Newsgroups:
Alternative
& Techno Music
Alternative
Dance Music
Raves /
Techno:
HyperReal Rave/Techno Site
Record
Companies:
A&M Records
Arista
Records
Atlantic Records
BMG Music Service
Capitol Records
Capricorn Records
Columbia House Record & Tape
Club
Def Jam Records
Elektra Online
EMI Records
Epic Records
Geffen Records (DGC)
IRS Records
Island Records
MCA Records AMP
Motown Records
Parlophone Records
Polydor Records
Polygram Records
Radikal Records
RCA Victor
Reprise
Records
Rhino Records
Rykodisc
Records
Sony Music
Warner Brothers/Reprise
Waxtrax! Records
Windham Hill Records
Click here for a
comprehensive listing of record
companies, including many
of the most obscure.
Connecticut Area Music Scene:
First Thursdays in Hartford
Globe Theatre (Norwalk)
Hartford Area Music Scene
Hartford Symphony Orchestra
Meadows Music Theatre
Toad's
Place (New Haven)
Webster Theatre (Hartford)
Click here for a
more complete listing of cultural venues in and around CT.
Concert
Hotlines:
WPLR's Concert Calendar
Ticket
Services:
TicketMaster
Radio
Stations:
College:
WCNI 91.1 FM (Conn. College)
WECS 90.1 FM (ECSU)
WESU 88.1 FM (Wesleyan)
WFCS 107.7 FM (CCSU)
WHUS 91.7 FM (UConn)
WNHU 88.7 FM (UNH)
WRTC 89.3 FM (Trinity)
WSHU 91.1 FM (Sacred Heart Univ.)
WWUH 91.3 FM (U. Hartford)
WXCI 91.7 FM (WCSU)
WYBC 94.3 FM (Yale)
Commercial:
Adult Contemporary:
WDAQ 98.3
FM
WEBE 107.9
FM
WEZN Star
99.9 FM
WRCH 100.5 FM
WTIC
96.5 FM
Alternative:
WMRQ
104.1 FM
Country:
WCTY 97.7
FM
WWYZ
92.5 FM
Oldies:
WDRC 102.9 FM
WVVE -102.3
FM
Rock 'n Roll:
WCCC 106.9
FM
WHCN 105.9
FM
WPLR 99.1
FM
Top-40:
WILI 98.3
FM
WKCI 101.3
FM
WKSS 95.7
FM
WQGN
105.5 FM
Find a radio station anywhere in the world with
First Music.
Databases of Recorded Music:
All-Music Guide, a Complete Online Database of Recorded
Music
CD Universe
Music Interactive
Music Online
Sony Music Online
Tunes.Com
Underground
Music Archive
MIDI
Files for Musical Web Pages:
And In the Dark
MIDI File Central
MIDI Music @ The Mining Co.
MidManiac's World
Surf On MIDI Files
Music
Video:
Metal Head Television
MTV
VH1
Bands:
Ultimate
Band List
Music
Magazines:
Jam
Online
Planet Interactive
Rolling Stone Magazine
Sound Waves
Magazine
Locate publications for any musical genre with
First Music.
Electronics:
Paia
Electronics
Other
Links:
(to be categorized)
Beta Lounge
Firefly
WebNoise
World Wide Music
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"Music hath charms to soothe the savage
beast." James Bramston - Man of Taste
The Music Scene
Foreword by Ian Mills
Music has been a
passion of mine from a very young age. I guess my upbringing
was pretty much a classical one, since my mother was always
playing Beethoven, Chopin and other great masters on the
piano at home. While my family lived in Europe, I can't
count how many symphony concerts we attended. Alas, while I
fancied learning to play the violin, powers-that-be had
other plans for me: after 2 years of enforced piano lessons,
I rebelled and decided I was better suited to spectating at
the marvel of those more accomplished.
After moving to
Philadelphia, we continued to patronize the arts in all its
forms, and Philly had a pretty decent symphony orchestra. It
was there that I enrolled in the St. Martin's Episcopal
Church boys' choir as a soprano, under the tutelage of a
dedicated choir director and organist, Harry Wilkinson. When
the inevitable voice change befell me at puberty, it was on
to the high school glee club and Octet. I owe a debt of
gratitude to my music teacher, Al Conkey, whom I counted as
a friend and mentor for many years.
One of our
teachers, Bill Reeves, had founded a bagpipe group at
Chestnut Hill Academy, which I joined in ninth grade (as a
tenor drummer). Our center of operations was tucked away in
the basement, where the sound of pipers taking chanter
lessons wouldn't disrupt the entire school! We were in the
custom of parading onto the football field during home
football game half-times, decked out in our Lamont tartan
kilts and blue school blazers, accentuated by the
traditional Scottish sporran and sgian-dubh.
