- Beach Boys medley: I was worried about Adam Levine at first, but he sounded *much* better after took his in-ear monitor out. LOVED that Foster the People did “Wouldn’t it be Nice?” (even though the lead singer looked terrified. haha)
- Beach Boys on “Good Vibrations”: Was that live?! They still got it! In year *51* together!!! Also, I loved the cool slidey piano thing! (The interweb tells me it’s an electro-theremin.)
- Paul McCartney: I think I was looking up the electro-theremin during this performance. *shrug*
- Best R&B Album: Okay, I understand that Chris Brown is the most famous of the nominees, but I don’t know that “Look at me Now” technically qualifies as a song. Also, button your damn shirt.
- Civil Wars: YEA CIVIL WARS! I first heard of this song on VH1’s “Top 40 Songs of 2011.” I had never heard of it, so I knew this list was clearly based on the tastes of the production team and not sales. And yet, when I heard the track, I was SO on board. I’ll be doing a cover of that at some point. (Also, I just saw online that they won for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group and Best Folk Album. 2 Grammys for a new, relatively unknown group. Not too shabby! And they beat out “Don’t You Wanna Stay” to win the first one! Holy cow!)
- Taylor Swift: I liked that they went Old Tyme for this. I don’t know that I can get behind a grown woman singing lyrics like, “Someday I’ll be livin’ in a big ol’ city, and all you’re ever gonna be is mean.” I get it, it’s for a very young demographic, specifically, those not “livin’ in a big ol’ city.” So she can’t use the words adults use to describe perpetrators of domestic abuse (e.g. Chris Brown). It is what it is. I will say that the line about “grumbling about how I can’t sing” and the clapping breakdown at the end redeemed it. (OMG apparently this made “Country Bear Jamboree” trend on Twitter. HA!)
- Song of the Year: YAY!!!!!!!!! Darn tootin’ "Rolling in the Deep" was the song of the year. (Sorry, I’m still in Taylor Swift circa 1910 mode.) Honorable mentions to “All of the Lights” and “Grenade.”
- Katy Perry: Oh thank god, she didn’t try to sing E.T. live. Let’s assume “Part of Me” was pre-recorded too, because she’s usually a full-on disaster live.
- Best Country Album: I honestly didn’t know who this would go to (especially given that Taylor Swift had just performed). But yay for Lady Antebellum! Their album is great. I’m supportive of albums that appeal to people who otherwise stick to different genres. (Note after the fact: I’m looking at the full list of awards, and I see that Taylor Swift won for Country Solo Performance with “Mean”, so I guess it all makes sense.)
- I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO ADELE’S PERFORMANCE SINCE HER VOCAL SURGERY! I think it’s such a shame that a true talent will burn out her voice because she believes in giving her all to her audience, and then you have jerks who just come onstage and lip-sync. She of course was fabulous but I was *so* worried the whole time that she was hurting her voice by singing like she was (not in terms of technique, just in terms of it being too soon). I loved the audience response though. The girl is a rockstar.
- Glen Campbell tribute: The Band Perry is always good. For me, they exemplify hipster country. Me likey. Blake Shelton did a great job too. I think country artists have no choice but to perform well live, because so many of them start out at state fairs and things like that. (Apologies if that’s stereotyping, I just connect country so much more with live performances.) I’m not familiar with Glenn Campbell’s music, but he did a great job. It’s always so impressive when older performers still have a range/voice.
- Speaking of which…Tony Bennett! What a rockstar. 85 years old, for crying out loud. I need to pick up Duets II. I just love the concept for the album.
- Best New Artist: Bon Iver?! What?! Who?! This is Arcade Fire all over again. Granted, in 2012, I don’t consider Nicki Minaj to be a “new” artist, but 2011 was her year, so that was a little upsetting. And “If I Die Young” was so huge that I thought The Band Perry had a solid shot too. Guess I’ll have to youtube this guy later to figure out what the heck is going on.
- To put things in perspective, his single "Holocene", post-Grammys, has about 2.5 million YouTube views. "Super Bass" has over *225 million* views. And "If I Die Young" clocks in at a respectable almost 50 million.
