Cold Fusion Music News, Reviews, and other Musings
Cold Fusion is a blog about music. News, album and possibly live reviews, and musings in general about artists, genres, and the industry. Mostly focusing on pop-punk/pop-rock/power-pop, with a dash of alternative, a bit of rock, and maybe even some good old pop (if you're looking for "look at me I'm so f*$%ing indie" music, look somewhere else).
Their last studio album was released in 2008, and few people in the good ol' U.S. of A. have heard of them, but I've got to tell you: McFly is kind of awesome.
McFly is the British equivalent of a cross between the Jonas Brothers, The Click Five, and Boys Like Girls. Before I saw one of their music videos, I thought they were a boy band (you know- matching outfits, no singing ability, choreography). But they actually write songs and play instruments (no word on if their stage moves are choreographed a la JB), and apparently they're pretty big over on the other side of the Atlantic.
Whether they're actually relevant to music is debatable. I mean, pop-rock/power-pop/pop is definitely an important genre, but it can be hard to tell which bands will actually stick around and which... won't. McFly's music videos consist mostly of them "dancing" on stage (or whatever it is you call it) and making funny faces at the camera, with slow motion clips and real "acting" carefully interspersed where necessary. Their fanbase is largely female, they wear tight pants, their songs are simple and ridiculously catchy without too much in the way of "deeper meanings", and they've covered "Don't Stop Me Now". I doubt many bands will be claiming McFly as their biggest influence (or maybe they will, I could be totally wrong), but I bet they'll be sticking around for awhile. My predicition is that they'll break up in a few years (although they might call it a "hiatus"), and then they'll return a couple years later, when their screaming fans are just old enough to miss them and want to see them again. Except, you know, their screaming fans will all be British.
According to an article from Alternative Press, the results from an autopsy on former A7X drummer The Rev (who sadly passed away last week) are inconclusive.
Unfortunately, it could be several weeks until we find out what caused The Rev's death; "toxicology, microscopic, and laboratory tests" were ordered, but the results will take awhile.
According to an article on the website of British music magazine Kerrang!, Metro Station is now left with only 2 of their original four members: drummer Anthony Improgo left recently, and keyboard player Blake Healy left in "mid-November". Metro Station is now down to only two of their original four members, Trace Cyrus (yup, Miley's older brother), and Mason Musso (Mitchel's older brother), who met on the set of Hannah Montana.
I like Metro Station. Their music is the kind of synth-filled dance-pop that's just fun to listen to. Will Trace Cyrus and Mason Musso continue to make music without their former bandmates? I'm not really sure, although I don't think it would be the hugest loss the music industry's ever experienced.
What do YOU think about Metro Station losing half of their members? Do you like Metro Station? Do you think (or care) if they keep making music? Got anything else you want to say, or any musicians you think Cold Fusion should start covering? Leave a comment!
I think it's pretty obvious that Blink-182 are a hugely influential band. After all, All Time Low started out as a Blink-182 cover band. Simple Plan may or may not have existed were it not for Blink-182; Good Charlotte probably would've existed, but neither would've been nearly as popular. Blink-182 are without a doubt the most popular pop-punk band in recent history, having sold something like 20 million albums and toured the world. If Blink-182 never existed, then who else would've copied the Nirvana logo (or stolen a line from "Come As You Are"- check out the lyrics for "Adam's Song")?
If you aren't convinced of Blink-182's popularity, consider this: when the dates for their Summer 2009 tour were released on PickRSet, the website supposedly crashed because so many people logged on. Luckily I was able to get on, and (thanks to a fan club pre-sale) got floor seats to see them in Hershey Park (PA). It was amazing.
Back on topic. Well, apparently I'm not the only one who considers Blink-182 influential. Some film makers in San Diego made a musical movie inspired by the music of Blink-182 (like how the movie Across The Universe was made about the music of The Beatles). The movie is called Reckless Abandon, and follows the story of three guys- Ben, Gary, and Matt, who have something in common- they "lost a friend". Hm. I wonder if the friend who they lost (the trailer opens in a graveyard) was named Adam (anyone ever hear of a certain "Adam's Song"?). There's also two female characters named Wendy ("Wendy Clear"?) and Holly (there's a Holly mentioned in "All Of This" and "Easy Target"). I really hope there's a character named Josie in the film somehow.
The movie was directed by Frank Lucatuorto, the music was arranged and interpreted by Nick Dillinger. The songs are sung by the cast of the film (many of the actors are in bands or have experience in musical theater). The Reckless Abandon versions of Blink-182 songs such as "Dammit" (original here) are a little from the originals, but as said in the "Making Of" videos, even if you change the tempo or the melody a little bit, the songs still mean the same thing.
