Music Monday: Hear Ya and Daytrotter are indie radio

I grew up, like most people older than 22 or so, learning about new music by listening to a 20th century device called the radio. Radio in the car, radio at home. They even, at one point, made a radio that you could carry around and listen to in privacy; it was called a Walkman. I remember that in elementary school, Casey Kassem was my guide to what was popular.

Later on, in high school, I wanted to listen to what was important so I went backwards to The Beatles, The Clash, Paul Simon, Bob Marley, The Rolling Stones, and Run DMC. I left the radio behind; now my choices were fueled by word of mouth and album reviews.

In college, I settled on the rubric that I have kept, in various forms, ever since: "what is new and fresh that I can eventually see live?"

The music-blog-cum-studios Hear Ya and Daytrotter have become, if not how I always hear about new music, at least the way that I am introduced to new sounds. I never read blogs before I started a blog. Now I regularly digest bands by listening to the streaming MP3s or downloads these sites offer. If I like it, I buy it, somewhere, because I am still picky and guilty about listening to something more than a couple of times for free. Finally, writers on both Hear Ya and Daytrotter have mentioned the joy of introducing their children to the music they love, a passion that I share.

Hear Ya is a well-styled blog because it is streamlined, has a consistent editorial voice, and demonstrates impeccable taste (mine, by the way, fails on at least two of these accounts). The work of the site is compiled by several writers in different cities and one studio (in Chicago) where bands who have garnered Hear Ya favor are invited to play. The most enjoyable part of keeping with Hear Ya, for me, is that the main writer, Oz, poses interesting questions on the music he's spotlighting. Good music writing can seem like a close cousin of thorough literary criticism with a more populist edge, and Oz's writing in particular achieves this quality. He and Hear Ya have introduced me, in the last six months, to the Avett Brothers, Surfer Blood, and Justin Townes Earle, while supporting already-interests in the Rural Alberta Advantage, Port O'Brien, and Ha Ha Tonka.  Also, Oz just moved to A-town, so we may even bump into each other at a show.

Here is a link to Hear Ya's top 25 albums of last year. It's quite a list.

Daytrotter's site has a more academic and aesthetic feel, though it's also a blog/studio collaboration where musicians are invited to come play songs that are then posted on the site. The band art on Daytrotter is beautifully consistent, florid, and iconic. One day, I want Daytrotter original paintings in my house of my favorite bands. "This is the Daytrotter Room," I will say, nonchalantly, as my guests gawk at the beauty and significance of the images and sounds there collected. Sometimes I enjoy the Kerouac-ian introductions the site gives the bands; sometimes they are a bit wordy. But Daytrotter promises to "contribute to the musical landscape, not just toss it around like a used book or a stolen pick-up line," and I will keep paying attention to the bands it chooses and the music they make there because it's always rich.

Kudos to Daytrotter for engaging, some months back, my open-heared love of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down. Here's a link to her session last year and here's a link to the Rural Alberta Advantage's session.