Music! What I've Been Listening to Lately Edition

So, while I'm not going to say I've spent all my writing ability for the week on the last three posts I've made here (though I am really happy with them), I'm also drawing a blank as to what to write about tonight.  There's simply no news of any real import that I can find.  And I really don't have the resources ready for my next big post, which I hope to make tomorrow or the day after, -and- I just don't really have anything interesting to write about, in my opinion.  As I've said in the past, I don't like to say my Music posts are my last resort because they're not, but a Music post is all I can think about.  Thankfully, I have some good music to share!

First up is something I've heard thanks to Dark Souls and my good, dear friend Saki-Chan, who linked me to the Dark Souls trailer that absolutely blew my mind.  I'm sure those of you in the know know exactly where I'm going, but bear with me.  I generally don't watch a lot of trailers unless it's for a game that I am super excited about, partly because I'm worried a good trailer will convince me to add a game to my purchasing list that I simply don't have room for, but if I'm linked to one, I'm pretty much bound to watch it.  Anyways, I liked the song in the mentioned trailer so much, I looked it up to find that it is, unsurprisingly named "Bartholomew" by The Silent Comedy.

It's quite good, and I really like the folk-ish sound to it, but I think I prefer the mix used for the trailer since about halfway through the song the good sound of it sort of tapers off and they don't really know how to end it well.  Still, the more important part of a song is that it grips people and makes them want to seek it out, to listen to it, and they covered that quite well.  Besides, it reminded me of another song that I haven't listened to for a while, which gave me the opportunity to do so again.

The next song is, quite obviously, a song that I am reminded of because of Bartholomew, and there's actually a little amusing story to go along with it.  As I've mentioned before, I don't generally like discussing music tastes with friends as I'm always worried I'll let my inner snob come out again or something, since, well, I am a very opinionated person sometimes.  Shocking, right?  Still, I was talking about songs I was listening to with a friend and she told me she'd been listening to this song called "Grounds for Divorce", and I was like "Heh, that's a pretty neat name, why don't you link me?"  So she sent me to the music video (which was hosted on a non-Vevo channel, AKA the good old days) and I watched/listened to it and was like "This is fantastic!".  She was genuinely surprised that I didn't recognize it because it was, apparently, featured on an episode of House which is how it got 'popular'; a fact she was a little obviously bitter about.

She was surprised, of course, because I watch House and she knew that.  I watch House a lot.  I really enjoy the show, so that I saw it and didn't recognize the song was a little distressing to me.  However, I'm pretty sure it was just on an episode I missed.  Anyways, I thought it was amusing at the time, but sort of failed to capture that in words.  Without any further jabbering, here's "Grounds for Divorce" by Elbow.

It's got a similar feel to it, in that they're both really laid-back, chill-out types of songs with some really powerful vocals that just draw you in to listening to it.  I'm not sure if it's just the influence of the music video for Grounds for Divorce speaking or what, but I am very tempted to call it a "Pub Song" as it's, well, something I'd expect to hear, should I go into a nice, authentic little pub somewhere.  (Despite still not being British.)  Which doesn't say a thing about its quality one way or another, but rather that sort of laid-back, 'cool' atmosphere it carries.

Switching gears completely for my last song, I can do nothing but completely blame the fact that I heard it on my good friend Haplo.  He linked me to it one night and I went absolutely crazy for it because, despite the novelty factor, it's actually kind of neat.  It's just a level under professional, unfortunately, and it's his best work which speaks a lot for my disappointment after I went searching for more, yet I can't help but listen to it and appreciate it somewhat.  I suppose it does require just a little explanation firsthand, however.

A popular thing to do on Youtube is to do these "Mashups" and Remixes where you essentially take the background music, the beat, or what have you from one song, the vocals from another, and combine them.  9 times out of 10, it just doesn't work, and that 1 time is usually a little lackluster anyway.  It's not exactly the pinnacle of creativity, really, and the novelty wears fast.  However, there's just some times where it just works, and the fact that it does pretty much defies all logic.  Anyway, this fellow (as several others have) took that idea and ran into a rather silly place with it, taking anime vocals and putting them to rap beats.  I know, I know, but for some reason this one (and one other, but it's quite short) just works and I've been listening to it a lot.  He's got it titled as "Hidamari Sketch vs. Wiz Khalifa" and I don't friggin' know.  You can figure out how to get to his channel, I'm sure.

I'm really not sure either.  If you're curious, the other one that I like (sometimes depending on my mood) more than this one is this one which just falls short of being -really- good.  Still, I can enjoy it regardless.  Perhaps you can too!