Sunday, November 18, 2012

Weekly Rant 11/18/12: Exercise Caution

However you choose to find new music, there is a need to use caution when trying to find out more info on your favorite new bands. If you, like most, go right to the infamous Googles looking for tidbits, bios, and background... remember how the internet actually works. People are flooding the 'net with content at an alarming rate. Despite what some of our more naive brethren may believe, not everything you find there is accurate.

Case in point; I was listening to the new album by Malnatt, an avant black metal band from Italy (review coming soon). After digesting the music thoroughly, I decided to pass it on to a friend who might enjoy it, and her boyfriend, a fellow metalhead. She loved it; he did not. In finding out why, he accused me of spreading "hate music." Why? Because a Google search of Malnatt brought up several results. Half of them were for Malnatt, the avant black metal band from Bologna, Italy. The other half, including MANY YouTube links, were for Malnatt, the Oi punk band from Milan... a famous Italian Neo Nazi skinhead band. The two are not related in any way, other than the country of origin.

The fact of the matter is, if you want more than basic information about a band or artist, the best place to find it is their official site or satellite sites. No one is more likely to tell you what a band is all about than the band itself. If they are poetry nuts, who like construct polyrhythms and blast beats, they will say that. And, chances are, if they are hate mongers who want to spread the gospel of white power, they will probably say that too. Time to go back to getting it straight from the horse's mouth instead of relying on the chickens for gossip.

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