Matthew Ebel Blog

<< Artist detail page
..................

7 Bands That Made Me Do What I Do

Jul. 21 2008

This is part of a multi-blog post that started over at www.matthewebel.com

Every music site I sign up for has the same Influences field. To say that an artist influenced me is rather trivial... I may not like 50 Cent, but his work has influenced me (in the "dear God don't ever let me sound like that" kind of way).

There are a certain number of acts, however, that throughout my development have made me want to play better, write better, entertain better, and be better. They are the ones that made me ask, "why can't I do that?" And then I asked, "what can I do to be like that?" It's the line between influence and inspiration, and there's 7 on my list that cross that line.

Of course, to read the list you're going to need to travel around the net a little. I'm posting one inspiring act here, but the rest are elsewhere. Here's where you'll find them:

1. Ben Folds - Facebook


2. Pat Monihan/Train - MySpace


3. Jason Mraz - iLike


4. Pink Floyd - Last.fm


5. Billy Joel - Stereofame


6. Dave Matthews Band - Here!


7. Derek Webb - matthewebel.com

Dave Matthews Band
Sure, they're not as good now as they used to be, but back in the late 90's they were the only unique sound on pop radio. Carter was laying down sick, sick drum tracks that were anything but normal 4/4 patterns. Dave sang some strange lyrics on melodies that twisted, syncopated, and sometimes just outright convulsed. Somehow or another, the songs all settled into a solid groove that didn't make them sound academic or experimental. The band taught me that unique sounds can indeed earn some commercial sucess. Rumor has it the A&R guy that signed the DMB said he wouldn't have signed them if he'd had any experience. Well, thank God there are occasionally some bands out there that can squeak past the major-label Nickelback Filter™, 'cause the DMB made a whole lot of fans and money for that label.

For the rest of the artists, just click on one of the links above!

...................

Top-Ten Action

Feb. 16 2006

Thanks to all of you podcasters who are keeping "Drive Away" in the top ten for so many weeks!  Apparently, "Trees" and "I Know You're There" are also working their way into the weekly charts, so consider this the first of many thank-yous from me to you!

Pax,

Matthew

...................

Need Promos?

Oct. 28 2005

As an addition, I'm going to add some promos for general use as well.  The podcast bumps I mentioned earlier are mainly for intros to my songs or ID's for particular shows (basically a segue into one of my tunes).  The promos, however, are for general use at any time.

You can find them here:

http://matthewebel.com/podsafe/promos/

...................

Need intros?

Aug. 13 2005

Just FYI, if you're a podcaster and you'd like me to make an intro for one of my songs specifically for your show, just ask.