Here are some of my favorite albums of 2011. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some, so feel free to contribute:
MUSIC
What would you add to this list?
I have really been digging the two songs that Dallas has uploaded to their Band Camp page. It’s just plain good. From watching their videos on YouTube, I am also excited about their tracks that are unreleased right now. I love Taylor’s tones, his and Tyler’s parts are great and Josh’s vocals are fantastic. The songs are just great.
Not sure when we’ll be able to download the songs, but check out Dallas’ YouTube channel, Band Camp page, Twitter and Facebook and buy the songs when they are released for download!
In honor of this post and his new band, check out Taylor Johnson’s updated gear for the band on his Gear Talk post here!
Coldplay is a band that I’m particularly thankful for. I remember being on a ski trip with some close family friends. Trevor showed let me borrow his A Rush of Blood to the Head CD for my walkman (Yes…that’s right). I loved it.
When I got home, I bought the album and later found Parachutes at a Pawn Shop for $5. I also picked up Live 2003 DVD/CD at Best Buy shortly after (when it was still new!). I remember X&Y came out, I was in Panama City Beach with my high school girlfriend and her family and had to get her mom to drive me to pick it up the day it came out. When Viva La Vida came out, I downloaded it as soon as it became available on iTunes late at night. I’ll never forget getting to see Coldplay a few years ago. We had floor seats and I spent most of the night walking up to the front, as close as I could get (I had to keep moving so I couldn’t get in trouble…but hey, it worked). It was a magical night.
I just really like Coldplay. So with Mylo Xyloto coming out, I was obviously super excited. Coldplay has been one of those bands to me. A few weeks ago some friends and I watched them at Glastonbury on DVR and had almost an hour of conversation about the bands evolution and different albums. When I first started playing electric guitar, I watched and researched how to get Johnny Buckland’s Parachutes and A Rush of Blood tone. I ended up buying a ’72 Tele Thinline Reissue because of that. I’ve been very influenced by them, and while I’m not going to review the new album, I wanted to express my appreciation for Coldplay, their music and influence on me as a musician.
Pick up all their old albums for at a discounted rate, as well as Mylo Xyloto.
I got to go with some friends from church to see the “Ten out of Tenn” tour, featuring 10 solo singer/songwriters all playing together and backing each other up and included Amy Stroup, Gabe Dixon, Katie Herzig, KS Rhoads, Tyler James, Matthew Perryman Jones, Trent Dabbs, Butterfly Boucher, Andrew Belle and Jeremy Lister (who wasn’t at the show, though they had some special guests to make up).
Apparently about every year they’ll record an album together and then do this tour. A friend of ours went a few years back and said we had to go. I had only heard of maybe 4-5 of the ten artists, but it was a great night!
Check out the Ten out of Tenn site and music!
I’ve been thinking about changing a few things around on my board for the past few months. I was going to just swap out a pedal or two, but things were too tight to swap, so I had to wait to do a makeover. In the next few days, I’ll be posting about how I plan out a pedalboard, but in the meantime, I wanted to post the board and what I’m doing with what.
Here’s the chain:
I’ve also updated My Gear Page to show these new updates.
We’ve been out of school on fall break yesterday and today and when I woke up this morning, I took my time getting out of bed. One of the first things I did was get on the iTunes app on my iPhone. I immediately noticed how many great artists were releasing new music today! Thought I’d pass along a few of the albums I bought today:
NEEDTOBREATHE – “The Reckoning” – Who doesn’t like NEEDTOBREATHE? I think many of us have been awaiting their follow-up album to “The Outsiders”, so I’m looking forward to listening through “The Reckoning“.
Gungor – “Ghosts Upon The Earth” – I’ve known of Gungor for a few years. I heard of them when we were playing a Student Life Camp with a team who had been with them a few weeks before we were with them. I got “Beautiful Things” last year before Passion 2011, and quickly fell in love. There isn’t much to not love about them. I knew they had a new album coming out, but had no idea it was out today. Super excited to listen to “Ghosts Upon The Earth“!
Leeland – “The Great Awakening” - I’m not sure Leeland will ever be able to follow up their first album, “Sound of Melodies”, but I’m excited that they’re still making music…and good music at that. Can’t wait to get “The Great Awakening“.
ALL THE BRIGHT LIGHTS – “Still Beating – Single” – I love these guys. They just make good music and I can’t get enough of their self-titled album. Can’t wait for more from them! In the meantime, grab “Still Beating” and get some major value in 99cents for a 7 minute song!
I know that there are many other releases today, including one of my friends from college, Jamie-Grace, but these are a few that I’m particularly excited about.
So I’m obviously late on this, but I finally got a record player this week. My parents had one growing up…not because tapes weren’t around then, but I guess my dad had acquired the taste for vinyl. He still has quite the collection of Skynard, Journey, the Police, Kenny Rogers and even Madonna (of course he says it’s my mom’s…). I remember being a little kid and dancing around the living room to my Mickey Mouse kid songs and kids Christmas songs record.
A few months ago, we were in the record store in Marietta Square and I saw the Civil Wars on vinyl and decided to get it with the intentions of buying a record player shortly after. Then for our first year anniversary, Hannah got me a copy of the original Thriller record while she was out in California. But still…no record player.
After finally getting it earlier this week and listening to both records in their entirety, I think I’m obsessed. The scratching and modulation sounds…they just feel good. Don’t get me wrong…I love being able to listen to a whole album without having to get up to flip it over to the other side (can you imagine if we had record players in cars?! between the bumping and flipping…even though we used to flip tapes in the car), but there is something special about listening to vinyl to me.
After dinner together last night, we put a record on in the living room and sat on the couch and just chilled. Bigsby even laid down next to us and relaxed. There was something about that moment. Just sitting, reading and listening to a record as a family after dinner. It felt funny to think how many families could have done that years ago. Even before records, they used to do that with radio shows. All I’m saying is that it was nice.
And now I want more vinyl. And I will be going to record store again tomorrow. And hoping to not spend a lot.
So I downloaded some new music yesterday and wanted to share some with you. Ironically, none of it is really new, but it’s all new to my iTunes library. I’m not going to give a review on these (partially because I haven’t listened to them enough for a review to be really beneficial), but you can download them for yourself and feel free to post a review here in a comment.
A wonderful new single from Coldplay. Anxiously awaiting the album now…
