Six Of The Best: Music Blogs

“There is no underground anymore; it’s all cyberspace,“ reckons Meatbreak from Brighton new music night/blog Not For Resale. Throughout the last decade we saw the evolution of the music blog –no longer online vanity projects, they’re now among the best places to locate new music.The millions of bloggerswho range from individual music geeks right up to big journalistic businesses, such as Popjustice or Drowned In Sound, are so numerous and busy that they’ve now stolen the thunder from traditional journalism. Their utilisation of the internetto rapidly locate, share, discuss and help promote new music has made the careers of countless bands and usurped traditional music business models. With such an abundance of choices, this list was always going to be very subjective, but here are those we find ourselves returning to time and again.??

THE PIONEERS: STEREOGUM stereogum.com
OK, so these early adopters of the online journal are a great place to start. They began back in 2002, when these were still called ‘Web Logs’ and nobody knew they existed. Oh how that’s changed. Alongside a handful of others, they paved the way for many subsequent pretenders.With one of the largest readerships around you will find they are big on indie music, with many well-written posts each week.This is professionally approached, journalistic blogging. ?See also: Gorilla vs Bear, Fluxblog and Brooklyn Vegan??

THE LABEL BLOG: NEON GOLD neongoldrecords.blogspot.com
This is the online blog for one of the best independent electro pop labels from the East Coast of America – owners Derek and Lizzie are so good at spotting and critiquing new music that the rest of the world is constantly catching up. Take the example of Ellie Goulding and Marina & The Diamonds – they both topped The BBC’s recent Sound Of 2010 Poll, as first and second respectively. Both originated from Neon Gold’s stable. ?See also: Palms Out Sounds,Fools Gold and Sheena Beaston

THE OBSCURE HIPSTERS: 20 JAZZ FUNK GREATS 20jazzfunkgreats.co.uk
Nothing to do with jazz (instead named after a Throbbing Gristle album), XXJFG appear on everyone’s blogroll, everywhere, making them one of the Brighton underground’s most renowned musical tastemakers. Treading the delicate line that separates the ultra-hip from anti-cool, you’ll find ONLY the absolute cream of the obscurity, from bizarre nu-disco genius to noisy prog-ecstacy. You know when you stumble upon an amazing band on myspace with only 55 listens? One of those 55 was XXJFG.?See also:Styleslut, Transparent, Platform and Fluokids

THE SPECIALISTS: YOU CAN CALL ME PELSKI ppelectro.blogspot.com
Growing massively in popularity during the 2006/7 electro boom, (a genre adored so much online that it even developed its own term, ‘bloghouse’), Pelski has developed and evolved into an excellent beat-orientated blog. Lovers of electronic music, particularly fidget house and dubstep,simplymust stop here. Alongside his pioneering selections, this blog is superbly written, informative and deliberately ethical,electing to never post mp3s that he doesn’t have the right to. ?See also: Discobelle and Missingtoof??

THE SUCCESS STORY: DISCODUST discodust.blogspot.com
Perhaps the best known German blogger, Aleks is regularly first to just about all the coolest electronic offerings from the genres of pop, indie, disco and dance. Opting for a smart, clean design, readers flock here in their millions each year, but he never cashes in with banner advertising. If you get your band covered here you will feel the boost. This blog is considered a serious tastemaker, with regular, well written, often short posts and free mp3’s.?See also: Big Stereo, OhhCrapp, Trash Menagerie and Nightmagnets??

THE RISING STAR: THE RECOMMENDER
Originating in Brighton this blog does what it says on the virtual tin, filtering the world’s many music scenes and passing on the highlights for us. It’s very well written and has consistently great selections, with three UK writers (two write for SOURCE…), two from America (from LA and Austin) and a photographer from New York on board. Recently selected as a BBC ‘tastemaker’, 2010 will deservedly see things expand as they launch their monthly Brighton showcase gigs at Jam.Seealso:Pretty Much Amazing, Illegal Tender and Not Many Experts

WORDS BY MIKE BRADFORD, JAMES KENDALL