Some of the music here was discovered via friends, who shared it. I have quite a diverse taste and I hope my post will help you to find some of your new favorite songs too :)
15.Kishi Bashi - Manchester - lovely song.. and an artist worth checking out.
14. Passion Pit - Take a Walk - hipster music at its best :)) Watch the video and check out other songs of this band.
13. The Sundays - Goodbye - and oldie suddenly discovered by me. Great tune and very optimistic :)
12.Matt Cardle - Starlight - the song and video has to do with stars, so I love it. Nice tune.
11.Ellie Goulding - Figure 8 - Love Ellie since "Starry Eyed". Nice video with dubstep-ish catchy music.
10.Bag Raiders- Shooting Stars - Great song, especially the second part :) *Stars* at their best in this funky-house track.
9. Florence and the Machine - Spectrum - Florence never ceases to amaze me. The Spectrum was the best one this year. Exactly this one, not the Calvin Harris's mix played on MTVs.
8. Epic45 - Future is Blinding - "You say there must be more to life than this. How much more do you want?".. GREAT indeed.
7. Ben Rector - White Dress - Romantic song right in my mood. A really underestimated one.
6.Phoenix - Too Young - Great fan of Phoenix, but this song was played the most in my ears this year. LOVE.
5. Bombay Bicycle Club - Leave it - My great discovery of 2012.. Listen to "Shuffle", "Lights Out, Words Gone" too.. But "Leave it" caught me most.
4.Martin Solveig - Night Out - Cool video with a scooter, great song (also nicely remixed by Madeon). Been listening to this a lot in 2012...
3. Lana Del Rey - Ride- Lana -- my biggest music inspiration of the year & most listened artist. Been listening to her albums non-stop, discovering more and more great songs over several months. She's a style inspiration for me too. Couldn't select just one song from her. Here is my favorite top 3 songs of her.
Oh my... so many things happen to me daily. I'm engaged in so many activities, that I can't attempt to count all the roles I'm acting as on daily basis.
Sometimes, when I'm hell tired like this, I start to look for the guilty party and eventually I blame myself for constantly challenging my own abilities and being unable to say no to new opportunities. I don't know where the limit is, but I'm nowhere near to reaching it at all.
You never know what opportunity is going to land in your inbox at any moment... --couldn't be truer!
“You are a mashup of what you let into your life.” - Austin Kleon
I hope I'll be able to share here some part of the awesomeness I'm experiencing currently, all the amazing events, discoveries and experiences.
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
Chapter One
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost …. I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
Chapter Two I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend that I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in this same place.
But, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
Chapter Three I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in … it’s a habit … but, my eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
Chapter Four I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
If I had to choose one musician to resurrect from the dead - it would be Jeff Buckley. For a bunch of reasons.
First: his songs make me cry. I don't usually cry on songs.. movies - yes, sometimes, but songs - almost never. Maybe i'm over-emotional today, but I've been feeling these tears trying to break free from my eyes. I somehow feel different when I'm on his songs. Different and better.. maybe they're my drug.
Second: He has written one of my favorite albums ever - "Grace". It's just totally awesome...Every song is special, so relevant and so up-to-date... If you haven't heard about him at all, you need definitely to listen to the whole "Grace"... you'll never guess that it was released 16 years ago... in 1994! The album was included in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003.
Third: Because he sings the "Hallelujah" better than anyone else. His cover of the famous Leonard Cohen's song is included on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". It brings me chills every time. Especially because i heard it once performed live by some guy, in a small cafe, by a sea side, looking at the waves.
Fourth: He tragically died just too young. TOO young. I never knew about him when he was alive, so handsome and such a promising artist...
I wish i knew him personally. I wish he feels all my gratitude and love I'm sending on his way, wherever he is now.
Dear Jeff, you gave me more to live for, more than you'll ever know...
Spring is definitely here. Apricot trees blossom and Yerevan's cultural life is getting more active. Needless to say, i'm very happy on both occasions :)
Within last week I managed to enjoy 2 concerts of which i'm going to tell you.
The first one was on March 13 at my favorite Cafesjian Center for the Arts' Special Events Auditorium. It was the British-Armenian band VO.X with a britpop, jazz, blues, pop-rock, some Spanish program. I first heard about them thanks to the video "Made in Yerevan" which I love :)
Then I loved their "Nor orva yerg" and "No Matter" which by the way brought VO.X the British Gospel Music Awards nomination as Best British Group in 2003.
