Weekly Discoveries - Closing Out 2017 Edition

The last couple of weeks have been a fitting anniversary to the Weekly Discoveries project I started at the beginning of 2017. A year ago I found myself frustrated that I was listing to the same (mostly popular) tunes over and over again. I was also shocked that when I did some digging I could find a whole slew of artists I'd never heard of before that made music that was really appealing.

Take Barns County's Fire for example. Here's a toe tapping tune from an artist I'd never heard of, even after spending a year looking for new talent.

And then there's videos like Terraform by Novo Amor & Ed Tullett that are visually stunning and contain music that I'm not even sure how to categorize. I just know that when I heard the song, I had stop what I was doing and listen.

This year I also found myself gaining a more thorough appreciation for many artists that have one or two overplayed songs on the radio. I've come to appreciate that many of the best songs from say, The Lumineers or Vance Joy never make it to the radio. This last week I was definitely feeling some love for Passenger, who with ever song I hear from his new album, reminds me that he's anything but a one hit wonder.

And then there's the whole world of mixes, which string together a dozen plus songs. This may not sound especially creative, but give Klangnomad's Son of Spring and you'll see what a creative and well thought out mix can do. It's an hour's worth of music which leaves me thinking the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. So put those headphones on and prepare to get one heck of an hour of programming time logged.

I tried to focus this last year on music, but ever once in a while I'd come across a skills or humorous video that just had to be captured for posterity. In this vein, I give you: Bitcoin: What it is and How does it work?. I can't emphasize enough how this is 3 minutes and 6 seconds of perfection. Just watch it.

OK, enough talk. Let's listen! Weekly Discoveries 2017-12-17 and 2017-12-24:

Weekly Discoveries of Biblical Proportions

Last week I tripped over The Sound You Need's YouTube channel and found a whole bunch of funky new tunes to enjoy. My favorite, however, has to be Wolf Country by Durante. Wolf Country is proof that you can overlay a biblical sermon on a beat and get a sweet track. Well done Durante.

I'm also really digging Old Man Canyon's Wiser. Though I have to admit that I was a surprised that more of their music didn't resonate with me. But hey, maybe it'll do it for you?

Rock out to all the tunes here:

Weekly Discoveries x3

As a rule, I don't put entire albums in my Weekly Discoveries. Instead, I try to restrict myself to a single song by a given artist. But after watching Odeza perform live on KEXP, and hearing them talk about the best way to appreciate their work, I decided to listening to the entire album a try. And man, does their album A Moment Apart deliver. They take you on quite the diverse musical journey with that album. So pick an hour long task, put on the headphones, and lose yourself in A Moment Apart.

Sure, the music video behind Walk on Water is cheesy. But it's patriotic American cheese. And while some of the faces and scenes in the video are cliche, I give them points for trying to capture our diverse country in a meaningful way.

The visuals in Mr. Probz's Fine Ass Mess feel more like an episode of criminal minds than a music video. But man, there's no denying that he can sing. Sooooooo, smooth. And it looks like our sultry murderer gets hers in the end.

Banner's Someone To You is the high school redemption song I didn't know I needed. If only I had collected up my Trapezoid editing friends to bust some serious moves at Prom, I could have had the same victory as our heroes in this song. And best of all, the video ends with a slight twist that makes for a better than perfect outcome.

Benjamin Booker's Believe has to be seen, to well, be believed. Picture it, a young man in boot camp, trying to make it through a critical training exercise, only to have it interrupted by his younger self dancing his way to victory. Trust me, the video works.

For Shira's birthday, I had visions of a romantic movie date night. Alas, her birthday fell on a packed Monday and my plans of snuggling up to watch a movie would have to wait. Luckily, YouTube delivered a mini version of what I had in mind with 20 Best Romantic Movie Moments. Why watch the whole movie when you can just zip through to watch the good part? And of the scenes in that video what's the most romantic? Why, the When Harry Met Sally scene, of course.

When I first started listening to Saturn by Sleeping at Last I assumed that it was strictly an instrumental piece. The visuals combined with the music totally worked and I was glad to add it to my list. Then the lyrics kicked in and I was more impressed. Then I actually read the lyrics and was even *more* impressed. What a remarkable song about losing someone you love. Any song that contains the lyric: How rare and beautiful it is to even exist is a winner in my book. Definitely worth a listen.

