Singing to babies

So I understand that I'm a young male at the age of 23, but I feel like I have experienced a lot in my 23 years, and I want to share some of those things with you. 

First on my long list wont sound cool, but it may just get me laid, we'll see... 

Everyone should sing to a baby in their life.

So let me explain...In the past year of my life i have had 3 new births in my family. First my step-bro Beege had a son, Cayden James. Now I have never fancied myself a baby person, I always thought they were over rated. Everyone would swoon over them and call them sooo cute, but I preferred puppies. But the more I was around him my opinion started to change.

Then my cousin had a boy less than 2 months later, Brayden. So in less than 2 months I was surrounded by two cute little innocent poop factories.

 

Now being the music lover that I consider myself, I had the urge to make a mix. Cause at the time, there were only a few songs playing on repeat, and I could only take so much, so I went straight to my iTunes library and made a mix of stuff I would want my baby listening to. So I sat with Cayden while listening to an Avett Bros. song, and couldnt help singing. I'm not the best singer, but to that baby I was f-ing Pavarotti!! It was an awesome feeling. 

You turn into something odd when babies are around. You turn into a bubbling, high pitched boob. It's weird, but it's forgivable. Then a couple of months ago my other step-bro Anthony had a baby girl, Kennedy. And she is a lil cutie herself. So in one year, 3 babies, crazy year.

Now my opinion has changed with babies, but as of now I'm enjoying being

 a little poor, and waking up at noon on the weekends, making stupid jokes, and not washing my jeans all the time. 

So in conclusion, sing to a baby and see what happens.

Up Next: Watch some Musicals...

Slumdog > Lucas

So i had the pleasure of watching Slumdog Millionaire the other day. HOLY CRAP! what a movie. I wont go into why I loved the film, because there are too many....but i did notice one thing... The acting was awesome, especially from the young kid actors. This got me to thinking. How did this film, which wasnt a blockbuster, with moderate funding, how do they find solid child actors? And how does a film Star Wars Episode one, with all the funding in the world cast this?

You cant tell me that Lucas didnt have access to every kid in the nation to find a good Anakin. But no. Think about it Episode 1 isnt all that bad. Darth Maul is a bad ass! Qui-Gon Jinn, cool! Obi Won, awesome! Anakin? AWFUL! He is the main reason the movie is the worst Star Wars film (I dont count the Clone Wars). There are plenty of good child actors out there, and I dont know if I will ever be able to forgive them for not taking more time to find one. 

Maybe its the dialogue, maybe its the direction, regardless, terrible.

I feel Bad

After that last post i feel a little bad about being so negative, so how bout a more positive post, a reflective post. This one will be devoted to the albums that defined my 2008. They might not all be from 2008, but regardless, they all played a big part on my '08. So in no particular order here they are:

The Avett Brothers - "The Second Gleam"

Just beautiful! Listen to "Murdered in the City" and try not to tear up, in a good way. They have really defined the last 2 years of my life. Thanks to my friend Shane, they really have changed my life when it comes to music. Seeing them live is a religious experience to me and I hope to go back to church sometime soon!

Key Track - Murdered in the City

The Hold Steady - "Stay Positive"

This is my kind of bar music! It took me a lil bit to get used to his voice, but after that its pretty sweet. It makes me miss my favorite bar in the world, Tony's in Athens OH. For some reason these songs remind me of the wood covered walls and a $2 pint of Killians. 

Key Track - Constructive Summer

Mates of State - "Re-arrange Us"

Such an awesome Indie-Pop album. Every song is sooo catchy. She is hott! But they are married, which is cool. This is one of those albums that I can't imagine anyone saying "nah that sucks!" It's so catchy that you would have to be the stupid humans from Wall-e to hate this!

Key Track - The Whole Album!

Death Cab for Cutie - "Narrow Stairs"

A very solid album. Now it doesn't hit anything special emotionally for me, but its one of those cds that i find myself playing a lot. "I Will Possess Your Heart" reminded me of my last quarter of college, for various reasons, but as a whole a very solid album that will probably get played a lot more.

Key Track - Cath...

Bishop Allen - "The Broken String"

This is kind of a funny story. So i watched the movie Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Now its not the best movie in the world, but one band from the soundtrack stuck out, Bishop Allen. So i got a hold of their cd, and it was awesome! It's one of those albums where the first time you hear it you go..."uh oh! this is good!" So i have been overdosing myself with this cd. Let's just say that i have an 8 gb ipod, doesn't hold all the songs i want, and i never delete this album. Perfect mix of slower folk songs and upbeat pop songs. 

Key track - Rain, and Click Click Click

Stars - "Set Yourself on Fire"

I must give my room mate Charlie credit on this one. He has tried to get me into them for a while now. He took me to one of their shows and I was convinced, they are awesome. They are definitely one of those bands that after you see them live, you get it. And now when i listen to them i have a whole new appreciation for them. Plus i got a girl's number at this show...but lost it, oh well.

Key Tracks - Your Ex-Lover is Dead

Motion City Soundtrack - "Even If It Kills Me"

There are few bands from my high school days i really keep up with. But for some reason MCS always keeps me interested. This is such a catchy album, not unlike their other stuff. But there is something about this album that is so solid i never get tired of it. I put this on when i dont know what else to listen to and it alway hits the spot. 

