Getting To Know ME
My name is Cody. I live in Aurora, Illinois. I am a first time blogger! I love playing videogames, Punk/Pop-Punk Music, watching TV, playing football, wakeboarding, and being with friends and family. I work at Joliet Junior College as the Machine Shop Lab Technician for the college and I love my job!
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Music with Friends
When I am just hanging out with friends, I tend to listen to music that puts me in a good, happy mood. With songs and albums in my playlist ,(to the right), like "Neck Deep" and "Fat Lip", the vibes of the songs give off an upbeat, fun feeling. My friends and I all love and enjoy punk and alternative music, so this playlist would be the ideal soundtrack when we all hangout together.
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The Review of letlive: The Blackest Beautiful
Letlive is a post-hardcore band that was formed in
California and became an active band around the year 2002. With lead singer
Jason Aalon Butler founding and leading the band, Letlive has been known to put
on phenomenal shows. When their album, Fake History, was released in 2010,
Letlive became a well-known rock band. It was critically acclaimed to be one to
the top modern day rock albums. On July, 9th 2013 Letlive released The
Blackest Beautiful, the follow up album to launch them onto the top music
charts.
When it comes to their new album, The
Blackest Beautiful, Letlive kind of stuck to their guns with the mixing of
screaming vocals paired with clean, crisp singing. Songs like the“Banshee (Ghost
Fame)”, which opens up the album, is mostly screaming heavier vocals accompanied
with cleaner crisp vocals as a secondary “part” to the song. This whole album is
very versatile though. The song “pheromone cvlt” has a much more melodic,
soothing tone and setting to it. This gives the album a more interesting feel to
it. It adds listening time and makes it feel like it doesn’t get old, even after
playing it through multiple times. Ever since their debut album, the guitar on
each and every track of every album seems to fit the genre and style of the
band. In this new album, guitarist Jean Francisco Nascimento, really shows
throughout each song how he can blend from heavy almost metal genre guitar riffs
to melodic and slow almost jazz-like rhythms.
Lyrics are a huge part of any band and
any of the songs that they create. Letlive is definitely not lacking in that
department. In past albums, Jason has written many songs about his life and
events that have occurred and affected him in multiple ways. Songs off of the
album Fake History like“Muther” and “Day 54” had deep meanings of love, betrayal and friendship.
Jason is quoted on saying “Lyrics are what make a song, the music is just a backup.” InThe
Blackest Beautiful, the whole album is dedicated to what makes us all human.
Jason says “I think that’s the most beautiful thing about humanity – the fact
that we fail but we are very capable of continuing on and making light of our
mistakes.” While listening to the album, each song gives its own message about
life. That makes this album very thoughtful and each song it seems like you are
learning something new.
Ok, onto the verdict. From listening to The
Blackest Beautiful I myself am thoroughly impressed. I went into this album
with no bias or discrimination so I could give it a 100% fair chance. The opening song “Banshee (Ghost Fame)
is one of, if not, the best hooks to get me to listen to this album fully. A
good album always finds a way to bring the listener into the album as a whole.
One song leads into the next complimenting one another. The
Blackest Beautiful as a full album does a great job structurally setting up
each track in order. It’s as if the album starts off with a hook to get you
interested and then slowly crescendos into a meaningful work of art. Living up
to the expectations of the last album Letlive put out (Fake
History) is not an easy task to say the least, but they somehow did it.
The highest point in The Blackest Beautiful is its lyrics. With lines like “Seems that I'm alone again but you
said you would give me the world. I was fine with those poster ghosts haunting
my walls but now I want it all,” these songs give me chills down my spine. Also,
throughout the whole album, Jason does an extremely good job putting his whole
heart and soul into every song that he sings. The vocals in this album are
phenomenal. Songs crescendo from quiet almost whispering to loud roaring screams
to clean, crisp vocals. Guitar and drums in this album are above average,
nothing spectacular, but that is the perfect catchy tone for this album. If
there is any negative criticism that I could give to this album, it is that some
of the song structures get a bit repetitive. By this I mean songs start out slow
and crescendo into a big finish. A classic example would be Bohemian
Rhapsody by Queen. All in all though, I would recommend this album to anyone
who is in the genre of punk, rock, metal, or hardcore music. It is one of my
favorite albums to date and will be forever.
