Yo, Keyshia Cole’s new CD, Just Like You just dropped today and I, Spitty Will, officially give it my two thumbs up. A combination of banging production, dopeass concepts, and Keyshia’s undeniably strong voice make this a must have album of 2007.

With the absence of real R&B music these days, it’s refreshing to hear a young singer who can actually write songs, has a voice and commands such strong stage presence. Check out tracks:

- Didn’t I Tell You, featuring Too Short
- Losing You, featuring Anthony Hamilton
- Fallin’ Out

The lead up to album release was Let It Go, featuring Missy Elliott and Lil’ Kim, and peaking at #1 on the urban charts, and tearing it up in cars, dorm rooms, bedrooms and parties all across the country.

Radio is heating up with Shoulda Let You Go featuring Amina, and I predict it’s going to be another platinum year for Keyshia Cole.

Here’s “Shoulda Let You Go”.

After working long days and long nights trying to do some freelance work, I needed a great escape.

I got just that from Patrick Watson’s “The Great Escape”. The chorus said it all..
Puts on a smile and breathes it in and breathes it out
He says
Bye Bye, Bye to all the noise
Oh he says, Bye bye, bye to all the noise

The song made me imagine a father driving home from work, smiling with anticipation of a daughter’s hug.

Patrick’s beautiful voice, joined with his simple lyrics are brilliant! I can’t recommend it enough.

Patrick Wilson - The Great Escape

courtesy of secretcityrecords

Official Website: http://www.patrickwatson.net/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/patrickwatson

So there’s this little band called Burning Tree Project. They’ve been around for a pretty long time. Haven’t heard of them? Well that might finally change…

Today, BTP flew to Florida to enter the studio with producer James Paul Wisner. This guy is legit. He recorded Further Seems Forever’s Moon is Down–the standard from which I compare any other band or album to. Just imagine what he can do with ‘Supernova’.

I just wanted to publicly wish them good luck. I’m going to miss my boys for the next month–well, everyone but Johnny. He’s a little too comfortable with his sexuality.

They’ll be updating their progress everyday here.

Burning Tree Project - Stop Saying It’s Over

courtesy of jakeashelton

Official Website: http://www.burningtreeproject.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/btp

Morning dew, chilly car seats, and more frequent pit stops at a local Starbuck’s–fall has officially begun in Seattle. In other words, the rain shall not cease to come upon us…-___-;

Our summer was approximately one week this year and reckon we will undoubtedly be rejected of sunshine as we soak the rest of our next eight months in the infamous Seattle rain. Besides me going off tangent as I attempt to gain some remorse for crap weather, the main purpose of this blog is to give credit to a band - The Umbrellas.

Their music is like the sound of ceaseless rain; their words haunting the corners of my mind and melodies used to hum myself to sleep all week. The song lyrics speak of destruction in love, empty echoing idealisms of this world, and the encircling beauty of it all. These crude and overt words are then sheltered by an array of random digital impulses that erratically coincide to create a melody that will calm any soul. Eccentrically enticing to the listener, this band stands out from the bunch and will quickly gain adequate popularity. The Umbrellas came up this past Saturday night and showcased their music in Seattle for the first time. I must admit (nodding my head in disbelief…), I am displeased to say that I was unable to attend the show BUT from trusted sources have heard that they were well beyond ecstatic for this new band.

While listening to the band I began to grow curious and wanted explanations to all its perplexities. After searching for lyrics, utilizing repeat on playlist, oh and this may sound well over stalker-like but googling the band members’ names and band biographies; I was still unable to fully understand the word selection and the parallels to their music and lyrics. Everything is quite intense! I kept thinking and then thought…umbrellas, why even name themselves the umbrellas? I mean…they’re from Oklahoma. O_o

Then I concluded, the definition of an umbrella is that they are used as a form of shade or protection. According to their biography they are heavily influenced by nature and all the chaos and raucous it creates. Maybe their band name, the Umbrellas, was chosen in literal form and its host used as their music. It’s almost as if their songs were written in hopes to protect us from ourselves and this corrupt world. Perhaps, the Umbrellas symbolize a retreat, as if each raindrop represents life’s crookedness soaking away our innocence. That, instead of being oblivious, you can stand under an umbrella to watch the raindrops pour in sheets as the world floods around you…every being…every inch.

