Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math

As School House Rock taught us when we were a little kid, “Three, it’s the magic number.”

It definitely is the case for Manchester Orchestra.

The Georgia-based band perfected its sound after two inconsistent albums that saw lead singer Andy Hull trying to find musical direction. Manchester Orchestra’s 2006 debut album I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child and their 2009 sophomore release Mean Everything to Nothing had Hull looking inside his inner Bright Eyes to 1990s alternative rock. While the band’s third album, Simple Math, still goes all over the musical map, the album is to the point and a tighter affair from the previous two with driving rhythms and powerful build-ups.

From the opening “Deer” to the album's second to last song, listeners are taken on an epic journey, as Hull described Simple Math in interviews as a concept album about a 23-year old who questions everything from marriage to love to religion to sex.

Simple Math is a fundamental view of an imperfect man wondering his purpose in life. This album should resonate to all of us, as we all go through this numbing journey numerous times in our life. We question things every day, where we have been, how did we get here and what it all means. Granted, some of us haven’t gone through life’s aches and pains like Hull, but we do know how he feels when he sings “I don’t know where I’ve been, what I’ve done.”


WATCH MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA'S "APRIL FOOLS"


Standout Tracks: Deer, Mighty, Pensacola, April Fools, Pale Black Eye, Simple Math.

The album’s opener, “Deer” is almost like a letter to friends, family members and even to the band’s fans (Dear everyone that I ever really knew/ I acted like an asshole so I could keep my edge on you; Dear everybody that has ever seen my band/it's still confusing, we'll never understand/I acted like an asshole so my albums would never burn). The opening track transitions perfectly into the second track, “Mighty.” This song has the best line in the entire album (It's not like I was lost for a purpose, I lost purpose and purposefully froze). You can feel the lost purpose and confusion as Hull’s voice and string arrangement crescendos at the end of the song.

The true gem belongs to “Simple Math.” The lead single sums up Hull’s journey, which is an agonizing searching of the soul for answers of his questions about life and his marriage while wondering if it’s really worth believing in god. This is the band’s finest moment.

Complaints: After going on a whirlwind ride during the first nine songs, you feel a bit let down when you get to the album's closer, "Leaky Breaks." The song is plodder and could have killed the momentum built on the previous nine songs. However, the strengths of those songs cast a shadow over the closer, even if it longs in at a painful seven minutes.

Pass or Keep: A keeper – run out to your local music store, or head to iTunes and buy this album. This was my album of 2011 and the album keeps getting better with every listen. Manchester Orchestra continues to go on a musical rollercoaster, but it works to perfection on the band’s third try. The 25-year-old Hull has to be considered one of the best songwriters out there right now.

WATCH MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA'S SIMPLE MATH

Video Playlist for Feb. 24, 2012 - Snow's All Around Us

After Mother Nature gave us a day's worth of rain, I woke up to see the grass covered in white. While we didn't get the six to nine inches of snow that was anticipated, it was enough to leave a nice reminder that winter is still here despite the 40-degree weather we've had in what was supposed to be the coldest months of the year.

So in honor of the rain-inspired playlist posted yesterday, here is a playlist dedicated to songs that have the word snow in it (minus one exception). And yes, there will not be any Christmas songs involved in this list.

Also, isn't it funny that songs about snow are more upbeat than songs about rain?


1. STARS - What the Snowman Learned About Love
2. Doves - Snowden
3. Sloan - Snowsuit Sound
4. Joel Plaskett - Snowed In
5. Simon and Garfunkel - A Hazy Shade of Winter
6. Regina Spketor - 20 Years of Snow
7. Grateful Dead - Cold Rain and Snow
8. The Leisure Society - The Last of the Melting Snow
9. Stompin Tom Connors - Snowmobile Song
10. Steppenwolf - Snowblind Friend
11. XTC - Snowman
12. Black Sabbath - Snowblind

Video playlist for Feb. 23, 2012 - Rain, Rain Go Away

Usually when it rains, the first thing I think of is staying home and finding something to do while letting Mother Nature have her fun.

Reading a book, watching something on the TV or playing some King of Colosseum II on the PlayStation 2 most likely will fill my day, but music will always blare in my room. It's one of the reasons why I love putting together playlists.

So in honor of the rain that hit my hometown the past two days, I put together, with the help of my friends, a playlist of songs with the word rain in the title. Granted, the rain turned into snow, so that could only mean a playlist involving snow will be just around the corner.

Enjoy these 21 songs involving rain and hopefully it will turn out to be the perfect soundtrack for one of your rainy days. And plenty of thanks go out to my friends who gave suggestions for songs to be included in this playlist.



1. Jimi Hendrix - Rainy Day, Dream Away
2. Eddie Kendricks - Date With the Rain
3. Led Zeppelin - Fool in the Rain
4. Blind Melon - No Rain
5. Grateful Dead - Box of Rain
6. Eddie Rabbitt - I Love a Rainy Night
7. The Beatles - Rain
8. The Cascades - Rhythm of the Rain
9. Travis - Why Does It Always Rain on Me
10. Eric Clapton - Let It Rain
11. Led Zeppelin - The Rain Song
12. The Beta Band - Dry the Rain
13. Grateful Dead - Looks Like Rain (Live version)
14. B.J. Thomas - Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head
15. The Temptations - I Wish It Would Rain
16. Lovin' Spoonful - Rain on the Roof
17. Garbage - I'm Only Happy When It Rains
18. Creedance Clearwater Revival - Who'll Stop the Rain
19. Jimi Hendrix - One Rainy Wish
20. The Who - Love Reign O'er Me
21. Prince - Purple Rain

Video Playlist for Feb. 22, 2012

1. Dan Auerbach - Heartbroken, In Disrepair
2. Beck - Think I'm In Love
3. Nine Black Alps - Cosmopolitan
4. Them Crooked Vultures - Mind Eraser, No Chaser
5. Ocean Colour Scene - Mile High City
6. The Whitest Boy Alive - Promise Less or Do More
7. Interpol - PDA
8. Sleigh Bells - Infinity Guitars
9. Eddie Kendricks - Date With the Rain
10. Nicky Hopkins - Livin', Lovin' Wreck
11. Dirty Pretty Things - Wondering
12. Packy Lundholm - King Solomon's Marbles (Grateful Dead Cover)

This is a pretty weird selection of songs, but they are all solid nonetheless. The first three songs are all over the place. Dan Auerbach sings about heartbreak which then transitions into Beck's "I Think I'm In Love" which then goes into Nine Black Alps' "Cosmopolitan," a teenage anthem for insecurities.

Standout tracks, in my view, have to be Ocean Colour Scene's "Mile High City," one of the epic songs of the Britpop era; Eddie Kendrick's "Date With the Rain," and Packy Lundholm's Grateful Dead cover, "King Solomon's Marbles." But hopefully you will enjoy all 12 tracks.

Baby Huey – Living Legend

When you stumble upon an album titled Living Legend, you think said album will either be one of the best you have ever heard or the person is full of him/herself.

Baby Huey’s Living Legend definitely lives up to its name.

James Ramey’s one and only album as Baby Huey showcases what late 60s, early 70s soul/funk was all about. From the blood-curdling vocals in “Hard Times,” the trippy space odyssey spoken words in Ramey's cover of the Sam Cooke-penned “A Change is Gonna Come” to the numerous instrumental jams, Living Legend is the ultimate glimpse as to what Jimi Hendrix was aiming to accomplish when he ventured into the Band of Gypsys. Unfortunately, Ramey died as a result of a heart attack in 1970 while recording his debut album, leaving this classic, released in 1971, worthy of its Living Legend name.

The Curtis Mayfield-produced album is shockingly underrated and unknown, yet those who have stumbled upon this album continue to sing its praise, and rightfully so. All eight tracks are psychedelic epics, and have provided a blueprint for future hip hop artists.

“Hard Times,” “Listen to Me” and “Mighty Mighty” have been sampled by numerous hip hop legends, including Ice Cube (“The Birth”), A Tribe Called Quest (“Can I Kick It?”), Eric B. and Rakim (“Follow the Leader”) and numerous others, while John Legend and The Roots covered “Hard Times” for the 2010 Wake Up! album.

Living Legend features five songs with Ramey’s soul-crunching vocals, but his backing band shines on three instrumental tracks, including the four-minute classic “Mama Get Yourself Together.” Other instrumental masterpieces include the flute-tinged “California Dreamin’” and the beautiful - and perfect - album closer "One Dragon Two Dragon."

In a perfect world, Ramey, who died at the age of 26, would have teamed up with Hendrix to provide the perfect combination of psychedelic soul. But alas, we can only imagine what type of music they are making in the afterlife while eating Oreos and drinking Thunderbird. The closest song to such a pairing would be “Running,” which has Ramey feeling like he’s being an educated fool about his love, who has him blowing his cool but he is willing to accept she might be with another man. Yet, he’s still going to run to her despite not knowing how much longer he can take it. Think Hendrix's "Love or Confusion," but a little funkier.

WATCH BABY HUEY'S "HARD TIMES"


STANDOUT TRACKS: A case can be made for every single track. However, the best tracks belong to "Listen to Me" (maybe one of the finest first tracks off a debut album), "A Change is Gonna Come", "Hard Times," "Running" and a killer instrumental cover of The Mamas and the Papas’ "California Dreamin'."

COMPLAINTS: This album logs in at eight tracks, which could be seen as a minor disappointment. Ramey didn't write any of the lyrics on Living Legend but did compose two instrumentals, "Mama Get Yourself Together" and "One Dragon Two Dragon." The lack of Ramey-written songs is easy to overlook when you have a songwriter like Mayfield in your corner coupled with the fact that two of the strongest songs on this album are Ramey-composed instrumentals.

PASS OR KEEP: A definite keeper. Living Legend is an essential album in anyone’s collection, from the hip hop fan to soul/R&B enthusiast to the indie hipster. Every track on this album is unreal and is a showcase of the strengths of every member of the Babysitters, Baby Huey's backing band. How this album isn’t more well-known is mind-boggling, as Living Legend has to be considered one of the greatest ever made.

WATCH BABY HUEY'S "RUNNING"