Misc Reviews

Riding Shotgun With Jay Jacobson

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Don’t you feel like you need a change sometimes? I definitely do, but that’s just the state of my life these days. “I Need a Change” is the title of what is probably the best song on Jay Jacobson’s upcoming album, “The Ride.” A big buff guy with an east coast look(he’s originally from Philadelphia) who writes somewhat thoughtful and sensitive songs, Jacobson’s style I would describe as being adult contemporary pop. It’s clean and well produced(is any music still poorly produced these days compared to when bands used to push record on a boom box and put out a cassette tape of the resulting recording?)

The main things I like about Jay’s jams are the orchestral backings and intros he utilizes in several songs. I notice this type of thing more and more on recordings. You think the song is going to go in one direction, and it turns out to be something completely different. The orchestral intros kind of remind me of 80’s film background music, like from a romantic chase scene or something. Whereas the actual songs are more contemporary pop, like you’d hear while shopping in Neiman Marcus or Nordstroms on a saturday afternoon. The whole album reminds me of soundtrack music to be honest. This stuff belongs in a love story starring Ryan Gosling and some girl. That’s not a bad thing either. There’s a lots of royalty money involved. None of this is surprising either when you look at Jay’s extensive background in theater and acting. According to his bio, he “graduated Magna Cum Laude from Temple University with a degree in Radio-TV-Film and a focus on film directing.”

I can’t really think of anything “bad” to say about this album except that the song titles could be more creative. Titles like “Maybe One Day” don’t really stand out and aren’t very memorable. That’s more of a creative marketing thing though and doesn’t really have anything to do with the actual music. This guy is a veteran professional musician who knows what he’s doing. His musical maturity and sincere approach should attract a wide variety of people to enjoy “The Ride,” which hits the shelves on October 14th.(currently available for pre-order on iTunes)

http://www.jayjacobson.com/

Articles

In This Town

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For those who were around 18(!) years ago when I released 4-track cassettes like”Birthday Boy,” “Outer Space” and “Rebel Without A Life”(which Oliver Hibert did a drawing of the PV Mall food court for the cover) that I used to unironically send to places like Seventeen Magazine and Sassy for review…. or even 10 years ago when I released that creatively pathetic excuse for an album, “Springtime In Paris,”(which for some reason got me a large feature in the print edition of the Phoenix New Times) I would urge you to consider this and my other new songs as some form of artistic redemption(samples, loops and all.) If not well that’s cool, too. I still have another 6 more songs coming out. Where did all the time go? What can we do with the time we’ve got left, those of us who can foresee inevitably bleak life outcomes in our not too distant future while simultaneously maintaining any youthful energy at all? Think about it. Livejournal styled narcissistic rant temporarily over -B.A.

In This Town – Single – Brandon Adamson

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/brandonadamson9

Misc Reviews

Matthew Martino Turns The Year Around!

Some could argue that film producer Matthew C. Martino has had a roller coaster of a year but he is now set to turn things around and the year 2014 has already began to go in the 21year olds favour.

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Martino’s Lets Fly Academy has turned its business prospects around and returning into a positive trading position. Martino’s camp have now confirmed that the Lets Fly author will form his own foundation which will be called the Matthew Martino Benevolent Fund (MMBF) which will provide sponsorships for aspiring pilots and filmmakers at the beginning if their journey.

Matthew Martino quick-fire:

Residence : Brentwood, UK
Age : 21
Books : Lets Fly, Go For It
Favourite drink : J20 Apple Mango
Biggest passion : Flying
Relationship status : Single
Net worth : $200k
Tea or Coffee : Coffee

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Despite many controversial reports surrounding Martino this year including rumours that he almost got deported during his US visit the 21year old is ready to make changes to his life and ‘implement change’ a close aide has confirmed.

Links:
www.imdb.me/Matthew
http://www.biographies.net/bio/b/91d255e6

Misc Reviews

Stretch Marks

Ah, to be young again, but would I want to be young in today’s world? Probably not. We had it better. Still, it always makes me jealous to energetic kids partying and having a good time. Such thoughts come to mind with a band called “Stretch” who released a video and single “Bringing Down The House” for their upcoming album “Awkward At It’s Finest.” The video has a long intro featuring some friendly hipster dudes(there’s even beard talk) wearing apparel that I recognize as being straight from the racks at Urban Outfitters and eagerly preparing for a small party.

Then comes the surprise, the music! Perhaps showing how out of touch I’ve become with the youth of today, I was expecting some kind of SXSW style indie rock or maybe some screamo. Yet it turns out to be Eminem soundalike rapping with an electro-indie pop feel. I think this is just a result of the heavy mix of genres people are exposed to today, which influence them. The phrase “What kind of music do you listen to?” used to be a defining question where people gave one answer. Punks listened to punk rock. Wanna-be gangsters listened to rap. Rednecks listened to country. Metalheads and heshers listened to metal. Ravers listened to techno. Average people just listened to normal pop rock. Those days are over, and now even country can be hard to distinguish from hip hop. Whether that’s good or bad..who knows?

In “Bringing Down The House,” Stretch has created a great video. It’s easily something I could see playing on the screen in the mall food court. By that I mean that’s it’s as professional as anything out there, and I could see it appealing to a wide range of people. The band was smart enough to feature some attractive girls in the video. Nothing worse than artists who keep themselves as the center of attention throughout a video thinking you are so into looking at them the whole time. Another thing I like is that even though the vocals are delivered assertively, the band is clearly having some fun and not taking their image too seriously. The lyrics are millennial to the core(Aaron Carter references etc.) The music reminds me of the kind of stuff you hear in a modern strip club, and the song is long enough that you’d get your money’s worth buying a lap dance to it. Pretty decent jam. I’d like to see more videos from these guys and hope they maintain the enthusiasm.

http://stretchtheband.com/
http://facebook.com/helloimstretch
http://soundcloud.com/helloimstretch
http://youtube.com/helloimstretch

Misc Reviews

Hot Linx

I’m starting to see a lot better rap music coming from Europe than the US. I’m not really clear why that is, but if I were to speculate, it just seems that they pay a lot more attention to the technical side of production and take their time to develop precision in their delivery. A good example of what I’m talking about is Masterlinx Productions.

According to Facebook “Masterlinx was formed in 2005 by Wanos Ive, a music producer, mixing/mastering engineer song writer/artist/editor etc. from Looondoon! UK!” These days, anyone with a laptop can call themselves a producer. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when I heard some of Masterlinx’ jams. The song “Boss Ah the Party” is tight and professional all the way through. A lot of indie rap music is amateurish, has janky beats and wrongheaded production values. I’ve made many crappy 4-track recordings in my day so I know a legit musical enterprise when I hear it. “Boss Ah The Party” is a high quality jam in every sense. The backing track is electronic and orchestral in nature, and I would listen to it even without the vocals.

The rhymes are on the faster side of the spectrum and delivered with precision(and with a British accent.) Masterlinx also works with a popular Asian female artist, Taramati. A talented vocalist, you can hear her on the song “Body Language.” She has a soulful, somewhat assertive singing style which actually sounds fairly American. The way I judge this type of music when I listen to it is by trying to envision a scene at a club where the song would be playing. If I can realistically picture a packed dance floor filled with the type of people that are into this genre grinding down on each other, making out and and singing along to it as a catchy top 40 song, then it’s a success. With Masterlinx and his jams, I could see it.