California and became an active band around the year 2002. With lead singer
Jason Aalon Butler founding and leading the band, Letlive has been known to put
on phenomenal shows. When their album, Fake History, was released in 2010,
Letlive became a well-known rock band. It was critically acclaimed to be one to
the top modern day rock albums. On July, 9th 2013 Letlive released The
Blackest Beautiful, the follow up album to launch them onto the top music
charts.
When it comes to their new album, The
Blackest Beautiful, Letlive kind of stuck to their guns with the mixing of
screaming vocals paired with clean, crisp singing. Songs like the“Banshee (Ghost
Fame)”, which opens up the album, is mostly screaming heavier vocals accompanied
with cleaner crisp vocals as a secondary “part” to the song. This whole album is
very versatile though. The song “pheromone cvlt” has a much more melodic,
soothing tone and setting to it. This gives the album a more interesting feel to
it. It adds listening time and makes it feel like it doesn’t get old, even after
playing it through multiple times. Ever since their debut album, the guitar on
each and every track of every album seems to fit the genre and style of the
band. In this new album, guitarist Jean Francisco Nascimento, really shows
throughout each song how he can blend from heavy almost metal genre guitar riffs
to melodic and slow almost jazz-like rhythms.
Lyrics are a huge part of any band and
any of the songs that they create. Letlive is definitely not lacking in that
department. In past albums, Jason has written many songs about his life and
events that have occurred and affected him in multiple ways. Songs off of the
album Fake History like“Muther” and “Day 54” had deep meanings of love, betrayal and friendship.
Jason is quoted on saying “Lyrics are what make a song, the music is just a backup.” InThe
Blackest Beautiful, the whole album is dedicated to what makes us all human.
Jason says “I think that’s the most beautiful thing about humanity – the fact
that we fail but we are very capable of continuing on and making light of our
mistakes.” While listening to the album, each song gives its own message about
life. That makes this album very thoughtful and each song it seems like you are
learning something new.
Ok, onto the verdict. From listening to The
Blackest Beautiful I myself am thoroughly impressed. I went into this album
with no bias or discrimination so I could give it a 100% fair chance. The opening song “Banshee (Ghost Fame)
is one of, if not, the best hooks to get me to listen to this album fully. A
good album always finds a way to bring the listener into the album as a whole.
One song leads into the next complimenting one another. The
Blackest Beautiful as a full album does a great job structurally setting up
each track in order. It’s as if the album starts off with a hook to get you
interested and then slowly crescendos into a meaningful work of art. Living up
to the expectations of the last album Letlive put out (Fake
History) is not an easy task to say the least, but they somehow did it.
The highest point in The Blackest Beautiful is its lyrics. With lines like “Seems that I'm alone again but you
said you would give me the world. I was fine with those poster ghosts haunting
my walls but now I want it all,” these songs give me chills down my spine. Also,
throughout the whole album, Jason does an extremely good job putting his whole
heart and soul into every song that he sings. The vocals in this album are
phenomenal. Songs crescendo from quiet almost whispering to loud roaring screams
to clean, crisp vocals. Guitar and drums in this album are above average,
nothing spectacular, but that is the perfect catchy tone for this album. If
there is any negative criticism that I could give to this album, it is that some
of the song structures get a bit repetitive. By this I mean songs start out slow
and crescendo into a big finish. A classic example would be Bohemian
Rhapsody by Queen. All in all though, I would recommend this album to anyone
who is in the genre of punk, rock, metal, or hardcore music. It is one of my
favorite albums to date and will be forever.
The Thrill of the Blog
Michael Jackson really set the standard for music videos with his
video for the song “Thriller”. “Thriller” was more of a miniature movie rather
than a stand-alone video for a song.
