Categories
Music

Alexander Lewis & Brasstracks – All of the Lights

I’m usually not a fan of people reinterpreting the work of artists that I see as seminal, but Alexander Lewis & Brasstracks have a gem on their hands with their take on Kanye’s “All Of The Lights”. It’s a (naturally) brass-led jam that could very well be heard pouring out from an SEC college football stadium during halftime or echoing around Bourbon Street on a Saturday night. It sounds phenomenal on a pair of headphones, but this is a joint that feels communal, its overwhelming sense of joy best experienced around a swathe of other people searching for the same level of elation.

There’s something special about a mass group fueled by a shared energy; I can’t help but think about connecting with the raucous crowds when UGA would play Georgia Tech in the fall during my youth, or when bliss permeated through the audience as Big Gigantic had every body in the Tabernacle moving in unison. Whether it would serve as the background noise to the former or the centerpiece of a concert like the latter, “All of the Lights” has the ability to incite a level of dynamism that I hope to experience in the near future.

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Categories
Music Video Writing

EMPT Classic: Kanye West – Welcome To Heartbreak ft. Kid Cudi

We posted this track a while back, like way back, normally we would post the original and write something above it, but we are in the future now and I am doing things a little differently with this  EMPT Classic because I really dig the video which we never featured.  The title of the original post was “Say Goodbye to Hollywood.”  Funny enough I am in Los Angeles for a day and a night with my Little Bear and all I want to do is say goodbye.  Don’t get me wrong I am not hating on LA, but this place has too many memories that are still so fresh in my brain that bring me right back every time I am here and I don’t want to think about those memories.  LA and the memories are like a wound that has healed but now I am waiting for the scar to go away too, and as we know, scars don’t always heal.

Thankfully I am staying on the beach in Malibu and I don’t have to be in the heart of Hollywood where most of the ghosts of memories past still lurk.  It’s a beautiful view where I am at and the ocean is right in my ears so I need to go soak it all in before I have to jet in the morning.  Press play on this oldie but goodie.