I rediscovered this song/band last night. The band Straylight Run was in rotation at the super-alternative radio station I DJed for while I was an undergrad, so when I came across their name again I had to pull up the song/video for nostalgia's sake. I can't say the song made all that much of an impression on me, but the video is amazing. Last night was the first time I saw it.
"Existentialist on Prom Night," Straylight Run
I came across it because the woman my father is dating is a music teacher, specifically piano, and she has a talented student who wants to drop piano for guitar so that he can play his favorite music off the radio. Except boyo's fave band is Coldplay ... a band whom he obviously has not yet realized has a lead singer who frequently plays piano in their music.
So I was supposed to be the all knowing source of what bands are popular right now that feature piano and piano rock. I came up with Ben Folds (and that man rocks on a piano, no shit) and the Fray, but from there I had to do research. I had never explored this part of the web before, but it turns out that there are dozens of arrangements for piano of almost any popular song that you'd like. So I started downloading PDFs for this kid and his teacher. Coldplay, the Fray, Snowpatrol, Straylight Run, Augustana, John Mayer's "Neo," Daniel Powter, Five for Fighting, Keane, the Plain White T's and others. Most of those songs feature pianos or they feature music that easily translates from guitar to piano.
I also discovered that not only can you find the sheet music for all this but there are oodles of youtube videos on playing these covers. No, not just teenage boys that have taped themselves playing covers, but "how-to" videos that explain like a live teacher how to play pop music without having to read a single note off the page. Isn't the internet great, kids?
