Song of the Day: September 30, 2014

I was looking at my Facebook feed today like normal, and saw a post from one of my fantastic friends. This particular video post stars an attractive blonde girl, an attractive dark-haired man and a Seahawks fan with a guitar sitting in a car. Five seconds after my clicking the "play" button, these three musicians had blown me away with their fantastic voices (and guitar playing). I'll go ahead and share it, and after you watch the video continue reading to see why I think this is so fantastic.


First, an introduction: The babe singing lead vocals is named Andie Case. The hunk singing backups is Naphtali Smith. The back-seat driver and accompanist is named Ajay Marshall. I literally knew nothing about these three before watching this video for the first time 15 minutes ago, so you'll have to search them on YouTube to find out more. Why did I like this video so much?

• It's raw. It's one acoustic guitar and three voices. No synthesizers, amplifiers or effects.
• They have good voices, and sing with harmony. Good, solid harmonies.
• "Me and My Broken Heart" is a catchy song already.
• Andie has an attitude about her while singing this song. I've only known her for 20 minutes, but I can already see some of her personality.
• "Yea-uh" at 1:25.
• The growl in Andie's voice at 1:58 is absolute perfection.
• AND THEN THEY BREAK INTO ROB THOMAS? I'm done, shut up, take my money.

So, that was my introduction to Andie Case and I couldn't be happier that I saw this video. I will certainly be back for more.

Song of the Day: September 27, 2014

Last night, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon hosted legendary vocalist Robert Plant. The former lead of Led Zeppelin sat down with Fallon to perform a two-man musical number using a looping app for the iPad. Together, and with some help from Fallon's exceptional band The Roots, the two sang a doo-wop version of Gene Chandler's "Duke of Earl."

Unfortunately for Plant, Fallon had already done the greatest looper app performance the first time he used the app. Fallon's duet of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" with Billy Joel will forever be one of the great Tonight Show moments, and perhaps one of the great impromptu musical performances since the debut of the digital tablet. Fallon and Joel's duet is, therefore, today's "song" of the day (the music starts at the one-minute mark).

Song of the Day: September 26, 2014

It's Friday, so here's an infectious, harmonious way to kick off the weekend.

Remember the five-people-one-guitar cover of Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know that took the Internet by storm in 2012? For those that don't know, that group is Walk Off The Earth and they've been doing music for quite some time.

WOTE has made many innovative covers like Somebody That I Used To Know, and even has an album out with some pretty awesome originals. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to watch through all their videos. After listening to this cover of Rihanna's "Cheers (Drink To That)" I immediately added it to my YouTube music favorites playlist; it's one of those songs you can listen to over and over again without getting tired of it. Have a listen:

Song of the Day: September 25, 2014

At 20 years old, Meghan Trainor has been one of the hottest new names in music this summer. As of last week's Billboard Hot 100 chart, her hit debut single "All About That Bass" has spent two weeks as the number one song in America. "Bass" would have hit that mark two weeks sooner, had it not been for a more established songstress releasing the first single from her recently-announced new album. As such, Trainor's consistently high record sales had to shake off the frenzy of Taylor Swift's unanticipated new song. Once the initial clamoring to buy and hear Swift's catchy new track died off slightly, "All About That Bass" finally became the top song in America after two months on the Billboard charts.

Apparently, Trainor has no hard feelings for Swift putting off the summit of "All About That Bass" for two weeks. In fact, Trainor paid homage to "Shake It Off" recently, recording an acoustic cover of the song that was shared online last week. Trainor adds her own flavor to the song and modifies the bridge, directly addressing Swift with the lyric "So Taylor, shake 'em off/don't let 'em get to you." 

Here's Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off", as covered by the remarkable Meghan Trainor:

Song of the Day: September 24, 2014

Yesterday, my favorite band of all time released its third studio album, aptly titled PTX Vol. III. Naturally, I purchased a CD yesterday and have already declared I will listen to nothing else for a long time. So as not to overload you with Pentatonix greatness, I've decided every Wednesday Song of the Day will be devoted to the musical greatness that is Avi Kaplan, Kevin Olusola, Kirstie Maldonado, Mitch Grassi and Scott Hoying.

In the first installment of Pentatonix Wednesday, I present the only mashup on the seven-song PTX Vol. III. "La La Latch" is a signature PTX mashup of two songs by one of my least favorite popular artists today, Sam Smith. However, this mashup is pure gold. In true Pentatonix fashion, it is difficult to discern what parts of the song contain "La La La" and which parts come from "Latch". My favorite part of the video is its simplicity: five friends standing and singing in a circle. Have a watch and listen (or 500):


Next Pentatonix Wednesday: Papaoutai