But in the end it's you, without you I shake

How much do I love the Prids? I love them SO much that when I went to a local radio station to meet Robert Smith, out of the hundreds of shirts, blouses, and tops that I own, I decided to wear the Prids heart and crossbones one.

No really, how much do I love The Prids? I love them so much that whenever they're in town, I ALWAYS see them play, even if I have to take the train to MJQ and then get a taxi all the way back to East Point. Because just even the thought of me not seeing them when they're in town makes me want to cry. The picture below is from Last summer when the band played at MJQ. I'm right down in front between the dude in the red shirt and the dude in the white shirt.

The Prids are Mistina Keith (bass/vocals), David Frederickson (guitar/vocals), Lee Zeeman (drums), and Eric Hold (keyboard). They call Portland, OR home and have been entertaining the locals with their post punk flavored brand of indie rock. I found out about the Prids through my friend Drew. I got to know through Mistina through LJ and a few AIM conversations. And when I finally saw them live for the first time in November of 2003, I was completely blown away. They are seriously one of the best live bands I've ever seen. And the chemistry they have in real life comes through in their music. They're totally in sync and in tune with each other, which makes for really amazing music. Mistina and David have been making music together for years, and their musical partnership continues to foster great songs.

The band has been described as New Order and My Bloody Valentine at their peaks. Besides being great musicians, the members of The Prids are also music fans, and know the importance of making every song as good or better as the last.

The Prids spent a lot of time in New York this spring, playing lots of shows, quite a few opening for Built to Spill. They've sold out of their Duracraft and Glider Screamer EPs. They're constantly working on new songs to amaze us with. Did I mention that they're also one of hte hardest working bands out there? They are everything a good band should be and more. Listen to EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE SONGS. More can be found on their official site as well as their myspace page.

Shadow and Shadow
Let it Go

(from Love Zero)
The Problem
Contact

Official Site
Myspace
Luminal Records

It's a shame that our Messiahs move their pawns from different mountains

Earlier this week in Georgia, there was a candlelight vigil at the state capital for the soldiers who had died fighting in Iraq. I imagine that all soldiers realize that there is a possibility that they won't make it back home, especially since so many of them have died since the war began. But it's so awful when you hear on the news that another soldier has died. And they're always so young. I'm 23 and there are so many things that I haven't done, and that's definitely the case for other people my age and younger. Some of these soldiers will never have the opportunity to get married, or travel to Greece, or learn how to play the drums.

I don't think I'd feel very brave if things were constantly blowing up around me, if I had to constantly watch my back. Even the toughest of men fighting in Iraq must get a little scared at times. There's so much uncertainty there. And it's hard to be hopeful all the time.

For the ones who do make it back home, there's still so much emotion that they have to deal with afterwards. I can't even imagine what having to shoot another person would feel like, or seeing your best friend get shot right next to you.

I hope all the soldiers get to come back home soon, and for good. Almost everyone knows someone who's over there. You want to be optimistic and say that one day there will be peace everywhere and that one day everyone will get along. But that will never happen. I guess the best we can do is hope that things will get a little better before they get a whole lot worse. And maybe people will be able to live full lives that won't be cut short.

I'm sure you've all heard War by Bob Marley and Love Vigilantes by New Order. I think both are great songs with a lot of strong imagery. You probably aren't as familiar with Glassjaw's Radio Cambodia, which appeared on their second full length record Worship and Tribute. I've always thought the lyrics were incredibly hard hitting and Daryl's voice in this song has such a sense of urgency to it, that I think it really brings across his feelings about war.

I'm not impressed, I guess I'm not impressed

with which dialect, which dialect marches best

and who reaches heaven in what order

when our kids are baptized in mortar.

Bob Marley- War (from Legend Lives On)
New Order- Love Vigilanetes (from Low Life)
Glassjaw- Radio Cambodia (from Worship and Tribute)

My computer has been acting especially awful these past few days and that's why the right side of my blog is all funky. I don't think I'll be able to fix it until my computer gets fixed. But you can still download stuff so it's all good.

