New Music for the New Year
November 24, 2010 4:54 PM Subscribe

Fifty+ Music Blogs. If you on occasion like wfmu's Beware of the Blog, you'll like these on occasion as well. Mostly strange, exotica, hip hop, noise, electronic, experimental, punk, industrial. No single-artist blogs. Updated seldom to constantly, all field tested at time of this post. Arranged alphabetically. All have free downloads. Some include videos, some contain images and sounds not appropriate to all ages or workplaces. Some have appeared at metafilter before, others have not, this list generated specifically for this post. You’ll find something new to listen to here, I assure you.

posted by eccnineten (32 comments total) 123 users marked this as a favorite

Agreed, some of these are truly fabulous. (and not just mine!) A fine list.
posted by mykescipark at 5:02 PM on November 24, 2010

No Fluxblog ?
posted by The Hamms Bear at 5:20 PM on November 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Merry Christmas to you, too.
posted by philip-random at 5:55 PM on November 24, 2010

I was a fan of #27 until 7.1.09.
posted by ovvl at 6:50 PM on November 24, 2010

But wait, there's more!

Filk Archive (obvious)
The FUMP (Funny Music)
Game Music 4 All (Chiptunes, Video Game Music)
Hipster, Please! (Nerd Music)
OC Remix (VGM)
Physics Songs (obvious)
Wizrocklopedia (Wizard Rock (Harry Potter inspired music))

Yes, I'm a nerd.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:00 PM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

If I may bring a plate to the potluck dinner:

I hate the 90's
Willfully Obsure
My Generation 60's
Totally Fuzzy
Never Enough Rhodes
Alternative2Punk
Power Pop Criminals
Digital Vinyl
Shiny Grey Monotone
posted by stavx at 7:31 PM on November 24, 2010

If I may bring a plate to the potluck dinner

Potluck Thanksgivings are the best.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:47 PM on November 24, 2010

No love for Said the Gramophone? Utterly my favorite.
posted by Rory Marinich at 8:00 PM on November 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Hmm, not sure how I feel about some of these.

Nova Express, for example, contains downloads for albums released in 2010 - as well as the whole catalog of artists who still appear to be in operation. That was only the second one I tried.

Is this really ethical? It's one thing to download albums that are otherwise unattainable, another thing entirely to download albums that you could still buy in stores.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 8:28 PM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Is this really ethical? It's one thing to download albums that are otherwise unattainable, another thing entirely to download albums that you could still buy in stores.

Must. Not. Derail! *quakes*
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:14 PM on November 24, 2010

Ahem:

Awesome tapes from Africa
Radiodiffusion International
Excavated Shellac
Juneberry 78s
It's After the End of the World
posted by iamck at 10:05 PM on November 24, 2010

Thanks for saying that, Rory Marinich. We try hard.

My favourites, these days:
the cookshop, for experimental and avant-garde.
destination:out, naturally, for jazz.
freedom blues, for international folk and blues.
juan and only, for gorgeous song.
passion of the weiss, for hip-hop.
weird canada, for emerging cdn lo-fi.

most dearly missed: the mixes at musicophilia.
posted by Marquis at 10:39 PM on November 24, 2010

motel de moka
boot sale sounds
cover lay down
posted by salishsea at 11:10 PM on November 24, 2010

> Must. Not. Derail! *quakes*

Why is this a derail?? This is a direct comment about the linked sites.

Metafilter generally has a policy against linking to blatant copyright violations - the second blog I went to was full of downloads of albums that you can still buy in the stores, very recent releases.

I take a pretty relaxed view of such things, but this seems like blatant piracy to me. It's not like they're posting things I couldn't find - they're posting, for free, things that artists have just released and are trying to sell, today.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 2:53 AM on November 25, 2010

Is this really ethical? It's one thing to download albums that are otherwise unattainable, another thing entirely to download albums that you could still buy in stores.

This, alas, is one of the great moral dilemmas. It's all out there for us to take. Just like that (snaps fingers), with no effort. Every piece of music ever recorded. Free. And why shouldn't I download music that I don't like enough to pay for under any circumstance, but that for free ... well, I'll take it? It's not like the artist would have ever gotten my money anyway. And what about obscure artists playing arcane music that no one would ever expect to make a penny from, and to whom the fraction of a cent of mine that might conceivably work its way down to them could not make a bit of difference. What about that? (This is not a self-indictment, by the way, I shell out a fortune for music online.) I have friends who still don't know about the great bloggy, rapidsharey world of free music out there, and I'm never sure if I should tell them about this great thing, or hold back, and lead them not into temptation ...
posted by Faze at 5:42 AM on November 25, 2010

Yeah, maybe edit out the ones that post the brand new full length albums in their entireity?
posted by Theta States at 6:30 AM on November 25, 2010

gripe: Why in 2010 do bloggers still need to use download services like rapidshare and megaupload to host a single 5 MB mp3?
Just toss it on a server and direct link, please. I don't want to fill out a captcha and wait 60 seconds to hear this song you are otherwise very excited about.
posted by Theta States at 6:34 AM on November 25, 2010

It's not like the artist would have ever gotten my money anyway.

Well that's simply not true.

I have an upcoming release on a pretty popular vinyl label. And I can assure it you will be online within a few days of being out. But you know what? It's a reality (didn't we talk about this 10 years ago?).

