SOTW: The Gossip

I had somethin' a little mellow, but I'm savin' it for either a rainy day or a Monday. They're kinda the same in my mind. Sooooo for the Friday pre-party, I'm going with The Gossip.

Beth Ditto (lead singer) totally makes my life. She grew up singing Gospel and now makes rawkin music for people to shake it to. Sometimes she teaches at Rock Camp, but sadly not when I did :(

http://www.myspace.com/gossipband - Listen to "Heavy Cross"


I wish you a weekend of radness.

SOTW: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

Dig this band from Missouri. And I love it when bands put themselves in the "Pop" genre. It just seems so...honest?

http://www.myspace.com/boris - Listen to "Modern Mystery"

SOTW: The Wet Secrets

The name for this band is kinda wrong, but I'm sure that they totally love that I'm saying that right now. They're called The Wet Secrets (yeah, see? told you).

http://www.myspace.com/wetsecrets - Listen to "Get Your Own Apartment"

This one goes out to all you Millenials out there who are still mooching off the parental units while they try to "find themselves". Don't worry, you'll figure it out, at least until the Daddy's Money Tree dies.

Key of CJ - Now Featuring Song of the Week!

Sup Kids -

Moving SOTW to the blog - I'll be posting a new song each week. Why only one song you ask? BECAUSE I SAID SO, and because I am anti-clutter. You totally have time to devote to one song per week, and if you don't, maybe it's time to dump your needy girlfriend or quit being an investment banker.

muahahaha.

Math Rock: Cuz 4/4 Bands Just Suck

People have been freaking out about the Battles record, so you may have heard the genre "math rock" being thrown around.

"It was invented by a friend of ours as a derogatory term for a band me and James (Lo) played in called Wider. But his whole joke is that he'd watch the song and not react at all, and then take out his calculator to figure out how good the song was. So he'd call it math rock, and it was a total diss, as it should be". - Matt Sweeney from Chavez

Basically math rock is when musicians screw around with time signatures and meters to create delays, twists, random sycopation and CONFUSION! If it sounds off...don't worry, it's supposed to. And what about lyrics? You won't usually hear them in math rock - forget overdubbing cuz they're just another sound.

Early bands that started experimenting with meters and time signatures range from Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, to Pink Floyd and Genesis - but they were all thrown into the genre we know as "progressive rock." Canadian punks Nomeansno are hailed by critics as the "secret influence" of math rock with their "whiplash tempo shifts".

Other math rock bands you may have heard of include Explosions in the Sky, Deerhoof, 65DaysofStatic, Q and Not U, Forward Russia, and, of course, Battles.

The Death of Punk Planet

"But it is also true that great things end, and the best things end far too quickly." - Dave Maher, co-founder of Punk Planet

I'm not gonna lie and say that I was a die-hard punk planet fan, but that's only because it's not until now that I have the dough to subscribe to magazines.

For those of you who don't know, here's a brief background on Punk Planet. It was a print run punk zine out of Chicago that featured artist interviews, album reviews and articles on issues revolving around punk subculture (feminism, activism, etc). A truly smart zine - so much more than what people would classify as punk now. It started in 1994, and it ended today.

So why should you care? This is just more evidence of how the internet is rocking the music industry. Just as CDs are turning into USB Sticks, zines are turning into social networking sites. Eventually, music won't be tangible.

http://www.punkplanet.com/

Pandora Loves You Thi$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Much

Haven't mentioned the freakout about internet streaming royalties in a while...so here's an update.

According to Coolfer, webcasters have to pay a minimum fee of $500 per channel streamed. There used to be a cap at 2,500, but not no more. So think about it - on Pandora, you got your Ryan Adams Channel for rainy days, your Of Montreal Channel to wake you up on Mondays, and your Gallows Channel for when you're super ultra pissed off and wanna break stuff.

Basically, if you created a different channel for every different mood, Pandora would owe a million buhgillion dollars.

If that aint love...I don't know what is.