From about 2002-2008, broadband access, easy Wordpress templates, and third party file hosts contributed to the explosion of blogs posting MP3s of varying legality. P2P file sharing was gaining national attention, but there was a need for people to curate songs outside of the wild west of P2P. Many of the one-person operations disappeared around the time Mediafire deleted a ton of its content after copyright holders complained, but a few consolidated and became the publicity powerhouses like Brooklyn Vegan and Stereogum, becoming legitimate while losing their personalities in the process. Long-gone blogs like Domino Rally would post obscure noise one day and Steely Dan the next, opening doors for listeners to gain a foothold in music they used to only read about. Below is a list of songs I downloaded around that time; some of the songs are good, others I can't believe I ever liked.
Annuals - Bleary Eyed
Winter 2006 I was at my in-laws house without a laptop or iPod, and this song kept getting stuck in my head through pure imagination. They were on Conan's old Late Night show and the singer played a huge electric keyboard while sharing the mic with one of the other members. For some reason I can only find acoustic versions of this song online, the superior full band version is nowhere to be found. Their live videos are a good example of the problem with a lot of these bands that got too big too quick: they weren't very good performers.
Archie Bronson Outfit - Dead Funny
This band had a similar vibe to the DFA crew, using dance music arrangements, raw guitar sounds and an obsession with 80's post punk. If I remember right, they were part of Domino's sudden singing frenzy.
Tokyo Police Club - Tesselate
This one sounds like the one track the band let themselves just do whatever they wanted: The percussion finally sounds like it's listening to the rest of the song; the stop/start dynamics compliment the manic energry, and every bar is an excuse to squeeze in another hook.
Beirut - Postcards from Italy
I can see why people like Beirut. Their songs are catchy, nonthreatening and they predated the resurgence of old timey things that Mumford & Sons took to the bank. There was just this odd feeling that the media coverage they got was not indicative of their actual popularity: any buzz band can sell out the Music Hall of Williamsburg, but that doesn't mean they're selling thousands of records.
The Bird & The Bee - I Hate Camera
Lowell George's daughter & a guy who used to be in Geddy Tah made the kind of jazz- and electronic-inflected pop that would have come out on Grand Royal if they were around in the 90s. This is a good, spare song but the act is so entrenched in LA that I guarantee either of them has complained about The Grove in the last 24 hours.
Bishop Allen - Rain
Bishop Allen is the perfect band to encapsulate the rush to monetize the buzz created by blog attention. In 2006 they recorded an EP for every month of the year, the kind of novelty trick that was easy for blogs to latch onto and have at least one piece of news to post in a month. Their songs started appearing in TV commercials and network dramas, though the eventual full-length Bishop Allen and the Broken String didn't capitalize on their attention, consisting mostly of polished re-recordings of the charmingly raw songs on the EPs. They've since disappeared, but don't work: band member Christian Rudder was one of the founders of OKcupid, which was bought by Match.com in 2011 for $50 million.
Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation
Weirdo country that oscillated between AOR rock and Pavement-isms, it's a shame the title track to their 2007 record didn't become a rock radio staple. It's not really a good indicator of their sound, though to think of it most one hit wonders get big on a fluke song.
Have Gun Will Travel - Sons and Daughters of the Gilded Age
This is a relatively recent discovery of mine, and probably the kind of band that would have been snatched up post-Lumineers if record companies were still on spending sprees. I like this song but there's something a desperate about the lyric's obsession with the ills of modern culture and the cornpone backing track. Wordy verses that only add up to a vague picture of modern consumerism has been around at least since Bright Eyes.
Loney Dear - I Am John
I'm noticing a pattern, clearly not a new one: when a genre gets some indie groundswell, in this case wimpy acoustic singer-songwriters with a deep collection of Belle & Sebastian EPs, major record labels start looking for an act that's willing to play ball. Loney, Dear is still churning out records on Polyvinyl after a brief moment on Sub Pop, while the bowler-hatted/suspender dorks are getting their songs on Grey's Anatomy before disappearing into obscurity.
Muscles - Chocolate Raspberry Lemon and Lime
Blog house! Remember that? I'm not even sure what it means; I guess big melodies, a closer adherence to the three minute pop structure than dance music repetition, and Garage Band plugins. Muscles was huge in his native Australia but sank without a trace in the US, despite shiny production, catchy songs and an idiosyncratic voice.
Be Your Own Pet - Becky
How could a band be on the verge of getting huge then suddenly disappear? Blog attention does not equal a payday for these bands. It does lead to a booking agent and quickie record deal that requires constant travel and pressure to live up to their buzz, which breaks even the strongest band.
International Pony - Gothic Girl
It's great that 20jazzfunkgreats is still around, but does anyone read the write-ups that come with the MP3s they post? I respect the post-apocalyptic weirdness but they're so hard to follow. Maybe that's the point. This is a song that reminds me of the goth girls I knew in college.