It's there to download, leave it up to people to choose to purchase it or not, and consider this stuff "promo."
posted by iamck at 9:34 AM on November 25, 2010

And what about obscure artists playing arcane music that no one would ever expect to make a penny from, and to whom the fraction of a cent of mine that might conceivably work its way down to them could not make a bit of difference. What about that?

There are lots of such ethical questions, and all of them were discussed at length in the era of tape sharing and resolved quite neatly.

The people who did tape bootlegs hated the term "bootlegs" - because they had a very specific code of conduct - they liked the term "rare/unreleased/live recordings".

The point is that if you're going to violate someone's copyright, it should serve some sort of societal benefit.

Copying something that's rare (that's your case, when you literally cannot buy this artist's work), unreleased (NOT pre-released, but outtakes and the like) or live (recorded by a fan in a live show with all the consequent excitement and probably an example of fair use) - all of these provide a societal benefit and little if any loss to the artist.

Copying material that I can go to some store and purchase right now provides no societal benefit and a real loss on the average to the artist (sure, many of the people who download would never have bought, but some of them would have...)

Why in 2010 do bloggers still need to use download services like rapidshare and megaupload to host a single 5 MB mp3?

Because their server would get shut down, either from the load, or later, when the copyright holders discovered them? Because why pay when you can get something for free?

What I don't understand is why they don't use Google documents to do this! I have a whole album of mine stored there, you can download instantly, and so far I've hit no download limits.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 11:46 AM on November 25, 2010

Every piece of music ever recorded. Free.

This is absolutely not the case. There is a specific track that I only have on an LP in storage (and I don't have a turntable anyway) called Wagner Prècis (I can't remember the composer's name, but he also did Webern Prècis and Beatles Prècis). It's a killer track, and I've looked for it and its siblings on the Internet and file sharing every year or so.

It's never there and there are no records of this piece on the net. If I didn't have the vinyl I'd think I imagined it.

If there's this one piece, there must be tens of thousands of others. I haven't really tried very hard to find specific pieces on the 'net...
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 11:55 AM on November 25, 2010

This is absolutely not the case.

But it is the ideal! People are constantly digitizing their records, and getting in to the further and further reachs of the bins and of popular interest.
The number of blogs dedicated to digitized library records or easy listening big band is evidence of this. :)

Because their server would get shut down, either from the load, or later, when the copyright holders discovered them? Because why pay when you can get something for free?

But I don't think they would get shut down, and most web hosting accounts for huge loads.
Beyond the likes of Prince and Metallica, I can't think of copyright holders persuing instances of individual songs being posted.
posted by Theta States at 12:36 PM on November 25, 2010

Thanks, giving.
posted by benzenedream at 1:12 PM on November 25, 2010

Why is this a derail?? This is a direct comment about the linked sites.

You don't read Dilbert, do you? That was directed at myself. But, since we're at the side of the tracks anyhow...

It's one thing to download albums that are otherwise unattainable, another thing entirely to download albums that you could still buy in stores.

Not really. You're violating the copyright holder's right either way, unless you have secured their permission. This is why orphaned works are a problem.

Of course, one way to secure permission is via Creative Commons:

CC Mixter (remixes)
Free Music Archive
Jamendo
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 1:33 PM on November 25, 2010

Every piece of music ever recorded. Free.

This is absolutely not the case.

I have to agree with mr yondeboy here. I spend an inordinate amount of time getting music off the internet, but there's several (and not all that obscure) pieces of music I've still been unable to get.
posted by jonmc at 7:34 PM on November 25, 2010

I'm nearly out of HD space so I'm not downloading a lot these days, but I check the following for hot new names & quick reviews & videos:
Caitlyn can rock a todo list
FeedmeGoodTunes
Illegal Tender Magazine
The Perfect Five

Just videos:
Old Man Quackenbush
Live Music Gems
posted by knile at 1:32 AM on November 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

but there's several (and not all that obscure) pieces of music I've still been unable to get.

Do you recall which ones they are? I'm always fascinated to know which recordings still have yet to make it to the blogs!
posted by Theta States at 6:54 AM on November 26, 2010

Magic of Jujujive would be a music blog to which I would subscribe.
posted by y2karl at 11:58 AM on November 26, 2010

Now that I've had a chance to sift through here, there is a lot of chaffe around the wheat.
Many of these blogs haven't been updated in 1-3 years. Some are just youtube blogs, or DJs linking to their soundcloud accounts. A few classics in there, but yeah. Needs to be edited down to like 15.
posted by Theta States at 7:49 PM on November 30, 2010

Oh OK, I see you didn't say "mp3 blogs". A very wide net, then.
posted by Theta States at 7:52 PM on November 30, 2010

(but I did add 6 new blogs to my RSS reader, so thanks for that!)
posted by Theta States at 7:53 PM on November 30, 2010

As far as I know, #19, If Charley Parker Were a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats is primarily a fantastic photo blog. I guess there's Musical Indulgences and the 12 Discs of Christmas….
posted by zamboni at 6:59 PM on December 1, 2010

A few more:

posted by klausness at 4:10 AM on December 6, 2010

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New Music for the New Year November 24, 2010 4:54 PM Subscribe

New Music for the New Year
November 24, 2010 4:54 PM Subscribe