Carmen Splane: Staff Writer
The extent of my musicality only goes back to playing the drums and the clarinet in junior high, but I am still obsessed with music. Because the radio is completely useless now, stumbling across music via iTunes and the Internet has been my solution. Hundreds of new artists release albums and singles every year that won’t see one spin on the airwaves. Despite this bittersweet reality, Top 40 obscurity is more of a blessing than a curse. Without pressure from studio bigwigs and mega-corporation ClearChannel, these artists are free to make music void of unnecessary politics.
1. Kid Sister – Let Me Bang 2009
2. Uffie – Ricky
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Date With A Night
4. Lady Gaga – Judas
5. Róisín Murphy – Momma’s Place
Jack Crane: Staff Writer
I was delivered to my parents by a stork when I was seven months old. Since then I’ve made a habit of growing up. Bob the Builder and Aqua got me through my primary school years while Rage Against the Machine and Coldplay helped me through puberty. Now as a fully fledged man (apparently) I’m all about anything that includes a piano, harp and a female lead … Think Florence and The Machine. Back home in Australia I’m a definite festival floozy. While in the U.S. of A, SXSW, Ultra Music Festival and Coachella have been ticked off the list with Bonnaroo to come this summer.
1. The Cinematic Orchestra – To Build A Home
2. Florence and The Machine – Cosmic Love
3. Melanie – Leftover Wine
4. Adele – Someone Like you
5. Jessie J – Who You Are
Amanda Macias: Staff Writer
My musical preferences can’t be precisely labeled by any specific genre. Though much of my musical influence has been framed by the classic rock generation my parents raised me on (namely AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, The Beatles and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts), my ears remain open to a variety of more modern musical stylings such as those from The Damned Things, Rihanna, Hellyeah and even Ke$ha. If you were to put my iPod on shuffle, the first five songs would be as follows:
1. P!nk – F—ing Perfect
2. Pantera – Walk
3. 2AM Club – Flashing Room
4. Tenacious D – The Metal
5. Reel Big Fish – Sell Out
Erika Cueva: Staff Writer
Being asked to make a list of my five favorite songs is as agonizing to me as standing in front of a gold mine of a juke box with only $1 to choose three songs. Besides playing the violin as a child and taking a music history class here at San Diego State, I have no formal musical training, but variety in music truly is the spice of life. Try it. My five-song iTunes playlist, as of now consists of:
1. Erykah Badu – Bag Lady
2. Queen – I Want To Break Free
3. Uffie – Pop The Glock
4. Wiz Kalifa – Ink My Whole Body
5. Banda el Recodo – Yo Sé Que Te Acordarás
David Dixon: Staff Writer
As at staff writer and freshman, I’ve had plenty of musical training throughout the years at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts. As a musical theater major in high school, I also was a member of the school’s choir. Performing in numerous shows, one of my proudest moments was creating and singing at open mic night a semi-autobiographical neurotic spoof sung to the tune of “The Lion King’s” “Hakuna Matata.”
1.Daft Punk – One More Time
2.Chumbawamba – Tubthumping
3. The Beatles – Get Back
4. Smash Mouth – Walkin’ On the Sun
5. The Music of the Night – from the original broadcast recording of “The Phantom of the Opera.”
Andrew Younger: Staff Writer
From the time I purchased my first album (Stone Temple Pilots’ “Core”), music has maintained an important part of my life. That love of music led me to become a bassist and seek out artists with interesting rhythm sections. I have an appreciation for songwriters who transcend trite end-rhymes and clichés and instead allow emotion and content to dictate their lyrics. I am also drawn toward unique instrumentation that provides a cinematic feel.
1. Sebastien Tellier – La Ritournelle
2. Arcade Fire – No Cars Go
3. The Cure – One Hundred Years
4. Portishead – Machine Gun
5. Justice – Stress
Beth Elderkin: Staff Writer
I may be a journalism major, but I am, at heart, a bona fide music lover. I was the lead singer and guitarist in rock band Third Eclipse for 10 years, and have performed in many musical theater productions throughout the years, including “RENT” last summer. I recently joined San Diego State a capella group The Sunset Clefs. Here’s an iTunes playlist of songs I’m currently obsessed with:
1. Carina Round – On Leaving
2. Sunny Levin – Daylight
3. Rihanna – Disturbia
4. Jim Moray – Nightvisiting
5. Chumbawumba – Add Me
Drew Scoggins: Entertainment Editor
I’m going to be boring and say I like everything, anything that gets my blood pumping and my heart feeling like it’s on fire. There are only two types of music: good music and bad music. I listen mostly to the first category except for those few moments of weakness when I’ll be belting some T-Pain. I was in a band in high school and since then I can’t get that itch to get on stage and make an ass out of myself out of my system. I love everything about music and it gives my life meaning
1. Neutral Milk Hotel – Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2
2. Manchester Orchestra – The Only One
3. Say Anything – Little Girls
4. Arctic Monkeys – Fluorescent Adolescent
5. The National – Sorrow
Morgan Denno: Staff Writer
At 20 years old I’ve played the violin for more than a decade and was a perfectly adequate second chair. I first entered the world of music when Jessica Simpson was still a virgin, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake wore matching denim outfits and the Backstreet Boys were touring while they were still popular. After an embarrassing high school experience littered with “rap” and “hardcore” phases, I’ve finally learned it’s never OK to date a guy in a band.
1. She & Him – Black Hole
2. Stornaway – I Saw You Blink
3. Kate Nash – The Nicest Thing
4. The XX – Intro
5. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – American Girl
Paul Hernandez: Staff Writer
My musical background is rooted from the Midwest. Raised in the heartland of America, a lot of time was typically killed by listening to music with friends and family hours on end literally just sitting in a room or at a party jamming to records. My mom said any time she would play “Instant Karma” on the boom box, I would put one of my ears to a speaker as a toddler and listen to John Lennon do his thing. Looking back, a different kind of education was established that could never be taught elsewhere. Though musical enjoyment exists in every human, there are some of us who make it more than a hobby. I like to think that’s where I fit in.
1. The Allman Brothers – Mountain Jam
2. John Coltrane – A Love Supreme
3. Van Morrison – And it Stoned Me
4. Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
5. The Beatles – Any Song
