Foreign Music

Why don't many people in the United States seem to listen to music from other countries? The first reason that probably would come to mind is simply that there is not a lot of foreign music as compared to domestic music available in the United States as far as the radio, CDs in stores, and those sorts of things are concerned. If people just plain don't even know something exists, then of course they will not listen to it. Fortunately, with the tremendous rise in use of the Internet, this lack of exposure to foreign music is diminishing. However, in my experience, people will also reject things that they aren't used to without even giving it a chance, especially with music. Even old Goggin himself has been guilty of this heedless judgment, but lately I have been trying to listen to new genres and bands in order to have a more complete knowledge and appreciation for music. It also helps me to get along with my friends, few of whom really enjoy electronica as I do. The third reason that people don't listen to music from other countries is that since most other countries speak a language other than English, their music is also in that language. For whatever reason, more often than not, people will stubbornly refuse to listen to music that isn't in English, a sad problem I've also encountered with film. Just because a song doesn't have words you can understand doesn't mean that the music isn't good. If you're listening to songs for the lyrics and don't care about how good or bad the music is, you might as well just read poetry. Most of the best songs I've ever heard, and movies I've ever seen, are from other countries and are not in English. It's really rather depressing that so many people refuse to look beyond the street they grew up on, so to speak. Clearly this is not true for everyone, but for me, the United States of America is just the country I was born and raised in. I am a global citizen. Anywhere I go, the world is my home, and it is to the music of the world that I listen. Goggin DuGalle, signing out.

Speakers or Headphones?

There are essentially three ways to listen to music. You can listen to it live, with speakers, or with headphones. Of course live is the best choice, although a lot of music is produced with a computer and/or a synthesizer, and so there really is no live option. But which is better, speakers or headphones? Many people prefer one over the other, for various reasons. Both speakers and headphones have advantages and disadvantages. These aspects change if one is for example playing a game, as direction and distance is easier to gauge through headphones than through speakers. Therefore, only advantages and disadvantages when concerning music are considered here.

Headphone advantages:

• Keep the sound to yourself
• Block out some of the outside sound
• Much higher quality for the same price ($20 headphones sound much better than $20 speakers)

Speaker advantages:

• Share the sound with others
• You don't need to wear something on your head
• With a subwoofer, you feel the music as well as hear it

It is the second and third points of headphones that really cause me to choose speakers over headphones. Unless you are in a situation where headphones are the only reasonable option, such as on an airplane or when your passive-aggressive roommate is whining like a six-year-old, I can't think of a reason that anyone would want to have to wear something over their ears when there is an alternative solution. I really love listening to music with the subwoofer turned all the way up, as you can truly feel the music and it seems as though you have become one with its sound. It is true that if you have those weakling earbuds, such as the ones that come with iPods, you can give one to one other person and therefore share the music, but this is neither practical nor ideal. You each only get one channel, either left or right, and it is not very comfortable. Overall, I would choose speakers every time.

A double feature

What happens when you mix the rough, rustic rocker vocals with a smooth never ending guitar solo... You get the song Into The Night. The lead singer of Nickleback, Chad Kroeger, meets the all too great guitarist Santana to make a classy fun song. This song is very simple, well maybe not Santana's guitar solo but the music has a simplistic flow that is very mesmerizing. The meaning of the song is pretty simple as well it starts with a troubled man who wants to end his life but happens to look across the street and falls in love with a girl just by looking at her. She seems to pull the devil straight out of him as she looks like she could be from heaven itself. This girl attracts everyone with her energy and dancing aura but to this one guy she is different.The song shows the beauty of this girl in a more natural yet still seductive manner. The song is a fun with a continuous chant of "ayo a yo ayo a" keeping the beat of the song going all the way to the end. Santana is a maniac on the guitar, just shredding and picking his way through the song. All in all this song is a very savvy upbeat song with an amazing guitar sound that is good for a drive on a nice day or in the club shakin' the money maker.

