_berg loves pizza_

All I Want is For You To…

I’m addicted to the Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden” right now. I am aware of my lack of knowledge of the Stones’ catalog and I apologize to those that I have offended because of that fact haha. Another apology should be made because I’ve never heard of this song prior to it being performed on American Idol a couple of days ago. Before Tuesday night I only knew of the existence of such Stones classics as “Paint It Black”, “Sympathy for The Devil”, “Wild Horses”, “Satisfaction”, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, and a few others I can’t recall right now. Sorry music fans, I’m only human and not an all-in-one music library hehe.

This post is dedicated to the version of “Beast of Burden” that Lee Dewyze did on AI. I thought it was an excellent cover. He changed up the arrangement of the song but not too drastically that it won’t be recognizable. It’s so laid back, melodic, and sing-song-y, hence my addiction to it. I’ve also now figured out why I’m a fan of this guy, its because he sounds part Adam Duritz from Counting Crows and part Drew Copeland from Sister Hazel… two of my favorite bands.

Lee Dewyze – “Beast of Burden“ (Studio Version)

Other than Lee, the star of the night was sooooo Siobhan Magnus. She is a beast! I love her haha. I have a feeling its going to be her and Lee in the finale. My other faves, Crystal and Didi, did pretty well, too. They’re probably gonna come in 3rd and 4th when all is said and done. We shall see.

Idol Chitchat

It’s idol season once again on tv. Since its no secret that I watch the show, I’m going to share with you guys who my bets are. And by “bets”, I mean the ones I want to do well enough to get into the top 12.

Didi Benami – Love her already! She’s like Brooke White 2.0 hehe. Hope she doesn’t crash and burn as the show progresses. Love the artists in her list of influences… Adele, Sheryl Crow, Joni Mitchell, Sarah McLachlan, John Lennon, JASON REEVES! “Terrified” anyone? hehe! Good luck, Brooke! I mean, errr…. Didi!

Andrew Garcia – I’ve been a fan of this guy for some time now on youtube. I like his musicality and all but I don’t think he knows his genre yet. He’s like Danny Gokey but more talented in that he plays the guitar and the piano, and he knows how to flip songs his way. We’ve heard his take on Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up”, and we all know that went well.  But let’s wait and see how far he goes in the competition.

Crystal Bowersox – This girl right here is the real deal. I love that she cited Glen Hansard and Ray LaMontagne among her list of musical influences. She gets bonus points right there from me. And also, I love how she didn’t attack mainstream music during her interview, just mentioning how it currently needs a wake-up call.  That’s nice. She seems nice, too. Many of her peers seem to like her. I have a feeling she will go very far, if not win this whole thing this year. If she does, she will be the most credible winner yet. Or maybe that’s just me falling for how idol is packaging her up to be haha. And oh another one… I love that she’s not afraid to show the world that her teeth are yellow haha.

Casey James – I didn’t watch the auditions. I only started watching from Hollywood week onwards so I don’t know what’s up with this guy and Kara. But I liked what I heard from him during Hollywood week. His bluesy kind of rock reminds me of Bo Bice from Season 4. His guitar-playing was good. I just wish he moved more during performing and not just stand right there like a tree.

Siobhan Magnus – I love that they’re keeping her as low profile as possible because then people are going to get more curious about her. I loved what I heard from her during Hollywood week, strong voice, quirky personality. She’s like the little one that could, the one everybody would love to root for because she’s such an underdog. Great mix of artists cited as her musical influences. I have a good feeling she will surprise us bigtime like Elliott Yamin did in Season 5.

Lee Dewyze – He’s been downplayed all throughout the auditions and was only shown in snippets during Hollywood week. And yet, he was among the first group of seven to find out that he’s in the top 24. If I remember correctly, Kelly Clarkson was never featured prior to the semi-finals, Elliott Yamin was also downplayed, and Kris Allen from last year was the same. I think, this guy is this season’s little surprise. I’ve seen his videos on youtube and boy are you guys in for a very nice surprise. If he picks the right songs and keeps his cool, its goodbye yet again to a girl’s chances of winning the idol title this year.

Other contestants on my radar include: Lilly Scott (because her looks kinda throw me off a bit in a good way and she seems Lilith-ready haha), Alex Lambert (because he can play the ukulele and he sounds good), Haeley Vaughn (because she’s bubbly and not the typical country singer for obvious reasons), and John Park (for listing down Marc Broussard as a musical influence and being asian lol),.

There you go. I’ll serve you guys another platter of my idol opinions a few days before the Top 12 competition starts. We’ll rank the hopefuls when that time comes coz by then we would have had three weeks worth of performances to base our rankings on. See you in three weeks!

contestants’ photos are from americanidol.com

One Too Many Hearts

Before the day is over, I just want to greet everyone out there a Happy Valentine’s Day! and while I’m at it, Happy Chinese New Year na din to everyone celebrating it.

