music

Being the offseason, I know board material is a little lacking and there isn't always a lot to talk about. I love listenening to some of the old favorites, but at some point everyone wants something new. I honeslty can't say I know a ton of new artists, but I am open to pretty much any genre. Any help finding some new artists/songs/albums to check out from my MGoBrethren? Any albums you feel are underrated or some unkowns you feel other people should check out? And my personal "Most Underrated" albums go to

Saigon-'The Greatest Story Never Told'

Sean Price-'Jesus Price Superstar'

Common-'Like Water for Chocolate'

AZ-'Doe or Die'

Thrice-'The Illusion of Safety'

Minus the Bear-"Menos El Oso' 

And my favorite unknown is Elzhi-"Elmatic". A remake of Nas 'Illmatic' from Detroit's best rapper. 

I dont have any current favorites, so help an MGoBrother out.

This summer I'm going to the Pantanal region of Brazil with a small group of Michigan alums and current students to teach orchestral music at an orphanage. We're trying to raise money for various pieces of the project, including instruments, maintenance, accessories (stands, bows, etc), living costs for the teachers, and others. Our fundraising site has a lot more info on the project and is at the link here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/pantanal-music-exchange.

The Nazaré Orphanage in rural Brazil is home to sixty boys whose lives have been scarred by domestic violence, abuse, and neglect. Orphanage founder Father Joaquim Tébar secured a donation of numerous violins, violas, and cellos to teach the children music. Tragically, he died before he could turn his idea into reality. We began this project to carry on his vision to bring music to lives that have known little else but adversity and hardship.

While working to set up workshops with the kids at Nazaré on public health, CPR, English, and sustainable technologies last summer, the director revealed a room full of stringed instruments that were collecting dust. We immediately decided to start putting them to use, and did our best to give some basic string lessons. The excitement and energy this brought out of the kids was immediately apparent, and we couldn’t help but want to see it continue. This summer we plan to expand the program into a full string orchestra through daily rehearsals over a two month period.

The Pantanal Music Exchange (PME) aims to cultivate creativity in the lives of these boys. We want the project to grow out of the excitement of the kids, so much of the music we teach will be pop and traditional songs that the kids know and want to learn, a model we had great success with last summer. Local support and involvement is crucial, and we are working with musicians and community members in Poconé so that the program can continue and grow even while we're not there. We're currently organizing partnerships with other youth orchestra programs in both Brazil and America.

We have built a team of dedicated individuals to lead PME, including regional experts, local Brazilian musicians, energetic college students, and recent graduates. All of us have been playing, writing, and teaching music for over a decade. Those who didn’t grow up speaking Portuguese have worked hard to learn it over the past year. We are also a relatively young group, which should help the kids relate to us and see us as role models.

I think MGoBlog users will be interested in the project for a couple of reasons. It helps rep UM in an area that doesn't get a lot of attention and exposure, it's just generally good for the world (which MGoBloggers are usually in favor of), and this video (warning: small cute children playing the Victors sort of poorly):

Please let me know if you have any questions. I’d love if you would be able to donate or even just pass on to your networks. I’m at sethbu@gmail.com. 

I'm a bit of a music junkie, but over the last year or two, I've lost a little bit of touch with new bands and music.  I used to have a subscription to both Magnet and Spin magazines, but Magnet went into a bit of a funk and I lost interest in Spin.  Does anyone have any good suggestions for music blogs? 

Here are a few albums I've been listening to lately:

"The Second Law" - Muse
Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band
"Break It Yourself" - Andrew Bird
"The Second Gleam" - Avett Brothers
"Buried in Your Black Heart" - Burden Brothers
"Only by the Night" - Kings of Leon

www.lollapalooza.com - Early Bird and regular passes go on sale today. 

No headliners or bands announced yet but they usually put together a good bill even if the headliners aren't so good.

Already got mine!

Anyone else going? 

EDIT: Early Bird sold out as of 10:17am CST. 

EDIT 2: April 11th is the lineup announcement date. 

As we near the upcoming season I always use the weekend before to brush off my tailgating gear and make sure everything is in good shape. Just wanted to get the Mgoblog community's take on some good tailgating music while a make a new play list for this year.

I would have posted this in the other thread, but it was buried and probably wouldn't be checked much.  I found the full version that was just published on ESPN (per youtube), and I didn't see it posted yet, so I decided to share.  

Some people probably won't like it, but deal with it.  I will probably end up playing this before leaving my house on Saturdays heading to campus.  I, for one, think I might be warming up to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mecVP79vcI8&feature=player_embedded