P1 Virginia Tech

CMI- bands band bands.

2009-04-19T22:44:00.000-07:00

Picking my one favorite band out of the CMI is honestly almost impossible, but if I had to pick just one, I would have to go with twentyfour64. My new found love for R&B has meet the rocker sound and combined together made the unique sound that is twentyfour64. Their lyrics are original and each member brings their own sound to the table. If I had the chance to meet the band, or even better if they ever made their way to Blacksburg Virginia- definitely count me in!

Favorite bands by region... Honestly, I don't know how to divide up the regions, but lets start with west coast. As I said before twentyfour64 is going to have to take the gold for that region. For the east coast I'm going to have to go with Televandals, coming out of Boston, I found their sound to be fresh and something new to jam to. Outside of the States I'm also a big fan of The Gin Riots. Not only is their music is amazing, and perfect to party to but the way the got their name is hilarious and I love it.

My Fave CMI Bands

2009-04-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

I would have to say that my favorite band that I was fortunate enough to get introduced to through Campus Music Invasion (CMI) would have to be The Features. I made two CDs of all the CMI music and have found myself listening to their song The Lions on repeat. You should go to their MySpace page and check it out: http://www.myspace.com/thefeatures. As their are no bands from CMI that are touring in the vicinity of southwest VA, I will just go ahead and choose another group that I have taken a liking to; twentyfour64. Their music is soothing with an edge and has some great melodies. One of my favorite songs is "Superboy".
Check it out! --> http://www.myspace.com/twentyfour64

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

2009-04-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

I love this book and after seeing the trailer, I am definitely going to have to see the movie. The music in itself is what made me excited! I think popular or indie music needs to be used more often to set the mood in movies as it is catchy yet powerful at the same time. One of my favorite movie + music combos would have to be the Requiem for a Dream song by Clint Mansell. It has been used throughout the cinema genre to continuously communicate the most commanding or climatic event in the movie. Love it! Check it Out --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Ma4BvMUwU

Dashboard Confessional

2009-03-22T15:35:00.000-07:00

Thinking of a band/ song that really impacted my life was difficult. My middle school days were a fairly tough time in my life. My mom got sick, my only sister had just moved away to college, and I was in that awkward stage in life when I really didn't know who I was. I started listening to new music and i fell in love with dashboard confessional. Instead of all the pop tweeny music that everyone else was jammin out to, i felt like i was cool for doing my own thing for once. Listening to dashboard opened me up to lots of other new music as well. Once I got to high school I then started getting into the local band scene. Even to this day I know every word to almost all the Swiss Army Romance CD.

My Very First Album - A Life-Altering Experience

2009-03-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

CDs had become the new technological craze for a couple years by the time I had turned eight, and so of course, as with tamagachis, pogs, and gimp I had to jump on the bandwagon. "I'm Just a Girl" by No Doubt had been one of my favorite songs for some time, and so when I was perusing the CD section at Target for the first time, and spotted No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom album. I was obsessed with the catchy song, where No Doubt's front woman Gwen Stefani belts out lyrics that were the anthem for teenage girls everywhere at the peak of their adolescent angst. Though I had yet to enter my teen years, I grabbed the album immediately, and tugging on my mom's shirt begged her to buy it for me. "But, Sarah, you don't even have a CD player!" my mom reasoned with me. And yes, pathetic but true, my first CD was purchased before I even had any method to listen to it. However, once that new purple Sony Discman became my most prized posession, I must have listened to the album repeatedly for over a month. "Sunday Morning", "World Go Round", and "Spiderwebs" were among some of my favorites. No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom album made my love for music grow, transforming my tastes from the Lion King soundtrack to the more mature Chumbawumba's Tubthumper. To this day, that album remains in my car CD player, still one of my all-time favorites. Oh, and the No Doubt reunion tour, I'm there.

