The Killers - Part 1

The Killers. If anybody knows me, they know I do enjoy The Killers. Like, a lot. They’re probably my all-time favorite band, and there are many, many reasons why.

I’ve listened to almost every song that they’ve ever written. I’ve seen them live in concert every album release (except for Day And Age, and I missed that for regrettable reasons (oh well *shrug*)), for a total of four concerts. I’m a big fan of Brandon Flowers on many levels. He just seems like a good human being overall. I love that they don’t try to sound like anybody else. They are their own brand of unique. And I love that their songs seem to speak to me on so many levels. Plus, I know like, three songs on the guitar by heart, and one of them is “All These Things That I’ve Done”. It’s my go-to when performing in front of people while playing an instrument.

Many, many people were initially drawn to The Killers by their hits “Mr. Brightside” or “Somebody Told Me”, but the song that really got me into them was “Smile Like You Mean It”. I don’t know exactly why. “Somebody Told Me” is a super catchy Indie/rock/pop/glam anthem, and “Mr. Brightside” has a chorus that I absolutely adore, but “Smile Like You Mean It” was the hook that brought me in. It is just so subtle in its approach. From its encroaching beginning all the way to its wailing end, and every hard hitting and intentional drum beat in between, it’s just awesome. Plus, I’ve always loved to smile, so there’s that. :)

I remember listening to their first album, Hot Fuss in my car and trying to get my sister to like it as well (she was more into Weezer, whom I also love, but more on that in a later post). I remember going to see them for the first time at The Great Saltair just outside of Salt Lake City, UT. I was in the middle of college at Brigham Young University at the time, and my buddy/roommate and I went to the show. It was a total blast and cemented them as one of my favorite bands at the time. A mutual friend of ours who worked at a local copy center told us that Brandon Flowers’ niece had come into her shop earlier that day requesting help with a poster to take to the show to be able to show “Uncle Brandon”. I do remember seeing a little girl with a poster up in the “good seats”.

The second time seeing The Killers live, I went with my then Counterfeit Digits bandmates (minus our bassist) and one of our other friends for…get this…only $20. It was an absolute steal, and one of the absolute best concerts I’ve ever been to. Their album Sam’s Town had recently dropped and we made our way onto the main floor not far from the stage when they came up to bat. The opening performers were not that great, but that changed around when “Sam’s Town” started playing absolutely firing up the crowd. By the end of the song, everyone was singing along and it ended with a literal *bang* as confetti cannons showered the crowd in red and white pieces of paper. It felt like a literal circus! A couple of songs in, the electricity completely went out in the place and left everyone in almost pitch black darkness. The house people were trying for a bit to get it back on. They were able to get the sound system and instruments working but nothing else, so Brandon Flowers said that they’d just keep playing! They played “Smile Like You Mean It” with Flowers holding an industrial flashlight, shining it out on the crowd. So cool. About three-quarters of the way through the song, the lights came back on, and it was electric. I remember coming home and being totally exhausted that night. We all had a blast. 

The third time I saw them live was with my blushing bride-to-be. My fiancée and I were getting married two days later, and for her wedding gift to me, she got me The Killers tickets. She knows me so well. So we went! Along with my brother and his wife, AND my parents!!! We all had so much fun. It was a great way to celebrate, and there were literal fireworks during the show to boot haha. Fun fact: my dad listened to nothing but The Killers for like, two months straight after that! And of course, the wedding two days later was awesome too. :)

To Be Continued....

New Spotify Playlist!

So I made a Spotify playlist for a buddy today who has been out of the country for a couple years (as a church missionary). He wanted me to make a playlist with my favorite songs of the past two years. So, I made it and named it "Favorite songs of the past decade (minus 8 years)". Look it up under "TeeJ" on Spotify, or I have made a Spotify playlist widget thingy to the right that has the direct link for the playlist! Easy access with one click!. Let me know what you all think! Enjoy!!!

My Musical Background

Sometime last year I wrote this to apply for The Voice. I think it's a great introduction to myself and my overall musical background. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!! Let me know in the comments below!

​As a small child I can remember tremendously enjoying music. I remember singing in church, to the radio, and with my family members. I also took piano lessons for a while, and played the trumpet through middle school, but the biggest moment of my young life came when I was in fourth or fifth grade. CD players for vehicles were just coming out and my parents had one installed into our red and gold Chevy Silverado. With it they of course purchased a few music CD’s to listen to in the truck. One of these was a double disc set of Billy Joel’s greatest hits. I started listening in the truck by myself late one afternoon, and was instantly hooked. The piano, the melodies, the electric guitars, the rhythm and lyrics opened my eyes and ears to infinite possibilities. I was out there for what seemed like hours. This was the moment when my love for music really came to fruition.

I’ve been told by many friends and family members that I have an uncanny memory for melodies and lyrics, so much that many times it only takes a few times of listening to a song for me to be able to sing it or recall it from memory. I remember singing while out working in the fields on our farm, or while riding my horse to gather cattle. However, due to my higher range and ability to sing falsetto, I was always afraid to sing in front of people for fear of “sounding like a girl”. I thought that men were supposed to have deep baritone or bass voices. Well, that all changed at the end of my junior year of high school. 

