Who are you?
Hi, I'm Brad, and this is my music review website. I'll be amazed if anyone who doesn't know me is actually reading this site (actually, I'll be amazed if anyone is reading this site full-stop), but if you don't know me, I live in the charming little town of (get your atlas out!) Geelong, Victoria, Australia, and work as a programmer. I'm not a graphic designer though, hence the current layout and styling choices!
What's with the Zombos thing, if your name is Brad?
It's a nickname I picked up when I was in uni. Apparently, according to friends, I looked like a zombie. I guess the appearance came from the associated uni-related sleep deprivation. Over time, the nickname / joke got expanded to the point that I was Zombos, Lord of the Undead, and I had the ability to command legions of the undead. Heck, they even invented a "Zombos" greeting gesture. (If you've seen the Oscar winning Dude, Where's My Car? you can probably figure out what it is). I figured it's a distinctive nickname, and a good way to identify the site.
Any shocking admissions you'd like to make?
I don't think I'm particularly qualified to review music. I also quite like a few Roxette albums.
*sound of reader gasping in disbelief*
Whats the deal with that?!?
Well sure, I love music. Love listening to it, discovering bands, and collecting it as well. I spend my days at work listening to albums, and I enjoy reading peoples thoughts and opinions on music. And it's lots of fun to collect it and build band's discographies, though I'm annoyingly running out of storage space for all of it!
But I don't think I've heard enough of it, to really be objective, or to look at the larger picture. I haven't listened to the amount of music that say George Starostin, Mark Prindle or Capn Marvel have. Heck, I only own a handful of Bob Dylan and Who albums, the only non-compilation Beatles album I own is their self-titled White Album, and although through some thrifty warehouse sales and record shop bargain bins, I actually own a fair portion of the Rolling Stones back catalogue, I'm yet to actually listen to it in any great detail. There's still a long way to go for me! Though, just to clarify, although I don't actually own many of said artists albums, I still have heard plenty of their music, so it's not as if I'm totally clueless about the "The Big Four".
Anyway, regardless of how much music I've heard, I've still got my own thoughts and opinions, and I've still heard a decent amount of music. And hey, everyone has to start somewhere, so I might as well start my reviewing "career" sooner rather than later.
Oh, you were asking about Roxette?
So how is this site going to work?
Well, I hope to regularly post new reviews and slowly develop the site over time, adding new features and functionality as I go. Review-wise, I'll be focussing on a particular band, and chronologically make my way through their discography before moving onto the next band. I also want to have a more Australian leaning, and frequently review Australian bands, since very few Australian bands get reviewed online, outside of AC/DC and maybe Midnight Oil. But don't worry, I'll still be looking at plenty of international bands.
In regards to slowly developing the site, check out the Site History page for an indication of what's been built so far, and what hopefully will be developed in the future
Who are you going to be reviewing?
Check out the Upcoming Reviews page for a very vague idea on what I plan to do. It's very vague. Right now, I'm limiting myself to working on band's who I have a largely completed discography of (i.e. all or most of their studio albums, as well as any other important live albums and compilations). As mentioned in the previous section, I'd like to focus on Australian artists as well. Correspondingly, I've started "diversifying" my collection by tracking down lots of Australian bands.
To be honest, I'm shockingly middle-of-the-road. I honestly enjoy lots of poppy, non-threatening music. I'm a sucker for good melodies! I adore the Finn's (Split Enz, Crowded House, solo careers, etc, etc), and have a love of power-pop (Big Star, Even, etc). On the other hand, I also enjoy some harder-edged stuff (Strapping Young Lad, Devin Townsend and Opeth). I also tend to enjoy a few prog bands as well (King Crimson, Porcupine Tree, Yes). But generally, I'm fairly wussy. Basically, if it has guitars and/or neat melodies, I'm quite happy. I tend to avoid hip-hop and modern R'n'B like the plague, since well, my musical tastes are exceedingly "white", but I'll try to work on expanding my "palette". *makes wanking motion*
If you'd like to check out what's in my collection (and what I could be possibly reviewing) head here: The Master List
Do you take requests? Will you review a band I like?
Probably not. I'm a lone-wolf, a soaring eagle. I do what I want, when I want. ARGH! Inchworms!
But hey, feel free to ask. If I like you enough, have enough of said band's back catalogue, and I'm in a reviewing slow patch, it's possible. If you send money, the likelihood is also increased.
What's your rating system?
I'm such a fan-boy of George Starostin and Capn Marvel, that I partially ripped off their ratings systems and mangled them together into a confusing mis-matched system! A scale of 1 - 15, and letter grades! No Band Class systems! Confused?
If it doesn't work out, I'm going to have to revise the system. Here's hoping someone other than me understands the damn thing! Read more here about ratings, as well as all the ratings I've given albums: Ratings
What makes your opinions so special?
Nothing actually, but I'm self-absorbed enough to think people might actually want to hear them. *chuckles*
Disclaimer: The reviews on this site are just my personal opinions, and should be taken as such. I certainly don't consider my opinion to be the be all and end all (and certainly don't want anyone thinking that I'm putting it out as that!). I'm not bias free either. Heck, everyone's got their own biases. I've always been annoyed at George Starostin's bias against Bruce Springsteen, and now you can be annoyed at my bias against Radiohead (despite thinking they're "rather good").
Basically, it's just one person's opinion (mine!). There's a whole world of opinions out there, and it's highly likely that you won't agree with something that I've written. But hey, that shouldn't be the end of the world! Let me know about it! If you feel like informing me of your opinions, I'm not going to complain (unless you decide to flame me heavily or something. That'd be kinda annoying). It'd be neat to know that people are actually reading these reviews!
So, how do I comment on your reviews?
It's easy-peasy. At the bottom of every review, there's an email link to me. Simply send your thoughts / declarations of love / hate-mail / grammatical, factual and spelling corrections to my musings, and I'll stick them on the comment section under the appropriate review. In future, I'm planning on enhancing the level of reader interactivity, but until now, a simple email link will do!
You suck. Are there any better sites out there?!
Thanks for the feedback!
And in regards to your question, yep, there's plenty out there. Check the Links page for several other (considerably superior) music review websites.