Make sure you check out other posts in the series, they include:

Indiescreet Presents… 10 For 2010
10 Acts To Watch Out For In 2010
10 Most Anticipated Albums Of 2010
10 Influences On Your Music Taste In 2010

10 For 2010 looks forward to some of the most anticipated and least anticipated things in the music world over the upcoming 12 months.

Each fortnight a new article will be posted in the series, right up until the turn of the year.

Today’s post looks at some of the smaller more personal blogs (similar to Inidiescreet) who offer great articles week in week out.

Some of the blogs featured cover the latest big news stories whereas some only write about new upcoming acts and bands. Either way the 10 blogs listed below are definitely worth checking out and subscribing to, they’ll have some influence on your music taste in 2010!

The Recommender

The Recommender, aptly name, brings together loads of great new bands and artists in their frequent recommendation posts.

Best for: Acts which will be big next year

We All Want Someone To Shout For

Will over at We All Want Someone To Shout For always seems to feature the latest new tracks first.

If you ever hear about a new track from the likes of the Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend or The Strokes then I’d suggest We All Want Someone be your first port of call.

Although saying that, the blogs scope is pretty wide, worth checking out for a bevy of popular new tracks.

Best for: Garage rock from the US and UK

Living Ears

Living Ears is pretty new to me but I’m already a fan. The blogs last Reuse Recycle Remix featured some of my favourite remixes of late.

Best for: The newest remixes from the best new remixers

Copy Cats

Copy Cats features only cover songs, remixes, and mashups. A great idea and a brilliant way to find some of those off the radar tracks which other aren’t widely covered.

Best For: Obscure cover songs

The Goodness

The Goodness features loads of awesome mixtapes and remixes from well known and upcoming acts.

Best For: Mixtapes, mixtapes and more mixtapes

Music Liberation

Music Liberation is always featuring new bands and artists from around the globe.

Best For: The best new talent

Music Induced Euphoria

Music Induced Euphoria is your one stop shot for everything about The Strokes. The blog has nearly 300 articles dedicated to these guys! That’s dedication for you right there.

The blog isn’t only about The Strokes though, it features a host of other bands and tracks worth checking out.

Best For: The Strokes

Sum The Greater

Sum The Greater has made the list thanks to their brilliant weekly mixtapes, which manage to feature a wide range of acts such as Chiddy Bang, Ou Est Le Swimming Pool and Beach House all in one place.

Best For: Genre bending mixtapes

MusiqTrend

MusiqTrend features the best new videos and tracks from a wide range of artists

Best For: The latest tracks and videos

Electrorash

Electrorash offers up some brilliant original tracks as well as plenty of great electro remixes.

Best For: Electro remixes

There are thousands of great music blogs around, it’s tough to pick just 10 to feature.

If you’ve got any blogs you follow religiously or know any which you feel would have deserved a place on the list then make sure you leave a comment and direct me to them.

Subscribe to Indiescreet’s RSS Feed so you can check out the next article in the 10 For 2010 series.

Make sure you check out other posts in the series, they include:

Indiescreet Presents… 10 For 2010
10 Acts To Watch Out For In 2010
10 Most Anticipated Albums Of 2010
10 Influences On Your Music Taste In 2010

10 For 2010 looks forward to some of the most anticipated and least anticipated things in the music world over the upcoming 12 months.

Each fortnight a new article will be posted in the series, right up until the turn of the year.

Today continues with the 10 most anticipated albums of 2010. Featuring some great bands which have been around years and some upcoming new bands who are causing quite a buzz in the indie music world.

Vampire Weekend – ‘Contra’

After the buzz surrounding ‘Horchata’, Vampire Weekend’s sophomore LP ‘Conta’ has quickly become one of the most anticipated albums of early 2010.

With ‘Cousins’ also being aired within the past couple of days here’s hoping the whole album doesn’t end up being leaked before it’s release date.

