Introducing: Sapphonix

I've been meaning to do this a while back, but here goes:

Introducing my new electronic music project, Sapphonix!

Pretty much this is just a name for my music that I make. Not sure if I will feel more motivated to make music now, but we'll see. Also, I have a SoundCloud where I will be uploading music, follow me here. There's nothing there yet, but there will be stuff eventually. Also, I will eventually have a picture that I will use as my main profile pic.

Why Sapphonix? Well, my birthstone is Sapphire, first of all. Also, I have always liked onyx for some reason, so that's kind of where the -onix comes from. That, and I think it sounds kinda cool. So there's that.

Music Discovery: The Gracious Few's "Closer"

"Closer" was a free single on iTunes a couple years ago, and it comes from The Gracious Few's eponymous 2010 album. The Gracious Few are actually a supergroup consisting of guitarist Chad Taylor, bassist Patrick Dahlheimer, and drummer Chad Gracey from Live, and vocalist Kevin Martin and guitarist Sean Hennesy from Candlebox. Their style is hard alternative rock, similar to Three Days Grace or Bush. Musically, the song starts quietly, but once the drums kick in, the song has a driving beat. The guitar then takes the lead, with hard chords leading through the chorus along with Martin's piercing vocals. The verses are more subdued, with the bass driving the song along here. Overall, "Closer" is a great hard rock tune.

September: A Good Month for Music

September is turning out to be a pretty good month for new album releases. On September 4th, Imagine Dragons released their debut studio album Night Visions, and Matchbox Twenty released North, which was their first non-compilation album since 2002's More Than You Think You Are. On September 10th, The Avett Brothers released The Carpenter (which you can expect a review of soon [spoiler alert: it's good]), and the next day, The Dave Matthews Band released Away from the World. The end of the month holds promise, too: two albums of note will be released on September 21: deadmau5's Album Title Goes Here and Mumford & Sons's Babel. Rounding out the month will be ¡Uno!, the first album of the Green Day ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Trè! trilogy, on September 25th, and on September 28th in a few European countries (and October 2nd mostly everywhere else) will be the release of Muse's album The 2nd Law. Other releases include albums by Hoobastank, Mika, Pet Shop Boys, Pink, and The Killers, as well as the 25th anniversary edition of Michael Jackson's Bad. Expect a few reviews coming up, probably of The Carpenter, Babel, and ¡Uno!.

Music Discovery: An Endless Sporadic's "Impulse"

"Impulse" is the first track from Ameliorate by instrumental progressive-rock band An Endless Sporadic. You might recognize this song as being a bonus track on Guitar Hero III. The "progressive" label is not to be taken lightly. After a minute or two into the song, you will wonder if you are even listening to the same song. However, the beginning riff repeats itself later in the song to remind you what you're listening to. In the middle, there is the breakdown of all breakdowns. It might sound like absolute nonsense, but it's still relatively structured... I think. If you're into instrumental rock, give "Impulse" a listen, and if you like what you hear, also check out "Anything" from the same album.

VOTE: FL Studio Projects!

And I finally make my first post about MY music. Although it's not me on the piano, I decided to dump the several starts of FL Studio songs onto my blog for the world to see. Some are really short (like, seriously, really short) and others are longer, plus I have one completed song to show. In addition, YOU get to decide which unfinished project I finish first! To listen to each song, click on the song title and download the song. Then, you can play it in your music player of choice. So here goes: