From The CD Shelf, Our Lady Peace - Spiritual Machines

I like so many things about listening to music. Aside from the sheer joy of listening to tunes I love, I revel in the feeling that a track or a whole album envelopes me in. Especially a tune or album that I haven't heard in quite a while. It really is a great feeling to queue up a song that takes you back to when you first heard the song, or maybe even the point in time you had that album constantly spinning.

So I decided to venture down the stairs to the living room and peruse my cd collection to see what tickled my fancy. My collection is getting quite large, stalled lately with my lack of a job, but there are many albums that haven't seen the inside of cd player for quite a while. My eye caught on "Spiritual Machines" by Our Lady Peace, as I've mentioned before, my favorite band. It was easy for my eye to catch on this one because OLP has their own little section that is separate from the rest of the alphabetized masterpiece that is my collection.

I wanted to get this one spinning more than any other album on my shelf because this album imparticular transports me back in time more than any other. Released in 2000, "Spiritual Machines" came out when I was a senior in high school. This is when I had finally started driving and I really started to develop my passion for music.

The album itself is a concept album based around the book "The Age of Spiritual Machines" by Ray Kurzweil. Between many of the tracks Ray quotes experts from his book. I don't think a lot of people really got the point, but really, I didn't need to, the music and everything with it just spoke to me. As I listen right now, the intro that leads into the song "Right Behind You (Mafia)" transports me directly behind the wheel of my mother's 1990 Pontiac 6000LE on one of my autopilot drives back home from school.

(You know what I mean about driving on autopilot, right? It's when you start driving and then basically blank out for a certain amount of time only to realize you're almost home and you don't remember a thing from the last couple of miles. I think that was what a combo of OLP and crappy high school did to me.)

The funniest part was that I couldn't even spin the album in my inherited car because it didn't even have a cd player, just an in-dash cassette player. I did the common thing back then to make my music portable; record my cd over to a cassette tape. I made many a blueberry raking mix for my Sony Walkman this way but this tape was strictly for OLP and my drives to and from school.

I was obsessed with the album that whole year. Out of their 6 studio albums to date, it was their least commercially successful album but it didn't matter to me. In fact, anyone who didn't like the album can bite me. From the first single "In Repair" to "Life", "Middle Of Yesterday", "Made To Heal", and "Everyone's A Junkie" (big green monkey everyone's a junkie), I was hooked. Of course, I'm biased, so I can't blame the critics, I guess. (Bite my tongue.)

I'm sure I was caught in my singing bubble more than once by passing drivers like I mentioned in my post "Cutting Back Costs In Hard Times By...Not Singing". But hey, if I looked like an idiot, I didn't care. This album was truly my age 17 anthem and it will always be remembered for that.

On top of all this, the summer of 2001, a couple of weeks before I graduated from high school I got to see OLP live in concert for the first time (I rummaged out the ticket and it's pictured on the right). This further cemented this album as a turning point in my musical maturation.

(I've seen OLP once more since then and can't wait for their new album "Burn Burn" to drop so I can hopefully see them again. Come to Kansas City OLP!)

As you can tell, there are a lot of memories associated with "Spiritual Machines" and close to every album on my shelf does the same thing. I'm sure to some extent there are tunes out there that do the same thing to you too. Feel free to comment with some songs that take you back in time.

I feel like I'm talking as if I'm much older than 25 and reminiscing about days long gone, maybe I've even over dramatizing it, but I won't be when I stick this album in 30 years from now and remember this all over again.

I just had to include the video for "In Repair" below. It really encompasses the whole concept of the album. Enjoy.