I bruise the air with little
sharp words, as gray stones...

AREA - "Our Corner Drowning"

Music serves as a marker, or "tombstone", that marks ends and beginnings in our lives. When one hears music that is so thought provoking, and so powerful that it moves the person, the words and the music itself hit the air, changing it forever. Hence, the power of music, and art in general are aptly described in the above lyric. For me, music is only good if it has the capability to move me, it has to evoke an emotional response, to make me think, and to make me feel. The purpose of putting up this webpage is a thank you to the bands and musicians whose music have and continue to be important to me. I hope you visit some of these sights and open your ears to some of the music that's out there, but rarely heard.

One of the bands that has made a profound influence on me is AREA. The best description that I could give of their music is a cross between the Cocteau Twins and Depeche Mode. Lynn Canfield, Henry Frayne, and Steve Jones made up the band. They were originally on C'est la Mort records, a small, independent goth label that Woody Dumas ran off of his porch in Baker, Louisiana. Controlled Bleeding, Johanna's House of Glamour, and Heavenly Bodies also started on his label. Woody also had a great radio show called "Doctor Death". He was probably the first person to broadcast the Legendary Pink Dots, Beautiful Pea Green Boat, Front Line Assembly, Eden, Heavenly Bodies, and Eleven Shadows on the radio. Some of the shows were made available as cd compilations, but they're out of print and hard as hell to find.

I heard once that AREA's releases on C'est la Mort were originally numbered around one thousand for each release. Luckily, Projekt bought their back catalog. At this time, Radio Caroline andThe Perfect Dream are available. Both reissues have lyrics, which Lynn never wrote down originally. There's also some nice new artwork, but in the original spirit, the packaging is minimalist. Their third CD, Between Purple and Pink, recently came out on Projekt Records' Archive Series. Honestly, it is one of the best CDs I've ever heard, if not singlehandedly the best one. It's a release that was way ahead of it's time, and I highly recommend you get it.

AREA broke up in the early 90s. Lynn and Henry formed a bond called Moon Seven Times. Their sound is more guitar based than AREA. In fact, they're a lot louder. The closest comparison I can think of to their sound is a cross between The Church mixed with Dead Can Dance. Unfortunately, Moon Seven Times broke up two summers ago. Lynn formed a band called Shotgun Wedding. They were featured on the compilation called "A Cat Shaped Hole in My Heart". There are other bands to talk about, but before I get to them, I'll bring up Henry Frayne's band, Lanterna They're mostly instrumental, and Henry really rocks out. It's still pretty moody and airy. Finally, Lynn has another band now, called Lynn Canfield and Hot Tub Party. I haven't heard them yet, but Lynn's voice could probably turn any kind of music into something incredible. However, I really think the combo of Lynn and Henry are very complimentary, and I hope that they will play together again some time soon. Another one of my favorite bands is The Church. All of the band members are incredibly talented musicians. I've looked at their sheet music before, and just about every song I looked at had these incredibly complex chords. The Church has always had a really strong cult following, and a brief commercial success in the late 1980s with a song called "Under the Milky Way". In all honesty, I think the past two Church CDs, Hologram of Baal and Box of Birds are their best. it seems that they finally stopped worrying about "making it big in America" and freed themselves up to do really great music. Box of Birds, the CD that came out last month, is a covers collection. Among the highlights of the disc is "It's all too much", from the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, and Ultravox's "Hiroshima Mon Amour". One of the more noted Church side projects is Hex, which is composed of Steve Kilbey from the Church and Donnette Thayer, a brilliant scientist, musician, and vocalist. Another incredible band worth hearing is The Chameleons. They're a dark brit pop band who went basically undiscovered in thE US because they had only one domestic release, Strange Times. They're music is kind of pyschadelic, loud, and emotional. But then again, they're from Manchester, and just about every band from Manchester, such as Joy Division. is worthwhile.