Which Music Blogs Do You Listen To?

At a party this summer, I met a girl whose first question to me was “Which music blogs do you listen to?” She quickly turned a bit embarrassed, and told me she had meant to ask what music I listened to, but I like her accidental question a lot better. A) It assumes that I read music blogs at all, which I can only take as a compliment, and B) it’s a lot more specific, and thus easier to answer. Every time I try that “What music do you listen to?” question, I tonguestumble over the sheer scope of possible responses. The music blog thing, though, that’s cake:

The Docking Station

The Docking Station is one of the main dealers supporting my very serious La Roux remix habit. They’re Canadian, their taste is generally quite brilliant, and they spin live every Saturday on Carleton College’s radio station, 93.1 CKCU FM (and, of course, streaming on the Internets).

Even though I’m not always home to listen on a Saturday night, looking through Docksta’s Saturday set lists has introduced me to a bunch of phenomenal artists and remixes. In between weekends, they deliver fresh videos and some truly excellent Top Five lists.

Key Finds:

The Nacey remix of La Roux’s Bulletproof. [post]

Amanda Blank’s video for Might Light You Better [post]

I wouldn’t know about Little Boots if I hadn’t been reading Docksta, even though I already liked Dead Disco.[post]

AudioPorn Central

AudioPorn Central is a mashup-obsessed site that’s probably most famous for the Guilty Pleasures series, which collects bootlegs of the poppiest of pop songs. 18 mashups of Katy Perry’s I Kissed a Girl? Yeah, they’ve got that. A collection of Rickroll mashups? Check. The day-to-day operations at APC consist of giving away loads of free tracks: “What is supposed to be free (mashups, free legal downloads, promo mixes etc) we give away free to download.”

A lot of blogs rest on Sunday, but that’s the best time of week to check on APC. Their Illegal Sundays feature a glut of bootlegs, mashups, and remixes of, shall we say, dubious copyright status. Well worth checking out.

Key Finds:

The video for Cinnamon Chasers’ Luv Deluxe, which is one of my favorites of the year. [post]

The Gossip – Heavy Cross (Yuksek Remix) [post]

Another sweet remix of La Roux’s Bulletproof (Foamo’s Dubstep Mix) [post]

And, oh, what the hell, an entire album of Bulletproof mashups. It’s called Bootlegproof. [post]

Puritan Blister

My friend Evan turned me on to this eclectic smorgasbord of mp3s, curated by Pitchfork contributor William Bowers. He usually posts music in sets of five tracks, organized into groups of originals, covers and mashups. More recently, he seems to have some kind of Friday night radio show, so he’s been putting up themed weekly set lists from that.

Bowers’ musical taste is all over the map, so you’re likely to find something that’s new to you in any given post. Music aside, Puritan B. is also worth subscribing to for its bizarre found images and occasionally-punny non sequitur post titles.

Key Finds:

Too damn many to list.

Nightmagnets

On top of having a genius name, Nightmagnets has a real knack for picking hot new tracks. It seems to have spun off in some way from another blog called Ohh! Crapp, whose Monster Mix #14 proved crucial to the end of my 2008. (Key tracks: Tronik Youth’s remix of Late of The Pier, Alex Metric’s mix of his own Deadly on a Mission, Japanese Popstars mixing the Ting Tings, and of course, the smashing Richard X treatment of my favorite track of last year, Neon Neon’s I Told Her on Alderaan.)

Since they’ve shifted operations over to Nightmagnets, they’ve posted new material by Linus Loves, LA Lights, and LCD Soundsystem. Also, that Animal Collective remix of Phoenix that everyone is way too excited about.

Key Finds:

Too early to say, but the sweetest surprise was a Metronomy track I hadn’t heard before: This Could Be Beautiful (It Is). [post]

199X (Nineteen Ninety Never)

199X is written in a stream-of-consciousness style by someone called Ultimate Cowboy. His areas of interest (or the biggest words in the 199X tag cloud, anyway) are hip hop, electro and Japan. That makes for a surprising collection of tracks, delivered in posts that tend to dip into unrelated territory. Ultimate Cowboy spends a lot of time discussing the awesomeness of golden robots, for example. As odd and unfocused as he can be, he finds some great stuff. These (Pretty) Girls and Lasers end-of-summer mixes arrived right on time, and 199x also turned me on to the spacey sounds of The Golden Filter.

Key Finds:

The aforementioned posts stand out, but you can find some the best stuff on 199x under the convenient category “partying all the time.”