I thought long and hard ’bout what I should say… When I was through it just came out this way! – The Black Keys

07/03/2014 Leave a comment

The latest in my music series, Listening to Music Without Understanding It! In this post, I showcase The Black Keys, one of my favorites. It also sparked quite a bit of discussion and music recommendations, so check that out if you are so inclined!

CompGeeksDavid's avatarSourcerer

Hello and welcome again for another post in my Listening to Music Without Understanding It series. It’s time for another in-depth look at some music, and this week, it’s The Black Keys. 

I was hoping to write something up with them earlier on, in advance of their new album coming out. Then their new album came out a week earlier than I was expecting, and there went that plan! With it out, I wanted to give it some time, check it out, and then report my thoughts. I think we’ve made it to that point!

I also just read the interview of Jack White in Rolling Stone the other day. In it, he kind of called out The Black Keysfor riding in on his coat-tails – a fellow two-person rock and blues combo band, coming to popularity after The White Stripes. And I have to admit, I started listening…

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Listening to Music Without Understanding It

06/24/2014 Leave a comment

Here’s my third post in my series on Listening to Music Without Understanding It, contributing over on Sourcerer. In this one, I finally introduce the series and talk about where it’s coming from – and hopefully laying the groundwork for more to come! Hope you enjoy 🙂

CompGeeksDavid's avatarSourcerer

Having started writing these posts, I thought it was time to introduce them and to introduce myself as a contributor here on Sourcerer. My name is David, and my handle is CompGeekDavid – named for my main blog, Comparative Geeks. There, I write geeky things, and am one of two main contributors – the other being my wife, Holly.

I have a personal blog, as well, that some of you may know me from – DBCII. I am not nearly as consistent in writing there, but when I do, I write about Social Media experiments – similar, say, to some of the posts here on Sourcerer – and about writing and blogging – similar to what you see at The Writing Catalog. I had blogging on my radar because I want to write, and because, after college, working writing back into my life was not the…

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Vocal Duos in Music

06/09/2014 Leave a comment

Thought I would catch up on sharing my contributed posts. Here’s my second Music post over on Sourcerer! This one’s about music groups that have two singers, and especially ones with a male and female voice!

CompGeeksDavid's avatarSourcerer

Recently we went to see The Manhattan Transfer in concert. Not a band I had known, but we took the opportunity to go see some live music! It was a great concert, and they definitely still have their skills.

Early on in the concert, they introduced harmony, and how it works, demonstrating as they added one each to the combination. It made me think about harmony, and groups with multiple singers, and how maybe that was something that there used to be a lot more of – but for a while there wasn’t as much. And I feel like it’s coming back.

I really like bands that have multiple people singing, and am really enjoying some of the groups doing more of this. Not like the boy bands or girl bands, where maybe they each do some singing, just to highlight each of them and show them as a personality…

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The Wit and Wisdom of the Lumineers

05/16/2014 Leave a comment

Here’s my contributed post! Been too busy for a new post on DBCII… busy writing for these many other blogs! If you haven’t seen this, though, a little self-promotion seems in order 🙂

CompGeeksDavid's avatarSourcerer

One of the most interesting bands I have found in recent years is the Lumineers. They are hard to describe in a few words, hard to nail down to a genre or style. iTunes describes them as “front porch Americana.” Not a bad start.

I want to consider a few of the great traits of this band, to share with you what I like about this band, and to share why I think you they deserve a listen – if you haven’t already! Their eponymous first studio album came out in 2012, so I’m at least hoping there’s more to come from them soon.

In the meantime, this is a band from Denver, and I’m from Denver, and it would be neat to see them play there sometime! But for now, my sense of the Lumineers.

A Sense of History

One of the things that stands out about the Lumineers…

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M – Music

04/15/2014 6 Comments

MI was originally going to write on the topic of Magazines with the letter M, but I think I am beating on Journalism and all a pretty decent amount, and I think I’ll be back at it tomorrow. So for now, let’s change gears, after my question yesterday about Language. I said I would talk about my favorite use of language, so here we are with Music.

I suppose I have written on this subject recently on Comparative Geeks. I love music and song lyrics. From the earlier days of Facebook, when you could put your interests as whatever you wanted to (instead of them being tied to “pages” run by other people), one of mine was “Listening to music without understanding it.” For me, music lyrics are the modern poetry; certainly the popular poetry. We applaud the musician who is also writing their own lyrics. And we’ll probably excuse a lot more because of it.

Music is about creating an emotion, a feeling, a reaction, a mood. Lyrics serve only to enhance that. To replicate that. So the same things can be said: lyrics create an emotion, a feeling, a reaction, a mood. And can tell a story. Some of the most fun is when they do. Better yet is when they tell a story that you haven’t figured out yet – just as much fun as a deep poem with hidden and layered meanings. Am I equating T.S. Elliot to Rush? Maybe. Probably.

More novels should include music in them. I have been super excited that they’ve included songs in the Hobbit movies. And in Game of Thrones! The Bear and the Maiden Fair, anyone? No? How about The Rains of Castamere?

In closing, I think I will return to the Dune quote I used over on Comparative Geeks. The music of life.

WHAT IS SURVIVAL IF YOU DO NOT SURVIVE WHOLE?… WHAT IF YOU NO LONGER HEAR THE MUSIC OF LIFE? MEMORIES ARE NOT ENOUGH UNLESS THEY CALL YOU TO NOBLE PURPOSE!

–Leto II, Heretics of Dune

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