- Tribute to those we’ve lost this year: sad, as always.
- Whitney tribute: (prepares to weep for 5 minutes straight) This is obviously so emotional for Jennifer (no pun intended). I’m so glad they had her sing though. She’s beautiful, talented, and she made the song look easy, which it obviously is not.
- David Guetta/Deadmau5 performance: Wait, what happened, why is Chris Brown performing again? Why is he dressed like the lost member of Run DMC? Why are the Foo Fighters performing again? What’s going on?!?! (Budget cuts? I can only assume the artists weren’t paid twice the usual going rate. Don’t worry guys, I feel you.) But hey, anything that brings David Guetta and Deadmau5 together is fine in my book.
- Nicki Minaj performance: From the second this started, you KNEW it was going to be crazy. I was so glad to see that Roman was in attendance for this performance. This girl is OFF HER ROCKER and it’s AWESOME. Between “I Feel Pretty”, the mini-movie-within-the-performance, and the Catholic church theme, it was all wonderful. The whole performance reminded me of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” performance at the 2009 VMAs which, for the record, is one of my favorite performances at an awards show.
- Record of the Year: YEA ADELE!!!! (still trying to figure out how Song of the Year and Record of the Year are different)
- Oh hey, Wikipedia just cleared this up for me: "Despite both the Record of the Year award and Song of the Year being awarded for a single or for one track from an album, [Song of the Year] goes only to the composer(s) of the song whereas the Record of the Year award goes to the performer and production team of the song."
- Album of the Year: Okay, like we even needed to sit through the nominees. SA;LKFJAEIOAV;LKETDKSL GO ADELE!!!!!!!!!! I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve listened to the album from start to finish. Every song is gold. (This is how we ended up with 3 out of 23 Dartmouth Idol semifinalists on Adele songs. haha) OMG SHE IS SO CUTE ACCEPTING HER AWARD! (with the crying, “rubbish relationships”, snot, etc.)
- Closing performance: faces were melted.
- Other observations/conclusions of the night:
- Katy Perry and Rihanna are obviously BFFs.
- Poor Lady Gaga. Largely ignored at this awards show. Her singles this year were actually *great*, she just had the misfortune of releasing "Born This Way" the same year as "21." Also, a lot of her non-singles were filler songs (unfortunately).
- The Foo Fighters must be very well-connected to be getting as much facetime and as many nominations/awards as they are. (And a nomination for album of the year? Did they run out of better options? Did they just need someone in the rock category? Je me confuse.)
- I would’ve loved to have seen Drake for more than just Nicki Minaj's introduction. I guess they save appearances like that for the "younger" awards shows.
- The award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For Visual Media went to Boardwalk Empire, which I think is pretty cool, since I'm always fascinated by the time-appropriate (~1920) music they play on the show.
- Last and *most definitely* not least: the award for Best Spoken Word Album went to Betty White, for “If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won’t).” As Tina Fey hypothesized in Bossypants, this may be due to her timeless sex appeal. I guess Betty's still got it! ;)
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Le Grammys: Part Deux
(continued from below)
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Grammys 2012: Hour 1
If I were to tweet/post on fb all my thoughts about the Grammys, it would be really annoying to my friends, so I thought I’d put it all in a blog post here (at least my commentary on what I got to see so far!):
• Kudos to Bruce Springsteen to be able to perform like that at 62. He could convincingly pull off 45. (And as we’ve learned, even making it out of your 40s alive in the entertainment industry is a feat. I’d say “these days”, but I think it’s always been that way.)
• Video of Whitney’s performance: to be able to sing that way live…WOW. That kind of talent is so rare. It’s not just sad that the world lost her, but sad that we lost her voice several years ago.
• I’m glad they sat Adele near the stairs, so she’ll have easy access as she goes up and down them to collect her awards all night.
• I love seeing who’s sitting next to whom at these awards shows. E.g. Lady Gaga next to Miranda Lambert, Nicki Minaj next to Taylor Swift. Too cute.
• LL’s speech about music: PREACH Brother Cool J!
• Bruno Mars’ vintage performances: nothing if not consistent. Possibly predictable, but always delightful.
• Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt: woah! What an unexpected pairing! And how funny that I actually performed songs by each of them within the same week this past year. (“Something to Talk About” at Topsfield and “Superwoman” at ArtWorks, for anyone who was wondering.)
• Best Pop Solo Performance: YEA ADELE!!!!!!!!!! (props to Lady Gaga and Pink for excellent songs in the category though)
• Chris Brown: how sad that I loved him when he came out and judging by this performance, I guess I’m officially too old for his music. Granted, I like the song “Beautiful People”, but the dancing did nothing for me. Maybe this is because they were just playing a recording of the song as he bopped around the stage and half-heartedly attempted to lip-synch. Back-flip was cool though, I’ll give him that much.
• Did Fergie get injections in her cheeks or something?!?! She’s starting to look like a cat-lady… (not this, THIS)
• Best Rap Performance: HAHAH Jay-Z and Kanye were both too cool to go to the Grammy’s. Classic.
• Kelly Clarkson and Jason Aldean: I love this song. So much. Perfect country/pop crossover. Kelly’s awesome for sticking to all the riffs on the original recording. (OMG Jason’s mic turned off!!! Oh no!!!)
• Jack Black. Indie cred. He is too much. I love it.
• Foo Fighters: whatever genre it is they fall in, I can’t differentiate songs in that genre. (It’s not that it’s bad. There was a chord progression in there I liked.) Ah well.
• Rihanna and Coldplay?! oh my, this is the year of the duet! (If you can consider what just happened a duet.) My favorite part of Rihanna’s performance was when she jumped up and started doing “bar mitzvah dancer” moves solo. But in all seriousness, the girl can dance.
• Coldplay: I really love the song “Paradise.” Like a lot. Just wanted to throw that out there.
• Best Rock Performance: I literally did not know any of these songs. But hey, kudos to the Foo Fighters and that chord progression at the end of the chorus of their song. I don’t know that all of the songs in that category qualified as “rock.” They were at least the group that most belonged in that category.
That's it for hour one (or so). I may post the rest of my brain droppings when I get to watch the rest of the show. (Not sure when I'll have a free 3 hours, but I guess we'll see!)
• Kudos to Bruce Springsteen to be able to perform like that at 62. He could convincingly pull off 45. (And as we’ve learned, even making it out of your 40s alive in the entertainment industry is a feat. I’d say “these days”, but I think it’s always been that way.)
• Video of Whitney’s performance: to be able to sing that way live…WOW. That kind of talent is so rare. It’s not just sad that the world lost her, but sad that we lost her voice several years ago.
• I’m glad they sat Adele near the stairs, so she’ll have easy access as she goes up and down them to collect her awards all night.
• I love seeing who’s sitting next to whom at these awards shows. E.g. Lady Gaga next to Miranda Lambert, Nicki Minaj next to Taylor Swift. Too cute.
• LL’s speech about music: PREACH Brother Cool J!
• Bruno Mars’ vintage performances: nothing if not consistent. Possibly predictable, but always delightful.
• Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt: woah! What an unexpected pairing! And how funny that I actually performed songs by each of them within the same week this past year. (“Something to Talk About” at Topsfield and “Superwoman” at ArtWorks, for anyone who was wondering.)
• Best Pop Solo Performance: YEA ADELE!!!!!!!!!! (props to Lady Gaga and Pink for excellent songs in the category though)
• Chris Brown: how sad that I loved him when he came out and judging by this performance, I guess I’m officially too old for his music. Granted, I like the song “Beautiful People”, but the dancing did nothing for me. Maybe this is because they were just playing a recording of the song as he bopped around the stage and half-heartedly attempted to lip-synch. Back-flip was cool though, I’ll give him that much.
• Did Fergie get injections in her cheeks or something?!?! She’s starting to look like a cat-lady… (not this, THIS)
• Best Rap Performance: HAHAH Jay-Z and Kanye were both too cool to go to the Grammy’s. Classic.
• Kelly Clarkson and Jason Aldean: I love this song. So much. Perfect country/pop crossover. Kelly’s awesome for sticking to all the riffs on the original recording. (OMG Jason’s mic turned off!!! Oh no!!!)
