Prologue: The view inside the mind of a music snob

At one point, I did college radio.

One may not think very much of this, but it had an incredible impact on my life as a person, and as a music snob. It led me to answer musically to a higher authority than just what I like and what I dislike.

Most people think that Matt Pinfield is the end all and be all of music knowledge and opinions, and for the most part people are correct. But, for years I have answered to a higher authority. That being is the legendary Lester Bangs.

I am aware that Creem Magazine is a shadow of it's former self, and that Lester Bangs was dead long before I got this critical eye when it came to music, but Lester was fearless. He would tell you how he saw it, and left no room for argument of his opinion.

I would love to hear what he had to say about things like pop music today, and the auto-tune "revolution", and his feelings that back in the late 70s that rock was already dead, and what he would say about that now.

Of course this really tell you nothing of what I'm writing in this blog.

I used to do a college radio show called The Psychedelic Toaster Show. That radio show died and became a relatively successful podcast for about three years. I say "relatively" because at the end of the day, much like The Police, the two of the three core members really ceased liking each other in the guise of artistic partners, and the show became less of a labor of love, and more of just a labor.

Behind all the comedy sketch, and snarky comments, the show was, at it's most basic, about good music. I had a reputation for playing enjoyable, high quality music, and being able to call up random facts of said artist or song or album. We came up with the idea of doing a 15 minute segment on the show that spawned the name of this blog. As it turns out, it never came to fruition, and The Toaster came to an untimely, yet quiet, demise in the spring of 2009.

Now, I sit at my keyboard, sans microphone, and think about music. Some people thought it would be a good idea if I went through my musical brain, and poured it out on paper. Well, that's called an encyclopedia.

Once a week, I will post a band that corresponds to a letter of the alphabet, starting with A.

The letter in question changes every month. So, so this month, otherwise known as March, is A, April is B, May is C, and so forth.

Each week, I will profile and critique an artist whose name starts with the letter of the month. For instance, next week I will be posting a blog about Alice in Chains.

I will take requests for artists, just like any good deejay. However, it doesn't mean that your request will be filled, but I will try my best.

I'm pretty sure, that Lester Bangs is in heaven, still in a valium-and-nyquil, laughing at me. He's laughing because, at the end of the day, I probably just stole his idea...