Top Ten Thursday: The Super Bowl of Music

Apparently there has been a big stink about the NFL going after bars and restaurants for advertising “Super Bowl” parties, as well as anyone having “Super Bowl” specials at their respective businesses.  The NFL has a pigskin-sized object lodged so far up their ass, they insist on controlling any iteration of the phrase “Super Bowl”.  Well, screw you NFL.  LxL will not succumb to your tyrannical ways.  This is our Top Ten list: Super Bowl Edition.  This is not the most proper top ten list.  Instead, we decided to take the top 5 most notable bands from Denver and Seattle, and have them square off to see who achieves supremacy in the musical realm.  Denver’s list is so weak we even allowed for bands from the entire state of Colorado in an attempt to even the playing field.  So without further ado, here are the matchups and the winners.
The Starting Lineup

John Denver (Denver) vs. Bing Crosby (Seattle)

Top Ten Thursday: Masters Of Originality

With the release of Nine Inch Nail’s new album, as well as the random tracks that artists like M.I.A. and TV On The Radio have been dropping lately, we thought the topic of original artists was a good thing to focus on this week. Artist in particular that unmistakably have their own sound. Vocally, musically, production-wise; upon the first moment you hear it, you know who it is. Something that didn’t exist prior to, and something that even if attempted to be replicated, it has not happened in the same fashion since. In this respect, artists such as The Beatles or Led Zeppelin (who were extremely original for their time but have been copied a billion times over) don’t exactly qualify. Naturally this lends itself to be a very current list, but we would love to hear any arguments as to what we missed. Now onto the list of what we find to be the most uniquely original artists in music:
10. Mystikal

LxListening: All That Jazz

For some, jazz music is merely a cacophony of nonsensical noise. To others, it is heaven by way of music. Not that I have ever felt the former, but the more I listen to jazz and make it my own, the closer I get to aligning myself with the latter. Jazz is ambiguous and spontaneous. Jazz can be incredibly happy, or it can be devastatingly depressing. It has the ability to take so many different forms, and sometimes many forms in a single song.  It doesn’t necessarily follow the usual structures or progressions. Sometimes it doesn’t follow any progressions. It doesn’t play by the rules in that sense. I especially love when jazz is fused into other genres of music, but for this list, I am going to stick with some of my favorites of the basics. One college spring break on a long, late night drive, Wes and I began a tradition of late night jazz sessions on road trips. As of recent, I’ve found myself doing it more and more often myself. Last Monday, I had a nice three-hour stretch of road in which I let some of my favorite jazz artists drive their airy, spastic, beautiful notes straight into my skull and enrich my soul. Here are some highlights from that jazz session.

LxListening: It Shall Be Released

Recently there has just been a slew of “unreleased music” that has been dropped onto the inter-webs. A lot of it is clearly intentional, I suppose to probably get the public interested and eager for the artist’s new material that is about to drop. But whether it is because of song leakage (Antlers), announcement videos (Cat Power), or the artists just straight-up releasing a single/video months before the new album drops (M.I.A/Dirty Projectors), all of the below tracks are out and available for a listen. If these tracks are any implication for the rest of their respective albums, we are in for a real treat in late 2012. So in honor of our “Best of the Year … So Far” lists, here is a little taste of what I have been listening too lately, and what we have to look forward to for the remainder of the year.

Top Ten Thursday: No Hable Ingles (Best Non-English Speaking Acts)

In honor of another great feat (some of us would say anyways) from everyone’s favorite Icelandic act (unless you like the other act from Iceland more, Bjork), we thought we would list out our other favorite acts in which we cannot understand a single word from. Before we get to list, I must say that this was a tough one to tackle. Due to our unfamiliarity with non-english speaking foreign acts, we had to do our homework. This entailed a lot of new listening, a lot of Rammstein jokes, some slight arguing, and overall much enjoyment. This list opened my eyes to some music I will now never let go of, and for that I am very happy. Hopefully you like it as much as we liked putting it together. Onto the list …