The concert rocked and I haven't seen the Auditorium so crowded before.
Music is a good mean for bookmarking memories. When I come to listen to songs I was listening last year, I remember my feelings and experiences of that time. I usually attach lots of emotions and feelings to songs and everytime I hear the songs, I get them back.
One of the main sources for finding new music for me (apart from the popular ones), were the movies and TV shows. Also the bedtimetunes online radio with download option introduced me to some great music, plus some last.fm recommendations and similar artists.
I've been listening to music on my computer with Winamp and also with my XpressMusic phone player. Having a last.fm account and scrobbling almost all the music I have listened (including from the phone), I can now present my top music charts and tell about some songs that accompanied me month by month (see below). Maybe you will discover some nice music for yourself from my list :)
These are my top 15 artists for 2009
These are my top 15 tracks for 2009 ( indicates that those are 'loved' songs)
Probably the best song of my year would be «Nothing in My Way» by Keane - happy one and the melancholic one is «Human» by Civil Twilight.
Today I was lucky to be present at Michel Legrand's concert at Aram Khachaturyan hall in Yerevan. I went there spontaneously, without planning, as my friend called me only an hour before the concert, telling that she's got an extra ticket. I bless that very moment for the excitement and feelings I'm having now.
I have a long-time passion for the movie scores, old and new... from Henri Mancini to Hans Zimmer, Craig Armstrong and Clint Mansell ... and for this the concert was perfect me. One of those performances where you forget where you are, what the date it is, all the fears and insecurities... detaching from reality you silently wish there was somebody dear's shoulder to lean on while listening to the sounds... Well.. this music was able to dig into the most concealed and inmost layers of my heart and bring out some memories and feelings I was trying hard to hide. It brought out a lot of love and tenderness. I couldn't stop smiling. I wanted to hug everyone :)
I was occasionally thinking about some of my friends and my mother who I wished were there enjoying it as much as I was doing.
Michel Legrand. Photo by Vahan Stepanyan / PanARMENIAN Photo
There were really very very smooth transitions from fugue to light jazz and I loved the harp!
Some of the songs were performed by Christiane Legrand, Michel's sister. God, she had a powerful voice!
Here's the famous The windmills of your mind (Les Moulins De Mon Coeur)
and this one from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg)
Everything about that concert was perfect. The hall was more than full, the audience was smart and conscious. When the concert was about to start, a perfect couple came and sat near me on the row.
The man was in his mid 40s or even 50s, so handsome and elegant, a bit of white hair, but still no signs of getting bald, no 30-week pregnant woman's belly (usual for successful Armenian men of his age). He was wearing a refined suit with a tie and you could read by his face that he's a successful businessman, excessively upright and life enjoying. His partner was a very attractive woman in a perfect shape (probably mid 30s, looking much younger, only the wrinkles on hands were giving away), wearing a strapless beautiful dress and a cute scarf of the same pattern as the dress tacked on an elegant purse. She had awesome peep toe heels on, sitting with straight back, hands on knees like in an illustration from an etiquette book. I couldn't take my eyes off of them. I wish I'd be like them when I get their age :)
I was preparing to write this post for a long time already. I dunno why I'm starting to procrastinate when trying to write a post... that's why you don't hear much from me recently. I hope to put all my pieces back together (havaqem indz) soon and return back to track.
Meet Tigran Hamasyan, famous Armenian-American jazz pianist
Photo by Vahan Stepanyan / PanARMENIAN Photo
He's one of my biggest discoveries of this summer. He was born in Gyumri, lives in US currently and is only 22 years old now. When you listen to his music you can imagine how great he will become one day. I was lucky to attend his concert in Yerevan.
The following 2 pieces are the most awesome ones imho:
Exactly one month after the terrible earthquake in the Italian region of Abruzzo, that has destroyed the beautiful city L'Aquila and numerous villages around, killing about 300 people, a song-tribute to the victims was released.
56 great Italian artists united to create a song called "Domani 21 Aprile 2009. Artisti uniti per l'Abruzzo". April 21 is the day, when they met altogether in a music studio in Milan for the support the campaign "Salviamo l'arte in Abruzzo". Its aim is to collect money for the reconstruction of the conservatory "Alfredo Casella" and the seat of the Teatro Stabile d'Abruzzo dell'Aquila.
