Jimmy Eat World has been great for a long time.

Both before and after breaking out with “The Middle” in 2001, Jimmy Eat World has somewhat quietly been making a lot of really good music. Over the years, I’ve slowly acquired a handful of their songs, off of friends’ recommendations and what I’ve heard on the radio. But a few weeks ago I went all out and downloaded their entire discography. It does not disappoint.

While the band’s musical style ranges from driving, drum-pounding rock (i.e. “Pain”) to mellow, melodic, nigh emo (i.e. “For Me This Is Heaven”), one thing that remains constant is the energy and passion wrapped into every line of frontman Jim Adkins’ lyrics.

From their 2001 album Bleed American, “A Praise Chorus” is a really cool song, but I also love it for what it is: A literal praise chorus. This song is how the band tips their collective cap to some of their favorite groups and songs that inspired them to make music in the first place. The first two verses contain a great message (as always) about living in the moment rather than worrying about missing out, and I think the stuttered lines are a pretty neat effect too. Then, starting with the line “Crimson and clover/over and over”, they allude to seven different songs of inspiration (Wikipedia has a cool breakdown here) before it ends with a repetition of the chorus. Really love what they do here, and furthermore, the song is endlessly catchy by its own merit.

For something a little more chill, “Movielike” (Invented, 2010) is sweet, sweet ear candy. The way the chorus ends, with vocals blending into big guitar splashes, makes me smile every time. And the lyrics are so relatable, describing that realization that real life doesn’t always go the way it does in movies. I’ve been walking around singing that “Ohhh” as the song ends for days.

One more upbeat one, for good measure: “Big Casino” (Chase This Light, 2007) is definitely one of my favorites. Seriously, how great is the line, “There’s lots of smart ideas in books I’ve never read/When the girls come talk to me I wish to hell I had”? I love the big booming bass line throughout the song and just how happy it sounds. This one definitely gets me bobbing my head along as I listen.

These are just a few highlights, and with a new album, Damage, in the works (to be released next month!) I’m pretty excited to keep listening. Even though some of their music is 10 and 15 years old, it’s always fun to discover a band like this as if they’re brand new.

twenty | one | pilots

There are some bands that I’ll listen to where, I’ll fully acknowledge, my first impression of them is: This is weird.

Twenty One Pilots (or, twenty | one | pilots, as they stylize it) fits in that category, for sure. Even after having listened to a bunch of their music, and getting a better idea of their sound, I still feel that way. Vocalist Tyler Joseph’s style of rap (if we can call this rap) is… unexpected. It’s loud and grating at times. Maybe even cacophonous in moments. This is like… not “user-friendly” music (can music be described that way)? But at the same time I’m really getting into it.

And along with the “rap” parts, it can get intense and screamy too. But, I dunno, it just works. It’s right. His screaminess is not the kind of teenage angst screamo screaming, but just like, a zenith of intensity in his lyrical delivery?

Or maybe that’s total bullshit, and I’m just trying to justify why I like it. My buddy Tym, who turned me on to this band, describes it “like rainbows exploding in your ears”… which, yeah, I could go for that.

“Holding On to You” is complex. There are all of these disparate “segments” of the song that are ligated together abruptly, with or without significant bridges or transitions. It keeps your on your toes—which, more and more is how I’d describe this band’s music in general.

And the song of theirs that I just discovered today is “Car Radio”. I’m linking the video because I think it’s powerful. Then again, I’m a total sucker for songs like this one, with lengthy instrumental breaks in the middle, gradually rising in melody and intensity, where it feels like the whole song is suspended just before a climactic finish… and the video mirrors that feeling wonderfully with the scene of the motionless crowd starting around 2:30. I love the feel of this video. Even if the rest of it has a total emo vibe with the head-shaving and the aloneness. Ah well.

Like I said, I fully acknowledge that this stuff is weird (unique? distinctive?), but I like it. So I thought I’d share it with you. Maybe you won’t feel the same way.

Reviewing the 2013 Grammy performances

Stream of consciousness thoughts and a meaningless rating out of 10 for each live performance as I watch the 2013 Grammys. Personal bias fully acknowledged on these reviews. In order of appearance…

1. Taylor Swift performing “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”… 7/10

A crowd-pleasing song to start the show, I guess. What was with the dancers and the props though? It was like an Alice in Wonderland and/or circus sort of thing going on, but it was really bizarre and kinda didn’t fit with the theme of the song, right? Taylor sounded very good, almost to the point where I sorta wondered if she was lip synching. She’s always good live.

