Scooter McGavin's 9th Green: Snow Patrol

Showing posts with label Snow Patrol. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The Ten Most Absurd "Related Artists" on Spotify

Last week, Grantland featured a story on the art of the comeback explaining how to do it (Daft Punk) and what not to do (Guns N' Roses). Not surprisingly the writer suggests not letting the back-story overshadow your record, you know, like taking fourteen years and thirteen millions dollars to record it and certainly do not wait until Dr. Pepper guilt you into releasing it because it will turn out bad for the both of you (five years later I still have not bought a Dr. Pepper after getting stiffed on my free can that I was promised). But in the article, the writer suggested that Chinese Democracy is better that you probably remember which made me pop up Spotify to give it a first listen in five years (nope, still extremely disappointing). I bring this up because while on Spotify I had a big laugh at who was listed as Guns n’ Roses top “Related Artists” according to Spotify. I got such a good laugh out of it I decided to comb through the sight for the most absurb “Related Artists” according to Spotify and here are the top ten I found.

1. Guns n’ Roses – When I think Guns ‘n’ Roses I think eighties Sunset Strip and the hair bands of the era or possibly the other hard rock heavyweights of the time Metallica who they had an ill fated tour with back in the nineties. But nope, the most related artists to Guns n’ Roses is The Proclaimers. Yes the creepy twins one hit wonder from Scotland who sang I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).

2. Beastie Boys – Most people think of the Beastie Boys as rappers but they have released punk albums too back in the day, and this may very well lead to the most random top five related artists currently on Spotify: classic rock God the The Jimi Hendrix Experience, underground hip-hop group Jurassic 5, the industrial Nine Inch Nails, alternative rockers Smashing Pumpkins, and the indie group Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Pull up the full Related Artists page and it gets even more random: Justice (dance), The Heavy (funk), Soundgarden (grunge), The White Stripes (garage rock), Wu-Tang Clan (hardcore rap), and Blind Melon (one hit wonders).

3. The Chemical Brothers – Here is another group that is listed as a Related Artist of the Beastie Boys but just because their top Related Artist is another Related Artist of the Beastie Boys (though I have no idea how either group are related to the Beastie Boys) does not make it any less head-scratching because do not ask me how the electronic group from the nineties is at all related to punk forefathers The Clash.

4. Taylor Swift – Taylor is a country artist whose records get poppier and poppier as they are released and other female contry crossover artists Carrie Underwood, The Band Perry and Sugarland are all in her top five, but number one? The YouTube superstars and elecro-pop duo Karmin.

5. Rage Against the Machine – Sure Rage and Thin Lizzy are both technically rock artists that were featured on VH1 Classic’s Metal Evolution but it was two entirely different episodes, sub-genres, and eras. Granted if I were Rage Against the Machine, I would not want to be linked to the horrible nu-metal moment that came after them either.

6. Snow Patrol – Earlier this month when I posted my Greatest Eras in Rock and Roll History, Snow Patrol was featured in the Pop-Rock wave of the early 00’s and I would have figured other acts I had with them, Coldplay, David Gray, The Killers, would be among their top artists. Nope, instead it is the teenaged cover artists who takes every song and turns it into a mopey depressing ode, Birdy. Snow Patrol is not even one of the bands she covered. The rest of Snow Patrol’s top five which includes Lissie, Paloma Faith, and Counting Crows is almost as head scratching).

7. Lionel Richie – Lionel was one of the biggest acts of the eighties and I fully expected to see other RnB-pop acts of the time like Michael Jackson or Prince in his Related Artists or even his former group The Commodores. Instead his top five in order are new wave band Berlin number one followed by Cyndi Lauper, Phil Collins (who is also absurdly Jackson’s top Related Artist), Chicago, and Eric Carmen.

8. Robin Thicke –Considering he has the biggest song on the planet, Spotify would get this blue eyed soul man some artist of his ilk like contemporary Mayer Hawthorne or maybe the greatest blue-eyed soul man ever Daryl Hall, either solo or with Oates, but no, his top artist is Janet Jackson while other female nineties RnB acts TLC and Aaliyah also populate his top five.

