Music on Repeat

I've had my new ipod stuck in my ears since the day I managed to get music on it. I used the old one quite a bit but there's something bulky about it that kept me from using it all the time like I use the new gold nano. When I have to walk the 900 steps from my car to my office? I shoot through three songs or so. When I'm sitting at my desk, fighting off another afternoon slump, I've got the volume cranked up to keep me awake and functioning.

Even more so now that I've started traveling for work all the time. I've got the thing shoved in my ears through the airport (step, step, step) on the bus to the car and then back again. Not to mention the battery life and play times I crank out while on the flight.

Funny thing? It took me weeks to actually put music on the sucker. Months even. Of course, that's not all my fault. There was the computer fiasco and the fact that none of my music was on a computer, but it was all on the old and dying old Ipod. At first all I got on the sucker was 141 songs, which included the Boys Like Girls Love Drunk album, some random Glee tracks (I don't even like that show) and the Cranberries album. Like the Cranberries album with "Zombie" on it. Yes. That one.

Now I've got it fully loaded with all my favorites, but I keep skipping back to the same tracks and I sort of love what it's been saying of me lately to be repeating this music over and over again.

Boys Like Girls - yes the Love Drunk album, but I've got the old stuff on there too. I realize that I'm obsessing about these boys, but their talent continues to blow me away.

I read all this talk about Taylor Swift and just how damn talented she is, which is all fine and dandy if you like you're music all breathy and sounding the same over and over again. Everyone talks about how she writes her music and she's only 19 or so. Everyone (ok maybe just him) talks about Justin Bieber doing the same thing, but I'm of the belief that he just sort of tosses some words out there and Usher makes it work.

I give you "Thunder" by Boys Like Girls. Martin claims in their DVD that this is the first song the band put together as a band. He says he wrote the song at 18, and it came together once Paul joined the band (which was about a year later). You can tell he wrote it without a lead guitarist to work with because it is very heavy on his acoustic. Compare that to "Love Story" which was Taylor's later work and tell me what's better. That's right. He still plays this song at shows, mostly just him and a guitar until the end and it's epic. Talk about a song straight from the heart.

Martin also swears he's been writing music since he was a kid, like seven. He's always been writing his own songs. We're not giving him huge props though are we? We just sort of expect it.

"Go" has given me ideas for new tattoos, including having "believe your body can mend" on my arm in some way (though in script up my side is tempting as well). It just screams to the part of me that's been through so much with my own skin. If you watch the end of the video I linked he explains the song, how it came from losing a friend, about getting out of something that's holding you back. He's gone through a lot himself, drugs, hurting himself and he's made it through and wants others to as well.

Of course, the rest of their catalog is fantastic. Everything is worth listening too, especially the tracks that make you want to get up and dance.

The Summer Set - I can't remember how I found out about these guys but I blame one of my internet friends because I feel like that's where it might have come from. Either way, I'm sort of in love with their catchy tunes. I forced them on a friend, Dave, and though I could almost feel him rolling his eyes through AIM (he's been doing that to me for 9+ years so at this point I'm used to it), he did admit that he found himself tapping his feet with it.

It's a bit angst-ridden, just like BLG, but at the same time it's peppy and fun to dance to in your cube while you're losing your mind in the afternoon doldrum.

My current favorite is Sing it Out, which sadly I couldn't even tell you what it's about but I know I love the way it sounds. "Count it out on the kick drum 3, 4,"

Something Corporate - I know they've essentially disbanded, but I'v never really stopped listening to them. I go in waves sometimes, focusing only the music done by the group or I'll be exclusively listening to Andrew McMahon's side project Jack's Mannequin, but I'm always going back to the sound of his voice.

I got to see them in concert a few months back and was just floored. They call themselves "piano rock" and really, that's what they are. The focal instrument was a piano. And when Andrew wasn't banging on it he was climbing on it. It's the kind of music that gives you chills and fills you up until you might burst.

"She Paints Me Blue" is must. Andrew wrote it while sitting in a parking lot in Atlanta, and the sky opened up. It really did start raining on him.

Check it out and let me know what you think, I'd love to know.

Posted in: music