Top 25 Albums of All Time - #8

Relient K - Five Score and Seven Years Ago

I just can't get enough of it. Packaged pop-punk? Yes. But is it well done? Absolutely. Maybe the best. Certainly in the best-in-class category. Lyrically, this stuff packs a serious punch, too. Don't believe me on the lyrics? Listen to the *epic* "Deathbed" and decide for yourself. It's awesome. It's a songwriter's song - a story-song. Love it.

Spotify link here: open.spotify.com/album/2i7lUD7JpgyVd2KhuzMp6O

Buy it on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/five-score-and-seven-years-ago/id215485112

FYI: The album cover image I've used is from the original album release cardboard sleeve. It's fairly rare and unknown, but I prefer it to the "updated" cover.

Top 25 Albums of All Time - #7

John Mayer: Continuum. Any questions? Really? Let's put aside what we think about Mr. Mayer's latest record for a minute and try to think about things objectively. This is a great album.

View my whole list here: http://jaymathes.blogspot.com/search/label/top%2025

Music Clout. Seriously?

Wow. Same junk, new name: Taxi. Sonicbids. Reverb Nation. G2.fm. Music Clout. Companies preying on gullible artists, asking them to pay for exposure or concerts or song placement or whatever. Will Music Clout succeed? My guess is yes. Why? Because most artists are looking for a pipe dream: the easy way to musical success. Don't get me wrong: I'm tempted by the same things.

This Music Clout-sort of a business model works on numbers: get enough artists to sign up (IE: "buy in") and, for every submission from every artist, the company makes bank. The only cost to the company is the up-front cost in convincing songwriters and bands of the illusion that *their* organization can *truly* "make" a band - make them lots of money - with one of their "opportunities".

Songwriters and bands, listen up:

NEVER PAY SOMEBODY UP FRONT FOR A CHANCE TO GET HEARD BY A PARTICULAR PERSON, AGENCY, VENUE, OR LABEL.

It's been said that anything worth having takes work to get. It's true. 99.99% of the time, these companies will steal your money and leave you in the same place you started: nowhere. You can't build a music career simply by submitting innumerable entries to virtual businesses. You need to be *there*, in person, pounding the *pavement*. Physical. Work. Sweat.

Wow. Venting. Seriously.

Top 25 Albums of All Time - #6

Weezer: Weezer

Hands-down the most influential album of my high school years. I can put more experiences to music from this album than any other. And the stories are almost all too personal to share in a blog post.













View my whole list here: http://jaymathes.blogspot.com/search/label/top%2025

Top 25 Albums of All Time - #5

Death Cab for Cutie: Plans

For starters, they used amazing equipment to record it. A friend of mine, Collin Jordan, a mastering engineer in Chicago, said that the vocal mic Ben Gibbard used on this record was probably worth over $10k.  Nice.

Second, Death Cab has pioneered the pop-electronic fusion that is so common in music today.

Yes, I will follow you into the dark...

View my whole list here: http://jaymathes.blogspot.com/search/label/top%2025

Top 25 Albums of All Time - #4

Coldplay's X and Y. Will anyone actually argue against this album being on my list? Highly doubtful.

View my whole list here: http://jaymathes.blogspot.com/search/label/top%2025

Top 25 Albums of All Time - #3

As you know, I have gotten myself in to a little pickle. I have started a top 25 albums of all time list. The problem is that, over the years, a heck of a lot of music has been recorded and compiled as albums. Just as a bit of a reminder, and maybe even a clarification, I have a few ground rules for this list. The more music I have listened to in my quest to compile this list, the more I have seen a need to be very specific about what this list is. Here are a few guidelines I am following:

1. Pop/Rock genre only. There's way too much music out there, and way too much music that I can humbly say I know absolutely nothing about.
2. Every song on the record has to be great. Every song has to be able to stand on its own, distinctly stand as a part of the whole and compliment it. For my purposes, even a single, bad song on an album will disqualify an album from the list.
3. Popularity is not a pre-requisite. I am not using anyone else's list to make mine. I am trying very hard not to let Rolling Stone magazine tell me what to include.
4. I won't include an album without very recently listening to it all the way through. And when I say listen, I mean that the music has my full attention.
5. Your suggestions are warmly invited! I know I haven't heard everything out there in the pop/rock genre - especially when it comes to classic rock, oldies, or 80's pop. Some historical background: the album "format" didn't really become popular until the mid- to late-1950's, so just as a simple, point of fact, I probably won't have to go back any further than that.

With all of this now said - and said again, in some cases - I'd like to announce album #3 in my list: Acceptance's album Phantoms. I might take some serious criticism for this one. The album is from 2005 - right around the time when all alternative rock music started to sound the same: over-compressed, perfect vocals, unbelievably punchy drums, et al. But, at the end of the day, in my opinion, this might just be the best album you've never heard of.

View my whole list here: http://jaymathes.blogspot.com/search/label/top%2025

First Video from Record Release Show Now on YouTube!

Just this evening, I posted the first video from my record release concert last month. Yeah, this video stuff takes a long time to edit. The first song of the first set was "Broken Well". Take a look (and listen) on my YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/jaymathesmusic. And here's a direct link to the video page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFAJMaCtny0.

