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

This is the latest song that has been stuck in my head for the past week.  The first video below is what I’m guessing is their “official” music video for “Animal,” that I watched on Fuse over the weekend. The second video is an accoustic version they did, which is also very good.

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?

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:

I knew I would get some push back from the army of rabid Metallica fan-boys, but one response in particular stood out among the crowd. My buddy (@dugzor) replied with the following: “Couldn’t disagree with you more. Death Magnetic is a triumph of not only metal, but music as a whole. Maybe even of all sound.”

The impression I got from his replies made me feel like I had just kicked his puppy or punched his mother in the face. At that point, I though, to clear the air I would be more detailed in my review of “Death Magnetic” in a medium that allows me more than 140 characters at a time.

But first, let me ask you a question: Have you ever listened to a song, of any genre (for me, it’s usually hip-hop or classical), and you pick up on that one annoying sound or instrument and every time you listen to that song after that you can’t get past that annoying noise?

For me, that noise on “Death Magnetic” is James Hetfield.

On their latest release, Metallica is freaking amazing instrumentally. The drumming, guitar and bass work is tight, loud and fast… everything an awesome metal album should be.

The problem, in my opinion, is anytime James opens his mouth and sings. On “Death Magnetic” the vocals are weak, lyrically and otherwise, and I’m not really sure what the deal is but James just didn’t have it on this album, nor did he have it on their previous “St. Anger”.

Try as I might, I couldn’t listen to the album and completely tune out the vocals. And then an idea occurred to me: Just as every individual instrument contributes to the entirety of a classical piece – yes, even the dude tinking away on the Triangle and shaking the metal wind chimes – so it goes with James Hetfield. While his vocals make me cringe, his voice itself is an instrument and an essential part of each and every song.

Once I was able to accept that, I found that I was also able to listen to the tracks and accept the vocals as a necessary evil to the greater benefit of the songs. His voice melds and mingles with the riveting guitar work, great bass riffs and air-drum-tastic drumming so intrinsically that removing it completely would be a disservice to “Death Magnetic”.

In my opinion, Metallica peaked with their release of “S&M” and everything since then has been a giant step in the wrong direction.

Now, guys, if we can talk about better names for your songs that would be a step in the right direction…

Music has “been there for me” during times when comforting cliches and empty words have fallen short of their mark. When Keli and I had some big marital problems early on it was “I Am A Highway” by Audioslave and pretty much anything by AFI.

When we lived with someone who we considered a friend, only to find out he had us evicted so his girlfriend could move in, it was anything loud and angry by Linkin Park.

When I start feeling down about my folks moving away, the songs that lift my spirits are the ones I listened to growing up: The Drifters, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, The Eagles, and Johnny Cash, among others.

When my sister and brother-in-law lost their baby, it was a lot of “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and “You Wreck Me Baby” by Tom Petty.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there’s a lot going on right now between finances sucking in general (for everybody) combined with the home we were renting being foreclosed upon and trying to coordinate the move-in date on a new place with the date we have to be out of our current place (while working full time, trying to pack, etc), it all makes playing a game of Russian Roulette seem to hold better odds.

Years ago a co-worker and good friend, Randy, tried to get me to appreciate some of the industrial music he listened to. So he made me a mix-CD with some of his favorite songs from groups like Gary Numan, Killing Joke, Skinny Puppy, Ministry, etc. I listened to the CD and during our many relocations since then it got lost in our piles of CDs. The other evening, while on the phone with my sister and packing up books and things, I found that CD.

I put it on my computer the next day and found myself listening to the same two tracks over and over, without really realizing what the lyrics were. Those two songs were “You’ll Never Get To Me” by Killing Joke and “Prayer For The Unborn” by Gary Numan. The following lyrics are from the Killing Joke song, which I’ve been listening to the most and the lyrics seems oddly fitting for everything I’m feeling and for the pick-me-up I need each day.

Oh!
Sea of hurt, I feel the waves of pain
And now the tides come in again
I’m caught in a vicious cycle of despair
Give me the courage to face another day, oh!

Oh, sing a song of joy
Sweet childhood, never desert me
Time for celebration, oh!
Overcome with a sense of elation
I’ll never let you get to me
Survival is my victory
Time for celebration, oh!
Overcome with a sense of relation

I sat in silence, I was mourning
I said sorry a thousand times
I cried aloud to God from all my failings
But God seemed deaf as well as blind, oh!

Oh, sing a song of joy
Sweet childhood, never desert me
Time for celebration, oh!
Overcome with a sense of elation
I’ll never let you get to me
Survival is my victory
Time for celebration, oh!
Overcome with a sense of relation

We drank and smoked and talked until the dawn
We shared our problems and our food
Telling tales of courage and resolution
Through all the hardships we’d endured, oh!

Oh, sing a song of joy
Sweet childhood, never desert me
Time for celebration, oh!
Overcome with a sense of elation
I’ll never let you get to me
Survival is my victory
Time for celebration, oh!
Overcome with a sense of elation

This post isn’t meant as a pity-party or to make you all feel sorry for me, because I definitely know that compared to many, my tales of woe pale in comparison. I really intended this to be a post about how music can be sometimes the purest source of encouragement, motivation and healing.

I’m curious, though: What are your “go-to” songs when you need a pick-me-up to get you through the day?