Introducing Jeffrey Benson

I'd like to introduce everyone to Jeffrey Benson, he is going to join me here on ...and music will set you free, his blog, Sound of the Suburbs has been on my 'check out these bizzles' side bar for a while now. I am lucky enough that he is going to start reviewing and posting on this blog, thus making it our blog! SO WELCOME JEFFREY! - um, at the risk of sounding overly accepting/exited, I am going to say that it is a honor to have Jeffrey here on the blog, his taste in music is flawless and his surplus of musical knowledge far supersedes mine own. However, our musical interests differ every now and then, so it will be nice to have his opinion and knowledge to contrast with mine. Like me, he has a couple of other blogs that I think are worth a look or two, or three: That's My Voice Rising , The Ultimate Jeffrey. I'll let him tell you more about himself through his posts but here is a little bio he gave me of himself: (stole his picture from his facebook with his permission!)

All growing up, I never seemed to fit in anywhere. I tried my hand at countless sports to no avail. My brother, who was 4 years older than me would occasionally bring home albums from various third wave ska and pop-punk bands. That was it for me. While I never got off on a lot of that music, It opened my eyes to a whole new world. I was taking piano lessons at the time, and my mom, to encourage me to practice, bought me an album a week if I did all my practicing. First on my list was Weezer’s Blue Album. I was 11. I was sold! Music became my life. I tried everything and anything, most of it was fairly commercial at first, but then I started to dig deeper, if just barely. The Aquabats was my first show. Another life-altering experience. Sure it was an embarrassing phase for me, the ska phase, but live music! That was happening! From there my tastes continued to grow and blossom. Fast forward today, 10+ years later; I consider myself to have a wide array of tastes. I love music from 60’s garage rock to pop-punk; americana to crunk rap. I can’t imagine my life without my music collection. I’ve listened to a lot, and played a very little. That is what I base my music criticism on.