One of our band's
highlights, as I recall, was competing in the Delaware
Valley Highland Gathering. Many of our members also spent
parts of our summers at the Gaelic College of Celtic Folk
Arts in St. Ann's, Nova Scotia, where we variously took
piping and drumming lessons, as well as classes in Gaelic
language and highland dancing. Every morning before class it
was customary for all the students to dress in full regalia
and march on the parade grounds, playing a medley of tunes
to the delight of an ever-present contingent of
tourists.
Needless to say,
adolescence also spawned an interest in current music, and
the decade of the sixties was undeniably a ground-breaking
time for rock music. It was the Woodstock era, where musical
styles and lyrical themes were as much influenced by
hallucinogenic substances as by the prevailing anti-war
sentiment of a generation. "Peace and love" was the rallying
cry among the youth culture of a nation deeply divided by
the Viet Nam conflict. The period certainly had its share of
protest songs and themes advocating drug use.
As the decade
drew to a close and the seventies began, much of the music
being released was better suited for listening than dancing.
In retrospect, when playing some old favorites by Humble
Pie, Black Sabbath, the Who, Spooky Tooth, King Crimson,
EL&P - and so on - I wonder how we ever found the beat
to dance to the stuff! Now that I think of it, I seem to
vaguely recall a slow body twisting, accompanied by a
quasi-graceful windmill motion of the arms, and an
occasional air-guitar tribute as the style of the
day.
Suddenly in the
latter half of the seventies, we were assaulted by "disco
fever", an era personified by platform shoes, polyester
leisure suits, mirror balls, dance exhibitions, and the
image of John Travolta through it all. At least the BeeGees
managed to turn their flagging careers into a new overnight
sensation. (I always liked the earlier BeeGees stuff
better.) Sure, it had a beat - actually quite a bit more
danceable than the previous half-decade - but what a price
to pay! My thighs have never been so sore as they got from
an evening of "bumping" to Ohio Players, K.C. & the
Sunshine Band, Kool and the Gang, and the other gems of the
day. Most of us look back to that musical era and its
ridiculous attire with disdain or bemusement.
The eighties
spawned quite a mix of musical styles and expressions. "New
wave" was the predecessor to "alternative" music, an
expression initially reserved for non-commercial college and
underground radio, though ultimately all that became
mainstream over time. Eighties' music certainly offered a
greater variety than any previous musical era, with such
diverse genres as rap, punk, techno / industrial, ska,
"world music", heavy metal, thrash and more competing for
our attentions and our damaged eardrums. "Arena rock" was
also in its heyday, and the garish onstage look pioneered by
performers like Alice Cooper took on ever stranger forms in
the theatrics of Kiss and Ozzie Osbourne. Of course, I would
be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to needle the
genre known as "New Age", which I prefer to classify as
"yuppie elevator music".
Modern music is
perhaps a barometer for our harried lifestyles in the
nineties: frenetic in many ways, and incapable of commanding
our attention spans for any duration. Witness how quickly
songs on the charts one day retreat into obscurity the next;
relatively little of what's produced these days will enjoy
the same staying power as those memorable anthems of
yesteryear. Sometimes it seems as if we are becoming
anaesthetized to the barrage of sensory stimuli. In the
madness of the corporate musical marketing world, mediocrity
is often acceptable, since almost ANYTHING can be sold
successfully if marketed aggressively to the numbed masses.
More than ever, I find myself feeling grateful when a
particularly catchy riff or hook leaps out at me from amidst
the cacophony.
Over the years,
both during and after college, I've had the pleasure of
DJ'ing on the radio at a non-commercial station, where the
playlists are often cutting-edge. By the same token, I've
spun the records for numerous weddings and social affairs
where a more conservative approach is appreciated. Other
than rap music (for which I've never acquired a taste), I'd
say that I enjoy a pretty broad range of material. Bearing
that in mind, I've tried to present a number of musical
venues for you to explore on this web page. Naturally, a
project of this kind will be continually under construction,
though I hope you'll find information here that is
entertaining and useful. By all means, please feel free to
provide any feedback or suggestions for new
links!
Oh, yeah, the
passion for singing instilled in the days of yore still
haunts my very being. Thanks to technology, Pioneer
Laserdisc, and some REALLY bad video productions featuring
REALLY AWFUL actors doing stuff which has no connection
whatever to the song lyrics, I can now sate my hunger for
transient glory at those phenomena known as KARAOKE
SING-ALONGS! See you around sometime. ;-)
REVIEW
Tunes.Com is a
tremendous music resource, featuring a
fully catalogued database (about 1
million songs) of American music from Classical, to Jazz, to
Rock. For many of the most popular releases, Tunes.Com
offers 30-second audio excerpts from the CDs for you to
evaluate.
Searches can be performed according to artist, album or
song title. The audio excerpts require that you have the
RealAudio plug-in from Progressive Networks installed in
your browser's Plug-ins folder. You can obtain the plug-in
here.
CD
Universe of Wallingford, CT, offers a similar service
featuring audio excerpts, though the server bogged down on
numerous occasions while downloading the audio tracks.
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