“You should never beat a dead horse, unless it’s a zombie horse, then you can’t beat it enough.”
- Steven Colbert

I’m under the impression this is a zombie horse… I think we’ve made it abundantly clear that we don’t use radio to find new music. Unfortunately, there are people that completely agree, but haven’t found other avenues to find music. In fact, that was me a little over a year ago. I hadn’t found a new band I really liked in years, and I was extremely close to giving up on the music industry. That was then though. I urge you to take a look at our reviews portal. Many of those bands I’ve heard before the site, but probably a lot fewer than you suspect. For example, my favorites page has 11 bands on there. I hadn’t heard 6 of those bands before the start of Obnoxious Listeners. Although I am rather proud of this site, this isn’t shameless self-promotion. My point is that you don’t need the radio to find great music. You just have to actually take a few minutes every now and then and find it yourself. The music is out there, but you can’t depend on it just finding you. Start searching on your own and you’ll realize:

“Maybe music isn’t dead. Maybe we all just forgot what it fucking sounds like.”
- Get Fighted, Alexisonfire

There’s not one band I’ve found, since the start of this site, that I found on the radio; and a large majority of them have never regularly been on the radio. One of the most frequently asked questions I get when I discuss music and this site is, “How do you find all of these bands?” I’d like to be a little more explicit about how I come across these bands… I have a subscription to regularly refill my internets. Seriously, all I do is peruse online music stores, myspace, and Pandora. Actually, I don’t use Pandora so much anymore because I tend to only need a few seconds to know if I want to listen any longer. Pandora only lets you skip so many songs within a certain amount of time. I pretty routinely use the “listeners also bought” and then follow up with a trip to myspace to get full length tracks. Are you into music? Pretty serious about it and need more music? Please, I urge you. Just go to an online music store and look through the “listeners also bought” for at least 10 minutes. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to find something new you’ll like.

I hope that this site will develop a large enough library of reviews to compete with the above process for our readers, but it’s just not there yet. My filtering process isn’t perfect, and frankly, it’s my filter. There is music you’ll love that I’ll hate, and I’ll skip over or not get the inspiration needed to write a review; which brings me to my final point. Here’s a little known secret. While I certainly spend a lot of time and energy trying to encourage others to get excited about music, I frankly don’t do this for you, the reader. I don’t mean to be arrogant or immodest in that regard. I just mean that you might be surprised how much you’d get out of putting yourself on a schedule to find new music and actually spend time writing about what you’ve found. Pretty quick, you’ll grasp out how much you truly like the band or artist you’re writing about. Either you’ll find you didn’t like them as much as you thought, or you’ll end up learning and hearing more than you would have otherwise. While I believe I enjoy writing much more than most (or maybe I just like reading my own opinion), but there is certainly value to it that I think anyone serious about music should try.

I’m certainly not trying to discourage people from using this site or others like it. I just want to convey that music critics don’t really know anything special or different from anyone else. There is a plethora of free utilities around the internet to find new music. Take some time to find new music, you’ll be surprised how easy it really is.

iTunes | Amazon | MySpace | Last.fm | Pandora | Amie Steet

There’s nothing I love more than knowing I’m going to love an entire album before even hearing the whole thing. Then again, I’m a music junkie with little to no life. But that’s the feeling I got with both albums released by If These Trees Could Talk. I found their self-titled debut a few months back before their follow-up was released. I would have published a review sooner, but it got pushed back to accommodate several new releases. Ironically, they had a new release right under my nose. No worries though, I highly doubt I would have listened to the self-titled album more than 50 times before getting the follow-up album otherwise.

I found If These Trees Could Talk (2006) via “listeners also bought” on iTunes (if you think I’ve been beating that process into your heads, wait till you see my editorial next week). I’m inclined to call these guys a heavier and guitar oriented God is an Astronaut. Granted, God is an Astronaut has a guitar player, but If These Trees Could Talk has three… now that’s something I haven’t seen in a while. Although they have the guitar presence to actually pull off Free Bird, endlessly layered guitar solos isn’t what they have in mind. If These Trees Could Talk is post-rock for those who also enjoy bands like Isis, Red Sparowes, Tool, Explosions in the Sky, and maybe even Onesidezero’s debut.