Listen to all the songs: 2017-11-12, 2017-11-26, 2017-12-03.

Weekly Discoveries: Dance Teams, Panda Suits and the Christ Stapleton Reactions

Skip reading this post, and just go watch to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros' Man On Fire. The music is good, but when combined with the visuals, it's just awesome. Didn't that music video improve your day?

I've decided I'll listen to anything Dermot Kennedy or Dean Lewis are singing. I mean, that Dermot Kennedy song, An Evening I Will Not Forget, what is that? It's almost got sort of a rap, lyrical thing going on. Not expected, but really well done.

Kodaline's Ready to Change is almost more short film than music video. It may be a mere 4 minutes and 24 seconds long, but I still find myself rooting for the characters, hoping that they will connect and have the relationship that they so badly deserve.

Nothing says we have to be so serious all the time, right? I give you Galantis' Peanut Butter Jelly. 100 *million* YouTube views can't be wrong. Just click play and smile.

Back in September I marveled at Chris Stapleton's amazing singing ability. Needless to say, I'm not the only one who finds his skills impressive. Check out this reaction video where a couple of non-country fans hear Stapleton for the first time. Priceless.

View the last couple week's discoveries here and here:

Weekly Discoveries - Poetry Meets Music, Sweet Covers and Righteous Dance Moves

The spoke word introduction to Jacob Banks' Unholy War is really something else. It's definitely on the cryptic side, but that only seems to add to it. The fact that there's a song after the introduction is nice a bonus.

Oh Wonder also delivers on the spoken word with All We Do. Many of the short statements intermingled with the music are quite inspiring. A favorite of mine: Find yourself. Lose yourself. And find others...that is how to be human.

This last week was all about the covers. Miley Cyrus (yes, the Miley Cyrus), nailed The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Lorde totally brought it with In The Air Tonight and Ryan Sheridan's version of Wicked Game is masterfully done.

But mostly, last week I just wanted to dance! This video of Flume & Chet Faker's This Song Is Not About A Girl features some dude dancing his heart out to the tune. Perhaps it's just the shy 13 year old boy in me, but every time I see a video like this I can't help but feel that this guy has a special level of courage and chutzpah. Good for him!

And continuing on the dancing theme, I give you: MisterWive's Our Own House. The song is OK, but the dance feud themed video is just too adorable. Its got it all: a leather clad evil dance troupe, a hapless group of newbies and a washed up dance guru who's ready to come out of retirement to save the day. What can I say, not every video has to be an emotion masterpiece.

View All the videos:

And here's a couple videos from the week before:

A Month of Weekly Discoveries

I've found some gems these last few weeks, what I haven't found is a lot of time to blog about them. But here goes.

I'm finding a really do a have a thing for Australian rap music. My latest find: Out of the Blue by Joelistics. It's a great song with solid story telling. Love it.

The Russian Cosmonaut story, which is supposedly based on Yuri Gagarin's first flight, is an excellent bit of storytelling. Alas, the story is almost certainly not true, but why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

Witt Lowry's Last Letter is wicked powerful stuff. It captures the loss of of a loved one to cancer in such a raw and powerful way. Amazing.

On the non-music side of things, do you need this $2.00 USB powered light? That's the question this video tries to answer. I can tell you on good authority that you do. I picked one up a few months ago (well before I saw the video), found it works perfectly as a travel night light. It's super compact and I'm already bringing along USB wall adapters. I plugin the adapter and light int our hotel room's bathroom and I've got just the right amount of light for a 3am potty trip. As the video shows, there are plenty of other uses for these lights, so definitely pick one up and see what you can do with it.

I know it's cheesy, but I just can't help but enjoy listening to Paramore's The Only Exception.

I'm Pickle Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick!. See, it's songs like this one that pretty much ensure I'll never be allowed to work in an office again. Unless these days it's considered normal operating procedure to program and belt out I'm Pickle Rick! at the top of your lungs. Pantless. Yeah, didn't think so.

Hey sis, you can do this with your violin, right? That's some pretty impressive fiddling, if I do say so myself.

In my mind it's official: Passenger is no longer a one hit wonder. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to their entire new album, which I have to say caught me by surprise. If I had to pick one song that I really enjoyed, it would be The Boy Who Cried Wolf. The song is an unexpected and clever take on the tale that gives the song its name. Great stuff and worth a listen.