...and this is the video that they created and that I totally loved
The idea belongs to Jovanotti and Giuliano of Negramaro - both my very favorites, and they realized it by the support of Mauro Pagani of PFM, Caterina Caselli and others.
Among the artists there are: Ligabue, Jovanotti, Mauro Pagani, Giuliano Sangiorgi of Negramaro, Gianna Nannini, Elisa, Giusy Ferreri, Tiziano Ferro, Zucchero, Fabri Fibra, Giorgia, Piero Pelu’, Caparezza, Laura Pausini, Baustelle, Mario Venuti, Caterina Caselli, Pacifico, Dolcenera, Gianluca Grignani, Negrita, Nek, Francesco Renga, Antonella Ruggiero, Mango, Elio e le storie tese, Giuliano Palma and many others... (I named only ones i know and like)
I'm going to buy the song online (as soon as it will be released on May 8) and have my contribution in the support of saving the art in Abruzzo.
********
As some of you know, I have some close ties with Italy and live with a feeling that part of me is Italian. Sometimes I feel myself like one of diaspora Armenians whose heart aches when hearing Armenian speech or news from Armenia. I feel the same towards Italy! I feel homesick and I can't find my place. I have been listening to Italian radios all day today, and the Italian speech is so much dear to me... like the native language that I've somehow "forgotten" and then "refound" inside me again.
********
Here are lyrics of the song that also help to see who appears in the video and who sings which line:
Tra le nuvole e i sassi/ passano i sogni di tutti (Ligabue)
passa il sole ogni giorno/ senza mai tardare. (Tiziano Ferro)
Dove sarò domani? (Enrico Ruggeri)
Dove sarò? (Gianni Morandi)
Tra le nuvole e il mare/ c’è una stazione di posta (Franco Battiato)
uno straccio di stella messa lì a consolare (Massimo Ranieri)
sul sentiero infinito (Max Pezzali)
del maestrale (Eugenio Finardi)
Day by day (Zucchero)
Day by day (Cesare Cremonini)
hold me/ shine on me. (Zucchero)
shine on me (Cesare Cremonini)
Day by day save me shine on me (Zucchero, Carmen Consoli, Mauro Pagani, Cesare Cremonini, Eugenio Finardi)
Ma domani, domani,/ domani, lo so (Francesco Renga)
Lo so che si passa il confine, (Roberto Vecchioni)
E di nuovo la vita (Mauro Pagani)
sembra fatta per te (Giuliano Palma)
e comincia (Elio)
domani (Elio e Le Storie Tese, Vittorio Cosma)
domani è già qui (Jovanotti)
rap 1 Estraggo un foglio nella risma nascosto
scrivo e non riesco forse perché il sisma m’ha scosso (Caparezza)
rap 2 Ogni vita che salvi, ogni pietra che poggi, fa pensare a domani ma puoi farlo solo oggi (Frankie Hi NRG)
e la vita la vita si fa grande così (Gianluca Grignani)
e comincia domani (Giuliano Sangiorgi)
Tra le nuvole e il mare si può fare e rifare (Claudio Baglioni)
con un pò di fortuna (Ron)
si può dimenticare. (Luca Carboni)
Dove sarò (Baustelle)
domani? Dove sarò? (Samuele Bersani e Baustelle)
oh oh oh (coro: Carmen Consoli, Antonella Ruggiero, Alioscia, Pacifico, Mango, Massimo Ranieri, Bluvertigo, Nek, Giuliano Palma, Antonello Venditti, Roberto Vecchioni, Albano)
rap 3 Dove sarò domani che ne sarà dei miei sogni infranti, dei miei piani/ Dove sarò domani, tendimi le mani, tendimi le mani (Marracash)
Tra le nuvole e il mare
si può andare e andare (Laura Pausini)
sulla scia delle navi
di là del temporale (Carmen Consoli)
e qualche volta si vede (Nek)
domani (Antonello Venditti)
una luce di prua (Nek)
e qualcuno grida: Domani (Antonello Venditti)
rap 4 Come l’aquila che vola
libera tra il cielo e i sassi siamo sempre diversi e siamo sempre gli stessi
hai fatto il massimo e il massimo non è bastato e non sapevi piangere e adesso
che hai imparato non bastano le lacrime ad impastare il calcestruzzo
eccoci qua cittadini d’Abruzzo
e aumentano d’intensità le lampadine una frazione di
secondo prima della finee la tua mamma,
la tua patria da ricostruire,
comu le scole, le case e specialmente lu core
e puru nu postu cu facimu l’amore (Jovanotti, J Ax, Fabri Fibra e in chiusura Sud Sound System)
non siamo così soli (Giuliano Sangiorgi)
a fare castelli in aria (J Ax e Fabri Fibra)
non siamo così soli (Giuliano Sangiorgi)
sulla stessa barca (J Ax , Fabri Fibra)
non siamo così soli (Giorgia)
