Archive for the ‘Songs On Repeat’ Category

You Hate Me But You Will Respect

January 28th, 2012

I once again have been dealing with file transfer issues as other countries and websites have been downloading the tracks I have been putting on here. I may have to switch to a soundcloud type solution, but for now, gonna try for one last time, posting on the homepage.

Daydreamin’
Jill Scott Collaborations
Jill Scott & Lupe Fiasco

This song begins with the vinyl like singing from Jill Scott. And then the beat drops. It’s a song that makes me feel like summer time. Its an odd song lyrically, about looking through the eyes of a 40 story tall robot. But I guess when you fall asleep on a beautiful day, and you dream, you dream of big things.

Now there’s hoes selling hoes like right around the toes
And the crackheads beg at about the lower leg
There’s crooked police that’s stationed at the knees
And they do drive-bys like up and down the thighs
And there’s a car chase going on at the waist
Keep a vest on my chest
I’m sitting in my room as I’m looking out the face

Bonfire
Camp
Childish Gambino

I am on a Gambino kick. I can’t stop listening to him. I recommend the Childish Gambino station on Pandora as well. His recent album Camp, deserves to win any award that might be available. It came out in late November and I think it will be one of the best albums of the year. The track that stands out the most, at least initially, is the song Bonfire.

As a rap/hip-hop song there is language that some may not be comfortable with. Despite this, its difficult to not be impressed with the lyrics that he strings together.

By the way, if you have never heard of Childish Gambino, that is the stage name of actor, comedian, writer, and of course rapper, Donald Glover. He is most well known for his role on the TV show Community as Troy.

Yeah, they say they want the realness, rap about my real life
Told me I should just quit: “first of all, you talk white!
Second off, you talk like you haven’t given up yet”
Rap’s stepfather, yeah, you hate me but you will respect

Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
AHK-Toong BAY-bi
The Killers (U2 Cover)

If you know me, you know that I am obviously a big U2 fan and have been to many of their shows. One of my favorite albums of theirs, Achtung Baby, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary

As a tribute to the 20 years, an album was put out with all of the songs covered by other artists. One of my other favorite artists, The Killers, performed the song “Ultra Violet.” It is a great mixture of U2 and The Killers.

When I was all messed up
And I had opera in my head
Your love was a light bulb
Hanging over my bed

Tags: bonfire, camp, childish gambino, jill scott, lupe fiasco, the killers, u2
Posted in Ramblings, Song, Songs On Repeat | 3 Remarks »

Working Hard Just To Shake The Yawns

March 2nd, 2011

I added new songs to my home page under “Songs On Repeat.” I’ve been really digging these songs lately, and continuously hitting back on my ipod or car or itunes (too bad you can’t hit repeat on Pandora). I hope you enjoy them too. And in case you weren’t aware, there is a little “play” button next to the song on the home page where you can listen to the song.

It has been awhile since I was able to post one of these, or any post for that matter. My site went through a reprogramming by the great people at Gorirra Consulting. Mix that in with the awesome progress we have had at Matters of Grey (185K visitors per month!) it has been a busy time of life.

As a warning, all three of these songs have some swearing in them.

Green Lights e-dubble Written Thursday
Written Thursday
e-dubble

You may recall that I featured this artist last time I made a Songs On Repeat posting. I also had the privilege of interviewing him for a Matters of Grey post. He went 52 straight weeks creating a new song. I don’t think there is anything I can do for 52 straight weeks, let alone something that takes so much creativity and talent.

Most of his tracks speak of his challenge, working hard, chasing his dream. I can listen to his tracks one after the other, and I come away inspired and motivated. When I am struggling with time for life, jobs, websites, I think of him and his determination. He recently did a mix tape of many of his “freestyle fridays.” You can download it for free. The dude is amazingly talented, and he will continue to kill it in 2011.

His track that I lately can’t get enough of is called Green Lights. This song both pumps me up, and tears me up. I get sentimental for him when he is told by his father of the pride he feels in him for chasing his dream. It also talks about people and situations pulling him down, but he recants that notion by saying that “all he sees is green lights” and that he is going to keep pushing for his dream.

If you know what has been going on in my life lately, you might be able to know why this resonates with me. People and situations may be trying to bring me down, but I’m going to keep pushing through.

cuz’ they keep pullin’ us down
but I ain’t stoppin’
cuz’ all I see are green lights
and even when I’m wrong I mean right
Please believe I-
know I’m gonna need to revise
but this life don’t give retries
so I’m on it
and up at the break of dawn
workin’ hard just to shake the yawns

Rootless Tree
Live At Fingerprints: Warts and All
Damien Rice

Damien Rice is an amazing poet, song writer, singer, musician. He doesn’t have many albums out there, because the process he goes through in writing a song takes such an emotional toll on him. His songs are loaded with emotion.