I had an unusual V-day today… started the day joining a marathon, a “fun” run as they called it. Nothing big, just 5k. I was so proud of myself for finishing it haha. Thanks to M & S and the rest of Team R.H. for making it fun. Next week I’ll be joining another one… 7k this time… upping the ante a little bit hehe. Had a nice breakfast with M & S somewhere in town with nice interiors, I dubbed it morning clubbing haha. Then I slept the entire afternoon off while there was a power outage for hours. Thank God it was just a power outage and not our electricity being cut off… have not paid the electricity bill yet kasi… no maneh! My mission for the week will be to rob a bank to pay for the piled up bills. Don’t tell anyone!

Can’t leave you guys off without some music now, can I? Check out the songs below:

Para sa mga contentong mag-isa (for now)

John Mayer – “Perfectly Lonely“
(from his 2009 album Battle Studies)

Para sa mga nag-attempt (but di na-reciprocate ang efforts) *ahem*

Jason Reeves – “Careless“
(from his 2009 EP Patience For The Waiting)

Para sa mga umaasa (kahit katiting na lang ang chance)

The Bird and The Bee – “Tonight You Belong To Me“
(from their 2008 EP One Too Many Hearts)

At para sa mga may minamahal

Richard Hawley – “Baby You’re My Light“
(from the soundtrack to the 2008 film Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist)

bonus: feel-good music for the day (whatever your current relationship status is)

Ulrich Schnauss – “Passing By“
(from Volume 2 of the soundtrack to the 2005 film Elizabethtown)

and the official song for the day

you can download this song (”Valentine”) from Kina Grannis (a youtube favorite of mine) for free on her official website www.kinagrannis.com

HAPPY HEARTS DAY!

photo by: SweetsbyZoe

Christmas Is Here

From my home to yours, may you all have a meaningful and blessed Christmas! Sigh… the season went by so fast.

Just one song for you guys this year… hope you like this enough.

Mike Schmid – “Lullaby (Christmas Is Here)“

for more music, check out last year’s playlist!

Remember the reason for the season.

photo credit: farletvale

The August Mixes (part one)

There used to be a time when my weekly dose of new music discoveries and updates would come from the radio or music magazines or MTV (ack!) or CD shops. Aaahh, those were the good ol’ days. Everything was at the right pace. I had exactly just the right amount of time to take each single, and each album in… digest the songs, learn the lyrics by heart, put them on repeat in the CD player, fall asleep listening to them, request them on the radio… all those wonderful things. Those days, I could walk into a record store and know exactly which albums are new. Not a week goes by that I don’t go inside one to check out the goodies, even the shop attendants recognized me back then.  Those days, I could still name every single song that would come on the radio after just a few notes or lyrics from a song’s intro. My friends found it quite amazing, hell they even called me a walking jukebox. With any music-related query and concern they had, they went to me. Those times, my dear readers, were the roaring 90’s.

The early 2000’s brought in a different kind of music revolution. Remember Napster? Kazaa? Limewire? Discovering new music took on a whole ‘nother level of awesomeness and ease. My tastes in and knowledge of music was expanding at a very rapid pace. For a time I was liking it. I could still absorb most of the stuff that’s out there.

Fast forward to 2009… there are too many great bands and artists out there that I’m missing out on, and there are too many of them that I know of now that I am slowly unintentionally forgetting the existence of the other ones. I can’t properly sing-along to songs anymore because my brain is overflowing with lyrics from plenty of songs that a lot of times I go blank.  More importantly, because of my busy and problematic life, I am slacking with this blog’s updates (I’m sure I’ve told you that for the gazillionth time this year). I can’t keep up with what’s out there anymore… darn you internet! lol. Okay, it’s either the internet is flooding me with too much information (don’t get me wrong, it’s great) or I’m getting old. Who to blame? Who to blame? Hah! I blame the internet! :p

xoxo — xoxo — xoxo

So, remember a couple of weeks ago when I promised one song per day? Well, I didn’t lie but I wasn’t able to keep it so shame on me! To make up for it, here are a bunch songs for y’all… some new songs and some new artists I’ve been listening to during the past month or so. If you want more information on any of them, google can help you out! hehe!

August Mix One:

Weezer – “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To“ (lead single from upcoming album Raditude, due out October 27th)

comment: I find it more instantly likeable compared to their previous lead single “Pork and Beans”. Fun song, I like!

Passion Pit – “Eyes As Candles“ (track from their current album Manners)

comment: Give their album a try, it’s very good!

Train – “Hey, Soul Sister” (lead single from upcoming album Save Me San Francisco, due out October 27th)

comment: I’m glad they’re back. Hopefully the new album is better than their previous release, which was a bit of a letdown. This new single of theirs is so catchy, even though it sorta reminds me of a certain Jason Mraz song. Don’t let the title fool you, it does not sound like how you’re thinking it. Lady Marmalade this is not haha.

Sondre Lerche – “Heartbeat Radio“ (lead single from upcoming album Heartbeat Radio, due out in September)

comment: Learned about him because of the movie Dan In Real Life. Quite the find!