Also, my buddy, Nick, who shot all of the video in the studio for the documentary about the making of Fundamental posted some of the raw video on his channel. Here's a link to the raw video (and audio) of the studio recording of "Broken Well": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLafZL7e5SM

Cheers! (and enjoy)

-Jay

Mosquito Fleet / Milano Concert Review

This past Friday night, some friends of mine, Mosquito Fleet, performed at the local coffee shop, La Spiaza. While I don't exactly like the "venue" or their coffee. Or the owner. Or how they treat the artists who perform there. I do like the atmosphere when there's great, live music being played. Opening for Mosquito Fleet was a band called Milano - some very talented chaps from Chicago, whose lead singer, Joe Guerra, is artist-in-residence at The Line Church in Lincoln Park. Pretty cool gig, if you ask me...

So about the concert...

In a word: impressive.

I only caught a few tunes from Milano, but what I heard was polished, refreshing, a combination of alternative, folk-rock, and a hint of traditional country.

Mosquito Fleet? I love these guys. They bring it every time they perform, and this concert, the record release show for their new EP, was no exception. Without the luxury of having stage monitors, the band did more than just keep it together. Standing at the front, right up against the band - within inches of Josh, the bassist, and feet of everyone else, I had a chance to look back in to the audience and take pictures of the scene in my mind:

Laughter. Heads moving. The floor bowed down with each kick drum hit from feet jumping ever-so-slightly to the beat. Bass emanating from the house speakers gave me blurred vision. And several faces with glazed-over eyes, lips pursed and turned up with joy as ears take it all in: lyrics. music. life.

Even with flawed lead vocals on a number of songs - no doubt caused, in part, by the lack of monitors - Mosquito Fleet still got their point across: they love performing the music they write for the people who love it and they don't ever want to stop.

Long Saturday

I finally feel mostly recovered from this past Saturday. From 9 AM until 5 PM, I was recording with The City and Restoration Project at the Dragon Room. Then, at 6:30 PM, I packed up my gear for a performance in Elmhurst, IL, at Cuvee Cellars. I arrived back home at 11:45 PM. Long day? I'll say so.

Saturday was a super-productive session, recording cello for two songs, for two different records coming out in the next four months. "Jump" is a song that I wrote, and The City decided to record a down-tempo version of the song - quite obviously different from the version found on my new solo album, "Fundamental." The other song, "O Love Divine" will be on ResProj's upcoming April release. Thank you so much, Jason Young, for your hard work on these parts. You were great!

Reeling, The Fizz Bubbles Over

I just spent the last 15 minutes listening to the recorded audio from tonight's record release concert. Wow. I'm tired. Exhausted. My mind is reeling. I am thankful.

Thank you, everyone, who made tonight a special night for me. Had the room been empty, I confess, I would have been more likely than ever to find another line of work. But as it stands, this night has spared me from that fate - this night. Tomorrow is a new day and yet there is hope.

To those of you who made it out to the concert: you give me great joy. It means that you have considered my music worth a listen. You have validated my work as a songwriter.

This was an interesting night. A bittersweet night. Tonight I also saw that I am physically incapable of exceeding my own expectations in so many ways - but particularly as it relates to being an excellent father, husband, and performing songwriter, all at once. I need grace.

Before this evening, I described the feeling I had as of a soda pop, closed, but shaken - a lot. I had a lot riding on tonight's show - for better or worse. And the last four months have mostly culminated in tonight's performance. I had a fear of what would come after...

It's after now, and I can say that I'm just plain tired. The fizz in the bottle is gone, and what's left is a man ready for bed. Goodnight, and thank you.

Top 25 Albums of All Time - #2

Remember, these aren't ranked in any sort of order. I haven't gotten that particular about this list yet. But maybe once I get a top 25 I can move in that direction...

The second album to make my list is Sister Hazel's 2000 release, "Fortress". It's just another one of those albums that I could never put down - and still now I don't get sick of listening to it. The production on the album is some of the best that I've ever heard, and the harmonies are just tight - in an era that was only just beginning to learn what auto-tune was. The main producer, by the way, was Paul Ebersold.

Top 25 Albums of All Time

Okay, so I don't claim to know everything about pop music... Actually, I'm pretty quick to say that I have never heard the music of a lot of artists out there. But I do know what I like, and I also think that I'm a pretty good judge as to what other people should like, too. Pompous? No, I don't think so. I think that I have been given the honored privilege and ability to critique music well - both on aesthetic and technical levels.

About a week ago, I watched a ten-minute clip of an interview with Josh Ritter, published by some magazine (the video was a part of a series titled something about eating with artists...). In the video, Ritter mentioned that music, like movies and other art, should be judged 15 or 20 years after it has been released (obviously, that's no help to the actual artist living it out in real-time). His point was that a good song is still a good song 20, 50, or 300 years after it is written.

The goal of music criticism is to assess a song or album in a cultural vacuum (outside of current pop trends or stylistic leanings), allowing the music to stand on its own, judging it against nothing but its ability to relate to the human experience across space and time.

I have been thinking a lot about my favorite art of all time - primarily books, movies, and music; and I think I'm going to try to compile a list of my top 25 albums of all time. The difficulty with this is that I have been told that there are some *unbelievable* records out there - ones that people can actually name by name - that I haven't even heard for myself yet, and so I'm going to be taking this slowly, making sure to leave some room in the top 25 for records that I'll have to listen to between now and before I finish my list. (If you have any suggestions, please comment on them on this post.)

So, without further delay, I would like to announce the first (not number one, but just "one of") of my top 25 picks of all time:

Collective Soul: Collective Soul

And that, of course, is what I am listening to right now.