A Day To Remember – An Album to Remember

Quintet A Day To Remember is a band that combines pop-like sound with screaming and growling vocals with cool riffs and rhythms and pounding bass. The combination doesn’t sound like it would work, but A Day To Remember pulls it off. Their sound is often described as a cross between “bouncy pop punk and chugging metalcore.” It works well in their re-released album For Those Who Have Heart.

For Those Who Have Heart is the second album by the post-hardcore band A Day to Remember. The album was released on January 23, 2007 and peaked at #17 on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers chart and #43 on the Top Independent Albums chart. The album was re-released in February 2008.

They change their style up from the song “Colder Than My Heart, If You Can Imagine” to “Show Em The Ropes” with catchy, sing-along choruses that appeal to alternative rock fans and enough screaming and hardcore drumming and guitar riffs that even the heaviest metal heads will enjoy.

I enjoy listening to pop/rock and even the occasional screamo, and I think this band is my new favorite. Their sound is unique, and it sounds great.

The All-American Rejects

The All-American Rejects

Its been three years since the last album from the All-American Rejects, their last album was the  double platinum record titled Move Along.  Now the Rejects have a new album due to come out December 16 2008, titled When the World Comes Down.  There is a lot of pressure on the band this time around, partly because it is already expected to fail, as well it has been three years since the last album.  People may look at this fact and wonder if the group has lost their ability to write music.  I on the other hand think that the bands last album has brought them much success, and they lived on that success for as long as they could.  The Rejects know the pressures of this next album, that is partly why they took so long to come out with it.  Their new single from the new album is titled Gives You Hell, and has already received much success.  The band has come a long way since their days back in Stillwater Oklahoma, and they do not intend to disappoint their fans.  The Rejects producer for the new album is Eric Valentine who has also worked with artists such as Maroon 5, Smash Mouth, Good Charlotte, Queens of the Stone Age and more.  The Rejects have tried many different areas around North America to write the new album, such as Georgia, Florida and even Vancouver where the song Gives You Hell was born.  There is a lot of hype on the new album, and I’m sure that the Rejects will not disappoint. —–RYAN

City and Colour – Bring Me Your Love

         My opinion on the most recent City and Colour album is that it’s an amazing C.D. The album was composed by Dallas Green and is titled Bring Me Your Love. It was released February 12th of 2008. It is filled with many emotions, mostly regarding the relationships between men and women, and can spark feeling and an ability to relate to the singer in almost every instance. The disc features twelve songs; Forgive Me, Confessions, The Death of Me, Body in a box, Sleeping Sickness, What makes a man? Waiting…, Constant Knot, Against the Grain, The Girl, 

Sensible Heart and As Much As I Ever Could. My personal favorite is Confessions. The melody is exquisite, and the meaning could reach anyone. I think the song is about someone in a long distance relationship who cheats on their partner, and is finally feeling the overwhelming guilt of the situation.

               “My verdict has come in/ It says, I’m guilty for my sins,this time/ I thought I could escape / But then I finally felt the wake of my crimes/ It’s passion it’s not love/ Infatuation never ends up right/ At least I won’t be alone tonight/ ‘Cuz I don’t want to be alone tonight.”

   This is one example of a powerful set of lyrics that sing in any listeners ear, whether they have been in the described situation or not. Green strikes a note that carries home. ‘The Death of Me’ is another very powerful song, sung with sorrow and a catchy beat that makes you put the C.D on repeat and listen over and over again. This song has a deeper tone to it, it fits the lyrics perfectly because it is about a restless soul struggling with their troubles and becoming numb and resorting to alcohol.      

     Although the C.D has a dark tone (many themes of the songs are about coming to terms with death and loss), the C.D is not depressing in the least. ‘What Makes A Man?’ is a great example of this. It uses phrases like “I can hear my train coming, it’s a lonesome and distant cry” to describe the anxiety of the person depicted in the song, it is used as a repeat motif and is addictive. The vocals in Bring Me Your Love are just as powerful, if not more than the rest of Green’s acoustic guitar and piano skills.

         Dallas Green was originally the dulcet voice of the band Alexisonfire. During his spare time off touring, he recorded a few solo songs with merely his acoustic guitar and his vocals. When the songs were leaked on the internet they spread like wildfire. Green recognized that he could earn some success playing acoustically and created City and Colour. Before Alexisonfire had received the award for Best New Group of the Year and their album went platinum, Green quietly debuted his album titled ‘Sometimes’ featuring some of my favorite songs such as; “Like Knives,” “Casey’s song,” “Hello, I’m in Delaware,” “Sometimes(I wish)” and the hit “Save your Scissors.” Many themes from these songs are carried over in Bring Me Your Love. Delicate vocals, and acoustics by Green are thickened by the meaty folk voice of Gordon Downie and other various artists in songs such as “Sleeping Sickness.” The songs on this album demonstrate Green’s ability and are a wonderful gift to acoustic lovers and music lovers all around. Bring Me Your Love is a beautiful contrast to Green’s former role in Alexisonfire and gives a wonderful insight into the songwriter’s deep soul.        ———-Mariah

Guitar Pro!

Something Mozart Wished He Had

     Though music has been around for thousands of years, evolving and changing throughout history in technique, style and instruments being played, relatively little has changed in the way you read and write music. While many have mastered music, many others do not fully understood its concepts or language. But learning such a thing can bring a huge understanding to the devoted music lover. Learning to read sheet music can help you not only understand music better but enable you to learn new instruments more easily and to broaden your spectrum. Such learnings created icons and composers from Mozart to Beethoven to John Lennon to Kurt Cobain and hopefully musicians of the future. 

     While writing and learning the music can be somewhat time-consuming and stressful to the new musician, a new program has been developed that deals with this. It not only aids in the learning of thousands of currents songs and instruments but also in the creation of new material. This new program is called Guitar Pro.   

     The program was originally based just for guitar but through years of upgrades and advancement it has spread to all other instruments available in the music spectrum. The basis and secret of the program is that it allows you to hear what the note sounds like on a perfectly tuned fret/piano board. When it’s teaching you to learn a new song it plays the song at a normal pace, showing tabs step by step and allowing you to get the timing better and see which notes are being pressed on the fret board. This system allows you to learn songs much more quickly and easily. 

     The program is also very useful in the writing of music, giving you a Microsoft Word format but for music. The tool bar includes all note types, tempo signs, rest signs, sharps, flats, clef signs and much more. Just as with learning songs, when you write music, the program plays the song you write, showing you exactly how it sounds to the beat. This cuts out the middle man, allowing you not only to know right away what the note is and sounds like, but also to learn it by ear.

     We can expect to see many musicians springing up in the near future, maybe writing more compositions than Mozart even. Who knows how much faster Mozart or Beethoven could have written and understood their music. Could Mozart have finished his Requiem before he died if just had a computer? We will never know. 

                                                                           —-Jake