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AOTW [34] : Byron Koppens

Another nice surprise while doing some random surfing online. Came across Byron Koppen’s myspace profile and really liked this cover of “It’s my life”.  This 20 years old is located at New Zealand and his originals aint too bad too. Check out his cover of Adam Lambert’s “Whataya want from me” – a current favourite on my playlist.

Adam Lambert – Whataya Want From Me

Hey, slow it down
What do you want from me
What do you want from me
Yeah, I’m afraid
What do you want from me
What do you from me

There might have been a time
I would give myself away
(Ooh) Once upon a time
I didn’t give a damn
But now here we are
So what do you want from me
What do you want from me

Just don’t give up
I’m workin’ it out
Please don’t give in
I won’t let you down
It messed me up, need a second to breathe
Just keep coming around
Hey, what do you want from me
What do you want from me

Yeah, it’s plain to see
that baby you’re beautiful
And it’s nothing wrong with you
It’s me – I’m a freak
but thanks for lovin’ me
Cause you’re doing it perfectly

There might have been a time
When I would let you step away

I wouldn’t even try but I think
you could save my life

Just don’t give up
I’m workin’ it out
Please don’t give in
I won’t let you down
It messed me up, need a second to breathe
Just keep coming around
Hey, what do you want from me
What do you want from me

Just don’t give up on me
I won’t let you down
No, I won’t let you down

So
Just don’t give up
I’m workin’ it out
Please don’t give in
I won’t let you down
It messed me up, need a second to breathe
Just keep coming around
Hey, what do you want from me

Just don’t give up
I’m workin’ it out
Please don’t give in
I won’t let you down
It messed me up, need a second to breathe
Just keep coming around
Hey, whataya want from me
(whataya want from me)
Whataya want from me
whataya want from me

Tags: adam lambert, aotw, byron koppen, covers, it's my life, myspace, new zealand, original, playlist, whataya want from me, youtube

AOTW [31] : Skyrocket Love

I’m usually blasting my Grooveshark playlist when it’s the exam mugging period. I was just adding some old school songs and discover that Grooveshark now promotes upcoming bands to its listeners on their main page. Way to go !

Skyrocket Love caught my eyes (ok, to be exact – the one on the left, haha! I think he’s the keyboardist?) and decided to give their songs a listen. Pretty awesome stuff I must say ! Reminds me alot of  One Republic and Yellowcard somehow for a strange reason, although I feel that their influences came mainly from (of course) artists that I really like – Coldplay, Jimmy Eat World, Muse, Snow Patrol etc. Can’t really find the right ‘label’ to the band, but I like their own style and voice too.

I really enjoyed ‘Save The World’, ‘Rushing Back’ and ‘Safe In My Dreams’. Go check them out on their myspace for more ! So far, I must say I’m lovin’ them on my playlist =)

Skyrocket Love –  Novocaine

[wish i could find the lyrics but no luck =( ]

Tags: aotw, coldplay, grooveshark, jimmy eat world, muse, myspace, novacaine, one republic, playlist, rushing back, safe in my dreams, skyrocket love, snow patrol, yellowcard

AOTW [25] : Frances Lorenzo

Another young talent, at the age of 17, Frances from Canada is another featured ‘Artist of the Week ‘ who is strumming my new favourite instrument – Ukulele.

Pretty cool cover of Keri Hilson’s ‘Knock You Down’. It happened that it was on my grooveshark playlist while looking for more Ukulele players on youtube.

In fact, I saw a couple of Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’ covers on youtube but I think Frances’s cover stood out among the rest. Being a cute girl with a sweet voice probably won the others hands down.

For some strange reason, I really like both songs. Now I just want to learn how to play the ukulele and do my own covers too (We shall wait and see.HAH!) Ukulele makes every song sounds so cheerful and happy =) I like !

Tags: aotw, canada, cesslor, covers, frances lorenzo, grooveshark, instrument, keri hilson, knock you down, love story, playlist, taylor swift, ukulele, youtube

Stayin’ Alive : Grooveshark Attack !

The boyfriend told me about Grooveshark some days ago and I was hesitating about signing up for “another social networking site” but no regrets at all ! In fact, I would have stabbed myself (just kidding) for not checking Grooveshark out !

Yet another internet radio site but one of the main draws of Grooveshark is the breadth of their library, which covers almost everything from indies to your usual A-songs. Unlike blip.fm which certainly has its flaws on streaming, you can stream songs from the web interface easily and so far I have yet to come across any broken links. It’s like having an iTunes online, free of charge !

