Calling, by Kyosuke Himuro, from the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Original Soundtrack
http://grooveshark.com/s/Calling/n8Bf?src=5
(Another grooveshark link because all the YouTube ones had bad audio quality)

It's worth noting that the song wasn't created for the Advent Children soundtrack. Far from it, actually. The song in question was originally found on Kyosuke Himura's 1989 Album Neo Fascio. I was tempted to list it as such, but I decided I'm going to just show the song as it appears in my music library, not to mention it's more easily recognizable today (at least in the West) by it's inclusion in the AC soundtrack.

So, what better way to close out Advent Children then...a song from the late '80s? It actually works surprisingly well. Not only is it an awesome song )and even sounds like something that came out of the late 90's/early 2000's in comparison to Western music), but the lyrics fit surprisingly well with the end of the movie. The song speaks about not sitting around, waiting for things to change and letting life beat you down, and instead seeking out the answers and the path you seek on your own (by metaphorically following the wind).

In any case, it's another one of those fun little tunes that you can't help but smile to as you listen to it.

OH MY GOD
OH MY GOD
OH MY GOD
PERSONA 4 ANIME ANNOUNCED
OH MY GOD
OH MY GOD
http://www.p4a.jp/
OH MY GOD
OH MY GOD
OH MY GOD





that is all.

La Valse d'Amélie, by Yann Tiersen, from the Amélie soundtrack
http://grooveshark.com/s/La+Valse+D.....ie/2Wsum?src=5

Amélie is definitely one of my favourite movies, if not my favourite movie. I absolutely love everything about it, so naturally the soundtrack has been part of my library for quite some time. I can think of no better song to represent the entire soundtrack that the theme of the titular character. I really really really love this song. It's almost like they compiled every emotion conveyed in the film and packed it into one song.

Yes yes, I know I missed a few days. But uh...um.......it was uh........ALL A TEST! To see if you guys would notice. And you all failed. Way to go.

White Shadows, by Coldplay, from X&Y


Despite X&Y being the black sheep of Coldplay albums, I rather enjoy it. Yes, a lot of the band's weakest songs are on it, but a few of their best songs are on it too. No, the album isn't as collectively solid as the other album's they've put out, but it still had some excellent pieces.

White Shadows isn't as good as other songs from X&Y like Swallowed in the Sea or A Message or Talk, but I still rather love the song. The melody is solid and engaging, the sort of celestial feel of the tune overall (especially at the end) combined with the lyrics of being part of the grand system make for a really deep song.

Queen Battle Part 1, by Yoshie Arakawa & Yoshinori Kawamoto, from the Star Fox Assault Original Soundtrack


I was hoping when we'd get to the SFA soundtrack, it might actually land on the namesake of my FA username and I could have this really awesome moment about how it helped to shape the furry part of me, but alas, the odds were heavily stacked against me and just did not turn out in my favour this time.

Star Fox Assault had an AWESOME soundtrack, which makes it kind of sad that the complete soundtrack is so incredibly hard to find. It was never officially released, and a lot of the sites on the net that used to host it either took it down or no longer exist. Still, if you want it, you can find it if you look hard enough.

Kind of a short representation of the soundtrack in general, but gives you a good idea of how awesome some of the boss fight tracks were. They did a great job of creating a very tense feel to the epic space battles that raged on the screen.

Since we're halfway through the Song of the Day project, I thought I'd sum up all the songs of the day leading up to today:

1. Solanin, Asian Kung-Fu Geneartion
2. Liberi Fatali, Nobuo Uematsu
3. Veridis Quo, Daft Punk
4. Euphoria, ANTINOMIE
5. For Now, Cast of Avenue Q
6. Blue, The Birthday Massacre
7. Fascination, La Roux
8. K2G, PUFFY
9. Brick by Boring Brick, Paramore
10. Stay Lit, Holy Fuck
11. Pokemon G/S/C Final Battle, Fairuzon
12. The Crossroads (Cid's Theme), Jovette Rivera
13. Lovers In Japan (Osaka Sun Mix), Coldplay
14. Yesterday to Tomorrow, Audioslave
15. Omae no XXX de Ten wo Tsuke!, Iwasaki Tarou
16. Boss Battle, Nigel Goodrich
17. The Chase of the Highway, Nobuo Uematsu
18. Yume no Shima Shinen Kouen, Susumu Hirasawa
19. Sweet Lady, What Made Milwaukee Famous

So, today's is:
Can't Stop, by The Red-Hot Chili Peppers, from the album By the Way


Definitely one of my favourite songs by RHCP, this one is the result of when the band decided to experiment writing lyrics to a particular rhythm, instead of vice-versa. The result is a bunch of awesome poetic nonsense, underneath which persists the message of finding motivation and actually making something of your life.

