Where the indie Shows are - Stillepost, Oh My Rockness, London Gig Guide

Well, if you’re a Canadian kid seeking the indie music in your town, chances are good you know or need to know Stillepost - a moderator-coordinated forum of show listings from all the dark lovely holes in the walls of towns across the nation, which also plays host to some rebel yells, and fights and posturings to keep you addicted and laughing between gigs. But if you’re wondering where to find the same info for indie towns beyond our borders, well, let me see if I can help.

Oh My Rockness

New York’s indie show list is also developing portals for Chicago and Los Angeles, and the site admins go beyond forum moderation - every show is submitted to them and they feature what they like, doing Recommendation articles slap dab in the middle of the Venues pages, making sure you get what you came for plus an eyeful of an artist. And the venues! For myself, next New York trip will be presaged by a visit to this venue list. Finding surprising great live shows is what travel is kind of all about, and while “follow the music” has worked well for us in the past (and resulted in an eye-opening tour of Havana’s Chinatown) I think a venue map would be a stellar way to go about it as well.

London Gig Guide - How Does It Feel

The London gig guide has a lot of Morrisssey on it, which makes me wish the Atlantic jump weren’t quite so formidable. Maybe when the ice age comes after the global warning we can walk over and check out shows together. We’ll have a hard time navigating though, since the London Gig Guide doesn’t give addresses or links for venues. This is forgivable: the list is maintained by a legendary club night at the Canterbury Crescent, Brixton London with what looks to me like a kind of ideal playlist, so I think we should applaud them for their tasteful multi-tasking rather than tut-tutting:

The Smiths * The Supremes * The Go-Betweens * Dusty Springfield * Belle & Sebastian * Love * Tammi Terrell * Aztec Camera * The Ronettes * Orange Juice * Beach Boys * The Temptations * Velvet Underground * Felt * The Shangri-Las * Primal Scream * Otis Redding * The Field Mice * Dexys Midnight Runners * Camera Obscura * The Four Tops * Melba Moore * The Orchids

Plus! Further investigation of their domain reveals lots more great info on Indie in different cities, including an extensive Indie Travel Guide: “a city by city guide to the best indie clubs, bars, record shops and local bands” (not Montreal, but Toronto figures alongside Paris, Perth, San Francisco, São Paulo, sigh, don’t they know we’re fricken up and coming and Canadianly neurotic about it? =P)

Hm, ok, I’m over it. Any other good sites like this Indyish seekers should know about?