Sound Machine Dream

I have been having an existential dilemma in regards to this website lately. I just cannot decide how to make this site worth the work. Perhaps I am just trying to do too much. With sites like pitchfork, indieworkshop, last.fm, elbows, ilike, etc. is there any more need for another music site? I think there is, at least for myself and my friends.

Perhaps that is the answer, just focus on my friends again, like i used to. I just need to listen to music, and write enough for my friends to also want to listen to it. Great! I guess that means I can cut back on the design and what not... well not the design, but the extraneous "other" stuff besides music and comments.

I may have solved this temporarily. Let us hope so. Talk and review more soon

KB

It seems to me that the next wave of great pop stars on american soil will actually be british. Have you heard any of the new(er) stuff from Lily Allen or Kate Nash? It is ridiculously good! Not only do they do great pop, but a plethora of djs and hip-hoppers have done remixes of their tunes, creating some great dance numbers as well. With MIA, The Streets, Lady Sovereign, Dizzee Rascal etc. coming at us as well (and reaching pretty high praise and popularity from critics) we are experiencing another british invasion. These artists all have in common a much smarter and interesting approach to their genres. Musical compositions are in more interesting, lyrics more intelligent, even when dealing with equally mundane subjects as any american artists. For 2008, look to the UK for hopefully much more interesting and exciting music.

So, I've let everything slide. New year, new plan, lets get to it. Coming soon, 2007 best of lists, mix tape, new layout, yeeha. Keep coming, keep reading, keep looking for more, and above all else, keep listening to great tunes.

Looking forward to 2008, talk soon

It's always scary when the venue is located on the second floor of an old theater, and that venue is sold out. When the sounds of Josh Ritter and crew sprung forth from the gigantic side speakers that are usually reserved for Booty Dancing on Tuesday Night, the joint was literaly jumping. The sold out crowd bounded up and down, and the floor reacted with a trampoline effect. Even if you were standing still, you would have still been bouncing. This reaction is partly due to the upbeat tempo of the new album, The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter .

When you listen to the album at home (if you can get past the ego of the album's title) you notice straight away that Josh has found how to use the eighth note. About 2/3 of the album is full of pounding eighth notes on both the piano and percussion. At times during the album, this can be a little much, and gets to be rather noisey. HOWEVER, after seening this show on friday, it was clear that these songs were orchestrated with the intension of playing them infront of a crowd. The pounding rythmns drive into your feet, and keep you taping along with the well written lyrics coming from the microphone.

The other factor that plays part in the incredible bousterous crowd, was the fact that the band was so together that night. From their enthusiastic entrance, to their esoteric apperances (he bassman had a waxed mustache! no joke!), these boys were ready to play. Aparrently all ego has been pushed aside as Josh lovingly shared the stage with all of his mates. At the end, the quintet shared a bow together, where it's frontman seemed to be meerly a vessel for which the music emerges from.

There's a line from one of his songs, " I'm singing for the love of it—have mercy on the man who sings to be adored" and this was no more true than on Friday. The show was fun from the boping honky tonk songs, to the focused ballads. And aside from the fear that the floor caving in, for almost two hours there were no worries.

We will be undergoing some short changes at SMD, please bear with us. Just know that your reading and reviewing experiences will be so much better as a result!

carry on