• Jack Black. Indie cred. He is too much. I love it.
• Foo Fighters: whatever genre it is they fall in, I can’t differentiate songs in that genre. (It’s not that it’s bad. There was a chord progression in there I liked.) Ah well.
• Rihanna and Coldplay?! oh my, this is the year of the duet! (If you can consider what just happened a duet.) My favorite part of Rihanna’s performance was when she jumped up and started doing “bar mitzvah dancer” moves solo. But in all seriousness, the girl can dance.
• Coldplay: I really love the song “Paradise.” Like a lot. Just wanted to throw that out there.
• Best Rock Performance: I literally did not know any of these songs. But hey, kudos to the Foo Fighters and that chord progression at the end of the chorus of their song. I don’t know that all of the songs in that category qualified as “rock.” They were at least the group that most belonged in that category.
That's it for hour one (or so). I may post the rest of my brain droppings when I get to watch the rest of the show. (Not sure when I'll have a free 3 hours, but I guess we'll see!)
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Day 24: "Superwoman" by Alicia Keys
Hey everyone, Happy New Year!!! Also, happy 6 months since I started my blog! 'Twas in the wee hours of July 5th that this blog got started (which apparently was posted in Pacific Time, stating July 4, 9:42pm, but I know better). I'm almost a quarter of the way to my goal, and I'm fighting the urge to start other singing projects, because then it will take *forever* to reach my goal. (At this rate, July 4, 2013 seems to be the end date, but given how things have been going, that might be too optimistic. haha)
2011 was an awesome year for singing. In addition to my videos for my blog, I had *over 50* live performances. Add that to my many rehearsals for all these gigs and...well, you can see why I was constantly battling vocal fatigue. One of my resolutions for 2011 was to perform as much as possible, and I certainly did.
Highlights include:
-"God Bless America" @ a Mets game (CitiField) opening weekend
-National Anthem @ Red Bull Arena
-winning the Claremont Karaoke Contest (and asked to sub in the band the judges are in! Still waiting for that call guys...;) )
-Z97.1's Z Factor <--came in 2nd by 1 point, a 3-way tie I hear (?!)
-Country Showdown <--I never wrote an update on this!!! It's a long story, but basically I won the local round through KIX 105.5 (which was *incredible*), and so I got to move onto the New England State Show at the Topsfield Fair in Topsfield, MA. In MA, I learned that you don't show up without original songs. Oops. Still an awesome time!!! I also got to do an exhibition at the local show for WCVR, which was a lot of fun. A gig almost came out of that as well, but it was unfortunately canceled due to Hurricane Irene (which hit the day *after* that show...if it had been the day before, there's no way that show could've occurred. VT was in *bad* condition.).
I may need to slow my roll for 2012. I'm trying to re-teach myself to sing so I can prevent vocal damage as much as possible. The Adele thing scared the pajeezus out of me, so I'm taking all the precautions necessary.
I'm proud to say I now have over 3000 views on YouTube. I wonder what the # will be in January 2013!
I'm looking forward to posting video #25 this weekend and officially being a quarter of the way through. I'm going to do something a little different than usual, so...we'll see if that works. Wish me luck, and have a *great* new year!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Day 23: "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey
Hey everyone, It's been so long since I've written an actual post! Well, it's good to be back. I've found myself with a bit more time on my hands than before (I'm sure I'll rue those words) so for the time being, I'm going to try to put up a few more videos. Today was my division's holiday party, and it got me in the holiday spirit, hence my inspiration for this song. This is certainly an ambitious choice for a comeback, especially after 6 performances last week (ah!), but I at least have more of a voice than I did last week. As usual, I made the mistake of recording too late at night, an especially bad idea when you're singing a song that's a marathon like this one. (When do you breathe? Swallow? You can't!) Sure, the riffs aren't perfect, but I don't have a sound engineer to "punch" parts that sound bad. Maybe someday! And after months without a video, I wasn't going to wait until I had perfection. Just one take, and we're done!