Whatever falls to the ground, whatever sinks in the dirt

When I was going to school in Athens, people in other towns used to ask me what the music scene was like nowadays. I guess that's something a lot of people wonder about 'cause Athens has been responsible for tons of great music over the years. Athens of course is home to legendary groups like R.E.M., The B-52s and Pylon. Talking with older Athens residents, I feel kind of sad that I wasn't there to watch one of the many shows R.E.M. played or hear the first time a B-52s song got a spin on WUOG.

One lady I know told me that back then, everyone went out to shows just to go see shows, no matter who was playing. There was this really great community of musicians and music lovers and everyone supported each other. But I think there's still that sense of camaraderie with Athens bands. Everyone in a band in Athens has at least one side project, and those side projects have people from other bands in them. Bands stick around for each others sets, borrow each others equipment, and play on each others records. I think all those things allow for so much great music to come out of that town.

While lately the Athens scene has become overrun with frat boy types starting bands that sound like some sort of Phish/Dave Matthews/Jack Johnson Frankenstein, people should take comfort in knowing that you can still go downtown to Tasty World or the Caledonia and catch Iron Hero, Coulier, or Boulevard. I'd say one of the biggest local groups in Athens right now is the "calculator funk" quartet, We Versus the Shark. The sharkies as they're affectionately called, have some of the most loyal and dedicated fans in Athens. Whenever they play a show in town, there are gonna be a ton of kids to see them. Everyone loves The Sharkies.

this is an old picture but i like it so deal

You might be asking, "Hey Shaliza, what the hell is calculator funk?" It's exactly what it sounds like silly. We Versus the Shark mostly get thrown into the Math Rock/Experimental category and would probably be enjoyed by fans of Les Savy Fav, Q and Not U, and Fugazi. Words like manic, cerebral, and quirky have been used to described their sound. There's definitely some of all of those things in the Sharkies music. But there's also something that makes you want to listen to their songs over and over again. Oh and dance too. Definitely dance. That's why the Athens kids can't get enough of them.

There was this rad picture of guitarist Samantha Paulsen on the cover of The Red and Black, UGA's student newspaper, about 2 years ago. I hadn't really heard any We Versus the Shark songs at that time, but when I saw that Sam was wearing a Pretty Girls Make Graves shirt, I figured they deserved a few listens.

Here are my three favorite tracks from the We Versus the Shark cd Ruin Everything! You can purchase it here.
You Don't Have to Kick It
Slide
Easter Island is for Lovers

A little bit country

Since I've been super busy lately, I haven't been able to visit my long ass list of blogs, which is what I loved doing every day when I first started blogging. So I'm using today to catch up.

Looks like I missed a bunch of awesome stuff at Blow Up Doll, including The Waitress' I Know What Boys Like, and Leslie Gore's You Dont Own Me. This blog is great and features songs by female artists. Go here for the Waitresses' track, here for the Leslie Gore track, and go here to check out a song by Sissy Spacek. For the longest time I thought that Loretta Lynn had recorded a version of the Patsy Cline song There He Goes. In the movie Coal Miner's Daughter, there's a scene where Sissy Spacek sings it at a honky tonk. I was so impressed with that song when I first saw that movie (great movie if you haven't seen it) and was forever looking for that track. Then I discovered that it was actually Sissy singing in the movie, and not a recording of Loretta. It was really impressive.

Here's Sissy's version of the song from the Coal Miner's Daughter Soundtrack, and Patsy's original version.

Patsy Cline- There He Goes (from The Patsy Cline Collection)
Sissy Spacek- There He Goes (from Coal Miner's Daughter Soundtrack)

Thanks to Daily Refill, I found out that Adrien Grenier is the drummer for a band called The Honey Brothers. I've only seen Adrien in one movie (Drive Me Crazy) so it's really hard to rate his acting abilities. But these days it seems like a lot of actors want to do the music thing too ( Jared Leto, Adam Brody, etc). You can listen to song Honey Brothers songs on their myspace page.

There's a great new blog called Jukebox Upchuck, brought to you by Get Levitation's thenoiseboy. Check it out for The Go Betweens, Bell and Sebastian, and The Outsiders.

