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Omelette du Fromage?

November 9, 2015

Now that I have your attention, let’s talk about France. For those of you who do not know, I studied abroad there last year, so naturally I adore all things French. Though I am a bit biased, I believe the French music scene is undervalued outside of Europe. While everyone has heard of Edith Piaf, few Americans know any modern French artists. It’s true that most of them do not get a lot of air time in the U.S., so I thought I would show you all a few of my favorites.

Without further ado, here’s a list of French songs you need to listen to right away:

Tous Les Mêmes – Stromae

Stromae is not actually French; he is Belgian. However, he is really popular artist in France and Europe in general. No francophone artist list would be complete without him. On a personal note, I cannot emphasize how much I love his music. His album Racine Carrée (translation: Square Root) is one of my favorite albums ever. Stromae’s songs are easy to dance to, yet his lyrics are quite serious. Each song tackles a social issue. Tous Les Mêmes, for example, describes the expectations of men and women regarding relationships. One lyric “les hommes sont tous les mêmes” translates to “men are all the same”. This is an especially cool video because Stromae plays both a man and woman. How many American rappers have you seen dress in drag?

WRVU’s Top 10 Mom&Dad Music

November 6, 2015

Many of us owe our first musical experiences to good ol’ mom and dad. Every generation has its musical highs and lows, but sometimes there comes along an artist that seems to transcend time. This list is dedicated to those universally appreciated artists. Here we have the top ten most popular artists that our parents taught us to love.

10. The Grateful Dead

15 Songs by Jason Mraz You Have “Absolutely Zero” Reasons Not to Know

November 1, 2015

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You’ve heard “I’m Yours” and “I Won’t Give Up,” and maybe you even remember “The Remedy,” but my guess is most of you reading this haven’t truly come to appreciate the musical prowess of Jason Mraz—and trust me, you need it in your life. Exploring Mraz’s lesser-known tracks is the best way to hone an understanding and admiration for his touching, idiosyncratic lyrics and tremendous vocal range.

The gaping hole in your soul shall be no more—I’ve compiled a playlist of 15 songs that will fill the void you didn’t know was there and change the way you think of Jason Mraz, the world, and perhaps even yourself. Most of the featured tracks are recordings of live performances, because Jason Mraz’s music is best experienced live. Since I can’t give you all tickets to his show tonight in Australia, I’m giving you the next best thing. Enjoy!

WRVU’s Top 10 Most Anticipated Concerts

October 5, 2015
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Photo courtesy of Kaldari

Living in Nashville can be hard. With so many tempting concerts, at times it is difficult choosing between that $40 ticket to the Ryman or food for the next week. However, every once in a while a can’t-miss show comes up on the calendar and nothing else seems to matter. We asked our DJs which concerts they have been anticipating the most since the start of the semester, and these are the top ten.

When I Discovered My Favorite Songs Aren’t My Favorite Songs…

September 26, 2015

While I was on a road trip with my girlfriend this summer, I bravely ceded control of my iPod. Flipping through my playlists to find one she liked, she asked me if I wanted to listen to my Top 25 Most Played playlist–a playlist automatically assembled by iTunes and which I had no idea existed. What followed was a surprising series of mini-revelations as to what my favorite songs actually were.

I think that sometimes one gets so caught up in popular and critical opinion that it’s easy to fall in love with the idea of a song more than the song itself, or that you may love one song on an album so much you forget the songs around it that you listen to just as much. So color me surprised when, looking at my music library sorted by plays, The Decemberists didn’t crack the top ten. Nor did The National, or Arcade Fire, or many other bands that I love more than Rufus Wainwright, whose “Poses” is the 6th most played track on my iPod. And my two “favorite” Modest Mouse songs, “3rd Planet” and “Night on the Sun”? They weren’t there either. Looking at “Gravity Rides Everything” sitting atop the list, I realized that “Wow, that actually might be my favorite song.” It’s a strange bit of cognitive dissonance that results from this, triggering the realization that beliefs don’t always match actions. I may claim that “PDA” is my favorite Interpol song, but the facts disagree–and such was my experience with other bands.

With perhaps one exception, I didn’t anticipate any of these songs to be here–and yet they are. They’re the favorite songs that hide in plain sight; the unsung heroes; the crushes that you never notice until someone points it out. The end result is that the next time I’m asked what my favorite songs are, I may have to see if perception matches reality.

Next time you need a playlist to listen to, peruse your Top 25; maybe you’ll be just as surprised as I was.

In the meantime, here’s what I was surprised about: my top 10 most played songs.