School choir tryouts were being held for the following year, my senior year, and there was a cute girl that I liked at the time who wanted me to try out with her. If she was going to, of course I was going to! I remember going to tryout and walking into the choir room for the first time and my teacher was sitting at a piano. He wanted to find out what my range was and had me mimic notes as he scaled up the keys of the piano. When I got to where I had to change to falsetto, I hesitated and was embarrassed to continue on. He kindly encouraged me to keep going and see how high I could go. When all was said and done, he was pleasantly surprised by my range and continued to encourage and foster my vocal growth all throughout the next year. I was even cast as the lead in our school musical that year, and had lead singing parts in our end of the year choir spectacular. Unfortunately, the cute girl did not try out for choir, but I am grateful that I did. I will also always be grateful for my choir teacher who had faith in me and my ability as it helped me to grow vocally, and helped me become the individual that I am today!

After high school I continued to sing in church, in choirs, and even took voice lessons and classes in college to help me increase my vocal ability. In college I also had the opportunity to form a band with some friends and a cousin. We were called Counterfeit Digits and played all the local scenes in Provo, Utah that we could. The biggest crowd that we played for was a group of about 3,000 students. I was the lead singer and we all worked very hard and had a good following in town. We even made two EP’s of our own music and worked to get them into the hands of music producers. Unfortunately it did not work for us at the time, but it is still fun to listen to those recordings and reminisce about those times together. 

When college was over I moved to Denver, Colorado after graduation for work but continued to pursue music. I was a member of the Colorado Mormon Chorale for a short time, and also sang in a 70’s to 90’s cover band for about a year or so. Now I still enjoy singing in church, most of the time with my wife who also has a lovely voice. I also play a little guitar and sing for my wife and our kids. Thank you for your time and consideration!

Ground Rules

Alrighty, so, before we get into this too far, I'd just like to set some general ground rules. I want this to really be a positive space where we can all enjoy music together. I'd love it to be something that if you wanted to share it with your children, you can totally do that without any worries. And I'd love it to be something that my own kids could read in the future too. Hence the need for some quick ground rules, "a couple of quid-pro-quos". Ok? Cool.

1. Comments! I'd love to hear your comments, feedback, niceties, and constructive criticisms. I am not going to be the comment police here, and I know that not all of you are going to agree with everything I have to say. I truly appreciate that! But, I still do reserve the right to remove any comments that I deem too critical, crass, negative, or downright mean towards myself, or others. Also, easy on the swears. Again, I want this to be a wholesomely positive place.

2. Again, I know not everyone will agree with everything I have to say, nor probably all my personal tastes, and that's totally cool! Just keep it real. :)

3. I am a very spiritual and religious person. As such, I may from time to time talk about such things in various posts. Not pushing any of you in that direction at all, it's just part of who I am. I have had some great spiritual experiences involving music and that part of me is bound to sneak in sooner or later. Please be respectful. Thanks! :)

4. As I may have mentioned before, this is first and foremost a music blog...so that's what we're gonna talk about, haha!

Thanks everyone! As I talked about previously, I'll be doing a "Song of the Day" every day (hence the name), posting videos on my YouTube page (click under "YouTubes" on the right of your screen), making playlists on Spotify, as well as writing regular blog posts. I'll be posting updates on other social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) when new things come up. I'm also currently toying with the idea of starting an Instagram account totally dedicated to all this as well. And possibly doing things via Instagram stories?? I don't know. Haven't locked that one down yet. Let me know what you all think! See you all very soon!

Welcome to Musica!!

Music. Music has ALWAYS been a ginormous part of my life. I've always enjoyed it, no matter the genre (for the most part). I have a fairly extensive music collection, been a part of a few bands, played some amazing shows, and been to a lot of sweet concerts. But for awhile I'd mostly given up on it. Lost the passion for it, if you will. For all the good music these days, there seemed to be twice as much bad. I wasn't in any bands, and it just wasn't part of my life like it used to be. Which is totally unlike me.

Many of my friends and acquaintances at that time would ask me if I was doing anything musical as of late, and I would reply "no". Then they'd usually say something like, "That's too bad. You have a great voice." Or "We loved Counterfeit Digits (the band I was in while attending college). We wish you guys would have made more music." On top of that, my beautiful wife is always telling me that I should sing more. So I began to think about it, and the idea in my head grew even more after going back through my old blog and reading all the encouraging comments and thoughts some of you may have even replied with over the years. Not to mention everyone reaching out to me on Facebook about my more recent videos and musical exploits I've posted. To all of you, thank you so, so very much! It all combined to inspire me to finally bring this together.

So I give you MUSICA! A blog of my own creation devoted to music and why I love it all so freaking much! I want to share my personal experiences with music, my tastes, my recommendations from time to time, and eventually I think I would like to write and share my own music here. I've opened a youtube channel so I can more directly share my talents, and give those of you who have asked for it, a chance to hear/see me sing more. You can find the direct link to the right under "Youtubes". I want to post videos fairly regularly should time permit. I will also be sharing a "Song of the Day" with everyone that I will update every morning. Just some song that seems to fit for the day ahead of us all, and a personal touch that I can share with each and every one of you. I also have a Spotify account where I'll be making different playlists from time to time. Search for "TeeJ" and you should be able to find me there!

I have a lot of cool memories, thoughts, and feelings that I think I can share that many of you will hopefully enjoy. And maybe I can return the favor and inspire some of you like you have me! Oh, and don't think that just because this is a blog devoted to music that I won't be throwing in a dash of my other nerdy passions too, because that is certainly likely to happen.

I welcome you all to Musica!