The rain has yet to come in beautiful Seattle, but as if there’s no time to spare it will soon appear to awaken our deep slumbers. Until then we sleep, we dream till the Umbrellas revive us once again.

Umbrellas - Again and Again

courtesy of themilitiagroup

Growing up I listened to cassette tapes. Back then the quality sounded great to me, I liked how sturdy they were, and I loved to write the names of every single song on my mix tape cover. If I ever bought an album on cassette, I also had to listen to much more of the whole album - simply because rewinding and fast forwarding were a bitch. This in return made songs that you initially didn’t care for, grow on you. By the end of the week, you were also into that one song before your favorite song on the album. Take Appetite for Destruction by Gun’s N Roses for example. If you bought the album for Sweet Child O’ Mine, there were probably times where the tape would continue on to the next track, You’re Crazy without you even noticing. You might not even like the song, but because you don’t wanna rewind again, you listen to it. Soon, you realize that You’re Crazy is a great song too.

Fast forward to the 90’s and CD’s. When I first got into CD’s it was all about skipping tracks. With the press of a button, you could get to the very beginning of any song on the album. As a result however, if I wasn’t into a song, I would just skip it. Whereas cassette tapes forced me to get into ALBUMS, CD’s, for the most part, got me into SINGLES. So why even listen to albums anymore? Well, CD albums usually had about 3 good singles, and you couldn’t get all three of them on a “singles” CD. And so I’m stuck with buying albums. Unfortunately those suckers were typically anywhere from $13 - $18… I couldn’t afford to buy all my favorite artists’ albums, although I was getting sick of albums much quicker.

And finally we have the new century and iPods. Remember how CD’s were too expensive? Now I can have any song from any album for FREE. Every song I instantly like in this little white box put into “shuffle” mode. The album is officially dead. Why would my attention span suffer to “grow” to like certain songs? I can listen to any song that I like the moment I hear it. Don’t like this song? Skip it! Don’t like the album? Skip it!

This brings up a couple of questions. Is it weird for me to be a little scared by this? I guess I’m so used to the notion of “albums” that I can’t help but feel like we’re losing something good here. Maybe it’s natural selection and we’re weeding out the bad songs, even artists, from the good ones. What about on the artists’ end? Musicians will have to rethink the concept of “albums” as well as how to make money off of one single song, let alone standing out amongst a sea of other artists who have music available for FREE. It’s an exciting time, the revolution has begun, but a government hasn’t been established yet. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

I can’t lie quietly and let this website be overrun with Motion City Soundtrack posts. Where’s the New Found Glory love?

Just a friendly reminder by your resident straight edge to pick up the new NFG album “From the Screen to the Stereo pt. II.” The track-listing should sell itself:

1. Kiss Me (originally performed by Sixpence None the Richer)
2. It Ain’t Me Babe (originally performed by Bob Dylan)
3. The Promise (originally performed by When In Rome)
4. The King of Wishful Thinking (originally performed by Go West)
5. Stay (originally performed by Lisa Loeb)
6. Lovefool (originally performed by The Cardigans) - my favorite
7. Iris (originally performed by Goo Goo Dolls)
8. Don’t You Forget About Me (originally performed by Simple Minds)
9. J’y Suis Jamais Alle (originally performed by Yann Tiersen)
10. Crazy For You (originally performed by Madonna)
11. Head Over Heels (originally performed by Tears for Fears)

New Found Glory - Kiss Me

First things first, I headed out to the NMM group show which included the works of Nomzee, David Brady, and Bendow. It was a rainy evening but this made for a good show, people huddled in together to enjoy the works.

Meet Bendow, He’s 15 years old and this is his second show… complete with entourage.

The show was rather diverse featuring assemblage, mixed media, digital media, etc. The painting on the above right is the work of Nomzee.

After the show I headed on out to Tangiers for a showcase. It was nice out there, the perfect crowd - not too packed, not too sparse. I arrived to catch the last two songs by artist Phil Good. The first thing that struck me about Phil Good was that he looked like he should be singing “Rocket Queen” but instead he was singing tunes more along the lines of “Lately”. Hard Rock look, R&B vocals… interesting. The dude could definitely sing. Right after his set came The Jane Doe’s. They sounded exactly like what they looked like. The band was super tight and played funky R&B. Although the musical genre is not my cup of tea, it’s way more interesting to me when I hear it live then recorded.