My Dream show line up

2009-02-19T21:27:00.000-08:00

My Dream Show Line Up
So I realize some of these are odd mixes but hey, its my dream show line up and that’s what I would pick. I tried to stay away from picks that Tina had already used although M.I.A. and Ray Charles were hard to pass up.

First up is the ROCK show, not your typical hard core rock or even the classics but more of the alternative, mellow rock. For the opener I would pick Death Cab for Cutie, mid- Counting Crows they’ve been around a while and are still in my top ten bands that I could listen to just about any time, and headliner Red Hot Chili Peppers I’ve been to their show before and they do not disappoint from the entertainment aspect.

HIP-HOP- I would have to say out of rock, jazz, or hip-hop this is the show I would definitely NOT want to miss. opener the Roots, love them, then for the mid, I would go with a compilation (because have you ever seen a hip hop/ Rap concert with out at least one featured guest). I know you were thinking someone had to add lil Wayne so… for the mid I would go with Lil Wayne and Jay- Z, headliner Kayne West while his personality’s not my favorite as an artist he’s definitely, in my opinion, one of the best.

JAZZ- While jazz isn’t something you will find loaded on my Ipod I would like to think that I can appreciate it. When choosing this classy genre I pretty much stayed with the legends. Opener- Ella Fitzgerald, mid- Stacey Kent, she hasn’t been around quite as long as my other choices but I found her on itunes and is definitely a keeper, headliner- Louis Armstrong one of the greats, I could listen to his voice literally all day.

Miscellaneous- For this last option I went with my favorites that haven’t been said that I would definitely want in a line up. opener- Dave Matthews band its never truly summer until I see him in concert, mid- Coldplay, great performers all around, and for the headliner- Bob Marley a legend that I would love to see if I could see ANYONE from the past.

My All Star Line Up...

2009-02-18T10:54:00.000-08:00

This weeks blog assignment was difficult. Although, I listen to all types of music it was hard to pick three bands in four genres. Especially in the jazz department, I've never been much of a jazz girl myself, but who knows, maybe I'll open up to it as I get older.
The first genre I went with was rock. I went through my "punk rocker" stage, or at least my 13 year old version, of it in middle school. For this reason my lineup will reflect that time frame; Opener- The Starting Line, Mid- Fuel, and Header- New Found Glory. All similar sounds but exactly what I was, and still am into.
Second genre is going to have to be hip-hop, something I got a lot more into throughout high school and now college. Opener- The Blackeyed Peas, Mid- M.I.A. and Header- Rihanna. Definitely all all stars with recent top hits.
Jazz, this one was much harder. Jazz has never really been my thing, but when researching jazz bands I definitely recognized a few famous names. Opener- Clear Voyage, I found them on itunes, and loved it, Mid- The Curbfeelers (my dad's local band in the Washington D.C. area, they're more of a blues sounds, but good nontheless), Header- Ray Charles, a true legend.
Lastly, my genre of choice is going to have to be pop. I can be a very girly girl in terms of music, so bring on the boybands. Opener- The Beach Boys, oldies but goodies Mid- NSYNC, my obsession throughout elementary school, and lastly my Header- The Veronicas.

