Manny's Blog of Awesomeness

While I said earlier that I agreed with Rolling Stone’s assesment of Radiohead being the band of the decade, I have to say that Starflyer 59′s Dial M is my choice for album of the decade.  I have listened to it more in the two years it has been out than any other album I have pretty much ever.  That’s saying a lot since I pretty much listen to music all day long.  I can never grow tired of the combined rock and synth sounds,  a blend that Jason Martin has truly perfected on this album.  After The Brothers Martin album was released in 2007 I knew that Jason’s next offering would be something special and I certainly wasn’t let down.  If you haven’t checked this out yet, you are totally missing out.

So someone got to this site by searching for “does owl city use auto tune.”  I would respond by searching for “does brax talk to that plant way too much?”  Of course Owl City uses auto-tune, dude (or dudette)!  Just because the guy doesn’t sound like T-Pain doesn’t mean he isn’t using it.  Most of its worst offenders are actually quite subtle.  And now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

So I used to think that Auto-Tune wasn’t that big of a deal, just a silly gimmick artists used to make their vocals pop or to prop them up during live performances since they couldn’t actually sing.  Folks have been using it for years.  Lately there seems to have been a resurgence thanks to hip hop artists such as T-Pain, Kanye West, and Black Eyed Peas but other folks such as the previously ranted against Owl City make liberal use of it as well.  Then I was talking to some dude about Imogen Heap and he said she sucks because she just uses Autotune and I nearly lost my mind.

Not Auto-Tune!

Imogen uses a vocoder.  There is a big difference.  While Auto-Tune uses vocoder technology, it does not require the use of a musical instrument to sound good.  A vocoder requires a musical accompaniant to sound good and tremendous musical knowledge to sound great.  It is a huge part of good electronic music and it is a sad day indeed when the overuse of freaking Auto-Tune has caused it to be dismissed.  So please, the next time you tell your engineer to turn on the Auto-Tune, think twice.  You’ll thank me later.

I seriously thought this was a Postal Service song the first time I heard it.

So apparently now everyone is an “electronic music fan” or something.  Don’t believe me?  Look at the iTunes charts and you’ll see that Owl City is selling like hot cakes.  “So what, Manny?  Shouldn’t you be happy that an electronic act is doing well?” you ask.  I would be happy, if Owl City was any good.  But good does not seem to sell albums.  Catchy sells albums.  Watered down versions of good bands sell albums.  Some dude puts auto-tuned vocals to Garage Band quality tracks and suddenly he is a huge selling Electronic artist.  Meanwhile few know who Ohm’s Law are and countless other electronic artists who can actually make a decent track are struggling just to pay the rent.  This is what is wrong with music today.  I honestly have no solution besides support your local artists, don’t buy into the hype.  I mean, really, this dude sounds like Savage Garden but gussied up for a new decade.  Also, he totally ripped off The Postal Service.  Yeah, think about it.