Paramore

Something I haven't seen since No Doubt, a female vocalist and a band filled with men, but Paramore is rocking the nation with its power-pop-punk lyrics and catchy flow. Starting in 2004 doing gigs in Nashville, TN. Fueled by Ramen(producing many artist such as Gym Class Heros and PANIC! at the Disco) quickly signed them after a live performance in Florida. Their first album All We Know Is Falling was the album they played at The Warped Tour 2005 then almost immediately following played a stellar sold out tour in North America in 2006. After a little break they then recorded the sophomore album RIOT in 2007. The album is known for its biggest single yet, Misery Business. Although Misery Business made some stirs with the Christian community, saying the Lord's name in vain, Paramore (devout Christians) calmed the situation by explaining that the girl in the song was real and that she felt bitter towards her and that the song wasn't intended for people to break the commandments.

With all that aside, I think that Paramore is a great band to listen to. They are catchy, they are flashy, and they are deep. With songs like Misery Business you can get a little crazy with but then they have the ability to slow things down with songs like Pressure. It just so happens that Haley ( the lead singer) can actually sing, without the harmonic machine that most artists sing into, she actually has true talent with vocals and I think that is one thing that sets them apart from most.

Toy-Box

Toy-Box is pretty much my favorite bubblegum dance artist. It consists of Anila and Amir, both born in Denmark but of Middle Eastern descent. They've since gone their own ways onto solo careers, but Toy-Box will always hold a special place in my heart. In keeping with the bubblegum dance style, their music is obscenely happy and centered around lighthearted and carefree love. Their lyrics are often ridiculous in a somehow clever way and in several instances make no sense at all, for example the line “No friends are never alone” which would really only work if the word used was “ever”. However, quirks like these only add to the fun of listening to Toy-Box.

My favorite Toy-Box songs:

• Fantasy Dream World
• www.girl
• The Sailor Song
• Tarzan and Jane
• Prince of Arabia
• 007
• Best Friend
• Dumm-Diggy-Dumm
• E.T.
• Super-Duper-Man
• Superstar
• Wizard of Oz

It's very hard to choose an absolute favorite Toy-Box song, as many of them are almost legendary, but one of my favorites is “Fantasy Dream World”. The melody everywhere in the song is extremely catchy and expertly crafted. The low electric grinding instrument that accompanies the bass during much of the song sound very nice. The extremely subtle and hard to pick out magic sounding instrument forms a very nice counter melody to the chorus. It follows the same notes as the electric piano in the very beginning, so knowing that, it should be easier to find. Although when the prince is singing it's often so fast that it's hard to tell what he's saying until you've listened to “Fantasy Dream World” many many times, the words of the song are wonderfully powerful and often quite nonsensical in a startling beautiful way.

You can listen to “Fantasy Dream World” here.

You must remove the downloaded file from your computer within 24 hours. It is only a sample of a track which you can purchase on a CD. The author of this site cannot be held responsible for the misuse or copyright violation of this song as enforced by any given country's laws.

E-Type

Bo Martin Erik Eriksson, known as E-Type in the music world, is a somewhat creepy looking Swedish musician who released his first album in 1994 and is still going strong. His music is upbeat Eurodance, which logically is simply called dance when one actually is in Europe. Most of the songs are very clean sounding due to the bright instrumental sound and the clearly defined notes. They also sound rather epic and grand in a futuristic way because of the well chosen and used chord progressions as well as the powerful choruses, which have entrancing melodies and are sung by Nana Hedin, who is also from Sweden. Interestingly, essentially all of E-Type's vocal contributions to his songs are monotonous twanging in a rap sort of fashion that works sometimes but often just sounds weird. The only real problem I have with the music is that in general all the songs sound pretty much the same.

My favorite songs by E-Type:

• This Is the Way
• Olympia
• Africa
• Campione 2000 (The theme song for the 2000 UEFA European Football Championship that continues to be a popular soccer chant to this day)
• Dans La Fantasie
• If Heaven Were To Fall
• Russian Lullaby
  

“This Is the Way” stands apart from the others because of its heavy and powerful feel as well as the great vocals. I find the words rather inspiring, and the melody of the vocals fits the strength of the song. I especially like the subtle up-down-up-down sound of a plucky sort of instrument that follows along throughout key sections of the song, namely the chorus, which are followed up by a sighing “oh-oh-oh...” that really encapsulates the mythic quality of the composition. Overall the song feels rather timeless, as in that it doesn't have a specific time it belongs to, whether ancient times before humankind walked upon the ground or the extreme future when the Earth has dried up and withered away. It has always been playing and always will be playing.