9. Weezer – Sure Weezer and Stone Temple Pilots both are under the very large alternative rock of the nineties tent, but I would like think Spotify would be smart to have Weezer grouped together with other geek rockers Barenaked Ladies or Ben Folds Five instead of the second wave of grunge.

10. The Breeders - The Breeders were an alternative rock one hit wonder off shoot of The Pixies from the nineties, Robert Johnson was a blues singer who was born 102 years ago. Seriously Spotify, how does this even happen?

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

The 100 Greatest Power Ballads of All Time

1. Love Song - Tesla

2. Purple Rain - Prince and The Revolution

3. Heaven - Warrant

4. Every Rose Has Its Thorn - Poison

5. I Wish It Would Rain Down - Phil Collins

6. All I Want Is You - U2

7. I'll Be There for You - Bon Jovi

8. Home Sweet Home - Mötley Crüe

9. November Rain - Guns N' Roses

10. Without You - Harry Nilsson

11. Silver Springs (Live) - Fleetwood Mac

12. No More Drama - Mary J. Blige

13. Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead

14. The Scientist - Coldplay

15. I Want to Know What Love Is - Foreigner

16. What It Takes - Aerosmith

17. Bright Lights - Matchbox Twenty

18. Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers

19. Faithfully - Journey

20. I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) - Meat Loaf

21. Against All Odds - Phil Collins

22. How to Save a Life - The Fray

23. Never Tear Us Apart - INXS

24. Wind of Change - Scorpions

25. Everybody Hurts - R.E.M.

26. Set the Fire to the Third Bar - Snow Patrol and Martha Wainwright

27. Will You Be There - Michael Jackson

28. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own - U2

29. My Immortal (Band Version) - Evanescence

30. You Can't Always Get What You Want - The Rolling Stones

31. Why - Annie Lennox

32. She Talks to Angels - The Black Crowes

33. Patience - Guns N' Roses

34. Ex-Factor - Lauryn Hill

35. Alone - Heart

36. Dreaming With a Broken Heart - John Mayer

37. Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol

38. Boston - Augustana

39. My Heart Will Go On - Céline Dion

40. Far Behind - Candlebox

41. Don't Cry - Guns N' Roses

42. Stop Crying Your Heart Out - Oasis

43. Fix You - Coldplay

44. Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone) - Cinderella

45. Waiting for a Girl Like You - Foreigner

46. With or Without You - U2

47. Tuckers Town - Hootie & the Blowfish

48. The Stairs - INXS

49. Better Man - Pearl Jam

50. Close My Eyes Forever - Lita Ford and Ozzy Osborne

51. Hey Jude - The Beatles

52. Total Eclipse Of The Heart - Bonnie Tyler

53. Poison and Wine - The Civil Wars

54. Don't Look Back In Anger - Oasis

55. Sister Christian - Night Ranger

56. Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon and Garfunkel

57. We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) - Tina Turner

58. (Everything I Do) I Do It for You - Bryan Adams

59. Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day

60. Let Her Cry - Hootie and the Blowfish

61. Angel Eyes - The Jeff Healey Band

62. Hero - Enrique Iglesias

63. Creep - Radiohead

64. Run - Snow Patrol

65. Linger - The Cranberries

66. Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

67. Free Bird - Lynyrd Skynyrd

68. Listen to Your Heart - Roxette

69. Don't Follow - Alice in Chains

70. One - U2

71. She's Gone - Hall and Oates

72. Keep On Loving You - REO Speedwagon

73. Take My Breath Away - Berlin

74. Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day

75. Nothing Else Matters - Metallica

76. Silent Lucidity - Queensrÿche

77. When the Night Comes - Joe Cocker

78. Somebody to Love - Queen

79. The Cave - Mumford and Sons

80. I Remember You - Skid Row

81. Open Arms - Journey

82. Angel - Aerosmith

83. Mama, I'm Coming Home - Ozzy Osborne

84. It's All Coming Back to Me Now - Céline Dion

85. Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me - George Michael and Elton John

