The Big MySpace End of May IndieSearch!

And the word (and general concept of) "IndieSearch" is copyright on Indie Girl, 2006.

I decided that with so much of the more talked about music of the moment not exciting me, I thought i'd go on a search for some exciting new fodder via the second most useful internet tool of the moment, MySpace. And despite me hating it in general for hooking me in and making me feel unpopular due to lack of comments... you can't deny that MySpace is one of the best ways of finding new bands just now. I mean, if you live in a big city, unlike me, you can go to gigs and find new bands. Indie Girl will now compile a list of three advantages of MySpace over random gig-going.

Number 1: As I said, if you don't live in a big city then it's hard to get to these gigs frequently without doing a lot of travel planning, and no-one likes travel planning, do they?
Number 2: Ok, this reason is better. It's free! Meaning you can find good music for nothing and not having to pay a gig fee for a band that is potentially crap. And! Some bands offer free mp3s of some of their tracks, if not all of them so you can pick up free mp3s and not feel guilty at all! (unless, like myself you couldn't give a flying fuck about not paying for an odd track here and there because if you like enough tracks you'll buy the album and you hate the greedy bastard music industry anyway.) And even if the bands don't offer free mp3s of their tracks, there are some very handy free internet recording programmes which you can get. (I recommend Recordpad's 14 day free trial, which you can uninstall and then download over and over again so it's always free! Hoorah!)
And finally Number 3: With MySpace, there is the advantage of being able to get away from horrible noise. If you click onto a band page and they turn out to be horrible noise, there is the option of clicking of the page or simply clicking back to escape the ear rape and never have to experience it ever again. At a gig this is harder, sure you could leave.., but it's hard pushing through a crowd of sweaty drunk people that're stupid enough to enjoy the awfulness. And you don't want to waste your entrance fee...

So that's all well and fair, but you might ask... "where do you start with looking for good bands on MySpace? What with all the dozens of shit bands that must have pages on there, I could be trawling around for hours checking for anything half decent!"

Well, well... take in my instructions! Firstly, you have to find yourself a big list of band names. What I did was found the list of bands playing at the Nottingham "Dot To Dot" festival posted on a messageboard that I go on then what I did is searched every single one I hadn't heard previously on MySpace to see if they had a page and see what the band was like. Out of the ones that I liked, here is my Top 4 (don't ask) "found on MySpace bands!" (probably subject to change, it's just out of the ones I liked that either had mp3s or I recorded before getting bored)

In at 4: Metronomy

This all instrumental outfit hail from Brighton and don't specifically have a genre from the four tracks i've heard. Somewhat electro, somewhat mellow and somewhat RAWK! but definately good from what I can tell. These guys lose points however for me having to record the songs. Fair enough, i'm stealing but other nice bands just gave me the mp3s.
Metronomy on MySpace

In at 3: Computerman

Ok firstly, I liked the name and their MySpace page was pretty cool without taking forever to load. They offer three of their four songs for free download and they ain't half bad. Great Lakes is quite downbeat without being too shit and Coldplay-esque. Neon is electro rock but also swishy and dreamlike at the same time. No Recover is similar with rock with computer effect undertones. Annoyingly, their best track is the one that is not available for download. "Watch More Television" (a b-side to their single "No More Broken Hearts") is catchy angsty indiepop that makes you bop. Sort of.
Computerman on MySpace

In at 2: The Hellset Orchestra

The one track that this band offer for free download is completely ace. "Come Into The Lab" is half orchestral fabulousness and half the soundtrack to a kitschy vampire video game from the 80's. It also scores points for reminding me of the cartoon "Dr Zitbag's Transylvania Pet Shop" for no apparant reason. If anyone else remembers this cartoon, please comment! It was great!
The Hellset Orhestra on MySpace

And FINALLY... at 1! Klaxons

Klaxons are brilliant! "Atlantis To Interzone" is their latest single and I challenge anyone who is a fan of this sort of music not to like it. The sirens combined with throbbing drum beats and awesome guitar riffs make this song an essential. Go on! It's free! As are all other three songs on Klaxons' MySpace.
Klaxons on MySpace

Please comment with anything you may want to say about this blog in general or my IndieSearch OR if anyone remembers "Dr Zitbag's Transylvania Pet Shop" then speak up!