Stereophonics is an iconic rock band from the UK, they have had multiple #1 albums, but their UK success hasn’t really lead to equal success in the U.S. I first heard of Stereophonics in 2001 when I got the album “Just Enough Education To Perform.” J.E.E.P., as it is usually called, is one of the best albums to be released in the UK that year and was a huge hit. Kelly Jones, the lead vocalist of Stereophonics, has such a nice voice, sound a bit like Ray LaMontagne with a pinch of Adam Levine from Maroon 5.

I started to dive deeper into the Stereophonics catalog and found another album that should have been a hit in the U.S. “Performance and Cocktails” was released in 1999, but sadly at that time the U.S. radio was crowded with bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn, so bands like Stereophonics didn’t get enough airplay. The album had great tracks like “T-Shirt Sun Tan,” “Is Yesterday, Tomorrow, Today?,” and my favorite, “A Minute Longer.”

Stereophonics have released many albums since “J.E.E.P.” and “Performance and Cocktails” and had their most success in the U.S. with the single “Dakota” off of their “Language, Sex, Violence, Other?” album.

It’s not too late for Stereophonics to make a huge splash in the U.S., but if they didn’t win us yankees over with their earlier work, I’m not too sure if it will ever happen now.

Here is a live performance of the song “Lying In The Sun.”

I watched “Be Kind Rewind” last night and I was reminded how much like Mos Def as an actor. I loved Mos Def in “The Italian Job” and think he did a good job in this film as well. He is a much better actor than Andre Benjamin. I did like Andre-3000 in “Four Brothers,” but I watched “Semi-Pro” a month ago and that movie was a stinker. I guess I should get to discussing my pick for “Song Of The Day,” I was really close to posting Mos Def’s “Ms. Fat Booty” only to have pervs find the site and like what they see.

Black Star is a duo that consists of Mos Def and Talib Kweli. The entire album reminds me of the summer of 1999 when my friend, Mixin’ Nate, bought it and listened to it in his Mazda that entire summer. I didn’t know much about either of the guys then, but I have became a fan since that summer. Kweli could be considered as one of the best lyricists in hip-hop today (with Common coming in at a close second). Black Star have been “working” on a new album for awhile and something should be done within the next couple years. They have guest-starred on each other’s albums and a new Black Star album would be very popular.

Here is Black Star’s video for “Definition.”

I like to watch television. I like that the new season of Real World, when they play a song during the show, they list the artist and song on the bottom of the screen. There has been two occasions this year where I’ve heard a song on a television show and I had to use the power of Google to find the song I desperately need to download. The first occasion was during a re-run of The O.C. (yes, the White Boy used to watch that show, quite often with the roommates), the song ended up being a song by Rogue Wave called “California.” I was shocked that the second time this occurred it was the same band.

My roommate has the first two seasons of Heroes on his PC. I was bored and I do not have cable at the moment (please see previous post about my anger at my female roommate). I ended watching the entire first season of the show within a three day period and there was a song that appears in the first couple of episodes. I thought it was Bright Eyes, but clearly not whiny enough, so I was confused. I ended up using some key phrases in google and found out that it was Rogue Wave’s “Eyes.”

Is Rogue Wave the kings of sitcom music? Kind of…I found out that their music has been used in other programs like Scrubs, Chuck, Friday Night Lights, Nip/Tuck, and a few others. They have three albums out and are currently on Brushfire Records, good news for Jack Johnson and Matt Costa fans.

I really like this song and I think it is rather catchy. Here is a video that was made for Rogue Wave’s “Eyes.” I rather doubt that it is the official video, but rather poetic.

I don’t have many things that I regret in life, but one of them was not seeing Ray LaMontagne live in concert. Two years ago, right when I was moving from Northern Indiana to Columbus, Ohio, I won a radio contest and I received two free tickets to Guster/Ray LaMontagne concert. I wanted to save money and didn’t see myself driving all the way down to Indianapolis and then driving back home to just drive to Columbus the next day. I didn’t know who Ray LaMontagne was at the time, but I have seen Guster before and they were amazing.

About three months after I moved to Ohio I decided that I wanted to investigate how Ray LaMontagne sounded. I wasn’t too impressed at first, but the album “Til The Sun Turns Black” started to be played everyday. I ended up getting his two previous albums (“Raycharles LaMontagne” and “Trouble), both of the albums are excellent and led me to download a live performance at Bonnaroo Festival in 2005.

At first I thought Mr. LaMontagne was British, his style of musicianship sounded very influenced, plus his voice sounded as if there were a hint of accent. I saw a picture of him and I still thought it was British, I mean look at that beard (a bit Cat Stevens-ish). I later found out that he was born in New Hampshire, but his family moved quite a bit and he ended up living in about every corner of the United States.

Ray LaMontagne makes great music and should be shared by all. Here is a performance of “Empty” that was performed on the BBC (see, I knew he was at least popular in the UK).

Fred Mascherino is best known for his work with the group Taking Back Sunday. In late 2007, he released the debut album for his side-project, “The Color Fred.” Needlesstosay, after some success with The Color Fred, he left Taking Back Sunday to focus all his time on the new project. The album “Bend To Break” is doing well and should be touring this summer in support of the album.

The Color Fred is calmer than his work with Taking Back Sunday. He is the lead singer and in TBS he was best known for yelling backing vocals. I think he has something new and refreshing with his new band and I expect some good things in the future.

I think it’s about time for Taking Back Sunday and the former members who left for Straylight Run to do something soon. Taking Back Sunday has a huge audience and Straylight Run’s last album didn’t do very well at all.

Here is a live performance of The Color Fred’s “Don’t Pretend.”