Themed weeks we've had on DiS in 2009 - what shall we do in 2010?

ARTIST TAKEOVERS

• Metric - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/metric-week
• Grizzly Bear - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/grizzlybear
• Radiohead re-issues - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/radiohead
• Kraftwerk re-issues - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/kraftwerk
• Mum - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/mum
• Emmy the Great - http://drownedinsound.com/users/emmy_a_wards/articles

GENRE WEEKS

• Slowcore - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/slowcore-week
• Shoegaze - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/shoegaze
• Alt. Country - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/altcountry

FESTIVALS

• 2009 festival previews - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/festivals-2009
• The Great Escape - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/greatescape
• Glastonbury - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/glastonbury
• Reading/Leeds - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/reading2009

MISC.

• DiScover - tips for 2009 -  http://drownedinsound.com/news/4136165
• Music Journalism R.I.P? - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/ismusicjournalismdead
• 2010 preview w/ LCD, Liars, Yeasayer, Frightened Rabbit etc - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/2010
• Best of 2009 - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/best-of-2009 (which I'm doing via Twitter and our Facebook page this week)
• Year-End coverage w/ top 50 albums, staff mixtapes, artist's favourite fives, best photos, news round-up and our Lost 9 of 2009 - http://drownedinsound.com/lists/2009

Q: What do you think of the idea of themed weeks? Which bits do and don't you like? What weeks would like to see in 2010? Which bands should takeover the site? Respond below or via this thread on the DiS music forum...

 

DiS Stats 
From Google Analytics from January 1st 2009 - December 29th 2009

7,586,397 Visits
3,362,056 Absolute Unique Visitors
34,194,807 Pageviews
4.51 Average Pageviews
00:06:05 Time on Site (average)

 

Posted via web from seaninsound's posterous

Play me. Play this. Or my Spotify playlists compiled...

This year I have mostly been making playlists. Over on the DiS site we've done a weekly Spotifriday playlist. However, these 'ere playlists come in all shapes and sizes, with various themes and wotnot. I thought compiling them in one place might be useful for anyone looking for some musical guidance or simply for anyone wanting to save time making a playlist by slinging on one of mine.

If you haven't yet installed Spotify, it's free (if you don't mind a few ads) and available most places now (Americans I think can pay to use it but I might be wrong?!). 

2009
- My Top 40 Songs of the Year
- My Top 10 Albums of the Year (plus Grizzly Bear which isn't available)
- Drowned in Sound's Top 50 Albums of 2009 (or if that's overwhelming, try the 2 tracks-from-each sampler)
- Drowned in Sound's Albums of 2009 - longlist
- Best compilations of 2009

The Noughties
- My 123 mixtape adventure
- DrownedinSound's 00s - a long list of recommended albums
- DrownedinSound's songs of the Noughties (to be completed for our 10th Anniversary in October 2010)

Misc
- A playlist of some of my favourite songs
- Drowned in Sound Recordings (my label)
- Best of/Introduction to... Elliott Smith
- Best of/Introduction to... Kraftwerk (part of Kraftwerk week)
- Best of Fierce Panda records
- Drowned in... the year 2000
- My 15 favourite albums
- My songs of the 90s
- DrownedinShoegaze (for DiS' special shoegaze week)  
- DrownedinAltCountry (for DiS' special alt country week)
- SeaninSummer
- Drownedin... covers (created from a thread on our boards)
- The Nepture Music Prize (DiS' alternative to the Mercury nominated albums)
- Fear & Birthday (a emo/rock-filled mixtape I made for a friend's birthday)
- Drowned in I Heart Studios (an electronic mixtape I made for a friend's studio)
- Drowned in... Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday
- Reading Festival - Greatest Hits
- Glastonbury 2009 - 4 preview playlists
- This is Thamesbeat Or An Ode to Eel Pie Sunsets
- DiSssmaaasss!! - festive playlist
- DiS' Hallowe'en playlist

And a few playlists I really like created or compiled by friends of mine...
- John Peel's Festive 50s compiled
- Ollie Russian's Britpop Massive
- Emily Haines' mixtape for DiS readers (which ran as part of Metric week)
- Thrash Hits' Sonisphere 2009 slaylist
- Field Day 2009
- P2K: Pitchfork's songs of 00s
- NME's albums of the 00s
- Rough Trade's albums of 2009
- Whiskas (forward russia's) 2009 favourite albums and songs 
- Christian Ward's 50 songs of 00s

If for any reason you need an invite to use Spotify email me sean [atttt] drownedinsound [dottt] com, as I have 22 left. 

