Music Bloggers United

We're back (the week of Sept 9)

2006-09-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

Oops we went away for awhile. Of course a lot has happened in the world of blogs but let's just pick it up from last week.

The mp3 blog Just Like Music goes on a little rant about blogs, popularity and the meaning of life.

Fluxblog created a firestorm by posting on Beyonce and claiming she is the most brilliant and creative songwriter of her generation (his words not mine).

Lots of new obscure music this week but none better than Mountaineer. The Bombshelter and Music (For Robots) are both on the case.

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The Tapes and Tapes story of blogs to riches is discussed in detail in this article in the Mercury News.

Boston.com profiles some of the music blogs in Beantown (Hello Gina, Bradley's Almanac, Rbally etc)

Week of August 2nd and August 9th Update

2006-08-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

Music Bloggers United -- A central resource for bloggers, artists, labels, and members of the press for navigating and utilizing the music blogosphere.

The Late Greats continues it's Convertin' The World Cafe To Mp3 series with a bunch of live tracks from Jose Gonzalez. Hear how this Swedish sensation would sound like live without all the chatter, broken bottles and crowd noise of a typical live performance. Listen for his fingers sliding along the nylon strings.

The Daily Growl has a selection of songs of the month including the MySpace/Mp3 Blog hit "Young Folks" from Peter Bjorn and John.

Either/OR has a bunch of songs from Billie The Vision & Dancers.

Miraculously we haven't mentioned 3Hive yet. I don't know of any blog as consistent and great as the guys at 3Hive. They also only post free and legal stuff so quite and accomplishment really. This week they covered the covers by The Harvey Girls.

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Up and coming MP3Blogs

Don't hold it against Fabulist that they also cover art and pop culture. They are in their infancy but to date their music coverage has been top notch.

Either/Or has had an eclectic and interesting mix of music since their inception in April of 2006.

MBU Update for the Week of the 26th

2006-07-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

Cameron Deyhle over at A Robot Cometh officially called it quits this week, due to he and his wife getting a new job in India.

Eric Marathonpacks has a tour diary written by a member of Magnolia Electric Co.

Bethanne from Clever Titles are so Last Summer will be hosting a group of bloggers participating in the 2006 Blogathon on her blog this weekend.

Bill who writes I Rock Cleveland wrote a beautiful Ode to Silversun Pickups.

Week Of Juy 19th Update (or why we bash Sufjan)

2006-07-19T18:07:00.000-07:00

The backlash begins. Music bloggers have built Sufjan Stevens into a godlike creature and now it's time to tear him down. Much of this criticism was brought on by the release of Avalanche and the recent article by Thomas Erlwhine here. Interesting articles for and against Sufjan from The Rawking Refuses To Stop!, Bows Plus Arrows, Parking Lot Cities.

Chromewaves has two posts deserving a mention. First he explores some of the ethical problems encountered when dealing with labels and secondly he refutes the New York Times piece about the demise of alt-country.

When a couple of us bloggers got together and started this endeavor there were skeptics and critics that said it would be biased and wouldn't work. We said they were wrong but they were actually right. It's impossible to be human and not be biased. So we're taking turns posting so that any bias is evened out by multiple posters. So I'll admit I'm biased towards Ramona Cordova. His record, The Boy Who Floated Freely, came out last year but apparently it's been reserviced to a handful of mp3 bloggers and more good press is rolling in for this amazing and underappreciated (although he's big in Europe) artist. Goodhodgkins has an excellent write up here. As does Songs To The Siren here (in French).

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More music news from the NY Times as they report on the graying of record stores - their owners and customers both. Bloggers don't get blamed directly but new media and the internet are mentioned as factors.

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If we all weren't ugly Americans...we could read some of the posts on these excellent foreign mp3 blogs:

La Bogotheque is one of the premier French mp3 blogs. The man behind this site has been putting up amazing mixtapes, championing underdog bands and of late producing concerts and off the wall videos. Check out his site and tell me you don't wish you could speak French.

More French blogs: Blog Up, David F, Songs To The Siren

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**New Kids On The Block (newish mp3 blogs that deserve your consideration, patronage and service)**

Cable and Tweed has consistently been bringing it since their inception in January of this year. Recent posts on Jon Auer, Arcade Fire and Kite Flying Society.

The Air Strange began in April 2006 and has been kicking it with a mix of indie news and touring info of particular interest to those in the Quad Cities. What's that you east coasters say. Well it's somewhere in the Midwest I think?!

This weeks rant by Craig from Songs:Illinois/Swedesplease

Week of July 12th Update

2006-07-13T08:07:00.000-07:00

Music Bloggers United -- A central resource for bloggers, artists, labels, and members of the press for navigating and utilizing the music blogosphere.

The Springfield Journal-Register listed some of its favorite mp3 blogs today, including several lesser-mentioned blogs, such as CYSTSFTS and Music for Kids Who Can't Read Good.

