Chris Pureka

Chris Pureka is a folk/sorta-country-ish musician who plays guitar and sings beautifully with a soothing, slightly warble-y alto. They also happen to be genderqueer. Now, for all those not in the know, genderqueer people are people who feel as if they are
a) Not a man or a woman
or
b) a mix of both.
Think of them as both mentally and physically androgynous. Genderqueers also tend to go by gender-neutral pronouns such as they/their/them, which is why I have been using those terms for Chris. :)
Anyway, they usually don't talk about their gender identity or sexuality in their music, so they're definitely accessible to all you non-queer people out there. ;p

Go To FileFactory.com

(Unfortunately, these tracks are all from one album, as I got the rest of their music from iTunes, who format their music in a funky way.)

Artist focus.... Justin Vernon!

^
That manly mofo is none other than Justin Vernon, the main man behind Bon Iver, Volcano Choir, DeYarmond Edison, etc. He is mostly known for his work with Bon Iver and other folk-ish sounding stuff, but he can also rock out when he wants to... and he has a GREAT voice. Seriously. It's not great in a technically-proficient way, but great in an emotional, comforting way. Therefore, I shall now post some examples of his lesser-known music, along with some more well-known stuff for those of you living under rocks. Heeere we go!

DeYarmond Edison- Leave Me Wishing More

Reminds me of Bruce Springsteen, minus the saxaphone... great, catchy opening song from their self-titled album. It's a lot more rock-oriented than his later work. ...Weird band name though, eh?

DeYarmond Edison- Heroin(e)

A bit more laid-back and acoustic... from the album Silent Signs.

Justin Vernon- Hazelton

From the album Hazeltons. Far more folky than the last two songs, and very beautiful.

Justin Vernon- Whippgrass

Very laid-back and haunting. Another one where his vocals remind me of Bruce Springsteen (Hopefully that's a good thing for the rest of you). From Self-Record.

Bon Iver- Skinny Love

He uses a lot more falsetto on the Bon Iver stuff than in the rest of his work, but it works well. This is probably my favorite song on the For Emma, Forever Ago album.

Volcano Choir- Still

A re-work of "Woods" from Bon Iver's Blood Bank EP. Uses auto-tune tastefully. The whole entire "Unmap" album is far more experimental and ambient than the rest of his stuff.

Yay, new headphones!

Not as good as the former ones; they don't fit my left ear that great; but the sound is still very good. AND GODDAMNIT THEY WORK.

Rejoice and be glad~~~ (Now you can tell I was forcibly raised as a Christian)

Bomb The Music Industry!- Brian Wilson Says "SMILE" a.k.a. Beard of Defiance

(You can get their music *FOR FREE* at their website)

I have found the new saddest song.

It's "Legendary", by Lou Barlow. God. DAMN. (About suicide; may or may not be about Elliott Smith in particular)


Lou makes some great music in general, though.

Royalty


AANNND.... FUCK, my headphones just kicked the bucket. Like, just now.
Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.

IT'S A MADHOUSE.

So you know that Anthrax song, "madhouse"? Somebody covered it. In a Karaoke bar. Horribly. And it's HILARIOUS. And it needs WAY MORE VIEWS THAN IT HAS.

Blah.

I just got back to my mother's house and I just realized how much I HATE living there. I have such a love-hate relationship with the people there, including her. They can never leave me alone, they have to jump on me for everything as soon as i walk in the door. I never feel comfortable; I never feel calm or completely happy. They never let me be myself-- or, if I AM myself, they make sure to make me feel uncomfortable about being myself. UGGHHHH ANGST. The sooner I move outta there, the better.

Anyway, because I'm here, I'm sort of depressed. Therefore, the music I'm listening to is of the depressing/melancholy variety (And it doesn't necessarily have to relate to my situation, and it usually doesn't *shrug*). And since this is a music-related blog, I should, you know. Post it. yeah. Alright, time to get all sad and melancholy with me HURRAY.

Anthrax- Black Lodge


Pink Floyd- Wearing the Inside Out


Red House Painters- Grace Cathedral Park


Tom Waits- Who Are You


Amy Ray- Measure of Me

GAWD-DAYYYUM SUNNUVA BEEEEYITCH

(Or, Artist Feature #2: Kyuss)

I have recently got back into an old favorite of mine-- Kyuss, a "stoner-rock" band from California. Also, for all the kiddies here: Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age is the guitarist here. Think of Kyuss as Queens of the Stone Age's (better) big brother. While the genre name might imply that their stuff is slow and psychedelic, Kyuss actually usually plays (er... PLAYED; they broke up quite awhile ago unfortunately) groovy, riffy hard rock with the occasional weedy twist. Another name for the genre they play is "desert rock", which I think is far more fitting-- it definitely is music you should blast while speeding through, say, Route 66. Anyway, I shall now post a few of their songs for y'all.

