GOAT
Lost (Acoustic Version)
Mileage: Retuned
The Intelligent South
Director: Teddy Cool
The shout out for this writing goes to Justin Griffith a.k.a. GOAT(Grades of Absolute Truth). I follow his Instagram and Twitter feeds and I understand how he keeps his music community happy. Apart from writing and performing his music, he also teaches kids and adults to learn musical instruments, even if he doesn’t teach them to sing or rap. And what is that? Well, he has this exciting merchandising going on.
These days it is not enough to post tunes or performing live through social media. You gotta give your fans something they can use for their everyday live. And nothing is better than a cap, a shirt or a jacket-anything that’s ‘practical.’ And Griffith is so good in this. He also posts snippets of his live videos via Instagram.Instagram is a good tool in exposing your music/art/blog. Never underestimate the power of the hashtag. He reminds me a bit of Beck who jumps from one genre to another. This music video I posted represents that point.
Remember where you came from, understand where you’re at, & know where you’re going. #GradesOfAbsoluteTruth
So who are the musicians backing Griffith?
They are :GOAT(Griffith) – Lead Vocals/Guitar, Double J – Producer/Keys/Backup Vocals, Christian Sly – Guitar/Backup Vocals, Graham Impey – Bass Guitar, James Bownds – Drums/Percussion/Backup Vocals, Lourdes Mabel – Backup Vocals. His inspirations are singer/songwriters, conscious hip hop, rock, blues, (and soul while combining the depth of an introverted poet), the precision of a perfectionist, and the relevance of a leader. He was included in the Top 10 Artists in DFW by LIT Monthly.
He has an impressive array of performances having opened for Everlast, Bubba Sparxxx, Shwayze, Paul Wall, Jon Connor, King Los, Devin the Dude, Snow Tha Product, Mac Lethal, Ceschi, Mr. Dibbs, & more. He can also perform as an acoustic act, duo, trio, or with a 6-piece band. See how versatile this artist is? He exudes an amiable vibe. You can just tell it not just from his social media posts but through his charisma on stage. So yes this is a shout out to this awesome guy and I am sure other artists out there can learn from his tireless way of getting his music out there.
The holiday spirit is about keeping warm while taking that time to reflect on what was before and what will be. The songs of Michael Stovall is very proper for the atmosphere. I know people are out there busy with their preparations. Singer/songwriters have to put their craft aside to make way for family gatherings. There are those who have lost loved ones and this Christmas was awfully sad.
Goodbye & Goodluck is for all of you sad ones. It’s because no matter how hard we try, this world is not a perfect place. And though life is beautiful, life can also be painful. It’s these little things or bigger things that make us human. And this tune is so beautiful I feel my soul calmed after listening.
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Passion is unpredictable. Passion makes us prolific. JP Kallio is prolific this year. He has released more than one album and wrote many songs. I know some of them are yet to see the light of day. Apart from performing and writing songs, he is busy with his music blog. He writes quality articles that merit discussion. I think when you are an artist, you just gotta ride the wave when it comes. Because there will always be moments when inspiration is hard to squeeze. It speaks for me as a blogger. There are days where I feel like I want to write something but there is nothing there to write about. There are many tunes worth covering but my brain is dried up or on something else. I am distracted. So when the impulse happens, I grab my Mac and type away in case the muse escapes again!
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Wooah! Check this tune out! It’s a repost from an electronic musician that I follow, his name is Ben Landis. I am sure you people from the gaming community is familiar with his works. Anyway this tune is not from Landis but from a group called Enhanced. They are from the UK and they have more than 22,000 followers via Soundclound. This is a dance track that has the winter chills going all over your body when you listen to the melody. And yes the title is called Wintertide. I am following this group now.
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Mary Fahl is my muse.
About the video:
Exiles: The Wolves of Midwinter, written by Mary Fahl, former lead singer of October Project, along with John Lissauer for the audiobook version of Anne Rice’s new novel, The Wolves of Midwinter, which will be released Oct. 15, 2013.
Available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon.com. Shot and edited by Kate Bennis, http://www.katebennis.com.
Lastly, don’t forget to follow this amazing Irish singer/songwriter, Peter Chains. I like his voice. It has got that Peter Steele kind of deep but with the soothing style of Leonard Cohen, Anyway, you be the judge. If you think Hozier is amazing, I am sure you will find his singing mind-blowing.
I love it that I am getting more and more ambient/contemporary instrumental releases to write about. Music like this gets the stress out of your system. We live in a time when multitasking is a normal thing. But just because many people do it, doesn’t mean it is healthy. I love my little quiet space, no one around and yea music such as this to help me figure out my thoughts.
