The Song Remains The Same

Welcome to the resurrection of The Music Is The Message. We temporarily relocated to Pajiba.com, where we expanded our little dysfunctional family of writers quite a bit (check out our archive of articles here). Now we're back, hopefully better than ever, not much blacker, but certainly much badder. Check back daily, as we'll continue to bombard you with news, reviews, retrospectives, and all other things music-related.

To start off, let's meet the players in this gang of thieves:

Lizzie Borden: Lizzie Borden can be found most often polishing or sharpening one of the axes in her extensive collection. Or reading. Or watching movies. Or being snarky. She lives outside Baltimore, MD (after being acquitted up in Massachusetts, thank you very much) and also writes at her blog Lizzie Borden Took Her Axe. You will be subjected to reading about a lot of bands featuring dudes who wear more eyeliner than she does, about whom she is woefully passionate."

Christian Hagen: Christian is a young buck music journalist from Minneapolis. He's a former contributor for Pajiba (Pajiba.com) and currently works as a Variety writer for the Minnesota State University Reporter. Christian also plays drums in a band, and waffles over whether or not he's really an indie hipster snob (today he's pretty sure he's not).

Felicia: I'm Felicia and it's good to be back at TMITM. Hot bands on my list right now are Passion Pit, Discovery and Hockey. Um, yeah. That list isn't very diverse, but I like to think I have a very wide range of musical tastes with the exception of Nickelback, Creed and Akon. Don't ever come to me with that sort of shit or I will hunt you down and get all murder-like on you. I also blog at My Boring Life where I talk about things like being drunk, falling down and having anger management issues.

Chris Polley: Chris Polley teaches high school English, often with his hair disheveled and a glint of crazy in his eye, in the Midwest's greatest city, Minneapolis. In addition to TMITM, he rambles on and conducts discourse about the horrific beast that is pop culture with his friends over at The Blogulator. His favorite phallic symbol may be trite (the guitar), but he demonstrates his awkward love for it nonetheless via his instrumental post-rock band Paragraphs, who you can find gigging around the Twin Cities in advance of releasing their debut later this year. Chris also still buys CDs for some reason, and some of his staples that continue to make the rounds in the car stereo include Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted, Joan of Arc's A Portable Model Of, and The Six Parts Seven's Things Shaped in Passing. He also likes music without guitars, he swears.

Sean Kufel: Engineer, sweat fiend, all-around nerd and shameless smarty-pants. Resident power-pop junkie and pop-punk apologist. He lives in Southeastern Ohio, and excels at neglecting his blog at Fat Kid and the Afternoon Snacks.

Caspar Salmon: Caspar is in his late twenties but - in the manner of your indecent auntie - considers himself young at heart. He pretends to like serious, intelligent and forward-thinking music but would pick 'No Diggity' over 'Idioteque' any day of the week. If you asked him to name his three favourite artists, he would be incapable of answering. His favourite albums are 'Blue' by Joni Mitchell, 'Innervisions' by Stevie Wonder, 'Poses' by Rufus Wainwright and 'Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star'. His favourite instrument is the banjo and his next favourite the trumpet, with violin and ukulele coming joint third. His most often-used words are 'wonderful' and 'fuck', though to the best of his knowledge they have never been uttered in precisely that order. Caspar lives in London, enjoys the stories of Alice Munro, the films of Michael Haneke and the paintings of Caravaggio, and likes nothing better than chillin' poolside wit his ho's. He blogs at Straight Outta Crouch End.

Jez:

Main Influences: The guitar. Electric, acoustic, but not seven-string. Seven-string guitars will give you VD, son.

Favorite Drink: Beer. Preferably homemade, but also prefers highly-hopped versions or stinky, monk-basement infused beers.

Favorite Bands: Drive-By Truckers, Slobberbone, Whiskeytown, Thin Lizzy

Partial to: Working for the man, creating beer recipes and then making them, thinking about picking up an electric guitar, and washing dishes

Bats: Right

Favorite Legume: The one on Gilligan’s Island

Likes Coffee: with real cream and sugar, but will drink it black

Motto: “Mi casa es su casa.”

Nickname: The Old Man

I just want to welcome anyone and let you know two things about your favorite band: First, they suck. Second, I never heard ‘em.

Darcy: Darcy is Canadian, for some reason, and is the resident expert on all things electronica. He spends his days with a gun to his head, reading esoteric modernist proclamations and cultivating vice in Edmonton, AB.

Boo: Boo is a self-supporting wise ass with a mean streak, a sweet tooth and an amazing pair. You can find her under a rock in the Southern Appalachian mountains, attempting to write, play and sing music, usually while in some state of inebriation. Read more about her at Girl Named Boo.

John Wiz: John (aka PissBoy) is a fan of all things that don't suck and can be found at random moments giggling at shiny things in the streets of Wilmington. When things are dull he's a whore for corporate America while trying to be a special make-up effects artist.

TK: TK is the founder of this minor disaster, an antisocial reprobate who enjoys playing with his dogs, raising the dead, and tacos. He's a regular contributor for Pajiba, and an irregular contributor to his own stupid blog, Uncooked Meat.

So that's us. Who the hell are you?

Stay tuned for more.