Music

Music Monday: Johnny Hollow, “Mary”

~ Shara ~ Leave a comment

When I remembered Ilya, I remembered Johnny Hollow. I popped in their debut album the other day for a refresher and I have to say, it’s no wonder I took to Lindsey Sterling’s music so quickly! The debut album is very abstract in some senses, but the music is moody and atmospheric, and when “Mary” started, I remembered how much I loved this song.

And of course, there’s no music video for this song. Johnny Hollow is one of the more interesting bands you’ve never heard of, but someone besides me has heard of the band, and took this song and made a fan video for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Be still my heart, because I enjoyed the hell out of that show when it was on.

If you’re not a fan of the show, that’s fine. Enjoy the music. If you are a fan of the show, prepare to geek out to how the lyrics fit. If you’re a fan of Game of Thrones, prepare to see Lena Headey kick-ass as Sarah Connor before she was Cersei!

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off below!

Reminder: Music Monday is about the music, not the videos. Videos are just the medium I’m using to share the music, and some videos aren’t actually videos at all. Enjoy the songs, but if YouTube forces you to watch some sort of advertisement before you can get to the music, please be patient.

Music Monday: Poe, “Haunted”

~ Shara ~ 2 Comments

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to remember Poe. I feel in love with her music when listening to her second album, Haunted. Fun fact: the music on this album is inspired by Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. Funner fact: Poe is Mark Z. Danielewski’s sister.

While I still haven’t gotten through House of Leaves, I adore this album. It’s got so many great songs, though it was difficult to pick one because some songs end or begin with instrumental/creepy interludes. I ended up picking the title track simply because it’s the most obviously inspired song from House of Leaves and because it’s awesome.

Of course, there are so many awesome songs on this album.

A note about this video: there is no official video for this song, so I found something on YouTube that would suffice. The video I found is rather impressive: it looks like it’s set to some kind of gameplay. Interesting.

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off below!

Reminder: Music Monday is about the music, not the videos. Videos are just the medium I’m using to share the music, and some videos aren’t actually videos at all. Enjoy the songs, but if YouTube forces you to watch some sort of advertisement before you can get to the music, please be patient.

Music Monday: Ilya, “BPD”

~ Shara ~ Leave a comment

And now, for something completely different. In the past few weeks I’ve been doing a kind of rock progression, culminating in a heavy metal band fronted with a female singer. So far, all the all the songs featured on Music Monday have been female voices, and this week is no different in that regard.

But this. This is different. This is a band that I heard playing while visiting a local music store years and years ago and the music literally haunted me. I wrote down the name of the album and the band name but didn’t get the CD. At the time, I just couldn’t afford it. But I never forgot the haunting melodies, so I eventually caved.

Meet Ilya and their debut album, Poise is the Greater Architect. Not to be confused with other bands/singers of the same name. You can get the right one by visiting their Facebook page here. The song I’m sharing, “BPD,” is just one of many that caught my ear that day. There’s no actual video associated here, so just sit back and listen and see if it haunts you too.

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off below!

Reminder: Music Monday is about the music, not the videos. Videos are just the medium I’m using to share the music, and some videos aren’t actually videos at all. Enjoy the songs, but if YouTube forces you to watch some sort of advertisement before you can get to the music, please be patient.

Music Monday: In This Moment, “Beautiful Tragedy”

~ Shara ~ Leave a comment

Funny story about this band: my husband and I were in a local record shop looking for this new heavy metal band with a female lead vocalist, and we were sure the band’s name was “Beautiful Tragedy” but we couldn’t find the album anywhere, and finally we figured out that we’d flipped the name of the song with the name of the band, and the real name of the band was In This Moment.

So we go to pay for the CD, and while we’re doing it, we ask about tickets for the upcoming Lacuna Coil concert. The guy ringing us up is giving us WEIRD LOOKS, but we get our CD, we get our tickets, and we go.

And then we learn, when we get home, that there would be three opening acts for Lacuna Coil: Stolen Babies, Within Temptation (who you listened to last week), and — you guessed it — In This Moment.

So that was a happy, but slightly embarrassing coincidence. But the concert rocked, this band rocked, so I thought I’d treat you to their debut song, which encapsulates what I like best about this band: strong melodies with a solid dash of metal screaming. The later albums are sometimes more metal than I’d like (with some questionable lyrics), but their songs with strong melodies win me over every time. If you like this song, but don’t want to get TOO metal, you should pick up their sophomore album, The Dream.

But first, let’s get hear their debut song, shall we?

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off below!

Reminder: Music Monday is about the music, not the videos. Videos are just the medium I’m using to share the music, and some videos aren’t actually videos at all. Enjoy the songs, but if YouTube forces you to watch some sort of advertisement before you can get to the music, please be patient.