You can listen to “This Is the Way” here.

You must remove the downloaded file from your computer within 24 hours. It is only a sample of a track which you can purchase on a CD. The author of this site cannot be held responsible for the misuse or copyright violation of this song as enforced by any given country's laws.

Chase This

Back in 2001, Jimmy Eat World released their biggest single of their career with "The Middle"; the underground Indie-rockers had never had a single crack the billboard top 200, and were all of a sudden getting heavy rotation on MTV. "The Middle" is Jimmy Eat World's most popular release to date, and their mainstream popularity has been down ever since its release. Make that is how they like it.

"The Middle" appeared on the album Bleed American. The follow up to this album, the 2004 release of Futures, was an absolute mess. While I myself have never considered J.E.W. (an awful acronym, I know) an emo band, it is hard to call them that, with titles of songs on including; "Work", "Kill", "Pain", and "Drugs or Me". When I heard about the release of Chase This Light, I was hoping that the band would move on from Futures. The first track off of Chase This Light gave me hope. "Big Casino" starts off with a fast guitar rift, and then starts to rock. It's a fun song, with references to the music industry, taking chances, and hopes of making it big, "i hope they draw my name from the lottery." "Big Casino" is not a J.E.W. original, but a leftover side project of lead singer Jim Adkins, titled Go Big Casino. While the first track gives promise, the rest of the album falls short.

After "Big Casino", the album returns to where Futures left off with "Let it Happen". The track is repetitive, drawn out, and downright boring. The third track, "Always Be", has an interesting start, with drum beats and snapping fingers, but doesn't do much beyond that. Throughout the album, there seems to be a theme of annoying, repeating background vocals. "Carry You" has a harmony similar to nails on a chalkboard, "Electable (Give It Up)" simply repeats "Uh-oh-Uh-oh" ad nausea, and "Here it Goes" does the same with an annoying "Hey, Hey, Hey!"

Despite all of this, there are a few tracks on the album worth mentioning. "Gotta Be Somebody's Blues" is a sullen, down trodden track, but is also the most interesting one on the album. The track is similar to Danish rock group The Raveonettes. "Dizzy" and "Firefight" are both a return to the bands earlier days. Both of these tracks seem like could of appeared on the bands album Clarity.

While Chase This Light is not as terrible as Futures, it is not a return to its earlier days as Clarity or Bleed American. And maybe Jimmy Eat World will never return to those days of popularity.

Key Tracks:

• Big Casino
• Gotta Be Somebody's Blues
• Dizzy
  

Barcode Brothers

The Barcode Brothers are Christian Møller Nielsen and Anders Øland, a pair coming from Denmark. Their music is engaging and after hearing just a little bit you find yourself salivating for more. The music has a sort of trance quality to it, as it takes a catchy melody and repeats it while building upon it and putting out different variations. The Barcode Brothers only ever made one album, and it's the sort where with each track, it's either an awesome song or a fairly mundane one yet still worth listening to. The thing that sets the Barcode Brothers apart from other artists of the genre is really that their best songs are mind-blowingly extraordinary despite the disappointment of everything that isn't those best ones. They use instruments such as guitars, flutes, and bells together with the well-chosen electronic sounds that make up the bulk of the songs to create music that is easy to listen to repeatedly and actually somewhat meditative.

The best of the Barcode Brothers:

• Flute
• It's a Fine Day
• Dooh Dooh

“It's a Fine Day” is a somewhat paradoxical song, as although the title and lyrics pronounce at first glance how nice of a day it is, the feeling and color of the music, as well as the interestingly chosen background sounds of waves and of seagulls, make the day being spoken of seem like a windy and cloudy day in deep autumn at the grass-covered top of high cliffs overlooking the ocean, perhaps with the singer standing up there wearing a big hand-woven coat. That is, however, a fine day in old Goggin's book. The sound of the chorus, both of the instrumental side and the vocal side, and especially the flute and nonsense vocals, is somewhat haunting in a strangely comforting way. The acoustic guitar forming a very subtle counter melody at certain parts is just one example of “It's a Fine Day”'s complexity and uniqueness.

