Listen to a new random band every week.

That Green Gentleman by Panic at the Disco

Everything’s Magic by Angels and Airwaves

Okay, my original version of this sounded just as stuck up and in-your-face as the music snobbery with which I was annoyed. So the new rules are simple: I find one artist I haven’t heard of or have only marginally heard of; the more randomly the better. This is includes picking up an unheard of CD at the library, finding an mp3 online, stumbling (often literally) across a cool band in a bar, etc.

Today: The Inspiral Carpets. It’s as if Madness was suddenly attacked in the mid east using the weapons he had created and decided to dedicate his life to using that very same technology to instead protect those he put in harms way. Yeah.

Can’t beat their own words:
Interviewer: What sort of crowds are you getting now? Is it the same people from back in the day – just older? Or are you attracting new fans?

Carpets: It’s a mixture of old fans pretending they are 18 again for two hours and new fans who want to check out our really classic garage band.

Today’s theme: this is how it feels

Today’s band: Tigers and Monkeys, fronted by the talented and extremely cute Shonali Bhowmik#. She used to be in a band called Ultrababyfat which I believe was out of Atlanta. They have some good free mp3’s on their website.

I love music and, although not a musician myself, I love exploring different bands. Luckily I have no taste so 1. I can listen to almost any genre and enjoy much of it, and 2. I don’t have to worry about whether the music is “cool”, “hip”, “crunk”, “7338” or what have you; I can just decide if I like it or not.

Now, unfortunately I have found that the very very last place an amateur such as myself should look for information about music is a website about music. While I realize that every hobby or interest will, ipso facto, have snobs who constantly bicker about which bands are “acceptable”. When I was in high school this was over which bands really were “alternative” and not just “pop” (oh that nefarious generalization, oft invoked yet rarely defined…). Nowadays the words have changed but the problem remains the same. Basically, it amounts to what Indie Rock Pete says, “Nothing is any good if other people like it”.

To that effect, I am going to boldly seek music that I like from bands with names that are fun to say (like Justice of the Unicorns) since I have forthwith destroyed my indie cred.