Introducing Musictopia Review

This new blog is my attempt at being a music critic. All views are mine and mine alone. I am solely responsible for all my unnecessary comments, incomplete thoughts, utter ramblings and crude jokes. If you don't like my opinion then form your own. This blog is dedicated to reviewing new music, old music, shows, concerts and music dvds. I will hopefully be able to keep up about once a week with this. Unfortunately my previous blog "The Chambana Scene" did not produce as I would have liked do in most part to my lack of funding as well as my overt laziness.

I will try to maintain a level of consistency in blogging each week with a few special posts coming each week. One thing I will always try to do is blog about a new cd that I find. I will try to keep you the reader current on good bands to check out whether they be local or not so local. Another weekly feature many of you may like to check each Monday will be "Throwback of the Week". "Throwback of the Week" is a section inspired by my friend Jeff Lapsansky who I went to college with. Each week I will pick one song as the "Throwback of the Week."

The only rule for "Throwback of the Week" is it must be older than 10 years old. Throughout the week I will try to keep current on music news and provide links to bands and artists or article about bands and artists I feel are important. If yourself would like me to review your work or your band's work please feel free to email me for my address and you can send me a cd or some files.

I will also give you a preview each week as to what to expect the next week. This way I'm maintaining a schedule and some organization to this.

Lastly, let me fill you in a little on myself so you know where I'm coming from. I'm 23-years-old. I live in Champaign, Ill., temporarily. I am a journalist/photojournalist who just graduated from Eastern Illinois University. I have been a fan of music since my first cd player and cds my grandmother bought me when I was 11-years-old. If you must know, my grandmother purchased 3 cds of my choice at the time. The small collection of cds included "Smashing Pumpkins: Siamese Dream," "Pearl Jam: Vs." and "Tag Team: Whoomp There It Is." It's a wierd combination I know, but let me explain. "Tag Team" is pretty easy to understand. It was popular with the kids around my age at the time and being a normal American child I wanted what everyone else had. There was this form of music becoming really popular called rap and everyone I hung around loved it so I bought the album. The other two were bands that my older cousin apparently liked because I watched him by them. I later would see the video for "Today" by the Smashing Pumpkins and would fall in love with it. Pearl Jam I had never heard of except for seeing a kid at school that had a shirt with the band's name on it. "Vs." was good album. Not nearly as good as "Ten," but what did I know. I was 11. I mostly just wanted to impress my cousin by pretending we had similar tastes. My early music years were filled with a large majority of top 40 radio as well as crappy cds like Phil Collins' "No Jacket Required" that my dad would get me thinking I would like. It was mostly his attempt at straying me away from the "Satan" music scene (read heavy metal) that had actually faded significantly by this point unbeknownst to him. Luckily, circa 1994 my other cousins introduced me to a band called "Weezer." I would not immediately be impressed as I was still young and persuaded easily by my other peers, but this band to this day still remains as an early seperation from the norm for me. Yes, I still like some popular music. There's a reason it's popular. It's generally catchy and sticks in your mind. I'm not here to tell you everything on the radio sucks. My job as a music critic is to weave you through a jungle of mass produced music into what will hopefully be your own exodus from everything bland and unoriginal.

I am a fan of nearly every genre of music in some form or another. I do not have expertise in all the genre's, but any questions or discussions will be researched indepth and I will try to leave as few stones unturned as possible along the way.


User comments are highly encouraged here. You do not have to be a member of blogger to leave a message. You may leave one anonymously. If you would please sign your name or leave an email address so I can contact you again later or reply to your own comment. You may not agree with my opinions or my reviews. I encourage you to argue, name call, and spite me at will and I only ask one thing of you the user. Please be respectful of the other users and posters here. I will remove any comments deemed inappropriate for discussion on this website at my will if they are about or directed towards someone other than me. Some may call this censorship, but I feel you deter users from commenting when they are called names or berated for their views. Basically I'm trying to say that this is an intelligent forum, not the bathroom stall at a highway gas station.

Feel free to email me anytime at dropjaw83@yahoo.com. I can't guarantee an extremely responsive time, but generally I am obsessive-compulsive about checking my mail. I believe my record is somewhere around 45-50 times in one day. Anyway, enjoy.