Eaves Drop on These Ears

Whose ears? Bryn Johnsons. When? Every week. Why? Creatively wanting to broaden our horizons in music. Every genre. Every mood. Every week.

[bsweeklytunes]

Colbie Caillat is back at it, with her bubbly, catchy and smooth voice. The daughter of the father who produced Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Tusk is surely doing her dad well. Setting off on a full acoustic performance this fall with her fiance Justin Young and High Dive Heart. An acoustic performance tour is a truly honorable decision for Caillat. The honesty with every song will shine through, along with the rawness of how it was created. The release date for her album The Malibu Sessions will be October 7th and her tour will start the next day on 10/8.

Catch the line up here: 10/08- Napa, CA @ The Uptown Theatre 10/09- Saratoga, CA @ The Mountain Winery 10/11- Los Angeles, CA @ John Anson Ford 10/12- San Diego, CA @ Humphrey’s Concerts by The Bay 10/14- Park City, UT @ Eccles Center for The Performing Arts 10/15- Fort Collins, CO @ Lincoln Center 10/17- Saint Paul, MN @ Fitzgerald Theater 10/18- Kalamazoo, MI @ Kalamazoo State Theatre 10/19 – Munhill, PA @ Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead 10/21- Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall 10/22- Columbus, OH @ Capitol Theatre 10/25- Boston, MA @ Wilbur Theatre 10/26- New York, NY @ Concert Hall- New York Society for Ethical Culture 10/28- Glenside, PA @ Keswick Theatre 10/29- Ridgefield, CT @ The Ridgefield Playhouse 10/30- Alexandria, VA @ The Birchmere Music Hall 11/01- Nashville, TN @ Shermerhorn Symphony Center 11/02- Atlanta, GA @ Center Stage

[bsweeklytunes]

Ingrid Michaelson has finally released  her single “Hell No” to her sixth album titled It Doesn’t Have To Make Sense. Her album will be release the 28th of this month (8/28.) Michaelson had an interview with The Huffington Post about the content of the song. The lyrics are an obvious hit of a break-ballad, but she explains beyond that judgement: “We all have been through being wronged,” Michaelson tells me, “so we created a powerful break up song. This song is not about one specific relationship but about lots of different relationships and how they culled together into one unified force of anger.” She also collaborated with Luke Laird and Barry Dean for this single- two very strong country singers. Michaelson states that Nashville, and country in general, as had a large impact on her new sound. By no means is this single country, but it is honorable that she is dipping into different genres to expand her already phenomenal vocal talent and her perspective on music in general.

Check out her single and stay tuned for her album!

Here is a link to the official hilarious music video as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4tefnQGtNY

#teamstachemedia #Hellno #NewIngrid #Ingridsays  

B

[bsweeklytunes]

I’m not sure if it’s the way Leon Bridges sets up the silk for his Soul to so delicately glide along, Brittni Jessies sweet harmonized back up vocals with each “Bop Bop”, or the tenor saxophone guiding the sway of your hips to the rhythm.. whichever way, this album takes you straight to New Orleans in 1962. Coming from a gal who couldn’t keep her turntables needle from laying on this record, I have nothing but good things to say about Leon Bridges’ Coming Home debut album. This man manages to tell you the aww-inducing life story of his mother through mesmerizing lyrics. Lyrics so well written that you feel the warmth of the Louisiana sun in your own heart. This doo-wop track is full of warmth and gospel scales that eliminates the symphony that is in Leon Bridges’ voice. "Lisa Sawyer" has a nostalgia built in, so perfectly attached, that does his mother’s love complete justice. Its soulful R&B is intimate and emotional. You’d have to try your hardest to refrain from it to melting you completely.

