Listen, I'll be honest.  Traditionally the music scene in Cincinnati runs hot and cold, like anywhere else (unpredictable, very much like the weather here, for which our weathermen have a saying: "If you don't like the weather in Cincinnati, stick around").  Musicians here push the extremes of the good the bad and the ugly.  However, unlike say Seattle or Orange County, there is no "Cincinnati sound" and never has been.

Diversity itself is what has made the music interesting around here, just look at our city's two biggest exports to the rock star market, the Afghan Whigs and the Ass Ponys, two completely stylistically different bands.  One is a grassroots country twinged band, the other an over the top, hard-balling rock band.  Four or five years ago though, it would have been commonplace to see both acts on the same bill on any given night, drawing the same fans with the same enthusiasm.  This is just an example of how Cincinnatians like to have choices.

By the same token, let me tell you about Middlemarch, a band that was once the most popular of local acts.  At the height of their popularity, Middlemarch went into the studio to record the album that everyone was sure would put them in the ranks of national recognition.  The album was a masterpiece and everyone was in agreement on that, even some of the record label executives they sent it out to.  However, since their was no one "sound" the labels could capitalize on and market for mass consumption, the band was rejected and told to work on developing a trademark style.  That was the beginning of the end of a great band, and that, coupled with the graduation of the Afghan Whigs and Ass Ponys to the big leagues signaled the end of a very fertile period in underground music in this town.

The people here at Cincinnati-Atlas have been working very hard to get this website off the ground for one reason.  Underground music is about to be reborn in this town.  The young bands are growing in numbers and strength and the excitement over new talent here is about to boil over.  We want to provide a unifying medium for all those on the forefront of this movement to advertise what they're doing and be recognized by outsiders who normally wouldn't know they existed.  There is far more to the music scene here than just the new bands we are aiming this at, and we will acknowledge all those that are deserving, but the excitement, like that over any newfound asset is nearly overwhelming.  We would hope that visitors to Cincinnati-Atlas will support, in anyway possible what we're trying to do for at least the satisfaction of saying you were a witness to our city's musical rebirth.  Who knows?  Maybe history will credit you as being a revolutionary.