Get cool!

I've been too tired lately to get an intelligent post together, so here are some links to my favorite sites for learning about music!

Perfect Sound Forever - Online music magazine with tons and tons of articles about under-recognized artists (Peter Brotzmann), interesting facets of the independent music world (Psycho-Geography of Record Fairs), overviews of obscure music genres (L.A. Orchestra Pop) and long-forgotten stories (Lost Music Venues). Every article is endlessly interesting and they put a new issue up every two months.

Dusted Magazine - Esoteric CD reviews, charts compiled from several hip radio stations (including us!) and band interviews/tributes. Since it's volunteer-run the features aren't updated super often, but since they've been around since 2002 they've got lots of content. My favorite feature is Listed in which a pair of bands are asked to make lists. Usually they list favorite artists or albums, but sometimes the lists cover other topics, like Melt Banana's 10 favorite bands from Aichi and the kind of sushi each band brought to mind. Quality content always.

Cerysmatic Factory - This site is specifically about Factory Records, the former home of great bands like Joy Division and A Certain Ratio. Factory Records was interesting because they had a very strong asthetic that made album covers into a new art form. They had a catalogue numbering system for all their releases, which included posters and other objects in addition to music. They also started their own club and were very innovative in the way they did business with their artists. They pioneered the idea of "handshake" contracts and a 50/50 deal with artists, ideas which have been emulated by other labels like Touch and Go. This website has biographies about every band ever on the label and a huge number of images of Factory artifacts.

Awesome Tapes from Africa - A blog dedicated to tapes from Africa. There are a lot and you can listen to them all! It's hard to go wrong with African beats and rhythms.

Phoning it In - A radio show which features all of your favorite bands playing songs over the phone. They have years of archives up on the site. Fun fact - Colorado's very own Chris Adolf (Bad Weather California) was the first band ever to be featured on the show!

-Katherine (of music director fame)