Yeah i read all them magazines as well, mind you i do seem to get all my new music from gigs, friends and the internet. recently found Stacey Earle thru doug rice's website, which was really cool, epitonic.com is pretty damn cool as well loads of indie bands mp3's recently got into radio 4 and secret machines thru that, after that i don't really know, just from hearing a name and going to their websites and seeing if there is anything to download or get a snippet of

Yeah, word of mouth and going to gigs goes without saying really. The internet is a huge source for discovering music, and I don't even download tunes...just whatever is up on band's sites.

Later With...Jools Holland and itunes music store are other great sources.

I used to read hotpress but ive decided to give it a miss from now on. Too many ads in it and also it felt too much like they were reproducing PR emails verbatim without any further research. So now, with phantom gone a while now, i suppose i just keep up-to-date with what gigs are happening by checking the TicketB*stard site and watching cluas for updates. Occasionally i pick up uncut which i now figure to be the best music mag out there.

i make no assumption until i hear music. i don't care about their image, how many brothers are in the band, where they got their wacky name from, thats all spice if you like them or a stick to beat them with if you don't. i'll take recommendations from everywhere and check them out if can.

webzines... pitchforkmedia.com drownedinsound.com thestereoeffect.com metacritic.com popmatters.com tinyvoices.co.uk villagevoice.com also, audioscrobbler.com - plugin for your mp3 player of choice that provides recommendations based on what you're listening to, and nice charts and graphs of most listened to stuff.

http://www.planbmag.com http://www.dosomethingpretty.co.uk http://www.splendidezine.com/ http://www.fakejazz.com/ http://ilx.p3r.net/ http://www.llss.tv/ http://www.absorb.org/main.html

There's rumour of a comprehensive list of e-zines and other such marvellous links been uploaded to Cluas...any day now...isn't that right moderators

www.twee.net www.indiepages.com

You can't beat a good independent record shop with friendly clued up staff. I recommend www.piccadillyrecords.co.uk It's updated every Monday, they cover loads of genres and they have mp3 samples of everything! Also Rough trade is pretty good and they do the best end of year reviews that I've come across. Check out the last three annual lists for proof; www.roughtrade.com/docs/top_100_2004.htm www.roughtrade.com/docs/top_100_2003.htm www.roughtrade.com/docs/top_100_2002.htm If you want end of year reviews from Mojo, Q, NME, Uncut etc then check out www.rocklist.net If you want to know what indie is crossing over into the mainstream check out the play lists of www.xfm.co.uk If you want something a bit more out there visit www.trashclub.co.uk click on music and check out the charts. Also every time I watch 120 minutes on MTV2 (Wednesday nights at one in the morning) I nearly always here something that I haven't heard before.

the only problem with record shops is that they recommend EVERYTHING! still, i suppose, they have to sell the records. a great record store for indie stuf is Other Music (www.othermusic.com) and for weirdy electronica stuff, theres www.boomkat.com. in terms of mags and zines, it's The Ticket, The Guardian Review, Cluas (for Irish stuff), Thumped (if they recommend stuff, i stay well clear), Pitchforkmedia, Popmatters, Unpeeled, Word, Mojo (ace for reissues). radio - Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW (amazing show), Dineen, sometimes John Kelly (though he talks an awful lot of toss these nights and keeps playing bands like the devlins he obviously hangs out with). tv - later (just close your eyes and ears when jools is on)

www.leonardslair.co.uk www.whisperinandhollerin.com www.eclectichoney.com all good webzines

Tom Dunne's show ( cue avalanche of replies saying it's sh**e, indie lite etc. ) Q is the only magazine I buy regularly even though the quality had definitely gone downhill of late. Their reviews are still good though. Stopped buying Hot P*ss years ago. Cluas, obviously.

knew there was something i came here to post and then i got distracted can anyone recommend some good Irish-based music blogs? i have to admit i'm very sceptical about blogs but willing to take a chance on anything anyone has to recommend. looking for someone based in ireland who's covering music/music business/music writing/music radio/music tv etc. is there such a thing? or do i just stick with cluas and continue to regard blogs as the work of those opinionated eejits u meet in pubs?

i actually reckon on an average day the music discussed and praised/torn apart on thumped.com is pretty eclectic. there are some cool threads onstream right now about what people are listening to that might be worth an appraisal

Q is a magazine aimed directly at the mainstream. in that it doesn't interest me. thumped, cluas, cpu, nme, hotpress, bang, uncut, whatever, until you hear music you can't like it.