Lights – “Saviour“ (lead single from upcoming album The Listening, due out in September)

comment: Learned about her because of a Gap commercial some months ago. She kinda reminds me of Donna Lewis (remember her?), sound-wise.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – “Young Adult Friction“ (track from their current self-titled debut album)

comment: Very cool band name, if I may say. Soundtrack-worthy song!

Hellogoodbye – “When We First Met“ (track from their as-yet-untitled upcoming new album)

comment: What happened to the electronic elements of their sound? Still, I like this one quite much.

Mika – “We Are Golden“ (first single from his upcoming album The Boy Who Knew Too Much, due out September 21st)

comment: Igat lang gihapon siya lol. Melodic, fun, and dynamic… exactly what you’d expect from an upbeat Mika song.

Frankmusik – “Vacant Heart“ (track from his current album Complete Me)

comment: Check out the album! I think its one of the best pop albums to come out this year. What is up with all the 80’s-sounding songs these days?! Gaga what have you done?!

Ingrid Michaelson – “Maybe“ (first single from her upcoming album Everybody, due out next week)

comment: I don’t hear her quirkiness on this one. Its sort of a more mature effort from Ingrid.

to be continued…

Happy Birthday, blog!

Exactly one year ago, I bought a domain name for my old blog and gave it a new home. But since I couldn’t export all my old files from the old wordpress-hosted site, I decided to just start anew. This particular incarnation of bErG lOvEs PiZzA celebrates its first year anniversary online today. In total, I have been blogging for three years now. Gosh, I never would have thought that I would last this long running a blog on the world wide web. For everyone who has been with me throughout the past three years, and to all the new friends I have made along the way, thank you very much for all of your support. For everyone who still visits the blog despite its seriously-inadequate updating schedule, thank you for your loyalty.

Its been quite obvious that I have sort of neglected the site for the past seven months or so… yes, I’ve been slacking. But I have my list of reasons. The past few months have been trying times in the world of a guy named berg. This is why I have decided to enlist the help of some friends. That’s right! In the next few weeks, I will be introducing you guys to new names (and probably faces, yes?) who will help me give you your fix of good music that deserve your attention and time… whether these be the latest releases or forgotten gems from the not-so-distant days of old. These friends of mine will help inject new life into this sad deserted corner of the online world haha.  Don’t you worry coz I hand-picked them myself and let me tell you… you are in good hands with these guys.

Here’s a party-sounding song to celebrate this momentous occasion… do I smell a potential hit here? You tell me…

LMFAO – “La La La (On Top of the World)”

You guys still know how to save the songs to your computer, right? (clue: right-click on the song title) I’m not going to mention that again for months so you better remember it.  How do you guys like the new, cleaner, simpler look? A friend told me its boring, but I think its refreshing. hehe!

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out… With Me

I have been in one bad situation after another this year… a lot has happened and so far my 2009 just plain sucks! Thankfully, half of the year is over. My car got broken into two weeks ago, and my backpack got stolen. Inside my bag were my precious laptop (with all my files), two ipods, some cash, and lots of other stuff. Financial drought just brought itself to a new low in my world after that. I am now buried in debt trying to rebuild what was lost and paying for my damaged car. I need to win the lottery! On the brighter side of things, all these has been one huge test on who my real family and friends are… I am lucky to have these people around me. Thank you guys for taking good care of me!

There will be some changes around here by the 31st of July… that’s when this particular version of my blog turns one year old, adding up my total blogging years into three. I will let you know about these changes within the upcoming couple of weeks.

On to the music:

A Fine Frenzy – “Blow Away“ – This is the first single from A Fine Frenzy’s upcoming album called Bomb In a Birdcage. I’m excited coz the previous one, One Cell In The Sea, was superb… I still listen to it even. I’m surprised about how sunny this song is… a stark contrast to the many sad songs on the previous album.

Cracker – “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out With Me” - Apparently, this band had some success back in the 90’s when alternative music ruled the airwaves… but I can’t seem to remember them. But I do like what I’m hearing from them now with their new album Sunrise In The Land of Milk and Honey. The featured track here is the first single.

Free Energy – “Dream City“ – A friend recommended this song to me. You’ll be hearing more from him around here soon. I can’t find much info about the band online but they do have a myspace page. I love the song!

Imogen Heap – “First Train Home“ – Yes! I’ve been waiting for this for some time now and here it finally is… the first single from Imogen’s upcoming album Ellipse due out on August 25th. Color me excited! This is ear candy coated to perfection.

The Airborne Toxic Event – “Sometime Around Midnight“ – I heard about these guys last year but I totally ignored them. How wrong was I? They actually sound really good! Check out their self-titled debut album.

Cage The Elephant – “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked“ – I hear Beck in their sound… am I crazy? I’m kinda addicted to this song for some reason.

Jet – “She’s A Genius“ – I loved their debut album. Hopefully the new one, Shaka Rock, sounds closer to it than their sophomore effort did. This is the new single… so far so good. Album out on August 25th. Rock and roll baby!

Sophia – “There Are No Goodbyes“ – From the album of the same name.

Thoughts?

‘Til next time… be nice, be safe!