Happy Birthday PastaRun Music!

We’ve officially been serving up your daily dose of sweet sweet tunes for one year! Congratulations to our team for sticking in there through technical difficulties, a termination by wordpress, long periods of posting absence by yours truly. You might say its perseverance that got us to where we are today, able to provide you with concert reviews, interviews, and the best music from your favorite bands (or what your favorites should be), but I prefer to call it luck. Let’s be honest, we’re lucky to have such a great following after just one year especially as we’ve tried our best to shake y’all with site redesigns, a slight name change, and a complete makeover in our style of music. From our humble origins on wordpress theme 2010, posting electro and hip-hop, we have come a long way to bring you a unique website sharing the top folk, indie, and rock that we find daily. We will certainly not forget where we came from, and my roommate who was an original founder of the site will guarantee that I don’t, so in honor of this milestone we have reunited the PRM team of yonder days. In this post you’ll get to see what our former and current writers have chosen as the best/most meaningful/well reviewed song that they’ve posted on this site in the past year. A ‘best of the past year’ post if you will. On behalf of the PastaRun Music team, I would like to thank our devoted and even not so devoted followers for checking in on our site when in need of great music! We’re looking forward to continue our growth in year two and provide y’all with an even better listening experience.

Your humble servant,

thecook2

Pastaboy6000

It’s been quite a while since I’ve stepped into the blogosphere to scribble something on these lovely, one-year-old pages, and I’ve got a feeling that the PRM readership has undergone some major changes since I left. As my good friends thecook2 and greasychoirboy can attest, PRM had much more of a hip-hop and electro vibe under my iron rule. So here’s to keeping in that vein – the next time you wake up at dawn with a daunting day lying in wait, rise and shine with the best from the best of the best. Ride out.

- pastaboy

Original hand-drawn Logo

nomeatsauce

Bon Iver A.K.A. Justin Vernon released his second album in June of 2011. This time, he incorporated more musicians and more effects, which differentiated this self-titled album from his first- For Emma, Forever Ago. This album has been criticized for the effects, calling Vernon a conformist of the current fad of electronic music. In my opinion, the effects differentiated this album from his first, and showed his versatility as a musician. Bon Iver has a much fuller sound than its predecessor, but Vernon’s unique tone and falsetto have stayed the same. Justin’s lyrics are very introspective, and you’ll surely find yourself in a trance of deep thought while listening to this album. It’s almost as if Vernon’s earthiness and peacefulness will make you want to pitch a tent in your backyard and watch the rain too. For those of you who haven’t listened to this album yet, Bon Iver is sure to take you through a roller coaster of dynamics and emotions, and you WILL become hooked. I promise.

Rebirth of the site

CrunchyGranola

Any band with a banjo automatically gets my attention. From the very first strum in “I Followed Fires” in Kingdom of Your Own to the simultaneous banjo and clapping in “I will remain” in To the North, this five-piece band headed by London based Matthew Hegarty received a permanent spot in my daily playlist. Initially introduced as the next Mumford and Sons, Matthew & the Atlas has the same charismatic folk sound, with beats that build your heart up to a full out pounding. Vocals described as “bruised and raw,” Hegarty effortlessly transports you to a campfire, hearing tales passed down from generation to generation. While you wait for Mumford & Son’s album due out in September, get your Brit fix with Hegarty. I promise he wont disappoint. For a free track, check out Matthew & the Atlas’s main page.

A little more experimenting

GreasyChoirBoy

Although I didn’t technically join the PRM team until the middle of this past December, I was along for the ride from the very beginning. This site has definitely impacted my life over the past year, meeting new people, seeing new bands, and hearing new music constantly. The band or song I’m choosing for my portion of the ‘Best of…’ post is a song that has had a huge impact on my musical tastes in the past year, The Oh Hello’s ‘Hello My Old Heart.’ I found this band directly after hearing about Of Monsters and Men and the Givers, so when I stumbled upon this gem I was a bit jaded, thinking I could find amazing folk music nearly everyday. In the months since this band, which only has 4 songs to their name, has nearly single-handedly gotten me interested in folk music and the idea of music blogging in general. Tyler and Maggie Heath are now the level to which all new submissions are compared to. I was tentative about the blogging idea at first but finding gems like this make it all worth while; check out the song by the amazing Brother-Sister duo from down south in Texas, below:

Sleek, Shiny, New, and Updated

thecook2

The Givers bring as much energy to the stage as any other band I can think of. They were a favorite of mine a year ago with the release of their debut album, In Light, and they remain one of my top bands today. Now lots of things have changed since their album release last summer, from my writing style, to my music tastes, and yet without releasing any more material Givers remain atop my favorites. Now part of their dominance on my speakers must be attributed to their diverse sound, fun instrumentals, and two singers with killer vocals, but most of the credit is due to me seeing them perform live. My memory of the concert last September is, surprisingly, still strong. Tiffany Lamson and Taylor Guarisco had great on-stage chemistry and played with an energy more suitable for a heavy metal concert, but it works. They fostered my love for their Cajun indie pop, and turned greasychoirboy into a believer. A definite must see if you have the opportunity. My favorite song of theirs changes all the time, so your best call would be to listen to the whole album, if you’re lazy check out my current favorite “Meantime” below.