Music

Let me answer a question that I'm quite sure no one asked. I review and comment on a lot of movies, a lot of video games, a lot of TV shows, and I comment (albeit less frequently) on books and comics/graphic novels. That's really what makes up the majority of this blog. You may notice, and may (but probably don't) wonder why that list doesn't include music?

Simple... I'm really not qualified to talk about music. I... Really just don't get as passionate about music as I do about other mediums. It's not that I think it lesser, quite the contrary, I think music is a beautiful medium which, artistically, is every bit as great as books, films, or video games. (And yes I will put video games on par with the rest as an artistic medium.)

Now, don't get me wrong, there's a lot of music that I hate. I hate Justin Bieber, the untalented hack, I despise country music with very VERY few exceptions, and I don't like rap or R&B. It's just... Not my thing.

But I mean, you won't see me reviewing the latest hit single because of two main reasons.

1. I have absolutely no musical talent. Seriously. I don't play an instrument, my singing voice is... Well it's not ear bleedingly bad, but I'm not going to become a breakout music star any time soon. And I literally know next to nothing about how music is written.

2. I'm simply not qualified to talk about music because of my lack of knowledge on the subject. Now, with movies or film, I may have some... Different opinions than the majority, but I know what I'm talking about. I do reading, and I spend a LOT of my time watching films, or playing games. I know the terminology behind it. I understand game mechanics, and can identify storytelling tropes. I've listened to countless commentaries for films. I'm not the worlds greatest expert on these things, but I know what I'm talking about when it comes to storytelling, movies, games, special effects... That's not the case with music. I don't know that much about music. I don't listen to the radio, I don't pay ANY attention to what albums are being released and when, I don't know who the new big sensation is... In fact if you were to ask me to name any of the top twenty songs right now, I couldn't name a single one. I listen to music, sure, but... A pretty small selection.

I mean... I know who Lady Gaga is, I know who Ke$ha is, I unfortunately know who Justin Bieber is... But I don't own a single song released by any of them. Which, y'know, is probably not a bad thing in at least two of those cases. (I'll let you decide which two I'm talking about.)

That said, what do I like? Well, that's a tough question, because there's a lot of varying things I like, and they... Really aren't connected. But I suppose I should start with my very favorite band.

Five Iron Frenzy



Five Iron Frenzy was a Christian Ska/Rock band which was formed in the late nineties and saw moderate, yet niche success until they broke up in 2004. I only actually learned about them a couple years ago, long after they had been broken up, and then of course immediately bought every CD they had ever released with the exception of a few live ones, because they were FREAKING AWESOME.



Seriously, this band could not be any better, their songs ranging from humorous songs like "The Untimely Death of Brad", (Created after a rumor of the death of one of the members of the band spread across the internet like wildfire. He was alive, for the record, and the rumor started after he missed a concert due to equipment malfunction or some such.) to "Blue Mix" a song which called out the hypocrisy in the Christian music industry, to straight Christian songs like "Far Far Away". Which, by the way, is also AWESOME, like pretty much every song they have.



Due to the nature of the band, with many songs being completely unrelated to their faith, they saw success, albeit only moderate, among both Christian and Secular audiences. Because they were awesome. Seriously. Go look them up. Now.

Parodies. Lots and lots of parodies.

Ok, I LOVE parodies. If done right, they can be hilarious.



If done wrong, they can be awful of course... But if done right, they can be so good!

JoCo

The man wrote Still Alive, Ikea, Dance Soterios Johnson, and Re: Your Brains. He's a freaking genius. Oh, and his 3 and a half minute song about a Vampire manages to convey a better, more interesting story, and create more interesting characters, than the entirety of the Twilight series.



He's a freaking. Genius. There is nothing more to be said about him. Go look up almost any of his songs, The Presidents, Skullcrusher Mountain, Mandlebrot Set (harsh language, just warning you), Chiron Beta Prime, any of the ones I mentioned above, Furry Ol' Lobster... They're great.

Musicals

I covered musicals I love last year, but here's one more to add to the list. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. ONCE MORE WITH FEELING. SERIOUSLY. BEST MUSICAL EPISODE EVER.





Probably my second favorite episode of the series, next to Hush. (Interestingly enough the one where there's hardly any speech at all.)


Pomplamoose

Pomplamoose I'm mainly mentioning here because of the style of their music videos, which I'll talk about in a moment. They're a group (two people) that mainly do covers of other songs, with some original work mixed in. The covers are great, but what is really interesting is the fact that the videos, instead of showing mostly random images, show the instruments being played, and the singer... Well... Singing...

