You may or may not know Jonah Matranga from his previous work. he fronted the amazing band Far who released their masterpiece Water & Solutions in 1998. You may also know him as Onelinedrawing or the frontman for the short-lived New End Original. His latest group, however, is called Gratitude. They recently released their self-titled debut on Atlantic Records, but I am a bit confused about it.
Gratitude plays no-frills pop-rock with a hint of the punk attitude you’d expect from Jonah. I mean, these guys should be all over MTV and so-called “modern rock” radio but for some reason I can’t figure out, aren’t. Maybe they didn’t participate in the big payola scandal, but they are on a major label and play catchy-as-fuck rock music that would be right at home blasting over the airwaves on a hot summer day.
I know that being on a major is not an automatic guarantee of success even with enormous talent (Jawbreaker, Smoking Popes, Texas Is The Reason, etc…), but this band should be huge. It’s a perfect example of everything that is wrong with the music industry as a whole. The people that run major labels are after one thing and one thing only. Profit. They don’t call it the music “business” for nothing. The clueless fuckers in suits who run major labels basically peddle mostly substandard, unoriginal, and derivative products to many people who don’t have access to (or know about) anything else. The majority of them don’t care about the artists or about the “art” that is being made.
For every Fall Out Boy that has a little success, there are dozens of bands like Gratitude that, despite their talent and skill, will continue to struggle in obscurity.
(Sorry for the rant, I’m a little fired up.)
MP3 | Gratitude – Sadie S/T
MP3 | The Headphones – Shit Talker S/T
i’m rockin’ out right now. i love gratitude. me & your baby dance to this quite often…
Don’t apologize for the rant, it was a totally valid one. The industry doesn’t think in terms of talent, they think in terms of saleable volume, so you get that tragic “middle-of-the-road” effect where everything sounds the same, because if it didn’t, some label wouldn’t sell as many millions as its enemy. Bah humbug, bothers the sh*t out of me too.
Good music today too, and sorry for beating you to the Clor punch. That album had me dancing around way too much for me to not write it up.
Headphones, yay!
Don’t dig the Gratitude. Talk about your musical tastes changing. I steer pretty clear from power pop nowadays.
David Bazan is a hero of mine, though.
CBT – While Gratitude might not be breaking any new gound, they have a familiar comforting vibe that is great for sunny days with the top down. To each his own though.
Tru dat!
e ~ are you driving something around with the top down? where do you keep it? i feel left in the dark. i agree with you about gratitude, nothing we haven’t heard before but so damn catchy.