Music Monday: Within Temptation, “Faster”

~ Shara ~ 6 Comments

This week’s pick was a little bit tricky. I definitely wanted to do Within Temptation, but the only video off of their latest album, Hydra, wasn’t a song I wanted to feature, even though I like the song. But the songs I wanted to feature don’t yet have a video, so I decided to take a step back to their previous album, The Unforgiving, because it was this album that finally brought me on board with this band, notably with the single, “Faster.” Which I’ll listen to on repeat for freaking hours when the mood strikes me. The album itself is, for lack of a better term, a concept album, in that it tells a big story and is even based on a comic book series. You can read all about it here.

The video I selected isn’t anything super exciting, just the band performing with some nifty special effects, which in and of itself can be cool depending on what tickles your fantasy. So, without further adieu, here’s “Faster”!

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off below!

Reminder: Music Monday is about the music, not the videos. Videos are just the medium I’m using to share the music, and some videos aren’t actually videos at all. Enjoy the songs, but if YouTube forces you to watch some sort of advertisement before you can get to the music, please be patient.

Music Monday: Lindsey Stirling featuring Lzzy Hale, “Shatter Me”

~ Shara ~ Leave a comment

This song was a two-part discovery for me. The first part involves Lzzy Hale: I’ve been a fan of her band, Halestorm, for a few years now and had the pleasure of seeing them rock out in concert last year. But this song isn’t Halestorm: it’s techno-violinist Lindsey Stirling, and this song combines Stirling’s awesome sound (her debut album is pretty much all instrumental, but it’s freaking awesome and fascinating to listen to) with Lzzy Hale’s rocker power. It’s a song I’ll put on repeat and listen to for hours, and the video itself is actually pretty fascinating as well.

Enjoy!

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off below!

Reminder: Music Monday is about the music, not the videos. Videos are just the medium I’m using to share the music, and some videos aren’t actually videos at all. Enjoy the songs, but if YouTube forces you to watch some sort of advertisement before you can get to the music, please be patient.

Music Monday: Meg Myers, “Adelaide”

~ Shara ~ 2 Comments

So for the first Music Monday, I present Meg Myers. I discovered her music back in February thanks to John Scalzi, and lately, I’ve been on a kick (though her song titled, “Tennessee” is the weirdest song I’ve ever heard about my state and I don’t know if I love it or hate it). I listened to her music all weekend, so I thought I’d share the one song in particular that I couldn’t get out of my head.

Enjoy!

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off below!

Reminder: Music Monday is about the music, not the videos. Videos are just the medium I’m using to share the music, and some videos aren’t actually videos at all. Enjoy the songs, but if YouTube forces you to watch some sort of advertisement before you can get to the music, please be patient.

Introducing Music Monday

~ Shara ~ Leave a comment

So I’ve had a hankering to do a weekly feature here at Calico In Transition. Something short and sweet, something that says a little bit about me, something that varies week to week. Of course, my introducing a weekly feature comes with the caveat that it could end at any time, or I could forget, or any of the above, but it’s the kind of thing that I can schedule, and I’m all down with scheduling.

And despite no longer running a book blog, I still talk a lot about books here. Books, comics, television, and movies. The only thing I don’t really talk about is music, which is somewhat ironic since I was a music major back in college. I had ask myself why that is, and part of it’s because my musical tastes are rather varied and a little weird, and I’m always worried about people freaking out when they hear what I listen to. Fun fact: if I have people in the car with me, I rarely have music on.

But given all of that, I think it’d be fun and harmless to share, on a weekly basis, some of the songs that are getting stuck in my head, or perhaps some old favorites. I recognize my musical tastes aren’t as diverse as some people’s, but they’re interesting, and I’m hoping that no matter what your musical tastes are, that you might discover something new to listen to.

With that in mind, tomorrow starts Music Monday. When you get these posts, feel free to kick back and listen while you’re doing your other internet things, and feel free to comment to let me know how you liked the song. Like I said before, I can’t guarantee I’ll post something EVERY Monday, but I’ll sure try, and you’re welcome to remind me to do so if I miss one.

Ready? Let’s do this!

Culture Consumption: October 2013

~ Shara ~ 13 Comments

So I’m actually trying to be ON TIME for my October list. It helps that I’ve got the house to myself at the moment, but given that I’d like to watch a movie AND go write, I should get this thing wrapped up pretty quick. Thankfully (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), there’s not a WHOLE lot to share outside of comics.

Without further adieu, let’s look at October’s entertainment tallies!

And as always, I’m happy to jabber about anything that’s on the following lists. If you want my opinion about something, just comment and ask.

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Culture Consumption: September 2013

~ Shara ~ 19 Comments

I know this is dreadfully late, but for a while I was seriously considering not doing these posts. Then I realized I liked doing them, as it gave me a chance to talk about STUFF, and what I really didn’t want to do was go link-hunting. So I decided to leave out the links. If you’re really interested in something, go Google it. Or ask me in the comments and I’ll send a link your way. 🙂

Without further adieu, let’s look at September’s entertainment tallies!

And as always, I’m happy to jabber about anything that’s on the following lists. If you want my opinion about something, just comment and ask.

Continue reading →