OT: Good music blog?

Submitted by Magnus on

I'm a bit of a music junkie, but over the last year or two, I've lost a little bit of touch with new bands and music.  I used to have a subscription to both Magnet and Spin magazines, but Magnet went into a bit of a funk and I lost interest in Spin.  Does anyone have any good suggestions for music blogs? 

Here are a few albums I've been listening to lately:

"The Second Law" - Muse
Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band
"Break It Yourself" - Andrew Bird
"The Second Gleam" - Avett Brothers
"Buried in Your Black Heart" - Burden Brothers
"Only by the Night" - Kings of Leon

Danwillhor

January 20th, 2013 at 4:49 PM ^

Yeah, Pitchfork is kind of universally mocked for their hatred of anything good. Basically, they went from a good "indie or labeled but little known band" review site that was fair and decent to a site that is snobbish, hates anything you've heard of or bands after their 2nd album and reviewers that try to one up each other with quips and such. Fuck Pitchfork.

mds315

January 20th, 2013 at 10:36 AM ^

Some Kind of Awesome, also if you go on Reddit at all they have lots of sub-reddits for like specific genres and such.  Not the best but there are occassionally posts with new songs.

 

NFZ

January 20th, 2013 at 10:36 AM ^

I have been listening to Imagine Dragons a lot recently, really enjoy their album. You can find some good stiff on thissongissick.com every now and then. 

AlwaysBlue

January 20th, 2013 at 11:12 AM ^

Metacritic aggregates reviews from multiple sources.  The review blurbs include genre and overall ranking and are linked (Paste, Mojo, Pitchfork, Spin, AllMusic, etc.) to the full article.  It's a great site to keep up with new or look for previous releases and it keeps you from the filter/bias of any specific source.

http://www.metacritic.com/music

Butterfield

January 20th, 2013 at 11:53 AM ^

Not sure it gets any better than daytrotter.com if you're looking for bands on the cusp of greatness. They feature a different band everyday and generally have 3 free downloadable tracks for each.

chalkeater

January 20th, 2013 at 11:59 AM ^

Magnus, 

It seems we have similar taste in music. Will you marry me?

As for blogs, here are my daily reads, which I think will steer you to greatness:

  1. An Aquarium Drunkard - Amazing music writing, first and foremost, and then a lot of newer indie and older, somewhat obscure soul music.
  2. Folk Hive - They meet my love for folk that is not sad-bastard folk. This seems to show up in your list.
  3. Slowcoustic - They meet my love for sad-bastard folk - but the type that is still doing very interesting things.
  4. I Am Fuel / You Are Friends - Another excellent writer who seems to always find the stuff that I listen to for years.

Someone mentioned Paste and Pitchfork - I find that Paste is more consistent for me, while Pitchfork works to broaden my tastes. Pitchfork is filled with snark and cynical bastards, and sometimes they write the articles, beware.

If those don't do it for you - another person mentioned Hype Machine. I frequently use it to aggregate all new music from the above blogs into a playlist for my daily workout - but it can also be used to find new blogs. Search for a song you love, and find blogs which also loved it - see if you love other songs they posted as well. Once you find your blog soul-mate, follow the shit out of it.

That, at least, is how I keep up.

from,

-Robb

 

Buzz

January 20th, 2013 at 12:18 PM ^

A good friend of mine in St. Louis started this blog, then stopped it once he moved to New Zealand.  It's more of an archive now, but if you have been or think you might be interested in a lot of obscure New Wave, no wave, post punk, hardcore, and power pop (especially if it came from behind the Iron Curtain), this site is an amazing resource. It was once chock full of downloadable mp3's, but they have been removed. However, if you email the blogger, Joe, he would probably be happy to hook you up.

http://www.lastdaysofmanonearth.com/blog/

Buzz

 

 

1989 UM GRAD

January 20th, 2013 at 1:27 PM ^

...you may want to check out the list of acts at the major festivals like Lollapalooza (which I've gone to the last two years), Coachella, Bonnaroo, etc. 

In addition to well-known acts who typically play later in the day, they have dozens of lesser-known groups playing during the day. 

Lolla has been a great "music discovery" opportunity for an old guy like me.

timtebro

January 20th, 2013 at 1:31 PM ^

Check this band out, Magnus.. They have their own, unique sound.. Deemed it schizoid pop, ya I know wtf. Forget where they are from (Columbus, OH), I just recently discovered them and love 'em.

Also, nice choice on Muse!

EDIT: "Twenty | One | Pilots - Car Radio" has been on repeat. Lyrical masterpiece!

kid a

January 20th, 2013 at 2:02 PM ^

Tame Impala - Lonerism...psychdelica groove drivin rock. Lead singer sounds exactly like John Lennon.

Ultraista - Ultraista...synth drivin electronica. Nigel Godrich's(long time producer of radiohead) project.

Hot Chip - In Our Heads....dance-punk electronica. similar to LCD Soundsystem, Cut Copy

Grizzly Bear - Shields....Best album of 2012 IMO. Combination of rock, folk and psychedilia.

Here We Go Magic - A DIfferent Ship...straight indie rock with good melodies and has good dance grooves.

Those are my favorites albums that have come up in the past 6 months. 2013 is gonna have some great releases as well...Atoms for Peace, Toro y Moi, Arcade Fire, Deerhunter and Foals are the albums I am getting pretty pumped for.

ken725

January 20th, 2013 at 2:09 PM ^

fader.com's mp3/streams section is pretty good.  They have anthing from folk to rap so I like the variety.

Also the greatest youtube channel is "majesticcasual" if you are into the UK garage, UK bass, post-dub, trap, hip hop.

GoBlueDenver

January 20th, 2013 at 2:39 PM ^

Punknews.org

Tinymixtapes.com

Pitchfork.com



My friend works in the music industry and she said record companies pay for good reviews on pitchfork but I think it's still a decent resource for music discovery.

B-Nut-GoBlue

January 20th, 2013 at 2:43 PM ^

http://bestnewtracks.com/

It's primarily a showing of Indie songs/bands.  It's not a listing of a bands albums but tracks they deem good; they usually have a link for a free download of said song/track.  Yes it's only a song (yet, some artists have multiple songs posted there) but it's a good way to check out some newer, Independent artists.

ironman4579

January 20th, 2013 at 2:43 PM ^

Gorilla vs. Bear is a great music blog.  They always have a good piece up on the SXSW festival.  As for bands, if you like Alt Country type music, Fleet Foxes are great.