First things first — I feel suddenly very, very old.
I’m 40. Should I be reviewing a site that focuses strictly on music that I am not listening to? I mean, I like to think I’m slightly more in tune with what is going on musically than the average 40 year old housewife who thinks Kenny Chesney is just so effin’ HOTTTTT in his wifebeater Ts, straw cowboy hat, pookah shell necklace, flip flops and swim trunks (insert swoony noise here).
I feel almost guilty giving this one a go. But that’s not going to stop me.
Kids Pushing Kids as a site has a decent layout. The colors are interesting and reminded me of the very first layout I had for my very first blog entry in 2001. The greens, the white, the overall simplicity. Nice.
The site has an “about” page (and I always head there first to gain thoughtful understanding of the mission the writer/s have in mind) and was happy to realize that I just read about Danielson in Rolling Stone recently… and I went to iTunes to get some of their music… so I didn’t feel too incredibly out of touch and felt somewhat at ease going through the site.
Kids Pushing Kids hopes to share mp3s of bands the author/s enjoy/s and I have to say that it is nice to be exposed to some new music. There are embedded YouTube videos, and embedded links to songs so the reader can listen while looking at the review. The site writer/s don’t let on where they are located geographically, so I am not sure if there is a specific local scene that they are into, or if they are trying to build an national audience.
I liked the mp3s and absolutely loved the music player, similar to the one I play when I listen to Guster concerts on Archive.org (yes, I am unbearably lame but proud of it, shut up) to help make the pain of my undeniably horrible workday lessen. But hated that when I went from page to page to read the archives in the sit the music stops. Feh. A standalone player to listen to the ten items on the playlist while flitting around the site would be a great improvement.
And I knew three of the ten artists on the playlist. You go ahead and guess which three. Be proud of my nineteen sixties born ass.
As for entries, mostly they focus on a band with an mp3 and an opinion. As I write this I am listening to Pterodactyl’s debut on Brah Records — “Esses.” It’s not bad, but I feel it falls apart at the end and bores me.
Other entries are “Shortlist” content which consist of a series of links and pack a few news items in for a punchy entry. (I love Human Giant too, so it was fun to read the little blurb about them taking over MTV). There are industry links and news items and not every entry is an opinion piece on a song or a band. So that’s nice. And unlike other mp3 sites, this one hasn’t had a lot of time to develop into a really heavy duty “oh we’re too smart for YOU and YOUR pedestrian allegedly indie tastes” kind of sites, where they discard the music of anyone other than their friends and mock mock mock like Paris drives drunk. But they do link out to those sites (Pitchfork was mean to Guster back in the day!!! and I’ll never forgive them!!!) so it is good to get a lot of different portal-esque coverage of the music scene.
Two criticisms. First — there are sadly not a lot of archives. I enjoyed the visit to the site, but felt like it should be reviewed in about a year. Perhaps a re-review will be necessary as the site grows beyond May and June archives.
Secondly, I immediately cringed at the Ads by Google at the top of the page(s) and the Amazon videos on the right navigation area.
It is hard to look at a site that focuses on up and coming music with a big fat ad at the top calling out for 2007 cutest kid of the year and 3d educational games.
Everyone needs to make money but … feh.
Now, my favorite indie bands are Dealership out of California, and The Knockout Drops out of Brooklyn NY… The Knockout Drops are as of this moment doing a kick ass Off Broadway show called Escape From Bellevue. Check them out! Consider me a kid pushing kids. I went to high school with lead singer Chris Campion. He rocks harder than any 20 something I’ve ever seen… and that’s saying a lot for a 41 year old man from Long Island.
I wish this site well, good growth, great success, and have added it to my personal blogroll.
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