Featured Musician: The Junior Varsity

Like the last band I profiled, The Junior Varsity was unknown to me until my sister lent me their CD, Wide Eyed. I gave the CD a spin and was impressed (my sister apparently knows me very well when it comes to what I like in music). I'm glad that this great music was brought to my attention and it's my goal to bring this to your attention now.

The band hails from Normal, Illinois and has been around since 2002. Wide Eyed is actually the band's third album (after The Junior Varsity and The Great Compromise). They have participated in the Warper Tour in both 2005 and 2006 and are featured in two video games: MVP 06 NCAA Basketball and Amped 3 for XBox 360. They have been with Victory Records, a 'leading Chicago-based independent label" since 2004

According to their blog, they have just finished recording a new CD, Cinematographic, which will be released on June 19th, 2007. Their myspace page has a few songs that you can download,or listen to, including one of my favourites: Get Comfortable. Though not on their page to listen to, another of my favourite songs is When We Meet Aliens... A lot of their songs have some slower lyrics on top of some active guitars. They make use of harmony a lot which can be rather pleasing on the ears at times.

More information about the band can be found at Pure Volume and All Music. Check out those pages and listen to their music. You may like what you hear and perhaps you'll want to purchase their album (from a local record store of course) when it comes out in June.

Songbird: A Media Player for the Future

This being Monday, it's time for another post relating to Music. I thought that instead of talking about a band (like I did last week), I would talk about a program that will help you enjoy your music better than any other program out there. The program I am talking about is called Songbird. What's that you ask? Well, it's currently in development and the available version of the program is not that great, though it does appear that it will be the Firefox of media players once the final full version is released (one day I'll do a long post explaining what Open Source Software is).

So what makes this media player so special? For starters it does the same things that iTunes and Windows Media Player do. The big change is that it is something of a web browser itself. The player comes complete with links to well known mp3 blogs and a feature to download the music right into your library without having to open a new window.

Like Firefox, Songbird supports add-ons and already has many written for the program already, including a way to use your ipod with the player. The player is currently going through the developmental stages, but you can download a simple version of the player to try it out. I have this version and it's not quite up to par with Winamp or Windows Media Player, but it promises to be quite a bit better than both.

So if the program isn't finished quite yet, why would I talk about it? So that all of my readers are on the cutting edge of course! If you want a more detailed explanation of the features of this media player, check out the video they made. I'm just waiting for some features to be updated in new versions (like a play count, and maybe even the non-crucial album art) before I make the switch.

Check it out and keep your ears open for it to be released in a better version. No doubt if you keep following this blog, I'll let you know when something big happens.

Featured Musician: The New Amsterdams

While reading this post, keep in mind I have never really written about music before, and don't really follow any mp3 blogs (except my sister's – which hasn't been updated since November 2006).

Back in December I pestered my sister for any good music she had and she gave me quite a few CD's to listen to. Of those I found several to my liking, including The New Amsterdams' Worse for the Wear. I had never heard of the band before, but the music spoke to me and had a nice feel to it. I think a big part of my liking of them is their use of a piano and strong beats. The two features combine to create songs that feel classy and fun at the same time.

The disc is filled with many great tracks, including my personal favourites: “Hover Near Fame,” “From California,” and “Hanging on for Hope,” “Poison in the Ink,” and “All Our Vice.” As with any music, whether you like it will depend upon your tastes (and there are tracks on the CD that I think are not as great as the others), but there is a chance you will find some songs that you enjoy.

So who are they and what's up with them? When I had first heard them sing I had thought the singer sounded familiar. It turns out, the lead singer, Matthew Pryor, is the former lead singer of The Get Up Kids. The band is from Lawrence, Kansas and has been around since 2000. Worse for the Wear is actually their third (of five) albums. When doing research for this entry I found information about their upcoming album, Killed or Cured (due out April 10^th). They have several of their tracks available for listening for free (yay for free music!) on their myspace page. I gave the four available tracks a spin on my computer and I'd have to say I am fairly impressed. I enjoyed both “Strangled by the Thought” and “Heaven Sent” the most.

Here are some other places you can read about them:

• Vagrant Records
• Lawrence.com (I'm assuming this is from Lawrence, Kansas)

Try out the free tracks on their website and let me know what you think. If you want to purchase their CD's, please look for them online (sorry, I don't really do this, so I wouldn't know which sites are best – if anyone wants to make recommendations they would be more than welcomed), or buy them from a locally owned Music Store.

I hope you can enjoy The New Amsterdams as much as I do.