Son of a Bitch from Wretch


Thumb from Blues for the Red Sun


Space Cadet from Welcome to Sky Valley (the most "stoner" sounding song here)

Eeeemoooo :((((

And by "emo", I mean the good stuff, not the crappy modern mainstream stuff.

The classic emo sound still has a bit of that whiny sound to it, but it's not overbearing or cheap sounding-- and the lyrics are usually not *as* overwrought. The instrumental sound is definitely what draws me in, though-- I love all the clean minor chords/arpeggios/etc. that emo uses. Reminds me of the 90s.... *sigh* Anyway, enough with the crappy explanation-- on with the music!

Mineral- Gloria


Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate)- How to Make Love Stay (what kind of name is that, anyway...?!)


SamIAm- Sunshine (A bit more on the punky side of emo, and sorry about the quality)


Sunny Day Real Estate- Seven (Classic emo.... and another one with a weird-ass name.)


Lazycain- Stupid Maybe Still

Rainy Day Music...

It's raining where I live... and I dunno about you, but when it's rainy out, I get quite a lazy, sleepy feeling. Which, of course, reflects itself in the music I listen to. But enough with the intro, and on with one of my FAVORITE rainy day albums:



That is the album cover of Sun Kil Moon's April, and the cover definitely reflects the music inside. A bit dark, nostalgic, and slow-paced. Sorta folky stuff, too. However, this isn't the amazingly depressing stuff that Mark Kozelek was known for in his old band, Red House Painters. Instead, it's far more subtle-- and definitely beautiful stuff to listen to, rain or shine. The rain, however, makes this a bit more special.

Lost Verses:


Unlit Hallway:


Heron Blue:

Wipers- Youth of America

Think of Sonic Youth. Then add a little bit of spoken word (especially for the first track). ...And then think of the fact that this album came out in 1981-- quite a bit before Sonic Youth even made an album, never mind got semi-famous. Yep, these guys are a recent discovery of mine, and are quite awesome. ...I love it when that happens. Don't you?

No Fair


Youth of America

Journey- Dream After Dream

I know what you're all thinking. "What? A JOURNEY album? Has Bob gone crazy ALREADY?" The answer to that is... NO. This album is AMAZING. It sounds nothing like the 'Open Arms' crap they're usually known for. In fact... it sort of reminds me of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis! There is far more of a focus on instrumentation than vocals on this album, but when they do show up, they're obviously quite good (I mean, it IS Steve Perry. Despite what you think about what he sings on, ya gotta admit the mofo has pipes. Androgynous pipes, but pipes at that). There's also a lot of beautiful string instruments that show up on this album. Seriously, it is pretty much symphonic/spacey prog. I really wish Journey stuck with this sound instead of sucking industry dick (Though I must admit Frontiers is also pretty good-- definitely the best of their commercial albums).

Here's the whole album for your listening pleasure! (Streaming only... don't worry, there's a lot of places to download it if you like it. Plus, you can also probably buy it on Amazon if you like it that much. Not that Sony or Journey really need the money.)

Go To FileFactory.com

My first artist.... Ani DiFranco!

This lovely lady up there is none other than Ani DiFranco, guitarist and songwriter extraordinaire. She started out playing very folky acoustic music before branching out into quite a few many other genres. Ani's probably most well-known for her album Not A Pretty Girl, which IS quite good... my favorite albums are probably Little Plastic Castle and Evolve, however. Apparently, the latter is a bit of an unpopular opinion-- it's a very jazzy, funky album that must have been a shock to listen to if you were more used to the old-school Ani. But if you like jazzy funky-ness, you'll love Evolve. Nowadays, she's lost me a bit. She's gotten terribly naive in her politics (and she's a rather political musician), and her songwriting's just gone a bit down the tubes. In my opinion, she needs to take a bit of a break until the songwritin' juices start flowing again. Oh well. She's still one of my favorite musicians.

...But don't just take my word for it-- take a listen yourself! Here are a few tunes which best describe each little sound change Ms. DiFranco has gone through:

Names, Dates, and Times from Puddle Dive



Swan Dive from Little Plastic Castle



Slide from Evolve



Manhole from Knuckle Down

Hooray

So I just screwed up on some other stupid blog website, so I'm not gonna go all out doing fancy introductory posts now.

Hello, I'm Bob on blogger (And only on blogger. Why? The most generic name I could think of, and y'all need to call me SOMETHING), and I post a lot about music. Sometimes I will highlight certain artists, and sometimes I will just highlight certain albums or songs that I'm digging at the moment. Sometimes it may be a bit more mainstream, but I'll try to focus on less mainstream people so that they get the attention they deserve.

Besides music, I also might post pictures, rants, raves, opinions, or whatever else pops in my head. Why? Because it's my blog, I get to do whatever the hell I want with it. With that said... let's get postin!