Wall of Sound shuts down on Friday, June 1.

May 31, 2001 1:52 PM

Wall of Sound shuts down on Friday, June 1. The music news and reviews site, a long-time (4 years+) gem of the Internet, is going away. Visit while you still can.
posted by dan_of_brainlog (19 comments total)

See their Top 100 Albums of All Time, as well as the Top 100 Singles of All Time.
posted by dan_of_brainlog at 1:53 PM on May 31, 2001

So where do you go for album reviews now that this site is shutting down? I always stopped by on Mondays to check out the new releases for the upcoming week, but obviously can't do this anymore. Anyone have any suggestions?
posted by zempf at 2:55 PM on May 31, 2001

Freaky Trigger is on hiatus until later this month, but is a great site. (They may be switching addresses to freakytrigger.com, though, if memory serves.) You can still get to their dailyish weblog now though.

Pitchfork Media is another I enjoy.
posted by Skot at 3:11 PM on May 31, 2001

The All Music Guide has an extensive collection of well-written album reviews.
posted by reishus at 3:20 PM on May 31, 2001

Sonicnet? Yahoo! uses theirs and wall of sound's and Rolling Stone's. Then of course if you're looking for something general there is Billboard. The All-Music Guide is rather sporadic, concentrating more on the long-term, but they're also less deliberately flashy and trendy as far as their writing goes, which counts a lot for me. The "All Music" label is not at all misleading either. They may not have all new releases reviewed, but they'll have more new releases listed than you could possibly imagine.

I never saw what Wall of Sound provided that was so unique. It's very general, but not expansive enough to satisfy the fan into minutia about all sorts of music. It was certainly nothing that hadn't been provided on Mr. Showbiz, with which it was linked.
posted by raysmj at 3:22 PM on May 31, 2001

raysmj, Wall of Sound used to provide just about the best "web radio" around. Its features were discussed a while back on MeFi so I won't blabber on about them.
posted by Ms Snit at 4:07 PM on May 31, 2001

Ms Snit: Never listened to that one, but still mourning the loss of gogaga over here. Internet radio's been rather iffy for some time, it seems, for everybody but RealAudio and Spinner. And I don't see how they continue to operate either, with no ads and no charges. I'd pay a smidgen for someone who's services are good enough, but nobody has asked, not even for a donation.
posted by raysmj at 4:14 PM on May 31, 2001

that's whose, not who's. Ouch.
posted by raysmj at 4:22 PM on May 31, 2001

I go to DFWScene. =)
posted by ZachsMind at 4:30 PM on May 31, 2001

Beware Allmusic! The review quality varies from great (Richie Unterberger) (sp?) to abysmally ignorant (many others). And they really really really need someone to get some quality control over the factual aspects of the site, which abounds in errors of all sorts--missing releases, misspelled artists, nonexistent albums, bad dates. It's great if you're filling in holes in your knowledge if you lready know a lot, but as a reference it's a mess.

Ray--what happened at gogaga anyway? Anyone know?
posted by rodii at 4:53 PM on May 31, 2001

I got to the ultra-classy White Trash Devil.com... Of course I helped design the site, I write for it, and they cover all the weird stoner rock / black metal crap I listen to.

Yes, that was a lame plug -- so what!
posted by Dark Messiah at 5:23 PM on May 31, 2001

I am still greiving the passing of the super-cool Popawheelie. That was definitely home to the best internet radio, and it covered all of my favorite artists. The Popboard is still a good place to find out whatever you need, though.
posted by noisemartyr at 6:05 PM on May 31, 2001

rodii: I haven't the foggiest notion, and that was at least mildly annoying. Wrote them after getting an sql error or some such message, then the "temporary" absence message came up a few days later. It's been there since at least mid-February. Tried looking at f'd co., there were rumors listed for gaga, but nothing else.

Meantime, at least WWOZ, New Orleans, has not disappeared. The official jazzfest station. First radio station I ever heard online. Dear me, it's good. And they do ask for donations.
posted by raysmj at 6:39 PM on May 31, 2001

Try Glenn McDonald's The War Against Silence. It's a one man job, but the few reviews he puts out each week are gems. He's been doing this since 1995 and has all his archives online.
posted by maudlin at 7:21 PM on May 31, 2001

Man, I just don't get it. Wall of Sound produces what I think are fantastic reviews, and yet blowhard Jim DeRogatis still has a job.
posted by hijinx at 7:55 PM on May 31, 2001

Scuttlebutt is Sonicnet will be kaput soon and become just another MTV mouthpiece...
posted by owillis at 9:20 PM on May 31, 2001

I know this is self-linking, but I'm just trying to spread the musical love, really. If you have left-of-center taste (drone/post rock and all kinds of electronic stuff), I have a review site with well over 550 reviews. Enjoy...
posted by almostcool at 6:36 AM on June 1, 2001

I still miss the old Addicted to Noise...
posted by andrewraff at 10:32 AM on June 2, 2001