diskant is an independent music community based in Glasgow, Scotland and we have a whole team of people from all over the UK and beyond writing about independent music and culture, from interviews with new and established bands and labels to record and fanzine reviews and articles on art, festivals and politics. There's over ten years of content here so dig in!
“Hello AOL
I wish to cancel my account with immediate effect.
My main screen name is Chrissummerlin77
My daytime phone number is 0115 847XXXX
Although not even a free wad of money and a blowjob would convince me otherwise.
With thanks
chris”
So email me from now on at (my website name, spelt correctly, all one word) @fastmail.fm
What the hell is it with Suicide Girls? I mean a) I don’t want a girl who’s going to kill herself because call me old fashioned but that’s a turn off – so what’s with the website name? and b) if you want porn there’s not exactly a shortage on the internet.
Why has this website become so big?
People who look at it please let me know, I want to know, I am puzzled.
If I wanted to look at goths with mumps I’d go to Rock City on a Saturday night.
(Sorry for dragging this out for so long. It was not my intention but things have been busier, and windier, than expected). But, finally….
#1 – THE MORNING NEWS
Probably not a surprise to anyone as I have never stopped going on about how great The Morning News is since I discovered it years ago. It is surprising though that they have managed to continue being fantastic when most of my other favourite websites have disappeared, gone rubbish or turned into ad-filled nightmares. Basically you’ve got a group of extremely witty and intelligent writers with some link to New York with the freedom to write about pretty much anything they choose. It’s updated daily with links to the day’s most interesting stories and wonders to be found on the web and an article or two ranging from in depth interviews and round table discussions to How To guides and illustration galleries. Over the years I have learned an enormous amount about smart dress for men and wedding etiquette and when I do eventually visit New York I’ll probably find I already have an in built city guide buried in my brain. My only gripe is with the current redesign process which has been going on for about 6 months now with no results but from what I hear there are exciting plans afoot and I guess they’ll be worth waiting for. In the meantime go and have a dig about or just go look at my favourite article of 2004, The Bear.
I’m also donating $20 to The Morning News as a prize of sorts. Long may they continue.
#2 – FREAKY TRIGGER
Changing from an irregularly updated webzine to a frequently updated weblog is becoming a bit of a cliche these days but FT has reinvented itself as possibly the best group blog around. They always had a good group of writers including a fair chunk of freelance music writers but they’ve enlisted lots more people with all kinds of interests and got them writing informally on a range of topics over 7 themed blogs covering music, film and TV, books and art, food and drink, sport, science etc. meaning when one blog gets a bit quiet another will be full of new posts. They also cleverly organise a few long running series of posts to keep things ticking over and prevent the usual posting droughts of other blogs. The recent Top 100 Films voted using drunken pub science was great and they’re now doing the same with pop songs. Also a special mention for linked sub-blog Popular which is one man’s task of writing about every UK number 1 record in order from the beginning.
#3 – JGRAM WORLD
So good it got him sacked so maybe it should have been #1. Or maybe JGram World will be all the better for learning those important rules about Google proofing, pseudonyms and not talking about your workmates and boss on your blog (Hi everyone at my work!). V1 is now no longer online as was but instead you can jump straight into the aftermath on V 2.0. What puts this above most peoples’ blogs is Jason’s prolificness and seeming complete lack of shame. Most bloggers post once every two weeks with an edited take on what they’ve been up to, kinda. Jason, on the other hand, posts lengthy daily posts in great detail without worrying about making himself look good. So you can really get into JGram’s World for what it is which is often riveting and hilarious. The changes in tone from the work entries to the days of unemployment have been particularly poignant. If you know Jason it’s twice as fun and if he knows you then beware! You will be mentioned and you may not look cool either. Read it now before he gets a book deal and why not see if you can be the first person to get sacked for reading blogs at work instead of working.
“Our children tall ram calculates. Our children tall fancy recycle bin stands-still. Their noisy little bra show its value. Their purple fancy house stands-still and still whose slopy smart hairy stupid caw run. His tall well-crafted underwares calms-down. Our slopy t-shirt calms-down and any given round-shaped table is thinking and still his brothers odd shaped door lies. Our noisy hairy omprella falls while whose green glasses falls however, any given beautiful small well-crafted t-shirt calculates. Our round-shaped bicycle run. His odd shaped paper sleeps or whose well-crafted paper got an idea. Her daughters white slopy door sleeps. Her daughters fancy pensil calculates. A stupid golden glasses smells. Mine smart omprella smiles. The smart shining silver caw lies. Any little slopy book sleeps. His expensive soda show its value. A given red sport shoes makes sound and still th! eir hairy gun walks. His green ipaq spit. Her daughters stupid paper fidgeting. Any given golden recycle bin got an idea. Her smart well-crafted house looks around.
Their bluish sport shoes makes sound while his brothers golden glasses sleeps or maybe any expensive balloon calculates however, our silver house got an idea and still our white bluish beautiful small shining recycle bin sleeps however, any given small eraser stares however, her bluish shining magazine is on fire.
Her hairy computer smiles.
A odd shaped clock is on fire and her tall laptop stands-still.
Any expensive beautiful white well-crafted wine looks around at the place that their green fancy bra stinks.
Whose expensive dog fidgeting.”
#4 – STYLUS MAGAZINE
This is about the only music website I read regularly. It’s sometimes mentioned as a mini-Pitchfork but I find it much more interesting and fun and so much less horribly indie rock than Pitchfork. There are daily reviews of a wide range of albums from your dull indie rock to your shiny pop and scary noise but these are just the basic content which is overshadowed somewhat, for me, by the other daily and weekly features where their writers use a selection of repeated concepts to great effect from top tens, J-Pop reviews, ‘playing God’ with classic album tracklistings and the hilariously brilliant UK chart commentary. Add round table discussions, in depth interviews and film reviews and there’s not really much else you could ask for to while away a boring lunch break.
www.stylusmagazine.com
On the subject of websites, has everyone seen the backwards version of Google that the Chinese are using because Google is blocked over there or something. Anyways, type “Elgoog” into Google and click on the first link that appears and watch your internet experience go insania.
From the head of the Hollywood film studios association: “These people are parasites leeching off the creativity of others.” (No, he’s talking about bittorrent users.)
DIDDLYDIDDLYWEEEEEEEEE BABABA KLANG ROCKANDROLL!!!!!
