Alizée

When you have found yourself to be weary after a tough and aggravating day, it is only natural that you might want to recover with a remedy that is soft and soothing. “But Goggin,” you might ask, “What could possibly be both soft and soothing?” Well, nothing is softer than the French language. And nothing is more soothing that the music of Alizée Jacotey, who goes by the stage name of simply Alizée. Her music is a mysterious milkshake that invokes dark and calming colors such as black or deep blue. The songs carry with them a balanced pairing of powerfully continuous bass notes and upbeat drums, both surrounding the enchanting vocal melodies and a few electric guitars thrown in here and there. Now, you might ask where one could find such music. “Right here in my hand,” would be my reply, if the keys I now press to type this sentence could be considered to be in my hand. If that is true, it then follows that such music is also in your hand, the hand you are using to control your mouse, touchpad, or rollerball device.

My favorite Alizée songs:

• J'en Ai Marre
• J.B.G.
• C'est Trop Tard
• J'ai Pas 20 Ans!
• Moi... Lolita
• Veni, Vedi, Vici
• Youpidou

“J'en Ai Marre” is an especially transcendent composition, and definitely my favorite Alizée song. The way that it opens with the violin and guitar pairing, next adding the drum and bass lines with such a peaceful greeting, then finally becoming the actual song, sounds like the timeless juxtaposition of clouds and mountains. According to an unreliable source, the song is about something along the lines of “in heaven I am fed”. Although I do not really know any French, and so do not know what the words are really about, I like to think that “J'en Ai Marre” is the story of an enormous French man with little glasses, a man who loves to eat. He spends his days as a connoisseur, traveling the French countryside in search of both new and familiar dishes to dine upon. Unfortunately for this man, he is attacked one day by a stranger from another land. After a lengthy duel that is brutal to both parties, the French man collapses and never gets up again. He is in heaven, and it is there that he can forever partake in his great passion, eating.

You can listen to “J'en Ai Marre” 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.

American Idol 6 Finale - Jordin Sparks - This Is My Now * HD

A dream come true.

Last year American Idol did something they have never done before, they produced the youngest winner in American Idol history at seventeen years old, her name is Jordin Sparks. Now that the new season is approaching a lot of people thought that she was just another shadow from the American Idol curtain because of the overdue album, but just when you thought she was not going to show she comes with a powerful song titled Tattoo. In American Idol Jordin never once entered the bottom two or three, saying a whole lot to the people who doubted that she would be the next Idol. At seventeen and standing well over her peers, Jordin has the music industry at her feet. Jordin is not only an amazingly powerful singer but she also models for a plus-size women clothing line, Torrid. It seems to me that this plus-size girl is doing more than plus-size things. I watch American Idol religiously and I have to be honest about not liking Jordin at first but I have come to love the youngin' and respect the fact that she is beating the odds by being a plus-size singer and showing everyone that she can do anything she wants. With the powerful and elegant voice to go with her bubbly attitude she can't help but be loved, although she never felt so much love before. Jordin went through the typical weight issue that most people go through. In high school Jordin towered over her classmates and told everyone that she often felt out of place. Even though she was different she had the loving support of a family and friends that stood by her side all the way. All the way through American Idol and still standing by her today. In the final show she was in tears because of the love she was given on stage and by the judges, this was obviously a dream come true for a girl who faced a big obstacle that many people fear to take on. I am very proud of the girl even though I have never met her. I can foresee a lot of great things coming towards this amazingly beautiful singer in the future.

Neoton Familia - Hegyirabló, Santa Maria

“Hegyirabló” is a rather fascinating song, with its back-and-forth methodology and the singing of a man with one of the lowest and most resonating voices I've heard pretty much everywhere. The voice sounds like it's at the bottom of a swimming pool filled with delicious molasses and is surfacing to breathe every now and then. The supplemental strings and brass add a pleasant roundness to the song, as do the parts with several people singing in unison. The constant bass drum gives “Hegyirabló” a pleasant constantness, and the way that both the vocals and the other melodic segments of the song arrive in chunks on the beats makes the whole composition sound like the heartbeat of the Earth Mother.

You can listen to “Hegyirabló” 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.

“Santa Maria” is another Neoton Familia favorite of mine. It too has back-and-forth singing as well as mulitple people singing in unison, both aspects of vocals that I am particularly fond of in music. The melody is rather simple and somewhat monotonous much of the time, causing it to in some ways take a back seat to the excellent bass line. That bass line is one of the grooviest and addictive bass lines to be found, and when coupled with the simple yet effective drum beat, forms a driving force that propels the song along its fantastic way. The chorus, where the only words are “Santa Maria”, is musically pleasing and fun to listen too. The violin instrumental about halfway through is quite beautiful as well. Overall, “Santa Maria” is an awesome song in the original sense of the word.