Matt over at Skatterbrain featured his first interview this week. It is with John Patterson of the Grates.

Goodhodgkins had essays this week on the "Garden State Effect" and the defense of the album format. Both are very interesting; almost as interesting as the heated discussion in the comments section.

Great Body of Water finished their Bands A-Z project.

New Layouts: Summer has brought the blogosphere many interesting layout changes on a lot of great blogs. Here are some I have noticed.

Nothing But Green Lights

Done Waiting

Clever Titles are So Last Summer

Culture Bully

Week Of July 5 Update

2006-07-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

Music Bloggers United -- A central resource for bloggers, artists, labels, and members of the press for navigating and utilizing the music blogosphere.

As we near the middle of the year, Mike over at Nothing But Green Lights gives a great wrap-up of his Top 6 mp3's of the Year (So Far). "Nothing But Green Lights presents the best 6 mp3's of the year so far. 6 months gone. 6 mp3s. Get them while they're hot (you have two weeks to consume)." From the heavily blogged about indiepop hit makers Voxtrot to some relatively unknown bands, Mike recaps some great music from the first half of 2006. Check out his January to June Mix as well.

Guess what, more halftime reviews. Can you guys believe it. Ryan over at GoodHodgkins has got his 7 Essential Albums for 2006. Some good records that seem to be appearing consistently show up and he has some samples for you as well.

At So Much Silence there is a great review of blogger favorite Band of Horses at the Rhythm Room. Some great pictures are up as well as some great jargon, namely "dude". Don't forget to also take a look at his thoughts and comparisons on the new Silversun Pickups record.

While Sixeyes needs no more publicity from little ol' MBU, they still had one of the great posts of the week when they wrote about the upcoming disc from Texas band The Theater Fire. And by great post I mean that the music is simply stellar. As a bonus the writing from new Sixeyes contributor David Ries is pretty fine too.

In the news we have the online SPIN talking about the impact of blogs, specifically related to movies.

Inside Bay Area talks about the impact of music blogs and online resources boosting record sales, making bands more accessable and the discovery of music.

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**New kids on the block (newish mp3 blogs that deserve your consideration, patronage and service)**

The beautiful thing about mp3 blogs is that you could start a blog about any genre, time period or even instrument (electric guitar blog, accordian blog, ukulele blog - hey that would be cool!). And while it may seem like everyone and their brother has a blog there are still gaping content holes to be filled. Or there were until these two blogs got started.

Destination: Out is the place for free jazz (no not jazz that you don't have to pay for although it is that too) but jazz that is based completely around improvisation. It's just starting but has already eclipsed anything else out there. As a change of pace many of the posts are written as a dialog between the two founders Chilly Jay Chill and Prof. Drew LeDrew.

Post Modern Sounds (In Country and Western Music) is alt-country and only alt-country day and night. They've just started and have a ways to go before they prove themselves reliable and here to stay but both have made a splash in their first few months onli.

It's shaping up to be a great musical year and a great year in the blogs.

Compiled with care by alex from Great Body of Water music blog.

Update for June 28

2006-06-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

Nacho Libre, the new Jack Black comedy, doesn't have an official soundtrack, so Some Velvet Blog compiled one. The wacky tracks by Esquivel, Los Lobos, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso are first-rate. Even if you have no intention of catching the Mexican wrestling flick, you absolutely must hear the film's absurd theme, Mr. Loco's "Real Religious Man."

"They're beating the living hell out of kitchen appliances with lengths of pipe and massive gears and slamming shut a deep-freeze to what roughly corresponds to 'the beat,'" reports The Tofu Hut. They not only survived a performance by Norwegian "pop/demolition" ensemble Hurra Torpedo- they loved it. A photograph, video and music provide a full picture of the devastation.

Does your mom like pop music? The Modern Age's mom is keen on Keane. They offer a great review with lots of pictures.

Brooklyn Vegan takes a fall. Not to worry- no one was hurt when they interviewed the legendary Mark E. Smith. Don't miss the live recording.

Why isn't the new Kanye West offering, Late Orchestration, available in North America? Fluxblog offers a tantalizing peek at the UK release.

The guys at Central Village smell teen spirit at a Taking Back Sunday show on Long Island. Against all odds, they avoid winding up in the slammer.

Finally in what has to be some of the best writing ever on an mp3 blog, Moistwork's invited their favorite authors (real book authors!) to wax poetic on their own influential musical moments. The link above will take you to the ruminations of Gary Lutz authur of Stories in the Worst Way. Song selections and descriptions of Galaxie 500, The Moldy Peaches and Pavement. The whole series is called Moistworks:Writers Week 2.0 and they're all great so check them all out.