For the first 50 seconds of Breathe by Lauv I thought it was an OK tune. And then bam! at 51 seconds I was hooked. And just like that, I became a fan of Lauv, whoever that is. Well played Lauv, well played.

The top comment on Chris Stapleton's Tiny Desk Concert says it all: Sooo, apparently I like country after all... . And that's your challenge, listen to Chris and try not to become a fan of country music. His voice. His style. His songs that tell such powerful stories.

Finally, here are two clips that bring the laughs. The first one is a clever twist on what it's like to dine with a vegan, and the second one, well the title says it all: A young man takes his date to an Indian restaurant. To his horror, she goes off-menu in Hindi.. The second one especially is a great piece of hilarious storytelling.

8/20/2017

9/3/2017

9/10/2017

9/17/2017

Weekly Discoveries

With our Epic Boston Adventure in the way, I got a bit behind on my Weekly Discoveries. But there's no time like the present to catch up.

A few weeks back it was Tisha B'av, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar. On this day especially, I wasn't in the mood to rock out. Luckily, YouTube had me covered with such gems as 2 HOURS: Sad Violin and Piano, which filled in the silence nicely. And here's a nice recitation of the book of Eicha, and includes a though provoking introduction. And when all else failed, I listened to folks wailing at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. YouTube never fails to deliver.

The following week things got much more up beat. Enter Shikari by Live Outside was an awesome tune, with an only slightly disturbing video. I also continued rounding out my appreciation of rap music thanks to Briggs, L-FRESH and A.B. Original.

That last tune, Dumb Things is clearly injected with a political message, though issue at hand seems totally foreign to me. I hope message is a positive one, as I really enjoyed listening to the tune. As for more local politics, I'll leave it to you to decide if Naive Bravado by Urthboy describes the current US administration or not.

Pentatonix's channel is filled with videos that have earned 10's of millions of views, so they hardly need one more person heaping praise on them. But man, their rendition of Dancing On My Own was so good, I couldn't help but add it to that week's list.

On the other end of the view count spectrum is EOP Live, a channel filled with interesting, barely watched performances. Take this one by Levi Lowrey; it's terrific. And yet, he's currently at 51 views, 3 of which were probably mine.

I can definitely relate to the awkward but persistent guy in Greatest Love Story. I'm not usually one to dig a sappy love song, but this one pulled me in. It makes me want to stop typing this blog post, call up my wife and tell her that we truly are the Greatest Love Story.

I know it's an advertisement for a candy company, but I found that I couldn't resist adding Making Music With Candy by Andrew Huang to my discoveries list. It's a creative approach to pushing a brand, and Huang makes the video work. And who knows, maybe it will inspire you (or your kids) to go out and make some music.

On the non-musical side of things, I give you 5 Different Ways to Make Bread Over a Campfire by Kenneth Kramm. Kramm is a bit of a YouTube legend (among Bushcrafter's anyway), as he's knowledgeable, creative, thorough and has the screen presence of Mr. Rogers (I mean that strictly as a compliment). A few weeks back, I attempted a bit of campfire cooking myself and the results were pretty horrendous. I vowed I'd beef up my skills before attempting again, and Kramm's video is a solid start. He shows 5 ways to cook bread, surely one of which will give me better results on our next trip.

Watch both sets of discoveries here and here. Enjoy!

Weekly Discoveries

I have no idea what Bang Yong-guk is rapping about in AM 4:44, but I know he's good and I know I'm loving the song. The same goes for Sowa by Fatoumata Diawara. Again, no idea what's being said, but that's not stopping me from rocking out to the music.

Speaking of rap, L-Fresh totally brings it in 1 in 100,000. Apparently Mr. Fresh is a Sikh, and at least this one video is packed full of Sikh imagery. The rhymes are solid, and I appreciate the lack of cussing, which makes this tune quite family friendly.

I couldn't resist adding a Red Means Recording OP-1 video to the bunch. On the surface, these are almost how-to videos, with the goal of the video being to watch a song being assembled on the OP-1 synthesizer. But really, it's so much more than a typical tutorial. In effect, the song creation is a performance in itself, with the final product being a nice bonus. It's all very meta, and very good. Give it a listen.

