Owen's X10 Blog

This would be the second in my series of reports on the artists receiving heavy rotation in my apartment. I keep my laptop upstairs in my room connected to the 120 GB western digital hard drive I picked up on at a crazy sale price. It’s my goal to fill it completely with albums in mp3 format so that when I’m older I have a massive jukebox just waiting in my home. When I’m ready to listen to music downstairs I grab my Lola remote, fire up the television, and with a press of a button I launch Lola. My PC display is shown on my TV and I’m ready to listen. The Lola remote is pretty convenient. I usually just hit the artist button so I can pick which group I want to listen to, much like the features of iTunes.

This week Damien Jurado and Coheed and Cambria.

-Damien Jurado-
A fellow musician once told me that I should look into Jurado because of the similarities in our styles. He said that my voice and guitar style were similar to his. So I downloaded his most popular release and gave it a listen. “Rehearsals for Departure”, was the album I chose to give a listen to. The first few times I let the CD spin in my player I was not impressed. His tone was rather bland and the guitar was simple. Then I thought, hey! , what is this friend of mine implying of my music? Then I listened more.

After several times through the CD a few songs started to stand out and I realized what I was listening to, a modern-folk singer. I’m sure that sounds weird. A folk singer in today’s music? Does Owen even have enough knowledge of folk music to justify his claim? Well, probably not but I’ll stand by it anyway. Just reading a wikipedia entry on him and they put it as music influenced by folk. That works too. I guess he is also a kindergarten teacher – now that’s cool.

The aforementioned cd starts off with a song entitled Ohio. The song relates a story of a man falling for a woman who tells him often of her past in Ohio. I think it is an interesting choice to have started the cd with such a strong song. Few of the songs that follow can carry such weight, but there definitely are more standouts. Letters and Drawings, follows a relationship from the point at which it goes long distance, and ends with the relationships dissolve. Tornado is another favorite – another song about relationships.

Taking a listen to his other albums I’ve found that they all differ slightly in style and delivery. If you are the kind of person who follows a band through all progress and changes then maybe you can handle it.

The Good: A style you don’t hear to often these days.
The Bad: He could use a few more songs like Ohio.
Best Song: Duh, Ohio.

-Coheed and Cambria-

Ok, so wait – Coheed and Cambria? Really?

Yes, ironically I have not been able to get enough of this band lately. I have to admit the vocals can be so hard to get into that many wouldn’t give it a second listen. If you give it time the high pitched voice of Claudio Sanchez can grow on you. So what do I like? The guitar riffs are addictive, and the melodies unexpectedly good for a band who only releases concept albums. It seems they are following the Star Wars method of releasing sections of a story at different points of time. Each album correlates to a comic book series written by Claudio himself. How geeky is that?

If you read my review on the band Bayside then you would understand my appreciation in the guitar solo and hopes of it coming back better and fiercer than ever. Coheed and Cambria have been doing just that lately. There last album, which had a title too long for me blog, is full of solos often dueling through parts of a song.

The songs are fun, and I enjoy the goofiness of basing a rock album around a comic book saga. With that being said, these guys are talented musicians and should be respected for that.

The Good: Guitar Solos and Silly Plot Lines.
The Bad: A voice that takes patience to get accustomed to.
Best Song: The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut