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This is today’s Daily Rhythm. I am not joking when I say that I am a huge fan of this kid, and every new thing he drops is pure gold. There is nothing to joke about here; the dude is serious man. Do not sleep on this one...haters convert after this smooth freestyle.

#jadensmith soulection freestyle hiphop 15 smooth

This is today's Daily Rhythm.

After work I popped this CD into the car stereo and it was just what this sunny-but-cool summer-transitioning-into-fall Friday afternoon needed. I always enjoy blaring The Hives, and when the album gets to this "slow song," I am reminded that rock and roll is still alive. How many other 6/8 ballads exist that rock this hard? I particularly get down to the guitar solo at 1:55...one of the most diabolic guitar solos in rock music. And as always, HPA is howlin' like mad. Let your hair down for this one and show off your attitude.

#thehives #tyrannosaurushives #diabolicscheme #rockandroll #hives #punk #rock #baby

This is today's Daily Rhythm.

"SE 101" is the first track off of Christian progressive-pop-punk band Ace Troubleshooter's self-titled album. It's a banger, so good luck keeping up! I love this song for its jungle beat drum intro, and Josh Abbott's fast paced, quick thinking brain behind the drum set in general. His approach to different time signatures in this song is smooth and natural, blending white knuckle cut-time punk beats with chugged triplets during the 6/8 feel. Frontman John Warne (of later Relient K fame) crafts clever lyrics and tricky vocal rhythms over the song's ebb and flow. This is one of my favorite tracks to (try to) drum along with, and the chorus is catchy enough to sing in the car. Reminiscent of early The Offspring, this band's millennial major label debut (on BEC) hits the mark for punk rock and beyond.

This is today's Daily Rhythm.

"Suspension," by Mae has been stuck in my head all day, quoted in my tweets this week, and the subject of my Facebook statuses. I even put it on a mix I'm making for a pretty girl. Everything about this song fits my life right now.

Part of one of the most beautiful albums of all time (2005's The Everglow), "Suspension" is a song about falling in love. The lyrics of the first two verses spell out the romance of a lifetime, and the choruses exclaim how free and alive it feels to be "caught in suspension." The message is also one of acceptance, flexibility, and adrenaline: "We are gaining speed; I can barely breathe (caught in suspension). Say anything but say what you mean when you whispered 'I want this.'"

I can't pass up an opportunity to talk about drum sounds (my producer/engineer friends will appreciate that). The precision and punch to Jacob Marshall's playing on this track is only emphasized by the crack of his snare drum and attack of his cymbals. At risk of getting on a soapbox, what separates Mae from other alternative/emo bands of the 2000's is their attention to layers. They write many simple guitar/keyboard riffs and bass lines, then sew them together to weave a complex aural tapestry. As usual, Marshall's groove is the loom that stitches the fabrics (guitar delay, soaring piano, tambourine, clean guitar, smooth vocals, electronic samples, etc.) together.

Furthermore, nobody writes riffs like Mae. The way they combine and intertwine guitar and piano lines makes them one of the hardest bands to cover justly. I'm still hoping one day my band can pay homage.

This is today's second Daily Rhythm!

Another of my favorite Christmas originals by Relient K, this song is a little more Jesus-heavy than much of the album. This makes it extraordinarily touching at a Christmas Eve church service, or in a Christmas Day hymn and carol sing. I actually learned to play this song on piano years ago, and have since forgotten all the notes. Needless to say, re-learning it is on my list of New Year's Resolutions.

I like this song a lot because it's written (and sung) to Jesus. The perspective shifts between first person and second person, proclaiming in the final bridge:

"I celebrate the day that You were born to die, so I could one day pray for You to save my life."

The verses revolve around the singer's desire to connect with Christ, to rebuild a neglected or forgotten relationship with the single most important person who ever lived. Whether or not you subscribe to Christianity or follow Christ's teachings, I hope you'll listen to this song and put yourself in the place of the protagonist. Allow yourself to pine for a closer relationship with that which moves you most.

It's the perfect time of year to shake any lethargy in hope of new beginnings. It's time to check our egos and restore humility. It's the perfect day to celebrate.

"The first time that You opened Your eyes, did You realize that You would be my savior? And the first breath that left Your lips, did You know that it would change this world forever?"