I love his song Rootless Tree. The original version is an angry song. This live version is stripped down to a pure level of raw emotion.

What i want from this is to learn to let go
No not of you of all that’s been told…
…Let me out let me out let me out
Hell when you’re around

99 Problems Jay-Z and The Dap-Kings – “99 Problems” (Prince Ballard Royal Edit)
Free Download
Jay-Z featuring The Dap Kings

I downloaded this track somewhere. Maybe here. It features the brilliance of Jay-Z with a smooth jazzy accompaniment.

Jay-Z raps about being kept down by many different factors of racism and discrimination. But he sees the silver lining in the situation saying that he may have a lot of problems, but he has a good woman and a good support system and he won’t be kept down.

I’m like fuck critics you can kiss my whole asshole
If you don’t like my lyrics you can press fast forward

Tags: 99 problems, damien rice, dap kings, e-dubble, gorirra, green lights, jay-z, Live At Fingerprints: Warts and All, matters of grey, pandora, rootless tree, written thursday
Posted in Song, Songs On Repeat | 1 Remark »

Who They Be? Well They Be Us!

May 9th, 2010

If you recall, the last time I did this, my site was basically hijacked by China. Ok, that’s a little dramatic, but I started getting so many downloads of the songs, that my hosting company had to warn me. I am going to try a new naming convention this time, we’ll see how it goes.

Rome
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Remix Collection)
Neighbours with Devendra Banhart

The band Phoenix is extremely hot and trendy right now. Deservedly. Their latest album is the best album, at the very least, from the last 2 years. Because of this, many other artists wanted to remix their songs. So Phoenix provided the layers, and these other bands went at it.

One of my favorites from this is the track called Rome. It is very chilling moody song. One night I kept it on repeat and listened to it over and over for over 4 hours.

The cover starts at the bridge of the original, and doesn’t really leave. The bridge has such emotion behind it, it excels on it’s own. Below is a video of the actual band playing the song, to compare.

Always and forevermore
I call to say I’m on the way
2000 years remain in a trash can
Let burn the cigarette somewhere
Ashes till it falls , falls, falls

VCR
XX
The XX

I have been discovering and as Joey would say, inventing a lot of new bands and new music recently. I have found them from television shows, the inter-webs, or in this song’s case, friends (Thanks Annette!).

Even though the guru disagrees, I think this song falls under the category of “lazy rock.” It is very melodic and easy to listen and groove to.

It also has a very cool sentiment. It is a song that talks about having a lover who is your best friend, that you can talk to about anything at all. In this song’s case, they both feel that they will be together forever, cause they “just know.”

I wanna find myself by the sea
In anothers company
By the sea
I wanna go out to the pier
I’m gonna dive and have no fear
Cos you, you just know
You just do

Hampden Parks
Freestyle Friday’s
e-dubble

This song and artist was one of those completely random discoveries for me. I even passed it along to a friend who wrote about it on their blog, and the artist went and commented on it!

It is a mash-up of the theme song from the TV show “Parks and Recreation” by an artist named e-dubble. This artist, does freestyle raps and provides the audio for free on his website. So far I like his style. This song is very catchy and one day at work recently, found myself listening to it on repeat for about 60 straight times.

speak when necessary
no i’ve never been a loud mouth…
im a business man
and a buisness, man
obstacles made me who I am…
yes you know the name
young english, black paisley…
who they be, who they be, who they be, who they be,
well they be us

Tags: devandra banhart, e-dubble, freestyle fridays, hampden parks, joey, neighbours, parks and recreation, phoenix, remix, rome, the xx, vcr, wolfgang amadeus phoenix, xx
Posted in Song, Songs On Repeat, Video | 2 Remarks »

Empire State Of Hackers

February 3rd, 2010

I came into work on Monday morning, and I had an email waiting for me from my web hosting company. It read:

Please be advised that your account, andymorales.com, is approaching one or more resource allotments. Details are provided below…In the last 30 days, your account used 73GB of 75GB. If, on 02/26/2010, your rolling 30-day bandwidth total exceeds your bandwidth allotment, you will be automatically billed $12.00 for every 1GB over your allotment.

I was caught off guard. My website, though it is very robust, does not take up a lot of space on my server. I also don’t have many items on my site that could be downloaded or that could cause that much traffic. So I examined my stats, and it appeared that I was getting slammed.

I first looked up the stats from the previous day, January 31, 2010.

Mixture of stats from January 31, 2010

85 Thousand Times!

The first thing I noticed was the amount of KB’s transferred. That is a ton! Other stats that I found interesting were that the majority of people were using the outdated and troubled IE6 browser. I clicked on the link in the stats for the top two referring sites, to only get blocked at work by Websense, for “mp3 file sharing.” And then I saw what was being transferred–Jay-Z. Now its a great song so I certainly don’t blame them, but cmon, almost 5 thousand downloads in the one day! Why is China, chinese search engines and file sharing sites locking on to me and a song that I had on my site.

