Now that Napster is just another machine of “the man,” what’s the next step toward online musical enlightenment? Who knows, but music and mp3 weblogs are the best new way to learn about the music that isn’t getting played on Clear Channel radio or MTV (and it’s innumerable spawn). Weblogs make accessible the tunage of groups that aren’t leveraging coverage in corporate music rags, that aren’t touring across the nation sponsored by Budweiser.
In the same way that the original Napster brought tons of new bands into the popular mix (O.A.R. I’m looking at you!) and gave smaller and younger groups without any hefty cash backing a chance to gain some sort of fan base, mp3 weblogs will bring the newest sounds into the Internet efficient music lover’s digital domain. And for those moral sticklers out there, most of the better weblogs deal with only legal downloads based out of artist’s sites, as opposed to file sharing programs like Kazaa and Limewire (of course there is also always that chance that Kazaa users will amass such an amount of illegal material that they’ll receive a special visit from your friendly neighborhood RIAA officials). But legal material usually has a short shelf life, and a lot of these weblogs will only have their mp3 selections active for a few days. This also means that there is a constant flow of hot new joints rolling through each site as quickly as listeners can log back on.
A superb starting point for anyone interesting in these sites is Scissorkick, a trendy, well-designed weblog site that specializes in “seemingly disconnected things like new underground music, classic online audiovisual clips, and exciting design developments.” The site is updated constantly and spotlights no specific genres, dabbling in ’70s funk-disco (Manzel’s heavily sampled singles), early ’90s slowcore and experimental rock steady meets jazz party poppers (like the irresistible Romanowski). Scissorkick also has a definitive list of links to other great web weblogs.
Spoilt Victorian Child wins major points for its unique name and eclectic musical mash up, which currently hosts Joy Division b-sides, rare Monkees tracks, Sebedoh spoken word flourishes and Glaswegian noise bands.
The Suburbs are Killing Us is another artsy site that works through goofy ’80s funk-hop until you wind up listening to Icelandic ice-pop princesses. It’s a wild trip if you’re ready for some music geek babbling (which is probably the only constant throughout the ever -growing universe of mp3 weblogs). For cyberpunx, Something I Learned Today is the hot spot for anti-corporate angst. The site specializes in uncovering the dusty gems of punk, garage and hardcore that slipped away into oblivion. This is the place to go for unlistenable screeching, chainsaw guitar work and speaker ripping vinyl dubs.
For the perfect Pimps’N’ Hoes soundtrack, Soul Sides has imported funk and soul from all over the world for itchy download fingers everywhere. From ’60s Polish jazz-rock to good old Detroit funk, this site loves anything that’s raunchy and will put even the tweekiest freak in the mood to get on down. And it doesn’t get much better than downloading crazy vinyl grooves.
Indie kids can cool their beats at Said the Gramophone and Teaching the Indie Kids to Dance, which has the hilarious tagline, “Feet are for moving, not for staring at.” Take that Conor Oberst. The Tofu Hut chops out the best-forgotten bluesmen of yesteryear, and Fat Planet is all about spiking those crazy International/World music geeks’ hard-to-get fetishes.
While the iTunes Music Store may be the best pay site out there, it’s still hard to replace what was inherently monumental in the freedom of the original Napster, and pay sites will never quite get to that point of rabid enlightenment. Weblogs, however, could pave the way for the future of Internet music and open up a few eyes as to what music is really all about.
