Netpunk April 2003

I'm gonna take you on a blast to the past this month, with a bunch of sites featuring old new wave and punk stuff.  I've been reading some George Gimarc's "Punk Diary" and "Post Punk Diary" and it has me all nostalgic for the songs of yesteryear.   Hell, I even listened to the Clash today!  Then, towards the end of this month's column, I'm going to turn you onto some rock criticism sights.  Not totally punk, but you'll probably find some stuff in the sites I've dug up that will interest you.  Let's get to it already...

We'll start off with the Mod Pop Punk Archives (http://punkmodpop.free.fr/) which features late-70s and early-80s bands such as Buzzcocks, The Chords, The Zeros, and bunches of bands you've probably never heard of.  Included are incomplete discographies, bios, mp3 files, and even scans of rare picture sleeves.  Unless you're only into hardcore, there will be something here you'll dig.

Another nice site for oldies is CollectorScum.com.  There is a bunch of neat stuff here, including a discography of American punk, a cool section of test pressings and the like, a discography of Datapanik records, and, believe it or not, a listing of punk 8-track tapes.  There are scans of most of the covers here, but no sound files.  Its still totally worthwhile - http://www.collectorscum.com/ .

A great source to pick up some rare tunes at cheap prices is from Hyped To Death.  Visit their CD archives at http://hyped2death.com/ .  You can read liner notes, check out scans of rare sleeves, and even listen to a few mp3s.  And, if you find stuff you like, you can order a CD for around 10 bucks.  They have 60 plus CDs out now of bands from all over the world.

Next up is Break My Face, a site that doesn't have as many bands as some of the others I've mentioned, but makes up for it by giving lots of information on the bands that they do feature.  Included here is information about Dangerhouse records, stuff on the Vomit Pigs, Urinals, Black Flag, The Rotters, and some 30 or so others.  Each section has several paragraphs about each band, scans of the picture sleeves of some of their records, and more.  You'll find Break My Face at http://www.breakmyface.com/ .

For a nice archive of punk and new wave bootlegs, look no further than Marko's site at http://www.lwtua.free-online.co.uk/0.htm (that's a zero at the end).  A lot of this is new wave dreck, but there is also some classic 77-era punk.  Each bootleg listing includes a cover scan, a track listing, and where it was recorded, but there are no song samples.  Bummer.

Speaking of new wave, there is a page of classic new wave photos available http://www.newwavephotos.com/ .  This is the archive of rock photographer Philippe Carly and there are some really nice shots here.  Be warned, though - Buzzcocks are about as punk as this site gets.  Poke around and you'll also find an archive of concert tickets and backstage passes.

 Another photographic archive is Rockometer (http://www.rockometer.com/) which includes shots of the Damned, Stiff Little Fingers, Buzzcocks, and X, among others.  The photos are not from way back in the day, but are from late-80s through late-90s shows that the bands played.  Great photo work here.

I've always like rock criticism, even if what I sometimes like about it is that I hate what critics have to say.  I just find reading others opinion about music to be refreshing, especially if it is of a more philosophical nature (rather than a simple record review).  While most critics are probably bloated windbags who couldn't hold down a real job, I still like reading a well written piece of rock journalism.  With that in mind, I went searching for sites that deal with writing about rock music.

The first (and most obvious) site I found was RockCritics.com (http://www.rockcritics.com/).  RockCritics.com features both exclusive content written by rock journalists, as well as archives of older rock writing.  In addition, there is a fun 'top 5' list section, and information on how you can contribute to the site.

The other decent site for music journalist types is at http://www.musicjournalist.com/ .  This is the homepage of the Association of Music Writers and Photographers.  Of course, the idea that this group exists is kinda icky, but some of the articles here are interesting and/or thought provoking.

If you don't give a shit about professional critics, then why not be one yourself?  The Rate Your Music website at http://rateyourmusic.com/ is an interesting idea.  It is a database of albums where you give them one to five stars and leave reviews of each album.  You can add albums to the site, and you can look up what other people think of certain music.  It's like having a dozen friends tell you whether or not a record sucks.  The punk content is weak, but that's only because we haven't discovered it yet.

That's gonna wrap things up for this month.  Hope you enjoyed the blast from the past.  A reminder that you can find all of my columns in the netpunk section of http://www.diehippiedie.com/ and that you should be sending me your websites for mention and review to netpunk@diehippiedie.com.  See ya.