Sweet Lady, by What Made Milwaukee Famous, from Trying to Never Catch Up
http://grooveshark.com/s/Sweet+Lady/5TB8R?src=5

One of the best-kept secrets in the music industry, I've posted a song by them in one of my "7 Awesome Songs You've Probably Never Heard" journal, for those of you that read those. Part of what I love about this band is how dynamic they are. They don't have one distinct style, they cover a pretty vast range of types of music, and they do all of them pretty well. This song is a fun little upbeat number about trying in vain to get the attention of a much-coveted woman, nothing as adventurous as some of their other subject matter, but it doesn't have to be. Most of their songs are incredibly musically and lyrically complex, which is part of what makes them great, but they also demonstrate their knowledge of the fact that a simple song can be just as good as a complex one, and demonstrate it excellently.

I start working at Hot Topic on Thursday =D

Yume no Shima Shinen Kouen, by Susumu Hirasawa, from the Paranoia Agent Original Soundtrack


RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Paranoia Agent is one amazing anime, for those of you who haven't seen it. It comes from one of kings of Japanese surrealism, Satoshi Kon (who died earlier this year). This song and the accompanying video make the opening credits to the show. The actual creation of the song has an interesting conceptual history: the show was aimed at a much more mature audience, and occupied a midnight timeslot when it first aired. As such, they had to come up with an intro sequence that not only conveyed the overall feel of the show (which it does pretty well, actually. Yes, the show really is that crazy), but told the late-night viewers to "wake up!" Conversely, the end theme (if you feel like looking it up) is very calming and hypnotic, telling the viewers it was time to go to sleep.

Also, the actual song is about four minutes long, but you only really need to hear the TV size version. Also, the song doesn't carry as much meaning without the accompanying video, so I wanted to put that up instead.

The Chase of the Highway, composed by Nobuo Uematsu, from the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Original Soundtrack


Was wondering how long it would take to get to something FFVII-related. This song is so much fun to listen to while driving, though admittedly I probably shouldn't listen to it while driving, because it makes me speed like crazy. Anyhow, one of the most actiony songs known to soundtracks, another song that really just speaks for itself. Enjoy.

Boss Battle, composed by Nigel Godrich, from the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Original Score

I'm still undecided on whether Scott Pilgrim was, for all intents and purposes, a good movie. That's not to say I didn't like it, I loved the hell out of it, it's certainly one of the most entertaining movies I've seen in a while. Also, I love how it managed to come off as a movie for hipsters but managed to be so self-parodying.

Anyway, I absolutely loved the score for this movie. Now, I don't say "soundtrack," because the "soundtrack" for this movie is not the same as the "score," something which through me off quite a bit when trying to find the soundtrack proper. The soundtrack is composed of the featured music done by various artists for the movie. The score is all the other original music composed by Nigel Godrich. Now, while the soundtrack is decent enough in it's own right, the score is the really impressive stuff that I found myself wanting to listen more to as I watched the movie. It's some absolutely wonderfully driving, intense, heavier electronica infused with just the right amount of orchestrated stuff to create one absolutely bitchin' soundtrack. Boss Battle is one of the best general examples of the overall score of the movie.

For those of you who haven't seen the film yet, it's definitely worth a watch. Again, still not sure if I can consider it a quality film, but in the end, it was so entertaining that it doesn't really matter.

(also, I liked it more than the comic books, just sayin' >.>)

Another one of these "post advertisement journal, get free art" dealios. Not sure if it still applies, since they've gotten sooooooo many responses, but can't hurt to try!

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2360231/

So like, I've seen tons of people lately joking about how the world's going to end on May 21st. But the thing is, what's supposed to happen on May 21st (according to the followers of Harold Camping) is The Rapture, which is not the Last Judgement and Armageddon, those are two separate prophecized events. There are all sorts of different theories from different Christian sects on how the End of Times is supposed to play out, but the general consensus is that the Rapture happens before Armageddon (and that the latter cannot happen without the former). The Rapture is the second coming of Jesus to whisk all the souls worthy of heaven away and leave everyone else behind to a decaying earth and an unspecified period of strife and tribulation. When that period ends is when the actual Last Judgement and Armageddon occur.