You can listen to “It's a Fine Day” here.

You must remove the downloaded file from your computer within 24 hours. It is only a sample of a track which you can purchase on a CD. The author of this site cannot be held responsible for the misuse or copyright violation of this song as enforced by any given country's laws.

Dreams Deux

Thank goodness that Neil Young has released a new studio album. Young fans can now forget that 2006's Living With War ever existed. I, like a lot of fans and critics, was not entirely impressed by the album. Living With War was a concept album (the concept was basically bashing the Bush Administration's actions involving war, global warming, and other failings), and while the message was quite strong, most of the tracks were repetitive, and many of them fell short.

Now, in 2007, Neil Young has recorded another studio album, titled Chrome Dreams II. The album is a sequel to the Young album Chrome Dreams that was recorded in 1977, but was never released. The album does not has as much drive or direction as Living With War, but has a more general theme to it, such as his 1970 album After the Gold Rush.

The album starts off with a nice harmonica/guitar ballad in "Beautiful Bluebird", and it is very reminiscent of his song "Sail Away" from Rust Never Sleeps. According to his website, the first three tracks on the album, "Beautiful Bluebird", "Boxcar", and "Ordinary People" were all recorded in the 80's and scrapped from various albums. All of them do form a nice beginning to the album. The most effective tracks on the album are also the longest ones, with "Ordinary People" clocking in at 18:12, and "No Hidden Path" running at 14:33. "Ordinary People" is a song that has been long known by Young's die-hard fans, since it has been performed live a few times, despite never being recorded on a studio album. The track is a song that continuously tells the mishaps and misfortunes of various working and middle class people, with strong backing horns and keyboards filling in between verses.

The album encompasses a wide variety of Young's talents. He touches on his rocking side with tracks such as "Dirty Old Man" and "Spirit Road". The final track on the album is similar to "Our House", from Young's days with CSNY, although the it doesn't quite reach the same highpoint. Young of course includes a few guitar/harmonica driven tracks with "Shining Light" and "The Believer".

Overall, Chrome Dreams II is a very good album. The album is sort of a remembrance of Young in the 80's, touching on albums such as Rust Never Sleepsand FreedomWhile it is more of an album for Young's fans, it is still worth purchasing next time you are at a record store.

Key Tracks

• "Beautiful Bluebird"


• "Ordinary People"


• "No Hidden Path"

O-Zone

O-Zone is a fun band from Moldova, a country in Eastern Europe. O-zone split up in 2005, but before that, the members were Dan Bălan, Radu Sârbu, and Arsenie Todiraş, who have now all gone on to their own individual musical careers. A lot of O-Zone's music is very upbeat and energizing, and in the Romanian languge, although they seem to be the sort of band where a song is either absolutely stupendous, or rather boring. They were never very popular at all in the United States, except for their song “Dragostea Din Tei”, the real name to what many people know only as “The Numa Numa Song” from an Internet video from 2004 that quickly went from dashingly awesome to popular at an unfortunate level.

Anyways, my favorite O-Zone songs:

• Despre Tine
• Dragostea Din Tei
• Ionize
• Sarbatoarea Noptilor De Vara

“Sarbatoarea Noptilor De Vara” is an amusing song with a chorus sort of part that is really quite catchy. It has a pretty simple beat, which sometimes has whistles for some reason, but it works out fine with the rest of the music, which is also somewhat simple. The very subtle notes being played in a constant staccato manner throughout much of the song make “Sarbatoarea Noptilor De Vara” a pleasing song to listen to if you can pick them out. Because of that, I personally would have made them louder. The people going “Iyeee! Whoaa!”, as well as the background crowd of people laughing sometimes, put together with the somewhat back-and-forth aspect of the chorus sort of part makes it a nice song to both listen to and shout “Iyeee! Whoaa!” with your friends in a big car on a sunny afternoon while driving through the town with the music up and the windows down.

You can listen to “Sarbatoarea Noptilor De Vara” here.

You must remove the downloaded file from your computer within 24 hours. It is only a sample of a track which you can purchase on a CD. The author of this site cannot be held responsible for the misuse or copyright violation of this song as enforced by any given country's laws.