Faces, Pages and Places

First of all, apologies if this seems like it’s turning into a music blog, but there are just so many cool, new, undiscovered talents that you can stumble upon in YouTube. Introducing the band - Boyce Avenue. I have seen their name pop up a couple of times before as I was surfing, but was pretty much turned off by their gay-boy-band sounding group name. But, when I saw their number of views ranging in the millions, I was immediately intrigued. And man, was I glad that I braved my paranoia just enough to click on one of their videos. It. Was. Absolutely. Brilliant. Their lead singer, Alejandro Manzano, sings, strums and plays the piano with so much ease that it puts many an Idol hopeful to shame. The band does some amazing covers, I guess to get their name out there, and even though they do have original material, I’m sharing with you these:

With You - Chris Brown

Timbaland and One Republic - Apologize

Justin Timberlake - Lovestoned

Enjoy! =)

… this post is going to be a short one. Heh.

Been busy with a whole bunch of stuff from job applications to final examinations (which are just about to be over any day now). Anyway, stumbled across this YouTube channel by this artist who you may or may not know/remember. Summer’s coming - I can feel the heat - so these are for you out there looking forward to our last sun-filled summer fun together as IC Undergraduates! Woohoo!

Camile Velasco - Road Trippin’ (Red Hot Chili Peppers cover): ROAD TRIP!!! WOOO!!!

Camile Velasco - Natural Mystic (Bob Marley cover): OK, this one’s kind of random, but damn her voice is so sexy =P

I’m still on a high and drunk with infatuation from Ms. Keys’ concert, so I thought I’d share a bunch of her more elusive and lesser known tracks.

Now Playing:

Alicia Keys & Jermaine Paul - If This World Were Mine
A duet with her own backup vocalist as a tribute to the late Luther Vandross (this one’s for you, Amal).

Alicia Keys - Waiting For Your Love
The bonus track off her latest album, As I Am, as found on the UK release.

Alicia Keys - Tender Love (Live)
Taken from her Stripped: Raw and Real live session; was originally recorded by Force M.D.

Enjoy!

Alicia Keys was friggin’ PHE-NO-ME-NAL last night at the 02 Arena. Her set list consisted of 20 plus songs spanning all 4 albums (counting her Unplugged release) and included collaborations (My Boo with Usher), covers (Force MD’s Tender Love) and bonus tracks (Waiting For Your Love from As I Am). That is to say, Lance, May, Amal, Isya, Chuan, Nits and myself had an AMAZING 2 hours. We were on our feet the whole time, even during the slow jams, and grooved with the rest of the crowd to one brilliant performance after another.

Being the huge fan (and the equally big dumb ass) that I am, I told everyone to meet there as soon as the doors opened at 6:30pm. So, as you can tell from the pictures above, we were one of the first few to be at our seats with eager anticipation.

Alicia Keys’ own backup singer, Jermaine Paul, served as one of the opening acts for the show. He’s a really, really good vocalist, but his repertoire could do with more songs that better challenged creative boundaries. Amal went gaga nonetheless. Taking the stage after him was Soul II Soul, whose members included a string quartet, two DJs, two female leads (1 seemingly blind), three backup singers and one serious nut-job of a rapper. Let’s just say, No comment.

Then, at slightly past 9:00pm, entered Alicia Keys. She. Was. Absolutely. Breathtaking. And she brought the house down so hard on us, it wasn’t even funny. For me, the whole experience felt somewhat surreal, like I was watching its entirety through a pair of lenses from a far away place. Not that we had bad seats or anything like that (we actually got really incredible ones at a bargain), but it was just so unbelievable and so indescribable. No one tops Alicia Keys on my must-see-in-person-before-I-die list except for maybe Stevie Wonder. Then again, maybe not even he. Oh, Alicia! *I-can-now-die-a-happy-man sigh*…

Alicia Keys: Won 2 more Grammys this year including Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song. This is why she’s one of my favourites.

The now 11-time Grammy Award winner opened the show singing a special duet with Frank Sinatra on his song “Learnin’ the Blues”. It’s awesome to hear her sing big band/swing; proves that she has the chops to fit right in with the best from that music era. Believe the hype people, ’cause it’s true!

After a style and wardrobe change, she took the stage once more to sing her hit single “No One”. Incredible performance, and what a surprise to see John Mayer joining her on the guitar towards the end!

Kanye West: Won 4 more Grammys last night including Best Rap Solo Performance, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group (with Common for the song “Southside”), Best Rap Song and Best Rap Album. I didn’t think his latest album was as great as his previous 2 efforts, but the singles that were released from it were off the hizzle fo’ shizzle. Dizzle. I be rollin’ wit ma bizzles. That shit’s whizzle. Am I making sizzle?

Anyway, Kanye gave the baddest, meanest performance of the night, if not ever. He performed “Stronger” with Daft Punk, and the whole stage concept was insane! He is the ultimate manifestation of every sense of the word “cool”. I mean, check out the glasses!!!