Release Date – January 11th UK / January 12th US

Foals – ‘TBA’

Foals have been working hard in Sweden on the follow up to their extremely underrated debut album ‘Antidotes’. They’re currently back in the UK putting the final touches to the album, which is as yet untitled.

‘Antidotes’ was one of my most listened to albums of 2008 and features one of my favourite tracks ever in the form of ‘Red Socks Pugie’, a classic.

Release Date – Unannounced

MGMT – ‘Congratulations’

Tracks from ‘Oracular Spectacular’ were everywhere in 2008, two years later there is much anticipation surrounding the new MGMT album ‘Congratulations’.

It’ll be interesting to see which direction VanWyngarden and Goldwasser take with this LP.

With influences in the studio coming from the likes of Pete Kember of psychedelic rock band Spacemen 3 and Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux it’s a tough one to call. ‘Congratulations’ could be the making or breaking of MGMT.

Release Date – Spring

Arcade Fire – ‘TBA’

It’s been everywhere recently that these guys are back in the studio recording their follow up to 2007′s ‘Neon Bible’.

Other than that not a great deal is known about the bands third studio album. With two great albums under their belt, in the form of ‘Funeral’ and ‘Neon Bible’, hopefully they will be able to continue in a similar vein and offer some great new material in 2010.

Release Date – Unannounced

Hot Chip – ‘One Life Stand’

‘One Life Stand’ has recently been announced by the band and is due for release early February. This will be followed by a tour of the UK starting February 10th and a US tour alongside The xx later in the year.

I previewed a track from the album titled ‘Take It In’ just last week here at Indiescreet.

Release Date – February 8th (UK) / February 9th (US)

Klaxons – ‘TBA’

Klaxons second album has now been in the works since late 2007. After pretty much finishing the record the guys were told by their record label earlier this year that the album was ‘too experimental’ meaning it was back to the drawing board. A shame as I would have loved to of heard what the band had produced.

Hopefully Jamie Reynolds and co are now pretty close to completion and will be able to offer up an album as good as Mercury Prize winner ‘Myths of the Near Future’.

Expect to hopefully hear more details soon. There’s a timer on the bands website and although it’s counting up it must mean something.

Release Date – Unannounced

Lightspeed Champion – ‘Life is Sweet! Nice To Meet You’

Dev Hynes AKA Lighspeed Champion is back with the follow up to his brilliant debut album ‘Falling Off The Lavender Bridge’, an album which managed to find quite the soft spot in my heart.

This does not seem like it will be changing any time soon, check out this sneak peak of the video to the forthcoming single ‘Marlene’ which will be featured on the album.

Release Date – February 1st

Two Door Cinema Club – ‘TBA’

One of my favourite bands of 2009, Two Door Cinema Club have been teasing us with some great tracks in the build up to their much anticipated debut album.

The band have really taken their time with the LP, hopefully it will be worth the wait. ‘I Can Talk’ proves that ‘Something Good Can Work’ was no fluke.

These guys are the only band on the list who haven’t already released at least one album, which just shows how much I’m looking forward to the bands debut LP.

Release Date – February

Los Campesinos! – ‘Romance Is Boring’

With material from the album already previewed here and here I’m already very excited to hear the rest of the album from the Welsh 7 piece.

After such a busy couple of years with album releases and tour dates will the band have come together enough to record an album which lives up to the hype? I guess only time will tell.

Release Date – February 1st

LCD Soundsystem – ‘TBA’

With the recently released cover of Alan Vega’s ‘Bye Bye Bayou’ proving quite the hit speculation has once again risen about LCD Soundsystem’s upcoming new album.

Apparently Murphy and co have been recording in LA over the summer and the album is set for release in 2010.

Again not a great deal is known so far about the album, other than the fact if previous material is anything to go by it’s set to be amazing.

Release Date – Unannounced

There we have my 10 most anticipated albums of 2010. Obviously thats only my opinion and not a definitive list.

What are you 10 most anticipated albums of 2010?

Are there any upcoming albums you feel I’ve missed out?

Any you swap with another album?

