DJ/rupture

You may have heard that last week, Google deleted at least six well-known music blogs without any warning, claiming that they violated copyright laws for posting MP3s. According to an article in the Guardian, these sites which were hosted by Google’s Blogger and Blogspot services, received notices only after their sites – and years of archives – were wiped from the Internet.

And while the futures of Pop Tarts Suck Toasted, Masala, I Rock Cleveland, To Die By Your Side, It’s a Rap and Living Ears are currently up in the air (some are attempting to fight the charges, while Pop Tarts has managed to salvage some of its content and move it to a new platform), the music blog is anything but dead.

Now when somebody tells me that they’ve started a blog or website, my typical response is, “Yeah, why should I care?” (I don’t always say it out loud, but I’m often thinking it) I realize this makes me look like a bit of a hypocrite, as I write for one myself, but the last thing the world needs is several dozen more blogs started by second-year university students as class assignments (except for food blogs – there can never be enough food blogs) that’ll be abandoned the minute they pass the class.

That said, here are five more music blogs started by artists/bands, that are completely worth your time. Enjoy and feel free to share your favourites in the comments below!

Name: Deerhunter The Band
Who: Atlanta’s Deerhunter, and other related side-projects, including Atlas Sound, Lotus Plaza, Old King Cole Younger and Ghetto Cross (most posts are by Bradford Cox, Black Lips’ lead singer Cole Alexander also contributes)
For Fans Of: the aforementioned bands, YouTube videos about Satanic possession, psychedelic drugs, Jean Genet
Sample Post: This fantastic mix, which may or may not have been put together by Cox, featuring songs from Pink Floyd, The Allan Parsons Project, Beach House, El Perro Del Mar, and others. Regardless, somebody would be wise to get these guys some DJing gigs in the near future, because this blog shows that they have great musical taste.

Name: Looking For Gold
Who: Toronto hardcore punk darlings Fucked Up
For Fans Of: hardcore and/or punk, sarcasm, rare 7″ records, Metric (just kidding!)
Sample Post: The band’s lengthy post about attending the upcoming South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, in which they joke about reclaiming their IT band status (“…we welcome all challengers; your Pheonix’s, your xx’s and jj’s, bring us all the TuNeYaRdS and Passion Pits you have, we are ready”), make snide pop culture references (“This isn’t Nick and Noras Infinite Playlist”), and shamelessly promote their upcoming showcase (“Call it like the “Fucked Up saves music” showcase or something”).

Name: Look Up To Bicycle
Who: Toronto’s Tokyo Police Club, who are currently recording the follow-up to 2008′s Elephant Shell in Los Angeles
For Fans Of: CBC Radio 3, music studio setups, strawspearblueberrines, general silliness
Sample Post: The video where the band shoot each other with Nerf guns, set to Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”. Who said Canadian bands don’t know how to have fun?

Name: Mudd Up!
Who: DJ/rupture, New York-based DJ and producer
For Fans Of: Argentinean cumbia, Iranian santur players, New York electronica bands, Mexican architecture (huh?)
Sample Post: When DJ/rupture isn’t crate-digging for unique music across the globe or hosting his own podcast, he uses this blog to share his thoughts on everything from architecture to art, and of course, music. Occasionally, he’ll post exclusive remixes that he’s done, including this nifty remix of Telepathe’s “In Your Line” that he did with Brooklyn’s Matt Shadetek.

Name: Universe
Who: Claire L. Evans, lead singer of Portland band YACHT
For Fans Of: N.A.S.A., alien conspiracy theories, quantum physics, Kanye West (the rapper called Evans “a qualified science writer”)
Sample Post: Okay, so this isn’t technically so much of a music blog as it is a blog by a musician, but if you are even remotely interested in space and science, Universe is worth checking out. One of my favourite recent posts is this one, where Evans talks about skepticism in science (bonus points for embedding a video with Bill Nye in it!).