On the non-musical side of things, I loved Zach Rotondo's 27 McDoubles + 90 Miles Of The Pacific Crest Trail. Can a hiker cover 90 miles of trail eating nothing but McDoubles? You'll have to tune in to find out. Refrigeration is totally overrated.

I also discovered a new fishing YouTuber to watch: Fisherman's Life. He has a cool series entitled Catch and Cook and Camp, where he takes you along as he does just this: catch some fish, cook it up, and stay out in the woods. It's always nice to see folks out doing, rather than just sitting on a couch reviewing gear. Watching videos like these are a great way to scratch that outdoor itch.

See all the videos here:

Weekly Discoveries: Iranian Tunes, Music Powered by Home Depot and a Close-to-Home Fishing Challenge

I find myself returning again,and again to Radio station KEXP's channel to find all sorts of interesting music. Two discoveries last week were performances by Rahim AlHaj and Vieux Farka Touré. Both full concerts offer interesting tunes and a bit of chatter to expand your musical mind. Rahim AlHaj's work is especially moving.

Unstrung13's introducing: the 2x4 lap steel diddley plank! may seem like little more than a walk-through of a homemade musical instrument. But stick with it, at 2 minutes in, you'll get one of the best performances of Bush's Comedown I've ever seen or heard. Especially, when you consider he's basically playing a Home Depot built instrument. Very cool.

On the other end of the spectrum, it's hard to imagine that smooshing 17 musicians, many playing unique instruments into a cubical would make for a pleasant musical experience. But as NPR's Tiny Desk Concert staring Mother Falcon shows, this can totally work. Man there's a lot going on there in a small space.

Georgia by Vance Joy sure packs a lot into one video. But what's it mean? I've got no idea. But I thought this YouTube comment was on to something:

It took me a minute to understand, but I think the video is showing the disconnect between today's young people and previous generations. For most of us in the 'developed' world, war is a distant concept, and something we don't encounter first-hand. The older men on the production team in the video are crying while filming because they had been in war, and war to them is a very real experience. While the young people on the production team are rolling their eyes, or apathetic, and acting like "why are these old guys freaking out? It's just a movie." But for these older men, the scene is more than a movie, it is like reliving a part of their past, and the memories of losing their friends/fellow soldiers. Truly an amazing video to a beautiful song.

I think this similar theme holds for the gay relationship in the video. For the younger generation, it may seem passé, while the older generation may see this sharing love so openly as revolutionary and touching concept.

All I know is, I love Joy's work and find myself cranking his music when I need something familiar and fun.

On the non-musical side, 1Rod1ReelFishing's SURVIVAL FISHING CHALLENGE!!! (NO Lures & NO Bait) is now one of my favorite fishing videos of all time. 1Rod1Reel often pulls amazing fish out of the Tidal Basin, just a few miles from my house and in the middle of DC Monuments. (Side note: when J. was visiting us last week, I took him down to the Tidal Basin to do some fishing. We didn't catch anything, but were easily able to transition to snapping photos of the nearby monuments. Good times!). But this time, he tackled a different challenge: he walked into the woods with nothing more than a rod, reel and a hook and caught himself some fish.

You could quibble if this was a true 'survival' fishing challenge, he did have a rod and reel after all. But that hardly detracts from the video. He shows fishing at it's simplest: find some bait, put it on a hook, and catch fish. He makes it looks so easy and reminds us non-fishermen that this is a skill and knowledge game, not a race to own the most tackle. On top of all that, I've been to the location he was fishing, it's Patapsco State Park and it's located a stone's throw from DC. Next time my Dad's in town and he wants to do some stream fishing, I'll know where to suggest we go.

View all the videos Here:

Weekly Discoveries - On Location Guitar Awesomess, Create your Own 8-bit Music and a 9 Minute Rock Fest

The last couple weeks have been crazy, so here's a twofer: last week's Weekly Discoveries and the week's before. Enjoy!

Apparently dragging a guitar, amp and other equipment out to a beautiful location and playing ambient music is a thing. And it's an awesome thing at that. Check out these examples: Ambient Song #22, AMBIENT GUITAR XIV - Garden #3 and Your Head is a Living Forest. You'd think that once you heard one droning guitar in the wilderness you heard them all, but this isn't so. These videos are both relaxing and quite interesting. It's a genre worth checking out.