Now I'm not really a fan of mash ups. I mean I guess some of them are cool, but most of them just get on my nerves. But I've been going through my folder of downloaded stuff and I came across this mash of Amerie's 1 Thing and M.I.A.'s Pull Up the People. I think I only like this because it's two of my favorite songs, so I don't have a choice. It's all sorts of awesome ya know what I mean?

Carrasco - MIA's Thing

And in honor of the upcoming Johnny Cash bio flick Walk the Line starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon here's a track by June Carter Cash. I'm *hoping* the movie will be amazing, or else people are going to be pissed as hell. Check out the trailer here. Joaquin looks like he'll be a pretty convincing Johnny Cash. And I think Reese will do a good job as June. I love it when she lets the southern girl in her come out.

June Carter Cash- Heel (from Keep on the Sunny Side)

We're all going to hell for the songs we sing.
What about me Jerry Lee? Am I going to hell?
Naw June. You're beautiful

No use on dwelling on the things you'll soon forget.

Last week one of my favorite bands traveled to a Vancouver studio to start mixing their third album. Pretty Girls Make Graves finished recording their new record last month, and hopefully it will be out on Matador before the year is up.

If you've looked over to the left in my "about me" section and wondered who the hell Andrea Zollo is, she's the lead singer for one of my top 5 favorites, Pretty Girls Make Graves. I met her and Nick after a show and Nick signed my copy of Good Health with an Andrew W.K. quote he had heard a few nights before.

And when I met Andrea, she told me that I had a pretty name, and of course that made me happy for days. She's just awesome, it's as simple as that.

In June I posted about Pretty Girls Make Graves but only talked about songs from their first full length Good Health. That cd was released on Lookout! in April of 2002 and is definitely an indie rock favorite for many. I was really excited for the band when I heard that they had signed with Matador. Every band wants to sign with Matador.

The first time I saw them was at the Masquerade when they opened for Alkaline Trio. They only played about 4 songs from Good Health. The rest were all new songs from The New Romance. Out of the new songs that they played that night, the one that stuck out in my head the most had Andrea singing, "You aren't the ones who fascinate us." A few months later I heard the entire record before it was released and The Grandmother Wolf immediately became my favorite track. But then The Teeth Collector became my new favorite, and then after that This Is Our Emergency. It changed every couple of weeks. I bought The New Romancethe day it came out at School Kids Records in Athens. Every single song is fantastic. This band isn't capable of writing bad songs. Every thing they do is amazing and everything they release is better than the last.

Now, this might be blasphemy to some Pretty Girls Make Graves fans, but The New Romance is definitely my favorite out of their two full lengths. Don't get me wrong, both records are phenomenal and every song is great. But The New Romance seems to have so much going on that every time I listen to it, I hear something new. And with as many times as I've listened to it, that's pretty amazing.

The band has lots of tour dates on their website and there's a good chance that they're coming to a town near you. Well unless you live in the South East. I haven't seen them since March of 2004 and its definitely about time. I'm totally jealous of the people who live on the west coast 'cause they play shows constantly over there. I hope you guys know how good you have it.

Below are my favorites from The New Romance. There are a lot of reasons why I love this band. I love their sound, I love it that I feel like dancing whenever I hear one of their songs, I love the fact that Andrea's lyrics mean more and more to me with every listen. So check these out.

(from The New Romance)

The Grandmother Wolf
All Medicated Geniuses
The Teeth Collector
This is Our Emergency
A Certain Cemetery


If you like these songs, definitely get the record, and definitely get Good Health and definitely get PGMG's self titled EP. I promise that you'll love everything.

Oh and if you want to hear More Sweet Soul, the song that my blog is named after, you can listen to it on PGMG's myspace profile.

But you didn't have much to say. But you were beautiful anyway

Sometimes I try holding off on writing about certain bands because I want the largest possible audience to read about them. And I think that if I wait a couple of months, there will be at least a few more people who find my blog and in turn a few more people to read about said bands. But I've really wanted to write about Snowden for a while now, so here goes.