2. Ed Sheeran and Elton John performing “The A Team”… 8/10

A somewhat raw, stripped-down performance of a raw, stripped-down song. The combination was a little strange, but they sang well together and overall it sounded good. Elton’s piano was honestly a little overpowering at times, but Ed Sheeran has a great voice and sang his song very well. A great performance of the song.

3. fun. performing “Carry On”… 6/10

Right off the bat, I’m disappointed they didn’t perform “Some Nights”, which was the far more popular and well-regarded song this year, right? “Carry On” isn’t bad, but it’s not quite as dynamic and intense of a song. Lead singer Nate Ruess has good stage presence, though, and sings well. His band played with energy and made it sound good. Ruess had some trouble staying on pitch at times, and overall I didn’t feel like the performance brought down the house down.

4. Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley performing “Home” and “Over You”… 5/10

Miranda’s voice was a little shaky to start, but she picked things up. Dierks was good but not great. The performance overall felt a touch uninspired, like there just wasn’t quite enough energy. Maybe it’s that the song doesn’t fit the ranges of their voices or something, like neither of them were really singing loudly or with tremendous emotion. Overall it gave the performance a bit of a “blah” feeling.

5. Miguel and Wiz Khalifa performing “Adorn”… 4/10

Who is Miguel? What is this song? Never heard of this. Kinda cool that they started out in the crowd. Miguel has a good voice but he was trying too hard here and just swung and missed at times. Not the most ear-pleasing performance. Wiz was good, he sounds just the same recorded or live, but it’s pretty good. The performance was really short, too. Also, how weird is it that these two guys were the ones to introduce the Best Country Solo Performance Grammy? How non-sequitur is that?

6. Mumford and Sons performing “I Will Wait”… 8/10

Was looking forward to this performance before the show started – the other live performances I’ve seen of Mumford have always been great. Did it sound like the lead guitar was out of tune or something? Kinda sounded weird at the beginning. I liked the little breakdown at the first chorus right before the big instrumental. All the live musicians were great, especially the banjoist — he was killing it up there. I liked the simple backdrop of lighting behind each performer. A great performance, not show-stopping but very good overall.

7. Justin Timberlake performing “Suit & Tie” and “Little Pusher Love Girl”… 10/10

Not crazy about the first song, but Justin is awesome onstage. Loved the black-and-white theme and the snappy dressing. Cool dancing, great musicians backing him up. Jay-Z is good at what he does, even if I’m not a fan. His rap interlude was very good. I got really into this performance after the transition to JT’s new song, though. I loved the string section that like, rose up out of the floor to back him up. “Little Pusher Love Girl” is a great song for live performances, and JT and all of his backup vocalists were full of energy and swag. All in all, this was a great show.

8. Maroon 5 and Alicia Keys performing “Daylight” and “Girl on Fire”… 7/10

I’m also disappointed this performance was “Daylight” and not “Payphone”, but what are you gonna do. Adam Levine is another natural onstage, and puts on a good show. Daylight is a little more laid-back and sounded great. Then Alicia Keys came in with the weird drumming and the song change and I didn’t feel like it played quite so well. She’s a great singer too, though, and definitely sounded good. I liked the performance more when it focused on “Daylight”. But overall, the duet of Keys and Levine played out pretty well. A good performance but I think I would have just preferred Maroon 5 by themselves.

9. Rihanna and Mikky Ekko performing “Stay”… 9/10

Wow, this is not what we’re used to seeing from Rihanna, right? She can really sing (which we already knew), but she can definitely make the slow, introspective kind of song work great for her too. I really, really liked this performance. Way better than most of her other stuff. And, in the words of my sister, “she looked unusually classy… normally she’s a hot mess”. This was very nearly a show-stopping, career-making kind of performance, such a departure from what she had been doing recently. Excellent.

10. The Black Keys performing “Lonely Boy”… 7/10

The Black Keys put on a unique show. I guess they’re the kind of group that belongs squarely in the category of “alt rock” – they have their distinctive quirks. What the hell was the keyboardist wearing on his head? There was a cool scene to their performance, with the big marching bass drums in the background and the in-your-face bass guitar licks. The song is catchy, and the lead singer, while unremarkable, carries the group pretty well.

