Listen Before You Buy

Some overdue reflections on this year’s Coachella – not your typical live reviews.

For 24 hours Listen Before You Buy will be taking part a site blackout in protest of the SOPA/PIPA bills.

As the title says, Listen Before You Buy can no longer sustain itself and it’s becoming too costly for me to keep it running, so it’s with great regret that I have to close it down. Nah, just playin’. This place isn’t going anywhere, at least not yet anyway, but it is becoming too costly [...]

Before you get your panties in a bunch, this isn’t aimed at all bloggers and site owners, but I guess we’re all to be held accountable for the subject at hand, including myself. In three weeks the Seattle Indie-Folk-Pop-Alternative-Rock band Fleet Foxes will release their much-anticipated second album “Helplessness Blues”.  On the last day of [...]

One of the fundamental goals of running a music blog is to introduce people to new music.  The primary method of doing this is to highlight new releases, either via up and coming bands that show potential or tried-and-true musical mainstays that generally please the masses.  Lost in this growing blogging race are the building [...]

Go on Scotland, go do your thing (I know Frank is all about the homeland); as he should be, especially with good music coming out of it like Aerials Up. Aerials Up is an outfit from Glasgow, making some serious noise this past year. This is a good one, a seven piecer with a wide [...]

Dayuuuummmmm. One year, eh?  When I started the site I initially had a much broader and further reaching plan for it (which is being worked on by myself and my resourceful writers and I’ll reveal to you all very soon), something that was nothing like how the site is now (a cesspool for sarcasm and [...]

I have quite a few plans in store for Listen Before You Buy this year.  Some will be trying out new ventures, some will be expanding the site to encompass more and varied material, and some may never even see the light of day. One thing I’m interested in is the combination of sharing and [...]

If you follow me on Twitter then you may have seen me take part in a music blogging debate that was going down on Thursday afternoon.  My $0.57 of input were thus: So apparently I’ve missed the whole #musicblogging debate, but here’s my $0.57….do it because you enjoy it, not for money or popularity. And: Now [...]

Yup, here’s another one, I’m gonna keep making these posts until I feel like I have enough people helping out.  Some site owners just want it be all about them being in control and posting, which is fine, but I have so many ideas and get so much good music that I want to feature [...]

It’s official: definite articles are out. But Chants isn’t just another band to go the route of the single word. The stage name of Jordan Cohen, a familiar face in the Madison, WI music scene, Chants is a rock/jazz/country percussionist’s solo project and first electronic work. All at once catchy and confusing, Chants is able [...]

With this being my first year-end best-of list, I wanted to do something that’s unlike other year-end best-of lists (as far as I know). Whilst most sites compile top 10 or 20 lists, I’m doing a month long countdown from the 1st of December (that’s tomorrow) until the last day of the year, with the [...]

At first listen, The Weepies might seem as wet as their name implies – a country-tinged guitar pop band with high-pitched female vocals placing it slightly in the “twee” category. But as you get further into their new album, “Be My Thrill”, the country influence becomes ever more pronounced, and a certain darkness creeps in [...]

Atlanta, Georgian’s Sonen are a three-piece comprised of Keith Evans, Holly Mullinax, Josh Guss. Akin to Handsome Furs meets LCD Soundsystem meets Queens Of The Stone Age, their latest EP is an eight-song strong belter, running through sullen vocals and atmospheric synths, to murky basslines and three-dimensional beats that’ll get you dancing and taking shit easy from [...]

…which moment would you choose and why? It’s not really much of a secret that I’m an insanely huge fan of The Beatles and I don’t think there’s anyone before or since who’ve changed music and culture in such a hugely profound way.  The moment in time that I’d go back to would be just before, during, [...]

This is a grey area, a touchy subject, something people don’t really like to talk about in public.  But let’s try to. You can debate something without having a solid viewpoint on it, it’s the best skill that a debater can have (a master debater if you will).  Discussing the merits of illegal filesharing doesn’t [...]