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Welcome to Part 2 of my reflections of music in 2011! This one pays homage to the bands themselves (*new bands that really stood out to me this year over all the others) and to the people who turned me on to them (sometimes that includes myself)!

*New to me, not necessarily new to the world

Note: Clicking the image of each band will take you to their site and music. You should totally click their images to check them out!

Corruption from Heather

Even though I’ve known Heather for a couple of years now and we talk literally every day via email, chat, etc…, it wasn’t until this year that our game of music corruption really began. I honestly don’t remember exactly how it started. I think it was a song by The Hush Sound that might have been the beginning of what has been an awesome year of sharing music with her. I remember sending it to her via email because it was currently living on repeat for me and discovering that she abuses single songs just as much as me. Within a few days we’d both listened to the song so many times it was ridiculous and it spawned something wonderful. A year later and we’ve shared an uncountable amount of music with each other, almost all of which we easily fell in-love with. Sharing music is always fun, but it’s so much better to share it with someone who’s ears are so attuned to the same thing as yours! Of all the bands Heather has turned me onto the two that consistently get the most plays are:

Sick Puppies

According to Heather, the first two songs she ever sent me were “Survive” and “The Bottom” because they’re her favorites. I just know that I loved Sick Puppies so much based on just those songs that I pretty much pestered her until she sent me more. As you saw in my previous music post that I loved this band enough to make one of their tracks the most played track of the year. If I had posted the top twenty most played tracks of the year five of them would have been Sick Puppies songs. I’d say that says a lot about how much I ended up loving this band this year!

                    

RED

When I was growing up, I was into quite a few Christian rock bands, but for a while there the sound just wasn’t compatible to the other rock music I listened to and I stopped giving it a shot. So, I was surprised when Heather introduced me to this band and I fell in-love with their sound instantly, to then discover that they were a Christian rock band. I guess religious rock has made a comeback? It doesn’t really matter that they’re a Christian group, but I have to admit that the lyrics of their songs move me a little more than most and I love how they can so cleverly weave those powerful words into a sound that’s so hard and unlike most Christian music. Needless to say, this has become a band that has not only helped me write, but filled my soul with comfort when I’ve needed it most. They’re a really great band that I doubt I’ll grow tired of anytime soon.

         

Corruption from Steve

Mine and Steve’s friendship began solely because of music. Originally he was a friend of Heath’s, who heard I liked Atreyu and wanted to see if I’d heard of some of his other favorite bands. Turns out he had a heck of a lot more bands under his belt in this genre of music than I had even heard of and his influence on me was crazy-strong. Since meeting him in August, I’ve added almost 4GB of music to iTunes. That’s almost half of the entire year’s additions. I would like to say I may have equally corrupted him with some of my favorite music, but our relationship is pretty one sided unfortunately. He gives, I take. Luckily, he’s a good sport and seems to enjoy getting me into something new!  While many of the bands he’s turned me onto deserve recognition, the following two are by far my favorites:

Artifex Pereo

Very rarely does a band have such consistency for me that I can listen to anything they put out and love it all equally. Sure, I’ll still have songs I’m more drawn to and particularly based on my mood, but if I can listen to every song without skipping a track it says a lot about a band. This group qualifies as one of those rare few. While I suppose their music generally has a harder sound, they also have these brilliant moments of softness too. Their instrumentals can be beautifully complicated or perfectly simple and still amaze you. They have potential to be around for a very long time if they stick with it, in my opinion. They’ve recently acquired a new singer and I just hope he helps the band bring as much to the plate as they have before. I can’t wait for new music in the future and I truly hope I get to see a show one day!

      

Dance Gavin Dance

This band can be a bit difficult, but not because of their musical ability. They’re difficult because of the way they flip-flop singers. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. The singers they’ve featured have been equally skilled, but it leaves each album holding a noticeably different sound. Again, though, that’s not a bad thing. To me, they mix singing and screaming in a really entertaining way and their screaming isn’t so muffled that you couldn’t scream along (which happens too often unfortunately with screamer bands). This is the type of band that I imagine I’d go crazy to in a pit at a show and I really hope I get to see them live one day to test this theory.

