Anathallo

This is a post from last week that I never got to post due to the whole lack of power thing...

On my way to work this morning, I opted for some Anathallo. They’d probably best be described as Orchestral Indie Pop. Yeah, something like that.

They’re somewhat of a toned down Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s. Their instrumentation varies song to song, occasionally incorporating horns, auxiliary percussion, and strings. They’re solid compositions and their albums flow beautifully.

They played a B-Sides at Messiah eons ago; my freshman year. I knew little about them. Scratch that, I knew nothing about them. But that’s the case with most B-Sides bands. You discover them there, on the spot, with no idea of what may be coming your way. So I was there, young and naïve of the capabilities of music, listening. It’s pop-like, but it’s so intricately woven together that you watch in awe, absorbing the experience.

It’s great when that happens.

So I started to listen to them after that, obtained (What? I was a broke college kid…) some of their music, and began including them in recommendations to others.

In all of this, I ended up playing them on our college radio station, WVMM.

I played them a few times; every few weeks. Though one time, in particular, sticks out.

After playing some Anathallo, my roommate/co-host, Ryan, and I were surprised to have two guys come breaking into the station. With limited access to the station, it was always surprising when anyone came in, let alone when someone came into the station and then into the actual soundroom where our show was being broadcast from.

Thankfully another song was on and we weren’t talking live. The guys burst into the room, hugged both Ryan and I, and then thanked us for playing the song. Sure our show was one of the best radio shows that the school has ever seen, but this was a first.

Listening to Anathallo on my way to work got me thinking about this. And radio. And how rare of a response that was that we experience. I’ve heard plenty of people get all worked up over their “favorite song” on the radio when it comes on, but that is a fleeting emotion. By the next week, someone elses barely palatable crap will be the new sensation. None of it lasts. No one would walk into a radio station and thank the dj for playing a song, regardless of how close to the station they were. Take note that these guys that I’m talking about didn’t even know Ryan or I.

It was weird and I think it freaked me out, but looking back on it, I’m realizing how this helps to illustrate why radio is dead. Everything is built on hits with shelf lives of weeks. Some of the only radio stations with any merit to them are those with talk shows or ones that play the classics. Not today's top 40. They play nothing of substance. That’s how you can have a little teeny-bopper giddy over a different song every week. They’re not real fans and the only reason they think they like the music is because that’s what they’re spoon fed to believe.

Anathallo has soul. They evoke emotion that can’t be understood in a club. That’s what the guys in the radio station reacted to. You don’t see others react like that because nothing on top 40 radio has life behind it. Adele seems to be the exception, but everyone else is so enamored by their celebrity status that they’re missing what music is about. Anathallo has never made it big, released big hits, or even had much radio play. But they get what music is about. And so did the guys in the radio station.