Once upon a time, I was a cool kid. My days revolved around finding new music and playing new music and learning about music. But those days have taken a back seat for me recently as I try to get my adult life in order. The realities of a mortgage and a car payment and all that goes along with both sort of preclude a 100% return to that lifestyle, but I’ve been thinking that it’s time to freshen up my music tastes a bit.
I’m coming off the heels of a massive classic rock phase that started when Rolling Stone released their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list a couple of years ago. At the time that issue came out, my then roommate and I read through the list ticking all the albums we owned. My list came up woefully short.
For instance, I didn’t own a single album by The Clash, The Who, David Bowie, Public Enemy, Elvis Presley, or Elton John. These were pretty egregious omissions for someone who considered himself a music lover. So I focused most of my music time since then on filling in those gaps. I’m glad I did, but I missed out on several years of new music that I’d like to catch up on now.
To do this, I’m going to turn to what I always turn to when I need to find information: the Web. There are tons of great, free resources to use to find out about new music. Here are a few.
1. Pitchfork Media
This is the granddaddy of indie rock Web sites. And while I don’t always agree with their opinions, just visiting the site will give you an idea of what people are listening to and talking about. Plus, they broke the news about Tom Waits’ last tour. An act for which I will always be grateful.
2. RollingStone.com
If Pitchfork is the granddaddy of indie rock Web sites, RollingStone.com is their daddy. Rolling Stone reviews tend to be descriptive rather than critical, and that will give you an idea about an album you might like, even if they give it a bad star rating. But my favorite part of the site is the videos section. They have performances from big names, but they’ll throw in some lesser known, more cutting edge acts, too. Only problem is, you have to have RealPlayer to watch them. Thumbs down on that one, Rolling Stone!
3. iTunes
You would think I write enough about iTunes on One Thing New already. But it is an excellent resource when you are looking for new music. Say you’ve read a few blogs that mention a band you’d like to check out. If their music is on iTunes, you can stream 30 second clips from their songs to get a feeling for their sound. (I used to do this on Amazon, which has the same feature, but the iTunes interface is much more user friendly.) And if you like them, downloading the album straight from there it typically cheaper than buying it in a store.
4. Blogs
I’m still checking around for the best new music blogs, but I’ve found a couple that might be of interest. I Guess I’m Floating won the 2006 Weblog Award for Best Music Blog (Maybe that’s a dubious distinction, but that’s how I found them). They have a ton of great content: reviews, mp3 downloads, links to videos, and some really good writing. I also check out largehearted boy from time to time. And I can’t let this post go by without linking Tug’s blog, indierocket. He and Patrick are really good writers, and they know their stuff.
I spent a long time listening to great, cutting edge music (can I be forgiven for my Dave Matthews Band phase?), and I think with the help of these terrific online resources, I can get my indie cred back in no time.
