Fight With Tools

 

They aren’t against are government..They don’t agree with the policies and the war. They want to make the world a better place. Starting with us! The band is Detroit-based Flobots. The band uses a classically trained violinist as well a jazz trumpeter, the bands uses knowledge,not curse words and demoralize women and others with their music. They make and take time carefully making music and letting people know how they are.

This band has been only know for in the underground music scene in Detroit, with the first release of there album, Platypus, in 2005. Fight with Tools was released in 2007, it was so big in the underground scene that it topped the charts in a magazine, Twist and Shout, no longer being published. The first song that was released into mainstream radio was the song “Handlebars”

If you ask me, this song was as if it is a war cry for all who will listen… Take the fact it started off as two friends who leave each other at a corner, both to embark on the great aspects of life. One becomes a great community leader, while the other becomes a money loving CEO of a company. Pretty soon the friends meet up again, but to untimely endings. One dies to a gunshot, while the other from a podium realizing  his error.

The bands have catchy tunes, that bring a message of coming together and putting an end to what they call the “overpowering” government… Songs range from “Anne Braden”, a song about a white woman fought to bring racial eqaulity in the South.

 would go get this album, if you want to make a difference in the United States this album gives you that boost.

Until Next Time……. Stay Fly

Courtney V. Anderson

As Cruel as School Children

We bring ourselves down
And build ourselves up in disappointment
How fragile we are
So fragile we are, we just don’t show it
We’ll shake up this town
And shoot down the stars for our enjoyment
So sexy we are
So sexy we are, we just don’t know it

-Gym Class Heroes

Now I have to admit that this band has officially become my guilty pleasure. They are the first band I play in the morning. I am always playing them in my car stereo. I have seen them in concert multiple times and every time I see them they get better and better with time. I am one of the first people to hear about them. Also they hail from my native New York! Gym Class Heroes is an old school Hip-Hop mixed in with a hypnotizing drums and guitars this band has made the easy transitions from underground to mainstream. The Album I am review today is “As Cruel as School Children”

First, a little history on Gym Class Heroes, coming from Genva,New York. The band started when Lead Singer Travis McCoy and drummer Matthew McGinley started a band while still in High School. Once the band was formed they started they began to play for local clubs and birthday parties so they can have money in their pockets. They were signed to Peter Wenz’s ( from Fall Out Boy) record label Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen. Once signed they began to preform in small venues, even nabbing a couple of spots in the Wraped Tour in 2004 through this past summer.

“As Cruel as School Children” isn’t there first album though. “…For The Kids” was the first album released under a unknown record label. Followed by “The Papercut Chronicles” in 2004. When they first were release to little fanfare. But after the success of “The Queen and I” and “Papercuts” the band has shot up in hip-hop Indie Craze.

I personally love this album (it seems that I say that about every album I review). I love Travis McCoy. McCoy lyrics seem to be like poetry to every lyrical beat that is produced. Also Each song fits its place. I mean the uplifting lyrics are like poetry to the heart and soul… I love this band and I would recommend letting anybody listen to this. You are just going to have to buy your own copy.

 

Until Next Time…Stay Fly,

Courtney A.

Sufjan Steven’s Illinois

Alright. My first music review is on a guy who’s music has been used in many movies and is well known in the Indie Music Scene: Sufjan Steven’s

Come On Feel the Illinois

Sufjan Steven (pronounced Soof-yawn) has been making music for several years now and is now considered a veteran in the indie and underground pop scene. But what is unique about Sufjan is that he isn’t your typical artist you would hear on the radio or even at a underground club. He is known for using all intrusments in his music. Anything from banjos, xylophones, trumpets, you name it and he has used it in his music. He has even has gone as far as to use a whole Orchestra in some of his songs.

Many of Sufjan’s songs have undertones and have meanings behind them. He writes a lot of his songs based on his life growing up and even on people. For example, the song “John Wayne Gacy Jr.’ Sufjan wrote about the notourious killer of the same name. In case you don’t know, the real John Wayne Gacy Jr. was jailed for the killing thirty-three young men and boys under the alias Pogo the clown.

Illinois are songs based from cities in the state in the same name. Chicago to Bloomington even Decatur Sufjan has written songs about them. Sufjan has been rumored to be writing either albums or song about all fifty states! North Carolina will be coming out soon, hopefully!

But I digress, Sufjan wrote this song because one, it happened while he was growing up and two, since he wanted his listeners to understand his meaning behind the song. If you were to listen to the song you would completely forget that the song was written about the a serial killer due to its very mellow and drone. But if you are looking for a historic and very light and poppy song then listen to “They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!”  its historical reference to Zombies and Ronald Reagan and other dead presidents and how they come back to life are really noticeable to the listeners.

Whether you are in a mood for a slow and mellow song or a light and airy song. Sufjan provides it in classy not tacky way. He is not your ordinary folk artist. You will be seeing me write  A LOT about him in the near future. If you have any sense you will go out and download(legally, of course) his album.

Until Next Time…Stay Fly,

Courtney