Top 5 Fictional Songs from Television

September 24, 2015

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All of us have those TV shows we watch over and over. And if you are anything like me, those shows are comedies, and those comedies have weird parody songs in them. And if you are exactly like me, you probably know all the words to these songs and listen to them as if they were anything else on your iTunes. So here are a selection of my favorite songs from TV shows (in no particular order).

Pumpkin Spiced Playlist

September 23, 2015

IMG_1731Lattes, candles, lotions and liquor—as soon as the leaves begin to change, store shelves are mercilessly spiced with the flavors of fall, and we’re all hit with the pumpkin plague, ready or not. To help make the farewell to summer less jarring, I’ve created a playlist packed with autumn aesthetics that is certain to lull you into apple-cider serenity for the next three months—or at least the next 89 minutes.

 

In Loving Memory: Summer 2015

September 15, 2015

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Fall is almost here and we have nearly been in school for a month. As we come to terms with all this change, the staff writers here at WRVU have decided to give one last ode to the albums we were jamming to on those bygone summer nights. In case you missed it, here are some albums we had our turn to enjoy and would now like to share with you.

The Festival(s) of Your Dreams

April 17, 2015

Spring has sprung and that means Rites of Spring is upon us here at Vanderbilt. This two-day festival is the most anticipated music event of the school year. The hype got me thinking, while this may be one of the most exciting occasions in the Nashville area: what are the most interesting and unique festivals around the world? I began the search for the festivals that sounded too good to be true, exceeded expectations, and attracted people from all the around the world. While I am sure I missed many worthy names, the following list are a few of the events that really caught my eye.

Four Months of Music: A Retrospective

April 14, 2015

As the school years comes to an end and finals begin to ramp up, it’s natural to think about everything other than academic responsibilities at hand. Naturally, it’s a time to dwell on memories, friendships, and, of course, our time here at WRVU. For me, this last blog post has got me thinking. While it’s incredibly sad I’ll be missing all my WRVU goings on for the next eight months, I’m beyond amazed at all the new stuff that’s been released in 2015.

As an ode to WRVU and this semester, I’ll be highlighting my ten favorite tunes of the semester, starting from the bottom (because Drake). If you happen to like electronica, check out some of the dopest of beats from early 2015 below.

Top 6 Deep House Tracks

April 7, 2015

“Deep house” is kind of a catchall term for laid-back, slower-paced house music using live-sounding instruments. The genre is a contrast to electronic dance music characterized by manipulation, distortion, and “bass”, and features jazz solos, string loops, tropical drums, alongside other sounds plausibly produced by physical objects. This list is about some of the memorable instruments that pop up in deep house tracks, and also serves as a countdown of my personal favorite tracks related to the genre.

6) Omar-S — “The Shit Baby” (2013)
Omar S
Omar S

Instrument Featured: Piano

In the middle of Omar S’ modest 2013 album Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself comes the unexpectedly fun piano jam-out “The Shit Baby”. For the uninitiated deep house fan this track is a great place to start: it starts with hi-hat/hand-clap triplets and a standard background bass kick, before someone hops on the keys for an impromptu crowd-pleaser.

RIYL: “Plastic Dreams”, pre-programmed keyboard beats + mad keys playin’ skills

6 Artists Poised to Take the Bonnaroo Crown in 2015

April 6, 2015

Every year, tens of thousands of music fanatics the world over gather on “the farm” in Manchester, Tennessee for Bonnaroo. Also, it has become tradition to see which sets have left the greatest mark on the festival-goers. Showmanship, the timing of the show, and the size of the artist’s existing fanbase serve as key factors in determining which artists leave Tennessee with the most positive response. In 2014, most of the news and opinions arose from Elton John’s closing set, Kanye’s polarizing rants, and Ukranian group DakhaBrakha’s outlandish stylings. Let’s take a look at which artists are poised to leave their mark on this year’s fest.

Quarterly Report: WRVU Picks 2015’s Best Songs So Far

April 2, 2015

It’s hard to believe it, but 2015 is already a fourth of the way done. It was not a light musical quarter by any means: in the past month we’ve seen high-profile releases from Sufjan Stevens, Kendrick Lamar, Death Grips, and many more. But what tracks stood out above the rest? We asked our staff to tell us a little bit about their pick for favorite song of 2015 so far. Read on for their selections, and be sure to check them all out in the Spotify playlist at the end.