Along this theme, check out Arli Ambient Guitar Soundscapes Looping Pedal Demonstration, which shows how one guy can make incredible sounds using a guitar, looping pedals and a few accessories. His on the fly creation is quite remarkable.

I know it's so mainstream, but I'm loving Thunder by Imagine Dragons. OK, the video is a bit too wacky for my taste, but the song is awesome. They keep producing awesome rock-out-music. How do they do that?

Apparently I'm a sucker for clever dancing music videos, and K.Flay's High Enough delivers in that department. The fact that the whole video plays out in a cramped camper only increases my respect for the dancers involved.

I'm not using a fan of 9 minute songs packed with guitar, keyboard and drum instrumentals, but Death of a Coyote Woman by All Them Witches is getting me to re-think my position. This song rocks. It shouldn't work for me, but it does.

You should really take the time to listen to all of Chuck Cannon's songs over at EOP Live. There's plenty of creativity in his songs, and he's got the voice to make them sound great. It was a toss up as to which song to add to last week's Weekly Discoveries. Ultimately, I chose Money Don't Matter, but I could easily have picked half a dozen others. At the moment, Money Don't Matter has 35(!) views. In a universe where a song can have millions, if not hundreds of millions of views, it's easy to forget that there's plenty of music out there that isn't getting much of any love at all.

This last week's discoveries include two videos that talk about creating 8-bit music. One takes the approach of using a JavaScript library, and the other uses beepbox.co. If you're interested in creating 8-bit music (of course you are!), then these two videos provide a simple, non-musician friendly way, to get in the game. Beepbox.co is an especially clever solution, because all you need is a browser window and you're off an running. See, here's what you get if you spend 20 seconds creating a tune. Cool, right?

Check out all the discoveries here and here:

Weekly Discoveries - Electro Swing, Amazing Dance Moves and Kosher Spam

Zebra Corner's take on popular commercials, like Chevy's Millennials is just too perfect. I found the video randomly and it could a couple of watches to realize that he was using Chevy's footage verbatim. Too funny.

I managed to find myself in the world of Swing Music last week, and spent quite a bit of time rocking out to Electro Swing.

One of my favorite videos from the Swing genre has to be Catgroove by Parov Stela. This video is remarkable: to the untrained eye, it appears to be some dude dancing to music in his basement. His dancing is good, I'll grant you that. But what's amazing is that the video has 40 *million* views. I love that I live in a world where someone can amass 40 million views by dancing on lime green carpet with wood paneling in the background.

It's interesting to see how quickly you connect the dots from swing to dubstep; it's all about having the moves.

The tune Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen is a solid one, but the story behind it is even more impressive. The creators of this Yiddish song apparently sold the rights to it for $30 (which they split evenly, as a couple of mensch's would no doubt do). The song was eventually performed by the Andrew Sisters, who turned it into a hit and in the process were the first female vocal group to earn a gold record. The song grossed $3 million dollars. OK, not the most brilliant business decision ever made by a couple of yids.

Say My Name by Peking Duk opens with the pick up line: On a scale of one to America...how free are you tonight?, so yeah, you know it's going to be good. And it didn't disappoint.

The Hilltop Hoods, an Australian Hip Hop Group, has an awesome sound. Check out Higher for a great example. Their song Cosby Sweater is also a solid entry, though Higher seems a bit more serious.

Meet the Canjo, tin-can powered, single string, banjo. What an awesome instrument. This video shows how one can be created in a mere 20 minutes. It's really impressive to watch some spare parts be turned into a music instrument and then listen as a beautiful tune is extracted from it. Here's another great example of this instrument in action.

Not only did I get an introduction to music theory and a better appreciation for how string instruments work, the Canjo also introduced me to Breef - the Kosher variant of Spam. Apparently using a Spam can is pretty common for Canjos, and in doing a bit of research I came across mention of a Kosher version of Spam.

In May 1946, the Chicago Kosher Sausage Manufacturing Company — a Winnipeg-based company — registered a word mark with the Canadian patent office for a canned meat product called Breef.

Neil Feinberg, 74, the last owner of the Feinberg Sausage Co. in Minneapolis, says he’s well familiar with Breef.