I then reviewed my stats for the past month, and not just the one day. The Jay-Z song was downloaded 85 thousand times.

Every fews months I put on my home page 3 songs that I have been listening to often. It is a way to share both my musical tastes with people, but also an easy way to listen to the song when away from my ipod. A user can go to my home page and click the play button and find out what I am currently digging.

If you go there currently, you will see that I removed the mp3 files, and that if you currently click on play, nothing will play. I had to do this because of this traffic issue, and these sites. Hopefully I can figure out an alternative way to post these items since this has been one of my favorite features of my site.

Im not sure what was sadder though. The fact that I got slammed by China, or the amount of times the different songs were grabbed. Jay-Z was grabbed almost 5 thousand times. Phoenix only about 600. And sadly, Belle and Sebastian only about 60 times. Poor Belle and Sebastian. Its a genius song however.

Tags: belle and sebastian, chins, dress up in you, empire state of mind, if i ever feel better, jay-z, phoenix
Posted in Ramblings, Song, Songs On Repeat | 6 Remarks »

Welcome To The Melting Pot

December 29th, 2009

If I Ever Feel Better
United
Phoenix

Lryically this song is a sad yet redemptive song about someone that has gone through a terrible heartache. He knows that this pain that he feels, however devastating, will some day fade away. He is confident in that. However, you can also feel the deep sadness that doesn’t want to believe that. There is courage in this song. There is perseverance and faith.

Even though this song has such heavy lyrics, the beat of the music is really catchy and always makes me happy when I hear it. To me, its a happy song. I cannot help myself but to dance around and sing to this song. This song makes me happy.

Dark is the night, cold is the ground
In the circular solitude of my heart
As one who strives a hill to climb
I am sure I’ll come through I don’t know how
They say an end can be a start
Feels like I’ve been buried yet I’m still alive

Dress Up in You
The Life Pursuit
Belle & Sebastian

This is a beautiful, serene sounding song that takes a wallop with its lyrics. Every verse is a power punch to the gut. Its going along all pretty sounding and then you hear the F bomb, and have to rewind to make sure you heard it correctly. The more you rewind it, the more it stands out as brilliant and genius.

I love it when the horn section comes in as well. I wrote a pensée from this song not too long ago.

Blow up in the face of my rivals
I swear and I rant, I make quite an arrival
The men are surprised by the language
They act so discreet, they are hypocrites so fuck them too!

Empire State Of Mind
The Blueprint 3
Jay-Z (with Alicia Keys)

I recently posted two videos of this song. Its a great song about the city of New York. However, I truly love the lyrics that Alicia Keys sings. Lyrics that give you hope and that pump you up to believe that anything is possible. Jay-Z meanwhile takes you through his memory of the city and all that he has experienced there. Looking back on his life, he is grateful for all he has seen and done.

Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves in life about how much we are blessed. At the same time, we have to always believe that we can accomplish anything, no matter how difficult a belief that might be.

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
Theres nothing you can’t do
Now you’re in new york
These streets will make you feel brand new
The lights will inspire you

Tags: alicia keys, belle and sebastian, dress up in you, empire state of mind, if i ever feel better, jay-z, new york, pandora, phoenix, the blueprint 3, the life pursuit, united
Posted in Song, Songs On Repeat | 11 Remarks »

Standing By The Light Of The World

April 27th, 2009

3×5
Room For Squares
John Mayer
Its not a secret that I am not a huge fan of John Mayer. However, I think they guy is unbelievably talented. Not only is he an outstanding guitar player, but he has a great sense of humor. If you haven’t seen them already, you should check out the videos I previously posted. He jokingly says in one of those videos, “If I can’t get the girl, why don’t I just tell her I’m John Mayer?” He is also often witty and clever.

I have been a proponent of living with your eyes open. What I mean by that, is that often whether it be vacationing, or in real every day life, we live behind a camera. We forget to realize that we are there, in the middle. Whether it be birthday parties, concerts, or vacations, I am consciously trying to take “mental” pictures. To take in and capture the moment, so that years from now, I might remember the scent in the air, the color in the sky, the hug of a friend–the many different moments of a moment that a photograph cannot capture. Not that I am against pictures, as I think pictures are great tools to spark the memory. But it is our mental image, our mental picture of the memory that will bring joy for many years.

John Mayer talks about that in this song. And as I have been preparing to travel to Italy, it is a reminder to live through your minds lens, rather than your camera lens.

