In the January 19, 2012, issue of Rolling Stone, there was a small sidebar article about how artists, specifically The Black Keys and Coldplay, have chosen not to have their latest albums available to stream on Spotify. The article (“The Black Keys, Coldplay Say No (For Now) to Spotify“; page 17) quotes The Black Keys guitarist, Dan Auerbach, as saying, “How is that good for musicians?” and, “We didn’t want it to impact our record sales.”

I’ve only recently even discovered The Black Keys. Want to know how I even tried giving them a listening to? On Spotify.

That’s right. Thanks to Spotify, the very service they’re proactively keeping their new music from is the very service that helped me come to love their music. It’s because of Spotify, that in the past three weeks alone, my household has purchased their two most recent releases, “El Camino”and“Brothers,”with a very good chance of me picking up any of their other five albums.

I’ve said it many times before, but musicians need to know that streaming music services isn’t what’s killing their record sales. Crappy music is killing their record sales (That’s right, I’m talking to you, too, AFI). I stream music all the time and when I find a song or CD that doesn’t totally suck, I’ll happily go and give them my money.

So please, musicians, focus on putting out awesome music and let us, your fans, worry about giving you our money. If you make it too difficult for current and potential fans to listen to your music, then we’ll just keep our money and go our separate ways.

Help her, awesome people: RT @Zoeyjane: For my birthday, the ex is giving me a mp3 player loaded w songs for running. Song suggestions?

December 8, 2010 5:50 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MrLady

Mr Lady

I responded with:

@mrlady @Zoeyjane Laugh all you want, but David Guetta’s “One Love” album is great running music! And some of the new Linkin Park…

December 8, 2010 5:52 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@deguia

Daniel De Guia

Afterward, I received some DMs from folks who wanted to know what else I had on my workout playlist, so I thought I’d throw it up in a blog post. When I’m doing cardio, I usually have this list of songs on Shuffle using the Nike+GPS iPhone App.

When I need a bit of a boost, I hit up one of the in-app “Power Songs,” which are designated below with ** before the track name.

Happy sweating!

“Psychosocial” – Slipknot
“Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)” – The Offspring
“Walla Walla” – The Offspring
“The Days Of The Phoenix” – A.F.I.
“Don’t Let Me Fall” – B.o.B
“Bet I” – B.o.B Feat. T.I. & Playboy Tre
“Ties That Bind” – Alter Bridge
“On To The Next One (Featuring Swizz Beatz)” – Jay-Z
“Numb/Encore” – Linkin Park & Jay-Z
“Everlong” – Foo Fighters
“Torch Song” – AFI
“Beautiful Thieves” – AFI
“Broken, Beat & Scarred” – Metallica
“All Nightmare Long” – Metallica
“Folsom Prison Blues” – Johnny Cash
“Cocaine Blues” – Johnny Cash
“The Distance” – CAKE
“I Will Survive” – CAKE
“Stickshifts And Safetybelts” – CAKE
“I’m So Sick” – Flyleaf
“Fully Alive” – Flyleaf
“All Around Me” – Flyleaf
“My Love” – Justin Timberlake Feat. T.I. & Timbaland
“Arma-Godd**n-Motherf**kin-Geddon” – Marilyn Manson
“One Step Closer” – Linkin Park
“A Place For My Head” – Linkin Park
“F.T.W.” – Tiger Army
“Fly From The Inside” – Shinedown
“Simple Man” – Shinedown
“Up To No Good” – Rancid
“Last One To Die” – Rancid
“Bleed It Out” – Linkin Park
“Crawl Back In” – Dead by Sunrise
** “My Suffering” – Dead by Sunrise
“Live Your Life (feat. Rihanna)” – T.I.
“Dead and Gone (feat. Justin Timberlake)” – T.I.
“Burning In The Skies” – Linkin Park
** “When They Come For Me” – Linkin Park
** “Wretches And Kings” – Linkin Park
“My Hero” – Foo Fighters
“When Love Takes Over (feat. Kelly Rowland)” – David Guetta
“Gettin’ Over You (feat. Fergie & LMFAO)” – David Guetta & Chris Willis
“Sexy Bitch (feat. Akon)” – David Guetta
** “Memories (feat. Kid Cudi)” – David Guetta
“Missing You (feat. Novel)” – David Guetta
“It’s the Way You Love Me (feat. Kelly Rowland)” – David Guetta
“Choose (feat. Ne-Yo & Kelly Rowland)” – David Guetta
“On the Dancefloor (feat. will.i.a, & apl De Ap)” – David Guetta
“I Gotta Feeling (FMIF Remix Edit)” – The Black Eyed Peas
“One Love (feat. Estelle)” – David Guetta
“Sound of Letting Go (feat. Chris Willis)” – David Guetta
“I Wanna Go Crazy (feat. will.i.am)” – David Guetta

Whenever I buy a new CD, and I mean an actual CD not an iTunes album, I always read through the booklet that comes with it. It’s something I started doing when I bought my first CD way back in Middle School, Boyz II Men’s “II” album. (Shut up, it was the early 90s). You can learn a lot about a band by looking at the artwork they chose to accompany their music and, one of my pet peeves, find out which bands don’t take the time to write out Thank Yous to people who helped them along the way.