This is today's Daily Rhythm. Merry Christmas! This is the first of my posts this season from Relient K's second Christmas album, Let It Snow Baby...Let It Reindeer. Always clever, Relient K never misses a chance for an awful pun. This album is essentially a re-release of their first Christmas album (2003's Deck The Halls, Bruise Your Hand) with 7 additional tracks. It is a combination of unique takes on traditional Christmas carols and heartfelt originals.

This song is one of the band's originals, and it manages to combine all the joys of celebrating Christmas with friends and family with all the anxieties of wrapping up one year and preparing for another. The music is seamlessly orchestrated, with strings, low brass, and vocal harmonies aplenty. The lyrics in each verse get increasingly uplifting, and my favorite stanza is the bridge:

"Deck the halls with mistletoe; may all your heavy burdens go up the chimney in a cloud of smoke. The fire's burning bright. Strike up the band and play the tune, 'cause Christmas will be here and soon you'll hear our song in every room this merry Christmas night."

As you listen to this song, take it as a message of encouragement from a friend. Think about your 'reason for the season', whatever it may be, and see if it lifts some of the weight off your shoulders this week. I hope it does. Friends, lovers, family, and strangers, "Merry Christmas, here's to many more!"

This is today's Daily Rhythm (today being 12.23.12). It's no surprise that I've been on a Clarity kick this month, so it's only natural and fitting that "12.23.95" is my pick for today. One of the album's mellower tracks, "12.23.95" is a slow song based around an electronic drum beat and clean guitar arpeggios. For once, there's not much more to it than that. It's mostly hypnotic, with the main focus being on Adkins' few lyrics. Even his melodies are simple and repetitive, making this a great album/set-breaker-upper.

I love this song because it's obviously about a specific moment in time (December 23rd, 1995), yet the lyrics themselves are not specific. The song doesn't tell its listeners a story. Instead, its ambiguity leads us to concentrate on the feelings portrayed by the protagonist. Each time I listen to this song I become more and more entranced, feeling every kind of heartache and hope all at once. I cannot interpret Adkins' initial intent for the song, nor do I find myself wanting to. I just accept that it's beautiful, and for some reason I believe that if I were to fully understand the song's original meaning, I would cry and cry for days. Maybe that's silly, but I'd say any song that powerful is doing something right.

"I didn't mean to leave you hanging on. I didn't mean to leave you all alone. I didn't know what to say; I didn't know what to say. Merry Christmas, baby. Merry Christmas."

This is today's Daily Rhythm. I missed about a week because my guitarist and I were on a retreat in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate NY (where I was born and raised). We enjoyed the peacefulness of Keuka Lake and even took a day to sightsee at Niagara Falls. Now that I'm back with working internet, I wanted to catch up and blog for the days missed (all of those would have been songs from Jimmy Eat World's Clarity album...my soundtrack last week). But, who am I kidding...I can only really write about the now, and today (and yesterday's) album of note has been Relient K's Mmhmm. (All you JEW fans, don't worry; there will plenty of time to blog about them in the near future.)

The reason I chose this song amidst all the other wonderful tracks on the record is simple: it's the perfect album-opener. (Those who have followed my blog know that I can get real philosophical about track order, so when I find a great album-opener or -closer, I get hooked.) This song also happens to have one of my favorite drum parts to warmup or soundcheck with (my guitarist Joel will vouch for that). Some of drummer Dave Douglas' best work can be found on this album/track, not to mention the most crisp and organic drum sounds I've heard on a rock/punk record. (I finally tuned my snare drum to sound just like the one on this track! Drummers will know how difficult it is to find a drum tuning that sounds and feels great, and sits nicely.)

The other thing that draws me to this track (for all you emotive-types out there) are Thiessen's lyrics. Repeatedly one of the biggest reasons to listen to Relient K, Thiessen's lyrics are simultaneously clever and heartfelt. His tongue-in-cheek sense of humor paired with his collection of heartbreak creates a pure and unique brand of not-quite-love-songs that are both heart-wrenching and intellectually stimulating.

So give this song a spin (thanks to the neat new Spotify feature) and think about all them layers...

