Well, I don't listen to the radio much these days. After all, if you can't get 101.7 in Pittsburg, KS or some other semi-independent radio station, you're pretty much screwed as far as rock radio selection goes. Here in Fort Wayne, IN for instance, one can listen to three decades of cock rock on the same station...this is not a good thing.

Dear reader, the popular music landscape is a battlefield of the lame. Shots are fired and returned in every direction in an attempt to gain spots on the charts, trl, and your record player. In the pop music business (yes, rock = pop, my friend) you've got to have the right look, the phat beats, the cred...and you've got to fake it the best you can. It's a simple business...but then again, every once and awhile a band like Dredg comes along with an album like El Cielo and it makes you wonder...yeah, just wonder; maybe music is more than selling loads of plastic discs or finding that new hip, aggressive and or timeless pop beat.

I first saw Burning Brides when they opened for Queens of the Stone Age in Colombia, MO back in '02. They're a pretty simple band. A guitarist, a bassist, a drummer and noise. The show left me with a few first impressions: one, singer/guitarist Dimitri Coats plays a Univox; and two, they do a pretty good Sonic Youth impression. Bassist Malanie Campbell had a striking resemblance to Kim Gordon, and Dimitri's vocals and guitar work had a rather Thurston Moore flavor to them.

I've been listening to this Arbogast album for a few days now, and I have to admit that it has impressed me. The album is a short and sweet little six track project called "Something Bit Me". The band, from Sweden, is fronted by singer/songwriter Svante Widerström.