I think one of the great joys of music as personal expression -- that is, the thing that elevates groups from, "Yeah, I like those guys," to "You don't understand: you've got to hear these guys the way I do" -- is the element of discovery. I've talked a lot before about how disc jockeys (and my father) influenced my early musical tastes, simply because, as an impressionistic youth, I instantly transferred their "cool factor" to the music they were playing. Years later however, I seem to be most attached to music that either I found myself, or was introduced to through a friend. Either way, the stuff I really obsess over and get into is almost-always far off the mainstream of what other people are aware of, but is usually something that people would love ... if they only knew it existed.
This brings me to Goliathon, a band I first discovered about two weeks ago -- in one of those classic, "How the heck did this slip under my radar!?" moments. They had registered for our much-lauded Podcast Battle of the Bands, and pretty much right away, I was drawn to their "somewhat retro" use of dynamics, tempo changes, and instrumental voices -- particularly, as mentioned in the interview, their use of saxophone and Hammond organ in a rock milieu. In an age of quantized, compressed, volume-leveled, digitized, music, it's great to see a band fall back on the spirit of pushing the envelope, throwing out the click track, playing by feel, and creating something truly organic and heartfelt ... not because of some technical or musical reason, but simply because it sounds cool. Certainly for a bunch of guys born in the 1980's, one quickly gets the impression that they actually do understand this ethic from the music of the '60's and '70's, but they don't spend a lot of time over-analyzing it -- which anyone who spends more than ten minutes geeking out over music with me would probably say is a good thing. While I'm looking forward to seeing what a seasoned producer can do for their sound, hopefully whomever is eventually charged with the task will understand and stay true to this core of what I think Goliathon's strengths are.
Links referenced in the show:
