Helen Nianias muses art, the student stereotype and our supposed intellectuality...
To choose the high life, the low life, or somewhere respectable in between? Helen Nianias pontificates.
Music blogs! The home of music and opinion on the internet - a global force for people's listening tastes and something we dip our toes into every Wednesday. This week it's the sublime and the ridiculous (although not necessarily in that order) with Pop Justice and Music Is Art.
This week's foray into the grimy world of music blogs turns up London-based '2ManyScenes' and an American view of British indie from 'In Search of Arcadia.'
The Hippodrome flies under the slogan “Ahead of the Heard”, which would be incredibly irritating in its pomposity if it wasn’t justified by the blog’s dedication to the newest of the new. The Hippodrome is not unusual in its concentration on unsigned bands, but what does make it stand out is the level of attention it levies towards them. Full-length investigative articles are posted about people you have never heard of but by the final sentence you are wishing you had. Posting unsigned music also exempts posters from the legal grey-area that clouds much mp3 sharing, as well as giving them a wider range of material to post.
The blog has only been running for a few months, but already the advances in the career of the bands mentioned has prompted the blog’s creators to create a “Where Are They Now” section, just to show how far their charges have gone. It’s easy to imagine that in a couple of years this section will contain entries dealing with prizes and the highest critical acclaim. After you tell people “I was there first, you know” you can send your postcards of thanks to The Yorker address.
Bypassing the “heard” altogether is Daytrotter. More of an evangelical mission than a music blog, the ‘Daytrotter Sessions’ presented here are the results of the kidnapping of up-and-coming bands touring the US as they pass Futureappletree Studio and the demand of a ransom of a few live songs before they can be released.
More of an evangelical mission than a music blog, the ‘Daytrotter Sessions’ presented here are the results of the kidnapping of up-and-coming bands touring the US as they pass Futureappletree Studio
The music posted here consists of beautiful slices of acoustic songwritery and Americana, complemented by no-nonsense production. They capture the weariness of the road and the excitement of a tour early enough that it’s not described as part of a career, meaning that recent posts are usually about bands you haven’t heard of yet. However, a quick sift through the archives reveals that The Maccabees, Willy Mason, Tilly and The Wall and Cold War Kids all stopped by, demonstrating that Daytrotter may be just as adept at backing a winner as The Hippodrome.
The wealth of material here is astounding; there are two sessions a week, each containing a lengthy introduction, an interview and unspeakably wonderful artwork, drawn by one of a handful of Daytrotter illustrators. One of these is Joe Sayers, whose Thingpart cartoons adorn many a cult US indie magazine. Also on offer are spoken word sessions, excerpts from favourite books or new novels, where an American drawl can roll over you for a few minutes and transport you over the ocean.
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