Western Skies Motel is a project by Danish composer/instrumentalist René Schelbeck . Schelbeck also played in a variety of Danish indie bands then spent years raising his family. Reflections is his come back to the music world. It is a work of emotional force and artful craftsmanship.
I love the album for its unhurried pace and textures. I can listen to the tunes again and again and find minute detail. I think that every written observation one has isn’t really done at all. There’s always something new to find out and that makes you want to say’ hey I wish I could have written about that sound’ but then again the article is already published and all you can do is just appreciate the discovery you have with the music. And that discovery is a private matter. I know I will discover new things after this. But in general, all I can have to say is this: Reflections is a beautiful collection of tunes that aims to awaken that deeper aspects of how we sense and relate to things around us.
All the tracks in Reflections are written around the harmonium and acoustic guitar. The title track Reflection starts out with a quiet stretch between notes using the guitar. The reverb and feedback turn to ambient harmonies. Then the ‘walking’ tempo starts and the movement is the movement of ones emotion as it syncs with the music. Here and There sounds like a cross between prairie scenes and a friendly alien through the use of harmony effects with gentle drums. Homesick reminds me of ripples you make when you touch a pond. His rhythm moves like waves and the gentle forces soothes the mind.
Three tracks and I could not get enough. René Schelbeck is an artist to keep on the radar!
Alex Pardini gives us slices of life though Walk Laugh Live Die
My idea of good music is something that becomes part of your life. I think songs become part of our existence because we listen or use them to convey different things. We play songs to tell someone what we feel inside, especially when we can’t say it. Songs are time machines that take us back to that time when we felt safe and loved. It could also be for dancing or relaxation. We also use songs to channel whatever negative emotions we have inside. With their different uses in our lives, musicians are magicians casting spells to transform our reality into something bearable if not totally beautiful.
Walk Laugh Live Die by Alex Pardini is like a musical essay about what life is all about and what it should be. This isn’t just your typical funky lounge music. This is an album of songs that challenges listeners to either agree or contemplate. What I admire about Walk Laugh Live Die is this sense of cohesiveness that embraces the ten tracks. He is a great mix master and producer. The overall tempo seems to melt into each track and yet the individuality is preserved in terms of styles across songs.
The vibe is for slow dancing. It’s easy but not slow, elegant but has rugged edges courtesy of the funky guitar embellishments. It’s an album of urban landscapes. That moment when you are done with work and you hangout with your crew and party the night away. My favorite tracks are Unknown Girl and Make Me Feel This Way. The former reminds me of Suzanne Vega’s Caramel (from Nine Objects of Desire) due to the classic synth sounds. Make Me Feel This Way gives me the feeling like I’m floating at dusk.
Walk Laugh Live Die is a stylish album with a stylish music video. This is expected from an artist with photography as his other passion. This is an album that will linger in my playlist for a long time. Official release date is September 30.
Alex Pardini’s album “Walk, Laugh, Live, Die“ starts where “Made of Diversity“ ended a little over two years ago (2011). Though, it creates a world of it’s own by fortifying old paths and discovering new ones.
„Walk, Laugh, Live, Die“ is a colorful musical journey that will make you travel way further than from a to b.
Hop on!
About Alex Pardini
Alex’ musical world is a living and breathing playground of magic and surprises. His wide musical output is astonishing, but more importantly, a personal necessity. A philosophical approach to music – a metaphor for his life.
Alex is constantly perfecting his art, experimenting and expanding his musical diversity, in order to find that all-embracing and unifying golden middle.
His photography takes his music one step further and extends his creative work into the visual realm.
A true one man operation flourishing in his cozy apartment studio. From the first shy sparkle of inspiration to the mastered song – always accompanied by his visual art.
Hear hear hear! The album Green is Good by New York City-based orchestral pop and rock collective The Sharp Things is out in the market and we have lead vocalist Perry Serpa as our featured artist. Perry joined me to answer questions that fans of their music would possibly want to know. You might not know this but he is involved not just on the creative aspect of music making. He is also active in promoting and producing other acts. Time and dedication has sculpted the fine sound of The Sharp Things. He also shares his views about the American music scene not just in the indie aspect but the bigger picture. He also talks about the creative experiences with the rest of The Sharp Things which would be of great benefit for you if you happen to start a band of your own. So read along and enjoy!