11. Kelly Clarkson honoring Patti Page and Carole King… 6/10

To be honest, I can’t really assess this performance for how well it paid tribute to the artists it was intended to honor. I have never heard of Patti Page, and I know like one song by Carole King. I’m a little tired of Kelly Clarkson, but she does have a great voice, and she sang the tribute songs well. I had to rely on Wikipedia to find the connection between (You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman and Carole King…turns out she co-wrote the song. Huh. Kelly Clarkson is a poor substitute for Aretha Franklin, but it wasn’t a bad performance.

12. Bruno Mars, Sting, Rihanna, and Ziggy Marley performing “Locked Out of Heaven” and Bob Marley tribute… 4/10 (mostly for the first part)

This performance started out well, anyways. “Locked Out of Heaven” has really grown on me recently, and Bruno Mars is another one of those guys who’s always dynamic live. Sting… was weird. He and Bruno are very, very different singers and hearing the second verse of this song coming from Sting legitimately made me laugh. It was awkward.
But then they transitioned into the really, really weird Bob Marley tribute. Now, admittedly, I have never, ever been a fan of Marley or reggae in general, but this performance just got out of hand. It was certainly energetic, but I just was not into it at all. I know they were trying to pay tribute with this cool new mix of artists and musicians, but… yikes. I’m sure a Marley fan probably enjoyed this performance a lot more than me, but it really didn’t do it for me.

13. The Lumineers performing “Ho Hey”… 6/10

You can tell these guys just have a good time playing music and being super chill. The performance was a little raw, but went over pretty well. There was some trouble with the sound mixing, though – you could hardly hear the guitars or anything… it just didn’t sound very together. I really like this song, but the performance was underwhelming.

14. Jack White performing “Love Interruption” and “Freedom at 21″… 3/10

This was pretty rough around the edges. In the first half of the performance, Jack and his female duet were having some trouble staying on key, but the musicians backing him up did a nice job, and she had a nice voice. Then a total shift of gears to this hardcore, driving rock totally turned me off. I’ve never been a Jack White fan, but this was the kind of performance you think of when you think “hard rock” and dudes smashing guitars on the ground at the end of their set. It was loud and obnoxious and intense and I couldn’t take it. I can appreciate the energy and intensity of the performance, but the music itself was lost on me. I’ve never been a hard rock fan, but this was out of control. Shrug.

15. Carrie Underwood performing “Blown Away” and “Two Black Cadillacs”… 5/10

I’m actually a big fan of “Blown Away” despite the fact that I don’t normally gravitate toward the country genre. Carrie chose to perform an acoustic version of the song, and I felt it was a little lacking, really. I like the upbeat, powerful nature of the recorded version – it completely fits with the lyrics describing a tornado tearing through a house. I wasn’t blown away (no pun intended) by the second song, but she sang well and the crowd certainly seemed to appreciate it. It was kinda cool how the lighting on her dress matched the design on the backdrop. Neat effect.

16. Large group tribute to those who passed away in 2012… 8/10

Overall, a nice medley and a good tribute. Of note: Zac Brown sounded great singing the first verse of “The Weight”. Elton John’s rockin’ piano permeated throughout. Other vocalists were a little shaky, but all told, for such a large and disparate group of performers, the rendition really went off pretty well.

17. Frank Ocean performing “Forrest Gump”… 5/10

Ehhhhhh… I appreciate the minimalist performance, which mostly focused on Ocean’s voice. I wanted to like it, but both he and his keyboard missed quite a few notes and it was pretty dissonant at times. The whistled conclusion was kinda a cool effect. This was sort of bizarre.

18. LL Cool J and friends concluding the show… 2/10

Yeah no. Travis Barker is an insanely awesome drummer, but that was the only part of this performance I liked. That and LL’s buddy who was wearing the Pirates hat. Right on. The rest… yeesh. My favorite part was when the credits interrupted it and it ended early.

Justin Timberlake definitely wins in my book for best performance of the night, but Rihanna surprisingly came in a close second. I love the Grammys and I love that such a menagerie of artists perform. It’s a great tribute to the year in music. Already looking forward to next year.

Imagine Dragons are not a one-trick pony.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for months, you’ve certainly heard Imagine Dragons’ breakout single, “It’s Time”. It’s a cool song, from the highly infectious mandolin strains to the clap-along-at-home drumbeat. It always kinda reminded me of The Killers — and the lead singer’s voice even sounds a bit like The Killers’ Brandon Flowers, if he were yelling. Turns out both bands are from Las Vegas, too, so that’s cool.