Much has changed since last I wrote! I can't cover everything now, but I'll just do a quick YouTube update: I now have 32 subscribers, and almost 3000 views. Good stuff! That means I'm averaging more than 100 views per video (and I don't even have any Mets videos on this account!) My most viewed video is currently "Rehab." I'm glad I've gotten such positive feedback on the Amy Winehouse videos. It's nice to not have to worry about vocal acrobatics (*irony*) and just rest on good timbre every now and again.
Alright, it's almost 1am. Hope I don't have any typos here. Thanks for reading/watching! More to come!
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
All kinds of updates...
Hi all, You may have noticed there hasn't been a blog post in a while. This has been for a few reasons, the main ones being:
1) I've been *really* busy with my singing competitions
2) Trying to balance the competitions/gigs with my blog has really been putting a strain on my voice
3) Add work to the equation and...unfortunately the blog has had to take a backseat.
Realistically, there will not be 100 songs in 100 days. But I hope to have 100 songs up here by the end of the calendar year. For me to foolishly assume upfront that I would ever accept quantity over quality was ridiculous. Even when I'm not doing a video every day, it's still hard to accept the quality level of the videos, because I know they're not what they "could" be if I were really focusing on them. But staying within the general spirit of the exercise, and now actually knowing what I got myself into, I'd like to have 100 videos up by the end of 2011. It'll still be a great learning exercise even if they're not all perfect. This should give me enough time to rest my voice in between videos *and* to think about things other than this blog. When you're doing a video a day, or even a few videos a week, it can be *really* time-consuming.
So...right now I'm actually without a singing voice. At all. It hurts to talk. (This is mainly because I'm sick, but singing only exacerbates the issue.) So while I couldn't sing to you if I wanted to, let me update you on the statuses of my various competitions:
-Claremont: The karaoke finals were Friday and I won!!!!! Soooo exciting!!! Quite honestly, I have only won one other singing competition in my life of the MANY I have participated in, so that was fantastic. My inability to win singing competitions has sort of become a running joke in my family. In case you were wondering, the one thing I won in the past was Collis Idol, my sophomore summer. (Yea!) Past failures...I'm sorry, non-successes...include: every school talent show ever, Dartmouth Idol (twice), and multiple casting processes throughout my life, if that counts. (And if it does, then I guess I have a few more "successes" than I named.) We can throw in the American Idol and Voice auditions too but those don't *really* count.
The best part of winning this contest was not just the cash prize (which was fabulous!), but I *may* have gotten a gig out of this as well, which is really exciting. The event itself was also a fundraiser for the Claremont Soup Kitchen, which was nice. I decided in advance that if I won the $500, I’d give $100 to the soup kitchen. You better believe that when my name was announced, $100 made its way over to the donation pile! (I’ve got too many competitions left, I can’t be greedy! I need some good karma!)
I have to say, everyone in the contest was *so* nice, which was refreshing. Also, a shoutout to Sal and Courtney Cania for driving down to Claremont and being supportive!
-Z Factor: is going swimmingly!!! Scores were made public after week 3 and I’m in 2nd place! Hopefully all will go well for the next two weeks (crossing my fingers that I can pull through this week), and then I just have to pull out all the stops for the finals. What that means, I don’t know. But I have a few weeks. I’m sure I’ll think of something. =)
(I have to repeat my sentiments from Claremont: the Z Factor people are awesome too. I’m loving that people aren’t being catty/ridiculous. I guess I should have more faith when not in NY. hahah)
-Country Showdown: performances are this Wednesday and Saturday. This is making me nervous. I’m just praying my voice is functioning on both days so I have a fair shot. I’ve also never competed in the Showdown before, just watched at Tunbridge. On a side note, I need to send in my app for the Froggy Country Throwdown soon, since *that* will be the show at Tunbridge this year instead of the Showdown.
I think that’s about it for now. Now I just have to finish my 5th cup of tea for the day before hopefully getting more than 3.5 hours of sleep, which is what I got last night, since apparently I couldn’t breathe and sleep at the same time. Good thing I had the foresight to take Monday-Wednesday off for vacation (I *only* get sick during planned vacations. Such a mess.)
