Sam Hart!

I really know very little about Sam Hart. He just isn't famous enough to have easily-found information about himself floating around on the internet. He puts videos of his songs on YouTube. He sings (without autotuning!), he plays guitar and he writes his own songs. It's amazing how that's so special today. Check him out here, playing "Still My Dream".

I first found out about Sam Hart with Clyde. A couple of guys were pressured into playing a song for a small crowd, of which we were a part. After finding a guitar in a closet or a car somewhere, they began playing "Still My Dream". I've been hooked to Sam Hart YouTube playlists ever since. I love all his songs, serious or not so much (You're A Zombie Now). Some seem superficially silly and innocent, but there are always threads of truth weaved throughout.

I'm not the best at explaining music in words, it just doesn't make much since. So, the only solution to this is for you to go to YouTube and search Sam Hart* (You won't be very successful if you look at iTunes; they've only released one of his songs).

~OMO

*Sam Hart posts his videos with the username blinktwice4y.

I can post on here? What? The EJE's first rant about life!

After reading other posts, I have discovered that WE CAN POST RANDOM BLOG POSTS ON HERE! Amazing, isn't it? So, I have decided that I will rant on here... I mean, fill the audience with musical information that will totally prove useful.

Have you ever attempted to write a song? It doesn't matter if it was serious or not. If you have, you'd know... IT'S REALLY HARD. I have been all angtsy and teenagerish recently because... well... I'm a teenage girl who is sad. And because I am so... awesome... I am filled with angry lyrics and I hate poetry with a passion. So what do I resort to? Banging on the piano trying to come out with something that doesn't sound like poop. And then I tried picking up my guitar to play sad songs that were already written to find that if I played a D chord, it would sound like crap. So I tuned my guitar to find it was pretty much perfect. SO I tried again, and once again, I failed. I kept thinking, "OMG how am I going to be angsty teen who puts her angry/sad/ohemgee-I-cannot-believe-you feelings into songs if I can't play a freaking D chord?!" I figured out that if I was trying to play whatever note the third fret on the B string is (which happens to be in the D chord), it would fail.

So I went back to the piano, pressed out some notes that I was able to sing, and wrote some angry lyrics. Then, I locked them away where no one can find them except for the one girl who knows my password. Now the world will never hear them, unless I become some internationally acclaimed superstar. Then I'll release my terrible song that was written because I didn't feel any angry song accurately described my sadness.

Thank you for possibly reading my rant before my group members take this down! (If they choose to.) Also, don't judge me because I can't play any instruments and I like to write crappy songs when I'm angry -.-

- The Estonian Jumping Elephant

Get Advice (from three acronyms and a Clyde!)

HELLO, VEWBIES!*

The VINYL staff are proud to present the newest and greatest feature you have ever seen on the Internet!**

An ADVICE COLUMN. From the three of us acronyms and Clyde! So send in your questions! Immediately! Questions of any variety!

We eagerly await your questions and will each answer them to the absolute very best of our ability.

MUCH THANKS AND EXCITEMENT,
~ IBI OMO EJE (and Clyde)


*No, I don't feel guilty at all for stealing Liam Dryden's name for viewers. I'll switch them out each post. Maybe that'll be a thing. Or maybe not.

**Except maybe Truth or Fail.

Leading On Your Opinions

...Or at least leading you on to believe that they are your own.

..Or something like that.

--IBI

Direct Address -- Somewhere in Cardiff, Wales, there is a pirate, forever hated by the music industry for downloading a copy of a French album a few weeks early. A girl in Beijing uploads the tracks of a CD she just purchased to YouTube, from where they will be downloaded across the world. As pirated music becomes more accessible and the world more inter-connected, doesn't it make more sense for

Compare/Contrast -- Once upon a time, to hear music you needed a musician. Since then, it’s evolved through the ages--vinyl to tapes to compact discs to now, digital. With each new technology the world has grown smaller, and in the age of the Internet, drawing lines between countries can no longer stop fans from downloading their music. Instead, it may only be pushing more and more fans to become pirates, hated by the music industry because there was no legal way to purchase the songs they wanted to hear.

Direct Address -- Three a.m. and you just found out that your very favourite band finally released their new record--in Europe. There isn’t even a release date for the States yet. Now you have a choice. Download it now, or wait a couple months. Which do you choose?

Mediocrity - Experimentation with Leads

Lead 1 (Rhetorical question) - Can you imagine school without art or music classes? As budget woes plague schools around the nation, many education systems are considering cuts to the arts programs.

Lead 2 (Twist) - They improve focus, strengthen literacy, and increase mathematical understanding in children. They also receive more budget cuts than other school programs. The arts are struggling to gain support for funding in schools around the nation.

Lead 3 (Startling statement) - Arts education can improve focus in children. Being exposed to music and art can strengthen reading fluency and mathematical understanding in children. It’s surprising, then, with these results, that schools should consider cutting these programs.

~The OMO

Operation: Leads - The Estonian Jumping Elephant

Lead One: Narrative

    For as long as I remember, I’ve known who the Beatles were. My mom played one of their many albums as she cleaned up the house, and every time one of the cover bands played at the Oasis or the Nutty Brown Cafe, you could see my family, little sisters and all, dancing along to the beat of Come Together. Even though it's 50 years after the Beatles began as a band, they are just as popular.

Lead Two: Direct Address

    If you walked around a high school for a moment, you’d probably see merchandise for artists like “J-Biebs”, Lady GaGa, and Usher. But one band that has started popping up on teens is the Fab Four, or the Beatles. Since the 60’s, they’ve been rocking the musical world for everyone.

Lead Three: Twist

    The Beatles have been around since the early 60’s, and some people argue that their age has made them less valid in the modern musical world. But if you look at music today, they are not only still popular but influential.

Claudia's Fabulous Opinion Piece Leads

Lead One:Narrative

It’s become quite the cliche by now: the old grandpa waves his cane angrily, loudly proclaiming that the youngsters these days have no idear what good music really is! The malarkey they listen to nowadays is makin’ his ears bleed!

Every generation has had its share of protest about how their music isn’t “real”. Jazz was considered obscene in the early 1900s, the sixties gave rise to “those damn hippies!” and punk was all about offending the elderly. However, the newest magnet for criticism from advocaters for so-called “real music” is electronica.

Lead Two: Rhetorical Question

Can music still be considered music if it doesn’t even use instruments? Some critics are saying no, but could computers and keyboards just be the new guitar?

Lead Three:  Rhetorical Question

Nowadays we use screens to do everything. We send mail on the computer, use phones to take pictures, and favor blogs over journals. So, what if the music we listen to is made this way, as well?