“It’s Time” sounds like a typical modern rock-esque song you’d hear on the radio, catchy and repetitive, bright and uptempo, etc. But more recently I came across another Imagine Dragons song that’s not so familiar-sounding. It’s called “Radioactive”, and it is wicked. Nevermind that the little intro sounds oddly like Coldplay — just wait until the beat drops 28 seconds in.

This is such a genre shift from “It’s Time”, but I love it. “Radioactive” encapsulates a sort of spiritual rebirth in the allegory of waking up in a post-apocalyptic world, all done in a style that’s closer to trip-hop.

Anyways, the point is Imagine Dragons can make music that sounds like The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” or like AWOLNATION’s “Sail”, with a lot of stuff in between. If you’re into that sort of thing, I’d definitely recommend checking out their full-length album, Night Visions.

Hearts and dreams are tricky things.

This holiday season meant plenty of road tripping for Becky and me, as we visited family in 3 different cities. It’s a bummer, though, that we don’t agree much when it comes to music – which usually means that only one of us is happy with the soundtrack for the drive. When it’s Becky’s turn, we generally tune the satellite radio to The Highway, the modern country station, and leave it there.

Like any other radio station, there’s a shortlist of songs here that are played over and over, so at the very least I’ve started to recognize a lot of them. I’ve never much been a fan of country music (despite the fact that my wife, dad, sister, and brother all are), but occasionally a song will catch on with me and force its way into the very short country music playlist in my iTunes. This month, it was Eli Young Band’s “Even If It Breaks Your Heart”:

I woke up today with this song stuck in my head, having heard it sporadically in the car over the last few weeks, without even knowing the name of the song (though I could guess) or the artist. (Incidentally, Eli Young Band is named by the combination of frontman Mike Eli and guitarist James Young, not someone named “Eli Young”.) The song tells a simple story of a young boy who finds his heart captured by every last song on the radio, sparking his own dream of becoming a musician. There’s a nice little message here just urging you to never give up on your dreams, even when you struggle, and a familiar-sounding chorus is repeated often enough to have you singing along by the end of the song.

If it sounds like this song is autobiographical in nature, then you’re probably right — though it was penned by neither Mr. Eli nor Mr. Young. In fact, the song was originally recorded by Will Hoge before Eli Young Band picked it up and recorded what became a very popular cover. If you’re curious, the original version is here – It sounds quite similar, though Mr. Hoge has a somewhat softer, wispier voice, which imparts a slightly different affect to the song overall:

In a total contrast of genres and styles, I can’t help but draw a lyrical comparison between this song and “Don’t Let it Break Your Heart” from Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto (an album I have previously discussed). While Eli Young acknowledges that you must push on, “even if” your heart is broken, Coldplay encourages, instead, that you “don’t let” such difficulty break your heart in the first place… (Well, I’m amused by the linguistics, anyway). Where Eli Young’s rendition is laid back and free flowing, Coldplay instead brings us high-energy, driving, synthy powerpop. Nevertheless, it’s a great song, too, so here it is (Coldplay has, for some reason, kept their new music off of Grooveshark, so it’s Youtube instead.)

In any case, don’t give up on your dreams, regardless of whence your inspiration comes.

Who says unrequited love can’t be fun and folksy?

No one, that’s who.

Try to listen to this song just once. Go on, I dare you.

Is that not the cutest thing you’ve ever heard? And I love the way the band’s drummer describes their musical style: “We’re not reinventing the wheel or doing anything that different, the songs are super simple.  Anyone who can play an instrument can play a Lumineers song.” And the music video is just the band walking through a big house playing the song in the middle of a big party, and there’s confetti and people singing and dancing along. It looks like so much fun. I wanna do that. Who wants to form a folk band with me?

Take a walk. Talk a walk. Take a walk.

Passion Pit is one of those bands that I’ve always heard about as being pretty good, I should check them out, I’d like them, etc. But it’s so much easier to just keep listening to the same music you know you like than to try new things, right? So I hadn’t really sought them out. Ah well.

“Take a Walk”, the lead single from their new album, came on AltNation on the radio in my car the other day, so I listened to it. It’s got a cool sound – I like the synthy runs throughout. Reminds me of MGMT. But the verses kinda lose me a little – they’re a bit lengthy and uninteresting. And for some reason the non-rhyming lines annoy me… but the bridges and chorus are good, if not overly repetitious.

Man, I’m writing a pretty lukewarm review here. It’s one of those songs where I like the sound, but I’m not gonna listen to it over and over. Do Passion Pit have other songs worth listening to?