I expect music bloggers and critics to be fans. Not music industry shills, or worse: SEOs.
Now that I have that out of my chest, let me cite SOMB, or the Sound Opinions Message Board (a backgrounder from their Wikipedia entry), a forum, I re-discovered lately while making my 2009 music list.
You know you’re dealing with dead-serious fans with thread titles like:
Frankly, I’m still wondering how big -big means music critic big- The Avett Brothers became last year. I get Wilco, they’ve been around long enough. I get Kings of Leon, as commercialized their most recent efforts are. I also get this soulful heaping of modern but familiar Americana from the brothers, but maybe not as to be with the likes of last year’s favorites, like Phoenix and Animal Collective.
Not a music video, not even a normal gig recording, but a live performance piece set in an art space from the singer of the excellent Scottish rock band, Life Without Buildings. The video is in four parts, you can see the rest of it here. Short attention span people need not view.
I would highly urge the uninitiated to visit Life Without Buildings’s MySpace page right after (or before, your choice), and start with The Leanover, just to get why I’d bother posting.