[introducing...] Tony. Tony T.

Hey anyone and everyone...I'm Tony. I was recently asked to start contributing to this amazing blog, which is just really, really awesome. I have been a huge fan of this for quite some time, so to be able to divulge my musical thoughts and likes through Digital Dreams is simply really cool. Big ups to Evan for giving me the opportunity. Evan is the shit.

I've been busy lately, though...all in the same week these events occurred: I got married, bought a house, and found out my wife was pregnant. That week was seriously bonkers for me. I was also shot in the face back in November of '08. Pretty much unrelated to my marriage, home purchase or child, it's just something that I like to just throw out there because it is a fun fact about me haha.

Buuut anyway, Since everything is settling down for me now, I figured I can start making consistent posts. I had an idea, though...before I started just randomly posting...I figured that I would give myself a little bit of an introduction, so if you read my posts, you have a little bit of an idea of how my heart beats (musically speaking).

Music has always been a huge part of my life. I've been playing the bass guitar for twelve years now, which makes me feel old to say that. Playing musical instruments has been the best part of my life. No joke. I am lucky enough to have spent a decent amount of time in a touring band called That Hideous Strength (the band is currently on hiatus). With THS, I got to see and play with so many different awesome bands who played so many different styles of music, in so many different cities and states that I finally felt like my life was complete.

My musical taste is as broad as you can imagine...I hate assigning genres to music. My iTunes is so ridiculously full with music that it hurts. (This number is constantly increasing) At this momentI have 966 artists / 2443 albums....and I made a point to remove the genre from each album. My theory is...if it sounds good, and it invokes some sort of an emotion in me, then I like it no matter how the artist has it sound. My likes are so broad, it's gonna be easier to say what I don't prefer to listen to...I generally will not listen to modern country (songs like She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy) or modern gangser rap (Lil' Wayne, et cetera), but those essentially are the only two types of music that I do not listen to. However, I do love me some (in my opinion) good country (the legendary Johnny Cash, et cetera), and some (in my opinion) good hip-hop (Aesop Rock is my favorite rapper. I will write more about him in the future)...and past that, I will listen to just about anything. I cherish hardcore bands like Coalesce, yet I also go bananas over groups like Bright Eyes. I remember one time, a year or two ago, I was purchasing CD's...and I bought the album Colors by Between The Buried And Me, and the album The Shade Of Poison Trees by Dashboard Confessional at the same time. The cashier looked at me like I was making some sort of mistake, but I wasn't. I was super psyched to listen to both of those albums, regardless of the fact that they are on opposite ends of the musical spectrum.

Okay, I feel like this is taking far too long and I am saying too much. My point is, I enjoy it all. I will write about just about anything. If I hear something that I like, I will want to share it with you regardless if it is some unheard indie band, or some underground rapper, or a big name pop act. All I am asking, is for you to just be open minded when you check my stuff out. Sorry I just babbled on there for a long time.

Tony

PS- I love talking about music. All day every day. Feel free to drop me a line. (TonysDigitalDreams@gmail.com)