Dishwalla

On my somewhat recent obsession with 90's music, I found one of the best bands ever. If you haven't heard of Dishwalla (apparently the name comes from a Hindi term for a person providing cable television to a neighborhood), you've missed out until now (and I will be trying to convince you to give them a try). I lament not having found them before now. I first heard Dishwalla on Charmed in Season 2 and since then I've loved their music, but it wasn’t until lately that I’ve really gotten into it. The lyrics, the beat, the lead singer's entrancing voice, everything about them is just amazing. Many people compare them to the likes of the rock greats, The Goo Goo Dolls. Dishwalla is best known for their hit song ‘Counting Blue Cars’ released in 1996 on the album Pet Your Friends which was frequently played on the radio. The track earned them a Billboard Award for "Best Rock Song" for 1996 and two ASCAP Awards for "Rock Track of the Year" in both 1996 and 1997. Several of their songs have been in movies and on TV shows such as NCIS, Smallville, and The OC. I love all their songs, but my favorites are ‘Angels or Devils’,‘Give’ , and 'Until I Wake Up'. (Click on the links to listen to the songs or else)

See how I just made a new paragraph? That was to give you a chance to listen to the songs (and hopefully like them) before I continue. Or you could read and listen at the same time; that works too. So on another note, I got a Twitter recently and J.R. Richards (lead singer of Dishwalla) himself followed me! (He's the one on the far right of the picture) I was so excited and obviously I followed him back. This also made me curious as to what he’s been doing lately, so I went to do what I always do when I’m curious: research. And to do this the obvious place you can go is Google. So when I Googled him, I found out that he just released a solo album titled “A Beautiful End”. So next I went to YouTube and typed this in to find his songs. Once I listened to them, I instantly fell in love with his music all over again. Now I’m obsessed (Thanks a lot J.R.! XD) and I can’t stop listening to all his songs on repeat. His songs are filled with passion and the lyrics are also very deep and catchy. Hopefully through all this, you’ve listened to the songs and liked them. If not, I’m sad about that, but at least you gave them a try and that’s all I can ask. And if you did like the music, listen to more of it just by searching Dishwalla on YouTube or another site you listen to music on (such as Playlist.com), and spread the word!

Cover Songs

Whether we love 'em or hate 'em, they're out there. Whether they completely ruin something great or make it even better, they've always been there and will keep on being made. That's right: cover songs.

Recently on YouTube I found this cover by 30 Seconds to Mars of Lady Gaga's song, Bad Romance. Personally I didn't like it at first, but as the song kept going, I started to like it and now I listen to it a lot. Everyone has their opinions on cover songs, but it varies from cover to cover. I also listened to a cover of the Transformers theme song by Black Lab (link once I find it again) and I didn't like it at all. It just sounded wrong. There are also tons of covers of songs on YouTube by random people; some of them are great and others make you wish you were deaf.

Usually people complain about cover songs because they are done in a different key or a different style, which can completely change the song. This is so in the above cover by 30 Seconds to Mars where they take Lady Gaga's pop, crazy, fast Bad Romance and change it into their own slow, acoustic-type song. To some people this ruins the song, but I think it's interesting that a song can sound so different yet the same just based on someone else's take on it.

“ρяεττy ʟιττʟε ʟιαяʂ”

When I first saw the name of this TV show, I instantaneously thought "Oh great another girly gossip show", but I still gave it a shot solely because I saw that Holly Marie Combs (Piper from Charmed) would be on it. I'm glad I watched it and now I'm hooked.

Pretty Little Liars is based on a series by the same name by Sara Shepard (which I am now impatiently awaiting to come in at the library so I can read it). In regards to how accurate the show is to the books, I really don’t know because I (sadly) have not read the books. The show is based on a group of girls whose friend Alyson recently died. But not very long after Alyson's death, the girls begin receiving messages all from the notorious "A" which makes them think it is Alyson. "A" knows all their secrets and sets out to ruin the girls' lives. This sets up the series’ premise of finding out just who “A” really is. After the first episode, I became immersed in the series and can't wait until Tuesdays for the new episodes (8pm Eastern on ABC Family). Originally, I lamented over another great show that would never get the respectability it deserves. That was until last Tuesday when Pretty Little Liars was trending worldwide on Twitter in three different ways! This made me happy that people actually are paying attention to this great show.