It is evident that the Grooveshark team spent a lot of time creating an interface that users would find intuitive even though new users will probably take awhile to figure it out. I love how sleek the design looks and the 3-col layout is easy to navigate. It is even easier to conduct search in Grooveshark as compared to other internet radio sites. Just type in the name of a song in the interface and you’re provided with a small url that you can paste into any of your favourite social media services, like twitter and facebook. You can do a user search to add your friends and share your playlists too ! I like the fact that I can create several playlist to suits my mood, that’s probably something that blip.fm doesn’t offer.

I have been using Grooveshark almost a week now, and I am loving it ! Grooveshark proves to be a formidable player with its user-friendly interface and much lesser downtime/broken links. Its library and social media-friendly elements are probably the key factor why I’d switch from blip.fm to them. If you can’t tell, Grooveshark has already totally win my heart ! It’s keeping me alive at work everyday without fail.

you can add me @iammyy to check out my playlist (will be adding more)

P.S : The boyfriend just told me that Grooveshark is facing lawsuit from EMI, I hope they will survive it and continue their service. C’mon record labels, *this* is the new way to promote your music and artistes…learn to embrace technology and live with it already !

Tags: a-songs, blip.fm, EMI, grooveshark, indie, interface, itunes, lawsuit, library, mood, playlist, search, social media, songs, stayin' alive

AOTW [2] : Johnta Austin

The week has been rather busy for me, sorry about the delay….here’s the second artiste of the week !

I came across the song some weeks ago while surfing youtube. I’m not a huge fan of R&B but I found the lyrics really sweet, no matter how cheesy it is.

So I went to google on Johnta Austin and found that he’s actually a four-time Grammy Award-winning upcoming artist ! Not only that, he was also the co-writer of Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together” as well as Mary J Blige’s “Be Without You” ! Talented artist/writer I must agree, at least I could feel the emotions in his songs/lyrics.

This gotta be one of my recent favourite on my playlist. Really sweet song =) Enjoy !

Johnta Austin – This Love

here we are, you and me
love is sealed can’t you see
just for us, no one else
at least that’s the way it feels
and i’m grateful to be in your arms this evening
i was unsure, but now you got me believing
that time is what you make of it
and love comes first
and i’ve waited for so long just to say these words

i want this life, i want this love
i want this kiss, i want this hug
i want this time, i want this night
i want you here by my side
i want every little thing that makes my heart sing
and everything you try just to make it right
if i’m being honest baby you got all that i need
it’s true you got a hold on me

there’s no other place that i would rather be right now
and the look on my face is what happiness is all about
feelings come, feelings go
but what we have lasts forever
there’s a lot that i don’t know
but i know when we’re together
that time is what we make of it
and love comes first
and i’ve waited for so long just to say these words

i want this life, i want this love
i want this kiss, i want this hug
i want this time, i want this night
i want you here by my side
i want every little thing that makes my heart sing
and everything you try just to make it right
if i’m being honest baby you got all that i need
it’s true you got a hold on me

i’ll be around no matter what my baby
and if i let you down i’ll pick you up my baby
i wanna be your everything
and if you ever doubt my baby
then let this kiss be your evident
that this was me

i want this life, i want this love
i want this kiss, i want this hug
i want this time, i want this night
i want you here by my side
i want every little thing that makes my heart sing
and everything you try just to make it right
if i’m being honest baby you got all that i need
it’s true you got a hold on me

i want this life, i want this love
i want this kiss, i want this hug
i want this time, i want this night
i want you here by my side
i want every little thing that makes my heart sing
and everything you try just to make it right
if i’m being honest baby you got all that i need
it’s true you got a hold on me

Tags: aotw, artiste of the week, award winning, be without you, grammy, johnta austin, mariah carey, mary j blige, playlist, r&b, this love, we belong together, writer, you and me, youtube

(AOTW) Artist Of The Week : Never Shout Never

As a Campus Radio DJ on SMU Campus Radio for coming 2 years, I have always been actively promoting local/myspace artists on my radio shows. My co-host from my most recent show, Rachel and I  decided to feature one myspace.com artist per week for our listeners and I really enjoyed doing that because sharing is always fun ! Not only do you get to “interact” with your listeners but you also have the “power” to “force” your listeners into listening to your current playlist. (Haha, Just Kidding!)