Let me know via the comments section and make sure you subscribe to Indiescreet’s RSS Feed to see the upcoming articles in the 10 For 2010 series first.

Make sure you check out other posts in the series, they include:

Indiescreet Presents… 10 For 2010
10 Acts To Watch Out For In 2010
10 Most Anticipated Albums Of 2010
10 Influences On Your Music Taste In 2010

10 For 2010 looks forward to some of the most anticipated and least anticipated things in the music world over the upcoming 12 months.

Each fortnight a new article will be posted in the series, right up until the turn of the year.

Today begins with 10 acts to watch out for in 2010. A list of 10 great upcoming acts who I predict will hit it big in the upcoming year.

Local Natives

Local Natives made a lot of fans at this years CMJ festival in NYC, and rightly so. The band offer a harmonies by the bucket load backed up by a host of instruments.

The guys share vocal responsibilities so you’re always going to get a multi-layered different sound, something not many bands can boast.

Although the bands debut album ‘Gorilla Manor’ is only out physically in the UK right now (strange for an American band to release their album only in the UK right?) I doubt it will be long before it’s released state side and around the globe.

French Horn Rebellion

I’ve posted a brief piece about these guys before in an article where I looked at Kitsuné’s latest compilation (see here).

The band have also recently remixed Two Door Cinema Club’s new single ‘I Can Talk’.

Think Passion Pit mixed with Empire Of The Sun and you have French Horn Rebellion.

Swanton Bombs

Previously featured here on Indiescreet, Swanton Bombs have quickly built up quite a reputation.

Anyone who was lucky enough to go and check out Girls on their recent UK tour would have had a pleasant surprise in regards to the supporting acts thanks to this two piece from London.

Internet Forever

Internet Forever offer up sub 3 minute nuggets of gold via their tunes.

Reminding me somewhat of Johnny Foreigner (who the band are actually touring with at the end of this month) this three piece play lo-fi pop mixed with some great melodies.

Ellie Goulding

Ms. Goulding is already causing quite the buzz around the music scene, expect this to increase tenfold in the coming months.

‘Under The Sheets’ is a brilliantly produced electro pop track which is damn catchy but in no way at all repetitive.

Ellie’s beautifully haunting voice stops you in your tracks and takes your attention away from even the deepest concentration. (And she’s hot!)

Real Estate

Real Estate offer up visions of being sat in a beach hut somewhere hot, somewhere I’m sure most of us would like to be.

Maybe that’s why their tracks are so catchy, so dreamy and so relaxing.

Tracks like ‘Suburban Dog’ and ‘Beach Comber’ take your mind somewhere else away from the reality of everyday life.

Japandroids

Once you get past the awesomely funny name, Japandroids are a band who should definitely be taken seriously.

Reeking of style these two guys play carefree tracks with even more carefree lyrics.

Lyrics such as,

“I don’t wanna worry about dying, I just wanna worry about those sunshine girls.”

The bands short but sweet debut album ‘Post-Nothing’ featured some great tracks which are hopefully a sign of things to come.

King Charles

King Charles is the quintessential Englishman. Blending quaintness with the psychedelia is something only us Brits have ever been able to do.

King Charles’ tracks switch from folksy to electronica while incorporating everything in between.

Expect to hear, and see thanks to a huge head of hair, more of this man in the imminent future.

Calories

Birmingham based Calories already have an arsenal of noise-pop tracks under their belt.

Tracks such as ‘A Bear A Bison’, ‘Adventuring’ and ‘To Encounter A Deer’ are explosive tracks which belt out at you.

New track ‘Lets Pretend Were Older’ see’s the band take a more mellow, yet no less exciting, approach.

Penguin Prison

A place where penguins go after committing crimes doesn’t exist. If it did it would be far from a nice place.

Thankfully, New York based Penguin Prison is an artist who provides joyful pop music for your ears.

He also conjures up a damn good remix, having already remixed the likes of Golden Silvers, Erik Hassle and Marina & The Diamonds.

