Hey everyone, sorry for the late post. I’ve been swamped with school and feeling a bit off the past few days. Regardless, let’s get into it!
Also I picked this GIF without knowing we were talking about Teddy Roosevelt in my history lecture today. I’m just that good apparently.
This Week In Music…
M. Shadows and the rest of Avenged Sevenfold boycotted the Grammys this past weekend, due to the program not broadcasting any rock categories. I completely agree with their stance.
Foo Fighters won Best Rock Song for their tune Run. The Foos were in the same category as Avenged Sevenfold for their song, The Stage.
Stone Sour guitarist Josh Rand has checked himself into rehab, and will not be joining the band on the rest of their tour.
Mike Shinoda‘s new solo project, The Post Traumatic EP, was released last week. It is a heartfelt and powerful reflection on his time after Chester Bennington passed away. He will also be playing at Summer Sonic Festival in Japan this summer.
Music History
John Mayer is an American singer-songwriter and producer who was born in Conneticut. He attended two semesters at Berkeley music college before moving with friend Clay Cook to Atlanta. After a year or two, Mayer went out on his own and started recording his music.
The 2001 release of Room for Squares, and developed hits with songs like No Such Thing, Why Georgia, and Your Body is a Wonderland. 2003 was the release of Heavier Things, an album with a similar style to that of Room for Squares. The best release on this album was Daughters, and it even won John a Grammy in 2005. He later split the Grammy in half to give to Alicia Keys, who he thought deserved it more.
2004 would see the release of a collection of live albums called As/Is, which were raw recordings with all of his mistakes in them as well, and by 2005, Mayer had become very prominent as a songwriter, and was even playing shows opening for the Rolling Stones, Buddy Guy, and more. He was being compared to Dave Matthews on many occasions.
He began to break out into his jazz/blues roots in 2005, and formed the blues group the John Mayer Trio with Pino Palladino and drummer Steve Jordan, both of whom he had met through studio sessions. 2006 also saw the release of his greatest bout yet, Continuum; an album largely considered his greatest, with songs such as Gravity, Clarity, Vultures, Waiting on the World to Change, and more. It confused critics, who didn’t know whether he was pursuing his former pop idol status, or his newfound blues direction, considering it was a combination of the two.
2007 saw Mayer be compared to the likes of Eric Clapton and John Frusciante as a new “guitar god”. He played many more shows in the span of 2007-2009, while releasing Where the Light Is in 2008, a live album from his performance at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles.
Battle Studies was released in 2009, which Mayer does not consider his best work. This featured the song Heartbreak Warfare, and a cover of Crossroads by Cream. Mayer went through some personal controversy in 2010 with some less than secretive headlines. Moreover, this was supplemented with three separate surgeries to remove a granuloma which kept coming back. Mayer also released the album Born and Raised in 2012, which was a return to his roots, and he says was very “whiskey induced”.
With a few one off performances, Mayer did not return to the spotlight until 2013, with the release of Paradise Valley, a folk rock ballad of sorts. The album had two tracks which featured Katy Perry on Who You Love, and Frank Ocean on Wildfire pt. 2
In 2015, John Mayer said that all he listened to from 2011 and onward was the Grateful Dead, and he was invited to go on tour with the surviving members. This created the band Dead & Company, which went on tour for 2 years, and have been touring again in 2017 and now into 2018.
Due to this, Mayer had to postpone what was called his “most personal album” until 2017, and personal it was. The Search for Everything was released in early 2017, and is a heartfelt ballad on life. His tour saw a 5 part division of the different parts of his career, from new works, to early stages, to his greatest hits.
Mayer has released 7 studio albums, 7 live albums, and 17 music videos
As of 2015, Mayer has sold 16 million albums in the United States
With the exception of his breakout album, all of his albums have hit either number 1 or 2 on the billboard charts
Band of the Week
Goes to Rise Against this week, with two off of their new album, Wolves; House on Fire, and The Violence.
Thanks for a great week. See resources below if you need help, or want to help. Cheers!
- Queens of the Stone Age – Feet Don’t Fail Me
- Foo Fighters – Make It Right
- Foo Fighters – Dirty Water
- Menzingers – Lookers
- Linkin Park – Heavy
- blink-182 – Last Train Home
- Matthew Good – Decades
- Paramore – Hard Times
- Thirty Seconds to Mars – Walk on Water
- John Mayer – Still Feel Like Your Man
- John Mayer – Helpless
- John Mayer – Never On the Day You Leave
- Greta van Fleet – Highway Tune
- Royal Blood – How Did We Get So Dark?
- Roger Waters – Deja Vu
- Papa Roach – Help
- Japandroids – Near To The Wild Heart of Life
- Brand New – Can’t Get It Out
- Rise Against – House on Fire
- Rise Against – The Violence
- Mac DeMarco – Still Beating
- The War on Drugs – Pain
- Imagine Dragons – Thunder
- U2 – You’re The Best Thing About Me
- Portugal. The Man – So Young
- Jeff Rosenstock – All This Useless Energy
