Introduction

While starting a new blog should be the least of my priorities at the moment, I've found it more and more difficult to talk about music as much as I would like to on my other two blogs: My personal blog should be updated more frequently with what I've been doing at the moment, and my Spreading Like Wings blog is all about The Dillinger Escape Plan. It just felt right to make a new blog for the purpose of talking about music (new or old) that I find interesting to some extent. I'll be offering articles on music and downloads of records to accompany what I've written. Please note that by offering the records for download, I am distributing them as "fair use" for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and any music will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). If you enjoy the music you find on this blog I recommend you support the artist through means of purchasing their music (unless of course, they are on a RIAA-stained major label), attending their shows when they are in your area, and by purchasing merchandise. For my position on the state of music today, read Rob Sheridan's - currently the art director for Nine Inch Nails - widespread article "When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide".


Cover photograph by Keith Morris

So firstly, for those of you who haven't already picked up the reference, the title of my blog, Rollaroll, is taken from the title of a John Cale song from his fifth record Slow Dazzle (1975). It also alludes to one of my favorite magazines at the moment, Rock-A-Rolla, which makes excellent coverage on everything new and exciting in the worlds of experimental/avant-garde rock, metal, rap and so on, and with a focus on independent and DIY labels like Ipecac, Southern Lord, Ecstatic Peace, Chocolate Monk, etc., live music, and album reviews. It's a beautiful publication, so there's really no excuse not to go out and purchase a copy.

If you haven't as of yet heard Slow Dazzle, you can download it from Rollaroll at this location. Slow Dazzle was released on Island Records, which is an RIAA-affiliate record label, so I suggest that rather than purchase this album that you support John Cale by other means, including buying merchandise.

I thought it was fitting to begin this blog with a John Cale reference, seeing how his work with the Velvet Underground (especially their records The Velvet Underground & Nico and White Light/White Heat) is, to me, some of the most exciting stuff to have ever come out of rock and roll. Depending on how well this blog picks up, I hope to be able to include some exclusive material such as interviews and so on, but I think I'll be taking this one step at a time.