a fare castelli in aria (J Ax e Fabri Fibra)
non siamo così soli (Giorgia)
a stare bene in Italia (J Ax e Fabri Fibra)
sulla stessa barca (J Ax)
a immaginare un nuovo giorno in Italia (Giorgia, Giusy Ferreri, Dolcenera, Mario Venuti, Jovanotti, J Ax, Fabri Fibra)
Tra le nuvole e il mare si può andare, andare
Sulla scia delle navi di là dal temporale (Piero Pelù)
Qualche volta si vede una luce di prua e qualcuno grida, domani (Morgan)
Non siamo così soli (Giorgia, Mario Venuti, Giusy Ferreri, Dolcenera, Giuliano Sangiorgi)
(tromba solo di Roy Paci)
Domani è già qui
Domani è già qui (Jovanotti, Marracash, FabriFibra, J Ax)
(Assolo violino Mauro Pagani)
Ma domani domani, domani lo so, lo so, che si passa il confine (Gianna Nannini)
E di nuovo la vita sembra fatta per te e comincia (Elisa) domani (Sud Sound System)
Tra le nuvole e il mare, si può fare e rifare
Con un pò di fortuna si può dimenticare (Manuel Agnelli Afterhours)
E di nuovo la vita, sembra fatta per te (Mango)
E comincia (Niccolò Fabi)
(coro finale)
domani
E domani domani, domani lo so
Lo so che si passa il confine
E di nuovo la vita sembra fatta per te
E comincia domani
I haven't been a huge fun of Comedy Club, though I really like and respect these guys. Unlike my sister who is a Comedy Club addict :) They deserve huge respects at least for this video and song.
I love when lyrics make you feel yourself somewhere else, in someone else's shoes. I think i'd love it even if i didn't understand Russian.
Music has an important place in my daily routine and is in my top of motivational things' list.
I like to discover new artists and songs and challenge my musical taste. I like to be the first one to discover new songs and to share it with others :)
I never forget where i first heard the song and who helped me with the discovery.
There are several means i use to discover new music.
Movies. I like soundtrack music and ending songs. When I hear some song in a movie, I look at its soundtrack page on imdb.com and search for downloading. When i'm not sure which song is it, i just try to remember several words to google later.
Radio. I don't listen to radio much, but if i do (in a taxi or supermarket, or when my sister listens to it loudly at home) and i hear some nice tune I haven't heard before - i'm trying to remember some words and google to find it.
Charts. Sometimes when i see a new band/artist in a chart and hear about it sometimes in the news, read in blogs, I just open its last.fm page and listen the preview.
Similar artists. There's time when i'm being tired of all the music i'm listening to at the moment and want something new - new artist or new style. I use artist radio feature on last.fm (read about it below) or similar artists feature. For example i like Sigur Ros and wanted to listen to similar icelandic bands - I discovered Amiina and Mum that way.
Generally, last.fm is the best music resource on the web. If you live with music like me, you should definitely register there.
So what is last.fm?
Last.fm is a music service that learns what you love... Every track you play will tell your Last.fm profile something about what you like. It can connect you to other people who like what you like - and recommend songs from their music collections and yours too.
So how does it know what music do you listen and what do you like? Last.fm has a small application that you download and install in your computer and that collects information about the music you listen on your players - Windows media player, Winamp, iTunes or other. It's called - scrobbling.
Here's how my last.fm client looks like:
On the left menu I have the stations - i can listen to music with this client. Like listening to artist stations (if i type Madonna, i will have a playlist with music similar to Madonna's. Or I can listen to recommendations station which has music recommended by last.fm based on my music taste. Below, there are my recently played tracks, ones that I loved (this is how you teach last.fm about your taste), hated, how I tagged the music... friends' and neighbours' music and history of radiostations I've listened to.
