4 February 2015 (Wednesday)

Today 9 students came to talk music. 

Of course the first thing we talked about was where everyone watched the Superbowl, where the Seahawks literally threw the championship away with 20 seconds left to play. The bad news is that the Seahawks lost, but the good news is that it sounds like all the students watched the game in a fun atmosphere.

Before listening to music I also mentioned that the Sasquatch 2015 Festival lineup was announced. It's an amazing festival, in an amazing place, but I like my comfort nowadays to much to go camping for 3 days with a bunch of partying young people, sorry.

The first song picked today was the closing credits song (video, lyrics) from the Bollywood (info) film Dhoom Again (info). The student who chose it said he went through a phase of watching lots of Bollywood movies; all of the movies have scenes of groups dancing like this, even if it makes no sense to the movie's story. He particularly likes this songs because the music and dancing is westernized.

Someone in the class asked which Indian movie he would recommend and he said "3 Idiots" (info).

The next song was "Illusion Is Mine" (video, lyrics, song info) by Ling Tosite Sigure (info). The student who chose this song said that listening to it in headphones is like transcending reality. As I write this and listen to the song I am listening in headphones -- she is right!

If you like this band, I recommend checking out the band Warpaint (info). I like their albums but don't have a favorite song so I just went with the one that has the most views on YouTube: "Elephants" (video, lyrics, song info). I saw Warpaint at Bumbershoot a couple of years ago. I didn't expect anything special but they were my favorite show of the whole weekend!

If you like this kind of atmospheric woman-sung music, also check out Poliça (info) "Warrior Lord" (video, lyrics, song info). It's more electronica then dream pop, but also a great headphones song.

And if you want *even more* of this kind of music, check out this band from the 90's: Portishead (info), "Sour Times" (video, lyrics, song info). Or Glory Box (video, lyrics, song info). I love these two songs!

Finding those videos made me think of my favorite Madonna (info) song, "Swim" (video, lyrics). The other songs from that album, "Ray Of Light" (info), which has more songs in this style: "Frozen" (video, lyrics, song info), "Substitute For Love" (video, lyrics, song info).

The next song chosen was "I Got You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Leona Lewis (info). The student who chose this song likes it because the lyrics and rhythm are easy to understand.

The student told us that Ms. Lewis won the UK X-Factor singing "Over The Rainbow" (video, lyrics, song info).

The next song chosen was related to the Superbowl: the student said she really likes the song used in the Budweiser commercial from 2014 (video): "Let Her Go" (video, lyrics, song info) by Passenger (info).  

Actually, she learned about the 2014 Budweiser song by seeing the Budweiser Superbowl commercial for 2015 (video) and working her way back. I agree, the 2014 song was better. In fact, many people commented that the Superbowl commercials this year were all kind of downbeat.

With that our time for the day was over because we only had the room for 1 hour this week. :-( 

In our musical chairs style of meeting rooms this quarter, next week we will be in HUB 214. 

Since next Saturday is Valentine's Day the obvious theme for this week is "love songs". These could be songs you think are the best love songs in general or songs you have (or will this year?) played for someone on Valentine's Day.