I first heard Snowden when they opened for The Prids at Lenny's in Atlanta. Before they went on, one of my friends pointed to their flyer hanging on the wall and said, "These guys are supposed to be really good. People call them the Atlanta Interpol." Being that I was absolutely enthralled with Turn on the Bright Lights at that time, I was definitely interested in hearing them.I casually listened to Snowden's set that night. I got distracted because my cousin was in town that night and I was hanging out with The Prids and doing other stuff. The little that I remember hearing I thought was good thing.

A few days after that show, I decided to find Snowden's website to REALLY give them a good listen like they deserved. I can't remember all the tracks that they had for download on their site at the time. But I can definitely remember one. The band had done a cover of The Zombies classic Time of the Season. I'm not a die hard Zombies fan or anything, but that's just a kick ass song. I was really interested to see how Snowden would interpret it. What I heard blew me away. This was my reaction to the song in an LJ post:

HOLY FUCKING SHIT!

EVERYONE go HERE right NOW and download this AMAZING cover of the Zombie's TIME OF THE SEASON that SNOWDEN did. WOW WOW WOW.

This is just about the coolest thing I've ever heard.

Even my friend Seth, who is the biggest music snob in the world, said that this track was genius musicially. Sometimes when you hear a cover and you end up really liking it, you wonder if you like it because that particular version is actually very good or because the song itself is a great song and hard to mess up. I was happy when I heared Snowden's other stuff because it was clear that they wrote really amazing songs too.

Jordan Jeffares is Snowden's founding member and main songwriter. When I first got a hold of Snowden's selt titled EP, I was so thrilled to hear such a great local band. Atlanta is known more for hip hop than indie music, so it was definitely nice to find out about Snowden. I can hear a little Interpol in their music, but there's definitely more Radiohead and My Bloody Valentine going on in their songs.

The first song that I really took to on the EP was Good News, which is funny because when I interviewed Jordan for my radio show a year ago, I think he said that Good News was his least favorite recording on the EP. I think everyone can agree that the line "It used to break my heart but it doesn't anymore," will get you every time. As if you wouldn't be pulled in by their gorgeous, lush sound, Jordan's lyrics are really incredible too.

I'd say that Snowden is one of the most popularbands in Atlanta right now. They're absolutely amazing live and every day people are catching on to just how wonderful their music is. Jordan's brother Preston runs Kiss Atlanta and hosts Decatur Social Club every Friday night. It's honestly one of the best times you could ever have dancing to the best music you've ever heard.

I've always thought of Snowden as one of those bands that will make it HUGE one day, and then every one will brag about how they were fans from the very beginning. So you should start listening to them now, so that you won't have to lie later on.

Snowden have all of the songs from their EP available for download on the music page of their site. But if you're too lazy to go there, you can download them below. You should definitely download each and every song. Trust me. They actually re-recorded all of the songs from the EP and so the versions you'll hear are different from the ones that appear on the cd. Having talked to Jordan on a few different occasions about his music, he always strives to make things the very best that they can be. But that's good because you know that you'll always get his absolute best. The cd and the 2.0 versions are both fantastic so you won't be losing either way. If you like what you hear you can purchase the EP here.

(from Snowden)
Victim Card
Good News
Chin Up
Kill the Power
Come Around
Anybody Else

Here's Snowden's recently released 7 inch single Black Eyes. Very, very good. Definitely listen to this one.

Black Eyes

And finally here's the track that first got my attention, Snowden's cover of the Zombies' Time of the Season.

Time of the Season

So do you come here often?

There's no music in this post, but dammit, this thing is too funny not to mention. Apparently Scott Stapp (ya know the guy from Creed) met some girl in an Orlando airport bar and after talking to her for a while asked for her number. She was actually getting ready to board a flight to Amsterdamn, so she gave Scott her friends number instead, and warned her friend that Scott might be calling her later on to get some. Scott actually ended up calling this girl, and she set up a meeting with him. Scott thought he was meeting up with the girl he met at the airport for some "fun" and had no idea that he's getting messed with by a bunch of college kids.

The story unfolds at a Florida Denny's and is probably the funniest thing I've heard in awhile. You've gotta watch out for the people who are the most preachy, because they're usually the ones doing the complete opposite of what they say.

