Episode 13

Yesterday I went over to my x-wives house to teach her sister how to play a song on the guitar. She wants to play a song from the band Staind called Tangled Up In You for her brothers wedding coming up in a year. She owns her own guitar but has never played it before. I taught her how to tune her guitar with a tuner. The lesson began with explaining the standard tuning on a guitar. In standard tuning on a guitar is the top string is an E and from there on down it goes A, D, G, B then E again. We then went on to learning the 3 chords for the song that she wanted to learn. The first chord was E major. It is an easy beginner’s chord. After she felt comfortable we moved on to the A major cord. This was also a good beginner’s chord. Then we moved on to the hard one, a B Major. I showed her a couple different fingerings for this chord. This was basically the end of the lesson. If she is really serious about playing this song I will probably get a call in a few weeks. If not, that is OK too.

It was brought to my attention recently that I don’t write about God in some form on every album that I write about. In my opinion, God is a part of every song that is created because God has given the gift of music to each of these musicians in some way. As a matter of fact God has given each of us an artistic gift of come kind. Weather it be the gift of working with people or the gift of writing music or painting. It all comes from God no matter how you look at it.

The XX – XX

I really love this album. It is so simple yet complex at the same time. I called it minimalistic because the really interesting parts seem to drop off when the vocals are on. It places focus on the vocalist as opposed to the music. It is not a Christian album but for me it makes me think about being intimate in a personal relationship. I think this way about this album because the two vocalists are male and female and the vocals are quiet and whispered. Also, they are singing about things that I think a couple would do together.

The Dodos – Time to die

This group was a duo until this album. The two original artists in this band are a drummer and a guitarist. On this album they added a xylophonist. The album is really fantastic. The xylophonist adds so much depth to the group. There is also an effective use of polyrhythm. To me the album comes off as a wave or sound that envelopes the listener in a warm blanket.

Falling Up – Fangs!

They are a Christian group that falls in the genre of alternative rock. The music is very experimental but still heavily rock oriented. The lyrics are based on the idea that we as humans may mess things up in our lives but through grace God still loves us all. The sounds that are used on this album in come cases are very bouncy and in others are very smooth but over all it sounds warm and inviting in much the same way that God is written about in the bible.

Radiohead – The Bends

I haven’t listened to this album for a few years. I had completely forgotten about some of the music that was on this album. I remember when this album cam out. I was going to college for the first time and was listening to the radio on the way. It was an independent radio station catering to the alternative sound that was coming out during the mid 90s. This station is now defunct but I do have a replacement now. There are some super gems on this LP. These songs are completely new and fresh for the time that they were released.

Signing off