Key Track - Can't Finish What You Started

Lydia - "Illuminate"

When The Format went on hiatus, i was upset...but along came Lydia. Their songs can be a tad depressing, but sooo beautiful at the same time! The whole album sounds like a big opus, like one big song. But every song gives you something a little different. They are a perfect marriage of The Format and Mae (for me at least) and with that combo, they are winners with me.

   Key Track - This is Twice Now

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - "Conor Oberst"

WOW! I got this and started playing it, thinking "Oh this is gonna sound just like Bright Eyes, which is cool, but we'll see" And after the first half of the album it quickly became my favorite album of 2008! Seriously, he is awesome, lyrics are amazing, and the music is better than ever. I never get tired of this cd, it brings me back to my trip to San Fran with my mom. For some reason it hits the spot. 

Key Tracks - Sausalito, I Dont Want to Die (in a hospital), NYC-Gone, Gone

Langhorne Slim - "Diamonds and Gold"

Another Shane credit here as well. Catchy awesome country infused album. It is perfect for upbeat listening and dow beat country. This is one of those albums you can hang out and having play in the background, bar music, or playing when you are writing a blog about your favorite music of the last year. This is a close #2 behind Conor Oberst for my favorite album of 2008. 

Key Tracks - Spinning Compass, Rebel Side of Heaven

Runners up:

Regina Spektor - "Begin to Hope"

Right Away, Great Captain! - "The Eventually Home"

Streetlight Manifesto - "Somewhere in The Between"

The Weakerthans - "Reunion Tour"

Well that's about it for that. 2008 was a great year for music in my world. Stuff to look forward to in 2009....

Kevin Devine

Manchester Orchestra

Fun 

Mute Math

I couldn't find any more, oh well, I will find something dont you worry. 

http://www.last.fm/user/wfpdrummer10

First try

So, I decided to try this blog stuff....Might as well put my thoughts down somewhere for everyone to see, right? Anyway what got me thinking is a few things. First off I would like to share things that interest me, piss me off, and are just funny, so this seems like a good place to do so. The second thing that got me thinking about doing a blog was the movie Wall-e. Yes that's right that movie about that cute little robot Wall-e. He pisses me right off...so this first entry will be about discussing that movie. Don't worry this wont end up being a bitch about everything blog. Anyway here it goes....

So I saw Wall-e for this first time a few weeks ago. Everything started off fine, cute lonely robot on an abandoned Earth. He meets a beautiful new robot and falls in love, blah blah blah....anyway what bugs me are the inconsistencies. First off the humans. What the hell? We are led to believe that we are realistic humans like we see everyday in the mirror. And then we turn into turd people who are dumb as hell! "Define dance?" Are you shittin' me? We have all these sophisticated robots, space travel and such and we become more stupid than your average Cro-Magnon man 

(sorry Geico cavemen). So on a style level, we see realistic humans like Fred Willard here, and we turn into the most cartoony thing Pixar has ever done? Stupid! So first point, the humans sucked! 

Next point...I have heard so many times, "The made an emotional story about robot love with little dialogue." Well that's not as hard as you'd think. You can personify anything and make an emotional story about it...does anyone remember The Brave Little Toaster? It was an F-in' TOASTER!! (Great movie by the way!) Anyway to prove this point, I made a little story i want to share with you, "The Adventures of Wall-ington and Door-a"

Wallington has been alone in the corner of this house his whole life. He has been watching romantic movies his whole life with the single dude that lives in this house (We'll name that dude, Matt Campbell, sound like a lonely character name)...

Matt decided that the wall next to Wallington would make for a good place to put a door. Enter Door-a, a beautiful door purchased from Home Depot. Wallington is in love! However being the professional woman Door-a is, she is focused on her job of being a door. 

Matt took a long vacation to visit a girl he met on the internet. So Wallington and Door-a had time to get to know each other. Long story short they fall in love...AWWW!!!
Matt fell in love with this internet girl and moved away. But before he left he sold his house to some big wig capitalists. They turned the quaint little house into a store. In the name of business, they got rid of Door-a, leaving Wallington alone once again.
The lazy humans added an automatic door. 

Then one day the humans decided to build a closet, and guess who the door was? Door-a!! They lived happily ever after. Until they were bulldozed by Wal-Mart 10 years later.

There I summed up very similar plot points to Wall-e with a wall and a door. Now its not as well thought out or excuted, but the point is that you can make anything have a personality, so stop thinking Wall-e is god's gift to animated films because its a robot in love, if you wanna see robot love check out this video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjAoBKagWQA  

Ok last point. The movie was soooo preachy! I've had people tell me that it brings up good points. Sure okay maybe it does, but if those points weren't thrust in you're face the entire movie it wouldn't be so bad! Wholesalers are ruining our life! Consumerism is killing us! We are so wasteful!!! I GET IT!! GEEZ! and you wanna know what's ironic? with all those messages, Pixar still wants you to buy the dvd, special edition dvd, the soundtrack, the art book, and what ever else.... consumerism? I think so! 

Okay look, I enjoyed the movie, very cute...I'm not saying its a bad movie at all...I'm just wanting people to stop freaking out about Pixar movies just because they are Pixar...I know what you're thinking, "but Matt you work at DreamWorks, you're biased" sure i get it, but still I don't think Wall-e is as good as everyone thought it was, that's all. Nuff said.