There you have it, that’s my guide to 10 bands and artists to make sure you check out before the masses.

Anyone you’d have liked to of seen on the list?

Anyone you think shouldn’t be on the list?

Let me know via the comments section and make sure you subscribe to Indiescreet’s RSS Feed to check out other articles in the 10 For 2010 series.

Make sure you check out other posts in the series, they include:

Indiescreet Presents… 10 For 2010
10 Acts To Watch Out For In 2010
10 Most Anticipated Albums Of 2010
10 Influences On Your Music Taste In 2010

Over the next couple of months building up to the turn of the decade Indiescreet will be featuring a number of lists highlighting things to look forward to in 2010.

A series titled ’10 For 2010′.

With 2010 fast approaching and already lots of best of 2000′s lists around I thought I’d look forward rather than back and give you guys a taste of what to look forward to over the next 12 or so months.

A new feature will be posted every fortnight for your reading pleasure, topics covered will include:

10 Acts To Watch Out For In 2010
10 Most Anticipated Albums Of 2010
10 Influences On Your Music Taste In 2010
10 Acts With The Most To Live Up To In 2010

They’re just some of the articles which will be posted before the turn of the decade.

Make sure you subscribe to Indiescreet’s RSS Feed to keep up to date with every article in the series, plus all the other great post’s every day!

Make sure you check out other posts in the series, they include:

How To Find Your New Favourite Band – Part I – Online
How To Find Your New Favourite Band – Part II – Locally
Guest Post: How To Find Your New Favourite Band – Part III – Facebook

This is the third and final part in Indiescreet’s guide to finding your new favourite band.

This is a guest post by Andrew McMillen, a music writer based in Brisbane, Australia. Andrew is coordinating blog content for an Australian music event, One Movement For Music, which debuts in October 2009. The blog at OneMovementWord.com contains interviews with artists and speakers appearing at the event, Australian music news, as well as guest posts exchanged with the likes of Creative Deconstruction‘s Refe Tuma.

This post takes a more in depth look at one of the most upcoming ways to find your new favourite band which I highlighted in part one of the series, Facebook.

Accept, Decline, Maybe?: How Facebook events have changed music promotion

In this guest post, I’ll analyse the trends I’ve noticed with regard to event promotion: from the taping of flyers to power poles and print advertising tactics of old, to the adoption of online networking sites to target web-savvy fans.

I first started seeing bands play live in Brisbane, Australia in February 2006, as soon as I was legally able to enter licensed venues at the age of 18. A little over a year later, in June 2007, I applied to begin reviewing live bands for a couple of local publications, as I was confident enough in my critical writing ability and gauged that I’d attended a sufficient amount of shows to warrant credibility. Lately, I’ve been thinking about changes to the ways in which my friends and I become aware of music shows – otherwise known as gigs – happening in our city each week.

In 2006, the majority of my knowledge of upcoming gigs was informed by local street press; free, advertising-supported newspapers distributed to record stores and live music venues across the city each week. Armed with street press knowledge and near-daily MySpace bulletin checking to see which of my band ‘friends’ had announced national tours, I was among the most socially-aware of my musically-inclined friends.

In 2007, I made two significant changes to my web habits: I began adding shows that I planned to attend to my Last.FM events calendar, rather than just using the site for scrobbling my listening habits. In addition, I joined Facebook, which was reaching critical mass among my peer group; clearly, the Facebook trend in Brisbane, Australia was a few years behind the US adoption rate.

Two years on, and I’m still a heavy user of both sites. Surprisingly, Last.FM uptake among the music fans within my city has increased at a glacial pace; add and attend enough events on the site, and you’ll see the same couple of dozen usernames attached to each show. I’ve attended shows alongside thousands of fellow music fans, while the event page shows a mere dozen attendees, and often wondered how many people would use the Last.FM service were they aware of its existence. It could go either way: my primary purpose of using the site’s event calendar is to keep track of my social (and semi-professional, as a music critic) life, and I feel that this kind of usage could easily be seen as useful by my fellow gig attendees. At the same time, I can see how the spontaneous could attach little value to planning gig attendance months in advance.