          

Rediscovered Bands

Sometimes I have a tendency to forget about bands I love. I blame this partly on the fact that I don’t listen to the radio and rely greatly on others to corrupt me musically. Because of social mediums though it’s been easier to stay up to date with music I like, but before it, sometimes it was pretty easy for me to be distracted by something new and let the other bands I like fall by the wayside. This year I found a few bands I used to love again and “catching up” on all I’d missed over the year was far too fun! Reliving my memory of why I loved them before certainly won’t let me forget about them again!

Mindless Self Indulgence

Maybe the year was 2002 when I first got into MSI. I was wearing face paint a lot back then because I was “down with the clown” and MSI was a fairly popular band with the Juggalos. I wouldn’t have had to be a Juggalette, though, to like MSI. The problem was, I stopped hanging around those clown kids in 2004 and lost my connection to this semi-underground band. When I got into that The Left Rights song that was the most played track of the year last January, I felt compelled to check up on MSI and see what they’d been up to for the last few years. Turns out, it was a lot! Quickly, I just had to buy everything I’d missed and was also blessed with the re-release of Tight as Tighter this year. Needless to say, they were my favorite “rediscovered band” of the year.

         

Thrice

Thrice is one of those bands that I always liked whenever I heard them, but never actually owned anything by them which made it even easier to forget about them when I wasn’t around people who also listened to their brand of music. This year, though, Steve can take credit for re-introducing them to me and just in time, too, for their latest album. Sadly, shortly after the release of Major/Minor they announced that they’d be on hiatus for a while to enjoy their home lives. While I’m disappointed that just as I’ve acquired all of their music, they’ve left the scene, I also have a lot of respect for talented people who don’t let their talent take away from their real lives too. I’m sure they’ll be back one day and when they return, I’m confident it will be stellar!

           

Dead Bands*

Stumbling onto bands that totally rock after the fact can be fun because they usually come with a hefty load of music to keep your ears occupied. The downfall, though, is that that’s all you’ll ever get out of them. You’ll never have an opportunity to see them live, you’ll never hear new music from them, and you’ll probably never even be able to find a t-shirt or decent memorabilia unless they were super famous. That part sucks. Being dead or not, though, doesn’t mean I won’t still love them. This year’s favorite “dead bands” include:

He Is Legend

Again, Steve can take credit for turning me onto He Is Legend. In fact, the first song he ever sent me was “Do You Think of Pretty.” He had said he knew I’d like this band, without doubt, because “girls think Schuylar’s pretty vanilla.” That didn’t really have anything to do with why I ended up loving them, but it did make me laugh. Anyway, many albums later and I was hooked to He Is Legend and sad to know that they were on hiatus with no future in the works.

                      

Morningwood

I blame the fact that I had forgotten about MSI for the past couple of years on not knowing about Morningwood. I mean, the lead singer is Jimmy Urine’s wife. There’s no way if I’d stayed up to date with MSI that I would have missed out on the awesomeness that is Morningwood. In fact, finding them at all this year is completely because of rediscovering MSI. YAY for social mediums and bands pumping up their buddies! 🙂 Anyone that knows me, knows I love rocker chicks and when you’re as talented as Chantel and your band reminds me of 90’s rock, well… it’s a no brainer, I’m gonna love you.

                          

(*Apparently, despite believing both of these bands would never make a comeback all year, I’ve just recently discovered that there may be hope for them both after all! He Is Legend has already announced they will be releasing a new album in 2012 and Morningwood is currently listed as the opening band for Mindless Self Indulgence this year on tour. This makes me incredibly happy.)

Want to see if you can corrupt me musically in 2012?

I dare you. 😉

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