86. A Long December - Counting Crows

87. When the Children Cry - White Lion

88. Glycerine - Bush

89. Big Empty - Stone Temple Pilots

90. Existentialism On Prom Night - Straylight Run

91. Lonely Road of Faith - Kid Rock

92. Strange Currencies - R.E.M.

93. Holding Out for a Hero - Bonnie Tyler

94. Colder Weather - Zac Brown Band

95. Trouble - Coldplay

96. Is This Love - Whitesnake

97. The Mountains Win Again - Blues Traveler

98. Sober - Kelly Clarkson

99. A Dustland Fairytale - The Killers

100. Something to Believe In - Poison

Amazon.com Widgets

Thursday, January 19, 2012

I Want My Music Television - 1/19/12

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.

Tattoo - Van Halen

This may be one of the saddest comebacks in recent memory. The song is kind of lame and the music video even lamer (c’mon Van Halen, just because you made the exact same video twenty-eight years ago does not make it all right because you made this one in black and white). Maybe Michael Anthony should be happy he got booted out of the band for Eddie’s son so he did not have to taint his legacy.

Everybody Talks (Animated Version) - Neon Trees

I wonder if it says anything about me that when the Ouija Board started to spell H*E*L my first thought was the spirit was writing “Help”? But Neon Trees seems like one of those bands, had they came out a decade earlier would have been huge thanks to a McG assisted video.

Bruises – Band of Skulls

It is about time someone made an epic bowling video featuring suit wearing Luchadores. Thank you Band of Skulls.

In the End - Snow Patrol

Snow Patrol should be a little worried because they are maybe one or two more flops away from being a on a dancing show themselves.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

I Want My Music Television - 10/25/11

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.

Paradise - Coldplay

With the whole formal opening credits for a film I was expecting some grand epic music video, but the very next scenes is someone in an elephant costume with scenes with the elephant in a trunk (get it?), on a unicycle, and in his natural habitat, in the Sahara playing music. Well done Coldplay.

This Isn’t Everything You Are – Snow Patrol

It is not a very good sign when a band rushes out a second single, it usually means the first one bombed, and the first single was so forgettable, I cannot remember its name. The new Snow Patrol song is slightly better, though not as fun as the last video, not that I remember what the song name was, and this one kind of reminds me of the Kings of Leon video for Pyro, but with less freaks and more random dancing.

We Found Love - Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris

Speaking of videos that remind me of other ones, the new Rihanna video looks Teenage Dream if it had been filmed by the director of Trainspotting who wanted to add a completely random intro for no reason.

One Up for Love - Boyz II Men

With The Sing-Off, the Beyoncé sampling Countdown, and contributing to some midget’s Christmas album, I would love for a Boyz II Men comeback (get ready to feel old, Cooleyhighharmony came out twenty years ago). I am not sure this is the song to do it, the opening production (I was going to ask where was Babyface, but upon some research, it turns out he actually produced it), but it did get better by the time the band kicked in. But this is still better than ninety-nine percent of what is considered RnB that is released today.

Monday, August 29, 2011

I Want My Music Television - 8/29/11

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.

Muppet Show Theme Song - The Muppets & OK Go

I wonder if OK Go was picked to remake The Muppets Theme because of the video because the song is not even close the best Muppets Theme ever. But you have to love the part where the Muppets are revealed to be controlling OK Go.

Up All Night – Blink182

The best thing I can say about the new Blink182 song is that it is a more welcome comeback then the recent Limp Bizkit ateempted comeback. If nobody likes you when you’re twenty-three, I can image what they think of you when you are thirty-three.

Called Out of the Dark – Snow Patrol

I really liked Snow Patrol first album, but it seems like every subsiquant album get a little more bland to the point when their last song was featured in the trailer of a horrible chick flick (see Leap Year, or better yet, do not, it was horrible). And for the sound of their first single, the next album will not break that trend. But at least the video shows off a funny side for the first time.

1+1 – Beyoncé

When I reviewed the latest Beyoncé album (see You a Bad Girl and Your Friends Bad Too) I thought I liked this song, but I did not remember how annoying her pronunciation of “you” was. It is really distracting. But I still like the guitar solo at the end.