Turning to Facebook; I’ve noticed a significant change in how musicians and promoters use the service to spread awareness of their events. Owing to the friendships and connections I’ve made in the last two years while writing about bands on local, national and international levels, I now receive invites to music-related Facebook events on a daily basis.

Meditate on that for a moment. Where two years ago I gleaned the majority of my gig-awareness from street press and haphazard MySpace bulletin-checking – that is, by voluntarily seeking out the information – I now have targeted invitations appearing in my primary social hub, Facebook. While the medium has changed, the method has barely; the main difference is that event invitations are flagged for my attention within Facebook’s user interface. Compare this to MySpace’s antiquated system of ‘if you missed the bulletin, you missed out’, which was a reality if you were following a couple of hundred bands who were all regularly posting bulletins in an attempt to be heard above the noise.

While it’s unlikely that the decades-old promotion tactic of taping gig flyers to noticeboards and power poles will ever die out, consider that event promoters in 2009 have it easier than ever before. In my experience, taping flyers and paying to advertise in street press have both been usurped by the Facebook invitation. This tactic allows event promoters to build awareness of their events by directly targeting toward those who’re ostensibly interested – since, in many cases, the Facebook user has chosen to join a group or fan page that’s relevant to their interests.

Compare this method to the old models of power pole-taping and street press-advertising, which were comparatively indirect: instead of inviting an explicitly interested group, you were broadcasting to the masses. Where the old model was difficult to measure your return on, as promoters were usually unsure of a gig’s attendance rate until the night of the show (besides sold tickets, of course), Facebook guest lists now act as a (mostly) reliable indicator of exactly which fans plan to attend which show. Although, savvy users and promoters have probably since realised that responding to an invitation with a ‘maybe’ is a near-certain, but polite ‘no’.

At the same time, the ease with which event promoters have access to an audience has lent a quality of disposability to Facebook invitations. If you’re connected to several hundred people and a couple of dozen interest groups, you’re bound to be receiving invites on a daily basis, as I mentioned earlier. From within the Facebook interface, it’s easier than ever to instantly assess each social invitation on face value – that is, without clicking into each event for further details – and make a snap decision as to whether you’re interested or not.

While the ease with which you can dismiss invitations may be somewhat frightening to those who’ve invested countless hours in venue booking and event preparation, I maintain that the Facebook-enabled method of promotion is still superior to the old model of power pole and street press advertising, at least for shows on a local level. Rather than sitting, waiting and hoping that people will show up to your band’s gig on the night, it’s advantageous to engage with a highly-mediated audience and leverage the opportunities offered by social networking sites like Facebook and Last.FM.

Discussion points: how do you become aware of gigs in your city? Have your habits been influenced by social networking sites?

Written by Andrew McMillen.

You can contact Andrew via email or Twitter.

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Make sure you check out other posts in the series, they include:

How To Find Your New Favourite Band – Part I – Online
How To Find Your New Favourite Band – Part II – Locally
Guest Post: How To Find Your New Favourite Band – Part III – Facebook

This part of the series looks at listening to and sharing music locally.

Whether you live in the middle of nowhere or the centre of a bustling city there is always a local music scene of some kinds.

It could be a band which play in a small village pub every week for free or a multi million selling artist who’s gig has been sold out for month, no matter what there is always music not far from your doorstep. Sometimes the hardest part is finding it, in this article I’ll try and make it easier for you in the future.

First things first you need to find out who is playing where. The easiest way to do this is to head down to your local independent record store which should be full of leaflets, flyers and posters advertising upcoming gigs and tour dates.

Head over the the local venues where you know bands and artist perform, there you will be able to find an extensive list of dates for the venue, and most probably other local spots too.

If you’re not lucky enough to have a record store nearby and venues are quite a distance away then try checking out independant clothes shops and local bars and café’s as they will often have just as much information available.

