Compared to the number of male artists/fronted bands I listen to, there’s not much estrogen in my music world. I’m not sure why I’m so picky, but there are just minute differences between “female singer’s voice that I really like” and “I could like this but for some reason I don’t” and other vague ratings I’ve made up and mean nothing to anyone else.

On that note, I like “Lavender Diamond”:http://www.lavenderdiamond.com. One of my friends pointed them out to me; otherwise, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of them. Frontwoman Becky Stark is a trained opera singer and it shows in the clarity of her singing. Thankfully, she doesn’t actually sing operatically, or else I’d be scared. I’ve thought up of other descriptions but they all suck, so you may as well just listen to some songs:

Lavender Diamond – You Broke My Heard
Lavender Diamond – Rise In The Springtime

I find her songs sweet and cute. Not sickly cute like “this bunny sticking its tongue out”:http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2005/12/delicious.html (if you don’t like this photo, don’t even think of telling me…oh _jesus_, it’s heart-stopping cute) but you know…comfortably cute. You can buy “Lavender Diamond’s four-song “Calvary of Light” EP on their “website”:http://www.lavenderdiamond.com for $8 in the US.

And on a totally unrelated note, here’s an interesting post: ” Morningwood vs. We Are Scientists vs. Who Gives a Damn”:http://www.marathonpacks.com/2006/01/morningwood-vs-we-are-scientists-vs.html. [via “Torr”:http://torr.typepad.com/weblog/2006/01/out_in_the_us_o.html] I haven’t looked into Morningwood, but I really like “WAS”:http://wearescientists.com/, an increadibly fast growing…likeness. I was actually kind of sick of them from magazine coverage until I realized, “Wait, I haven’t even listened to their music,” which seemed unfair. Their music may not be groundbreaking, but they’re fun and the band makes me laugh. Radiohead makes me laugh too, but it’s not really in the same way. [cough]

The idea of record companies using blogs as promotional tools does irk me. Although blogging is my way of promoting things, it’s…different. It’s. Um. [drums fingers] Well, I’m not selling my own product, and even when I am trying to sell my own product (although I’ll refrain from telling you what the product is so I don’t look like I’m shilling myself), I don’t market it. (I’d be a horrible bad businessman.) In this blog I’m simply just telling you what I like, which may or may not be a band with a gazillion marketing dollars at its whim. My blogging is extremely egotistical and pointless. …Crap. I have no life. Where was I?

While I haven’t done much research on music blogs, I see blogging in general as being “credible” because it’s done by average people without millions of dollars at our fingertips or influence from advertisers, publishing fairly unedited information on the fly. Too much buzz for anything tends to look bad at some point. Have I ever buzzed? Accidentally? Unknowingly? I don’t mean to buzz. It’s okay if a band is mega-popular with bloggers and the rest of the music-listening public, right? Or. It depends. In no way do I claim to have more music prowess than a non-blogger. I probably have more than someone who doesn’t like music at all, but that’s not saying much.

So…in conclusion, I have no point. Thus is the problem of being your own editor.