music – Page 6 – Karan Parikh

Snap

The lower e string on my new guitar snapped on Saturday. I was pretty surprised that it happened so quickly (around one week since the day I purchased it) as I hadn’t even played it that much. Oh well. I bought a set of D’Addario replacement strings on Sunday and I intend to restring it very soon. I think this is the first time I will have to do this myself; I’ve always had my friends do it for me in the past.

In other news I’ve started maintaining a physical journal of my workouts. It makes it easy to see improvements and regressions over time. Yes, I know there is probably an app that lets me to this, but I like the old fashioned (also my favorite drink) way.

Assiduity

Since Polaris came out I’ve probably listened to it about 42 billion times and counting. My favorite song on the record is definitely Cages. While it might not be the heaviest or most riff heavy song on the album, all the pieces it is composed of fit together perfectly into what I think is an aural masterpiece. Dan’s vocals are hauntingly beautiful on this song. And I love the lyrics as well. I’m fairly certain I understand the meaning behind them.

Side note — I’m not the best at understanding song lyrics. I think it’s related to how I sometimes fail at reading humans as well. Hmm. On the plus side, I seem to be getting much better at both. I think.

Celebration

The SF Symphony opening gala was beyond incredible. This was my first symphony experience and I can definitely see myself going many more times.

Before the symphony started playing Michael Tilson Thomas gave a quick overview of Roman Festivals. This was useful because I had done almost zero “homework” for the event (Apart from renting a tuxedo. Which I think I look excellent in). Once they started playing I was captivated. It was, simply put, beautiful. I was amazed by how the music makes you feel, experience, and in some ways, be a part of the four celebrations that Roman Festivals encompasses. The musical talent of the San Francisco Symphony is simply staggering. The second half of the event featured vocal performances. Here too I was blown away by how fantastic each of the vocalists were. The interplay between the vocalists and the symphony was delightful to watch.

If you enjoy music I would highly recommend going to the symphony.

What I’m Currently Listening To: Scale the Summit

V is gorgeous. It makes for some fantastic coding music. While it’s not as heavy as The Migration I still love the new album.

Empire

I saw St. Lucia and Empire of the Sun on Saturday, 9/19 at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. I’d completely forgotten I had agreed to see them (as this post should indicate) until my roommate reminded me a day before the event.

I’d seen St. Lucia at Coachella this year and once again they put on a great show. Their music is incredibly upbeat and cheerful (at least that’s how it sounds to me; I haven’t delved into the meaning behind the lyrics of their songs) and it’s pretty much impossible to be sad/unhappy while listening to their songs. Especially live.

This was my first time seeing Empire of the Sun. I’d heard that their concerts are an audio-visual extravaganza but I was not prepared for how good of a show they put on. The music, the lights, the visuals, the dancing, the theatrics — they all combined together for a pretty awesome performance.

String

I rented a tuxedo for the first time today. It was a pretty interesting experience — I don’t think I’ve ever rented a piece of clothing before. I need the tuxedo for the SF Symphony Opening Gala that I’m going to next week. I’m pretty happy with the tuxedo I picked. Hopefully I’ll be able to pull it off.

On another note, I bought a new guitar today. Ever since I started playing guitar I’ve wanted to own a Gibson Les Paul. I’ve been meaning to get more serious about my guitar playing and this purchase should push me to do that.

The picture doesn't capture the beautiful blue color. — The picture doesn’t capture the beautiful blue color.

What I’m Currently Listening To: TesseracT

Polaris is incredible. Dan sounds fantastic all throughout the record. And just listen to the last minute of Tourniquet to get an example of the excellent musical abilities of this band.

What I’m Currently Listening To: Foals

I discovered Foals in 2013 when I listened to their song “My Number” and fell in love with their sound. Their new album “What Went Down” is stunning.

Live

Concerts I’m going to this year —

9/24: SF Symphony Opening Gala
10/4: The Fratellis
10/6: Alcest (unfortunately Hiatus Kaiyote are playing on the same day)
10/14: Trivium, and Tremonti
10/20: Judas Priest, and Mastodon (2nd time seeing Mastodon)
10/22: Florence and the Machine (2nd time seeing them)
10/30: Shakey Graves and Tennis (4th time seeing Tennis)
11/20: TesseracT, Erra, The Contortionist, and Skyharbor (I bought VIP tickets for this event)
11/28: Between The Buried And Me

VIP

On Sunday I bought tickets to go see TesseracT, The Contortionist, ERRA, and Skyharbor play in San Francisco. I found out about the VIP upgrade tickets for the concert last night and bought them a few minutes ago.

This is probably the concert I’m most looking forward to right now. Getting a chance to see some of your favorite bands all play at the same concert is not something that happens everyday.

TesseracT introduced me to the sub-genre of modern progressive metal most commonly known as djent, and over time it has become my favorite kind of music.

I first listened to Altered State, TesseracT’s second album. It was quite literally like nothing I’d ever heard before; heavy, yet full of melody. My appreciation for the band and the music they played grew with each listen of the album. I then listened to One, and I was blown away by how incredible that album was as well. The singles from their new album Polaris sound amazing and I can’t wait to listen to the album when it comes out.