B2ST | BEAST

Haven't done a music feature in awhile, so figured it was about time for another one. Tonight, we're going with B2ST, also known as BEAST. (Apparently the former stands for "Boys to Search for the Top", while the latter is an acronym for "Boys of the East Standing Tall". Where did the "A" go? Although as it is, you could also say it looks like "BEST" ;) Which fits, because their first [mini?]album is titled Beast is the B2ST.) They're a South Korean band that debuted on October 14th, 2009 under Cube Entertainment.

I'll admit - the first time I'd seen their first single Bad Girl I hadn't been particularly impressed. In fact, I think I started out favouring MBLAQ, which I've featured back in November. But then their music grew on me. They're a pretty slick, pretty suave group. Live performances are pretty sick, and the vocals of some of the members are fairly amazing.

Plus Yo Seob kind of reminds of an adorable little monkey ;) I've got a soft spot for monkeys, what with being born in the year of the monkey and all. Basically, the entire group is pretty awesome. The members are: Doo Joon, Hyun Seung, Jun Hyung, Yo Seob, Gi Kwang (AJ), and Dong Woon.

Recently they've released a second EP, Shock of the New Era. Promotions of this started out with Shock, which is a pretty decent song. A few days ago, however, they released the MV (music video) for another song off of that album - Say No (Take Care of My Girlfriend) - and I must say, it's pretty beautiful. There's something very simplistic about the video, the muted, almost b/w tones, the raw emotion of the aching ballad. The vocals are pretty epic on it as well.

So in any case, I'll leave you guys off with the music video for Say No (with English subtitles, of course ;)

In My Mailbox [31]

Pretty sweet week this time around. First I got The Vampire Diaries, The Return: Shadow Souls by L.J. Smith, which was a superb surprise (so thanks for that! :) The CW show The Vampire Diaries (based on the books, of course) is pretty amazing so far. I was quite blown away by this week's episode. What did you guys think of it?

And of course, have to love Ian Somerhalder's portrayal of Damon - so much fun to watch. The facial expressions, the humour... brilliant. Nina Dobrev is awesome as Elena, as can be expected considering her great job on Mia (on Degrassi: The Next Generation). I'm pretty sure the first time I noticed Steven R. McQueen (who plays Jeremy) on Everwood (which was also a great show).

Surprisingly, the [Vampire Diaries show] seems to be getting better with each successive episode, and it's definitely exceeded my expectations from before the series premiered. Has it for you?

Moving on, I also got Maureen Johnson's Scarlett Fever from the absolutely awesome Megan Crewe. (An autographed Give up the Ghost bookmark was also included in the package, but I forgot to take a picture of that.) I have interviewed Megan and reviewed Give up the Ghost. Thank you, Megan!

And lastly, I also received a poster of the spores that's for imagine the future from Swagbucks, which is pretty cool. If you haven't signed up already, you definitely should. It's basically a search engine, but you get "swagbucks" for searching, which can then be exchanged for prizes. So what're you waiting for? Go sign up! :)

Now that you've seen the contents of my mailbox, it's your turn - what was in yours this week?

*In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

LIGHTS

Today's musical feature is pretty special for a number of reasons. LIGHTS (also known as Valerie Poxleitner) is a Canadian synthpop artist. Her music has won a number of awards so far, most notably a Juno. She's been on tour around the States and Canada, and recently I was able to see her perform live in concert!

It was a pretty amazing show - Lights definitely has that extra little something, that charisma, that stage presence that makes for a wonderful performer. The little episodes of comic-esque extra-terrestrial plotline, the beautiful singing live, the vibrant energy... it all made for an amazing event.

There's an aspect of originality with how the little cartoons were intersperced, and the recurring theme of her music being "out of this world". I like it. Basically, she seems like a very fun and friendly person.

One of the other cool moments of the night was when one of the members of Jets Overhead (her opening band - also Canadian and amazing!) told my friend and I that we were "rocking our Lights t-shirts".

IAmLights / Lights MySpace / Lights Youtube / Lights Twitter

I'll share two of her music videos as a sampler. The first is Ice, and the second is February Air (which another friend of mine recently covered - you can check it out here). (The FA video is an old unofficial one - but this version is really cool)

MBLAQ

By the looks of it, music is turning into a bit of a regular fixture on Lucid Conspiracy - but it's all good. Today I want to hype a fairly new Korean band, MBLAQ. (The peak of my infatuation with them was probably about a month ago now, as people who know in person have heard about ceaselessly ;) Kind of wearing off now, but they're still awesome, so I figured I'd share regardless.)

MBLAQ stands for Music Boys Live in Absolute Quality - and you gotta admit, it's a pretty cool acronym. The members consist of (clockwise from top left) Thunder (who is 2NE1's Sandara Park's younger brother), Mir, G.O., Joon, and Seung Ho.

From the release of their mini album Just BLAQ and their already sky-rocketing fame and reality tv shows, these boys are going to be pretty huge. Plus, by the looks of live recordings on Youtube, they seem pretty decent live too, which is always crucial.

Their first song I was exposed to is Oh Yeah, which is really catchy. (And Lee Joon has one of the most adorable smiles ever in it!) It's weird, the whole translation factor takes on a whole new meaning. After listening/watching the video numerous times and finally seeing the translated lyrics a week later, it definitely wasn't what I would've expected.

From interviews and shows, etc. overall they just seem like a pretty fun group of people! And considering that they're under Rain's umbrella, it seems reasonable to expect great things from them in the upcoming days. I'll leave you guys off with videos of Oh Yeah and GOOD Luv. Thoughts?

Orianthi

I don't know about you guys, but for me there's always a trill of excitement upon finding new music, new artists, whose work just clicks. Something about the sound, the charisma, the stage presence, the mannerisms - when it all just meshes, it's a beautiful thing.

Discovered a couple of artists recently who are pretty amazing, and figured I'd share with the findings with you guys over the upcoming weeks. First up is Orianthi, a 24-year-old Australian guitarist.

I find her admirable for a number of reasons. First off, rockin' female guitarist = respect in my book, any day of the week. The fact that she's probably on track to join a long line of guitarists on whole nother level set for the history books only augments the allure. (See her website and Wikipedia article for more information.)

"She's opened for her hero (Steve Vai), backed an Idol (Carrie Underwood), traded solos with a legend (Carlos Santana) and shared the stage with the King of Pop (Michael Jackson)."
-from her website bio

Now after all this great background information, I'm sure you guys can't wait to check out some of her music. The first (and so far, only, actually) song of hers that I was introduced to was According to You. It's got one of those catchy sort of beats, and the music video is pretty cool as well. Enjoy:

New Wave Teenybopper Pop?

Music is a pretty big part of my life; I usually have some sort of music playing in the background, whether it's doing homework, writing, reading, working out, etc. Instrumental music is pretty major too, I played piano intensively for a long time, and dabbled in violin and clarinet.

So, I happened to be cleaning my room today and popped downstairs to check out MuchMusic. MOD was playing, and I happened upon this song:

Justin Bieber's One Time.

It's actually kind of catchy. And then I realized how young he looks. Apparently this kid's only 15 years old. Wow. I feel ... almost grown up in comparison now. I mean, I had a scare a few years ago with those Disney pop "stars", what with Miley Cyrus and Zac & Cody and what not (as it turns out, we were all born in the same year - I was shocked). But now I feel kind of ... old, I guess. But - I will admit that he is kind of cute. :) And he's Canadian (Ontario too!) so bonus points. ;)

Edit: Wow, I kept marvelling over why it seemed like I'd seen him before - and then I realized that I've actually stumbled onto his Youtube page way back before he got signed as well, and had previously listened to his music. Suh-weet.

But see - this got me thinking; when stars came out young, like Jesse McCartney, or Aaron Carter (gosh; feels like so long ago!) did others on the brink of young adulthood feel like this too?

In other news, I stumbled onto this yesterday. I hadn't realized that Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films) could sing! Let alone this well! I will admit, I'm quite impressed.

So, whatcha guys think? What kind of music do you listen to?