Music Video Monday!

Happy Monday everyone and Happy Memorial Day!


Breakable - Ingrid Michaelson

Songs about Wind

Dust In The Wind - Kansas

My apartment overlooks a valley so it gets extremely windy quite often: the trees bend, the chimney whistles, sometimes the windows even rattle. Here are 10 songs about wind (and air in general):

1. Blowin' in the Wind - Bob Dylan
2. Dust in the Wind - Kansas
3. People of the South Wind - Kansas
4. Lonely Wind - Kansas (yes, lots of Kansas!)
5. Wind of Change - Scorpions
6. When the Wind Blows - The All-American Rejects
7. Ride the Wind - Poison
8. Candle in the Wind - Elton John
9. Oxygen - Colbie Caillet
10. Air (also titled "Coming up for Air") - Ben Folds

Coldplay vs. Creaky Boards vs. Cat Stevens?

The "Viva la Vida" plagiarism accusations continue. First it was Joe Satriani, then Marty Balin and now it's Creaky Boards and Cat Stevens (you can read our previous coverage here and here). We get the idea, "Viva la Vida" sounds like a lot of other songs - apparently not as original as Chris and the boys thought it was.

First things first, you're wondering who the heck Creaky Boards is (at least, I was). They don't have a presence on wikipedia yet, but their official website says they're a four member folk-punk group from NYC (though confusingly, most of their photos show five people). The band leader, Andrew Hoepfner claimed Chris Martin stole the melody for "Viva la Vida" after hearing them perform the ironically titled "The Songs I Didn't Write". After Coldplay proved they had written the song before the alleged theft, Creaky Boards retracted the accusations and suggested that both songs were inspired by the video game, The Legend of Zelda. You can watch the youtube video comparison here.

Then there's the British singer-songwriter Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens from the 70s - he changed his name when he converted to Islam) who's compared "Viva la Vida" to his nearly 20 minute song "Foreigner Suite". You can see the important parts on youtube here. Yusuf isn't suing Coldplay for plagiarism... yet, saying "it depends on how well Satriani does".

The final verdict: same as before. Not substantial portions. Chord changes aren't enough. As we've discovered, they're all Canon in D in disguise anyway...

now featuring... a search bar!

You can now search kharmonious! Go ahead, give it a try (the search bar is located on the right sidebar just under the welcome message).

"Dave Matthews Band" brings up 14 posts.
"Ben Folds" brings up 18 posts.
"Ingrid Michaelson" brings up 15 posts.
"Zombie" only brings up 1.

Music Video Monday!

Katie introduced us to Meiko (pronounced "MEE-ko") a little over a month ago. Her self-titled debut album is a nice blend of gentle acoustics (a la Tristan Prettyman) and breezy melodies (I suspect fans of Colbie Caillet will enjoy Meiko.) Here's the music video to her catchy single "Boys With Girlfriends":


Boys With Girlfriends - Meiko

Mondays are for Music Videos

Mondays can be tough. Brutal even. And sometimes Mondays call for something to boost your spirits.

The Kings of Convenience, a quirky indie folk-pop duo from Norway, have just the booster.

Check out their video for "I'd Rather Dance With You." It's pretty funny (some might even call it "Gap-tastic").


Id Rather Dance With You - Kings Of Convenience

Speaking of Ingrid and Twitter...

In conjunction with my last post, I just discovered this amazing little ditty that Ingrid Michaelson posted on her blog last month. Apparently at one point you could download it for free (though I can't seem to find a download anymore). You can still stream it for free though; check it out:

twitter song - ingrid michaelson

She just cracks me up. And Twitter should probably pay her or something (especially if Dell won't).

Really, Dell? Really?

I follow Ingrid Michaelson on Twitter, and today I noticed she put up an interesting tweet: "wow...someone ripped off my song "BE OK"... wow ... http://tinyurl.com/chtuxv."

In case you haven't actually heard the real version of "Be OK," here's the video:

Be OK - Ingrid Michaelson

Hmm...sound similar? I'd say so.

A couple hours after her first tweet, Ingrid wrote, "i am not opposed to putting songs in commercials. but the artist should be able to say yes or no. blatantly copying a song is wrong." Doesn't sound like too much to ask to me.