The self-title album opens with their strongest track in my opinion. Malabar Front let’s you know they are post-rock for the guitarist. Somehow three clean guitars all playing something different never feels cluttered. And when the song kicks in heavier and one of them goes nuts with the wah pedal, you’ll never stop and think, “Where are the vocals?” It might take a well-trained musician to isolate what each of the guitars is doing, and although that level of writing certainly raises my opinion of them, the guitars aren’t in your face enough to appear overly complicated. Subtle complication… what a beautiful concept. This theme is prevalent throughout the album if you listen carefully enough. The Friscalating Dusklight even has a 9/8 time signature thrown in. Maybe this is me making a mountain of a molehill, but it’s just a wonderful dichotomy of an unfamiliar rhythm executed in such a way that feels natural. The album as a whole is really quite solid, complete with good dynamics and tonal shifts. The only downside is that it probably shouldn’t be called an album being only 6 tracks and about 32 minutes long.

Need more If These Trees Could Talk? Above the Earth, Below the Sky (2009) was just released this past March and doesn’t disappoint. Once again, the opening track is a slam dunk. In fact, owning the first album and listening to a 30-second clip of From Roots to Needles prompted me to purchase the whole album.  Just like the self-titled album, Above the Earth, Below the Sky has its mix of heavy and mellow tracks, but the second track keeps the momentum from the first building to something barely recognizable as post-rock… maybe some sort of post-rock/post-metal concoction. Of course, the band still takes full advantage of having three guitarists. But what I failed to mention with regards to the first album, and is still true in the follow-up, is that having three guitarists requires a very strong rhythm section. This means tight execution and deft syncopation from both the bassist and the drummer. All in all, both albums are great and I’m looking forward to seeing where they’ll go from here.

I need to take a moment and give some credit to the Genius recommendation system on iTunes. Granted, it’s success rate is somewhat low, but it has introduced me to the best melodic heavy metal album I’ve heard since… well, I’ll go so far as to say since Opeth released Blackwater Park (2001). Seriously. I say that in reference to composition, recording, and production.  I cannot stop listening to this wonderful band hailing from Germany: Disillusion.

Typically, I prefer to tell all of my friends about new music through posts such as this, but I was far to excited to hold this one back until this post went live. So, if you follow me via facebook or twitter, this band may not be a surprise… if it’s not, then hopefully it’s a reminder to make you buy Disillusion’s Back to Times of Splendor (2004). If you crave heavy metal with talent and tolerate/embrace/love the occasional screaming (e.g. bands like Opeth), then Back to Times of Splendor is a must own. Now, if Disillusion was just another Opeth clone, I’d simply suggest checking this band out. Make no mistake, Disillusion is no clone. The only reason I make the comparison to Opeth is that they both play fast and heavy mixed with quiet and mellow compositions. Disillusion reminds me of some sort of mixture of Opeth, System of a Down, and… hear me out on this one… Rusted Root. That’s right, I said it.

Back to Times of Splendor is a few minutes shy of an hour across only six tracks. It was played and written by all around fantastic musicians and recorded by someone that clearly knows what he’s doing and does it well. Simply put, it’s a fantastic and cohesive album with a fantastic recording just begging you to blow out your stereo. The first track, And the Mirror Cracked, is the the heaviest song (but not by much) with the harshest vocals. If rough vocals aren’t your thing, just wait it out for a couple minutes. Before you know it, you’ll hear some actual singing, and in the mean time you’ll get some great guitar work and drumming. Just a few minutes into this eight and half minute opener mellows out very smoothly to an acoustic guitar and piano.

The song that caught my immediate attention was Fall. This song has the most explicit stylistic choices that remind me of Rusted Root. You’ll hear what I mean if you listen to the audio sample at the top of this post. I’m not sure how else to explain the pure blissful craziness that is Fall. The fifth track, A Day by the Lake, is definitely the most mellow track on the album and it even has a fretless bass used… I don’t hear that often enough in rock.  Each song on this album has unique qualities from one another. That’s really what makes this such an enjoyable album. Aside from the sonic characteristics, if you read my editorial Song Structure, you’ll know that I have a thing for creative song structures. I even made a comment about using an album’s track lengths to quantify said creativity. Back to Times of Splendor has six tracks: 8:28, 4:54, 6:53, 14:39, 4:54, and 17:03. Despite the coincidence of two tracks having the exact same length, there’s no Mr. Coffee in use here! So, to all metal heads looking for intense, heavy, articulate guitar work and drumming, creative song structures, melodic singing, and a strong sense of diversity throughout an album, you need look no further than Back to Times of Splendor.

