I’ve been thinking about starting this blog for a while, but I wasn’t sure what I had that was worth writing about. I thought about what I was passionate about and popular music was at the top of the list, so here I am.
Why should you care about what I have to say about music? Well I’m not sure you should, but you’ll need to be the judge for your self. Spend a little time on my MLog. Try one of my recommendations for yourself. If you like it, then try another. If you think it sucks, move on.
As far as my credentials, I’m a musician myself, but certainly not an artist. I wrote music reviews for my high school paper. My column drew more letters to the editor than any feature, much to chagrin to our advisor. Mostly complaints about my biases. I make no promises to review every type of music here. It will all be in the vein of what I like. So chances are you like it or you won’t, but I can only write about what I’m listening too, and for now I’m only listening too what I buy. And I try to only buy what I like.
I have flirted a few times with the music industry. I ran the website for Vertical Horizon for a couple years when they were with RCA Records. This gave me the opportunity to work on sites for several other artists. More on this sometime in the future. I also spent sometime consulting with an independant record label in Utah, Guapo Records, for a bit.
Beyond this, I’ve got about 10,000 songs on my iPod, which I’m sure is not a record (though I don’t have much space left).
So that’s it. Hopefully I haven’t wasted your time. To make sure you don’t leave empty handed, here’s a list of who I’m currently listening to.
- Joe Firstman - The War of Women - I heard Joe on Pandora on my Counting Crows Channel (more on Pandora in the future). Best new artist I’ve heard in a long time, though the albums a few years old. One of the cooler titles too.
- James Blunt - Back to Bedlam - Been dreaming of this album for a while since I got “You’re Beautiful” as a free download from i-Tunes. For a couple months, I’ve been watching it stay pretty consistantly in the top 10 of Today’s Top Albums at i-Tunes. Pretty good album, but hasn’t met my high expectations after months of build up.
- Death Cab for Cutie - “Soul Meets Body“, “Crooked Teeth” - There’s been a lot of buzz about these guys since December. I have preview the album in 30 second clips, but thought it was all hype. Then I heard them perform “Soul Meets Body” on SNL a month ago and found myself singing in my head for days. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to give the whole album a try.
- Michael Tolcher - “Sooner or Later” - Heard this on a recent episode of Scrubs (One of my favorite sources of new music, though more on this in the future). Excellent single. He was part of the line up for the Dave Matthews Band cruise recently. I plan to give some of his other tracks a try soon.
- Colin Hay - Man @ Work - Another Scrubs find. Featured in second season, Colin appeared on the show playing “Overkill”, though eventually Dr. Cox smashed the !@#$ out of his guitar. This mostly acoustic is great and features some newer versions of his songs from Men At Work, including the alltime classic, “Land Down Under”.
- Tom Glynn - Passing Dream - Got this from a co-worker who is the sister-in-law of Tom’s drummer. Thought it was merely pleasant on the first listen, but the album has really grown on me since. Especially the duet on “Feels Like Rain.”
And like that he was gone….
-Nate