I blogged about blip.fm earlier on  where I share my music picks on a regular basis, but it is getting frustrating with the preview clips and youtube videos feature. So I decided to bring the artist of the week (AOTW) segment to my blog instead ! I will feature either a myspace or local artist each week  (but I will keep things short and sweet), so stay tuned !

To start things off with a happy note (no pun intended, you’ll understand later), this week I’m going to share with you this 6 people band “Never Shout Never“.

You can read more about them from their myspace profile. One thing I’ll like to highlight is 18 years old Christofer Drew (vocal) has a really unique voice, it really caught my attention when I first heard their songs.  (And he looks really cute with his ukulele too ! Click here to watch him LIVE *warning : crazy fans screams and shakey hands*)

Here’s my favourite (and their latest single) “Happy”, I was telling Daryl (who also have his  “Music Mondays” )  that I really liked the lyrics. One of those “puts a smile on my face” songs. In fact, their EP will be out soon and their songs are all available on iTunes, do check them out if you like their music !

< Never Shout Never – Happy >

You make me happy, whether you know it or not
We should be happy, that’s what I said from the start
I am so happy, Knowing you are the one that
I’ll love for the rest of my days,
(for the rest of my days), yes, all of my days!
you’re looking so cool, you’re looking so fly,
I can’t deny that when I’m staring you down
right dead in the eye, I wanna try to be the person you want,
the person you need,
it’s hard to conceive that somebody like you,
could be with, somebody like me

I’m happy knowing you are mine,
the grass is greener on the other side,
The More I think, The more I wish that we
could lay here for hours, and just reminisce.

Ooh ooh,
you’re looking so fresh it’s catching my eye,
why oh why, did I not see this before,
the girl I adore, was right in front of me.
and now I’ll take a step back,
and look in your eye and ask why,
It took so long for me too see, we’re meant to be.

I’m happy knowing you are mine,
the grass is greener on the other side,
The More I think, The more I wish that
we could lay here for hours, and just reminisce.

On the good the bad the ugly,
the smiles the laughs the funny,
oh all the things we put each
other through, it’s for you, for you

You make me happy, whether you know it or not
We should be happy, that’s what I said from the start
I am so happy, Knowing you are the one that
I’ll love for the rest of my days

I’m happy knowing you are mine,
the grass is greener on the other side,
The More I think, The more I wish that we
could lay here for hours, and just reminisce.
Ooh Ooh

—

If you know of any good myspace/local artists (or if you’re one of them) and think I should do a feature, just drop a comment or  email to exit18 (at) gmail (dot) com ! Looking forward to hear from you guys !

Tags: aotw, artist, artist of the week, blip, campus radio dj, christofer drew, crazy fans, daryl, ep, happy, itunes, local, Music, music mondays, myspace, never shout never, playlist, puts a smile on my face, radio, smu campus radio, songs, ukulele, youtube

Your own radio station ? Holy Blip !

I’ve joined blip.fm since 17th Sept last year and so far, I’m really loving it.

I meant to blog about blip ages ago and go into details but let’s just keep it short and simple.

8 reasons why i love blip.fm :

1. It is like the best bit of  last.fm+twitter all rolled into one.
2. It has a realtime feed of what other “DJ”s are listening to.
3. It is personal/interactive because you pick the music for your playlist and you get to reblip others.
4. It encourages “value-system” – it requires contributions from its members in order to benefit from the others in the society.
5. It has an idiot-proof interface and system – just search and *tadah*, there you go!
6. It has a built-in virality and a good feedback system.
7. It has alot of “undiscovered” artistes, oldies and radio hits shared by others.
8. It is addictive – it’s almost becoming a habit for me to share my music pick everyday.

What I really liked about blip is that it directly updates my tumblr and twitter to allow others to see what I’m listening to.

Most of the time I’ll also plurk about my blips as my “music of the day” plurk. I guess it’s a good way to share great music found online and so far I spend at least half an hour on blip.fm to look for good songs and am getting props/positive feedbacks on my music taste – which really is quite an ego booster. (HAHA)

Sure, there are many music sharing sites out there and probably better ones. But Blip.fm is still my favourite as of now. Do give it a try (c’mon, it’s not like you don’t have 9867545122 different accounts out there already) and let me know what you think about it ?

Speaking of music, I’m planning on adding a new “element” to this blog. Keep a lookout for my little project! =)

Tags: addictive, blip.fm, built-in virality, dj, iammyy, indie, interface, last.fm, Music, playlist, plurk, props, radio, tumblr, twitter, value system