Rosalee Sings...

And she does it amazingly well. A lot of people probably know Rosalee better as the background voice of Steve Carlson, at least that's how I knew her for a long time. And I admit that I wasn't all that enthusiastic to listen to her first album when it came out.

That changed on the evening of 20. April, when Steve, Rosalee and Darren Sher had a gig at the Privatclub in Berlin and Rosalee sang two of her own songs. Fortunately the merch stand had her album, which I am now the proud owner of.

In short: I love it. Rosalee has a great voice, the songs - well, pretty much everything written by Steve and Darren that I know has turned out good, so no surprise there. Which, I have to say, is my one problem with this album. If you know Steve Carlson's music it is pretty obvious who wrote the songs for Love is the Way. The first time I listened to the album I thought that they sounded like something that Steve would play. The exception being 'Singing to Survive', which incidentally is probably my favorite song from the album.

From comments Rosalee made on Twitter I have hopes that the next album - yes, there's gonna be a next one - will be something that sounds more like her, and less like Steve. Because a great voice like hers deserves to be recognized for itself.

But as I said above, I do love her music. So go and visit her website www.rosaleesings.com, listen to her songs, and if you like them - buy the album. Come on, you know you want to...

Musical Discoveries

Here's a question for you: how do you discover new music?

I'm asking, because yesterday I re-read a story I first read... two years ago? I think it was two years. And then there was an author's note mentioning Ian Hunter, which suddenly reminded me that, yes, that particular author is to blame for me liking Ian Hunter. I'd never even heard the name before.
That wasn't the first time either, another story made me start listening to ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, another band I'd never heard of. I think Snow Patrol was such a case, too, and I really wouldn't be surprised to find more examples.

Of course there's also the tried and true method of simply listening to the radio - hello Misery Loves Co. and Backyard Babies, not to mention Savatage.

Friends usually are also a good source for music recommendations. I solely blame Katie for my fangirling of Kenny Wayne Shepherd (brand new album, check it out!), and Dani has made me start listening to so many bands, I can't list them all up here. (Okay, I could, but I'm lazy like that.)

My very first source for music was my brother, who is almost eleven years older than me. Yes, the age difference is worth mentioning - I was born in 1980, he in 1969. Regarding music it makes for a world of difference. The first two bands I really listened to were Die Toten Hosen, a German punk band, and AC/DC. Granted, I had no idea what the lyrics of the AC/DC songs meant, seeing as I was 10 years old at the time and didn't speak English, but still. He is also to blame for Metallica, Megadeth, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Idol, Guns 'N' Roses, and lots more hard rock and metal. Yes, my taste in music was vastly different from most of my friends during school.

Then we have the bands/artist that you just can't escape - because everybody you know likes them, or they get played on the radio all the damn time. Bon Jovi comes to mind there, for one.

Movies and tv shows are also a good source for music. The Supernatural soundtrack alone has almost everything a rock lover like me could ever want. Anime of course startet me on J-Rock.

So, that's me. I don't usually go and search for new artists - I don't have to. How about you?

Out of My Depths

Today I had the brilliant idea to sort my music files by genre, to get a little more order into my folder mess. It was... enlightening? Especially considering that I had to use the help of Wikipedia and MySpace to figure the respective genres out.

In conclusion... what the fuck? Post Grunge? Funk Metal? And what is supposed to be so alternative about Alternative Rock or Alternative Metal? It seems that these days pretty much every band and musician makes alternative something. My favorite is without question Alternative Country. (A/N: that was sarcasm.)

There's a reason why I never cared about music genres. There's music I like, and there's music I don't like, that's it. Okay, so let's divide that into a few groups:

Rock, Metal, Blues, Jazz, Pop, Classical, Electronic, Instrumental, Musical, Country

That pretty much covers everything I usually listen to. You can call it Alternative Rock if you want, to me it's Rock. Or Metal, or Country, or whatever else. What's up with all those pseudo genres?

Years ago I read something about that - in fact it was something the singer of ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead had written as an answer to the often asked question what kind of music exactly his band was making. The short answer was: nothing specific. They don't care about genres, because they play what they like and are in the mood for. They experiment. You can't put simply one label on that.

I guess I listen to music the same way they make it - experimentally. Yes, I will always favor Rock, but that doesn't mean I'll let myself be bound to that genre. Or to any genre.

...where is my point, has anybody seen my point? I think I had one when I started writing. Music genres are bloody confusing? Let's go with that.

And now for something completely different...

Enough about books for now, how about some music?

...well, this isn't really what I wanted to write about, but Maybe just started playing on my radio and I always have to grin when it does. Maybe is a song from the Sick Puppies, an Australian band who released their album Tri-Polar at the beginning of this year in Germany (it's the first they released here), with Maybe as the first single. I had already known the album for over half a year at that point, and listened to the song, oh, maybe a few dozen times? When I first heard the single on the radio - I didn't recognize the song. I don't know if this is only the case for Germany, but the single version was... a disaster.
So after I'd finally recognized the song and listened to the whole thing in the vain hope that surely it had to get better somehow, I sat down at my computer and did something I had only done once before: I wrote an email to my radio station, with roughly the following content:

Please, I beg you, don't ever play that version if the song again and use the album version instead. The single has so obviously had its teeth pulled to make it suitable for the general public that it almost physically hurts.

I'm not even kidding, I really cringed when it dawned on me that this was supposed to be Maybe.

So, now you might be wondering why I have this strange reaction now when I hear that song on the radio. Easy, because they listened. It was the one and only time that I heard them play the single version. (I also want to note that another station, which is supposed to be for 'young people' and usually plays music even I don't really want to hear, still plays the single version. Which is laaaame.)


Right! Now back on track. What I did want to write about was singers. And voices. And how some singers and their voices ruin their music for me.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has some voices that just grate on my nerves. I have to admit that Adele is one of them, though I think the only song of hers I know is Set Fire to the Rain. But I just don't like her voice. The Fray is such a case, too, as is Kings of Leon. Though it's not so bad with Kings, I still listen to them.
Strangely enough I never had any problem with listening to Brian Johnson, though Bon Scott is pretty borderline. Andrew Stockdale? Bring it on. Anastacia? Love her. (What? She has a great voice, but I'm pretty sure it's an acquired taste for a lot of people.)

With Sophie Ellis-Bextor it's the other way around: I think she has a great voice, but I don't like her music. Just can't win, can I?

If anybody is actually reading this blog, tell me which singers you just can't listen to.