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Disappointments: Daughtry was nominated for 5 awards but went home empty-handed. I thought they’d at least win Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, but that one went to The White Stripes. Oh, well.

Other worthy mentions: Amy Winehouse was the biggest winner of the night with 5 Grammys. They say she sobered up for the ceremony, but I really couldn’t tell. Her singing was a mess compared to how good she usually sounds. Maybe they shouldn’t have taken the Grey Goose away from her. At least she still dressed like a crack-whore and danced like she’s suffering from burning sensations while peeing. I also thought it was cool that she dedicated her Song of the Year award to London. Go, London!

Herbie Hancock pulled the greatest upset and surprise of the night, winning Album of the Year for River: The Joni Letters, a collection of his interpretation of some of Joni Mitchell’s most famous songs. Personally, I enjoyed his previous album Possibilities that featured collaborations with various up-and-coming artists during that time, but, from its description, this one sounds too solely-made-for-artistic-aural-appreciation for me. I’ll give it a listen, out of habit of downloading torrenting every Album of the Year winner, but I’m betting I won’t enjoy it.

Happy February, everybody! As promised, I’ve gotten myself a copy of his new album, listened to it, and now, I’m giving you my review of it.

Album: Special Company
Artist: Josh Kelley

♪♪♪♪ (out of 5)

Special Company is Josh Kelley’s fourth album in the span of his five-year career and is an eclectic mix of alternative, indie rock and jazz-tinged pop. Listening to it for the first time in one sitting is like opening up a box of chocolate selections that have no labels on them - once you’ve tasted your first piece, you can’t wait for the wonderful surprises that lie beneath the colourful wrappers of the next and the rest. Disparate and stand-alone as the songs may be, one common thing that courses through the veins of the CD as a whole is the impression that they leave you with. Each is a gem, with just the right amount of instrumentation delivered by an amazing band slipping and sliding effortlessly in and out of genres cool and clever.

Remembering the last time when I commented on his vocal styling and compared it to Michael McDonald, Adam Levine and Chris Martin, I realise I might have been a tad misleading. After all, I only gave you one song as a sneak preview to completely support my judgement. Now, normally I would post a couple of songs in which he sounds like the aforementioned artists just to prove my point, but instead, I think I’d compromise on that and compensate it with 4 of my favourite tracks off the album.

How about that?

First up, I thought it a must to share with you his latest single Unfair to boost blog traffic because I’m awesome that way. The next one I have is Hey Katie, a song he wrote for his new wife, who incidentally, was recently voted AskMen.com’s Most Desirable Woman. Say it with me, “Damn you Josh, you lucky bastard!” Last but not least, I have 2 other songs that showcase the different sides of his incredibly versatile musicianship. Enjoy!

Unfair

Hey Katie

My Kind

Fallin In Love With You

Click on the image above to view and purchase Special Company on Amazon.com

This is why I can’t wait to start the month ahead.

Was surfing YouTube and I came across this very rare live medley of Goodbye and Butterflyz which was left out of the Unplugged album/DVD. They’re two of my favourite songs off her debut, and possibly off her entire repertoire, so I’m definitely feeling the excitement of hopefully witnessing something like this… soon. Heh.

Goes to show how some things you just can’t learn by incessantly playing some video game.

Jake Shimabukuro: OK, so what this guy is playing is actually an ukulele, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less amazing. Wait for the bridge and watch him go berserk on the poor instrument - I’m surprised all the strings survived this one.

Andy McKee: Now this bald dude here shows you how a guitar can be used beyond convention. Very cool mix of hammering and plucking, plus, extra kudos for composing an awesome original piece.

Found a couple of songs that I wanted to share with you guys. Bear with the loading times especially if you’ve got a slow connection speed (pause it and wait for it to finish buffering if you wish to play the entire song without any disruptions), I promise you, it’ll be worth it. =)

I won’t be giving my short two cents on each song as I usually do, ’cause sometimes it’s good to let music speak for itself and for you, listeners, to develop your own opinions (and it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it’s almost 1 in the morning and that I have a 9 o’clock lecture tomorrow =P).

Enjoy!

Ernie Halter - Whisper

Mark Ronson featuring Amy Winehouse - Valerie

Eric Lindell - Lady Day and John Coltrane

Christina Aguilera - Save Me From Myself

Common - I Want You

Josh Kelley has been around in the music scene quite a couple of years now, but I haven’t heard of him till recently when I saw his new album up on the iTunes chart. From the 30 second song snippets I’ve heard, Special Company showcases an extremely versatile talent who crosses genres seamlessly between each track. Vocally, Josh sounds like Michael McDonald, Adam Levine and Chris Martin all at once, but considering the jangling discord of comparisons made, I must say he is unique in his own way. To top it off, he’s got some really slick moves on the guitar. Here’s a sneak peek of what he has to offer in the upcoming album.

Song’s called Masterpiece and apparently, it’s about sex. Hell, if I were married to her like he is, I’d sing about sex, too! *Drools* Anyway, the record drops February 5th, so go out and get it! Will post a proper review then.