Everything which is played in the song is at some point seen onscreen. It's very cool to see, and the music is good.

Of course there's a lot of other groups and such which I quite like, but this was just a small list of examples.

And No, I'm Not Gay!

So. I like movies. In case you couldn't have guessed that, I really really love movies. There is one kind of movie I really love however, that is often called "girly". Guys are frequently accused of being gay for liking this particular type of movie.

Musicals. Ok? I love musicals.

Hold on now! I didn't say ALL musicals! There are a few particular musicals I really like however. Let me mention a few of them.

1776
1776 is an awesome movie. It's a musical about the signing of the declaration of independence. The main character is John Adams, played by William Daniels. KITT from Knight Rider. Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World. Yeah. Awesome.



With the help of Benjamin Franklin, this movie is one of the best musicals ever made. It's pretty historically accurate, and it really gave me a love of that period of history more than any book ever could.

West Side Story

West Side Story is the story of Romeo and Juliet (Stay with me male audience!), but instead of two feuding families, it's the story of a gang war. The film features singing and dancing, that's true, but it's also pretty dang awesome. Also it feature a fairly high body counts for something frequently labeled a "chick movie".



Spoiler alert: It doesn't end well.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog!

This is a musical, about a low-rent supervillain. Need I say more? I do? Ok, how about Neil Patrick Harris playing Dr. Horrible, Nathan Fillion of Firefly fame playing his nemesis Captain Hammer, and Felicia Day, creator of The Guild (And my favorite actress.) playing Penny, the girl Dr. Horrible falls for.

Oh, and the whole thing is written by the writer of Buffy and Firefly, Joss Whedon.



Oh. And if you buy the DVD, you get the commentary. WHICH IS ALSO A MUSICAL. Yeah.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

This is in a tie for my favorite movie, alongside The Dark Knight. I don't even know what song to put since they're all so iconic and awesome. The definitive Tim Burton movie, and also his best, this is a film about Halloween deciding to take over Christmas. Danny Elfman wrote all the music. You may not know who that is, but you've probably heard his scores in such films as:

Pee-wee's Big Adventure

Scrooged

Batman

Edward Scissorhands

Men in Black

Spider-Man

Meet The Robinsons

And many, MANY more.

He's the singing voice of Jack Skellington, the main character.



I love this movie so much, not only do I own the OST (Original Sountrack) I own it twice. I own the original release soundtrack, and the 3D-rerelease soundtrack, with cover versions and demo versions of the songs.

Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ Superstar is the story of the last few days of the life of Jesus Christ. *Spoiler alert* Jesus dies in the end. Seriously though, this is a fantastic movie with a fantastic cast, who sing... Um... Fantasticly. It's done as a group of people putting on a play. Kinda. The costumes are... VERY 70'

Make sure you see the 1973 version though, not the 2000 remake. That was meh.



Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Ok, lemme just say this movie is INCREDIBLY CHEESY. Like, you could not possibly make this movie any cheesier. It's the story of Joseph, from the Bible. It's done as a school play being put on (with better effects, of course.) so it's intentionally cheesy.



A Very Potter Musical

Ok, stay with me here people. I know none of you have ever seen this. I'm aware of that. This is actually a play, you can watch on youtube. Of all the musicals on this list, this is definitely the most... Erm... Crude...

It's a parody of the Harry Potter books (not any one in particular), originally written and produced by a group of college kids for their school. They filmed it and put it on youtube. It was actually so raunchy when they first put it up, they took it back down and edited certain jokes out of it to make it PG-13 rated.

Since it's a recording of a live showing, it's occasionally hard to understand what the characters are saying, and of course the production values are low. On the plus side it's available for free.

Between the harsh language, the sexual innuendos, and the multiple gay characters, it's not for those easily offended. It is however hysterically funny.

Darren Criss plays Harry Potter, who can only be described as "That guitar guy". He goes to Hogwarts, but trouble is afoot! The Dark Lord Voldemort is returning, and attempting to get his body back (And do a swell tap dance routine.)! The musical is a mix between books two, four, six, and seven, creating a unique plot that, while it has some plot holes, is pretty good all things considered.




The humor is really fun, and the songs, all original pieces, are pretty good. There's a few bizzare things, such as Draco Malfoy being played by a girl, but overall, it's hilarious. The girl playing Draco actually does a really good job as him. Like I said though, don't watch it if you're easily offended.


So there you have it, just a few of the many musicals I love. Almost every Disney movie could be added to this list too, of course, and this is far from every good musical out there, but the point is, GUYS DON'T HAVE TO BE GAY TO WATCH MUSICALS.