Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of eytonz November 29th, 2009 - Today's group in the "Artist You May Not Know" series is M83. Do you miss the 80's? Crazy hair, synths, and lots of reverb? Well then, M83 may just be the throwback you're looking for. M83 is the project of French artist Anthony Gonzalez. It was founded by Gonzalez and Nicholas Fromageau in 2001; Fromageau left M83 after the first album. I would characterize the music as very New Wave-ish but with a modern electronic aesthetic. Not ... Read More

Nope, this isn't a picture of the B'z...it's a picture of me playing my Tak Matsumoto guitar again. Finding CC-licensed pictures of B'z was difficult. August 31, 2009 - In preparation for my sabbatical to Japan next week, this installment of the Artist You May Not Know series will highlight the Japanese rock duo B'z. B'z consists of Tak Matsumoto on guitar and Koshi Inaba on vocals. They were formed in 1988 when Tak, already a well known guitarist and studio musician, saw ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Bill Shouldis June 26th, 2009 - City and Colour is Dallas Green's (of Alexisonfire fame) solo project. In stark contrast to the post-hardcore assault that is Alexisonfire, City and Colour features singer-songwriter acoustic balladeering. I'm not particularly a fan of screaming in music, so I have to be in a certain type of mood to listen to Alexisonfire, but when I do, I enjoy the melodic counterpoint Dallas Green brings to George Pettit's screaming. City and Colour brings Dallas' soaring melodies ... Read More

Photo courtesy of techbirmingham June 19th, 2009 - Ernie Halter is an artist signed to the independent record label Rock Ridge Music (which is in turn distributed by Warner Music). I came across his music in a somewhat convoluted way. Back when I was researching Melissa Polinar for the interview, I stumbled across an artist she worked with, Passion (I'll dedicate an AYMNN segment to him another time). Besides recording his own original songs, Passion, like Melissa Polinar, performs covers of other artists. ... Read More

Photo courtesy of biphop May 25th, 2009 - I must admit that I wasn't always a fan of hip hop music. Up until the mid 1990's, my experience of it had been Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, and Kris Kross. Those are all classics for sure, but aren't exactly representative of true hip hop. Hip hop, as with all types of music, has dominant artist that are more on the pop side. Today, artists like 50 Cent, Flo 'Rida and Rick Ross would be ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Alberto F. May 17th, 2009 - John Scofield is an American jazz guitarist. I first came across his music through the drummer of my high school band. Before that, I had really only listened to big band jazz, and wasn't used to the intimate style of small trios and quartets. At the time, I was only able to play the piano, but Scofield opened my eyes to a different guitar sound than I was used to; markedly different than ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Ella Mullins May 8th, 2009 - Iron & Wine is the stage name of Samuel Beam, an American songwriter on the Sub-Pop label (famous for bands like Nirvana). His music is typically sparse in its arrangement, generally consisting of an acoustic guitar and his soft, almost whispered vocals. While it's not the blues, the rhythmically repetitive and percussive nature of his guitar playing, in concert with simple vocals, exudes a similar energy. The first song I heard from him was ... Read More

April 11th, 2009 - Nujabes is a Japanese hip hop producer and DJ. I first came across his music while watching the fantastic short anime series Samurai Champloo. Honestly, I'm not a huge anime fanatic, but Samurai Champloo had a certain feeling behind it that I really got into. One of the main reasons for that feeling is that the music is extremely important. I feel that the series was almost built around the music; it influenced the actual story with each ... Read More

Photo courtesy of  Sparky18 February 6th, 2009 - In my productions so far, I've been happy programming drums using my Korg keyboard. I'm just use to playing "drums" using standard keyboard mappings. While I've been interested in the MPC, I never had the extra money to buy something that would be redundant for my needs. Lately though, I've been hot for the Monome. Since I've been wanting to perform electronic music live, carrying around a Monome makes sense. It's much more compact than a ... Read More

Photo courtesy of 2nk February 1st, 2009 - I love hearing music from other countries. Even if the music is still in English, it comes from a different culture and it feels fresh. Even within the same genre, the differences are hard to put your finger on, but you know that it's unique. Here in North America, it's difficult for me to fall hard for new music. Of course there are a few bands out there that surprise me, but the top40 is stuff ... Read More