Today skies are painted colors of a cowboy cliche
And its strange how clouds that look like mountains in the sky are next to mountains anyway
Didn’t have a camera by my side this time
Hoping I would see the world through both my eyes
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I’m in the mood to lose my way
but let me say
You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
it brought me back to life

A Dustland Fairytale
Day & Age
The Killers
This is the second time in a row, a song from this Killers album has made it into my Songs On Repeat section. This is surprising to me. Although I love the Killers, this album as too many weaker songs. Though, as told from the last 2 S.O.R, it has some catchy tunes as well. If you haven’t seen it on these pages already, you definitely have to check out my snide of their cool light show performance of “Human” at the MTV European Video Awards. Every time I go to Vegas now, I always think of the time I saw the Killers live there at the Hard Rock, as well as the time the lead singer came on stage and sang with U2 “In a Little While.” Bono called the Killers “the swankiest band in Las Vegas.”

Dustland Fairytale is a great story told through song. There is speculation that the song was written by the Killers lead singer, Brandon Flowers, about his Mom and Dad and how they met at age 15 in a trailer park. Either way, its a catchy tune that brings back childhood memories of fairytales. I recently wrote a pensée snide with the following lyric:

And the decades disappear like sinking ships
But we persevere god gives us hope
But we still fear we don’t know
The mind is poison

Crush
Lipstick and Dynamite Wonder
The Violet Burning
This one is probably the heaviest musically that I have put up here yet. For a long time (and I’m not necessarily kicking it off yet), this album has been in my “fantasy five” (5 cds that you would want to have if you were stranded forever on a desert island). Part of that might because I was once stranded with this cd only. It was May of 1997 and when I reached the hotel in Greece, my case of cd’s was missing (I do not know to this day if I left them on the train, if someone stole them, or the running joke on the trip – if Ben Morookian had merely taken them. All that was left was this one cd that I had had in my cd player at the time. This cd kept me company through long bus and train rides, and it carried on for the other cds, the faithful departed. Anyway, this has always been one of my all time favorite bands. And this cd has been released twice, once as a self-titled and once as the above title. However, both cds are identical.

We are finding where we want to go
We are trying to regain control
Let the streams of light pour down on me
Let the love that heals me set me free
Come on, crush me

Tags: 3x5, a dustland fairytale, ben morookian, bono, crush, day & age, europe, fantasy five, greece, human, italy, john mayer, las vegas, lipstick and dynamite wonder, room for squares, the killers, the violet burning, u2
Posted in Greece, Italy, Song, Songs On Repeat, Travel | No Remarks »

It’s Not If I Believe In Love, If Love Believes In Me

March 4th, 2009

Moment Of Surrender
No Line On The Horizon
U2
This song is on their new album which I have been listening to practically non-stop for a few weeks. It is an album that takes a few listens before it grabs you. Track 3 on the album is this song and I keep finding myself going back to it. It has a pulsating bass and drum that is reminiscent of another favorite U2 track, So Cruel (Achtung Baby). There is a passion behind the words that comes out when Bono is singing. Moment of Surrender is a track that grooves and possesses soul.

Begging to get back
To my heart
To the rhythm of my soul
To the rhythm of my consciousness
To the rhythm of yes
To be released from control

Human
Day & Age
The Killers
Simply put, this song rocks. I love the buildup of the hi-hat from the 3rd second to the 8th second of the song. I love the driving beats, and they lyrics are ones that I can not just hear and enjoy, but feel and relate to as well. I think there have been days when all I have listened to is this song. If you haven’t seen it on these pages already, you definitely have to check out my snide of their cool light show performance at the MTV European Video Awards.

Pay my respects to grace and virtue
Send my condolences to good
Give my regards to soul and romance,
They always did the best they could
And so long to devotion
You taught me everything I know
Wave goodbye, Wish me well..
You’ve gotta let me go

Lonelily
B-Sides
Damien Rice
This song sounds like it should be in a movie. I could totally hear it as a track that plays while a montage of a relationship plays itself out during a movie about boy meets girl – boy loses girl – boy looks for girl – boy finds girl. Or it could be found in a tv show on the WB (or wait, its the CW now?). Its a really pretty song that is a roller coaster of emotions. It definitely packs a punch.

I gave me away
I could have knocked off the evening
But I was lonelily looking for someone to hold
In a way I lost all I believed in
And I never found myself so low

Since I didn’t put in a snide for the first set of songs that I had on repeat, I will list them here in case you ever want to check them out.

Round Here (Live At Elysee Montmartre – Paris, France – December 9th, 1994)
August And Everything After – Deluxe Edition
Counting Crows

joshuaradin_unclearsky
You Got Growing Up To Do (Demo Version)
Unclear Sky
Joshua Radin

coldplay_vivalavida
Death And All His Friends
Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends
Coldplay

Tags: august and everything after, b-sides, coldplay, counting crows, damien rice, day & age, death and all his friends, human, joshua radin, lonelily, moment of surrender, no line on the horizon, round here, the killers, u2, unclear sky, viva la vida, you got growing up to do
Posted in Song, Songs On Repeat | 2 Remarks »

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