Fantastic Fitness and Stupendous Spotify Selections

Despite yet another snowstorm falling on my home base this past week, I nonetheless managed to squeeze a form of exercising into my schedule today. This morning I went to the clubhouse in my neighborhood (also a fine place for swimming in warmer weather) and while there I lifted some weights and walked on a treadmill for 20 minutes, followed by a five-minute cool down. Upon my return home, I cooked a hot dog and prepared a salad for lunch.

Later, with regard to my listening pleasure via Spotify, I alternated between two of my favorite subgenres of popular/rock music: Americana and power pop. The first album I listened to in its entirety today was an album by underrated yet talented Midwestern singer-songwriter (and the brother-in-law of Madonna) Joe Henry: Short Man's Room, originally released in 1992. Well-known roots rockers The Jayhawks were featured as Henry's backup band on the recording. It included some tracks that I liked a lot and, subsequently, added to my list of "starred" tracks, i.e. songs that I thought were really good as well as those which I don't get tired of hearing. One of the tracks from this particular album, "King's Highway," was later covered by Joan Baez.

After Joe Henry's album came to an end, i then switched gears and played some power pop. This afternoon I listened to the debut album ( actually, first public release) by Chicago-based influential power pop band Shoes: Black Vinyl Shoes, originally released in 1977.  My personal favorite track off this record was the second-to-last one: a rocker titled "If You'd Stay." Shoes, led by brothers John and Jeff Murphy, have had a major cult following in the power pop community and among myriad power pop fans to this day, including myself. Among my favorite tracks of theirs that appeared on later albums of theirs include "Tomorrow Night" (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9DfyEiw6yM&feature=kp) and "Too Late" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7tkDZ58DEw); some of the band's music videos were aired on MTV's inaugural day of broadcasting and they continue to perform and record to this day.

Other Americana and power pop artists whose albums (specific titles heard today listed in parentheses) I listened to today included, respectively, Rhett Miller (The Instigator) and Marshall Crenshaw (Field Day).

Welcome Back SNL!

After its month-long hiatus due to the Winter Olympics being broadcast on NBC, I am really looking forward to watching SNL's return to the schedule tonight, with host Jim Parsons and musical guest Beck [Hansen]. While I personally feel that this past season has neither been SNL's best nor worst in nearly 40-year history, I still find it very funny and watchable nonetheless. I also watched the first broadcast of Late Night with Seth Meyers the other night and thought the former SNL head writer and Weekend Update anchor/co-anchor was off to a pretty good start with regard to his new gig.

Sometimes I pleasure making pictures and editing them with Microsoft Paint and Adobe Photoshop. Many times I like to make collages consisting of several photos sharing a common bond. In the spring of 2010, I made a collage celebrating what was then the 35th anniversary of Saturday Night Live. The photo below consists of practically every repertory or featured player in SNL's cast's history (continuously updated the past few years), along with several past and present SNL logos as well as stills and title cards from various sketches.

More Obscure Audio Treasures I've Listened To In Their Entirety on Spotify

Other fine and little-known albums heard in their entirety by this blogger's ears for the first time on his Spotify account include, but are not     limited to:
Paul Collins- King Of Power Pop!
Bobby Sutliff- Allsorts
The Mayflies USA- Walking In A Straight Line
"- The Pity List
Splitsville- Ultrasound
Farrah- Cut Out & Keep
Zumpano- Look What The Rookie Did
Judybats- Native Son
EIEIO- That Love Thang
The Rain Parade- Emergency Third Rail Power Trip
The Original Sins- Big Soul

While I do find a little bit of fault with Spotify due to the fact that they lack the rights to the music of some of my favorite artists and bands (most notably the Beatles, AC/DC, Bob Seger, and the highly underrated yet very listenable and influential California-based power pop group Game Theory) or in other cases, some artists are available but not all the albums in their discographies may not necessarily be, I nonetheless view Spotify as one of the best places online for legal music streaming. This is mainly because it is a perfect place to search for and listen to myriad little-known yet listenable recordings such as the ones listed above and in one of my previous posts. I will continue to post more titles of albums I discover and listen to on Spotify (and elsewhere) onto this blog as time marches forward. Great night to all and I hope and pray that this darned polar vortex ends soon so that I enjoy the great outdoors again!

Grade A Video

Peace out! Traveling has been a lifelong favorite hobby of mine. In fact, I had traveled to all 48 contiguous U.S. states and three Canadian provinces by the time i turned 19! The above photo of me was taken at Acadia National Park in Maine during the summer of 2012, shortly after watching the sun rise at 5 in the morning. A month later, I enrolled in an elective course at GMU titled Film Music 301; overall, I did really good in that class, finishing it with an A average. At one point, the class received an assignment in which they had to set a song or score to a video. For my project, I used Windows Movie Maker to create a slide show consisting of photos of various cities and attractions which I have visited along with personal photos of myself and relatives at some of those places. I then set the video to the popular road anthem "Born To Be Wild" by Steppenwolf. The title I picked for my project was simply: "Tribute to My Travels." Here's a link to my video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i4KAGkUNVw
P.S. If one listens closely to the lyrics while keeping their eye on the video, they may notice that I purposely used photos that match each specific lyric.

Stupendousness of Spotify!

 

Ever since I've started my free account on Spotify, I have had the pleasure of listening to various albums--many of them are highly obscure--in their entirety. Such a hobby gives me the opportunity to expand both my horizons and personal knowledge with regard to music and recording. The albums covers uploaded above are a sampling of such rare audio treasures.