This is today's Daily Rhythm. "Goodbye Sky Harbor," by Jimmy Eat World has got to be one of the most beautiful album closers of recent times. The whole album Clarity has been my soundtrack this weekend. It's shining and beautiful, and perfectly heartbreaking. The pain in Jim Adkins' voice throughout the album makes it the album that every indie, emo, and alternative band since has cited as greatest inspiration. This track backs off the pain and gives room to breathe and begin to heal. It completes and connects the musical and lyrical themes from the rest of the album, without fully resolving any of them. It encourages both the unadulterated rush of loving and feeling without restraint and the realistic benefits of critical thinking. It calls us to acknowledge how significant our insignificance is in the grand scheme! "I am but one small instrument." How humbling, yet how empowering! I may be one person, but I can be used for such great and mighty things. "Do you remember that?" Please listen to the full sixteen-minute version if you haven't. Put your phone and other distractions away and just soar above everything for these sixteen minutes and experience how the album was meant to end.

This is today's Daily Rhythm. OK Go's whole latest album (2010's Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky) has been my shower playlist this week. Smash Rube Goldberg video-hit "This Too Shall Pass" has served as my alarm in the mornings, but this song has been hitting close to home lately. The lyrics are a reality check...yet an empowering one. The song trades back and forth between 6-4 and 7-4 time (the outro on the studio version is my favorite part of the song), and the sound of the guitars throughout is just awesome. Needless to say, OK Go saw potential in this song and made a killer video for it. This video aired immediately following the superbowl this year, and was cut up into shorter ads during the game's commercial breaks. In it, OK Go pairs up with Chevy Sonic to drive the new car through a test course, playing the band's song with attachments and apparatuses and...just watch it. Then look up the studio version.

This is today's Daily Rhythm. "A Good Man Is Easy To Kill," by now-defunct indie band Beulah. I first discovered Beulah in the movie Youth In Revolt. Their song "Popular Mechanics For Lovers" plays at the beginning of the end credits. They have grown to be one of my favorite indie/alt/folk bands of recent times, drawing similarities between CAKE, Modest Mouse, Wilco, and Guster. This song served as my primary alarm for about a week, so when I woke up this morning it was stuck in my head, and I decided that Beulah's album The Coast Is Never Clear would be my soundtrack for today. So sing along to the catchy oohs and aahs, bob your head to the trumpet, and get to know Beulah!

This is today's Daily Rhythm. Discovered this band thanks to Bleach's Facebook page. Stoked about Bleach's recent reunion and upcoming new music, but more on that later. Sons, formerly known as Sons of God, just signed to Slospeak Records on Jan. 2nd. Slospeak Records, run by Bleach's frontman Dave Baysinger currently has four artists signed with them. This single, "Doubt," was released just weeks ago, and really makes me excited for the band's upcoming full release. Vocalist sounds a bit like Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra, which is cool. Check it out, give it a few listens, and let me know what you think.

New Year's Resolution...

Post on tumblr regularly. Doesn't have to be super in-depth, but I'm committing to at least 3 quality posts a week. Apologies to followers who have grown bored with my blog. Here's to making it up to you.

This was Friday's Daily Rhythm. Beautiful song by Seattle, Washington band This Providence. "Somebody To Talk To," is the closer of the band's 2009 concept album Who Are You Now?, and interestingly enough the first song that came specifically to mind this weekend.

When listening to music, so many people only allow themselves to identify with the singer, as if the only perspective they could be singing from is their own. However, not everybody shares the same experiences, so not everybody will find meaning in the singer's perspective alone. Instead, if the opposite perspective (the one belonging to the person being sung to or about) is considered, twice as many listeners will be able to identify with the song's lyrics.

Of course, then there's always the God factor: that maybe the song is not detailing the hearts of human lovers at all, but instead investigating the perspectives involved in a Creator/created relationship. Think about it.

I encourage you to first listen to the song at leisure. Chances are, you will find yourself identifying with This Providence's frontman, Dan Young. Secondly, listen as if you are the one Dan is singing to. Thirdly, listen as if Dan is attempting to engage in dialogue with an outside object, whether it be a higher power, a memory, or a metaphor.

This is the first song I've understood better from the perspective of the person being sung to than that of the singer. It's also the first time I've understood this song in that way.

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