Musical Interlude: September Edition

This months musical interlude has been contributed by Saahas Patil. Saahas has been singing professionally for a band called Allegro Fudge for the last 4 years. They released one album, 'Maximum City' in 2012, and have a bunch of songs written for the next. He is also writing and playing his own music, and hopes to have an album out next year. Saahas also work as a social worker with an NGO called U&I. Check out his Facebook page- www.facebook.com/saahas 

A Face to Call Home : John Mayer

This song is from John Mayer's fifth album 'Born and Raised'. He wrote this album right after his very public fall from grace with the playboy interview. What that resulted in, is such a great album. I love it when an album reflects the artists life, and this is such an accurate description of his at the time - wounded, chastised, hopeful and very introspective. As with any John Mayer song, he manages to go a lot deeper than most with his lyrics and he does exactly that with this song about love and companionship. The riff and backing vocals during the bridge is just something else. 

The Spirit Carries On : Dream Theatre

The album that this song is from, " Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory" really is a complete masterpiece. It is about past life regression, where a man re-visits his past life and finds out he was murdered. It is a concept album, and all the songs follow a story and gracefully intertwine with each other, to result in this final song, which to me has stood out as one of the band's best. The lyrics are deep, every note in the song is brimming with so much emotion. Perfect ending to an epic album.

When Mondays come around too fast...

Sudhir's Pick

I have been thinking about sport a lot of late. Many hours of my child hood were spent in front of a television watching tennis, cricket, basketball and almost every weekend, Formula1. While the end credits of each sporting event had an exhilarating song to match the sport none has perfectly captured the essence of a sport as much as Alistair Griffin's Just Drive which was used in the Formula 1 2010-11 season. With exceptional lyrics stemming from his songwriting career, the song perfectly captures the adrenaline that only Formula 1 can bring. I would highly recommend ALL his other songs. He is high up on my favourite singer/songwriters.




Tanisha's Pick

Weekends can get busy and then Mondays come around too fast. I was on the train Monday evening and I really wanted to listen to something quiet. Something unlike the usual happy-jumpy song that I want on a Monday. This song by The Cinnamatic Orchestra and Patrick Watson came to mind. It would have been perfect if I had my iPod. 

This morning I started listening to other music by Patrick Watson- oh wow! Such lovely lovely music. Must download them soon. So many choices now of what to post here, but I will stick to my first choice. But in case you want a taste of his other music- listen to this one.

Welcome Home

Sudhir's Pick

How could you not like this song? No seriously. With more than half the song is just beautiful humming set to a lovely melody, this song screams perfection. The rest of the song brings a cacophony of wonderful sounds including clapping. It makes my indie heart beat faster. A must listen!

Tanisha's Pick

The Mowgli's are infectiously happy. All their songs are overly happy, that listening to too many at a time will give you a definite overdose of happy music. Here's one of their older ones for this week. It's going to be ringing in your head for many days! Haha.

Unapologetically Nerdy

Joel, Tanisha and Sudhir

Today, we have the privilege of hearing from Mr. Joel Louzado, a man who Tanisha and Sudhir have spent the majority of our adult lives knowing as classmates, colleagues and artists. From identifying plot holes in movies to proposing alternate conspiracy theory to the already existing ones, Joel is able to (and with incredibly entertaining arm movements, we might add) make you appreciate life in diverse ways. We asked Joel to write for us and he brought out a post which did all of this. For more of Joel's awesomeness, you can follow him on twitter and read his blog

Love,

Tanisha and Sudhir

----------------------------

Hello,

Before we begin, if you don’t like super nerdy songs then there’s nothing I can do for you I’m afraid. I wish you safe travels.

Hey, you’re still here… Awesome!

So I personally wish that this band ‘Hank Green and the Perfect Strangers’ were more widely known. Hank Green, the lead vocalist, is one half of the internet-famous Vlogbrothers channel where he and his brother John Green talk about life (John Green is the one who wrote that book ‘The Fault in our Stars’ btw, in case you’ve heard of it). Between the two of them they’ve built an impressive empire on the Internets: a couple of science shows (SciShow, etc), an education channel (Crash Course), a couple of vlog channels, a record studio (DFTBA Records), an online video convention (VidCon) and subbable.com to name a few ventures… and then just for fun there’s also the band.

What’s awesome about Hank (besides the superhuman productivity) is that he just seems like a regular guy who’s just unapologetically nerdy while doing cool things to hopefully make the world suck less.

