A few weeks back a friend and I were talking bands and they back-handedly complimented me with the suggestion that I write a music blog because my tastes were all ecclectic and nearly all of the bands I mentioned they'd never heard of. How's that for a pretentious opener?
Let's dispel some of that pretention: I'm not a music critic; For a few years I used to play the guitar, cello, and keys; I even tried making electronica but didn't really stick with it. I have some knowledge of music but not enough to really call myself a critic- but when has lack of expertise stopped anyone from jabbering on about anything?
You don't have to be classically trained to enjoy Beethoven; you don't have to paint to like Van Gogh; you may need some background language skills to get olde Englishe in original Shakespeare though; so on and so forth etc.
Back to that ecclectic taste business- I grew up obsessively listening to practically a single genre at a time in the search of the hardest, fastest, most intense music ever. I started out with punk rock because obviously where else are you going to find that? I then went into electronica and kind of have been all over the board since my teenage years when I first started getting serious about music.
I've kind of hated commercial radio since forever; while yes there is talented music being played, and some excellent artists reach a wide audience a lot of it is watered down and censored. Plus you ever notice how some stations will run an ad telling you how little commercials they have compared to the other stations on the dial right before they play a song they've played hundreds of times a day before a ten minute ad-break? I'm not slamming it for any whiny, tired anti-capitalist reasons. Musicians, and radio stations gotta get paid or we'd never hear music on the radio. What I disliked about it was that I constantly found myself getting in the zone listening to a bunch of songs in a row and then that'd get interrupted by ads for shit I didn't want or need. Kind of a buzzkill, right? I'm going to mention commercial and non-commercial radio tunes in this blog but I think if I'm going for ecclectic I'll have to include more of the former.
Ok, maybe I do have the requisite pretention to get this ball rolling.
A brief little blurb about me and how often I'm going to write this for my fan(s). I'm currently a graduate student (not in music, lol), have an active social life, and I do other creative projects like sketching and painting. Basically I think I'm gonna update this once a week or once every two weeks. For now I'll commit to posting on Mondays either afternoon or evening PST. Maybe this'll take off some of the edge of a freshly started work week.
Of all the tunes I listen to, I keep going back to punk rock and that's where we'll begin. I could wax poetic about what makes punk punk or whether punk is dead, but this post is already too damned long. Maybe some other time.
Let's get on with the jams!
Your homework this week is to check out Bomb The Music Industry! Look up my favorite album by them, "To Leave or Die in Long Island." I have a copy that I picked up a few years back when the artist put it up on an online forum I read.
This album rules because it hits a lot of the essential punk buttons. Frenetic drumming. Rapidly strummed guitars. Whoa's, na's, and a bit of that 'pop punk accent.' To Leave or Die in Long Island has hints of hardcore and ska punk mixed in there as well. At eight songs and 25 minutes long it is a perfect length.
Happy Anterrabae Day!! - Opens the album up with a lot of energy, and you'll see what I said above about hitting essential punk buttons. I believe Anterrabae was/is a band. I've never looked them up.
Congratulations, John, On Joining In Every Time I Die - Some more of that awesome sonic energy.
Showerbeers! - like the act of drinking a beer naked under the showerhead is a good tune.
Stand There Until You're Sober - Haven't we all been there or am I a lush?
Dude, Get With The Program - Lots of ska up in this one.
Bomb the Music Industry! (and Action Action) (and Refused) (and Born Against) Are Fucking Dead - Starts off with a quote from the UK version of The Office, pipe organ, and then gets right down to it. Subject matter is fairly punk.
Brian Wilson Says SMiLE! (a.k.a. Beard of Defiance) - Awesome tribute to beards everywhere.
Syke! Life is Awesome! -Pretty good tune to close 'er out on.
I don't want this to read like I just reviewed wine. That's not the point of this blog. I'll have to be even snarkier about each song in the future.
To my eternal chagrin I haven't seen them live.
Check the band out.
I believe this is their official tumblr so uh, get it while it's hot.
http://bombthemusicindustry.tumblr.com/
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