Delta Goodrem
Video: In This Life (Live)
Video: Black Velvet (Cover – Live)

You have got to see and hear this girl to believe her. Delta Goodrem, an Australian singer/actress, has an amazing voice and isn’t shabby to watch, either. I’ve heard her new hit ‘In This Life’ many times on Sirius, but never new about the artist. That changed last night when she appeared on a newsworthy episode of Late Show w/ David Letterman. Delta plays piano in ‘In This Life’, and sings it quite well. I dare say she may become my new favorite female singer, replacing Tori Amos. I’ll have to hear more from her first, and believe me, I’m going to hear more.

After seeing her sing last night, I immediately searched out her album and more information. She has quite the story, it turns out. At the age of 15, Delta signed with Sony. In 2002, she became well known by appearing on an Australian soap opera (Russ just became a fan…). In 2003, in the midst of transitioning from being an award winning actress to an award winning songwriter, her career was put on hold due to the development of cancer. She was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma after developing several warning signs. Her treatment took over her life, but she survived, and went on to release her second album in 2004. Now, her third album, titled ‘Delta’, is becoming a huge hit worldwide. She’s currently touring in the US and traveling the media circuit promoting her album.

Delta, who writes and performs her own songs, as well as playing piano on most, is a gorgeous young lady (Oh, did I mention she’s only 23!) who has the entire world at her fingertips. Her future is bright, and deserves your attention. I highly encourage you to check out her albums Innocent Eyes, Mistaken Identity, and Delta. Also, check out her cover of ‘Black Velvet’, a chart topping hit of 1990. I’ve linked the video up above. Check it out!

---

Oasis
Video: The Shock Of The Lightning

I’ve been listening to the new album ‘Dig Out Your Soul’ over the last two days. I haven’t heard every song, as I haven’t dedicated an hour solely to this album to listen to it all through, as I’d like to before I review it. However, I am a fan of new single ‘The Shock Of The Lightning’. It’s not the greatest single the band has released, although no one expected it to follow such classics as ‘Wonderwall’ or ‘D’You Know What I Mean’. The album is steady, with a mix of rock and softer, melodic tunes. The last two albums have come to the US with little fanfare it seems, but have been worthy of some press. Noel and Liam, the Gallagher brothers, have been hard at work producing meaningful and worthwile tunes, and this is no exception. I’ll review the album soon here, but I can already suggest you give it a listen.

---

O.A.R. (Of A Revolution)
Video: Shattered

I recently got back into OAR (Of A Revolution). Now, first let me say that I automatically tend to dislike bands that use acronyms for their name. If they want to name themselves Of A Revolution and stick with it, fine…but acronyms? I’m against them. Nine Inch Nails is fine because they don’t go by NIN. Say it out loud; If they went by NIN, they never would have made it. AFI is in the same boat, however, like OAR, they have managed to overcome this sin by their musical talent.

I’ve been asking around lately for others thoughts on this band. I’ve asked Russ, my roommate Josh, my friend The Boz, and a few other people who ended up saying they never had heard of them…and the general consensus among them was not a positive one. Josh, in fact, dislikes them plenty enough for everyone. I, however, don’t see this hate. Josh’s reasoning was that they weren’t his favorite genre, he’s not big into live specialists, or jam bands in particular. He also dislikes Dave Matthews Band, and OAR is often described as a new, lesser known DMB. Other reviews weren’t so negative of them, though. There is definite potential with the new album, All Sides, to change minds, in my opinion. The newest single ‘Shattered’ is one of the catchiest OAR tunes, as well as one of the catchiest in all of modern rock radio. Already the most successful in terms of chart rankings, new single ‘Shattered’ continues to climb and is heavily featured on XM and Sirius radio’s alternative rock and top 40 stations. It’s already one of my favorite OAR songs, and has been on my playlist over the last week.

---

Other music I’ve been listening to, and suggest you do also whether you’re familiar with them or not:

1) All Time Low – Especially their cover of Rihanna’s hit Umbrella. This band has quickly taken the place of Taking Back Sunday as a favorite small club, college loved type band with punk/alt goodness. Russ will probably tell you more about them than I could, but I’m a fan.

2) Matchbox 20 – Recently went back and listened to their debut album, which including hit single Push. I got into this band when I was twelve. I remember vividly what started my interest in them. While playing little league baseball, a kid on the team would often listen to this song in his dad’s car while we drove to away games. This was his favorite song, and I quickly became a fan as well. I’m not much a fan of their most recent stuff, and I’m not too interested in Rob Thomas’ solo stuff (including his alleged affair with Tom Cruise), but I do enjoy their first album.

3) Jimmy Eat World – Russ puts over this album more than Hulk Hogan does his daughter, and his high reviews made me a fan again of this band. I’ve listened to Chase This Light and Clarity in their entirety recently, and the improvement and musical growth is refreshing and amazing. Some bands produce record after record, but either regress or stay the same. Not these guys. Better and better every time out, and if you’re not familiar with them, I suggest you become so quickly.

