Social Casualty

Because I can't update at all from my computer, I thought I would update my "What's New" page in a post. This week, the following CDs will be available:

1.  5 Seconds of Summer - 5 Seconds of Summer

2.  Nobody's Smiling - Common

3.  Heaven & Earth - Yes

4.  Trouble in Paradise - La Roux

5.  The Very Baddest (2xCD) - ZZ Top

6.  Do You Wanna Start a War - Fozzy

7.  In Technicolor - Jesse McCartney

8.  Delicate Forever - Steve Roach

I will definitely be making a purchase this week.  5 Seconds of Summer, I have been waiting for this album for a year.  Congratulations.

And the last time I saw Jesse McCartney he was being killed in Chernobyl Diaries.  Yikes. 

I Get A Kick Out of You

I got this book fro Christmas from my aunt, uncle, and cousins called The Greatest Album Covers Of All Time.  The book features more than 250 of the best album covers and is arranged by decade and musical genre.

It was published in 2005 by Collins & Barnes and was written by Barry Miles, Grant Scott, and Johnny Morgan.  There are six different chapters:  1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.  I'll go over just a few of those.

In the 1950s chapter, there are four subchapters:

1. Pop - Frank Sinatra's Come Fly with Me and Peggy Lee's Black Coffee are two of the albums included.
2. Exotica - Robert Frost's Robert Frost Reads His Poetry is one of the records in this subchapter.
3. Jazz - Ella Fitzgerald's Ella Fitzgerald Sings Gershwin Vol 2 and Quincy Jones's This Is How I Feel About Jazz are just two of the several albums.
4. Rock 'n' Roll - Elvis Presley's Elvis Presley, Little Richard's Here's Little Richard, and Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps' Gene Vincent Rocks!  And the Blue Caps Roll.

In the 1980s chapter, there are seven subchapters:

1. Factory - New Order's Low-Life, Power Corruption and Lies, and Movement.
2. Pop - Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A., Adam and the Ants' Kings of the Wild Frontier, Madonna's True Blue, and R.E.M.'s Murmur are just a few.
3. Rock - Tom Waits's Rain Dogs, Talking Heads' The Name of this Band Is Talking Heads and Remain in Light
4. Agit Rock - Killing Joke's Killing Joke and The Fall's Hex Enduction Hour.
5. Metal - AC/DC's Back in Black, Van Halen's MCMLXXXIV, Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast, and ZZ Top's Eliminator.
6. Rap - Beastie Boys' Licensed of Ill and L.L. Cool J's Radio.
7. Soul - George Benson's Give Me the Night and Bobby Brown's Don't Be Cruel.

I don't want to give the whole book away, so if you would like to know the other chapters, you will have to buy it for yourself!!

Battle of the bands

Sitting home and doing nothing puts these ideas in my head.  I thought it would be fun a good idea to create a playlist for you guys - something I have not done in a long time.

So I was brainstorming different ideas for playlists and I thought of "Battle of the Bands."  Now, "Battle of the Bands" is a real competition in which different bands perform and compete for the winning title, kind of like X Factor but only one day.

So I put together a list of 39 bands/groups and came up with at least one song for each band.  Here's the end result (all of the links are from YouTube):

1. Kiss You - One Direction
2. Twist and Shout - The Beatles
3. Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones
4. Standing In The Dark - Lawson
5. Bye Bye Bye - N Sync
6. Don't Stop - Fleetwood Mac
7. Larger Than Life - Backstreet Boys
8. That's What You Get - Paramore
9. Don't Turn Out The Lights - NKOTBSB
10. Take Me Home - Midnight Red
11. California Dreamin' - The Mamas & the Papas
12. Baba O'Riley - The Who
13. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
14. Wheel In the Sky - Journey
15. Roxanne - The Police
16. Bless the Broken Road - Rascal Flatts
17. When I See You Smile - Bad English
18. Hotel California - Eagles
19. Wings - Little Mix
20. Angeleyes - ABBA
21. Miami 2 Ibiza - Swedish House Mafia ft. Tinie Tempah (Viewer discretion is advised for this video)
22. Burnin' Up - Jonas Brothers
23. Mrs. Robinson - Simon and Garfunkel
24. Carry You - Union J
25. Chloe (You're The One I Want) - Emblem3
26. Oh Boy - BOY
27. That'll Be The Day - Buddy Holly & the Crickets
28. Bring It (Snakes On A Plane) - Cobra Starship
29. Ho Hey - The Lumineers
30. Higher - The Saturdays
31. Centerfold - J. Geils Band
32. The Weight - The Band
33. Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO
34. Seventeen Forever - Metro Station
35. Carry On - Fun.
36. It's My Life - Bon Jovi
37. Our Lips Are Sealed - Go-Go's
38. Hazy Shade Of Winter - The Bangles
39. Sharp Dressed Man - ZZ Top

Which one is your favorite?  If these bands were all in a "Battle of the Bands" contest, who would be the victor?  Comment below with your answers!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers out there!  In honor of this day, I thought I would make today's post dedicated to my dear father.
My dad loves music as much as - if not more than - I do.  Every Saturday night (and any other night he cooks dinner instead of my mom) he has music playing over the stereo.  He puts together a playlist, usually themed, using his 10,000+ library.  He actually ran out of room on iTunes and now has other songs on a drive.  People sometimes even ask my dad to make the playlist for a party they are having because he does such a good job.  So, to honor my dad's amazing work, I put together a list of my dad's favorite artists.

1. Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen
2. Telephone Line - Electric Light Orchestra
3. Tommy (the whole album) - The Who
4. Aqualung - Jethro Tull
5. Already Gone - The Eagles
6. Open Arms - Journey
7. Peggy Sue - Buddy Holly
8. Billion Dollar Babies - Alice Cooper
9. La Grange - ZZ Top
10. Cocaine Blues - Johnny Cash