The first single off of Linkin Park’s new album, “A Thousand Suns,” hit the airwaves weeks ago and to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t too sure about it. It was obvious the band was going in a completely new direction with their music and I was really afraid they would blow it, as had other favorite bands of mine (I’m talking to you, AFI, Green Day, 30 Seconds to Mars…). Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda touched on this issue with his blog post, “Haters and Believers: A Thousand Suns Album Release”, which I stumbled across this morning.

We bought the new CD a couple of days after it was released and before we had even left the parking lot I opened the booklet and found the following sentence staring at me, from the very first line:

We were not making an album.

Think about that statement for a moment. One of the most successful, game-changing bands in decades had just released their fifth major label album and the first thing they tell their fans is that this album is a result of them NOT pro-actively trying to make a new album. After I read that line, I closed the booklet and listened to the entire CD. When it was over, I put the CD on my iPod, went to the gym and listened to it again. And then a third time. What I came away with, after listening to “A Thousand Suns” there times, was that this was Linkin Park’s best album yet. Now, I know I said the same thing about 2007′s release, “Minutes to Midnight,” but this one blows their others out of the water, for a few reasons.

• Intermissions – It usually annoys me to no end when I plunk down money for a new CD, only to find that half of the tracks are goofy little intermissions or skits that contribute absolutely nothing to the album, other than to bloat the track listing. “A Thousand Suns” has a few tracks like this, but these ones are different. They actually contribute to the overall theme and tone of the CD. They add to the tracks before and after them, instead of being used as filler. One of them is part of a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speech, leading perfectly into the soothing, almost meditative track, “Iridescent.”
• Creativity – This album shows a contemplative, creative endeavor. That’s not to say that their previous work lacked creativity, but the drum beats and structure of the songs are unlike anything Linkin Park has done before. On “Waiting For The End” and “Wretches And Kings,” the thumping bass and drums jive perfectly with the reggae-esque flow of the vocals.
• Perfect Lyrics - The lyrics of this album pair perfectly with the feelings that the beats and instrumentals are conveying. I could write a whole post on each and every track of this album, but for now, here’s a little taste of the lyrics you’ll hear:
  

  We held our breath when the clouds began to form
  But you were lost in the beating of the storm
  And in the end we were made to be apart
  Like separate chambers of the human heart

  “Burning In The Skies“

  Do you feel cold and lost in desperation
  You build up hope but failure’s all you’ve known
  Remember all the sadness and frustration
  And let it go
  Let it go

  “Iridescent“

  When you’ve suffered enough
  And your spirit is breaking
  You’re growing desperate from the fight
  Remember you’re loved and you always will be
  This melody will bring you right back home

  “The Messenger“

This album, to me, is more than a collection of songs put out by an amazingly talented group of guys. “A Thousand Suns” initially comes across as a melancholy message of depression. The more I listened to it, though, the more I realized it’s actually a message of hope.

It’s a message of picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, coping and fighting through to that better day. It’s about not giving up.

Have you listened to “A Thousand Suns”? What do you think of it?

When I was little, before my parents bought the family CD player, my sister and I used to listen to our parent’s vinyl records to pass the time. It wasn’t uncommon to walk in our house and hear The Commodores, the Grease soundtrack, Michael Jackson’s “Off The Wall” or, when our dad cared enough to fight for his pick, “Physical Graffiti” by Led Zeppelin blasting throughout the house. Those were your normal, run-of-the-mill 12 inch vinyl LPs, but every once in a while we put on one of their 45s. One record in particular was a favorite of mine: Danny Kaye’s “The Little Fiddle”.

For you unfortunate, deprived souls out there who are in the dark, Danny Kaye was an entertainer during the same era as Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, back when men were men and women were women. Danny Kaye was known for his smooth singing voice and quasi-slapstick comedic roles in movies like “Hans Christian Andersen” and “White Christmas.”

In 1947, Kaye acted as “Walter Mitty” in the movie “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” – the soundtrack of which featured “Symphony For an Unstrung Tongue (The Little Fiddle)” by Danny Kaye himself. It was that song, commonly referred to as simply “The Little Fiddle,” that to this day puts a smile on my face because it’s a genuinely fun song. I used to listen to it every chance I got growing up.

Thanks to Grooveshark, You can use the widget below to listen to Danny Kaye narrating “The Little Fiddle”:

Two of their best songs were covered by Green day, back when they were actually punk and not the faux-rock crap-peddlers they are today, when, on March 18, 2002, the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I could go on all day long about the Ramones, but instead I’ll leave you with two great live performances of these songs, by the guys that forever changed the American music scene:

The Original: “Teenage Labotomy” by The Ramones (Live)

The Original: “Blitzkrieg Bop” by The Ramones (Live)

The Cover: “Teenage Labotomy” and “Blitzkrieg Bop” performed by Green Day at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The song “Turn The Page” has been my favorite Seger song ever since I really sat and listened to it, while watching my Dad replace the brakes on one of the family cars.

