Listen to em': Demun Jones

Demun Jones has been on tour with the recently popularized Rehab and making quite a name for himself down south. His style is a mix of southern rock and hip hop, and he tours with a band and often has collaborations with Rehabs lead singer. When I first came across him a few weeks ago I was mad excited to hear his music, because rapping-with-guitars style is similar to what I want to establish.


dude makes hot music, so check em!

listen to: Tinman, I cant remember

If Music was a sport

Here is an article i came across on the site www.musicthinktank.com headed by Andrew Dubber.
It is definitely worth look and check out some of the other articles as well...

If music was sport

AUTHOR: Andrew Dubber | October 22, 2008 | 19 Comments

Just for fun, here's a thought experiment. It illustrates that things in the world of music (and the business of music) need not necessarily be configured the way they are...

If music was treated like sport:

• Schools would have plenty of equipment and kids would have places to play and practice
• People who didn't do any music at all would be considered a bit lazy by their peers
• Professional musicians wouldn't get asked by their parents when they were going to get a real job
• Most people would play music and almost none of them would expect money for it
• Every weekend, you'd get a televised battle of the bands
• Players in top acts would change bands for millions of dollars
• Every four years, the best amateur acts would come together for the largest music festival on earth
• There'd be significant funding for community music programmes
• Most bands would have coaches as well as managers (and a physiotherapist?)
• Schools, pubs, churches, villages, and even workplaces would have their own bands
• If you went to a gig with a videocamera, you wouldn't be considered a thief
• Big acts would sell season tickets at their own venues
• Government-funded television campaigns would encourage non-musicians to take up an instrument and practice for just 30 minutes a day...
• Children from the age of 6 would know all the stats on their favourite bands
• There'd be movies where people escaped from POW camps by playing the guitar
• TV channels would get into bidding wars for the rights to show concerts
• All the top bands would regularly hold auditions for new members
• You'd join your first band at the age of five
• The more musically inclined would routinely play in different bands in different genres
• Audiences would bet on the outcome of concerts
• University scholarships would be awarded on musical aptitude
• Kids would dream of one day representing their country in Hip Hop
• You'd play another genre of music in Summer - jazz is a Winter music
• Band members would switch instruments from time to time (she's been on drums all season - let's give her a turn on vocals)
• Bands would have reserves
• You could swap out every member of a group and it'd still be the same band
• In American teen films, trombonists would beat up the kid who got picked last for the orchestra

And so on... Of course music is not sport. It's not even like sport. But it's interesting to think through the things that we do in a different field of human endeavour, and realise that the way that we approach music and the business of music is not a logical necessity - it's just how we've chosen to put it together.

And since that's true, we can choose to do it a different way.

Personally, I like the idea of some of these outcomes. Especially the first one. I'm sure you can add some of your own too.

Joint of the Week: Change by Trick Daddy featuring Barack Obama

In honor of the event going on today, and most likely what will be the election of our first black president, I decided Tick Daddy's new song Change would be fitting. Now despite the connection it is a pretty good song regardless, I don't know if I would exactly bump it but it has a good message so check it out...

check it here

YouTube Clip of the week

Sorry I'm a few days behind but Halloween got me all backwards so today I'm posting the YouTube clip of the week.

Don't worry it's a great one. If you have never seen this video, it will bring you back to the 80's instantly. This is the hilarious video by Ray Parker Jr. performing the Ghostbusters Theme Song. Besides a bunch of really bad cameos, the video has two funny defining moments. One is at about 2:56 when Ray admits that "Busting makes him feel good" and the second being a few seconds later when he rips his front shirt off to reveal a Ghostbusters shirt underneath. Ah, the 80's....


enjoy:

Joint of the Week: Takin' Back my Love

Takin Back my Love by Enrique Iglesias featuring Ciara

If you have not heard Enrique is no longer dating Anna Kournikova. That is good in two ways; 1 being that Anna Kournikova is now single again and 2 is that Enrique is back to making music. Normally I wouldn't be that excited for number 2, but this time it's different because his new shit is HOT. Takin Back my Love is the second single off Enrique's greatest hits album following another pretty hot song entitled Away. Of course it's still pretty pop-ish but you can't deny a good song and a good feature by the chick/dude Ciara.

Listen to it here

Listen to em': The Crest

I first came across The Crest back when their song "Heart Shaped Box" was featured on nba2k7, but these guys have been on the underground scene since 1997. Since then they have dropped 13 cds, including 2005's Skeptik as their first official release. If you enjoy that raw underground sound of alternative rap, then these dudes got everything you are looking for and more. With nothing but hott underground beats, these fairly fast spitting MC's rip pretty much everything they are on, and many of their tracks what rap lacks now a days, a message. Tracks such as Kill Em' talk about the war and it's impact on the American people. Hailing from the ever-so-popular hip hop haven of Wisconsin (lol), these dudes bring a whole different feel to the rap game.


Songs you NEED to hear: Heart Shaped Box, Rich Girl, Kill Em', No More Lady

Myspace: here

Live Performance: Here

New Weekly Updates Schedule!!!

