Focus: Red Dirt Bands

My first two years of college, I attended a community college right on the boarder of Kansas and Oklahoma called Cowley County Community College. It was a small town with brick roads and the biggest attraction near the school was a casino that was 18 to enter, which at times was bad for us broke college kids. Since we were so broke stuff like concerts were pretty much out of the question for us. Until I learned that in a club called Tumbleweed located in Stillwater, Oklahoma hosted cheap concerts of country bands that played music referred to as "red dirt". I figured why not check it out, it gives me and my friends something to do thats affordable and maybe i'll meet some cool new people.
As I listened to the music I got more into it and suddenly became bewildered that a band so entertaining was so cheap to come by and after the concert was over I decided to do some research on "red dirt" bands. What I found is that they are very common and most are fairly cheap to watch preform live.

Some bands I came across are: Casey Donahew Band, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Reckless Kelly, Randy Rogers Band, Eli Young Band, Josh Abbott Band, and Kevin Fowler.

These bands have fun music that are relatable to those with a little redneck in them. I totally recommend that you check them out. Its a cheap form of good entertainment for you and your friends to enjoy together.

Here are some videos of the bands and the songs they preform.

Cross Canadian Ragweed- "Alabama"




Casey Donahew Band- "White Trash Story"




Randy Rogers Band- "Kiss Me In The Dark"



Kevin Fowler- "Hell Yeah I Like Beer"




Eli Young Band- "Oklahoma Girl"

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Merry December readers, this post will be dedicated to the music you can only handle one month out of the year, the always jolly Christmas music.

What's not to love about Christmas? I mean, you have family and friends coming together, good food, presents under a heavily decorated Christmas tree, houses light up in every way humanly possible, and the never ending plethera of sugar cookies. What better way to celebrate the good lord Jesus's birthday? I'm a sucker for Christmas, as you can tell, but one thing i'm not a sucker for is Christmas music.

Don't get me wrong, i'm all for the breath-taking preformances of "O Holy Night" but the corny stuff like "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" I could go without. Even some of the Christmas songs without intended humor have a tendency to get on my last nerve.

For example, there is a huge hype of Justin Bieber's new song "Under the Mistletoe" from his new Christmas album. My sister is one of those creepy stalker types for the kid so I got to listen to it the moment it came out. Probably one of the dumbest things i've ever heard in my entire life.
 I honestly don't know what people see in this song, it's boring and repeatitive. In my opinion the only people who would like this song are those girls like my sister who imagine he is meeting them under the mistletoe. Newsflash ladies, not going to happen. For those who haven't heard this song and haven't come down with the sickness known as Bieber fever, don't waste your time.



As far as Christmas music I find worth listening to, here are some suggestions i'll throw your way.

Mariah Carey- "All I Want For Christmas Is You" (forever a classic)
Jessica Simpson feat. Nick Lachey- "Baby It's Cold Outside"
Alvin and the Chipmunks- "The Chipmunk Song" (goofy but also forever a classic)
Death Cab for Cutie- "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"
Sugarcult- "Santa Claus is Coming To Town"
Parachute-"Winterlove"
Kelly Clarkson-"O Holy Night"
Destiny's Child- "Carol Of The Bells"
Kylie Minogue- "Santa Baby"
Wham- "Last Christmas" (forever a classic)
NSYNC- "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays"

Weird Music Videos

One thing I used to do when I woke up to get ready for school is turn it straight to MTV, just so I could watch their early morning music videos. Now that i'm in college it doesn't happen very often, due to the fact that I wake up probably 15 minutes before my class actually starts. Back to the point, sometimes when I was getting ready I'd get distracted by some of the videos, to a point where I just couldn't look away. Sometimes it was because I found it a good music video (like it had good dancing or it was played out like a movie), but sometimes it was because the video was just so trippy or weird and I couldn't look away.
Here are some examples of some weird music videos I've caught myself glued to.

Lady Gaga feat Beyonce- "Telephone"




Chiodos Bros.-"Baby, You Wouldn't Last One Minute on the Creek"




Sound Garden-"Black Hole Sun"



Tyler the Creator- Yonkers
Warning-This may disturb some people, I mean it disturbed me.



Eminem-"Without Me"



Nirvana-"Heart-Shaped Box"



Ke$ha-Blow



After watching these videos, heres some music to take a look at. I have no idea if their music videos are weird though, sorry.

Jeremih-"Motivation (Remix)"
Sabi-"Wild Heart"
Lykke Li- "I Follow Rivers"
Superchick-"Stand in the Rain"
Snow Patrol- "Set Fire to the Third Bar"
Bayside-"Devotion and Desire"
Mickey Avalon-"Jane Fonda"
MGMT- "Electric Feel"
The Maine- "The Way We Talk"
Marques Houston-"He Aint Me"
Mayday Parade-"When You Get Home Your So Dead"
Drake-"Over My Dead Body"
Drake-"HYFR"

Songs Worth Jamming to in the Car

I have found that besides the shower, a car is the one place you can be alone and just jam out to whatever song you feel like listening too. I mean, no matter if it's party music your using to get you pumped for the night, or if you're dealing with a huge break-up, or even if you are just trying your best to sound like Adele,  music during a car ride is just taken to a whole new level. Here are some songs that i've found myself singing at the top of my lungs while i'm in the car, maybe you'll enjoy them enough to do the same.

