Musichole

Today I thought i would give you a few interesting links for music. My interests generally lie in the "indie" domain, and most music on the internet lends itself to music uncorrupted by the hands of the EMISonyBMG boheomouth. Independent labels are alive and well in the age of the internet. And the nice thing about indie music is that it is often free.

First the basics: any decent hipster is going to visit Pitchfork at least daily. Forget Rollingstone stars, NME ratings, or the 'now playing' rack at your local used store. Pitchfork delivers daily: 4-5 new record reviews (reviewed 1-10, with decimals!), 3 singles (admittedly only useful for those living in cities where singles make in to stores), news from the like, a daily featue covering a live performance or a celebrity list, and a weekly feature.

Tiny Mix Tapes is in the same vien, but with significant differences; to say that they get sloppy seconds might be a big crude, as reviews actually differ quite a bit between the two sites. TMT do 2 reviews a day (shorter and terse-er than PF) and quite a few features, from 'The Dolorean' (reviews of old records) to interviews with artists, movie reviews, and original essays on topics like how much you should pay for a Brangelina sex tape.

Then there are the music blogs; people doing the same thing i'm doing here, but with more adverts and in a different time zone. A couple of my favorite:

Audiofile
Poplicks
Lacunae
Sixeyes

Audiofile is done by Thomas Bartlett (lead for Doveman) and is hosted on Salon, so go through the rigamarole in getting the Daypass. You can kind of lose your head downloading tracks off of Sixeyes, they have consistently good compilations of music (called 'sixpacks').

Which brings me to actually downloading/buying music. Everyone knows about iTunes, but fewer know about emusic, which features an amazing amount of music from independent labels. And not just new stuff (like the last Bad Religion, Xiu Xiu, or Decemberists album); I've gotten a decent education on British punk (The Fall, Throbbing Gristle, Buzzcocks), post-rock (The Sea and Cake, Tortoise, Laika), and even good goth (This Mortal Coil, Bauhaus, Young God Records). Admittedly, there is less for you if you're into techno or mainstream rap, but plenty if you're willing to search the underground roots of each. Plus you get a trial period with 50 free tracks! If you want to join, email me, as there are incentives for getting someone to join. Fuck yeah i'm selfish.

I also have hacks for select few of you. Email me for details.