Key facts and features:
It doesn't upload your music, it just sends the songs' information and if you want - downloads artist description and artwork so the traffic it consumes is not significant.
Taste-o-meter: a cool feature with helps you to find people who share the musical taste with you. You can open any profile on last.fm and see which artists you have in common and how high is your music compatibility.
In last.fm you have your music library that consists of the songs you have played.
Neighbours: Just like in real life - neighbours are ones who listen the music you are listening (if you have it enough loud :D). In last.fm, you can quickly find people with similar taste by clicking the Neighbours tab in your profile.
Charts: You have your weekly, monthly, 3-month, 6-month, yearly and overall stats of both artists and tracks.To be scrobbled, the tracks you listen must meet the following criteria: 1) be longer than 30 seconds, 2) have vaild meta information for both track and artist names, 3) track must have been listened to for more than 50% of its length. If the song you are listening isn't being scrobbled, it means that either the ID tag is missing, or your scrobbling is disabled.
You can recommend your good music discoveries to last.fm friends with the Recommendation feature.
Events: This feature helps to find concerts near you (you set your location) and you can confirm your attendance and meet other people that might be attending.
Last.fm, as a social network has a an internal messaging system, wall in a profile, groups and journals too.
Tips:
It's important to have your music tagged correctly - with the correct artist/track. Winamp has an auto-tag feature that helped me to entirely organize my collection. It's not 100% useful for all tracks (especially Armenian and Russian) but helps significantly!
Check your stats regularily and don't let your younger sister listen to backstreet boys or other music you wouldn't like to appear in your charts :-) Luckily you can setup different user accounts and switch between them in last.fm or just disable scrobbling. You can usually delete scrobbled tracks from your stats page for the last 2-3 days.
Paid subscription: Basically you get all the described features for free, but you can also become a subscriber that let's you have a sexy black square on your avatar :D (as last.fm describes it). But that's not just it! It costs just 3$ monthly, and the major benefits are:
No Ads: You won't see any ads on your and others' profile and other people won't see on yours,
Profile Visitors: You can see who visited your profile recently.
Personal playlists: You will be able to build unlimited personal playlists.
Loved tracks: You will have your loved tracks' radiostation.
Scrobble from your portable player! You can scrobble music from your iPod or phone player too ! When i'm outside, walking and listening to music, i want it also to be counted! I wanted to have something like this for a long time and finally found it ! For s60 smartphones there's a nice client - Mobbler. You just install the application on your mobile and you can practically do everything you can do with the windows last.fm client - scrobble played songs, listen to radios, playlists etc... If you, like me, don't want to use phone's internet traffic, you can generate a log file with scrobbled songs information and later upload it to last.fm from PC using one of applications described here: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/LastFMLog. I am using QTScrobbler, since it works with protocol 1.2 and scrobbles the songs from phone, even when i have listened and scrobbled other songs from PC after that (protocol 1.1. doesn't support it)
Widgets for websites and blogs: Last.fm offers lots of cool widgets that help you to show off the music you listen - last tracks or overall top artists, tracks and so on.
If my post was useful to you, register there and add me as a friend :)
Here's my profile: http://www.last.fm/user/arpik
I like it's interface language - very fun and live :)
I've been addicted to this video and song for some days, and finally i did some research on the author and the song and decided to post :)
About Oren Lavie
Oren Lavie is a songwriter of curly brown hair, whisperish voice, green eyes and suspiciously cold feet. He was born in 1976, two minutes behind schedule, and has been trying to catch up ever since. Oren Lavie is also a director, writer of funny books for sad children. Born in Tel-Aviv, Israel. He has long curly hair, green eyes, cold feet. Known to daydream on many an occasion.
He has written and directed several plays in London’s Off-West End and NY off-Broadway.
...
He likes to create dreamy visuals from realistic elements, he enjoys squeezing big worlds into small spaces.
As a songwriter he produced his debut album ‘The Opposite Side of The Sea’ which he released in 2008 on his own label, being that nobody else was going to release it.
He loves animation but can’t draw a straight line to save his life.
This video is his first venture into the Moving Pictures. www.orenlavie.com
Video Facts
The video was shot all stills - roughly 3225 still photos for the entire video, using one camera, hanging from the ceiling for the main body of the movie.