"That was the best quality product of the bunch” among kosher canned meats, he says.

“Canned corned beef is like Spam — very similar texture,” explained Feinberg, 74, who is retired and living in Palm Springs, Fla. “Only it was made of beef and had a corned beef flavor to it,” an effect achieved by using the same seasoning from the company’s regular corned beef.

Canned Kosher corned beef, now that's innovation.

See all the videos here:

Weekly Discoveries

Norah Jones's version of Black Hole Sun is definitive proof that her voice can turn any piece of music into something sultry and poetic. I haven't listened to Norah in some time, and now I'm reminded why she was so popular back in the day.

It turns out the band OK Go, a band I'd never heard of until last week, is the definitive champion of music videos. For me, it all started with The One Moment Video, which is an impossibly timed creation. I then started poking around their account and learned that this amazing video is merely par for the course. A few other examples: Upside Down & Inside Out and I Won't Let You Down. Seriously, how do they do all that sans green screens and CGI? My only criticism of OK Go: their videos aren't ideal to work to. To appreciate them, you've got to give them your full attention. But man, is it worth it.

Bleacher's Don't Take The Money and Big Data's Dangerous, are both way over the top videos that are hilarious and remarkable creations in their own right. Dangerous is definitely leaning towards earning itself an R rating, but it's just too perfectly executed to not include it on the list.

Aaron Lee Tasjan's Hard Life contains the perfect line: They give you loose gravel and call it rocksteady. I'm not exactly sure what genre Tasjan falls into: country? folk? I don't suppose it matters, all the does is that he's a fun listen.

Nikki Lane, for me, had two notable songs: Jackpot and Forever Lasts Forever. The first is a fun tune about winning at the gamble of love. The second tune, despite what the title suggests, is a sad song about divorce and the end of a relationship. While the latter may be a better song, I can't help but put the former on my discoveries this week. What, with my wedding anniversary coming up, it seems to apply quite well.

Listen to all the discoveries here.

Weekly Discoveries

Snow Patrol's Called Out In The Dark is a great example of a song that works far better for me because of the video. Had I just heard it on the radio, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. But the video is so endearing, I can't help but appreciate the tune itself.

Last week we were out to dinner at our favorite Etheopian place and I was taken by the music in the background. I asked the waiter about it, and apparently they had a Michael Belayneh CD running. Of course, Michael is on YouTube. He's got quite a few tunes up, and they seem to span genres. This one has an EDM vibe to it, while this one feels almost country. My favorite of the bunch so far is Ashenefe. My Amharic is a bit rusty, so I've got no idea what he's actually singing about. Let's hope it's good things.

Kudos to Michael Franti & Spearhead for their tune I'll Be Waiting. He managed to work the lyric the best things in life aren't things into his song. Truer words have never been spoken. When you need a little pick me up, I'll Be Waiting is exactly what you want to listen to.

On the non-music side, check out Peter Hochhauser's This is not a beautiful hiking video. If this doesn't want to make you grab a backpack and head out on a multi-month adventure, then you have no soul. He does a great job of compressing the highs and lows of walking 2,650 miles(!) into 10 minutes of video.

And for all you foodies out there, check out Jas. Townsend and Son's Parched Corn Videos. Watching a video on parching corn should as exciting as watching paint dry, yet the folks at 17th Century Cooking found a way to make this terrifically interesting. Who knew there could be so much history behind one simple ingredient?

Watch all the videos here:

Weekly Discoveries

Last week I was out on Wednesday and Thursday, which meant that I came back to quite the inbox on Friday. The solution: bagpipe music, obviously. That eventually led me to this song from the movie Black Hawk Down. Great movie, and great tune.

Morgxn's Home is a well done video that captures the both the pain of not fitting in and the joy of finding like minds. It's a solid tune, too.

You know the old story of the two space suit wearing strangers on the street? Well you will after you watch Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness's So Close. I suppose it's sort of related to Morgxn's Home (both in theme and embracing dance), but it's quite bit less intense. Dance off, anyone?

And truly lighten things up, check out Emily Vaughn's MOOD. Next time life's trying to drag me down, I'm so blasting this tune.

Listen to all the discoveries here:

Weekly Discoveries

I find that putting on a long Chillstep Mix is a great way to, well, chill out, when my TODO list feels extra full. This mix provided a much needed hour of mental relaxation last week.