I feel obligated to say that Disillusion’s follow-up album, Gloria (2006), is a significant departure. But I was so blown away by Back to Times of Splendor that I trusted their artistic choices to explore industrial, electronic, and gothic genres in Gloria… but not until after I caught my breath from the knock-out punch to my gut from Back to Times of Splendor. I will warn you, that you won’t likely appreciate Gloria to its full extent (or maybe not even at all) if you don’t listen to Back to Times of Splendor first… unless you’re already into said genres. Luckily, you can hear several full-lenth tracks from Gloria on their official homepage. Gloria is a testament to their artistic dedication, that said it’s only for those that can appreciate such an attribute.

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This is hyperlinked. ]]> http://www.obnoxiouslisteners.com/uncategorized/showcasing-css/feed/ http://www.obnoxiouslisteners.com/uncategorized/showcasing-css/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ObnoxiousListeners/~3/QbCllyPKv1Q/ http://www.obnoxiouslisteners.com/editorials/oscar-grammy/#comments Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:00:16 +0000 Mike http://www.obnoxiouslisteners.com/?p=4273 Why is it that the Academy Awards (Oscars) tend to get things more or less correct while the Grammys tend to get things oh so wrong? Well I’m not sure yet but I’m going to try to get to the bottom of it.

First I just want to offer a small bit of evidence to support my lofty claim. To do that, let’s take a look at the most prestigious award from each award show: the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Grammy for Album of the Year. Over the past decade, nominees for Best Picture include films such as American Beauty, Lord of the Rings (all three of them), There Will Be Blood (which has an amazing soundtrack by the way), The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, A Beautiful Mind, etc. Now I’m no expert on movies, but I do think I’m able to identify quality acting, directing, and writing, and I think all those movies are great. In fact, while perusing nominees over the past decade, not a single film sticks out to me as being horribly deficient in any of these major areas.

During that same time span, nominees for Album of the Year include Tha Carter III (Lil Wayne), Millenium (Backstreet Boys), Nellyville (Nelly), American Idiot (Green Day), and multiple albums from Dixie Chicks, U2, and Justin Timberlake. Now some good albums got nominations - and even wins - but the mere presence of some of the other nominees really detracts from the prestige of this sought-after award and the rest of the Grammys as well.

Now this isn’t meant to be rock-solid evidence that the Oscars are infallible and the Grammys a sham, but I’m guessing at this point you either: A) completely disagree with me, in which case you might as well discontinue reading now and instead turn on your favorite Top 40 radio station, or B) agree with me, or at least see that I may have stumbled upon something slightly resembling an accurate observation.

For those of you still with me, I’m going to cite one factor I believe may be a reason for this Oscar-Grammy disparity. But first, one more observation, and that is that films and albums alike that win these awards tend to be very profitable. In other words, the awards reflect to some degree the public’s opinion of the respective media [of course there are plenty of extremely high-grossing movies that don't get Oscar nominations, but I think my point is still valid]. How is it then that the public can somehow be “smarter” when it comes to movies and “stupider” when it comes to music?

One word - radio. Now I know it’s easy to vilify and make fun of the radio, and we do it often on this website, but let me finish my point before accusing me of riding the bandwagon. The radio is a free source of music to the public. In theory this is a great thing, but in practice it’s simply an easy way for the major music corporations to mercilessly and repeatedly batter the public with the latest thing they call music. Movies on the other hand don’t have any sort of free public broadcast that forces people to repeatedly watch the same thing over and over again. Because of this, I think, people are inclined to be more choosey and to form their own opinions when it comes to films… ya know, assuming they haven’t already been brainwashed by the endless TV advertisements and billboards.