Let’s Go Surfing Now!
The web is proving to be heaven for music fans
Anthony Augustine
Best Download — Party Ben’s Sixx Mixx
— www.partyben.com
— For 30 minutes each week, San Francisco mashup master
Party Ben’s Sixx Mixx tosses out the rule book and redefines
musical boundaries. In Ben’s world, the post-industrial
sheen of Nine Inch Nails meshes perfectly with the steady
pulse of The Bloc Party, while the undeniable funk of Lyrics
Born and Beck effortlessly mixes with everything from The
Strokes to Franz Ferdinand. Along with featuring PB’s
own custom mashups and re-edits, the weekly mix is usually
also packed with bootlegs and exclusive cuts from A-list underground
producers from around the world, such as Mcsleazy, Team9 and
Go Home Productions.
Equally brash and innovative, Party Ben’s Sixx Mixx
radio program has become the epicentre of mash-up culture
in North America. While the groundbreaking show still does
not have a podcast feed, Party Ben has been fairly good at
posting the mixes to his site. With rumours swirling that
Winnipeg may get a chance to catch Party Ben and his Bootie
club night live in 2006, you might not have to book a trip
to the West Coast to experience his genre-bending mix sets.
Best Blog — Stereogum—
www.stereogum.com
— With thousands of blogs being created each week, it’s
easy to get sidetracked while looking for new music. However,
over the past few years a number of music-driven blogs have
thankfully separated themselves from the pack, making it simple
to know which sites need to be part of your weekly excursions
on the web. Along with mainstays such as Fluxblog and Music
for Robots (last year’s best blog), Stereogum has become
an essential tool for those looking to beef up their music
collection with live bootlegs from artists such as The Arcade
Fire and Calexico, leaked tracks from unreleased albums from
The Strokes and Mogwai, and exclusive cuts from a diverse
group of artists.
Best Sites to Kill an Hour on
— www.metafilter.com,
www.fark.com,
www.digg.com
— Comparing the focused balance of fascinating articles,
political babble and technology talk on Metafilter and the
sarcastic, attention-grabbing weirdness of Fark is like comparing
hip hop to death metal, but both sites continue to define
the core elements of web culture. Fark proves that irony and
sarcasm are alive and well, and Metafilter demonstrates that
it’s possible to build an interactive digital community
that fosters discussion, analysis and critical thought. New
addition Digg has also done a good job of building an instant
community of editors and submitters who scour the web for
technology-related items, but they still have a long way to
go before they surpass megasites such as Slashdot.
Best E-zine — Earplug —
earplug.cc
— Anchored by the skilful writing of DJ/journalist/blogger
Philip Sherburne and a team of dedicated electronic-music
scribes, Earplug has established itself as one of the best
new additions to the web. Full of CD reviews, music news,
previews and features, Earplug may have a narrow focus, but
it’s obviously in touch with the culture of electronic
music.
Best Bootleg — Arcade Fire Live at
First Avenue — somuchsilence.blogspot.com
— Unless you or a buddy were able to sneak a digital
recorder into the Burton Cummings Theatre this past September,
this is the closest thing to being able to relive Arcade Fire’s
stellar live performance. Recorded at Minneapolis’ legendary
First Avenue the day before the sold-out show in Winnipeg,
this bootleg includes rock-solid interpretations of material
from their first two releases, including a pulse-quickening
version of No Cars Go and a cover of the Thin White Duke’s
Five Years. After seeing the Montreal-based collective this
past fall and hearing this bootleg again last week, it’s
easy to see why the nine-member group is the best live band
on the planet right now. Maybe someone should send Broken
Social Scene a copy, as they could learn a thing or two from
it.
Guilty Pleasure of the Year — MySpace
— www.myspace.com
— Talking about MySpace in public is like discussing
the musical nuances of the last episode of The O.C. around
someone who has never watched the show, but it seems as though
everyone I talk to is hesitant to admit that they have created
a MySpace profile (only because their friends keep bugging
them to join, of course). The social networking hub is all
about letting people know about you, but it’s funny
that so many users are embarrassed to admit they spend hours
on end posting comments, blogging and building their social
networks.
Anthony Augustine is a freelance music and pop culture writer
who spends way too much time in front of the computer. He also
hosts a weekly two-hour electronic music program on CKUW 95.9
FM Got a site you think he should see? E-mail him at anthony.alloneword@gmail.com. |
Uptown
Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News