Thanks for reading, and I may have some more non-vocal posts over the next few days/weeks as my voice mends!
1) I've been *really* busy with my singing competitions
2) Trying to balance the competitions/gigs with my blog has really been putting a strain on my voice
3) Add work to the equation and...unfortunately the blog has had to take a backseat.
Realistically, there will not be 100 songs in 100 days. But I hope to have 100 songs up here by the end of the calendar year. For me to foolishly assume upfront that I would ever accept quantity over quality was ridiculous. Even when I'm not doing a video every day, it's still hard to accept the quality level of the videos, because I know they're not what they "could" be if I were really focusing on them. But staying within the general spirit of the exercise, and now actually knowing what I got myself into, I'd like to have 100 videos up by the end of 2011. It'll still be a great learning exercise even if they're not all perfect. This should give me enough time to rest my voice in between videos *and* to think about things other than this blog. When you're doing a video a day, or even a few videos a week, it can be *really* time-consuming.
So...right now I'm actually without a singing voice. At all. It hurts to talk. (This is mainly because I'm sick, but singing only exacerbates the issue.) So while I couldn't sing to you if I wanted to, let me update you on the statuses of my various competitions:
-Claremont: The karaoke finals were Friday and I won!!!!! Soooo exciting!!! Quite honestly, I have only won one other singing competition in my life of the MANY I have participated in, so that was fantastic. My inability to win singing competitions has sort of become a running joke in my family. In case you were wondering, the one thing I won in the past was Collis Idol, my sophomore summer. (Yea!) Past failures...I'm sorry, non-successes...include: every school talent show ever, Dartmouth Idol (twice), and multiple casting processes throughout my life, if that counts. (And if it does, then I guess I have a few more "successes" than I named.) We can throw in the American Idol and Voice auditions too but those don't *really* count.
The best part of winning this contest was not just the cash prize (which was fabulous!), but I *may* have gotten a gig out of this as well, which is really exciting. The event itself was also a fundraiser for the Claremont Soup Kitchen, which was nice. I decided in advance that if I won the $500, I’d give $100 to the soup kitchen. You better believe that when my name was announced, $100 made its way over to the donation pile! (I’ve got too many competitions left, I can’t be greedy! I need some good karma!)
I have to say, everyone in the contest was *so* nice, which was refreshing. Also, a shoutout to Sal and Courtney Cania for driving down to Claremont and being supportive!
-Z Factor: is going swimmingly!!! Scores were made public after week 3 and I’m in 2nd place! Hopefully all will go well for the next two weeks (crossing my fingers that I can pull through this week), and then I just have to pull out all the stops for the finals. What that means, I don’t know. But I have a few weeks. I’m sure I’ll think of something. =)
(I have to repeat my sentiments from Claremont: the Z Factor people are awesome too. I’m loving that people aren’t being catty/ridiculous. I guess I should have more faith when not in NY. hahah)
-Country Showdown: performances are this Wednesday and Saturday. This is making me nervous. I’m just praying my voice is functioning on both days so I have a fair shot. I’ve also never competed in the Showdown before, just watched at Tunbridge. On a side note, I need to send in my app for the Froggy Country Throwdown soon, since *that* will be the show at Tunbridge this year instead of the Showdown.
I think that’s about it for now. Now I just have to finish my 5th cup of tea for the day before hopefully getting more than 3.5 hours of sleep, which is what I got last night, since apparently I couldn’t breathe and sleep at the same time. Good thing I had the foresight to take Monday-Wednesday off for vacation (I *only* get sick during planned vacations. Such a mess.)
Thanks for reading, and I may have some more non-vocal posts over the next few days/weeks as my voice mends!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Day 21: "Not Ready to Make Nice" by the Dixie Chicks
More country!!! For a period of time here, it may be about 50/50 country and other music as I sort out my Country Showdown selections. A short time ago I never would've thought that in a period of a little over a month I'd (if all goes well) perform competitively 11 times. I'd say I should rest up those vocal cords but...oh wait, I'm singing every waking second because of this blog. oops. I'm taking my rest where I can get it, and the blog can always wait a few days! Wish me luck at Z Factor tomorrow! ;)
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