Monday, November 26, 2012

Never Enuff

  There's that saying that you are your worst critic. Not sure if that universally applies to everyone, let's say the egoists and such, nonetheless I'm sure it applies to a good sum of many. Its interesting how much music is apart of peoples lives these days, including my own. I've said it before and I feel it's true to an extent, and that is that music helps define us and describe us. So much that people do crazy and even stupid things just to get close to a sweaty stranger on a stage whom they know little or nothing about. Naive girls will go insane for a new boy band that doesn't sound too much different than the last one. Gullable? Maybe. It's all about the music though. 
  The song on this post is a great find. By the group Mansions, their lyrics hit the nerves and make you feel like they are singing in the same room in some songs.  I have to admit I am not so much impressed with a lot of main stream pop where "lookin good" is the aim. Raw opinion without a care for what the listeners might think is what I love. Not concerned with saving face. Mansions really capture those realities of life that come our way. Life ain't all peaches ya know, so it's refreshing hearing some real thoughts being played. A lot of times we can't and don't tell people what we are really thinking about. This group really has a talent for singing about things we are thinking about but don't say. When looking good is more important than showing who we are, I think we have a problem. Music tells the truth in perspective of the musician and in tells truth to the listener. That's the beauty of it all. It's a way to vent or talk without rebuttle, without being stopped, without a critical voice. It's one best forms of free speech in our day. 



Artist:Mansions
Song:Never Enuff
Album:Best of the Bees

You stopped believe in God
So he stopped believing in you
Told you to get a real job
Those days in the sand are through
And he swears that he isn’t mad
As he quietly let him down
It’s just that he tried to believe that?
But all that you say now is
“I don’t love you like I used to 
When people talk I don’t defend you
I tried so hard 
I paid my dues
But it was never enough
I was never enough for you”
Well you made a new friend
And it tears him apart
No, you just cant pretend
That youre not breaking his heart
When he sees you out at night
He tried his best to pick a fight 
But you’ll never be his and it’s time he realized
That nothing is alright
You say
“I don’t love you like I used to 
When people talk I don’t defend you
I tried so hard 
I paid my dues
But it was never enough
I was never enough for you”
And now
“I don’t love you like I used to 
When people talk I don’t defend you
Yeah all that shit you put me through
It was never enough
I was never enough for you”
Read more at http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858747622/#Z58F6B8sLghcfsKW.99 


  It's a good thing we are all different and that we have a diversity of music to listen to. We are all so different yet we can be connected with music, the universal language. No matter who you are or where you are music makes sense, music lives on as we breathe. 




  




Thursday, November 15, 2012

Connected

  So I was a little curious about the history of music and did a bit of research. I am sure there are more concrete answers that I have since I pulled some facts from Wikipedia, but its the idea that I am after more than the exact facts. Apparently there seems to be NO culture that we know of that doesn't have music. Pretty interesting, but not surprising. Looking at a few different sources, prehistoric music seems to have been around since 4,000 (first known song). In any case this proves a fact that music is much more than entertainment, it is a necessity to us as humans and evidently has been for centuries. Music can differ a great deal from culture to culture etc. but its everywhere. 
  One of the greatest things that we have in life is to be able to be understood and express ourselves. Music has evolved to provide us with this expression of emotion that cannot be replaced by anything else. In a way its something that I have always been able to count on. Relationships sometimes end but music has always been there. So here's and ode to music so to speak. 


Artist: I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody's Business
Song: Connected 
Album: Gold Rush 

  In so many ways our lives are connected with music. Music affects us and can define us. It can describe us and explain us. Like a language unto itself it cannot be replaced nor can it stop. If music were to stop, I feel like a part of us as humans would die with it. Music is my best addiction. Its a necessity and it one of the most crucial forms of communication. 


Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Darkness Between the Fireflies

  About two years ago I went to Washington DC where for the first time in my life I saw fireflies. It was a pretty freakin cool and exciting thing to me since I can be juvenile in a lot of ways. The kid in me tends to come out sometimes, anyhow it was getting dark the forest where we were at the time and the darker it got the more fireflies you could see. It seemed pretty simple at the time, but later I heard this song by Mason Jennings titled, Darkness Between the Fireflies that my good friend shared with me. So it really got me thinking about it especially since the just recently I had a pretty bad experience with some friends that practically ended our relationship. Its easy to focus on the bad and negative things in life, since lets face it a lot crappy things happen. But there is a lesson that I learned from this song, take it as you will. Through the darkness and bad things we can find and appreciate the good things in life and our circumstances. Some bad things turn out to really be good things. 
  We have to be able to let go darkness in other peoples lives, particularly the ones close to us. It shows character if we can look past bad things that someone may have done and see them for who they really are and the potential they have to become. We need tolerance and understanding and then a lot of the times we see the fireflies in between the darkness. 

 Artist: Mason Jennings
Song: Darkness Between the Fireflies 
Lyrics:

I woke up before you in the total darkness
Early morning
I could hear the wind in the trees
I was looking for the light to bring you out
From the shadows
Redefine you now for only me
And honey i'm sure
That you've been in love before
Plenty of men have held high places in your eyes
And jealousy has got no use for me
The past is beautiful
Like the darkness between the fireflies
I was driving faster through the appalachians
I could see the world go out below me in the sun
You should know by now
That someone's always been there
Long before you
You're never going to be the only one
And honey i'm sure
That you've been in love before
Plenty of men have held high places in your eyes
But jealousy has got no use for me
The past is beautiful
Like the darkness between the fireflies
Beautiful like the darkness between the fireflies

  I wanted to post the lyrics on this one. Mason is one of my favorite artists. Our each individual past truly is beautiful. We can learn from and shouldn't be ashamed of it no matter what we have been through. 

Monday, November 12, 2012

Show Me How to Live

  In our jobs and school etc. we have instructions, an organized way of doing something. We are always striving for the more efficient way, the best way. But living and life itself is so much more complicated. It's different for everyone, since no one person is the same. Every one has his/her unique circumstances. We are all trying to figure things out as we go. Its a game of learning, trial and error, joy, and let-down. There is no guide book for life and so it makes it so abstract and hard to understand. But hey guess what? We have music which is a great way of attempting to make sense of this world that is nonsense. 
  I feel that I do pretty well with change. After all the the only thing that is truly constant is change. But every once in a while I feel so frustrated at things that are out of my control that makes my life harder. That's why I chose this song for my post. At times it feels like we are just along for the ride in our life. The good thing is we can make our own choices to a degree. 



Artist: Placebo
Song: The Extra

  There is a lot of voices and opinions that are available to us today with all this technology so easily available to us. One of the greatest things to me is how music is a very subtle way of expressing thoughts and opinions without it becoming so controversial. Not to say that people aren't offended by certain kinds of music, but its seems to be more of a free flow of expression that I think we take for granted. Music is a powerful medium of communication and has some messages that can affect us in good and bad ways. Life without music for me seems colorless and so bland. Let's not take it for granted. 

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Tell My Why...

  Its interesting to me that as long as music has been around there is one main theme that is always repeating. Not hard to guess... love/relationships. Will we never get tired of the same daggum material? We won't, it will always be so, and it should be. 
  I'm not just talking about the love between girlfriend/boyfriend or marriages, its friends and family. We battle to not be alone and for our relationships to thrive. We are not made  to be alone. We have to have relationships bottom line. Sometimes we even get obsessed with other peoples lives and relationships. 
  So again it comes back to music and it's impact on us. We feel connected when we hear songs that we can relate to. It soothes our hurt, or loneliness or makes us excited. So when you break up listen to a good song to get over it. There is a certain amount of therapy for us the music provides. It's not just entertainment, it gives us support to reality. 
  So with that being said, how is it that when we have family and friends or a relationship, we can feel so lonely sometimes. What the freak? It's a paradox to me. The way we communicate with each other means a lot. Real lasting relationships take lots of effort work. We have these idealistic views of what we want and wish in a relationship, and yet reality has a way of coming along and tearing those into pieces. But even so I have found that reality shows us what we needed can find us and shows us that our wants can change. 
  So the song I want to share in this post has meaning to me since I have lived it. 

Artist:The Early November
Song:Tell Me Why
Album:In Currents