Dan Deacon — “Feel the Lightning”

“Feel the Lightning” by Dan Deacon makes you do just that — feel an electrifying force pass your entire body. It is the perfect mixture of upbeat and hypnotic, catchy but complex, and successfully maintains the typical “Dan Deacon vibe” of collectively bizarre, yet intriguing electronic music.
–Julia Anderson

Your Guide to Summer Music Festivals

April 1, 2015

Summer is just around the corner, and that means that thousands of music fans will be attending the music festivals taking place all across the country. But with tickets to these festivals typically costing $200 or more and lots of artists playing multiple festivals, it can be hard to decide which festival you should go to. Here’s my recap of who is playing which festivals so you can decide where to spend your hard-earned cash.

Music Festival Chart

Jazzmaster Jams

March 30, 2015

I’m a guitarist.  Like most guitarists, I have a favorite model of guitar: the Fender Jazzmaster.  First, just a little history about the guitar.  Fender first released the Jazzmaster in the late 1950s as a mode of reaching out to jazz musicians.  However, most jazz musicians ended up still using the other brands due to the Jazzmaster’s innate ability to produce feedback, something that jazz doesn’t really call for.  But the model gained a huge following among surf rock bands of the 1960s, the first place where the instrument came to prominence.  Still, with a warm tone and a lack of sustain, most 70s rock guitarists favored the mighty Gibson Les Paul, while Fender purists went back to the Stratocaster.  That left Jazzmasters as pawn shop guitars, cheap yet high quality.  So, many notable bands have picked Jazzmasters up since the 1950s, and many guitarists use primarily Jazzmasters.  Below are some of my favorite songs recorded using the model.

Better With Age: 4 Albums to Consider

March 14, 2015

Like a fine wine or high-quality bourbon, some albums just seem to get better and better–some get better with multiple listens, some get better because they were too ahead of their time, and some get better because they exist completely outside of time. Here are a few albums that, if you haven’t heard them in a while, should be given another few listens.

(Biased and Preemptive) Top 10 Rap Albums of 2015

February 28, 2015

Real Riff

We live in a world where Riff Raff can make this claim. Does it matter whether he follows through on his Panther Album Series? I personally would download any Riff Raff album or mixtape immediately post-drop, regardless of panther-color and regardless of when it happens. This is what truly matters in hip-hop nowadays: Internet buzz.

11 Minimally Cheesy Love Songs For Your Valentine’s Day

February 11, 2015

Originally this was going to be titled “12 Non-Cheesy Love Songs” but as I have come to realize, there is no such thing as a completely non-cheesy love song. Here are my picks for the best love songs to listen to this Valentine’s Day.

1. The Moldy Peaches – “Anyone Else But You”

Anyone who is a fan of Juno probably added this to their playlists the second the film ended (I know I did).

2. Ryan Adams – “When the Stars Go Blue”

A lot people may be familiar with Tim McGraw’s recording of this song, but the original Ryan Adams version is a lot more stripped down and romantic.

3. Coldplay – “Yellow”

This may be one of the more cheesy songs on the list, but there’s no denying that it’s beautifully written.

4. Vance Joy – “Georgia”

Not as upbeat as his hit “Riptide,” but definitely more sincere.

5. The Lumineers – “Dead Sea”

Almost any Lumineers song could easily fit on this list, but “Dead Sea” is by far my favorite from their album.

Understanding the Decemberists in 13 Songs

February 6, 2015

The Decemberists are nothing less than the band that got me into indie rock, albeit in a very non-indie way: back in January of 2009, I was watching a rerun of one of my favorite episodes of How I Met Your Mother, “Ted Mosby, Architect”. During the episode’s denouement, as Ted Mosby walks the streets of New York and muses on his relationship woes, the seminal Decemberists’ track “Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect” plays. I’d seen the episode before, but something inside me told me to look up the song this time — and just a month later I had purchased all five of the Decemberists’ LPs (including the newly released The Hazards of Love) and was at the beginning of a relationship that I still find myself in. They’ve provided the soundtrack of my past 6 years, good and bad, and with their new album What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World there’s no better time to fall in love with them again — or for the very first time.

Music that Sounds Like 2015

February 1, 2015

The farther you are from past events, the more they blend together. Time periods – years, decades, centuries – make for easy, automatic categorization of those events. “Take on Me”, “Just Like Heaven”, and “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” are distinctively “eighties” music in the public consciousness; today anything that sounds like synth-pop, from 1989 to “Seasons (Waiting On You)”, is an ‘80s throwback. Decades are efficient, well-defined genre descriptors, to the point where decades like the ’80s and ’90s feel so musically distinct that phrases like “1985-1994 in music” sound meaningless to someone who wasn’t around back then.


2015 Kanye moves away from the industrial anti-pop star seen on Yeezus (2013) for a sentimental team-up with Paul McCartney.

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