So you’ve got your flyers with who’s playing where, the hard part now is deciding who to go and see. Don’t just go and check out acts your familiar with, diversify.

Ask your friends, work colleagues, flat mates about some of the lesser known bands and artists, can they recommend anyone? Do they want to go and see anyone with you?

Check the latest music magazines, often they will have listings in the back which highlight some of major towns and cities in your area or country.

If you’re still struggling for inspiration on who to see then do some research online, don’t delve too deep, listen to a couple of songs or an album and make a judgement, follow your instincts.

If you want to play it safe then go and see a band you know but get there early and check out the support acts, often they will be local bands who need all the support they can get.

You don’t need spend much to see great acts. If all you’re after is checking out some of local bands then you will often be able to pick up tickets to see two or three acts in one night for as little as a fiver. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, there will be free gigs taking place just to showcase new and local band, don’t miss the opportunity to see bands for free, it doesn’t happen often.

Hopefully now you will have a good idea of some of the acts you want to see. Go check them out but don’t be disheartened if you weren’t a fan, chances are you didn’t pay too much to see them and still had a good night. If you were a fan then support the band by heading over to their merch table and checking out what they’ve got on sale.

The last thing to do is spread the word on any bands you were a fan of. There are loads of ways you can do this, whether it be word of mouth or online every little helps.

The next part of this guide will feature a special guest post from an industry insider, stay tuned for that next week.

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Make sure you check out other posts in the series, they include:

How To Find Your New Favourite Band – Part I – Online
How To Find Your New Favourite Band – Part II – Locally
Guest Post: How To Find Your New Favourite Band – Part III – Facebook

Music is constantly evolving, and so is the way it is shared.

Not too long ago the Internet didn’t exist in the form it is in today and was not a way to listen to and share music. In the past 4 or 5 years technology has evolved immensely and now it is the norm to stream music on your PC without a second though.

With so many choices and ways to listen to music online how do you know you’re not missing out on a great band or artist? How can you trudge through the endless averageness of tracks and find that one song which you will play on repeat for weeks on end?

This post give an extensive list of the best websites and programs to listen to and share music online.

MySpace – The ultimate way to find out about a band, from here you can usually find links to other sites and media.

Facebook – Up and coming way for bands and artists to interact with fans.

Twitter – 140 character nuggets of news from bands and artists, speak directly to them.

Last.FM – Offers band radio, free streams and an extensive catalogue.

Pandora/Rhapsody/BBC Radio and many more… – Online radio offers you the chance to listen to tracks for free. There are millions of radio stations who broadcast online out there, the hard part my be finding one which plays tracks you like.

We7 – Streaming is the new black. We7 offers you the chance to stream music directly from your browser without even signing up. The website also often streams albums before they have been released. Similar websites include Deezer, LaLa and many more.

Spotify – Currently one of the simplest and quickest ways to stream almost any music imaginable, Spotify is my weapon of choice. Once signed up all you need to do is download the software and listen to singles, albums, EP’s and compilation albums all for free.

Blogs like Indiescreet are a great way to hear independent opinions on new bands and tracks. There are millions of blogs out there, it’s just a case of finding ones you like and supporting them.

A good way to find great blogs is to check out blog aggregators such as Hype Machine, Elbows or MOG. Each use different ways to highlight bands, artists, news and tracks which are popular right now.

SoundCloud – Offers a great way to share and receive tracks from bands and artists. Click my DropBox on the top right of this page for more information.

YouTube – An obvious choice, a great way to watch videos, interviews and more which have been uploaded by record labels, bands and fans.

Amazon, iTunes, Napster and many more… – These online stores offer the chance to preview tracks before you buy, a great way to support new artists and bands.

As you can see there are loads of great ways to find new music, bands and artists online. Which websites are your weapons of choice? Are there any resources I’ve missed off the list that you use?

This is the first part in the series, hopefully the links will be of some help when you want to find out more about a band or artist.

In the next part of this series, which will be coming soon, I shall be looking at local music scenes and how to find your new favourite band locally.

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