You can listen to “Santa Maria” 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.

Dylan Live!

Last night, I was able to see the one, the only, Bob Dylan in concert! The concert was held Assembly Hall in Bloomington. While Assembly Hall is a great building, I was disappointed that the concert was not held in the Indiana University Auditorium. If you have ever seen a concert at the IU auditorium, you understand my disappointment. The IU auditorium is an amazing place to experience a concert. I remember the first time I walked into the IU auditorium. By eyes grew large, my mouth dropped open, and I was awestruck. I was hoping for this to happen again when seeing Dylan; but overall, Assembly Hall a decent concert atmosphere.

Due to hectic traffic, I missed the first opening act Amos Lee. However, I did arrive in time to catch Elvis Costello. Costello performed an acoustic act by himself, and simply brought the house down. He came out rocking with the song "(The Angels Want to Wear My) Red Shoes". There was a good variety of songs, switching between upbeat rockers and slow ballads, such as his hit song "Allison". Costello interacted with the audience quite a bit, by talking between almost every song. He told stories about his children, previous wives, and Governor Arnold Schwarchenegger. Since he was playing at Indiana University, he said at one point, "I hope you all kick some ass tomorrow in your football game against Penn State." After some cheers from the audience, he replied with, "I have no idea what that means, they just told me to say that." Overall, Costello was a great 2nd opener.

Now this was my third time seeing Dylan live. The first time seeing him was a bit of a disappointment, due to the fact that he was on the side of the stage, not even facing the audience, or playing his guitar. This time around, Dylan's performance was much better. He played guitar for his first 4-5 songs, and actually played in the middle of the stage. He has a great backing band, who rocked and jammed on "Ballad of a Thin Man", "Highway 61 Revisited", and "Summer Days". Four songs came from his most recent album Modern Times, which were all performed well. An interesting thing to note was that Dylan's most famous songs, "All Along the Watchtower" and "Like A Rolling Stone", which are both regulars in his live performance, were both omitted from this concert. A song that caught be by surprise was "Blowin' in the Wind". It was the second song of the encore, and I didn't even recognize it until almost a minute into the song. The song was sped up, and had a country sort of twang to it.

Overall, the concert was very enjoyable. I look forward to seeing Dylan live again in concert, after seeing him live, the same goes for Elvis Costello. While I'm sure Dylan's live show is not up to the level it used to be, it was still great a music legend and my favorite artist perform live.

Neoton Familia

Another great band from Hungary is Neoton Familia, and one of my favorite bands as well, up there in the top tier where all are so great that a number one cannot be determined. In fact, one of the best CDs I ever owned was Napraforgó, which I bought when I went to Hungary. I conclude that Napraforgó means sunflower in Hungarian, judging by all the sunflowers that show up in Google Images when I search it, as well as the big sunflower on the cover of the CD case. I was quite upset when I lost it a year later, but luckily I always copy all the tracks to my computer as soon as I can when I obtain a new CD. A lot of their music sounds rather yellow or brown, and usually a happy feeling emanates from most of the songs. Neoton Familia is apparently Hungarian for The Newton Family, so I suppose that its many members are all in the same family. It is hard to find information about them, but I can tell you that they are mostly from the 70's. Their musical style is a sort of vaguely disco-like sort of somewhat early 80's rock in a way. In other words, it sounds like nearly every song is about “this is how the world is, isn't it great?”. Sometimes when my friends hear my playing Neoton Familia, they tell me, “Goggin, there is a reason that this type of music went out of style.” Well, I do not see why I should care that the music I like is not “in style”. Any music that is good music is always in style here in Gogginland.

My favorite Neoton Familia songs:

• Don Quijote
• Egy Huszas Eleg
• Egy Kicsit Szemtelen
• Forrófejű Lány
• Ha Szombat Este Táncol
• Hegyirabló
• Nyár Van
• Robinson
• Santa Maria
• Szia! (Helló!)
• Tini Dal
• Visz a Hajó, Fúj a Szél

As you can see by this bountiful list, Neoton Familia really rocks old Goggin's socks. You may look forward to reading more about some specific songs, what are perhaps the best of the best, when you tune in next time.

Groovehouse

Groovehouse is a mystery. What dear old Goggin means by such a statement is that although there are several Groovehouse music videos on YouTube, the small amount of information available on the Internet, mostly from their own website, is all in Hungarian, which I cannot read. What I can tell you, dear reader, is that Groovehouse is from Hungary, is still active, and that the names of the two members may or may not be Miki and Zsolti. There seems to be a fair amount of quality electronica from Hungary, and Groovehouse is the best that I've heard. A lot of their music sounds black and purple, a result of the strong bass and the particular synth sounds they use. I also like the way that the language of the lyrics sounds, perhaps because of the flowing vowels, and because I do not know what any of the words mean, it becomes easier to hear the vocals more as another instrument of the music and less as just words on top of the music. It is important in good music that the vocals contribute to the overall composition as one of the instruments and not as fundamentally unnecessary words that add no true value to the song, no matter what language the lyrics are in.