Original: “Turn The Page” by Bob Seger

I have a love-hate relationship with Metallica but in spite of that, most of the time, their music kicks ass. They have a lot of truly great songs but one of my all-time favorites of theirs is actually a cover they did of Bob Seger’s “Turn The Page”.

Cover: “Turn The Page” by Metallica

What about you? Do you prefer the Bob Seger original or Metallica’s version?

I’m a huge AFI fan. I’ve seen them live 7 times. I’ve met the band and have shaken their hands. I own three copies of “Sing The Sorrow” (1 regular CD, 1 limited edition release and 1 copy of the album on vinyl. That’s right, vinyl). On lousy days, the thing that lifts my spirits more often than not is a line from “The Leaving Song”. AFI’s music is as much an ingrained part of me as The Beatles are for people many who grew up in that generation.

With all of that being said, I knew after hearing “Medicate” and “Torch Song” that “Crash Love” would not be a return to the AFI I love and would, instead, continue along the path leading further away from being awesome. I tried to listen to this release pretending they were a new band and this was their first release.

The Bad

Cover Art – A shimmery, shiny gold cover with an even more shimmery and shiny gold heart?! What’s the deal with that? I heard someone describe the album cover as something that “looks like a Hallmark anniversary card”. This new, scarey place AFI has ventured to apparently no longer has room for the artistic genius of Alan Forbes.

Where’s the Intro? – It sounds like a sily thing, but AFI has become known for their killer intro tracks. My favorite is the intro track on “Black Sails In The Sunset”. There really is no better way to begin a punk rock show, mosh pit about to take form, then with fist pumping into the air, shouting along with the band: “Through our bleeding we are one!”

Sadly, “Crash Love” does not have an intro. Even the disappointment of “DECEMBERUNDERGROUND” was lessened by the presence of a very cool intro.

No Screaming – Okay, like it or not, lead singer Davey Havock is a screamer on albums. He’s no Chester Bennington or Corey Taylor, but he can get the job done. With “Crash Love” we find only a disturbing lack of screaming in an overly soft, unmoving album.

The Good

Instrumentals – Jade’s guitar work and Adam’s drumming have definitely improved and is really what keeps this album from being a flop.

Songs – There are three tracks that stand out and, thanks to places like iTunes, I can purchase just those tracks and listen to them without skipping past the rest of the CD every time. Those tracks are “Beautiful Thieves,” “Torch Song,” and “Medicate”. On the Deluxe Edition, the best track is one that SHOULD have been included on “DECEMBERUNDERGROUND” called “Fainting Spells”.

The Bottom Line

Keeping in mind everything I said at the beginning of this post, “Crash Love” is disappointing to me because it’s simply too unremarkable. There’s nothing about it that jumps out at me and says “Well, at least this album has ______.”

Would I buy this album again, if I had to do it all over again? If I had a gift card, sure I would. But I don’t think I would spend my hard-earned money on it.

If AFI begins and ends for you with “Black Sails In The Sunset” do not buy this album. You will be disappointed.

If the AFI you identify with is “Sing The Sorrow” then I recommend you take the money you were going to spend on “Crash Love” and buy “Black Sails In The Sunset” or “The Art Of Drowning” instead.

If “DECEMBERUNDERGOUND” was the post-punk-rock-bathed-in-synthesizer-button-pushing-AFI you were introduced to, then you’ll probably like “Crash Love”. I do encourage you to check out their older albums because, quite honestly, they’re the albums born out of the spirit of punk rock that sneak out at night and stomp the living hell out of their Interscope Records counterparts.

The guys of Linkin Park have been blowing fans away and performing in sold out venues for close to a decade now. Chester Bennington decided to step back from the LP mic just long enough to put together a side project that, quite frankly, I’m pretty damned excited about.

Ever since “Hybrid Theory” I’ve wanted to listen to Chetser belt out songs, in his gravely voice and intense screaming, in a streamlined rock environment. No keyboards. No button pushing. Just fast, loud rock.

That’s not at all to say I’m tired of Linkin Park. Let’s just say, I’m glad Chester has pursued this route, if even for just a one-shot album release.

His new project is called “Dead By Sunrise” and based on their first single, “Crawl Back In,” I get the feeling their entire album will be nothing short of kick ass.

Without further ado, here’s the promotional video for “Crawl Back In” by Chester’s side project, Dead By Sunrise (Note: There’s some NSFW language at the tail end of the video, after the song ends.):

If you liked what you just heard, pick up a copy of “Out of Ashes” when it comes out on October 13th.

Their most popular hits off of their latest release are “Sex On Fire,” “Notion,” and “Use Somebody”.

My favorite track off of “Only By The Night” is “Manhattan”. They have no official music video for this song but here’s one made by a fan: