Three years ago today I started up this website as a way to write about the music I like so that other people will listen to it and like it as well. I'd say it's been going pretty well so far. I'm not famous, I've never made any money (it's actually cost me about $400 to do this for three years), but I've helped expose music I love to other people who have fallen in love with it.

So, that's really all the payment I need. That, and the undying love and gratitude of all of my favorite bands. You're on notice! Here's to another three years of exposing you to tunes and my own inane, pointless ramblings. There will be a new Mixtape in a few days for you all to enjoy.

Disclaimer: I actually heard this song and loved it so much, I bought this album from Amazon MP3. So let's get this out of the way: what a good song!

Easiest way to describe Snake Rattle Rattle Snake is to say they're a bit like if Broadcast conceived with Th' Faith Healers while listening to The XX. (There's another band they sound like, but I can't remember their name now, so I'll assume you wouldn't either.) It's refreshing to hear a female vocalist just sing, and not try to weigh down every song with over the top theatrics or unnecessary vocal gymnastics.

As with a lot of first albums, it always sounds like Snake Rattle Rattle Snake is trying to get their songs to take flight, but they never quite lift off the ground. It's a solid album, but without much variety in mood or tempo it can start to feel like it drags on a bit. Even the dancier songs, like "Kafka and The Milk", still sound pretty samey. You can skip around this album and never feel like you've landed on different song.

I'd say "Kafka and The Milk", "NOPD", and "Adoration" are my favorite songs. If you're into mellow, atmospheric shoegaze and monotone brunette female vocalists, you'll definitely love this album.

Can you think of any bands you don't listen to because they just sound way too much like the band they are? Do you know what I mean by that? I'm sure it's the reason people don't like Peter Gabriel a lot of the time, even if they can't really articulate it in those terms.

It's like: I can't listen to Belle and Sebastian, because when I listen to them I just find myself going, "Jesus, I wish they sounded less like Belle and Sebastian, are they parodying themselves or what?" It's an interesting thing, because it's not like I particularly dislike Belle and Sebastian, it's just that... well, I don't know.

Arcade Fire have released three albums now that, for the most part, sound pretty different from each other. At the heart there is the warmth that radiates from within every Arcade Fire song, that thing you feel within their music more than you hear it distinctly, but the actual music surrounding it doesn't sound like every other song by them.

It's probably rose-tinted glasses. We like what we are most used to, and when struck in the face with something we aren't used to, we recoil in horror and pick out all the differences, declare them as dislikes.

I'd say Talking Heads are one of the best examples of this. There is no band that sounds more like Talking Heads than Talking Heads. What do you even say to someone who asks you what Talking Heads sound like? Well, they sound like Oingo Boingo, but not insane---but then what is left after you remove the insanity from Oingo Boingo? How about, imagine if during Peter Gabriel's initial World Music binge, instead of going in the direction of melodrama, sexual innuendo, and theatrics, he instead applied a punk aesthetic to his music and wrote obtuse songs about the human condition? Can't imagine that? OK, me neither, but I think it would sound a bit like Talking Heads.

That ended up being my barrier for entry to Talking Heads. Every time I thought about listening to them I kept thinking about all the times I heard "Once in a Lifetime" and "Burning Down The House" on JackFM and figured, well, I've probably heard all that is worth hearing if those are really their best songs. I never heard anything from anyone indicating that there is much more to Talking Heads besides the music video for "Once in a Lifetime" being great.

But I gave them a chance, and it turns out that Talking Heads do sound too much like Talking Heads for me to stomach, even if I try. I enjoy "Stop Making Sense" a whole lot. It is a fantastic live album, probably more solidly entertaining than any other live album I've heard, and a fantastic concert film.

Even without a giant inflatable ball rolling around the stage threatening to crush his band mates (like in Peter Gabriel's delightfully over-the-top Growing Up tour), David Byrne has a commanding, inspiring presence on the stage. Bassist Tina Weymouth looks like she's having such a good time every second she's on stage that you can't help but feel a little giddy yourself about what you're witnessing. To imagine yourself taking part in it, well, that's just over the top. I enjoyed every moment.

That said, I moved on to "Remain In Light"---I think because the gist on the internet is that it's their first real breakthrough album---and I just couldn't get through all of it. I even got all the way up to track 10, but I just didn't have the patience for it. The whole World Music thing is just so incredibly cheesy, and they're wrapping these overly long, abstract songs in multiple layers of it, and loudly, too.

That's why "Stop Making Sense" seems to work so well, even when they go into World Music mode it still doesn't sound as over the top as it does in the recorded versions. There's something about the way they mix their albums, a lack of expansive reverb maybe, that makes it feel like every single instrument is directly in your face, playing at full volume, each one competing for your attention. In a live setting, every instrument sounds settled into a natural place on the stage. There's a comfortable amount of reverb (listen to that guitar ring out on this song, it's absolutely gorgeous). Everything just sounds nice and clear.

So, for my Talking Heads fix, I'll stick to "Stop Making Sense" and not branch out much further. It was fun, trying to fall in love with Talking Heads (the same way I tried, and mostly failed, with Daft Punk), and now I don't have to have people go "You've never listened to Talking Heads?!" in my face anymore. Also, I more clearly understand where Dirty Projectors gets a lot of their shtick from.

Oh, and if I wasn't clear: man this song is so good.