Over the last week or so I've been brainstorming different ways to keep people coming back to the blog by improving it and positing not only info on whats going on with "Rumorz" but different opinions and news on other artists and the music industry in general... So after some thought I decided on a schedule of weekly updates, where on certain days of each week I post about a certain topic week to week. I will now have four posts a week...

The four topics will be:

Listen to em':
I've posted a few of these before (Justin Nozuka, Optimus Rhyme..etc..) and will continue to by posting a short brief of the band/artist along with links to their music every Sunday. The goal is to get people listening to some of these very talented/unique bands that may not be getting the exposure they should. Hopefully this will give you some new music to listen to and artists to look out for.

Joint of the Week:
Joint of the Week will highlight a single song or cover song that I feel is one of the best songs at the moment. Usually, but not always, a new song, the track will range in genre from blues to rap and all in between, some by well known artists and others by complete no names. This will be posted every Tuesday.

YouTube Clip of the Week:
Some of these clips will be live performances, freestyles and interviews and others will be random funny videos I find on YouTube. These will be posted every Thursday.

The Top Ten:
The Top Ten will be a countdown of the top ten of whatever topic I choose each week. These will be similar to the Best voices in music posts I have done in the past and be posted every Saturday.

So again the schedule goes like this:


Sunday: Listen to em'
Monday: -
Tuesday: Joint of the Week
Wednesday: -
Thursday: YouTube Clip of the Week
Friday: -
Saturday: The Top Ten...

Hopefully this will help bring people back and some conversation....


Check back later tonight for the first volume of Listen to em'.

top 5 Best Cry Me a River covers

YouTube is a beautiful thing and my favorite thing about it is searching for cool cover songs. I came across a bunch of good covers of Justin Timberlakes Cry Me a River, so I decided to make a top 5 of the best ones I came across. Feel free to email me if you find a better one!


5. Lostprophets
This is a pretty good punk version of the song
Here

4. Paolo Nutini
check it out here
I've never heard of this dude but he can sing his ass off...


3. New Found Glory
This version is sick because it's a hard rock cover, and most of the other good ones are just a slight differential from how Justin usually sings it.
Enjoy it here:

2. Eric J. Chung and Men's Black and White
This dude can straight out sing. I went and listened to some of his other performances after this and he is well worth checking out whether or not you like this version of the song.
check it

1. "Too Much Free Liquor"
This version is by far my favorite, maybe not the best singers or actual performance, but the cover itself is hilarious and worth a listen. Be sure to check out the lyrics on the side.
check it out!

Rumorz to be on Iona College Radio

What's Good?

Sorry it's been a minute since i've posted. I been busy as hell with school/work and so on... but yea. A quick update. I've decided to wait on Crocodile Tears to get one more song finished.. so sorry for those who are waiting, but I just want to make sure I got shit right.

Also if u guys aint got anything to do tomorrow...listen to my interview on Iona College Radio tomorrow.... It's with the Fab Four radio show from 9-11 and i'm sure i'll spit a few verses or something, so check it out. Even call it or email and request some of my music or wuteva... support the kid!!

Click here the link:


follow that scroll down and click on the option to stream the station...


thanks and i PROMISE to get more posted on Friday, so check back!

-Rumorz-

Optimus Rhyme: Listen to em'!

Optimus Rhyme is not your typical rap group. Not only do they use live instruments but they also are part of a hip hop genre known as nerdcore. Are their topics (and them) a little nerdy? Probably. But they have a catchy sound and are veryyy different then anything you would normally hear in rap.

Hailing from the underground of Seattle, Optimus Rhyme gets their name from their frequent references to Transformers. The lead singer/rapper of the group known as Wheelie is actually the former web supervisor of Nintendo. Geeky Enough? Either way, these dudes make some cool music. Their sound is a mix of rap and funk with some witty/nerdy lyrics that honestly as weird as it seems, combine to make some ill music. And who says nerd can't have beef too!? Recently they had beef with another nerdcore MC. Their record MC Chipmunk is one the hottest/unique diss records i've heard in a while.


Their self titled album Optimus Rhyme was bumped in my car for a long time and I figured now with this blog I should share them with whoever else wants to check out some different shit. These guys obviously are not for everyone, but if you are open minded musically, check em' out!


Favorite Songs: Ford Vs. Chevy , Autobeat Airbus, Reel Estate, Obey the Moderator and MC Chipmunk.


For you Will Farrell fans, check out their song Obey The Moderator where they even throw in some Cowbell.
SEE IT LIVE

Boston Sports: Fair Weather Fans or Dedicated?

So after like 21 games of regular season wins in a row that Patriots finally lost, and it was ugly. They got killed basically by Ronnie Brown alone never mind the rest of the Dolphins. It hurts as a Pats fan to see them going down hill, all I can think is that Cassell must really suck if they are not willing to take any shots down the field to the most talented wide receiver of all time (Moss). Sadly this might signal the end of Boston Sports dominance which has been so sick to watch for the last few years. The Pats most likely (unless something crazy happens) won't win the Superbowl this year, the Celtics will be good but not as good as last year, and the Sox will have a tough time in the playoffs this year. I'm not saying that they don't stand a chance to win, but the teams are not nearly as strong as the championship teams of last year and a few years before.