My favorite Groovehouse songs, although I haven't heard very many:

• Álom
• Vándor
• Olla-Olla
• Szívvel Lélekkel

Vándor is a good example of what Groovehouse sounds like. It has a muscular beat and bass, setting a good foundation for the vocals and the rather subtle instruments. The piano counter-melody adds a very beautiful touch to the song. If I knew what the words of the song meant, the video would probably make more sense, but already I can tell that it has something to do with a bad man in medieval times, a hero man, some sort of creepy wizard man, and an ornate princess lady. The sound of Vándor fits the feel of many hundreds of years ago quite well, despite its modern sound.

Rasputin

“Rasputin” is one of the most famous songs of the 70's group Boney M., the members of which are Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett from Jamaica and Maizie Williams ad Bobby Farrell from the West Indies. Although they have a fairly large number of songs that are traditional songs, especially Christmas songs, Boney M.'s music is mostly disco-like with a few songs containing elements of folk songs. For example, “Rasputin” contains segments of the Turkish folk song “Uskudara Gider Iken”. It is a highly catchy song about the legendary Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin. The pacing and rhythm of the vocals fits stupendously with the steady drum beat, making the song easy to follow and easy to remember. Although the music is mainly gold-colored guitar and light green strings, “Rasputin” has an overall color of off-white. Listening to this song reminds one of a valley filled with dancing cossacks and Rasputin up front singing about himself in the third person. The music video personifies some of this feeling with some nice dancing and cool-as-custard facial expressions by Bobby Farrell. With entertaining lyrics and music that sticks in your head with a death-grip, it's a very cool song. By the way, it gets cut off by the video, but that last line is “Oh, those Russians”.

A few other Boney M. songs that I like:

• Daddy Cool
• Belfast
• Ma Baker

Two Downloads

While searching the vastness of the internet, I have come across a few downloads worth mentioning. The first is the newest from the Flaming Lips, "I Was Zapped by the Lucky Super Rainbow". The song is from the soundtrack to the the movie "Good Luck Chuck". Since the soundtrack included the likes of Olivia-Newton John and Pepper, I decided to avoid the soundtrack at all costs, and just downloaded "...Rainbow" as a single off iTunes for $.99. The song is catchy and upbeat, similar to their single "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" off At War With the Mystics. The lyrics are about a guy talking about how lucky he is to of found the girl he is with. I would assume that this song goes along somewhat with the movie "Good Luck Chuck", however, I can't be sure, since the only thing I know about the movie is it stars Jessica Alba.

For the second download of the week required a bit of digging, and I was able to find the track as a bootleg. On September 19th, Bob Dylan performed at the Ryan Auditorium, in Nashville, Tennesee. The track is a song on which Dylan brought up on stage Jack White of the White Stripes to guest on the song "Meet Me in the Morning" off Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, a personal favorite album of mine. According to a Dylan site that has kept track of Dylan's setlists over the years, this is the first time that "Meet Me in the Morning" has ever been performed. White does more than simply guest on this song by taking the lead vocals, and even taking some of the lead guitar licks. White gives and upbeat kick to the vocals, with the backing band rocking out behind him.

Frontier Psychiatrist

Sometimes you might come across a song where somebody mixed a bunch of samples from one or more sources over a drum beat and called it music. These compositions are typically not so good to listen to in actuality. The Avalanches, an Australian band that does just this for the most part, is on the higher end of the spectrum with songs like these. One song in particular, “ Frontier Psychiatrist”, stands out from the pack as a phenomenal mix, having superb usage of music and samples making up a track that is jolly good fun to listen to as well as somehow being both energizing and calming at the same time. And to further raise “Frontier Psychiatrist” to greatness, it has one of the craziest and well-made music videos ever. Having visuals like this to a song that is made of essentially arbitrary clips of dialog and sound effects really helps one to notice and keep track of all the things going on, many of which might not be really noticed otherwise. Not only that, but a lot of the elements to “ Frontier Psychiatrist” are simply so odd or unconnected to the rest of the track that the viewer will probably think to themselves, “This is quite unusual! Why does that old man have a turtle's body? What is going on here? This is all so strangely delightful! And the monkey! The monkey is rather frightening!” Although the song is nearly four and a half minutes long, which is slightly longer than a standard track, it is so full of new and varied bits and pieces to notice and think about that when the video ends, the viewer will be somewhat disappointed that it has to be over already. Another good song by The Avalanches is “Since I Left You”, the eponymous track to their first album from 2000. It's also their only album, but apparently they are working on another.