About

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.