I was talking with a friend the other day and we had a discussion about how he thought Red Sox fans just jumped on the bandwagon once they won a few years back, and I totally disagreed. I do agree there was way more fans outside of the Boston Area who showed love, but the Boston area was always in love with the sox. Either way that got me thinking about how I don't really think many people cared for the Patriots or football in general that much until after the Patriots got good. In fact, yea BC football gets a little love, but besides that New England has never been a huge follower of football. You would think that with so many colleges in the are there would be a big football following because most colleges live and die with their football teams. But, Boston is different. Although the interest in football has sparked now I don't think it will ever be as much a football town as it is a baseball town, and the younger generation is into basketball more than ever as well. So while some may love the Patriots, if they start to suck I doubt you will see the dedicated fans you see with basketball and baseball in Boston.

A Few Thoughts...

Just a few thoughts I been thinking about lately I figured I'd share....

One thing I was thinking about was about the NFL and how weak the Preseason is. Baseball preseason games are a pretty big tradition and plenty of people go out to see the future stars in baseball, but football is different. NBA is the same as baseball where stars can be made by these seemingly pointless games otherwise. I thought that maybe adding something to the preseason of football could make shit atleast worth watching. An idea I had was having the best college team play against the 2nd string players on the superbowl champion team in the NFL. Of course the NFL players are larger faster and stronger, but this could be pretty entertaining. I'm not sure whether it would be whoever was the best college team the year before or the highest ranked going into the next season, but regardless I think it would be cool to see...


Let me know what you think would be a good idea to fix the NFL preseason or any thoughts u got...

My computer is back!

So for the longest time now (like a month) I have been without my computer... but I finally got it back. That means lots of more writing music, blogging and doing anything related with music. I never realized how dependent I was on my computer until I didn't have it but wow I need it. For those who don't know already I almost always write my music on my computer and so having to write on a notebook full time was wicked hard to get used to. I've been slowly trying to learn guitar throughout this process but I can't really learn how to tune it. I can play some chords n shyt but every time I try tuning the strings I end up breaking them.

Anyway I've been told about a few shows in NYC that I could do and been offered to go down to Emory College (Atlanta) on Halloween to do one. I'm not sure if my schedule can fit in the Atl one in seeing as i'm busy as hell with everything in NY, but I'm def pushing towards getting shows in the NY scene...


I'm out for now cuz im sick as hell and need sleep... but tomorrow I'mma hit u with a few ideas I had including an idea for the NFL and the pre-season I think would work.

Bull shit and Road Trips

I have to first apologize since it has been a while since I posted, but I don't have a computer right now and Best Buy is pretty much taking their time to fix it. So until then i am only accessing the internet through one of my colleges computers, which are limited since the big library is under construction ( good timing Iona). Anyways what i've been spending most my time doing is working to earn some money back I spent in Australia and basically all summer on various things (mostly alcohol, beats, studio time and food). I've been talking with my boy from the Bronx a producer by the name of Jorge and been looking into finding some good spots to perform in New York City. He has given me a few places which I intend on checking out soon once school settles in and I am less busy with all this random shit in my life. In other things this weekend I'm taking a road trip out to Notre Dame to visit a bunch of friends I met while in Australia. I can't wait cuz they also got me and my friends coming up tickets to the Notre Dame-Michigan game. I'm not a HUGE college football fan, but these are two schools I would LOVE to see play. Besides them I'd say USC and Texas are the only to college football teams I'd want to see. Either way those type of games have a sick atmosphere and at legendary Notre Dame, it should be sick.

That got me thinking it's sad how little people take road trips now a days. It sucks because Europeans are constantly traveling at a young age from place to place backpacking, and it just sucks tht Americas culture is focused soooo much on success and and earning money that we lose the chance to see their own country. I've made a few road trips over the years and I try to see as much as I can, usually the only thing stopping me is a lack of people wanting to go with me. Oh yea, and the 200 + dollar tickets I seem to get on the trips (long straight road+late at night + trying to shave time off 11 hours trips = getting pulled over every time).

So yea I encourage people to take road trips while they can and before gas is like 7 dollars a gallon. Take a train, a plane or anything.... just do it.

Back to reality

Yea so it's been a minute since I've been back in NY for the school thing... but after an ill time in Australia and a fun summer it's back to reality. To be honest i'm sort of glad to get back into an actual schedule and all that, because I honestly have been getting lazy and not nearly as motivated as I usually am. Australia made me more laid back which is good, but I gotta know when to change gears. I'm not looking forward to people giving me shit for the Pats either cuz I give people so much shit for the Sox so yea that's gonna suck.

As for Crocodile Tears, the album is pretty much done recording wise. Now it's just working on the cover, getting rights to the beats and then of course making copies of all the cds. I've already been working on getting everything approved for online distribution so that shouldn't be a problem either.

Besides that I just got a new guitar and have been working on getting my skills up. So yea if anyone got any beginners tips for me let me know because once the album is completely done that will be my main focus besides school. I think it is important to know how to play some instruments, especially if I'm going to eventually work with live music which is what I want to do.


that's it for now, peace
-Rumorz-