[bsweeklytunes]

“Josh McBride” weaves a story about love that is consuming and nostalgic; perhaps no longer remaining. It bring me goosebumps and tears simultaneously. It highlights the words on the pages we’ve all thrown away about our own favorite love story, One that we’ve all experienced before. One we ultimately all hope to find being remembered and romanticized throughout the song. There’s something to be said for the growing that takes place when we are in the process of discovering who we are and remembering what we were together. A track is pure magic in roughly five minutes. The imagery drenched in the beholder of love’s site paired with the harmonies of Josiah Johnson’s increasingly confident voice, Jonathan Russell’s gruff warble, and Charity Rose Thielen’s angelic backing vocals- every time the song ends I am left speechless. This song has the natural progression of the band’s previous album’s “Down In The Valley” with full acoustic finger-picking, piano chimes, and banjo chords.  A band that takes upon a DIY technique with music, and still conquering all folk bands with their ability to illuminate the feelings your head never had words for.

[bsweeklytunes]

“I always heard the old stories about how you write better songs when you go through some shit. That sucks, but it’s true!” said Norah Jones in report to Rolling Stones. Classic reaction to when any 8-year relationship comes to an end. Jones is still America’s loveliest musician even through her announcements of murder and pills that have yet to be invented, as she invokes in “Mariam” and “Happy Pills”. None-the-less, her mystery and classiness still remain.  “After the Fall” is a track that shows her change in life styles better than any album prior to Little Broken Hearts. Possibly giving a whole lot of thanks to Danger Mouse who produced the album, or the spark of the fire that burned her. This woman is known for her angelic vocal technique as well as her mix of genres. “After the Fall” gathers the components of Mouse’s dub music with dangling reggae influences and still keeping an alternative perspective. Woah, right? Mouse did a top-notch job at pushing the morning artist out of her comfort zone with this track, if not the whole album entirely. Their ability to cross genres while relevantly keeping the Classic Norah sound and not making it sound too ambitious, is nothing short of impressive. Jone’s short, vague lyrics still capture the emotion of a heart that has been in a tug-of-war relationship status of staying and going.  Live performances haven’t changed for this beautiful artist. Her gracefulness at an upright piano or behind a electric guitar still survive from album to album no matter what the genre.

[bsweeklytunes]

On the reflection of the well-educated four piece band, Vampire Weekend, I feel it is only right to post about the one band that has ever titled a song with my first name. (Although, "Hannah Hunt” is much different than “Bryn”.) Ezra Koenig, the Ivy League graduate and lead singer of the band, fancies writing in a way that depicts his education, as well as makes his audience lean in a bit closer. That simply being one of reasons this band is favorable. This track is broken up into two different perspectives from the start. Luring the listener in with the connotations of plant’s names as movements to later on present how that is entirely how his and Hannah’s relationship plays out. Scholarly metaphors are Koenig’s specialty and I feed into them as much as I do the out-of-tune piano, mournful guitar slides and sproing of the band’s fretless bass. “Hannah Hunt” continues along in allegory of the New York TImes and the US dollar. The narrator hunting for kindling while Hannah rips up the Newspaper. And within the line: “Though we live on the US dollar, You and me, we got our own sense of time,” sense can doubled as cents seeming to reject the time value the rest of the world adopts to. Modern Vampires of the City is distinctly the break through album of Vampire Weekend. From what made them famous to the heartfelt relationship statuses and creepily awareness of your time on earth. This album surely finishes up the band’s role playing as “rich kids.”

[bsweeklytunes]

The new Alexisonfire. The new City and Colour. The purest representation of Dallas Green himself. Picking through Green’s thoughts of “If I Should Go Before You” presents his ability to truly be himself while surprising his own ears with his, and his band member’s, cranked out talent. Revolving a record around the love you have for another in hopes that they can move on if you were to go, but loving them so much that you wouldn’t if they were to instead. “Killing Time“ is more of a personal approach to the record. Struggling with the label of self identity in lines such as “from the shadow of my former shadow’s life”. Providing evidence that the hunt lasts through every age of life, “There are lines forming on my hands and face. Before today I have never seen.” His funky, sporadic guitar licks and smooth vocals only add to the reasons of why Green is one of the industry’s most beloved troubadours. I suppose this track is my favorite on the album for the use of electronic power chords as well as the focus on the relationship you have with yourself, instead of another. Taking on all approaches to the soul as Green has always done, under each stage name he has possessed. Only this time he finally got it right.