So, which of your playlists should I be listening to? Share links below... for more playlists check out Spotifriday every Friday over on DrownedinSound.com.

 

Posted via web from seaninsound's posterous

DiSmas mailout: The DiSmas playlist, ATP review, Phoenix, St Vincent, Paramore...

-------------------------
D R O W N E D
I N _ S O U N D
-------------------------

Festive Greets!

Hello! So, this is our last mail out before DiS joins the nation in
passing out on the sofa in a sugar-coated coma. We will be putting a
few bits up over 'the break' (normal service resumes Jan 11th) but for
now we just wanted to bring to your attention these five things...

1. Playlist: IT'S DiSSSSMAAASSS!!!
A very Drowned in Sound 88-track Xmas Spotify playlist to get you in
the mood for 'the big day', with plenty of Sufjan Stevens and Snoop
Dogg plus Jimmy Eat World's incredible cover of 'Last Christmas',
amongst various other seasonal cuts.
http://drwndnsnd.com/~6Ng7zF

2. DiS' Top 50 Albums of 2009
Phoenix, St Vincent, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Manics and F' Buttons make up
the top five... see the full 50 and tell us your top 10 here...
http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4138638-drowned-in-sounds-top-50-albums-of-2009-50-1

3. 10 Years of ATP - The DiS Review
Sunday http://drwndnsnd.com/~6EFZ9J
Saturday http://drwndnsnd.com/~8V7j21
Friday http://drwndnsnd.com/~52Sc6m
+ In Photos: 10 Years of ATP @ Butlins, Minehead http://drwndnsnd.com/~8ztHRB

4. Bands we like, tell us their albums of the year...
DiS asked a heap of acts to tell us their 'favourite five' albums of
2009, here's the latest instalment with contributions from Paramore,
of Montreal, Foals, Sky Larkin and Metric
http://drwndnsnd.com/~8GF9vv

5. YEAR-END A-GO-GO!
A year in news, staff mixtapes, videos of the year and lots and lots more...
http://drownedinsound.com/lists/2009

And that's yer lot, have yourself a bearable break - and don't forget
Spiced Rum with Ginger Beer is not just for Christmas!

Merry Christmas from all at DiS xo

---
http://drownedinsound.com
http://twitter.com/drownedinsound
http://facebook.com/drownedinsound

Listen // IT'S DISSSMASSSS!!!! - a very DiS Christmas playlist
http://drwndnsnd.com/~6Ng7zF

Posted via email from seaninsound's posterous

Some of my pics for 2010 on BBC 6 Music/iPlayer for Tom Robinson

A very special edition of Fresh On The Net in which Drowned In Sound's Sean Adams, and Artrocker.com blogger Stephen Mcleod joined Tom to pick out there one's to

via bbc.co.uk

Tom Robinson invited me to blather about the state of new music, pick some of my tips for 2010 and suggest some tracks from below the radar acts in this opening hour of his BBC Introducing show. Tracks I picked were by Free Energy, Frightened Rabbit, Gold Panda, The Agitator, Le Shark and I think of a coupla others made it on air too.

You can follow Tom Robinson on Twitter here http://twitter.com/Freshnet

Posted via web from seaninsound's posterous

DiS names WOLFGANG AMADEUS PHOENIX the album of 2009 | press release

DROWNED IN SOUND NAMES WOLFGANG AMADEUS PHOENIX THE ALBUM OF 2009

DrownedinSound.com has revealed its top 50 albums of the year and the list is topped by sophisto-pop Frenchmen Phoenix.

On hearing they topped the list, the band had this to say:

'merci drowned in sound for the gold medal! 
We are very proud to be on top of your list.
Merry Xmas to you all and happy 2010!
Phoenix

The top 20 is a follows:

1) Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
2) St. Vincent Actor 
3) Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz! 
4) Manic Street Preachers Journal for Plague Lovers 
5) F**ck Buttons Tarot Sport 
6) Grizzly Bear Veckatimest 
7) Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavillion
8) Wild Beasts Two Dancers
9) Fever Ray Fever Ray
10) Paramore brand new eyes 
11) Bat for Lashes Two Suns
12) Arctic Monkeys Humbug
13) The Horrors Primary Colours 
14) PJ Harvey & John Parish A Woman a Man Walked By 
15) Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca   
16) Memory Tapes Seek Magic 
17) Metric Fantasies 
18) The Veils Sun Gangs
19) The Phantom Band Checkmate Savage 
20) Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II 

For the full top 50 and to hear a Spotify playlist of all the albums click here:
http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4138638-drowned-in-sounds-top-50-albums-of-2009-50-1

 

Posted via email from seaninsound's posterous

Goodbye Teletext and a fond farewell to Planet Sound

In a parting message, Manic Street Preachers' Nicky Wire paid tribute to Planet Sound by saying: "I love the feel of books and records, and I loved the feel of the remote control to give me information."

via guardian.co.uk

Sad times. Teletext is no more.