It took 4 weeks before shooting to create an animated computer generated storyboard for the video, with 3d dummies for the characters.
It took only 2 days of shooting for the live actors on set to re-create the 3.5 minutes computer sequence, frame by frame.
Some of the bed sheets used in the video were taken from Oren’s own bedroom and are now considered collectors items, worth at the moment not very much and therefore used as bed sheets.
I'm back to my Italian music addiction. I've downloaded the new album of Negrita "Helldorado" and Negramaro's new single "Meraviglioso". I also got addicted to Tiziano Ferro's "Alla mia età" and downloaded that album too (though i never thought i would like him at all).
At the moment I'm listening to the Ligabue's one of 2008 hits - Il mio Pensiero and thinking of my friends who are far - in LA/D.C., Mauritius, Berlin, Sweden, somewhere in Germany, and also in Yerevan, but far.
Ligabue is a master of meaningful and interesting lyrics. A volta, i'm amazed how he can sing right from my heart....
Cosa c’entra questo cielo lucido
Che non è mai stato così blu
E chi se ne frega delle nuvole
Mentre qui manchi tu
E adesso che sei dovunque sei
Chissà se ti arriva il mio pensiero
Chissà se ne ridi o se ti fa piacere
As you know from here and here, I was very excited about attending my first live show of an Italian singer.
The Zucchero's concert was in the framework of Jivan Gasparyan's 80th anniversary celebrations. He performed on Nov. 11 at the Tribute concert and also on 12th within his own "All The Best" tour.
I was watching the Tribute concert live on TV. It was a looong one including appearances of such stars like Alan Parsons with his Live project, Derek Sherinian with Planet X, Peter Gabriel (though he didn't perform anything), Arthur Abraham (IBF champion), Boris Grebenshchikov, Pedro Eustache, Andreas Vollenweider and also Jivan Gasparyan Jr. (grandson of the maestro). The concert finished around 1am and was followed by fireworks which made me hold my dog very tight and not let him to bark since he could awake the whole our building :) and saw Zucchero's performance which was the last one and after midnight. He was great and i realized that the concert next day will be a good one!
Last time I wrote about the Sport & Concert complex and that I attended the ice skating show in the sport hall, this time, the shows were in the concert hall (with 2000 seats).
The tickets weren't cheap, and we bought the cheapest ones (3000 AMD) :D I thought I have checked our seats on the plan of the hall, but it turned that we got the tickets right on the last row of the amphitheater! :D
Հայերեն ասած «վերջն էինք», նաև մեր ջրիկանալով :D
When we arrived at the SCC, it was still early and we were cold, so we decided to have something hot in the newly opened cafe inside. It turned that out of all the hot beverages in the menu, they did have only tea and espresso. I took an espresso (machine made) but my friends, who took the tea weren't very happy to notice that the water isn't hot and not even boiled and the only choice of the tea were Lipton bags :D
The concert had a one hour delay but luckily it was the only unpleasant moment with the concert. The hall was almost full, especially in the amphitheater there wasn't any vacant seat... The audience was tuned to have fun and Zucchero gave us that fun! He performed all the songs i've expected (i even had the printout the lyrics :D). Here's the song list of Zucchero's concert, almost with the same order:
Occhi,
Tutti i colori della mia vita,
Bacco Perbacco,
Amen,
Cuba Libre,
Il Volo,
Blue,
Diamante,
Cosi Celeste,
Baila,
Bell'Amore Mio,
Il mare,
Everybody's got to learn sometime,
Nel Cosi Blu,
Diavolo in me,
Un Kilo,
Dune Musse,
Con le mani,
Solo una sana,
Miserere, and more...
The sound was excellent, it went in one breath, without pauses or faults and everybody enjoyed it ! Half of the show we were stood up, dancing and shouting. I couldn't imagine so many people will like Zucchero, and dance on his songs :))))
It was amazing and definitely worth!
Here's what i was able to shoot there :) you can guess that my camera's zoom was very poor but luckily i had my smart tripod with me :))
An important detail :) on this kind of concerts the seats doesn't really matter. You don't see the face of performers anyways (even from parter seats), the sound is almost the same everywhere, so why pay more? :D
Today I finally watched the "Across the Universe" !!! This is the most amazing film I've seen lately.