The video starts out with a guy (Michael Jackson) and a girl walking home. Events quickly turn bad when
Michael runs away, turning into a werewolf. It turns out that it was just a movie that the two kids went to see.
On their way home from the movie, things escalate quite quickly. Michael turns
into a zombie and has a group of other fellow zombies to perform a dance and sing that ironically
explains the situation to a somewhat confused and very frightened girl.
That is a quick explanation of the video. What I really want to discuss is
if the video is effective or not in what it was intentionally made to do, sell records.
The plot of the video really speaks to the viewer by keeping his
attention closely fixed on what events are unfolding the whole time. The
intention of this whole video is to appeal to one’s emotions. The makers of the
video want you to feel scared, helpless, frightened, but at the same time,
intrigued. The make-up and effects in the video were gruesome, but not to the
extent of having a viewer look away. It was more of a wow factor than anything.
This really helps appeal to the audience, grabbing their attention and allowing
the message to be given with ease. Music videos in general are there to attract
viewers to the single or the album the artist has created. “Thriller” did just
that. It appealed to your emotions, and made people really think and delve into the video itself. The lyrics of the song also tell a story of a gruesome,
frightening event in a somewhat horror-movie-like fashion. With the
combination of the music and the video together, the album became the
best-selling album of all time and currently remains there.
My verdict on the music video of “Thriller” is simple. It did its
job. It sold millions upon millions of albums worldwide
and still is to date. All biases aside, the video is phenomenal. It brings
out the sense of horror, suspense, and excitement all in one. The video as
a whole really appeals to the viewer’s emotions, even though everyone
(hopefully) knows that dancing zombies is not a real occurrence. Nothing in
this video is logical, and there is no persuasion happening in the video
attempting to try and make the viewer buy the album. Just by appealing to
certain emotions, “Thriller” became a household name. Everyone has at least
heard of this legendary video, if they have not seen it yet. From a textual
viewpoint, “Thriller” is a masterpiece.
video for the song “Thriller”. “Thriller” was more of a miniature movie rather
than a stand-alone video for a song.
The video starts out with a guy (Michael Jackson) and a girl walking home. Events quickly turn bad when
Michael runs away, turning into a werewolf. It turns out that it was just a movie that the two kids went to see.
On their way home from the movie, things escalate quite quickly. Michael turns
into a zombie and has a group of other fellow zombies to perform a dance and sing that ironically
explains the situation to a somewhat confused and very frightened girl.
That is a quick explanation of the video. What I really want to discuss is
if the video is effective or not in what it was intentionally made to do, sell records.
The plot of the video really speaks to the viewer by keeping his
attention closely fixed on what events are unfolding the whole time. The
intention of this whole video is to appeal to one’s emotions. The makers of the
video want you to feel scared, helpless, frightened, but at the same time,
intrigued. The make-up and effects in the video were gruesome, but not to the
extent of having a viewer look away. It was more of a wow factor than anything.
This really helps appeal to the audience, grabbing their attention and allowing
the message to be given with ease. Music videos in general are there to attract
viewers to the single or the album the artist has created. “Thriller” did just
that. It appealed to your emotions, and made people really think and delve into the video itself. The lyrics of the song also tell a story of a gruesome,
frightening event in a somewhat horror-movie-like fashion. With the
combination of the music and the video together, the album became the
best-selling album of all time and currently remains there.
My verdict on the music video of “Thriller” is simple. It did its
job. It sold millions upon millions of albums worldwide
and still is to date. All biases aside, the video is phenomenal. It brings
out the sense of horror, suspense, and excitement all in one. The video as
a whole really appeals to the viewer’s emotions, even though everyone
(hopefully) knows that dancing zombies is not a real occurrence. Nothing in
this video is logical, and there is no persuasion happening in the video
attempting to try and make the viewer buy the album. Just by appealing to
certain emotions, “Thriller” became a household name. Everyone has at least
heard of this legendary video, if they have not seen it yet. From a textual
viewpoint, “Thriller” is a masterpiece.