I'm unsure if we're ever going to be able to top last week's "Thursday Discussion" post, because that was definitely one of the highlights of the feature for me. However, it's a new day - and that means we aim big. Since we've been having a lot of fun with the "nostalgia-tinged" posts of the past few weeks, I decided to stay on that track. And since we've been having a lot of good discussions around the "2001-2003" era of music, I think that's where I'll...[read more]

Chances are, if you're over drinking age and you've been visiting this website for a while ... you're part of what I'm coining the Drive-Thru Records generation. For a large group of us - this label defined a good portion of our formative years. Reading over the past couple threads about the label showcases just what an attachment so many of us had with this label and their bands. This connection is part of the reason I think so many people are confused about just what the fuck happened to a label that seemed on...[read more]

I've never really wrapped my head around the idea that "EP" stands for extended play, and yet its the shorter version of an album. Extended seems, to me, to mean even longer than long play. Either way, you know the terminology, and I'm going to stop before I open myself up to too many jokes. The topic of today's "Thursday Discussion" post is: my favorite EPs. I feel like standing up for the little guy. The under-appreciated art of brevity. The brave souls that didn't stuff their albums with...[read more]

Last Thursday I broke out the nostalgia tinged "My Chinese Democracy List" feature for discussion. As fate would have it, this week brought us a healthy dose of yesteryear as we learned of reunions from At the Drive In, Refused, and The Receiving End of Sirens. For this week's read more]

As I was scrolling through my iTunes the other day, I rediscovered my love for Brandtson. And as I was realizing how good (and underappreciated) the band was, it made me start thinking about a variety of albums, and collections of songs, that have gone "unreleased" by different bands over the years. So, I decided to make a list of the top 5 I'd love to hear if somehow they could ever see the light of day. Of course, the ones I don't know about would probably dominate this list. Feel free to add your own "Chinese Democracy"...[read more]

Last night, I was able to catch Manchester Orchestra's Spring headlining tour. Not only was the band sharp, their openers were just as great. There was the gritty O'Brother, Chris Staples (Twothirtyeight, Discover America) and the jamming The Features.

It...[read more]

The "single" is a word that lost its worth at the beginning of the decade as its physical sales dwindled. As we approach the end of the same said decade, the digital medium certainly has changed that. With the ability to purchase the equivalent of a mixtape, some of us wonder what will become of the idea of the album - you know, all killer and no filler.

There's something intricate about an album that always messes with my brain when friends and work have the iTunes on shuffle. Is it me, or do you ever hear the end of a song and anticipate the breakdown, or vocal harmony or drum...[read more]

Happy Thanksgiving! What are you guys thankful for this year?

Neon shirts. Similar feminine haircuts. Synth screams. Crunkcore. Well, you can see where I'm going with this. The past decade, and especially the past year, has given us a bit of cookie cutting within our little community. Some of us eat it up, while others look past it. There's no denying that it is selling, and there is a support system somewhere out there.

Are these new blended genres of music just a fad? Is the fan base just a naive crowd? How did we get to a place like this? We've certainly seen a grand homogenization of influences that have really molded into something...[read more]

If you've regularly kept up with my blog or my interviews, you've noticed that I've been a bit obsessive with discussing what this decade had to offer, and what we can expect in the decade to come.

We've certainly scene a flood of artists and musicians take over our lives due to Al Gore's great invention mixed with programs such as Garageband and Reason giving everyone a chance to make their voice and instrument heard. The Internet has opened up opportunity for us to hear great new bands without having to catch them as openers, but has also saturated the market for some of us as...[read more]

If you've been to any festival, you've no doubt seen the ground littered with trash. Whether it's empty soda bottles, scene kids giving free hugs (sick burn!), or those little post cards advertising a band, it covers the ground, and you step all over it. However, you will often see sampler CDs in this same pile.

For some, sampler CDs are a great way to discover new music, while some think they make great projectiles during a live show. What do you think about sampler CDs? Do you listen to them? If so, do you ever hear a band on there and go search for their other stuff? ...[read more]

Your favorite band has just finished the last song from their set, said their goodbyes and thanks yous, and walked off the stage. The performance was great; you want more, as does the rest of the crowd. So you cheer and cheer and cheer, possibly chanting "Play more songs!" The band obliges to your demands and comes back on stage and plays a few more songs.

This is the encore, a way of a band to reward their fans for sticking around and to give them a little something more. Oftentimes a band will save some of their lesser-played songs in the encore so, while some are leaving...[read more]

There's no use avoiding the subject anymore or trying to pretend they don't exist--sites that leak music are out there and don't seem to be going away any time soon. The fans are aware, the record labels are aware, the bands are aware and for all of the policing that's possible once a record leaks, it's never enough to get a true shutdown of blocking the files from being seen. Simply put, once music is let out, it's always going to be out.

Music blogs that run on the intent that they are offering music as a trial for people to download and decide whether or not to purchase. ...[read more]

When people think of beauty, it's nearly always associated with a visual image. The definition, according to dictionary.com, states that beauty is "the quality that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is associated with such properties as harmony of form or color, excellence of artistry, truthfulness, and originality." The very definition of beauty even lends itself to the visual. Can beauty be applied to music?

With some moments in music, it's nearly impossible to argue against. There are...[read more]

Every year, some of your favorite bands release new albums, you find out about great up and coming bands, you find out about great bands that you missed the boat on, and you find that some band you once loved has lost its luster. Over the past year, how have your musical tastes evolved?

Has the return of Blink 182 ushered in a new found resurgence of pop-punk love for you? Maybe it gave you a realization that you feel too old for their music these days. How you've changed over the past year is going to inevitably be different than any other person. Maybe Eminem's new album...[read more]

You know that feeling after you've seen an exceptionally great live performance? Hours after leaving, you're still stunned, and you feel the need to tell anyone and everyone about that great band. What if that band wasn't actually playing live?

