New Music Thoughts

Hi, the blog has been on for a while and this is my first post, so I'm slacking, but you have to start somewhere. I'll feed off of Eric's post where he talked about the concerts, I was lucky enough to be at the Counting Crows/Augustana show as well, and it was great. Many favorites were played by the Crows, but Augustana really caught me off guard with their set.

I'm not sure what people think about Augustana, but I've always viewed them as leaning somewhat towards the emo end of rock instead of the folk end like Counting Crows..This view was totally changed on Wednesday night. There were only a few moments where lead singer Dan Layus really went out for a kind of "scream" or a crazy note. For the most part, they looked pretty happy, and way more under control and mature than they were the last time I saw them. Their pianist was even able to rock out on the organ for several sounds, where was this a few years ago?

This again leads to Eric's point about listening to more than one song or making a judgement too soon. Lately I've been listening to CDs for more than just the hit song that is on the record, and it really gives you a better idea of who a band really is. I can honestly tell you that "You Found Me" isn't my favorite song on The Fray's latest CD, it's not even close..The days of buying the hit single on iTunes and leaving the rest for another day are over, maybe I would've been expecting something different from Augustana had I listened to the whole CD.

I hope everyone continues to discover new music and that you are able to go beyond the hit single and really see what a band is all about. Next up for me is Paolo Nutini, 22 year old from Scotland with an unmistakable voice. His first hit was "New Shoes", and now he's back with a new album called "Sunny Side Up", I'll let you guys know what I think.