The film was independently made and produced. It was screened in San Diego on December 29th, but hasn't yet been released online. I hope the movie is put online though; I totally want to see it (and if I do, I will definitely review it on Cold Fusion).
What do you think? Will you watch Reckless Abandon if/when it's released online? If you were lucky enough to see it already, how was it? Got anything else you want to say, or any musicians you think Cold Fusion should start covering? Leave a comment!
I love music. Lots of people love music. But what is it, exactly?
Wikipedia says music is "an art form whose medium is sound", defining it as a performance art with the elements of pitch, rhythm, dynamics, timbre, and texture (much as visual art has color, light, shape, etc.).
Dictionary.com defines music as "an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color."
Urban Dictionary definitions include, "Ruined by MTV", "Mankind's greatest achievement", "Something the world would be lost without", "the one language spoken by all cultures,sex's,races,and anything else that at one time or another in history has had a hard time purely because of belief", "Indefinable by words alone. It is not only something you hear but what you feel. It is something your soul can reach out and touch. It originates from all over the world since time began. Complex or simple, fast or slow, loud or soft. It is what you feel, or it could be your method of escape or it could just keep you alive."
But does that really get it all? Music, like any art, is hard to define. Is a doodle on a napkin "art"? I think that depends on the intention of the doodle. Is a few random notes played on the piano "music"? I think that depends on the intention of the music.
Music is sound. Sound organized in to a way that makes sense to our ear, that is (theoretically) pleasing. People pick up instruments, and tap, hit, pick, or pluck them to make noise. Sometimes music involves lyrics, too. But what are lyrics but a bunch of words?
Music is made of sound and nothing else. But it's not just something that we listen to; music can infect our whole lives. A musical artist can change the way you look at yourself, music, or even the world.
This semester, I took a class called "Art in the Mind and Brain". For this class, I read and wrote papers about how the brain "interprets"/understands literature, music, and visual art (on a side note- I was fascinated by the material, but ended up with a low B in the class. Figures.). In the paper I wrote about visual art, I included different images, using them as examples of pieces of visual art that demonstrate the "laws" of what our brain finds pleasing in art (for example, contrast). But apparently, the cover of Twilight isn't art; it's a book cover, which means that the image doesn't qualify as visual "art".
B- (the grade I got on the art paper) aside, it got me thinking. Okay, so if a book cover (even neglecting the text, I'm talking about the image here) isn't "art" (because the symbolic meaning is "obvious", then is a theme song that's written for a TV show "not music"? Is a song "not music" if it's been written as the theme song for a TV show or if it's been written specifically for a certain movie? I don't think so. If you ask me, a song is music, whether it's been written as a theme song or jingle, or if it's just a song on an album.
Music is pretty amazing. I don't know about you, but out of all of the arts, music connects with me the most. I connect a lot more emotionally with music than I do with literature, poems, visual art, theater, or dance. There have been songs that made me cry, songs that give me the chills, and songs that give me (both mental and physical) energy.
And yet... music, in all technicality, is just some organized sounds. Whoa.
How do YOU define music? What makes a certain sound or group of sounds "music", as opposed to just random sound? Does a song written specifically as a theme song count as "music"? What does music mean to you? Got anything else you want to say, or any musicians you think Cold Fusion should start covering? Leave a comment!
No details yet, but Avenged Sevenfold (A7X) drummer The Rev (Jimmy Sullivan) was found dead in his Orange County, California home at 1pm yesterday (Monday 12/28/09). The cause of death is not yet known.
After the break-up/permanent hiatus/indefinite hiatus of Blink-182 in 2005, bassist/singer Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker went on to form the quasi-electronic +44 (I think electronic is what they were aiming for, but whether it qualifies as such is a different issue). Guitarist/singer Tom Delonge, however, formed the alternative space/atmospheric rock supergroup Angels and Airwaves, with the intention of creating the biggest band in the world and changing the music industry forever. +44 may or may not still really exist, but AVA, as Angels and Airwaves is often abbreviated, is going full steam ahead. I'm a few days late (sorry about that- I was away), but anyway- Angels and Airwaves released their single "Hallucinations", the first off their upcoming third album "LOVE" (due out- appropriately- on Valentine's Day), on Wednesday, December 23. Tom Delonge said on his blog, "As every song on the album deals with the agony and adventure of the word 'Love"....Hallucinations gives the hope that any dream, image or intuition can inspire a change in the way one can see the world around him."
EDIT 12/28/09 8:10pm: At the very end of "Hallucinations", there's a synth that sounds almost exactly like the synth in "All The Small Things" by Blink-182. Weird, huh?