Believe it or not, there are many bands that play off of a track to ensure a solid live performance. Quite notably, at this year's Superbowl, Bruce Springsteen played to a track during the halftime performance. But this does not happen in just those high-profile multi-million dollar situations, as there are bands that this site covers...[read more]

Lyrical content is extremely important for a band's success and fan attachment. Popular bands often have lyrics that universally pique interest and create an emotional connection between the artist and the listener. What happens when a band uses their words to talk about controversial subjects? Bands like mewithoutYou, Underoath, and Boxcar Racer have enjoyed popularity while having lyrics pertaining to the polemical topic of religion.

Would you judge a band based on their religious affiliation? If the lyrics are spiritual, do you care or should you care? Do you think that...[read more]

If you visit this site, you see promotional pictures of bands all the time. These are representations of how the band wants to be seen, whether it's showing off their music as tough with angry faces, fun with balloons flying all over the place, or serious and deep with inquisitive looks off the camera.

What are your favorite promo pictures? Which do you think are the worst? Feel free to post them all in this thread and have some fun with it.

When Refused announced their breakup in 1998, it came shortly after the recording of their landmark The Shape of Punk to Come, citing that they did not want their art to become compromised. Once they issued their final manifesto, that was it. They were done, and their legacy remains over a decade later.

Bands break up for many different reasons. Some bands like Refused decide that they have been exhausted creatively. Other bands may credit personal differences between members to a break up. Some just can't sustain being in a band financially and decide to get a...[read more]

Welcome to Spring, everyone. It's that time of the year when windows slowly start rolling down and sleeves start rolling up. What bands or albums fit your mood perfectly for this season? Why?

In the past twenty years, which locale has provided the best music: Europe or the United States? On one side, you have bands like Radiohead, Muse, Sigur Ros, and Coldplay (Europe). On the other, you've got Counting Crows, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Weezer, etc. (US).

The U.S. has blink-182, Nirvana, The Mars Volta, the Dave Matthews Band, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Europe has Oasis, Blur, Mogwai, Placebo, and the Darkness.

You might also take into account other important contributions of both places. The U.S.: Fugazi, Wilco, The White Stripes, Modest...[read more]

What would be your dream tour line-up of four bands? You can make it realistic with only current active bands or feel free to go wild and have The Beatles take Queen with Freddie Mercury out on tour. Your decision...what would you have? Why these particular bands?

Do you think the openness and discussion-readiness of the Internet is a good or a bad thing for the music industry? Why or why not?

Consider a site like AP.net, where it is very easy to find a new favorite band based on others' recommendations, but also where it is very easy to cut down a band without even listening to the band. Is it best that every single person has a voice and can let their opinion be as loud as they want to be?

The idea of a fan club is for an artist to give something more to their die-hard fans. For a fee, access to this club brings many benefits to its members, commonly things such as early access to tour pre-sales and a first chance to listen to new music.

Often, though, the fan club becomes marred down by the fact that such "exclusives" aren't so exclusive. Pre-sale codes can usually be found on the Internet as soon as they're posted, exclusive unreleased songs can always be found elsewhere (and more times than less, these...[read more]

Every week, we have a nostalgia post that brings back memories of a certain band and the era that this band was a part of. Understandably, some of these bands have been around as recent as four years ago, but that does not mean that the musical landscape hasn't changed radically in that time to make people miss what that band was doing or what they stood for. Everything in the music world is always changing, whether it be the popular styles of music, the fashion, or the way we obtain our music.

What do you miss the most about the "old days?" Old days is a broad phrase that...[read more]

Jimmy Eat World are celebrating the ten year anniversary of Clarity by touring and playing the classic (ahem) album the whole way through. Reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, as they have finally created an experience that people have wanted for years.

Now that Clarity is out of the way, what other albums do you think would be the best to see a band perform live the whole way through? Why? Would you like to see a full album performed or would you prefer a mix of all the band's catalog?

Did you know that the title of Gatsbys American Dream's "Meet Me at the Tavern in Bowerstone" is a reference to the video game Fable? Did you know that Set Your Goals references Something Corporate songs at the end of their "To Be Continued"? Did you know that the band Millencolin got their name from a skateboarding trick? Did you catch mewithoutYou's Aaron Weiss referencing a "brownish spider" before "The Spider and the Lamps" in Razia's Shadow?

There are tons of hidden meanings to songs or little nods to contemporaries in music all around. What are some of...[read more]

Blink-182 is back. What does that mean for our "scene?" Will they herald the resurgence of Atticus shirts and dispel the neon/dance trend? Will their popularity topple Fall Out Boy's? Will the reunion be successful? Will the mainstream even care anymore?

What musical direction do you believe they will go toward? Will they play the more somber pop-punk found in their self-titled album, the crude and playful sound they patented in the late 90s, or maybe even take influence from Angels and Airwaves and +44? What do you think?

How important is a band's name to the band? Many bands take flack for their name (Cute Is What We Aim For, anyone?), but should this matter when you are listening to the music?

Further, do you think a band should change their name after they lose their vocalist (i.e. Hit the Lights, Amber Pacific, VersaEmerge), or if the line-up has changed so much that they're not even the same band anymore (The Ataris)?

Does credibility matter anymore? Do you need it to enjoy a band?

When speaking credibility, we mean the background to talk about certain things in lyrics, the image to have, or the morals to uphold. If a band with a hard work ethic plays the same exact music a band that has an easy road to success (i.e. a manufactured band) does, will you pick one over the other because of their "credibility" to deserve success and hold it against the other? Why or why not?