First, apologies for the absolutely ludicrous delay; I’ve been alternately swamped and in rural Pennsylvania (sometimes, swamped in rural Pennsylvania) for the past few weeks.
Now, without further self-deprecation, here’s Andromeda, whose site boasts the most eerily accurate X-meets-Y-meets-Z description I’ve ever read. (Madonna, Pink Floyd and Red Hot Chili Peppers are all involved.)
Here’s Ebsolus Blue, a group who claims to be “pushing the limits of what music can become.” Is this true? Let’s find out!
(Two explanatory notes, first. One, I’m not going to post negative writeups here. This isn’t because I like everything — I’m quite picky and have already gone through about 10 acts I didn’t deem worth writing about — but because I think it’s pretty damn useless to shit on probably-obscure music that’d been all but nonexistent online for years. It is easy not to listen to any of these artists and hard to decide which to listen to. That’s my goa.
Second, at least at the beginning, what you’ll read here is strictly about the music, the artists and what’s Googleable about those. I’d love to do interviews with musicians or Internet Archive folks [hint hint], but that takes more time to set up than a day.)
Now then! First up: Sofia Gradin, a Swedish singer-songwriter of the decidedly non-saccharine sort.
a.k.a. Katherine’s Esoteric Jaunt Of The Summer
WHAT IS THIS? As you may know, but should know either way, the Internet Underground Music Archive was a massive collection of music from more than 45,000 artists and bands, founded in the early ’90s that perished the way much of what was on the Internet back then did. It was recently rehosted was re-hosted recently thanks to Jason Scott and the Internet Archive. That’s more than 45,000 bands and artists, or more than 680,000 tracks of music, all of which you can browse through in a nice, neat linkdump.
WHY BLOG THAT? 45,000 artists. 680,000 tracks. This is a lot of music. It’s daunting to even begin to listen to, even without considering the music critics’ adage that the hardest thing to persuade someone to hear is the unknown. And when the IUMA was lost, a lot of the context for the music was lost as well. This is my piecemeal attempt to rectify that. (Credit for inspiration goes to 49th Parallel Pop, which is essentially this except for CanCon artists.)
Plus, it’s always fun to hear and possibly love new — or at least new-to-you music. I expect many of these artists have further work out, or associations with other bands — it’s 45,000 separate rabbit holes to tumbl(e) down. Won’t you join me?
HOW ARE YOU CHOOSING SONGS? At random, or depending on which artists seem interesting, or depending on recommendations if you have any. It all depends.
WHO ARE YOU? I’m Katherine St. Asaph, a NYC-based music writer and nerd about archives and ’90s obscurities. Here’s a somewhat more official bio.
HOW CAN I GET IN TOUCH? katherinestasaph@gmail.com, generally. That bio has a ton of other ways.
IS THAT REALLY AN ADELE PUN? SERIOUSLY? Yes. noregretschicken.gif