4) Brand New – Of course, never get tired of Brand New. The band plays two sold out shows this weekend in Columbus and Indianapolis. These are their last two shows of the year, and will feature new music that Jesse Lacey (lead singer) has been working on.

- Fios TV was installed in the Russell household this past week. I love it. I can’t believe we waited this long to get it. I just like the option to do so much with it. I already did a mini-marathon of The Hills Season 4…yeah.

- For the last couple of months, I’ve been “secretly” trying to get myself into better shape. I don’t eat as well as I should but I make up for it by exercising daily. Usually I do about 150 situps/crunches. That seems to work decent. I’ve developed a 2 pack. I need to keep at it. More noticeable is the work that doing 75 pushups on almost a daily basis has done to my biceps and triceps. I’ve been cutting back slightly, doing them every other day since they take up so much energy. But my arms are a lot more defined than they’ve ever been. It’s a struggle, but you gotta keep with it.

- You know what the best thing about music is? The fact that you can find a song, maybe you’ve never heard it before or you have but not for a while, or you recently heard it but you’re fully prepared to listen this time…and it becomes your new “favorite” song. You play it non stop. You slowly learn the words. You sing along with it. You envision a music video to it. I do this all the time. For me, the newest song is “All Summer Long” by Kid Rock. I’m a Top 40 radio guy somewhat, so I listen to mainstream pop/rock. That song is the definition of a feel good summer song. Despite the fact that I wasn’t 18 in 1989, nor spending my summers on the lake in Northern Michigan, I feel like it captures everything great about being a teenager. I miss when I was 18.

- The White Sox magic number is just 6. It could be less, but whatevs.

You’ll find with this blog, that a lot of my entries focus on one of the following: Chicago White Sox baseball, Green Bay Packers football, writing TV, and music. So let’s get the last one out of the way.

Music is considered differently by everyone. Some like it for relaxation, and others simply just like beats and rythyms. It provides the backdrop to certain things for me. Like when I write, I use music that I would picture the characters I created listening to. That music gives me a chance to explore what creative depths I can go to, since I want to sync the writing up to the song. Like I know if I hear a 7 minute epic “emo” ballad, that’ll mean something onscreen different than a Bachman-Turner Overdrive song.

To me, it provides me a chance to also remember times. Yellowcard’s Ocean Avenue is freshman year of college. Fall Out Boy’s From Under the Cork Tree was sophomore year. Taking Back Sunday’s Louder Now was junior year. Jimmy Eat World’s Chase This Light was last year. I’m going to miss that association of music with certain people from my life that I won’t see anymore. Miss it a whole lot.

I also think that music is easily the most divisive form of entertainment out of the big three (movies, TV & music). I mean, there are people that say “I like all kinds of music” but everyone has a genre they love more than others. But beyond that, the acts associated with that genre more or less HAVE to stay there in order to not alienate their core audience.

Look at a band like Green Day. They were a pop punk band growing up in the early to mid 90s. Dookie and Nimrod were popular but even on Nimrod, they started to branch out to Adult Top 40 stylings (”Time of Your Life” obv). And then came American Idiot, and all of the singles got massive rotation play on Top 40 stations, and 12 year olds that were barely around when Dookie was released, and soccer moms singing “wake me up when September ends”, and a lot of fans said “they sold out”. Music fans turn on acts a lot because we associate such emotional ties to them, when those ties are “broken”, it sucks.

Personally I hate the term “sell out” in music. But it speaks volumes about the emotional attachment given to the art. You don’t see people refusing to see certain actors in movies just because they didn’t like the last movie they were in.

My all time favorite band is Led Zeppelin, but in the last 2 years, others have surpassed them. Right now, Jimmy Eat World is what I listen to on a fairly regular basis. Bleed American was their 2001 breakthrough album that became popular as “The Middle” became the first major mainstream hit for JEW. Since that time, they’ve released an EP and two full studio albums, in addition to two previous albums (Static Prevails and Clarity).

I personally love their 2007 album Chase This Light the most. It was my favorite album of last year, and I have probably worn down the CD from multiple listens in my car stereo on long drives. I appreciate it for the converging of all of their previous offerings (long epic ballads in the vein of Clarity; catchy pop tunes such as the stuff from Bleed American; hooky rock offerings that mirror Futures). Chase This Light took all of those and made them as a snapshot of my senior year of college. Driving down McKinley Avenue on campus with “Always Be” or “Chase This Light” blaring through the speakers or listening to “Dizzy” at 2 am, trying to come up with one more biting piece of dialogue to a screenplay for screenwriting class, Jimmy Eat World became my life’s soundtrack.

Music is such a big part of my life, and before this website and blog become too big that I can’t update on a regular basis, I’m sure you’ll see why.