1000th Post!

This is our 1000th post! It's hard for me to believe that I started this blog more than 3 years ago. We've had almost 300,000 visitors to this site from 176 different countries. We've grown from just me writing to a blog that has 6 writers spread out over the US. We've featured music by more than 2000 different artists - writing about some of them before anyone else was. We've covered 150 concerts all over the country - occasionally even other places in the world. It's been quite a journey! So let's take a trip down memory lane...

First, I should start out by saying how much I love New York City and the music scene here. So many great venues and amazing local artists. It's hard for me to imagine New York City without thinking of The Antlers heartwrenchingly tragic lo-fi; St. Vincent's complex, dissonant rock 'n' roll; Regina Spektor's awesome word play and playful piano; The White Rabbits' thundering drumbeats; Ravens & Chimes' dramatic melodies; Julius C's high energy rock and sexy funk; Locksley's frenzied retro dance pop (pictured left); Elizabeth & the Catapult's charming, frolicsome diddies; Ra Ra Riot's jaunty electro-orchestral sound; Kaiser Cartel's beautiful harmonies; April Smith's powerhouse voice; Sxip Shirey's imaginative, experimental instrumentation; Emanuel & the Fear's epic orchestral music, and so many more.

Even if I didn't have this music blog, I still would have discovered most of these people because I was introduced to most of them through my friend Laura (a Michigan native) anyway, but Michigan continues to produce some stellar artists. Long time readers of this blog have seen me write about them many times: the whimsical and genius Matt Jones, the rowdy rock and roll of The Hard Lessons, the haunting harmonies of Frontier Ruckus (saw player pictured right). These are just a few of the amazing bands coming out of Michigan these days, and I feel privileged to have been able to watch their careers grow over the last few years.

Then of course, there are so many great artists from all over the world that I've enjoyed throughout the course of writing this blog: Scandinavian singer-songwriter Ane Brun (pictured left) whose emotive, unique voice I never get tired of hearing; experimental looping wizard tUnE-yArDs, whose powerful, complexly-layered music has pretty much been on repeat on my iPod since it came out; fiery, dark Brit songstress Florence & the Machine; adorable Irish twins whose moniker comes from one of my favorite '80s movies, Heathers, remind me of Tegan & Sara in their early days; rising pop star Janelle Monae, who is everything a pop star should really be; and the playful, never afraid to be silly, sci-fi piano-powered Jukebox the Ghost.

And let's not forget my other all-time favorites that I knew and loved since before I started this blog, but have continued to impress me over the last three years: The Dresden Dolls' (and of course Amanda Palmer on her own) theatrical cabaret puts their concerts (see right) at the top of my favorite experiences of all time and I would pretty much pay to see them every day if I could; The Dandy Warhols' psychadelic rock (I will finally see them live for the first time in November! So excited!); and then there's my fellow Arts High School alumn, who I have literally been a fan of since I saw her perform in high school, the viola-rocking Anni Rossi.

So that about sums it up. Of course there are tons more artists that I love, but these ones I think are a good reflection of my time spent on this blog.