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New kids on the block (newish mp3 blogs that deserve your consideration, patronage and service)

The Yellow Stereo - Recent posts about The Pippets, The Chalets and Tobias Froberg. Created in April 2006.

Ashcan Rantings - Recent posts about Janis Joplin, John Auer, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Interesting fact about Ashcan Rantings: any profits go to the ASPCA or other charities. Created in March of 2006.

Weekly post compiled with good cheer by Bill from There Stands The Glass.

Week of June 17 update

2006-06-20T22:45:00.000-07:00

Said The Gramophone is presenting his "Said The Guest" series on Wednesday the 21st, this time curated by Beirut. See what this ukulele-playing, idiot savant has in store for you.

Indie Don't Dance has her dream summer mix up. It's short but oh so sweet.

Copy, Right? reminds us, in her own inimitable way (i.e. bunches of cover songs), of the importance of Material Issue and the great sense of loss she still has 10 years since the day that he died.

Normally we won't be linking to just any old blog-based-mix-tape but in this case Connor from I Guess I'm Floating has put up a three disc compilation of the best tracks of 2006 so far. In addition and just to spice things up a bit he went on a little Pitchfork rant that got some of his readers all riled up (see the comments).

Clever Titles Are So Last Summer celebrates her big, blogger, one year anniversary with a bunch of shout outs and of course some good music. In fact it's like Birthday theme week over there so go tell Bethanne how much you care.

Week of June 12 update

2006-06-15T21:55:00.000-07:00

Well, we're still working out some kinks but here's another update.

Daytrotter has a new in studio session with Sunset Rubdown. More importantly next week they'll upload a session with Casey Dienel.
Nothing But Green Lights has a blogger combo special where 6 prominent bloggers pick the best song they've legally downloaded in the past month.
Shake Your Fist has an interview and songs from Chicago chanteuse Nora O'Connor
What is it about the World Cup and Mp3 blogs? Burning Oak is 4 posts of the way through blogging the World Cup musically. Check out entries about France, Netherlands and Croatia.

What's The Deal?!

2006-06-11T16:51:00.000-07:00

Why another mp3 blog site you ask?

The answer is that it seemed to some members of the mp3 blogging world that a lot of the interesting resources were spread throughout the net. While we all love the Elbo.ws forum, the Hype Machine's top blog list, Tofu Hut's mp3 blog list and all of the info over at the Wiki, we just felt it'd be nice to have one place where all that stuff is accessible in some small way. We hope that the site will be a valuable and fun place for bloggers to visit but it's main intent is to be a place where members of the press can come weekly to see what's happening in the blogosphere (we'll also attempt to coin a less annoying phrase!).

The main feature of the site at the moment will be a weekly review type post of all the great features, interviews, and community posts from the week that was. The weekly post can be delivered to you if you sign up to the right. Initially we'll send it out as a weekly email to as many members of the press that we can add to our list. So if you have any contacts with the press please email us here - musicbloggersunited@gmail.com. We're coming at this from the angle that all of these outlets need content and instead of having them just somehow stumble upon our posts (i.e. our great works of literary art) we'll deliver them to their email inbox.

P.S. Thanks to everyone involved but especially Jeff from DIYRockstar, Moka from Motel de Moka, Merz from Mars Need Guitars and Victoria from Muruch. Extra special thanks to Malachy Egan for the header graphic (contact him at malachy dot egan at gmail dot com).

Meet The Press!?

2006-06-06T00:18:00.000-07:00

Music blogs are a fun news item these days. We're popping up in everything from Rolling Stone to The NY Times and everything in between. Here's just a small informal review of what's been said recently. Thanks in part goes to the invaluable bloggers' forum over at Elbo.ws.

Top Ten Mp3 Blogs courtest of TopTenSources.com

The controversial Top 25 Blogs by way of Entertainment Weekly

The Boston Phoenix namedrops The Hype Machine, Elbo.ws, Said The Gramaphone and Music For Robots.

Fluxblog waxes poetic in this piece for the The Washington Times.

PBS tries to stay relevant with this online article featuring Largehearted Boy.

2006-06-06T00:02:00.000-07:00

Merz from Mars Needs Guitars featured a group post on Shoegaze, with contributions from many of the web's top bloggers.

2006-06-05T23:19:00.000-07:00

Eardrums Shall Fall has some commentary on the new SIRA legislation, this news was originally released by the blog from the non profit organization IPaction (whose moto "Defending The Publil Interest Where Culture and Technology Meet" should be a mantra for us music bloggers).

Eardrums Shall Fall
IPaction

According to the New York Times the Russian download site All-Of-MP3.com was taken down by the RIAA. We first saw it posted on the blog Rewriteable Content though.

Rewriteable Content
NY Times

No Rock & Roll Fun points out that the Dutch based piracy torrent site ThePirateBay.org was shut down. Apparently the site just moved countries and is back in business.

No Rock & Roll Fun