Brenden Benson - Iron Woman
This should be in the Great American Songbook. Rod Stewart should be mutilating it on one of his innumerable covers CDs. Instead we get one record released in 2005 and a website that doesn't work.
Street Smart Cyclist - Hoods Up
Clean guitars playing complicated melody lines is catnip to midwest kids who still miss Braid, and the posi core lyrics connected with 30 somethings not ready to give up on punk. I can't find anything about this band online.
The Sound of Arrows - Danger
This is a Scandanavian duo mostly known for remixing corny pop songs. The EP this is on was released free and probably appealed to blog editors looking to post something they wouldn't get a cease and desist letter about.
Pacific - Sunset Blvd
The only thing I can say about this song is that the band name and song title are very clear indicators of what the song is about.
Thrust Lab - Dance Sweet Dracula
Another 25JFG track that turns out to be the work of two MICA students over in Baltimore. This track isn't on YouTube but you can download all their stuff on their website.
Yelle - Ce Jeu
I don't speak French so this song could be France's take on teen pop, but my inability to understand the words forces focus on the melody, which kind of floats just out of reach of the tonic. This gives the song a weird forward momentum that US radio pop usually doesn't attempt.
Pop Levi - Never Never Love
This guy makes really good synth pop so I'm not sure why he based his image on being a garage rocker. Embrace the keyboards dude. The Pink Enemy remix cuts out all the ratty guitars and turns it into a sleek torpedo of a track.
The XYZ Affair - All My Friends
In middle school, when students were talking too much, I had a teacher who called it diarrhea of the mouth. This song has diarrhea of the mouth but a sophisticated melody and constantly developing arrangement make it OK, even with the Confederacy of Dunces reference. Stocking the video with mid-90s Nickelodeon stars was all blogs needed to hear.
Winterkids - Tape It
Winterkids are the reason bands think it's ok to play a dozen unpaid shows at SXSW. They got some attention and a record deal out of it, but things fell apart as they do. I respect keeping their accents & having lyrics so UK-centric that I barely understand most of the references.
A Weather - Spiders Snakes (mix)
This un-Googleable band has 1 song I've heard and it's a good example of chamber pop that doesn't try anything outside it's wheelhouse. If it wasn't played over the credits of an episode of a teen drama then I'd be surprised.
The Veils - Advice for Young Mothers
Finally a band that attempted at least a little bit of nasty swagger! It's Nick Cave-lite but stood out among the Animal Collective clones.
Unlovables - Leave Me Alone
Sometimes pop-punk would bubble to the surface if I was reading the right blogs. This is not a punk band trying to do dream pop or whatever.
Two Gallants - Nothing To You
It came down to The Black Keys and Two Gallants in the major label white boy blues duo; Two Gallants were such strict adherents that they dropped an n-bomb when covering a traditional slave song.
Sybris - Hurt Hawk
A gossamer folk song. Either you'll like it or think it's insufferably boring.
Math and Physics Club - Weekends Away
Pretty sure I got this song via Skatterbrain, which has a lock on 80s twee indie pop (and its contemporary adherents). Not something I can get into all the time, but every once in a while I need that pastoral wash.
Ridley Bent - Nine Inch Nails
I spent 3rd-7th grade in Texas, which is the prime time for a child to be inoculated against the cornier aspects of modern country. Ridley Bent doesn't embrace country as an ironic pose, which I appreciate. This is a simple ballad about ex-lovers mixing up their record collections.
Ruby Isle - Final Cut
A project that could have only existed in the mp3 blog era (they also did a song with Tay Zonday), two guys from Kindercore records (and ex-I Am the World Trade Center) make electronic dance covers of whatever hit the top spot on aggregator elbo.ws (RIP). This Pink Floyd cover was done for blog project Buffet Libre Rewind and is much more listenable than the groaning, miserable original.
The Russian Futurists - Tripping Horses
Russian Futurists have another song called "Paul Simon" that follows the same structure, namely repeating the same melody over and over. The cut & paste editing style comes from dance music, but the lack of structural development means the track lives and dies depending on how catchy that one melody is. Kind of odd I can't find a video or MP3 online but there are plenty of lyrics websites that list it.
S - Falling
Ben Bridwell wasn't the only former member of Carissa's Wierd to keep making music; Jean Ghetto has released a handful of minimal, experimental records as S. A spooky verse explodes into a soaring chorus of "you know that's the only way to hurt me... all I can do is hurt you"; intense stuff.
Sambassadeur - Between the Lines
Another Skatterbrain find, the awkward pause before the chorus is charming. Since broken up, their discography was naturally on Labrador records.
The Second Band - Wild is the Wind
Like Sambassadeur, The Second Band were a Swedish indie pop band that gained a bunch of short-lived blog attention in the early 00s before disappearing. How come compact, catchy as hell guitar-based pop comes so easy to the Swedish?
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