Dr Dog (or Music I am Listening to)

Dr. Dog (or Music I am Listening to).

In my last blog post I mentioned that I would be doing a segment entitled “Music you should be listening too”. Well, after some thought I decided to change the name to “Music I am listening too”. Its not as catchy but I hope to not come off as a pretentious music prick. I want to do this segment to spread my love for music; music that I think is good. Not Jusin Biebes and all that crap they play on the radio. I will try my best to capture an artist/album that everyone will appreciate but and also music that I am currently playing on repeat on my iPod or Spotify. Alright lets get to the music!

Dr. Dog’s album B Room.

Just a quick introduction of Dr Dog for starters. Formed in a small town in Pennsylvania and currently based in Philadelphia, Dr. Dog entered the scene as a psychedelic band. Later they took on a more traditional indie rock approach. Some bands that influenced the sound of Dr. Dog are: The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Motown Music Scene.

I discovered them via a playlist I found on Noisetrade, don’t remember when that was but it has been more then a few years. I didn’t necessarily care for them at first but over the years their catchy tunes have grown on me and this particular album, B Room, is my favorite. The Album was named after the recording studio the band built for itself when they relocated to Philadelphia. No subliminal messages here.

The best thing about B Room is that one can easily pick up and listen to this album from start to finish without feeling the need to skip a track. It’s a bit Motowny and a bit Pet Soundsish, altogether a very fine recipe for an album! From the start, they lay the poppy melodies down with the song The Truth, a slow jam with a very nice slow build up to a sing along, reminding me of a children’s show on the PBS network. They follow with Broken Heart, another catchy and poppy tune which also happens to be the single of the album. This tune will make itself a home in your brain and put itself on repeat. Freedom from the heartache, freedom from pain (finger is up in the air doing the worm) Also, this track does an excellent job blending the singer’s voices together! Scott McMicken and Toby Leaman both contribute with vocals and base the lyrics on a humble approach to life and the experiences that comes with that. Track #4 is called Distant Light and reflects the influence that the Motown music era had on them. “The song itself was a breeze and practically wrote itself,” says the band. The song is true to its recording style and is a very easy going tune that will make itself whistle off of your lips. Track #6 goes a bit of a different direction than the rest of the album, and even though it’s still catchy it does show how well the band can play a wide range of sounds and styles, as is portrayed by the emotional and vulnerable song, Too Weak to Ramble. Dr. Dog mixes it up a little and comes back to a psychedelic sound in the next few tracks but the song Twilight again highlights the band’s rawness and ability to adapt to a different sound. Twilight is also one of those songs that sounds like its named after itself and a little bit of an old school love song (think 50’s and cardigans are all the rage). The track Rock & Roll is a soulful tribute to the bands roots and influences. No album can be complete without a Love song and the boys did just that with the song Love. The song has a surf rock feel to it and that’s why I like it. Im a sucker for surf rock. Last and probably Least is the song Nellie. I think this is the song you can skip on the album but since it’s the last song.. you cant really skip it BUT you can start the fun all over again by starting from track 1!

I think B Room is a solid album, even after listening to it for a couple weeks, I can still play it without getting annoyed. Usually when I listen to an album over and over I need to bench it for a few months to give it a rest, but this one surprisingly has not hit the gag reflex in me. Well I hope you enjoyed my write up and furthermore enjoy the album. Also, feel free to follow me on Spotify to catch what I’m listening to on the daily. Uhm, yeah. Sayonara!

P.S. Today is my 2 year anniversary with WordPress. That means I started blogging exactly 2 years ago.. Wish I didn’t delete my old blog posts…

Don Cuixote

Don Quezada (Pronounced Don Coytote)

Hey everyone. I have here a story of Don Quixote as told by me. slightly inebriated.

Don Quixotic, you see Don Quixotic was this Spanish dude man from Mexico city. He rode his horse on hourseback through the streets of Savilla. He was like “Here yee here yyyeee im Don Quixotic from Mexico City”. And the people paid him no attention. So hes like “man, I need to do something to earn the peoples respect.”

So he gets really down on himself and starts to drink heavily. And one day as he’s drinking El Jimador Taquilla he looks out the window and sees this mama sita walking and then all of a sudden this creepy dude runs up and takes away her purse.
She falls on the floor and yells

“OOHHH MEEE GAWWDDD SOMEONE PLEEASE HELP!!

So Don quixotic is like. “Oh man now is my chance!” So he runs out the door and chases the creepy dude down. The creepy dude has this pointy mustache and he runs away from Don Quixotic.
So Don Quixotic is walking back totally bummed and he thinks to himself, I need to do something super heroic. So he has this idea. So hes like, im gonna go smite a dragon with this lance that i have straped to my back. Well he goes off searching for a dragon and on the way when he stops by in Austria. While in Austria he learns that in the land of Holland there are dragons there SO hes like okay, time to go kill a dutch dragon.
Well he gets there and he looks over the prarie and he sees a mythical dutch dragon!! SO he lowers his visor and and his lance and he charges the mythical dutch dragon or MDD for short. Well he gets to it but PLOT TWIST! Don Quixotic is this really old dude who cant even see! So he mistook the MDD for a windmill! and the reason no one was noticing him was because he was a ghost!!!! Chilly stuff guys. Anyways after this ordeal he came to america and opened up this bitchen mexican burrito shop on the corner of park and sunset. Thanks for reading.