But here's what makes it more complicated: I can see why everyone keeps mixing the two together and thinking that the whole May 21st thing is supposed to be the end of the world, because the Christian group that actually believes that May 21st is the Rapture seems to be doing it themselves! A lot of the media that group has been putting out has been saying that everyone should prepare for the end of the world on the 21st and things to that effect. This absolutely drives me crazy, when the group that's spreading all this BS can't even get half of the established stuff relating to that BS right. ARGH.

Okay, so what the hell, FA? I totally posted this one at like, 9PM. I don't know what happened to it, but whatever, let's try this again.

Omae no XXX de Ten wo Tsuke!, composed by Iwasaki Tarou, from the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST


Those of you that have seen Gurren Lagann know that it's pretty much one big giant ball of epic. There's very little about the show that's not pure awesome, the music being no exception. The Gurren Lagann soundtrack is one of the most diverse anime soundtracks around, going from JRock to Hip-Hop, to Hip-Hopera, to electronica, and to awesome orchestral bits. What I love about good orchestral soundtrack songs is the amount of emotion behind them, and this one just fills me with hope and makes me feel like I can do goddamn anything.

Yesterday to Tomorrow, by Audioslave, from Out of Exile.


For those of you who don't know, Audioslave was a supergroup formed in the wake of the break-ups of Rage Against the Machine and Soundgarden. It basically consisted of RATM but minus Zack de la Rocha and with Chris Cornell in his stead. The band blew a lot of expectations when they didn't sound too much like either band, but a pretty decent blend of the two.

Of course, Audioslave is no more, but being that RATM got back together to tour in 2007 (and I was lucky enough to see them live at Lollapalooza in 2008), and Soundgarden reformed just last year, this is one band I'm certainly okay with not having around anymore.

Still, they certainly left us with some great music. This particular song comes to us from Out of Exile, my favourite album that the band put out during their short run. Not their most upbeat song, but it's a solid, enjoyable song with some great lyrics that you just wanna kick back and listen to.

Ack, another late one, sorry >.<

Lovers in Japan (Osaka Sun Mix), by Coldplay, from Prospekt's March EP


We finally reach a Coldplay song. Coldplay, for those of you who don't know, is my favourite band. This song originally comes from my favourite album of all time, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. The Osaka Sun mix is a very slightly re-mixed version that appeared on the Prospekt's March EP, and the version that plays in the official music video for the song.

So yeah, this song is pretty much fantastic. From the wonderful driving melody of the tack piano, to the ambient, lighter guitar that comes a bit more forefront and heavier during the soaring chorus, to the general happy and upbeat feel of the song overall, it's great.

The Crossroads (Cid's Theme), by Jovette Rivera, from Voices of the Lifestream


More game remixes! I believe I've mentioned Over-Clocked ReMix before, as well as their annual compilation projects. This one comes from their Final Fantasy VII album, Voices of the Lifestream. It starts out a fun mix but really gets interesting when the singing kicks in. It's one of those inspirational songs that you just wanna belt out as loud as you can.

Final Battle Theme (Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal), by Fairuzon


Those of you who actually read my journals will have probably already heard this song before, it was in one of my "7 Awesome Songs You've Porbably Never Heard" journals. It's totally worth repeating though, because it's awesome. One of the best Pokémon remixes out there. Give it a listen, I'mma let it speak for itself today.

Okay, so it's technically late, but I don't consider it to be the next day until either I've gone to sleep or the sun rises again, so it's still day 10 to me.

Sorry about getting to it so late, it completely slipped my mind x.x

Anyway, today's is:
Stay Lit, by Holy Fuck, from the album Latin


Holy Fuck is a weird experimental, ambient, math rock band that use the strangest things as instruments (they rarely use anything that was intentioned to be an instrument and they outright refuse to use synths) and make some amazingly catchy songs. Another band prolly isn't everyone's taste, but I love 'em to pieces. This is one of their more downbeat songs, a little less heavy on the rhythm and a bit slower, but it's just as fun and catchy and completely unique as the other great songs they put out.

Part of what I love about Holy Fuck is that they take the familiar electronic musical structure of creating a short core melody and expanding and building on it as the song progresses, but due to their unusual instruments and methods of songwriting, they come out like no other electronic music out there.

An interesting fact, prolly the most well-known song by Holy Fuck (and my personal favourite) is the song "Lovely Allen," which you may have actually heard before without even realizing it. It was used in two different commercials, one for GM a few years ago, and one for HTC that ran pretty recently.

