Year 5, Day 117

Hi. Today's song is At War by Letters From The Fire.

This one actually found me thanks to Facebook. I've been trying to find a good place to put this one because of the new music I've found, new artists I didn't know before these guys are in the top ten. I honestly played this song on a loop for three hours when I first heard it. They formed in 2012 officially, although an earlier iteration named Park Lane was around since 2007. They released an EP in 2014, and an album in 2016 followed pretty quickly by a tour with another artist I've featured named Lacey Sturm. This song is from their first album; and they are currently working on a second one, but they have a different singer now. I know the band is the culmination of the guitarists and bassist's vision more than anyone else because their the only originals left, but it is notoriously hard to switch out singers and still be considered the same group. It has a lot to do with the fact that that voice is what everyone associates the music with (example being that I can't think Linkin Park without thinking of Chester) so I'm very curious to see what will happen with their new singer. Regardless this song saves a little moment in time where perfection happened and I hope it effects you as much as it did me.

Peace.

Year 5, Day 116

Afternoon. Today's song is Forgotten City by Lindsey Stirling.

You guys had to be expecting this after showing off violinists yesterday. You can't talk about violin anymore without it becoming synonymous of Lindsey Stirling, and if that isn't a symbol of how well her career has been going, I don't know what is. I know I've talked about her career before so I'm just going to give my opinion on a bunch of useless information this time because... well why not. This song was made for a video game which honestly is a great move as far as her career goes because she's been doing covers of video game music for years and killing it, so her making her own tracks and then essentially selling them to game companies is genius. I'm surprised it took this long actually. Since we're talking about Lindsey I have to mention her Dancing With The Stars stuff. I can't remember if I talked about it before (and I'm way too lazy to go back and read through 1500 posts) so I wanted to mention her insanely awesome performance with her violin, and how her dancing has improved by a huge margin from when she was part of Dance On through YouTube. You can see what I mean if you look at this versus this. Obviously it's different types of dancing and I am in love with both her partners, but you can tell she feels more comfortable. Anyway I love her and I'll never get tired of her so expect more eventually.

Peace.

Year 5, Day 115

Hi guys. Today's song is A Flat by Black Violin.

I have been waiting so long to find the right place to put this song up, so the placement does it justice, and when I was getting the post for Kevin ready yesterday, it hit me like a brick. Perfect segue into these guys considering both the songs are based around string instruments. So this is a duo from Florida, made up of Kevin Sylvester and Wilner Baptiste, although they go by Kev Marcus and Wil B. They were high school friends who reconnected after college and formed this group. Kev plays the violin, getting into it when his mom enrolled him after he got into some trouble. Wil plays the viola, which was actually an accident. He wanted to play sax but got put into the wrong classes. Their name is inspired by the last work of jazz violinist Hezekiah Leroy Gordon Smith, otherwise known as Stuff Smith. They originally wanted to function in the same way as Timbaland, but after doing some shows realized that they enraptured the audience on their own and didn't need to collaborate with singers. I found them thanks to Pitch and I'm so glad for that because every song I've heard by them is epic. I hope you think so too.

Peace.

Year 5, Day 114

Hiya. So today's song is Renegade by Kevin Olusola.

Last day for Pentatonix stuff! I left Kevin until the last day because I anticipated it being the longest one of them all. Mostly because it's so surprising to me, and he's such an underappreciated part of the group. You know, on the group videos I always see people talking about Kirstin, Mitch, Scott and Avi (I'm guilty of that last one) but Kevin doesn't get as much love as he deserves. Not only is he an incredible master of sound with the beatboxing he's known for, but he's a fantastic musician all around. His singing voice is beautiful, with a huge range that I'm jealous of, and he's amazing when he plays the cello (plus he also plays the piano, and the alto saxophone). He probably could have had a career as a classical musician if he wanted it. He was actually going to Yale to be a doctor when he decided to focus on music instead. He did a year abroad in China, and when he came back enrolled at Berklee School of Music. He filmed his Julie-O cover during his senior year there, and it quickly went viral online. The rest is history. And I know I already gave one song above, but I also want to show you another one where you can see the breakdown. He truly is an incredible musician and I hope you guys all go subscribe to him.

Peace.

Year 5, Day 113

Hi. Today's song is the Disney Love Medley by Voctave featuring Kirstin and Jeremy Michael Lewis.

Again, this is another technically not Pentatonix song because of the main artist, but it is something I love and features Kirstin so it's going here. Voctave is an a capella group that is the brainchild of a man named James Ray. It formed from singers in the Voices of Liberty who frequently sing at Epcot. James creates the arrangements, and Voctave is formed with the singers that work best for the sound the music needs. It's not a career for them, but more a hobby that they love. They formed by accident, and it's important to them that it remain something free and fun rather than becoming a strategic career move. This video features Kirstin and Jeremy, who is her fiance. Which is absolutely adorable, and they look madly in love in the video so there you go. I know everyone listens to this and is always about the high note, but as an alto I must say that alto harmony is fantastic. It's an amazing arrangement that I know you guys will love as much as I do.

Peace.

Year 5, Day 112

Morning. Today's song is Break A Little by Kirstin.

I'm not putting her last name because it seems like she's branding to be a one name artist, so we're going to follow her lead on that. She's originally a musical theatre kid, which I'm really not surprised by. And that will serve her well since she's joining the cast of Kinky Boots for a bit this year. Once again this is a different vibe from Pentatonix and the other solo stuff the guys are doing. With everyone doing their own stuff you can see how their musical influences change. The same thing happened with One Direction and it always fascinates me. We get so used to referring to groups as one entity, but they do all have different tastes. It's cool to see it. I hope you think so too.

Peace.

Year 5, Day 111

Hey guys. Today I give you Fields and Pier by Avriel and The Sequoias.

So this is Avi's stuff that is the main thing he's doing now. Not going to lie, Avi was always my favorite in the group. I'm a sucker for basses and with the throat singing? Ugh. Especially because I have tried to learn how to throat sing, it is fucking hard! Like yesterday's song, I can say this music has a different feel to the Pentatonix songs. While those ones are pretty mainstream pop, this is folk music. So it's a little more chill, the kind of thing you relax to. And it allows Avi to showcase his awesome vocal range, proving he's more than just the base for someone else. I always felt kind of bad for bases in choir because they would have maybe three notes in any given song, and this to me feels like a triumph for anyone who sings the low part. I can't wait to hear more.

Peace.