Chris Janson has a couple of well known country songs, but last week I found myself listening to a few albums of his and realized he's got more range than the local radio stations would have you believe. Of all the tunes I listened to, I think my favorite was Take it to the bank.

I wish I could say that I discovered Bill by Exuma because of my eclectic and nuanced taste in music. Alas, I found it because it's the closest version I could find to a song that plays behind a Jeep Commercial. I think the ads are well done, and even though you hear just a few seconds of audio, the song was worth searching out. It's only a minor detail that the Jeep Commercial has seemingly done a 180° with the lyrics and the meaning. The song is supposed to be droning on about how Baal will be your downfall, not the Jeep versioning that sings about being free. Whatever. Just enjoy the tune.

If I was young and feeling like I didn't fit in, I'd want to listen to K.I.D.'s Errors.

On the non video side of things, I give you Rpelton1's Survival Necklace. What I liked about the video was how thoroughly he researched the gear for his project. I'm more a shove all the crap in my pockets and a bag versus a wear it around your neck kind of guy. But still, it's worth a watch if you're a gear aficionado.

View all the videos here:

Weekly Discoveries

Mahalia's Begin Again opens with a lyrical tribute to the challenges of romance in the digital age. Here's her opening verse:

You left a like on my picture
So does that mean you’re flirting with me?
You put something cryptic on Twitter
But I don’t know if I should quote or retweet
I’ve noticed you’re checking my Insta more than often
But, I know you don’t follow me
I see that you follow my sister
Oh is that just so you can pree?

Hmmm, the text doesn't do her justice. Just listen to the song.

And speaking of opening lines, I love Jade Jackson's Finish Line, which opens:

I don't care about things
because they don't care about me

Trust me, it sounds much more impressive when it's crooned out to a country beat.

If you're looking for a Father's Day Theme Song, I've got your answer: Sean Rowe's, I'll Follow Your Trail. Sean continues to support my hypothesis that an epic beard can lead to epic music. At first I thought I'd never heard a voice quite like Sean's, but then someone in the comments reminded me of the Crash Test Dummies. Indeed, they're a good match.

Here's a suggestion: Don't Be Racist.

I love the simple elegance of PJ's, This Is What It Looks Like. It's a positive and powerful song, all while being relatively understated. It pairs well with The Chapters', Moving, which is also a tune about not quite fitting in.

Dame D.o.l.l.a.'s, Bigger Than Us takes an alternative approach, and just hits you over the head with messages of hope and peace. Part of me wonders if the video is so over the top it's almost exploitative. I'm probably just being too sensitive, and should enjoy the song for what it is, a very listenable little jam with a happy message.

I don't exactly know what the deal is with The Beastie Boy's Fight For Your Right (Revisited). But I do know that it has a crazy number of well known actors and actresses that appear in it. You have to watch this little masterpiece to believe it.

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Weekly Discoveries - Epic Beards, Distopian Tunes and a Week in the Sonoran Desert

If you're one to believe in the correlation between epic beards and epic music, then have I got an artist for you: Ben Caplan. There's a lot passion there, and yes, I'm referring to both the music and his beard.

I'm not exactly sure what the deal is with Brother Ali's Never Learn. I think it might be Islamic rock, or something. Regardless, it's got impressive visuals, a solid beat and the most modest video dancers you'll ever see (who also bring the skills).

Underflow is my favorite tune from last week. The video is a bit whacky, and the first 50 seconds or so of music weren't anything special. But after the first listening, I was hooked.

Through the Valley by Shawn James & The Shapeshifters is eerie and gritty stuff. However, it apparently it was popularized by a video game that's far eerie and grittier. It's the perfect selection for the distopian video series you're working on. .

I enjoy a good video field report, especially on days when I'm working and would love to be outside playing. It's worth pairing two unlikely videos together: Tom Mcelroy's Week in the Sonoran Desert and HarleyWood23's Summer Get Home Bag Test.

