New Year, New Music?

The past few years I've mostly forgotten about our little music blog and the friends I've made through this little endeavor. As is often the case, life snuck up on me and I haven't had much time to focus on posting music, introducing new bands and other such things. But I've come to miss it quite a lot. So, if I don't get too busy with the myriad other things (I'm now a full-time caregiver for my 91-year-old grandpa, I'm soon to be engaged, and my family has already started making plans for the wedding), I'll try to share some of the music I've discovered recently. Here's a few off the top of my head:

Valadares
Burdens Within
Small Town Titans
Brightgray
Cloud Break
NF

So... stay tuned! Here's hoping we can revive this thing!

Oh... Have I ever mentioned I write my own music? This year I'm going to try and get some more professional recordings done of songs I've written. So if you're curious what I sound like, be on the lookout for that! lol

Christian Music Corner: The Violet Burning

The Violet Burning is one of those odd cases in music. They prefer not to be called a "Christian Band", and yet, a lot of their music embodies everything that Christian music should be. But at the same time, it's completely different from anything in the worship music genre/scene/whatever. Ever since their debut album way back in 1989, "The Violets", as they're nicknamed, have been putting out powerful music. It's really hard to pin down one or two bands they sound like, so I'll just post a few of my favorites and let you judge for yourself:





This song reminds me of the band Filter. Especially the song "Nice Shot".



And here's a song from their most recent album. Very reminiscent of Smashing Pumpkins, if you ask me!



Of course, the songs I posted were just a drop in the bucket of TVB's music. They have 13 albums, and I've only heard songs from 4 or 5 of those. I'd recommend checking them out, and if one album doesn't "get" you, try another! You may fall in love!

Christian Metal Corner: Tourniquet

I thought I'd do a post about one of my favorite Christian Speed/Thrash/etc Metal bands, Tourniquet. They just released their 8th album, Antiseptic Bloodbath. Here are a few of my favorite songs from their most recent release:
Antiseptic Bloodbath

I love the intro to "Fed by Ravens, Eaten by Vultures". Nice use of cello and violin.
And no Tourniquet album would be complete without a song about their strong stance against animal abuse. Here's their song "86 Bullets" about the killing of an elephant named Tyke. (Wikipedia article here)
At the moment, the entire "Antiseptic Bloodbath" album is uploaded on their YouTube account. I recommend checking it out, and as always, support the artist if you like their music.

Write This Down

If you've never heard of Write This Down, I'd recommend checking them out. They are a Christian rock band from Minnesota. Anyway, they just released a song for their next album, entitled "Crash and Burn". Check it out:



Here's the first song I ever heard by them, which I immediately fell in love with:

Let me know what you think!

Somebody That I Used to Know

I don't know if you've heard this song before or not, but I can't get enough of it! Before this song, I'd never heard of Belgian singer Gotye, but this song came on the radio in my hometown a few weeks ago and I fell in love! The video's a bit weird for my tastes, but I love the song.

"Vegas" Bands

I decided to put together a little compilation of songs by bands with the word "Vegas" in their name.

First on the list is French band Oh Dear Vegas with their song, "Little Thing".



Next we have Irish band Leaving Las Vegas with their song, "Exit".



Then we go to Californian band Vegas Is North with their song, "Parking Lot Kings"



And finally we have Indiana band Hello Vegas with their song "No One Knows"



I don't know if you know who Student Rick is, but three of the members of that band formed the band Hello Vegas. Here's the song "Falling For You" by Student Rick:

Psychedelic Furs - Heartbreak Beat

I heard this song on the radio and fell in love. Not sure why I never heard it before, as I used to love New Wave music.



Your thoughts?

Band Recommendation- Fono

I discovered this band after a friend threw in one of their CDs in a trade we did. They sound to me like Gin Blossoms or maybe earlier Goo Goo Dolls.

Here's one of their most popular songs, "Drift Away":



Here's another song, "Now She's 24":



Here they are performing "Collide" live:



Let me know what you think!

Ah, Nostalgia...

About a year and a half ago, my music blog, Awesome Rock Music was shut down. Using a link from the Wayback Machine, I was able to piece together an image of the ARM front page as it looked not long before DMCA shut it down. Here ya go!



Those were the good ol' days... RIP Awesome Rock Music 12/15/08-03/12/10

The Elms

The Elms are a Christian Indie band that I like. Here's a couple of my favorite songs from their self-titled EP:

Goodnight Rosa


Lifeboat


If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Radial Angel

I discovered this band nearly 5 years ago after recording a bunch of songs off a local Christian Radio station. I had forgotten about them until I found that mixtape and looked up the song lyrics. I have since fallen in love with their music. They sound like TRAPT, with elements of Lifehouse in their softer songs.

She (one of their softer songs)



Falling



Not Beautiful



My favorite song by them is "Love", but it doesn't seem to be available on youtube. Please let me know what you think. I know I'm in love... :)

(Don't Wanna Be Your) Facebook Friend

"Afraid of Figs" is a local band I'm friends with. Long story short, the sax player's wife is friends with my mom and they play together in the Boeing Employees Concert Band. Here is their song "Facebook Friend (Don't Wanna Be Your)"

The Dragster Wave

I just finished watching the movie "Taken" starring Liam Neeson. Great movie, might I add. But in the end credits, this song was playing, and I just had to share it with you. Here's Belgian band Ghinzu's song "The Dragster Wave" put to a video montage from the movie:


I think they're my new favorite foreign band!

Vice Verses

The new album from Switchfoot is scheduled to be out September 27th. I'm pretty anxious to hear it. Here's the title track performed live:


Your thoughts?

Ocean is Theory - Best Intentions

I found this band through Facebook and have been following them for a while. Here's a song from their upcoming EP "Future Fears".



Get it free here!

Collective Soul

For my friend Memphis. I have put together this collection to introduce to you my favorite band of the post-grunge genre: Collective Soul. Hope you enjoy it!

Shine: (Collective Soul's most popular single)

Sorry, I couldn't embed the music video (which is pretty awesome) but you can check it out on youtube.

Goodnight, Good Guy:


December:


The World I Know:


Needs:


Better Now:


She Gathers Rain:


There are plenty of other great songs by Collective Soul, and I have a lot of their albums, so if you want to hear more, ask me!

Dinosaur Jr. - Been There All the Time

I love these guys.

The Scenic - Uh Oh

Another freebie, this time from Victory Records and Amazon. The video for this is kinda twisted. Love this song though.

La Roux - Bulletproof

This song has been stuck in my head ever since I downloaded the Free Single of the Week from iTunes. The video and music style are kind of a flashback to '80s synthpop. A very fun and catchy song, if you ask me. Enjoy!

Standard Thompson - Fireworks

A music video by my friends Standard Thompson. It was recently featured on Fuse TV's Noise Blog as video of the day. Enjoy!



Standard Thompson's Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/standardthompson

Standard Thompson's website has some free downloads!
http://standardthompson.bandcamp.com/