Saturday, March 24, 2012

The New Crew Part 3: Johnny A

Last night at a local bar I get a text, get my phone out, and slide it open to find the words, "you ski?" on the screen of my iphone.  The text was sent from a friend sitting only 5 feet away from me. His name is Johnny A and this is his introduction.

"Howdy folks, the names John. To give a little background, I live in good ole Hackettstown and am about to graduate from Centenary College for Graphic Design. I’m always up to have a good time and hang out with some friends, whether its sitting around just talking or going out to the bars (cause there’s so many to choose from in H-Town). I love making people laugh, Its always been something I’ve done even if it means making a fool of myself. As for my future, I have no idea. I hope to find a job doing something related to graphic design, who knows I could be that guy who designs the new Pepsi logo.

I guess you can say I have a wide spread interest in music, from jamming out to some Dubstep or Hip-Hop, to chilling out with Etta James or Otis Redding. I’m usually up to give anything a shot. I used to be the type to say, “ I like anything but country” but after listening to a few songs I’m trying to leave that mentality. My musical taste has changed quite a bit over the years, the first band I was obsessed with was the Beach Boys when I was real young , then the first CD I ever bought was the soundtrack to The Rugrats Movie. Admit it there were some sweet tracks on that bad boy.

I still remember the moment when I first became interested in actual music, not Rugrat remakes. I was sleeping over my friend Matt’s house and we were watching Cartoon Network who used to play music videos late at night, almost like a prelude to the Adult Swim era. The music video for Gorillaz’s Clint Eastwood came on and I became hooked. It wasn’t long until I had their CD and was listening to it constantly on my Walkman. I still love the Gorillaz, but sadly I never got the chance to see them perform live, but with the release of their new video “Do Ya Thing” out now I have new found hope of my dreams coming true.

After my Gorillaz phase I got sucked into Rap and Hip Hop, first listening to the mainstream songs on the Radio then starting to get into specific artist. Two of the first I got into were T.I. and Young Jeezy and I would switch between the two CD’s each day so I had something different to listen to at the bus stop. Once I finally discovered Limewire my music taste started to slowly expand into all different genres, from The Arctic Monkeys to Immortal Technique.

Nowadays I’ve been getting more and more into the Dubstep scene, while also discovering new Hip Hop as well. Dubstep has become more popular everyday gathering vast amounts of people and demanding attention, even if you consider it not "real music". To me, I think its definitely real music, yes it sounds nothing like music of yester-year but as our culture evolves our music does too. Dubstep itself has even gone through massive changes, starting in the mid 2000’s with heavy sub bass and chill beats we now have fast paced electro beats with overwhelming bass, which brings up the debate of what is real Dubstep. I truly don’t care what’s “real” and what’s not, I just listen to what sounds good. With new producers and teenagers becoming “Dubstep Dj’s” all around us, Dubstep is easily one of the fastest growing genres as of right now. The issue with any growing genre is that you have to weed out all the crap, and believe me dubstep has its fair share of it.

A quick summary of current favorites that I keep finding myself listening to are Macklemore, Adventure Club, Flux Pavillion (Saw in concert), Rizzle Kicks, Nero, Wiz Khalifa, Zeds Dead (Saw in concert), Sol, Chiddy Bang, Pretty Lights, Feed Me and many more. I hope all this information has let you get to know me a little bit better. I’m going to try my best to bring you the best new music I can with updates on old favorites as well!"

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