1. Can you give us a background as to your musical journey into The Sharp Things?
Whoa! well, it’s been a while… Over 15 years! So, it could make for a pretty long-winded answer. Haha. I will say that all of those years ago- in the nineties, I had an indie rock band. It was a collaborative thing with regards to the songwriting, so it was short-lived because at that very point in my creative path, I started writing a lot of material on my own that would have been inappropriate for the band thing since we were developing an annoyingly limiting sense of self-awareness (which is the artist’s enemy). I would come home from tense rehearsals and just sit at the piano and write things for the sake of it- I wasn’t sure any of it would see the light of day- I didn’t know whether I’d ever play it to anybody, but when that thing imploded, I started playing the material out, adding musicians- at first (around 1995) it was Steve Gonzalez (TST drummer) and I, then our friend Jim Santo saw us at the sidewalk cafe. He loved the songs but we were terrible. i was a piano player who decided that he could play enough guitar to get him by, but I couldn’t tune the fucking thing, so i just didn’t bother. he walked over and I immediately said, “hey! do you wanna be in our band!” the rest was a decade plus of adding musician after musician, 15 different instruments, all sorts personalities and agendas. it’s been an amazing ride.
2. How do you describe the change in the American indie music scene for the past 10 years?
In a word, safe.
3.Now that Green is Good is finally out, what’s your expectations about how the album will be handled by fans and new listeners?
Gently, I hope. But if not, I’d like to learn something useful from the experience. If there was any sort of agenda for this record, or series of albums, it’s been to get through that there are a plethora of musical ideas coming out of this group of people. Yeah, there’s the big, symphonic pieces, but there are rock songs, plaintive folk melodies, totally off-the-wall experimental ideas, horn-infused retro pop songs, etc… we felt like doing everything, so we did.
4. If music is food, how do you describe The Sharp Things?
An entire Trader Joe’s.
5. Can you tell us about the memorable things that took place while recording Green is Good?
There were tons of great “moments,” but I can’t really remember any one thing standing out from the other. We really bonded with our producer/engineer Billy Polo, though. He’s really a Dub/Reggae artist, but he’s incredibly well-rounded and listens to everything, so he completely understands what we’re doing and knows how to get the right things out of it. We also jibe in the sense of humor department, to account for a lot of those moments.
6. Why the title Green is Good?
I was trying to think of an album title that would have a bit of a double meaning, or a loose connection to the concept of “greed,” and one night, Jim just came out with “GREEN IS GOOD!” I suppose it’s kind of a bite off of Gordon Gecko’s “Greed Is Good.” A lot of the songs on the album, in one way or another, deal with money or our relationship, as people, to the idea of currency. The color green is also something we wanted in there, but we’ll let that one unfold over time.
7. The Piper is my favorite track due its amazing melody and arrangement. Can you give us a little history how this song came to be?
Thanks for that. I’m really happy with The Piper. It is a song written for a friend who lost a child to cancer. It compares the disease to the Pied Piper Of Hamlin leading the children into the river to die. It all came out of me, lyrics and melody, in one moment. It was kind of magical.
8.Now it’s my turn to ask: What’s your favorite track in Green is Good and why?
I like The Piper, too. But in terms of songs I don’t mind going back to and putting on, I would have to say that “Goodbye To Golders Green” does it for me. I know it’s mine, and this could potentially sound a bit arrogant, but I never grow tired of that one.
Check out the links to the pages of The Sharp Things in this article. Say hi or add them. And yes please support indie music. It’s beautiful and it keeps our musical culture alive!
Alex Pardini:Photo courtesy of Alex Pardini Photography
I did an article about Alex Pardini a few months ago. I was surprised to see something in my mail today. He made two logos for this site. One is black, the other is white(the one you see now). But I like to keep both because who knows? I might like to use the black version next time. I think it is great being remembered especially in these times of personal hardships. I wish you good karma Alex and more heights of success on your music.
Alex Pardini is perhaps one underrated singer/producer and songwriter in the field of electronic music today. He has the voice, the looks and the brains as electro’s representative to the pop world. His recordings are marked with sleek craftsmanship. As an artist, he is not afraid to experiment. He can glide from chill out, down tempo or into a more rough, funk inspired project. And yes he plays a cool acoustic guitar too.
The track Fly Fly” comes in three versions. A Vocals Club Mix, an Instrumental and a shorter Radio Mix . The one on soundcloud is the original(lo-fi mix) that sounds also amazing depending on your mood. Whatever works for you. I am listening to all his tracks again as I start the day. However, they can be great tracks to welcome the end of the day. Always awesome and never a dull moment with Alex Pardini. Remember that name.
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