I used to flick on Planet Sound every day after school to find out if anything interesting had happened in music or whether my email fanzine (which I used to print out and send in) had been covered. Big up John Earls, who did a fantastic job running it for nearly a decade.

Posted via web from seaninsound's posterous

All my Sunday Times Culture columns from this year

12 articles:

• My Generation: Past imperfect

  The Sunday Times, Sunday 29 November
  
  Original article at The Sunday Times
  

• My Generation: The bigger picture

  The Sunday Times, Sunday 8 November
  
  Original article at The Sunday Times
  

• My Generation: Money troubles

  The Sunday Times, Sunday 18 October
  
  Original article at The Sunday Times
  

• My Generation: Nowhere to hide

  The Sunday Times, Sunday 27 September
  
  Original article at The Sunday Times
  

• My Generation: Shut up and listen

  The Sunday Times, Sunday 6 September
  
  Original article at The Sunday Times
  

• My Generation: Smells like Dad spirit

  The Sunday Times, Sunday 23 August
  
  Original article at The Sunday Times
  

• My Generation: Give them a break

  The Sunday Times, Sunday 2 August
  
  Original article at The Sunday Times
  

• My generation: Where's our revolution music?

  The Sunday Times, Sunday 21 June
  
  Original article at The Sunday Times
  

• My Generation: Digitise this...

  The Sunday Times, Sunday 31 May
  
  Original article at The Sunday Times
  

• My Generation: Waitng for a star

  The Sunday Times, Sunday 3 May
  
  Original article at The Sunday Times
  

• My Generation: No more heroes

  The Sunday Times, Sunday 12 April
  
  Original article at The Sunday Times
  

• My Generation: Download your favourite bands

  The Sunday Times, Sunday 15 March (4 comments)
  
  Original article at The Sunday Times
  

Article(s) missing? If you notice an article is missing, click here

via journalisted.com

One more 'festive' column to come on Sunday but a few people have asked if I could compile these and just discovered that Journalisted does it for me.

Posted via web from seaninsound's posterous

Facebook | The campaign to get Sufjan Stevens Get Behind Me Santa into the Xmas charts

via facebook.com

I've started this campaign. Hope you'll get involved.

Posted via web from seaninsound's posterous

Wanted: Ruby on Rails Web Developer

Drowned in Sound, the UK's leading independent music website, is looking to employ a world class web developer.

Over the past decade we've built a vast resource of information and opinion but we could, and should, be doing a better job to share what we've got. We want to make it much easier to explore our site and by doing so, turn more people on to more great music.

Entering our 10th year, we have a new vision for what we wish to deliver to our 350k+ readers. We have enhancements we wish to complete and changes we'd like to make to our award-winning site and need a highly capable web developer to take things forward. The primary focus will be improving the experience and site functionality for our large community of irreverent music enthusiasts.


Key Responsibilities:
- Working with Drowned in Sound's founder and editorial team to improve the display of content and simplify CMS
- Liaising with our freelance designers on the implementation of a new and improved UI
- Debugging, improving data management and optimising pages
- Reliably delivering new features to a faultless standard.
- Developing new ideas
- Integrating DiS with various established and start-up partners
- Implementing special campaigns, such as site takeover

The idea candidate will be:
- A fan of 'alternative'/'indie' music
- Highly self-motivated, independent worker
- Able to meet deadlines and be focused on execution under pressure
- Resourceful
- A good communicator
- Logical, methodical and have an attention to detail
- A good manager of time and expectations
- Time flexible and willing to help with any urgent issues out of hours

Knowledge requirements:
- HTML / CSS / Javascript (Prototype/Scriptaculous)
- Ruby on Rails
- Nginx / Haproxy / Thin
- Linux

Additionally, experience using MusicBrainz would be preferable but isn't a necessity. Location isn't a major issue but an ability to take weekly meetings in London and to be easily contactable is preferred. Salary and length of contract is flexible and negotiable depending on experience. The ideal candidate would be available full-time for a minimum of 2 months from January 7th

To apply, please send your CV to to jobs@drownedinsound.com. Please include in the body of the email links to recent work and highlighting any relevant projects. If you have any current commitments please stipulate, the role can be flexible for the perfect person.

Please note, there are no other vacancies currently at Drowned in Sound.