Greetings and Salutations

Welcome! I’m glad to have you! The fact that you’re on my blog either means that we may share similar opinions on music or you may know me personally. Whatever the case may be, I hope you enjoy these posts/songs and come back often. I heavily encourage you to leave comments and feel free to recommend me any songs or groups that you are partial to. Now onto the music!

I cannot begin to describe how music has been and continues to be an integral part of my life. It has always been there to help me relax, get me pumped up, or help accentuate the good times I have with friends/family. I feel very fortunate to live in this day and age where we access to music so easily. It’s hard for me to think back to the days where you didn’t have the ability to instantly play a song that you felt like hearing right at that moment. I mean hard in that, it was such a drag when I didn’t own the record and had to stumble upon the song on the radio or by some other means. It was equally saddening when you heard a catchy tune but had no idea what the name of it was or who wrote it. Fortunately, those days are long gone and finding good music is so much easier than it used to be.

I will start off where it all began for me. This blog will mainly be dedicated to showcasing alternative/indie artists and songs, mostly under the radar with some more well known groups mixed in. I’m gonna start things off mainstream but I promise we’ll dive into some more material outside of the spotlight shortly. The first song I posted is “Shine” by Collective Soul. It’s the most well known track from their first album “Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid.” But when I listened to it back in the day, cassette was the format of choice for this kid.

I mainly have my brothers to thank for pointing my musical tastes in the right direction. I would often go through their tapes and CD’s they left behind when they left for college. They must have taken the majority of their good albums with them because there were certainly some questionable purchases that I’m not sure they can defend other than blaming it on their youth. There was some good things left over, though, and the first two songs on my blog were examples.

Ed Roland’s “Shine” was a masterpiece to me back then. I must have rocked out to that tape 200+ times when I was in my early adolescent stages. Roland’s voice along with the melody shifts throughout the song. Despite the generally positive flow that exists throughout the majority of the song, there’s enough guitar (mainly in the bridge) to keep it from sounding like a ballad. The highlight for me is definitely the guitar solo at 2:45. I would probably consider it slightly cheesy nowadays (Reminds me of the hair metal days). But at the stage I was in at the time, I loved it! It was so powerful along with the final minute of the song. It has a trademark Collective Soul sounding finish and ends with the guitar hitting hard. Could never get enough of that awesome track and it will always be one of my favorite songs because of how important it was to me back then.

The second song I posted is from the well known rock group Smashing Pumpkins. There isn’t much that hasn’t already been said in terms of how influential and brilliant this band has been over the years so I won’t even try. However, one song that I never remember getting much love, (considering I first heard just back in 2007, a mere 12 years after the album that featured it was released) was “Jellybelly.” It’s the third song on disc 1, and man, do I wish Billy led off with this track. My favorite opinion on this song is from one of the comments of a user on the youtube video featuring it. “Melts your fucking face off,” I think that’s putting it rather nicely, actually!

I believe that poster is referring to the ample dose of guitars in the song. The song is for sure one of Pumpkins’ heavier efforts. Although I stated earlier that I wish this was the opening track of the album, I also think it’s in a good place right after the much softer single “Tonight, Tonight.” The song hits hard right from the beginning and never, and I mean NEVER, lets up. The lyrics are not very inspiring and that is the only knock I would make on the song. Billy saying he feels “so sick I wish I’d die” and there being nothing that can make yourself feel better sends a pretty negative message. But I don’t have a problem with it and we have all at some time (for some of us, multiple times) felt low on ourselves. I wish I could have used some of those negatives vibes to create something so great like Pumpkins did. Enjoy and please leave comments!