Brick by Boring Brick, by Paramore, from Brand New Eyes


A song from Paramore's third album, which is definitely my favourite. Almost everyone's heard this band by now, which is great because they're definitely a band that I believe deserves the exposure. From that album comes this awesome song about opening one's eyes and facing reality before it crushes you. There's nothing incredibly unique about Paramore, but they're one of those bands that don't need to be incredibly original to stand out. All their songs are more than just solid, they're well-written, fun and enjoyable songs that rarely fail to get you bopping your head and wanting to sing along. Also, I LOVE Hayley Williams' voice.

Sorry I'm so late on this today, guys. Had a lot to do today.

Anyway, today I settled on what the song was not from my iTunes library, but while driving to the store. I had a random mix CD in my car, and this was the song that came on when I turned the car on:

K2G, by PUFFY (known in North America as PuffyAmiYumi), from the album Nice.
http://grooveshark.com/s/K2g/2gS4X0?src=5

(all of the videos sucked and had awful audio quality, so grooveshark again)

Ah, Puffy. One of the few JPop bands to have a substantial amount of popularity in North America, regardless of how brief it was. Also, they had a really awful Cartoon Network series based on them, but that's neither here nor there. They still make some pretty awesome music. I just love how amazingly catchy and upbeat this song is, it's just down-right fun to listen to. I had this song come on while I was driving through my neighborhood off to the store on what has been a really nice day, and I was smiling and singing and bouncing the whole way there. The breakdown at the end confuses me a little, but whatever, the song is still awesome.

Also, the lyrics are surprisingly melancholy for such an upbeat and happy-sounding song, I think for once I'm actually glad I don't speak Japanese so that I can't actively understand the lyrics as they're being sung.

Fascination, by La Roux, from their self-titled album.


I've been absolutely falling in love with La Roux lately, and this is probably one of my favourite songs by them (most people who are familiar with La Roux assume that it's a solo act and associate the female singer with the name, but it's actually musical duo). The singer's dynamic voice, the incredibly catchy, upbeat music, the lyrical complexity, it's all great. Of course, those of you who don't like synthpop or the singer's sometimes waily sound (it doesn't bother me none, but I can see why it would others), this is prolly not the music for you. It is, however, definitely the music for me.

As far as this song it'self, one of the things I love about it is the very heavy rhythm that drives the synthy music along. You can also feel the emotion in the lyrics as the singer belts them out, and if you're anything like me, you'll want to belt them out right along with her. The lyrics speak the the very familiar story of a lover who's partner has become bored with her and craves something new, something I'm sure that most of us know all too well.

Blue, by The Birthday Massacre, from the album Violet


Ah, the Birthday Massacre, such deliciously dark gothic-industrial music. Probably their most well-known song, and a pretty good representation of their style overall. While the lyrics are pretty well-crafted, they don't speak to anything particularly deeper than your classic gothic lyrical fair, but they're written well enough that they don't really have to. The tune switches between the lighter, synthier sections with very lightly-sung lyrics, and the darker and grittier sections with the heavy drums and distorted guitar, and the growl-whispered words, but does a wonderful job of maintaining a very eerie tone overall.

Prolly not everyone's cup of tea, but gosh do I sure love 'em.

NOTE: I accidentally marked yesterday's Song of the Day (Day 4) as Day 3, so if you saw and it thought you had already listened to that song, you likely have not! Go take a gander at it again, if you so chose.

Anyway, on to today's:
For Now, by the cast of Avenue Q, from the Avenue Q Original Broadway Recording


Most people are familiar with Avenue Q by now. I got to see it on stage at Miller Auditorium last year, and it was definitely a fun show. Of all the highly memorable songs that came from it though, this is the one that sticks with me the most. It's an encouraging, yet melancholy song that reminds the audience as the show ends that, for better or worse, everything is temporary.

Euphoria, by ANTINOMIE

Note that I didn't list an album, because quite frankly, I have no idea what album it's from.

Also couldn't find a decent video. Have a grooveshark link:
http://grooveshark.com/s/Euphoria/b3dcE?src=5

So yeah, fun little trancey song from a band that no one seems to know anything about. Those of you who played Flash Flash Revolution back in it's early days will prolly recognize it though. Yeah, it's a little on the repetitive side, but it's catchy and it's dancey.

Also I did actually find a few videos of it being played on FFR, but they were terrible quality, so I opted for the much higher quality of GrooveShark. The only video you're missing out on is watching someone play FFR. Whoop-dee-doo.