I wouldn't consider myself as a huge Beatles fan, but of course I love their music :) It reminds me of my life 5-6 years ago :-))
This film made me love Beatles even more, especially with the new interpretation of the songs and new associations brought by this film.
This is a musical directed by Julie Taymor, based on Beatles's songs depicting '60s with the Vietnam war, hippies and New York.
The characters' names were taken from the Beatles' songs - Jude, Lucy, Sadie etc...
There are appearances of Bono from U2, Selma Hayek and Joe Cocker in some very unpredicted ways.
There are also the prototypes of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Ken Kesey (the writer of the "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", played by Bono).
The film is showing the love story of Lucy and Jude that is intertwined with the anti-war movement, the struggle for free speech and civil rights, mind exploration and rock'n'roll of the 60s.
As for my favorite scenes, I would mention the one where Jude's friend Max is being taken to the army - it's just breathtaking. Such an imagination !!
Then the "Strawberry fields" and soldiers and the artwork.
I liked also the underwater scene.
And the rooftop concert:
The character of Jude is quite cute, especially the fact of him being an artist ;) Covers of the songs are done amazingly good, bringing a new sound to the old and loved songs. In the movie, there are more than 30 of them used. Now I will do everything to download them all!
Also, the movie reminded me the Forrest Gump and the lead female character Lucy was reminding Forrest's Jenny.
The film was nominated for the Academy Award for the "Best costume design" and also for the Golden Globe as a "Best picture".
An interesting fact on the film:
According to the industry trade paper Daily Variety, the filmmakers had to pay The Beatles and publisher ATV/Sony Music about $10,000,000 for the music rights to the 30 songs used in the film (roughly $330,000 for each song). As a condition of the songs' use, the advertising posters for the film did not mention "The Beatles" nor the songwriters' names.
Yesterday, my friend Jared sent me a very nice song "Heartbeats" by José González that I loved from the first sounds. Then i started to dig information about it finding out about the "Sony Bravia" commercial where it was featured.
Maybe you remember this ad:
And i found something more interesting ! The "making of" - behind the scenes video. Since I like advertising and filmmaking, i enjoyed it much!
It turned out that they have used 250,000 colorful balls for this ad !!! and the city where the balls are bouncing is San Francisco :)
I also found out that the "Heartbeats" is not Jose Gonzalez' song, it actually belongs to "The Knife", but I wouldn't compare it to the Gonzalez' performance, because it's just amazing and totally different!
What's the measure of music to you ? Do you listen to tracks or whole albums?
I've heard different points of view. Some of my friends are downloading entire albums only and refusing to copy single tracks. Well, if albums exist there might be a reason for it :D
However i still can't understand how the people who can say smth like "this song would better fit in that other album instead...". I agree that each album has something uniting the tracks, but i can't get why the song order is like that or why artists try to convince to buy albums only.
I've read somewhere that Bono of U2 was criticizing iTunes for allowing the download of single tracks from albums and not the way artist intended the it to be listened.
I personally prefer to download single tracks and listen to them, rather than have patience and listen to the tracks by their order in the album. I like shuffle mode, i like it like on the radio - when you don't know what's the next song coming... .
Though there are albums that i love as a whole, especially movie scores (for example, one of my favorites "The Holiday" movie score by Hans Zimmer)
I'm very much into the music and i listen to it most of the time of my day, but i still can't get used to albums, though i try... i guess this my habit of 'single songs' is the result of the unavailability of my preferred albums on cassettes, CDs to buy and the connection speed that made me download the songs i liked alone, not even knowing which album it is from. Also, there was a time i had a 40GB HD only, and with the lack of space, i was deleting songs i don't like and will never like, leaving my favorites only. Even now it's much more difficult to download entire albums.
I found an interesting opinion supporting the "album" listening mode:
"When you read a book, you just read some chapters? When you see a movie, you just look for a specific scene? It's not different for music, it's been intended like this."
...maybe to become a music guru, i need to get this point for albums :)
Another thing i'm picky concerning music, is the correct ID tags and filenames! Now even the artwork for the album must be on place! So in my music collection you won't find any 'unknown artists' or 'unknown tracks'.
I was about to have a heart attack when at first, the date of the concert was mentioned Nov. 14, which is absolutely not possible for me to attend, because of my cousin's wedding (rare thing i can't miss :D).. but i got relieved to see Nov. 11, 12 dates...