Chris Young, "Tomorrow"

Casey Donahew Band, "Twelve Gauge" 

The Dream, "Falsetto"

Jojo, "Beautiful Girls (Remix)"

Jojo, "Marvins Room"

J. Dash, "Wop"

Ying Yang Twins, "Wait"

Theory of a Deadman, "Bad Girlfriend"

Pleasure P, "Boyfriend #2" 

Deana Carter, "Strawberry Wine"

Offspring, "My Friend's got a Girlfriend"

Muse, "Supermassive Black Hole" 

Young Joc, "Its Goin Down"

Kid Cudi, "Soundtrack 2 my Life"

Ali & Big Gipp, "Go Head"

Escape the Fate, "Smooth"

Neon Trees, "Animal"

The Wreckers, "Leave the Pieces" 

Men at Work, "Down Under"

Four Year Strong, "Bada Bing! Wit' a Pipe!"

Hey Monday, "6 Months"

Coheed and Cambria, "The Suffering"

Paradiso Girls, "Patron Tequila" 

Dexy's Midnight Runners, "Come On Eileen"

Lady Gaga, "You and I"

Album Review: Breaking Dawn soundtrack

 

Seeing the title of this post there is either going to be 3 types of people: the first type of person will be a fan of the Twilight series that will be interested in this just because Breaking Dawn is in title. The second type will be the person who thinks Twilight is a cult and probably will judge me for even bringing up the movie. And finally, the third type of person will just read because they don't care about anything but finding new music. Whatever the case may be, even though I could go on and on about vampires and werewolf's and how bad of an actress I think Kristen Stewart is, i'm here to discuss music and I think this album has a lot to offer.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, "It Will Rain" by Bruno mars is an amazing song. It's not the typical "I'm going to tell you how great you are and how much I adore you," love song. This hauntingly beautiful ballad of never-ending love focuses on what would happen if the person he loved walked away from him. What makes it different is it's kind of a gloomy love song while still getting the "I love you" point across. At Bruno Mars smooth vocals just take the song to a new level, making my heart melt like a teenage girls when they see Taylor Lautner without a shirt. 

Another song that caught my attention was "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri. Honestly I wasn't a big fan of her first sing "Jar of Hearts" I thought the lyrics were 6th grade poetry level and the song was just to depressing for me. That being said "A Thousand Years" brought Perri into a positive light for me, this song was obviously perfect for the movie but also a nice love song to listen to in general.

All in all, I love all the Twilight albums. Their edgy sounds and well written lyrics always caught my fancy. I'd say this album is worth listening too, but you might listen to previews before actually buying the album. I think the music in it only appeals to certain people seeing as it is out of the norm. 

Other songs I recommend:

- The Joy Formidable, "Endtapes"

- Iron & Wine, "Flightless Bird, American Mouth (Wedding Version)"

-Aqualung & Lucy Schwartz, "Cold"

Songs Download Worthy

Here are some songs that I feel are for sure worth listening to, remember feel free to give some requests i'm pretty open to any kind of music.

1. "Countdown"-Beyonce (ladies)
2. "It Will Rain"- Bruno Mars (I think girls like the song more, but seriously Bruno Mars takes a different tone to his love song this time. The ballad takes a more mysterious sound I can't get enough of)
3. "Turning Tables"- Adele (ladies)
4. "Baggage Claim"- Miranda Lambert (I swear she never dissapoints, ladies prefer it but i've known guys to like it too.)
5. "Fly Over States"- Jason Aldean (Guys and Ladies)
6. "Wet the bed"- Chris Brown feat Ludacris (Guys and Ladies)
7. "Hooch"- Everything (Guys and Ladies)


I hope you enjoy, rock on readers.

Skrillex Taking Dub-Step Music by Storm

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Get your own

For those who are wondering what "dub-step" music is I think it can clearly be defined as club based music; A techno feeling that makes people just go mad with energy. Skrillex takes the usual "dub-step" feeling to a new level with his new intense sound I can't even begin to describe. Listening to his music is like listening to your average techno song for the first minute and then it transitions to this semi-scary tone that's hardcore enough to make me just want to run, fight, or something that takes a lot of energy. Usually i'm not into the "dub-step" type music, I feel a lot of it is pretty corny and really repetitive but when it comes to Skrillex, I love his sound.

Here's some songs you can listen to if you haven't heard of this artist.

"First of the year (Equinox)"- Skrillex
"Die this way"-Skrillex remix of Lady Gaga's "Born this Way"
"Scary Monsters and Sprites"- Skrillex

For the record, Skrillex cuts that aren't remade usually don't have words in it. He is a DJ not an actual singer.
Rock on readers and enjoy!