[bsweeklytunes]

Lyrically leaves an impression on a weak string of your heart. Instrumentally changes you to a state of vulnerability. The Iceland band, Kaleo, released this track in last August of last year, leaving fans wanting more. Any fan that has been dealt the shittier of two hands, or simply waiting for something that isn’t coming as fast as expected. “All the Pretty Girls” obtains emotionally driven sections that can be recognized by three parts that keep getting better than the last. The lead singer of this band, Jökull Júlíusson, uses his falsetto vocals with light acoustic support to set the mood of the song. Not until 1:38 of the track does the energy increase with the feature of electronic instruments. This section takes upon many appeals to it, referring to the rise and fall of power behind sound to appeal to the emotion the band is after. A lot of respect to the repeated vocals that then carry out the song. The third section starts at 3:29 with reintroduced energy and focused importance on the lines “Won’t you lay me down”. The diversity this band has definitely makes a gelled and unique impact to their audience. Mixing genres such as blues, folk, rock and country to make their music a proposal to many listeners, and doing it very well. “Kaleo” is the Hawaiian translation of “the sound”, which is pretty much the perfect, if not only, way to describe the combination of their talents. 

[bsweeklytunes]

From La Dispute’s 2014 album Room of the House, “Woman (Reading)” is one of the most staggered, historic tracks. While the entire album is poetically post-hardcore punk, this song executes the albums theme the best. Summarizing the meaning of what we leave behind, and what it speaks for when new bodies and new emotions inhabit those places. The lead singer’s, Jordan Dreyer, voice musically illustrates this track (as well as “Woman (In Mirror)”) as a beautiful still life painting. Accompanying his stark and climatical choice of lyrics: “Sometimes I think of all the people who lived here before us; how the spaces in the memories you make change your room from just blueprints to the place where you live,” the spaced-out guitar finale does the emotion justice. This being one of the more sing-a-long tracks, the powerful and imaginative force to the chest still remains as strong as the tracks prior and post to it. “Woman (Reading)” is just one of the obscure pieces of aggression on the album, which underlines how minimalistic the band is.

My emotionally driven, sappy poetic heart craves this song at any time a hint of nostalgia takes a swing at me over a past lover or a craving for an old self. I hope this song jabs at a soft spot in your punk loving heart just as deep.

B

[bsweeklytunes]

Before you cast any judgement on the man who broke the media’s innocent little songwriter, Taylor Swift’s heart, I want you to hear the guitar under the drama. “Paper Doll” was the single released from John Mayer’s most recent album Paradise Valley. May I say that it is my favorite out of the LP (in tight competition against “Dear Marie”, but that’s a whole other bag of worms). This song and album offers an entirely different feel to Mayer’s previous songwriting, which adds to my list of reasons why Mayer is one of my most favorable musicians. His artistry can attract a broad range of listeners. “Paper Doll” is a gorgeous and simple song. It possesses a gentle, folky beat. Carries a pseudo-jazzy guitar swing with smooth repetitive lyrics. This track represents Mayer’s emotional response to his personal love life, while still keeping his vivid guitar technique in the background. My perception of this tune does not lie in the public’s judgement of this man’s intentions, but rather in the talented future of the musician who never fails to surprise me.

B

[bsweeklytunes]

Welcome!

Hello listeners! 

My name is Bryn Johnson and I have created a Tumblr account that is all about delivering you a spectacular range of hit tunes. I am a lean forward listener on music streaming sites such as Spotify and Soundcloud and am going to be posting links and my personal reflection on specific tracks in hope that you too will become a follower of these wonderful bands. As I am also a musician myself, you may hear one or two of my original tunes, but I’ll keep my focus on the big talent, don’t you worry. Here’s to the start of happy ears! B