Author Profile for Brandon Ratliff
Purveyor Of Broken Memories
Album Reviews, News, Concert Reviews, Broken Memories various other things.
Mutterings Of A Lazy Hack, The Day You Cant Stay Up, Who Needs A Greatest Hits, Bands That Need Fans, 411Music First Look, 411Music Exclusives and Various Fact Or Fictions.
Umm...do any other sites or things even matter? I think not.
I started writing for 411Music back in August of 2004, right after I had moved from Kansas to Ohio. If you pay close attention a large portion of the staff either lives in Ohio or has some connection to it. Dumbass state. Anyhow, I started noticing that the music zone was severely lacking in coverage of rock and metal news. This was entirely due to the fact that in June Widro took a large portion of the staff and formed the "other site" (whose name we do not speak). I had been writing reviews (which were inspired entirely by my reading of 411Mania) and posting them in a rock music thread on the Soul Calibur forums for a few months at the time, so I figured I'd rewrite a couple of the reviews and beg Ashish to hire me. After mailing him multiple times he finally replied and said that they weren't hiring, but he did recognize the site's need for rock coverage. So he decided to bring me aboard. My first review was delayed for like three weeks, but eventually it was posted. It was a review for the Alter Bridge album One Day Remains, which got posted on September 11, 2004. That review is shit compared to the stuff I do now, and while I don't mean to sound arrogant with that statement, I've learned a ton since writing here. I do plan on sticking with writing about music as a career though, and I have nothing but this website to thank. Anyways, I ended up with a news report column called The Day You Can't Stay Up, which I did for over a year. Before that it was called Mutterings Of A Lazy Hack. I also recently resurrected an editorial called Broken Memories, which I really enjoy doing. So, sometime around last October or so, former editor Michael Melchor contacted me and asked me if I wanted to take over as the new editor. I did, and here I am. It's a tough job, as basically I serve as the spokesperson and PR contact for the music zone, but I love every aspect of it. It's been difficult for sure, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.