This hilarious story spread quickly. This guy posted his account of the night that Scott Stapp got Punked in his blog here and then his friend posted about it in Oh No They Didn't. Then another girl posted in Oh No They Didn't with more details AND pictures. Then the pictures got posted here. And now Best Week Ever has picked up on the story too. No C list celebrity is safe in our internet obsessed world.

It's pretty amazing how quickly Oh No They Didn't has grown in popularity. Apparently even celebrities read it to find out what's being said about them. This community was a great idea because when there's news about anyone who was ever even remotely famous someone is gonna post it. Nothing gets by these kids.

I am a woman with a mission and a past to outdo

A few years ago, there was a pretty popular Tommy tv commercial that I'd see CONSTANTLY. I can't remember if it was advertising clothes or perfume, but it was definitely on like every 5 minutes on every single channel. The actual look of the commercial wasn't all that impressive or anything. The music playing in the background was the thing that stuck out. Whoever was singing could really blow and the song had such a good beat, that I was always thrilled when I saw the commercial 'cause it meant I could sing along to that awesome song again. I pictured the person who was singing as a middle aged black lady, who probably sang in her church as a kid and grew up idolizing Aretha Franklin. But I was certain I'd never find out who this lady was, although I figured she was probably just a session vocalist or something anyway.

Imagine my surprise when I turned on some music channel one day to catch the video for the song. I found out that it was called Like A Feather. But there wasn't a middle aged black woman on my television screen. Instead there was a petite, white girl with big red hair, moving the way most white girls just didn't move. Immediately I thought, "No way! That voice is coming out of her?" I couldn't believe it. But from that day on, I was a fan of Nikka Costa's.

Nikka's music is amazing. She sounds like she grew up with Stevie Wonder as a father, Janis Joplin as a mother, and Chaka Khan as her favorite Auntie. In reality though, her father Don Costa, was a producer for such legendary artists as Paul Anka, Dinah Washington, and Tony Bennett. And as if that wasn't rad enough, Nikka's godfather is none other than Old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra. She opened for Don Ho when she was five years old, and performed in front of 300,000 Police fans in Chile at the age of seven. She hung out with Sly Stone, Quincy Jones, and Sammy Davis Jr. in her dad's recording studio. Clearly, this girl was gonna grow up to be a singer. And boy, can she sing.

Throughout her earlier years, Nikka released quite a few albums in Europe, South America, and Israel, most going platinum. But she wasn't seeing that kind of success in America, which is often the case for many American born musicians who get their start in Europe. Nikka moved to Australia in her 20s and released the record Butterfly Rocket in 1996. It was so good that Nikka received a "Best New Artist" nomination at the Australia Recording Industry Awards.

Nikka was a pro at this music thing when she released her 2001 record Everybody Got Their Something. I felt fortunate to know about this record before it came out, and I pre-ordered it online. When it arrived, it was all that I wanted to listen to for weeks and weeks on end. Like A Feather is a great song, but I was so amazed by how great the other tracks were. The whole record is amazing from start to finish. Nikka writes a lot about love: the good, the bad and the very ugly. Hope if Felt Good is a FANTASTIC kiss off song where Nikka Sings "What if I was the one to leave your sorry ass behind/ What if all these tears that were fallin' were yours instead of mine/ What if I was proof a fool grows wiser by the minute/ What if I knew you were making your bed and just who was lying in it."

A slower and not as caustic track that I fell in love with is Push and Pull. This song was featured on the soundtrack for the Johnny Depp movie Blow. It's really slow, very soulful, and Nikka sings the hell out of it. So Have I For You, which was written by the Beastie Boys is a really grooved out, chill song and Everybody Got Their Something (which also seems to get played in a few commercials) is an upbeat track that expresses the notion that everyone is special in their own way.

Nikka has been compared to people like Joss Stone and Anastacia, but I think she's better than her peers, and massively underrated. She should be on MTV and VH1 at the same time, and she should be selling out huge ass venues, and she should be on the cover of Rolling Stone. So basically, everyone needs to buy her cds immediately.

