Principles of Mine and General Things to Rant About by: Trevor e.y. - My site is a comparative site, as in I am not a historian or anything, so I expect most people to look elsewhere when reading my reviews, and don't expect my stuff to be the only review read about an artist. We are all part of a community that has thousands of opinions, and I am just sharing mine and hoping some people might be provided with insight. - New artists are usually way overrated; half of them may be good, but count on half of even the most hyped new bands to be bad. This is a major annoyance to me, so I try to truly LISTEN to newer bands. - I will write an opening biography on any band where I review more than three of their albums. Any less than that and it is hard to talk about them yet, usually because they are new, so there may or may not be a biography until they mature. - I am a pretty hardcore minimalist, so don't expect a flashy look to the site. Content is what matters to me. I also have a taste for  simple sounding songs. Whether that be pop bands (Beatles, XTC, Matthew Sweet, other power pop stuff) or just bands that use simple chords and methods to get their points across (Velvet Underground, Low, Modern Lovers, some folk artists), those are the kinds of bands most likely to be covered here; not whoever is popular or on the radio at the time. If the music is good, it will stand the test of time. - albums are NOT dead, and I am tired of hearing it. Just because people are "downloading" more albums, does not mean the standard album as a medium is going away. If anything, there has been a resurgence in people going out and finding music on their own, and more of a "think more yourself" mentality. That might mean people will stop buying cd's as much SOMEDAY, but it does not mean artists will stop making ALBUMS and complete works. TV did not kill movies, radio did not kill records, downloading songs will not kill albums, and people need to stop thinking that. That's like saying going from cassettes to cd's killed albums because the way you listened to it changes. - what is wrong with having an album of great songs? Are Rocks, Modern Lovers, Life's Rich Pagent, Radio City, and Rocket to Russia not as important as "works of different styles" such as Odelay, Daydream Nation, Sgt. Peppers, Tommy, and Remain in Light? Just because those latter albums have more ambition does not make them better to listen to than some straight up rock music that never lets up. I am tired of bands like Queens of the Stone Age, The Rolling Stones, and AC/DC being criticized for being too much of the same thing and never evolving. Some would even say that of The Ramones. Pop music is the same concept, I mean a great lost pop band like The Undertones can be as good as The Beatles, and some "popular bands" can be the same way, like currently Green Day and some Dave Matthews. Why do bands get slack for being good?!? That has never made since to me. Yeah it depends on "what kind of mood your in" and all, but give me some Strokes right by my Sonic Youth please. Nothin' wrong with that. - I try to write my reviews as if I was in the "present tense" of the album being reviewed. I find that many reviews become dated when written in that past tense with reverence and all. Also talking about future albums by an artist is something I don't do, when writing about an album that came before. - how surprising that some really great things are still unavailable in print. Double Indemnity is still not on DVD, what are they waiting for?!? Another recent discovery of mine is Julian Cope's book, Krautrock Sampler, is not in print any more. It is supposed to be a great starting guide for those German seventies rock bands that really are great, but hard to be knowledgeable about with out some kind of guide. Scaruffi's History of Rock book has a great section on the subject, but it is not detailed and it would nice to have Cope's in print. People today would eat that thing up! Get with it publishing companies!!! (This is a defunct statement. Double Indemnity is actually on DVD now.) - There is much better music being made today then ever before. There are so many great bands out there, some are known to the public, but most you have to look for. People that think nothing will ever be better than bands from the sixties are kidding themselves; get out there and look! I love music, have about 1,000 records as of 2006, but there are so many bands I have not yet got into. And I'm just talking about rock music, there is also soul, jazz, classical, polka, you name it. You give me that "music just isn't as good these days" crap, and I'm gonna let you have it pal! - yeah, there aren't enough personal music sites. There needs to be some organization among web critics and some arguing wars. Come on come on! Let's talk about music people! Where are the other websites that review interesting bands? Besides the ones I have in my links page, I don't know any other opinionated music sites. Come on folk, lets express our opinions more! I get tired of these multiple-people review sites that keep switching personnel and sounding like they are of the same quality when they are obviously not; Pitchfork I'm aiming at you :( - It is really hard to review new music. There are about 50 cd's still I want to hear that came out this year that I haven't heard yet, and I have heard about 50 in detail so far (as of October 2006). Only about half of those 50 I would rate as good, 6/8 or more. It sure is hard to listen to good music. Shouldn't there be some cheap and easy way to get good music every week or something? Maybe the answer is to get on schedule or something and organize music buying, but I don't know man, I've tried and I still get left behind! By the end of this year I will probably have about 60 to 65 records just from this year, and that is the most I have ever had from one year. Not enough I tell you, not enough. This is why I haven't branched out much into other genres yet that I want to (soul, reggae, rap, country, jazz, classical). It's hard enough to keep up with rock n' roll! - the bottom line is, there is too much crappy music going on these days. I'd love to ignore it, but we're all surrounded by it. I don't lay the blame in people like Justin Timberlake and P Diddy so much as to say when some one is a singles artist, they need to realize there is nothing wrong with that. Pop artists should stick to making singles and NOT albums, and there would be much less garbage out there. The problem is albums carry more money, so people who excel at singles make full lengths albums made of filler to make more money, round and round we go. With the Internet being so single ready anyways, I really wish some artists would just stick to singles and not albums - there is no shame in knowing ones strengths. - rock in roll is young, what like 50 years? I hope I live another 50 years so I can see how things have changed. The art forms get so united after 100 years....see how everyone agrees Citizen Kane is the best movie? It probably wasn't that way in 1950. Everyone loves the Beatles these days...will they in 50 years? Will the best album be unanimously Revolver or will it be something more "modern" to now like Perfect from Now On, Daydream Nation, or Loveless? There are a lot more albums made per year than movies (try a ratio of about 100:1) so how will the times change in 2050 when Rock n' Roll is 100 years old? - gotta say, I'm interested to see the next 5 years of the Rock Hall of Fame. Are they going to get weird on us or not? Will great bands like Love, Pere Ubu, XTC, Sonic Youth, Minutemen, and other alternative acts get on soon? Truth is some wiil and some won't. Sonic Youth are very respected, much like Talking Heads were, despite being "out there". Still, the day SY gets into the R&R hall of fame will be a strange one indeed (probably next year). The day a band that truly deserves it like Pere Ubu gets in there, I will jump up and down like the David Thomas freak I is! Seriously though, one problem is the induction process is too slow - 5 to 7 a year? Try 10, or hell try 15-25! Too much good music to induct so slow. And they still aren't risky enough, P. Smith singing "Rock n' Roll Nigger" could never be aired on VH1 classic or whatever, though it was online and damn it was great! Anyway, my main point, they need to get more areas covered and should probably burn it down and start over. The nation Film Library of Congrees inducts like 50 films a year right? Ak, so when will Captain Beefheart, Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, Tim Buckley, Henry Cow, King's X, Residents, Roxy Music, Soft Machine, Krautrock Bands, John Mellancamp, Donovan, David Crosby, Rickie Lee Jones....are all of these artists weird? Some of them are all about revolution I guess, but isn't that the point? Shouldn't they drag out Beefheart and have him destroy the stage or something? You know he's won like 3 grammys, I mean come on.... - more to come!