Hank Green and the Perfect Strangers : This Isn't Hogwarts

“Unapologetically nerdy”, as exemplified by this first song which is a rock ballad about a kid who wishes he was in Hogwarts instead of public school. And it’s not just full of fanboy-isms, it’s also commentary on the school system with lines like:

...this isn't Hogwarts, this is a concrete box 
and the pictures on the wall are never gonna talk, 
and the teachers don't care, 
that the kids don't try the most magical thing we have is fluorescent lights...



There’s another really fun one addressed to JK Rowling which is full of fanboy-love: “Oh JK Rowling”


Hank Green and the Perfect Strangers : I F***ing Love Science

As I mentioned earlier, Hank clearly has a great love for science education and between SciShow and Crash Course puts out a lot of really informative yet entertaining science content.

I think the guiding ethos behind all of it is pretty firmly condensed into this next song. Super energetic stuff btw, bound to perk up your Monday morning. :)

And I f**kin' love Carl Sagan 
'Cause I think it's fly to look up at the sky 
And never ever ever stop wondering why. 
There's nothing here to argue against 
It's a process not an ideology, 
And I f**king love science.

There are a few others I really like where he puts scientific concepts to music like this one about the Fermi Paradox and another about Quarks.

By the way, It’s funny but over on the Vlogbrothers Youtube channel they quite often sign off on their videos by saying “DFTBA”, which stands for “Don’t Forget To Be Awesome”.

It makes sense then that Hank Green and the Perfect Strangers might be just the band to help soothe that crippling Mephobia you’ve been dealing with lately. Have a good week. :)

Lucky or Cursed?

Tanisha's Pick

My friend Bethany and I started talking about music on a 7 hour train ride, scrolling through each others iPods and discussing favourites. She suggested I listen to Agnes Obel. I almost forgot about it until I found the memo on my phone a couple weeks ago. 

What beautiful music - somewhere in the middle of Daughter and Lana Del Ray, yet completely unique in her own style. Perfectly soothing, flawless arrangements and just as good live as in their studio recordings- so much praise for them. 

Sudhir's Pick

Please be careful to read this artist's name as RYAN Adams and not the Canadian who had a pretty good summer of 69. Their music sounds nothing alike - both good but both very very different.

I accidentally came across this song last week and it stayed with me. It is hauntingly beautiful and forces introspection when Adams asks you

I don’t remember, were we wild and young
All that’s faded into memory
I feel like somebody I don’t know
Are we really who we used to be
Am I really who I was

Definitely worth a listen… or several… in a row. You will be the lucky one.

We are 25!

WOAH! We are 25 episodes old! How did that happen?! It seems like just yesterday we hatched this plan to share music with the world in our own unique way. To help us celebrate we thought it would be cool to have our BIGGEST fan be a guest blogger for us. 

Delaney and Sudhir at Trafalgar Square for New Year's Eve

Sudhir had the pleasure of meeting Delaney Osborn during his year studying in London. Ranked "high up there" in his list of favourite people they took London by storm for the eleven months they knew each other including late night pub-crawls, plays at the Globe, running 5ks and 5am photowalks. During their time together they realized a shared love for several genres of music. This week we get a sampling of some of that awesome music!




Broke Royals : Strung Up in Lights

This band is actually a couple of friends of mine from college, but I didn’t listen to their music that much until this year. Once I found their first album on Spotify, though, I fell in love. This is my favorite song off that album, mostly because of the wonderful lyrics. My favorite line has to be the first one in the second verse: 

“I’ve seen every city, I’ve seen every city twice. 

But no city ever looked as good as this one does tonight.”

Mikky Ekko : Smile

It was pretty hard for me to narrow down my second choice for this post, but ultimately went with this song because it’s probably my favorite one I found this year. I love Mikky Ekko for his lyrics and alternative rock sound, but “Smile” really sold him for me because of its contrast between the music and the words. At first glace it sounds like a fun dancing song, but once you sit down and really take in what he is saying you realize just how sad it is. 

“Smile, the worst is yet to come. We’ll be lucky if we ever see the sun.”

"My taste in music is your face"

Sudhir's Pick

The simple lyrics, easy melody and soulful voice make this an instant classic. I found this song a few weeks ago and have been dying to share it. The lyrics serve as a pick-me-up. "All will be well even after all the promises you've broken to yourself."

Tanisha's Pick

This band doesn't get nearly enough fame as they deserve. Their music includes a fusion of a variety of genres from alternative, to rap and electronic. I love how they use the piano in the fusion.

I read up an explanation of the band's name on last.fm "Tyler came up with the band’s name while studying All My Sons by Arthur Miller, a play about a man who must decide what is best for his family after causing the death of ‘twenty one pilots’ during World War II because he knowingly sent them faulty parts for the good of his business. Tyler explains that this story of moral dilemma was the inspiration for the name of the band."