fmylife.com <-- my new obsession

2009-02-17T20:17:00.001-08:00

The other week, while daydreaming in my Creative Dance class (yes, I am allowed to take such ridiculous curriculum as this is my last semester as an undergraduate) I overheard a girl complaining about how the http://www.juicycampus.com website was down, but that followers of the college gossip site had turned to http://www.fmylife.com for temporary entertainment until its revival. "If you're having a bad day and think your life sucks, go to this site. I was laughing for hours!" the girl proclaimed. Intrigued, as I love anything that will keep me from my schoolwork, decided to check out the site. Boy, was I in for a treat. Under the heading, F*** My Life: My life sucks, but I don't give a fuck, were anonymous posts from people detailing certain incidences that had happened to them, followed by the letters FML. They range from raunchy to embarrassing to just flat out pathetic, but you cannot understand the humor that ensues from these posts unless you go to the site yourself. Let me give you a little preview...
Today, I spent $20 on a spray tan, $30 to have my make up done, and $50 on a pretty new dress all for a special date with my boyfriend. It turns out I spent $100 just to get dumped. FML
Today, I went to a plastic surgeon's office with a friend. The doctor walked in and before he could look at the consult papers, he started explaining the lipo suction procedure to me. I had to interrupt him and tell him that I was only there for support for my friend's nose job. FML
Today, the 9th grade dean called me into his office to talk. He asked me if I was new because it seemed like I was having trouble making friends. I've been going to the same school, with the same people, since kindergarten. FML
This is just a sample, but I had to tear myself away as the site could potentially keep me occupied for hours. I highly recommend it to those trying to avoid studying, or maybe to those who have just had a rough day. Enjoy!

2009-02-08T15:08:00.000-08:00

Although I have never seen myself as the blogging type- I can see how people can get really into one. Sitting here thinking about what part of my life is interesting enough to be posted on the internet is exhausting... but at the same time, this feels exactly like my dolphin shaped notebook that I called my diary as a kid. Seriously, blogging is an online diary for adults. I can make it as private or as public as I want, and can rant about whatever I can possible think of. My childhood diary consisted of mainly terribly misspelled words (thank god for spell check), and announcements to myself of who my crush of the week was. Looking back on the many diaries I tried to keep as a kid, I love knowing what honestly was running through my head when I was 10. Although life was a lot simpler then, some things just never change. I still have to sit down with a friend just to tell her the dumb fight I got into with my roommate that morning (even though my roommate at 10 was my older sister, but a roommate nonetheless).
All in all, even though I am not blogging for myself, but for my internship through Platform One Entertainment, I'm excited about the chance to try something total out of my comfort zone. This week we were assigned to have listening parties with a few of our friends here on campus to show them what our bands were all about. I met up with a bunch of my sorority sisters at the local roller skating rink and I had them listen to a few songs. Most of the girls really enjoyed it and were excited about new music to download.

Campus Music Invasion

2009-02-08T14:59:00.000-08:00

As Lauren stated, we all had our very own listening parties to spread the word about this new compilation of up-and-comers, some of which I have found myself playing on repeat to the delight of my roommates. Some of my favorites were Lions by The Features and Fred and Gin by Glasko that got me jamming out as I wrote a 5-pager. As I listened to these new songs, it reminded me of when I used to be that girl whose span of musical knowledge came solely from MTV's Total Request Live and the iTunes top 100, but with the help of my roommate who always seems to find underground artists that reach beyond the pop circuit, I have been exposed to much more than Katy Perry and T.I. Now, don't get me wrong, I cannot deny the catchiness of "Hot 'N Cold" and in my eyes, T.I.'s Paper Trail was one of the best albums of 2008, but websites like http://www.pitchfork.com/, a favorite of the roomie, give music news on a wider breadth of artists beyond those that highlight hit music radio stations. I discovered such artists as The Sounds, Santogold, Feist, and The Tings Tings, on this website, before they reached the MTV and VH1 airwaves. Stepping out of my music "comfort level", if you will, has allowed me to learn about a bunch of new bands and great songs, that I don't think I would have encountered otherwise!

Campus Music Invasion

2009-02-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

2/5/09
So this week we were sent music from 16 featured artists to download and have a listening party for Campus Music Invasion. Lauren and Tina had their listening parties are their respective sorority houses with their sisters. Sarah had some friends and neighbors over to listen. Over all there was a mix of opinions about all the different artists but pretty much everyone found something that they liked. We handed out the complimentary download cards at the listening parties, to people we know, people in our classes, and people around campus. I think its safe to say that we all had fun doing our first interactive assignment!
Have a great rest of the week!
peace out,

VA Tech Platform One Reps
Lauren, Sarah, and Tina