Below you can see our top 10 lists for 2009. Feel free to comment on them and even leave your own lists to share.

Ben Minsky  Read more...

1. A Day To Remember – Homesick
2. The Dangerous Summer – Reach For The Sun
3. New Found Glory – Not Without A Fight
4. John Mayer – Battle Studies
5. Every Time I Die – New Junk Aesthetic
6. Set Your Goals – This Will Be The Death Of Us

“Do you belong to a song?/Does it drag you along by the tongue at the top of your lungs” – Salty Eyes, The Matches.

And so we say goodbye to another band that have made the music scene what it is today, The Matches. Today they announced that they are going on hiatus, which is the nice way of saying that they are breaking up while remaining on good terms. And so we have a catalogue consisting of the some of the best albums out there for us to live with that make The Matches who they are (were?).

Saosin is no stranger to touring. Their powerful stage presence has always been a perfect match for the high-energy of Warped Tour. However, this band’s first shot at Warped was sans their then frontman, Anthony Green. Green claimed to be homesick as well as displeased with the overall direction that band was heading in. He headed home and later to form the band Circa Survive. Saosin still hit Warped Tour with Phil sneed from Story of the Year filling in, but that was only a temporary fix before finally finding current lead singer, Cove Reber in a public audition.  Read more...

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I think I’ll always have a place in my heart for 3OH!3. What other band out there has thousands upon thousands of people throwing up their hands and repping my home state’s area code? These boys make me proud to be a Colorado native. I remember “back in the day” when they were relatively unknown and I put “Holler Til You Pass Out” on my myspace page and took a good amount of criticism for it. Now that these guys can be heard on the radio, the same people that criticized my questionable profile song taste are now the ones asking me if I’ve heard “that new band that sings the ‘Don’t Trust Me’ song.”   Read more...

When you listen to music, you want to hear everything from the first drum beat to every guitar lick and lyric in between. In recent years music has been getting louder (in terms of production) and its making music sound less and less pleasing. This recent article on RollingStone.com (“The Death of High Fidelity”) confirms that “the loudness war” is real and in full effect. Making music louder on the mastering level can degrade the quality of dynamics on a song and in turn make it sound like just noise, maybe thats the reason our parents always think we listen to “noise” because they were use to the full dynamic sounds of yesterdays music. On top of albums being produced with louder instruments and vocals, the increased use of headphones and small computer speakers on top of compressed music (mp3’s) makes todays music painful to listen to sometimes.

What do you think of the idea of albums being made louder? Do you think its acceptable because you listen mostly on headphones and mp3’s, or do you feel today’s music is loosing quality and bands should fight to have the music sound more dynamic? Let us know your thoughts.

Adam Weidman

Top 10 Albums
1. Motion City Soundtrack – Even If It Kills Me
2. The Actual – In Stitches
3. Straylight Run – The Needles the Space
4. All Time Low – So Wrong, It’s Right
5. Limbeck – Limbeck
6. Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
7. The Starting Line – Direction
8. Your Sweet Uncertainty – Your Sweet Uncertainty
9. Alkaline Trio – Remains
10. Four Year Strong – Rise or Die Trying

Honorable Mention
Sherwood – A Different Light
Mayday Parade – A Lesson in Romantics
Boys Night Out – Boys Night Out
Jimmy Eat World – Chase This Light
New Found Glory – From Your Screen to Your Stereo Part II
Coconut Records – Nighttiming
The Spill Canvas – No Really, I’m Fine
Treaty of Paris – Sweet Dreams, Sucker
Scenes from a Movie – The Pulse
Dashboard Confessional – The Shade of Poison Trees
Steel Train – Trampoline  Read more...

Have you ever been, or are you confused by audio bit rates? Does the word “Bit Rate” kind of scare you? Well this is just a brief dive into seeing what it is and how it affects you as a digital music consumer.

With my sunburn finally starting to show signs of subsiding I sit and reflect on my Warped Tour experience. Now I must admit I’m not big on festivals and haven’t been to Warped in many years. To be honest I wasn’t even planning on going until a couple days before, but I’m truly glad that I gave in and went.  Read more...

Hey DFO community-
I’m out on the warped tour with the band Bayside, representing the organization To Write Love On Her Arms! We’re on our thousand mile drive up to Vancouver for our first two Canada dates, and we just finished the first three in California. I cannot tell you how incredible this tour is. I’ve been able to see about 1/4 of the bands so far, and not one has let me down.  Read more...