Making the day, or rather seizing the day. It’s called Carpe Diem in latin. There’s a funny scene about it in a movie staring Steve Martin called Roxanne. It’s based on the classic play Cyrano De Bergerac. If you haven’t rented the movie, I recommend it. It’s funny. At one point there’s a character that Steve Martin’s character is talking to and he tells him about Carpe Diem and asks if he understands the meaning. The response is, yeah I think so, does it mean fish or fish bait… Of course I’m losing a bit of the humor in the text. Trust me it’s funny, go rent it.
Yesterday was one of those days where several friends were apparently having a stressful day. Right now, I’d say wednesday is my longest day of the week, though I wouldn’t call it stressful. I was making rounds calling people to see how they were doing and sharing a little good news. Several friends who were having not so great a day were suddenly happy to hear something good happen that it made their day better and put a smile on their face.
I know sometime earlier this year I read about a study that was done where happy can be spread. That people who are around happy people often become happy themselves. I am under the impression that study was right. While I’m sure I’ve mentioned good news to people before, I think it was the first time I had gotten several responses in a short period where it made someone else feel good too. It’s an awesome thing.
Which is where today’s choice in Speak Up is a great thing. A song by a group called Show Me The Skyline. It came across my screen a little while ago, but I wanted to wait on it until it had hit iTunes, I finally checked it again this morning and boom it was there. I’m getting the impression that Show Me The Skyline is actually the mastermind of a single musician, much like a Nine Inch Nails or something. The moment I had this song blasting thru my speakers I instantly thought of any recent buddy or teen romance flick I’ve seen in the past year. Hell it could have been in Fired Up.
The sound is very current for right now. The good thing is that this song would likely still work even if it were being covered on an acoustic guitar. Usually I’m not a huge fan of autotune on a vocal, but in this case it’s been used additionally as a background effect and in a way that is kinda cool. The drums are very snappy with an upbeat happiness. The guitars are crunchy without drowning out everything else. The interesting thing is the synths in there. I’m not sure if I’ve heard much in the way of synths in this style before. I probably have and not paid much attention, he’s made good use of it here. It fills out the spectrum in a good way. I’m missing a little bass thump, but it’s not killing the song. The lyrics are definitely upbeat. When a guy has news like this its certainly news that would make others happy.
There’s a whole lot of little ear candy things going on in there. As I listen over and over (I gotta stop before I hear it too many times in a row) I hear little vocal things popped there that would be done on a rap song to emphasize certain words. Or just little melody things in the other instruments. It’s definitely living up to the description of power pop with a modern sensibility.
Hop on over to iTunes or Amazon and get it!