A few months ago, VH1 aired Ego Trip's Race-O-Rama "Dude Where's My Ghetto Pass?". There are a few white people who get a ghetto pass, like Eminem, Michael Rappaport, and of course Nikka. I'm starting to think that in that tiny little body of hers there's a middle aged black lady lurking around somewhere. As far as I'm concerned, she's got a ghetto pass for life.

Nikka's newest cd, Can'tneverdidnothin', was released earlier this year and like her previous record, its funky and soulful, just like Nikka herself. It was really hard to pick a couple of tracks to post 'cause I love them all. But if you like what you hear below, please please please go out and get her cds. You won't be disappointed.

(from Everybody Got Their Something)
Like A Feather
So Have I For You
Hope It Felt Good
Push and Pull

(from Can'tneverdidnothin')
'Til I Get to You
Can'tNeverDidNothin'
Swing it Around

Love is not a victory march

Can you think of many cover songs that are more well known than the original version? Probably not, since that rarely ever happens. I can only think of one: Jeff Buckley's cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. How many of you have even heard Leonard's version of the song? If you have, did you hear it before or after you heard the Buckley cover?

A few nights ago when Matt and I were exchanging thoughts on what to put on each other's mix cds (yes we're emo as hell) I asked if he was a fan of Jeff Buckley's. He said that he'd only really heard Jeff's cover of Hallelujah. That got me thinking about how many times I've heard Jeff Buckley's version of the song outside of my own personal listening. It's been played at least twice on The OC. I knew that I'd love that show when in the second episode, Marrissa made Ryan a mix cd and included Hallelujah. When it started to play she said, "This song reminds me of you." Earlier in the episode Ryan had said that he didn't really listen to much music and so the line, "But you don't really care for music, do ya'?" seemed to fit him perfectly.

I also remember hearing Jeff's version of the song alot after 9/11 happened. The great thing about the lyrics to this song is that you can pretty much apply them to anything you might be going through in your life. And when Jeff sings the song, his voice adds a comforting touch, making you feel if only for a minute, a little better than before.

I went looking for some other covers of this song and found some pretty interesting ones. So here are the original, Jeff's version, and some other people's interpretations of Hallelujah.

Leonard Cohen- Hallelujah (from Various Positions)
Jeff Buckley- Hallelujah (from Grace)
Rufus Wainwright- Hallelujah (from the Shrek Soundtrack)
John Cale- Hallelujah (from I'm Your Fan)
Elisa- Hallelujah (from Lotus)

Working Girl

So kids, I've got a job. It's just for a month, but still....I've got a job! So that means waking up early, but coming home earlier than I have been (11 p.m. and later since I've been helping out my uncle). I'm excited about making money to feed my CD habit. Anyway, it's been a few days since you've gotten any music from me, so here are a few quick tracks until I come back home. But I promise, I've got some REALLY good stuff coming up in the next few days, so be excited and what not.

Jamiroquai- Canned Heat
Missy Elliot- Work It
The English Beat- Save it For Later

You might of had him once, but I've got him all the time.

Matt over at You Ain't No Picasso posted a ton of really cool covers last week. There's Tilly and the Wall covering Outkast, Superwolf covering R Kelly, Ben Gibbard covering Avril and Cyndi Lauper, and tons of other great stuff. You really have to check it out.

Thanks to Usounds for posting links to the She Wants Revenge video for Sister. If you haven't heard She Wants Revenge, check out their site for some mp3s. Here are links to the video stream.

QuickTime
Real Player

Yesterday I found out that M.I.A. is coming to Georgia! She's playing at the 40 Watt in Athens on September 19th. I already got my tickets. I'm so excited and have been giddy since I found out about it. My friend Matt and I are going, and he's totally pumped about it too. Yesterday I listened to Arular twice all the way through while I was working, and when I came home, I listened to it somemore. The show is gonna be da bomb yo.

It's a bomb yo
So run yo
Put away your stupid gun yo

Here's my favorite M.I.A. track at the moment. URAQT is from the UK version of Arular. It would be rad if she performed it at the show. I'll keep my fingers crossed for it and Do Ya.

M.I.A.- URAQT (from Arular)