Holly plays one of the girls' mothers and her character's name is Ella. In the more recent episodes, she's been having a hard time dealing with the fact that her husband cheated on her. It was because of "A" that Ella found out, and since then in the newest episode SPOILER ALERT Ella left her husband and kids to go live somewhere else. I hope this doesn't limit her screen time; I already feel like she isn't on there enough! Holly is very good at portraying emotional scenes and her acting makes it seem like her emotions are very real.

So if you wrote off this show because of the cheesy-sounding name, remember that saying everyone rolls their eyes at; "Don't judge a book by its cover". Give the show a chance and you may be surprised at how good it actually is.

A ramble on... Formspring

The Formspring trend didn't last long did it. I honestly don't even know why it lasted as long as it did. And yet even though I know I will have no questions asked, I still go on it at least once a day to check. Formspring was big for a whole three months or so. What is the point of asking someone a question anonymously? It's likely that depending on who you are, the question will have a different answer. The most retarded thing is when people ask questions like "Will you go out with me" anonymously. Are you kidding me? You think they're gonna somehow know who you are? But mostly people abuse the ability to post anonymously by asking stupid questions that people just delete anyways because they don't wanna deal with that bullcrap.

So how did Formspring last so long? Probably a mystery we'll never figure out and may not want to. Maybe it was the thrill of receiving anonymous questions and trying to figure out who it was. Maybe feeling like people actually want to ask you something about yourself. It probably lasted so long because people continuously posted on their Facebook for people to ask them questions. Why it makes a difference where questions are asked I'd like to know, but that's another mystery. I think we should just put Formspring behind us and forget this part of our internet history and move on... to Twitter! Where messages can only be 140 characters! Wait a sec how is that an advancement? Not that I'm criticizing Twitter or anything. I actually just got one and so far I like it. As long as you follow the right people who don't post every single thing they do every second of the day, Twitter will be a good experience for you.

"Once More With Feeling"

I must say I've never been a fan of musicals; I'm not sure why, I'm just not. The only musical I love is the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Once More With Feeling". This episode was revolutionary for it's time coming out November 6, 2001. It is full of so much emotion throughout the entire episode and it doesn't miss a beat. With Joss Whedon's expert writing, and some pretty decent singers on cast, I'm glad they decided to try such a feat. Kind of ironically, the episode called "Hush" in which none of the characters could talk for the majority of the episode was nominated for an Emmy Award in Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Anyways, the episode was a hit with fans and the general public. It was unheard of at that time for a show to try a stunt like this having a musical episode. The episode was perfect and the songs were very well written from the angsty "Rest In Piece" to the hilarious "I've Got A Theory". Since then, there have been several other shows that have had musical episodes such as Scrubs and from the success of Glee, it's obvious that people have always had an inner craving for musical tv shows.
And to sign off I leave you with Anya's lines from "I've Got A Theory":
"Bunnies aren’t just cute like everybody supposes,
They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses,
And what’s with all the carrots?
What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?
Bunnies, Bunnies, it must be bunnies!
.... Or maybe midgets?"

A ramble on... Music!

I've been pretty bored lately so I've been researching music. Mostly music from the 90's because that's when music was at its best (in my opinion). When music wasn't only about drugs, sex, etc and it had real substance. Real messages that could reach your heart, soul, and very existence. I usually can't stand any rap, but even rap from the 90's is actually bearable and I somewhat enjoy it. I was going through some lists I found of the "Best music of the 90's" and I remembered hearing a lot of the songs when I was a kid. Those songs brought back a lot of memories.

So mostly I've been listening to the ol' rock songs of course. Many great bands were big back then: Bush, Staind, Eve6, Live, etc. and I love listening to those songs. A lot of songs from the 90's are on Rock Band/Guitar Hero also, which kind of surprised me because I thought most of them were more contemporary music. Does that mean Harmonix has realized the greatness of the 90’s music as I have? I like to think so. And without even knowing it, people all over the world have been exposed to some of the greatest music ever made, and they don’t even realize that the music is from a different decade.