Tue 11
Armenia
Yerevan
Tribute Show Jivan Gasparian
Wed 12
Armenia
Yerevan
Concert & Sport Centre
If you are not familiar with Zucchero, I advise you to listen to Zu & Co. album.
there are collaborations with:
Miles Davis
Sting
Vanessa Carlton
Haylie Ecker
Mousse T.
Macy Gray
Jeff Beck
Maná
John Lee Hooker
Sheryl Crow
Dolores O'Riordan
Eric Clapton
Tom Jones
B.B.King
Ronan Keating
Cheb Mami
Solomon Burke
Paul Young
Brian May
Luciano Pavarotti
Andrea Bocelli
My favorite songs of Zucchero are: "Menta e Rosmarino", "Il Volo", "Senza una Donna", "Cosi Celeste", "Muoio Per Te", "Puro Amore", "Baila Morena", "Occhi", "Wonderful life", "Indago dagli occhi del cielo".
He has performed also with Djivan Gasparyan and will be singing at the Tribute concert to the famous duduk player in Yerevan.
Hopefully i will get a ticket discount, however i'm ready to pay for it whatever it costs !!!
I loved this song from the first notes. It's amazing. One of the best of the best!!! The lyrics are so touching and breathtaking,... Here's its last.fm page.
This could be one of the most romantic songs ever... but, likely, it's dedicated to God.
"The song has become very popular in various religious skits due to the fact that some believe it to be a Christian song. While Lifehouse is not a Christian rock band, the lead singer, Jason Wade says that his songs are open to interpretation and that the lyrics he creates have different meanings to different people."
I personally prefer to link it some romantic memories rather than religious thoughts.
From the band's interview:
"We've been seeing people proposing at their girlfriends to this song, it happened 4-5 times in this tour. You look out in the crowd and you know what's happening, everyone's faces are turned to the wall, you have to find that spot where the guy's proposing."
Find Me Here Speak To Me I want to feel you I need to hear you You are the light That's leading me To the place where I find peace again.
You are the strength, that keeps me walking. You are the hope, that keeps me trusting. You are the light to my soul. You are my purpose...you're everything.
How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you? Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?
You calm the storms, and you give me rest. You hold me in your hands, you won't let me fall. You steal my heart, and you take my breath away. Would you take me in? Take me deeper now?
How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you? Would you tell me how could it be any better than this? And how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you? Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?
Cause you're all I want, You're all I need You're everything,everything You're all I want your all I need You're everything, everything. You're all I want you're all I need. You're everything, everything You're all I want you're all I need, you're everything, everything.
And How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you? Would you tell me how could it be any better than this? How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you? Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?"
This Sunday was the coldest day in since the March maybe… It was raining starting from Saturday and it stopped close to the Sunday evening.
In Kirov park, "Rock the Borders" - an international open-air rock festival was taking place. It started with 1.5 hour delay but luckily the rain was over by that time and they could arrange the equipment… There were bands from Georgia, one from Kazakhstan, from Turkey and Italy, and of course Armenian bands like Stryfe, Dogma, Empyray etc.
I haven't been at rock concerts for a while… some 6-7 years ago I wasn't missing any :) during this one I realized how much I did grow up since then :D
Most of the attendees were teenagers - emos, goths, ppl with pierced faces, tattoos etc… this culture is becoming more and more popular here year by year… The outstanding fact was the presence of the Turkish band "Northern Lights". Guys were rocking, really. People were welcoming and I didn't notice any display of intolerance. I was wondering if it would be the same with any other concert, especially if it was pop. Yep, even when rock fans are less social, I personally think, they are more open-minded.
To be sincere, heavy metal and metal in general is not my preferred style… I'm more into alternative, indie music, that's why I wasn't enjoying it that much...
I was looking forward to the Italian band's performance. The band with a strange name "Sadist" (my friends were joking whether there will be e.g. a French band "masochist" coming to the next festival :D) were a bit delaying with performance and I couldn't stand the cold anymore. My feet were frozen (and not only mine) and we ran to Square One for a hot tea. So I missed the Italian band's performance, though later I was told that I wouldn't like their music anyway.
Turkish band "Northern Lights" on the stage of "Rock the Borders" rock festival
indicates that those are 'loved' songs
