As a seasoned veteran of listening -- with an illustrious twenty-one year career of doing exactly that -- it is now my turn to do the talking and yours to do the nodding and smiling. This is not however, your morning Alpha-Bits notifying you of a covert operation to stop all milk production, but a concerned peer wanting to share his musical collection and wisdom with your budding tastes. Over the course of the semester I will introduce you to songs that aren’t usually played on the radio and not in the typical music library.

With this in mind, I will say that your opinions and suggestions do matter, and it is your responsibility to bring to my attention the new or old bands that you would like reviewed. However, I will be much happier with you if you suggest interesting lesser-known bands, or bands that do not receive enough popular attention as it is. Though, I will not feel obligated to publish all of your suggestions and opinions.

Regarding my reviews, there will be a rating system in place. This system will rate catchiness and originality, as well as my personal opinion of the overall quality of the song. All of these will be on a 1-10 scale. To contact me with any opinions or suggestions, please email .

1. So DJ Danger Mouse was almost sued for making this album. It’s an amalgamation of the vocals from Jay-Z’s The Black Album and sampled songs from The Beatles White Album, hence The Grey Album. Danger Mouse did not have permission to sample The Beatles’ music. He initially got sued, the lawsuit was dropped, and now he works for the recording company that originally sued him, EMI. This song features the a cappella version of Jay- Z’s song “Moment of Clarity” mashed with samples of “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” from The Beatles. The result is a hip-hop song with flair and an awesome visual of The Beatles and Jay-z rockin’out.
   
2. Next, another big 60’s band, The Beach Boys, recently modernized The artists from the record label Hippocamp successfully “ruined ” the greatest album ever (according to MOJO Magazine). Every song on the Beach Boys Album, Pet Sounds, was remixed by Hippocamp, who started with the acappella versions , just as Danger Mouse did with his Grey Album. The main difference between Hippocamp and Danger Mouse is that while Hippocamp remixed existing songs, Danger Mouse “mashed” two sets of existing songs together. There is no middle ground regarding what the Hippocamp artists have done, you’ll either love it orhate it.
3. We are going to keep with the old meets new theme, but this time with a band that has been able to combine the sound from bands of extremely different genres and time periods in order to create their own sound, rather than directly sampling music that had already been produced. The sound is a fusion of Motown and new age, and as a result, entirely unique. The British quartet does an excellent job of mixing these two distinctivegenres seamlessly.
4. Breaking away from the pattern with this one. LCD Soundsystem put together a great double disc album. An electronic pop onslaught that is just weird enough to keep them off the radar. This song in particular sounds like an electronic version of The Killers, but with more originality and less eye make-up. Other songs you may want to look up are “Never as Tired When I’m Waking Up” and “Thrills”. Both of these branch out a bit from the familiar pop sound on “Tribulations” and show the diversity of songs on theirself-titled double-disc album.
   

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