Where I find out about music

Where is it that I discover new bands, you ask?

1) Pitchforkmedia. The heavyweight in the indie webzine scene. When pitchfork recommends an album, it can help start a young band's career (their gushing over Funeral and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, for instance, certainly helped word spread about those albums). Big enough to sponsor their own three-day music festival each year (with names promenent enough to compete with the likes of Lollapalooza and Boneroo), there exists a certain amount of backlash against the site these days, especially given how powerful a positive or negative review can be. Nonetheless, a great site for music news, videos and MP3s, and reviews of the bigger indie releases along with lesser known titles. A favorite pasttime is guessing what the review of a major indie release will be prior to the pitchfork rating is released...

2) Stereogum. Also a heavyweight, but a news-only site (no reviews). They have a number of interesting features, such as "quit your day job" (where they interview up-and-coming artists about what they do to pay the bills until they break out), and "premature evaluation" (a non-numerical review of albums prior to their actual release). Also posts MP3s and videos. Not as high and mighty as pitchfork.

3) Brooklyn Vegan. An indie music blog highlighting concerts in the NYC area. A must-visit now that my bro is living in the city and I have a place to crash.

4) emusic. http://www.emusic.com. (I swear I'm not commissioned by these guys). A good community/neighborhood system in which artists are recommended based on the preferences of people who listen to what you like.

5) napster. http://free.napster.com. Ha ha! The best kept secret on the internet! This isn't the $10/month napster subscription service. Instead, this allows you to stream the entire album, track by track, for a very large selection of artists and albums. Not everything is represented here, but most artists have at least some of their work available. Before I ever buy or emusic a new album, I always stream it a few times (for free!!!) on napster before making a purchase decision. This is how I avoided wasting emusic downloads on the new New Pornographers and Architecture in Helsinki. The fact that this free napster exists isn't even mentioned on the front of their site anymore - it's a secret backdoor!

6) NPR All Songs Considered live concerts. Weekly live concerts (recorded at the 9:30 Club in DC) for whatever big indie artists are touring at the moment. Usually involve an in-studio interview as well.

7) Blogotheque's "Takeaway Shows." A Paris music blog that records a few songs from big name indie artists that roll through town. The neatest part is, though, that they ask the bands to perform in unique locations to get them out of their element. For instance, Arcade Fire performed "Neon Bible" in a closed elevator (ripping pages out of a magazine for percussion); The National performed "Fake Empire" at a dinner table, using silverware and dinnerware as percussion; Tapes n Tapes played while walking the busy streets of Paris. Excellent, very unique recordings!