Hello!

Well, today May 22, 2010, marks the day I make my first blog on The Lavin Rant.

Let me introduce myself:

I'm Mike Lavin, I live in Wichita, Kansas and am a Sophomore at Maize South High School. I've always had a passion for music, film and other various entertainment. I've always been critic of things; especially when it came to entertainment. I'm really not afraid to speak my mind on what I think of things. Though, that can be a bad thing, but in a professional critic viewpoint; that's okay.

One form of entertainment really got me going to be a critic. Music. Indeed music sparked a passion in me to surround myself in it. I started out in music like everyone else did; I got into pop. I listened to a lot of pop music. I mean A LOT OF IT. One day I was watching an episode of South Park and I heard of a band called Radiohead. And I decided to check them out. I started out with the basic hits; "Creep", "Paranoid Android", "High & Dry", "Karma Police", etc. then I was so thrilled by the dynamics they created I bought their critically acclaimed third LP, Ok Computer. I fell in love. It wasn't just one of those one month loves, it was a lifetime love.

I eventually started coming into contact of more innovative artists like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles. All sorts of influential artists that were just amazing, but then I started to sway away from the more popular innovation. Don't get me wrong, all of those bands are fantastic at what they do. I just felt that there was something missing in my music tastes.

I joined a very unknown and obscure site called, Best Ever Albums (www.besteveralbums.com). It opened my eyes to music that I had never even imagined. Being the 21st Century and all, I'm guilty of illegally downloading music, I still do it, but I still buy albums of artists that I really enjoy, but I download about 85% or more of my music. So I checked some of these bands that other people really enjoyed; Joy Division, Television, Neutral Milk Hotel, My Blood Valentine, Miles Davis, The Velvet Underground, The Doors, LCD Soundsystem, John Coltrane, King Crimson and so many others.

I was just bombarded with awesome music. Now I that I look back to the music I was listening to back when I was like 12. It is just awful; Breaking Benjamin, Creed, Incubus, and so many other mainstream snooze fests.

Another website that I found has also guided my music tastes in an excellent direction. Pitchfork (www.pitchfork.com). Though I don't always agree with them, they are still an excellent source for finding good underground and indie acts that deserve to be recognized.

I truly owe a lot to Pitchfork and Best Ever Albums. Both excellent sites that are visited daily by me.

So, I will be posting reviews of music albums and tracks of mostly indie bands and other experimental artists that deserve recognition. I will also do movie reviews, but since my computer is a piece of crap I won't be pirating new movies. Also, I'm really poor (not my family; just me because I'm a desperate teenager who has no job) so I don't go to a lot of movies in the theaters, the last movie I saw was Avatar...

I also do the occasional event review from around the Wichita Area like a concert or festival.