Both are examples of individuals hitting the great outdoors to test a bit of improvised camping. Tom Mcelroy is a professional, and his video show cases what happens when everything goes right. In fact, you nearly want to dismiss his videos because everything goes so well; that's just not real life. And HarleyWood23 is a YouTuber who, among things, reviews knives and guns. He attempted to spend one night out in the woods, and ended up having to call it quits. The contrast between the two experiences couldn't be more stark. In the end, HarleyWood23's video is worth watching just to appreciate that it's easy to yap on about how effortless camping is, and when reality doesn't always bear this out. While he made some rookie mistakes, good on him for reporting his failures and actually getting out there and trying.

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Weekly Discoveries

The first clip in the bunch, referring to standing desks, was in honor of my new work setup. "'Can't I just work at it and mind my own business?' ... 'No, you being right means everybody else is wrong. That's what your standing desk is saying to the chair people'". The video is just too perfect.

Roo Pane's Open Road makes me want to throw a bag in the back the car and hit the road. Who's up for an epic road trip?

Feeling Good by Gryffin & Illenium does indeed make me feel good. It's the perfect example of a song and artist I'd never hear on the radio.

SonReal has a number of clever and wholly inappropriate songs, but No Warm Up has to be my favorite. If you're looking for an anthem to go with your cocky, overconfident shenanigans this is your tune. I fully intend to utter first try, no warm-up next time I do something unexpectedly great.

The artist known as Wax is downright super human when it comes to rapping. While This One's On Me is more family friendly and upbeat than many of his songs, it's worth taking the time to watch New Crack just to see his skills. Even if he's reciting the entire song from memory, one still has to ask, how'd he do that?. So amazing.

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Weekly Discoveries

Yuna's Unrequited Love is a great example of a song's voice over that pulls me in. I'm not even sure why I like it, but it just feels so right.

Forget Let It Go, my kids movie anthem of choice is Shakira's Try Everything. If the philosophy He Who Fails The Most Wins had a theme song, this is it. Besides, I was trying to think of a catchy tune for our 9 month old to rock out to, and this one came to mind.

If haunting Armenian Folks Music is your thing, I've got you covered with this tune.

Speaking of kids music, ARJ's Weak has an unusual distinction: the first time I heard it was on the Disney XM radio station in my car. I've got preset programmed to it so that I can quickly find kid friendly music. Who knew that a song about giving into peer pressure to drink and do drugs would be a Disney favorite? I suppose as kids you don't appreciate most of the meanings behind most songs you hear. Now I know what my parents must have felt when a song that clearly had a subtext about sex came on, and we'd be rocking out to it as a kids.

Vance Joy's Fire and the Flood was stuck in my head for two days straight. I'm sure Shira appreciated me mumbling the the same 6 words over and over again (in my defense, I was doing it with such feeling!). Finally, I did a listening session of Vance's music and got it out of my system.

I'm going through a John Craigie phase: everything he sings, I love. His quirky, funny music is done so very well. Some favorites include The Silver Lining of Trump as President, The Chuck Norris Song' and Let's Talk This Over When We're Sober And Not at Burning Man. He's one clever musician.

On the non-music side of things, this tarp setup is quite interesting: it basically turns tarp into a tent using a single clever fold. With a big enough tarp, this seems quite functional.

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Weekly Discoveries - Political Rap, Hiking in 3D and Star Wars Awesomeness

I suppose it's more of a re-discovery than discovery, but Sade's No Ordinary Love is a song that transports me back to college every time I hear it. I don't even have a specific memory I associate with the song, it just brings me back to that time for reasons that are beyond me. So powerful.

I get that Oddisee's, Like Really is a political protest song, and an impressive one at that. But it's going to take quite a few more listens before I full process it. The opening lyrics are clear enough, though:

how you past due on payments, and I'm seeing you on vacation
how you gonna make us great when we were never really that amazing
take it back what, I don't find hanging black lives entertaining
...

Agree or disagree with the commentary, it is poetically delivered.

I always enjoy Joe Brewer's outdoor exploits, but one of his most hiking videos is especially interesting: he shot it with a 3D camera. The result is that as the video is playing, you can rotate the perspective, looking essentially in any direction. Is this a leap in film making, or just a gimmick? Time will tell, I suppose.

Bad Lip Reading productions are always pretty awesome, but they've outdone themselves with this Star Wars film: Not The Future. Yes, the lip reading is creative, but more than that, they've made an actually watchable and listenable tune. So well done! For more goodies, check out Bushes of Love and Seagulls!.

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