Love
Ory

P.s. i want a corndog.

Stay tuned for other blogs about other things.

Music Blog

Hey All…

Starting these blog posts is difficult. I usually apologize to my non-existent fans about not writing enough and then I rant about what’s going on in my life.

Well today is no different.

Currently my soul is downcast, and it gets to be this way if I don’t write something for about a week. It’s been about a month now, so you can image the darkness that’s brewing up inside of me. I need a release, so here it is;

MUSIC.

A couple of weeks ago I watched my favorite professional soccer team get creamed by a lower and far less prestigious team. After the game I was feeling pretty low myself, so I made a playlist on Spotify to help me cope with the devastating loss.

(The playlist is called… When Liverpool Lose. You can follow me on Spotify to give it a listen and subscribe too, it if you’d like.)

After listening to this playlist I felt a little bit better.

Actually, I felt a whole lot better.

Now I’m no scientist, but I’m pretty sure my mood before and after listening to these particular songs was altered as a result of that playlist. The music set the mood and helped me process my thoughts and feelings about the tragic loss i had just encountered. Music is magical like that; I know everyone can agree and relate to how music has an affect on oneself. I also believe that there is a spiritual side to music. I mean, King Saul’s angry fits were soothed away by David’s harp playing, but since I’m not fluent in Christianese, I’ll just leave it at MAGIC.

One hobby of mine is listening to music. Actually, really listening to music.Like Sitting down, putting a record on, and just listening to it from start to finish without skipping a track. I know everyone listens to music but I recommend everyone try this out. Maybe you just had a long day at work, or your dog just peed on the rug and you need to clean it. I suggest you find your favorite album and put it on, listen to it from start to finish without interruption. It just might help you out! Certain albums carry within them a certain kind of magic that might only be revealed with this kind of listening approach.

Stay tuned to my blog, I’ll be starting a new segment called, Music You Should Be Listening To, in which I’ll introduce an artist or album that I think everyone should be listening to and break them down a little for you who care to know more.

Thanks for reading.

-Ory

Hello friends and strangers who might happen to stumble upon this blog while lurking my Instagram. Welcome to my blog. I feel like every blog entry I do I welcome readers. Maybe if I wrote more consistently I would not have to do this. Well.. to catch everyone up. I moved to San Francisco some […]

A poem about a Russian guy asking me if I’m Russian.

HEY YOU!

YOU RUSSIAN?

 

No.      

Ukrainian.

 

 

SAME TING, VER ARE BROTHERS

Mlachiy brat

(Little brother)

Ver are all za same

You and I Belorrussia Georgia Ver all one

Слуш, вас есть сигареты

(listen, do you have a cigarette?)

 

No.

I quit.

 

NU SUKA

PASHOL HAHOL

CHO SMOTRISH!

PASHOL!!

(You puta.. Or other bitch word)

(Leave Khahol: an ethnic slur for Ukrainian. Derogatory.)

(Why are you staring at me, leave!)

 

The light turns green

I step on the crosswalk

 

Turn

and

 

say

 

Goodbye brother

 

And walk away. 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried to mess around with fonts a bit more but when I went to transfer the writing from the original word doc to this blog the fonts reverted back to Times new roman or whatever the standard is.. 

 

If you would like to see the original File please email me 

Orypool1987@gmail.com

 

Take 1

12/4/13

Today was the first day since I “moved” to San Francisco that I really started to miss people back in Sacramento. And dog. I miss my dog murphy.

By move I mean, I’m technically not yet here yet, just staying on the couch at my friend’s house. (thanks Roman and Snow for letting me crash, fer reallz.)

I’m not too good with feelings but today I was thinking a lot about a few of the people that I miss.

My brother Yaro is one of them. Sometimes I think he should be made into an action figure kinda like woody from Toy Story. When you pull the string from his back he will say funny catch phrases like

“Are you smelling what I’m stepping in?”

Or “Tell her to put out or get out!”

My personal favorite was when I told him to marry someone and he turned to me and said

“Don’t you put that evil on me!”

He’s a man of simple things. Fishing. Buying guns. Collecting trucks. He has 3 and they’re all Chevy’s and he just happens to be the funniest person I know.

I also miss my stinky fanooder of a dog, Murphy. I keeping laughing about the time he farted and got startled by the noise and started barking. Crazy dog he is.

I miss a lot of you. Even though I didn’t mention anything about you, I still miss you.

Yesterday after work I decided to go explore the city. I didn’t make it too far out. Just a couple of blocks from where I punch in and punch out I found this diner. It was like in the movies, all squished and compact and dimly lit. When I walked in all I could hear was the sound of forks scrapping against plates, not exactly music to my ears, but I proceeded and the waiter told me to sit anywhere. I sat down, ordered my soup and began reading. That’s when I realized that I was alone. I sat up, looked around the room and noticed a few other people sitting by themselves. Then it hit me again. I was alone.

I guess that’s step one to realizing that I now live in a big city.

Everyone around me was alone and so was I.

This is gonna be good.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more posts about my adventure in San Francisco.