Web Surfing

  www.thestrokes.org

Fans can follow The Strokes and the impact they’ve made
with their music around the world. The site insists that the
band’s music will make people want to forget who they are and
open possibilities of who they want to be. Who wouldn’t want
to hear the music or learn about the band that can change lives?
The site opens with an eye-catching and organized presentation of
the biography, news, tour dates, contacts and music clips of the
band. Viewers can read about the band’s rags-to-riches story,
as they started to play in small downtown New York music venues and
gradually moved to more recognized venues. The biography describes
their final success as a popular group with the debut of their
first album titled “Is This It?” Upcoming events and
past interviews are also listed in the news category with links to
other sites. Fans can order presale tickets of the band’s
concerts, or click to spinner.com and mtv.com to hear and read
interviews with the band. The tour dates lists its performances in
chronological order with the city and venue names included. The
Strokes will perform in Los Angeles on Oct. 18 and 19 at The
Palace. It will also perform in cities such as Dallas, Atlanta,
Nashville and Norfolk from now until Nov. 28. Every possible
contact can also be found in their category, including their
publicist in the United States and United Kingdom, their Australian
and Japanese booking agent, their manager, Web site designer and
even legal representative. Lastly, viewers can sample the
band’s music with clips from its recently released album. The
three available songs to listen to are “Hard to
explain,” “Last Nite,” and
“Someday.”

Sophia Whang   www.indiemusic.com

Indiemusic.com is a lot like the indie artists it features.
While the content of the site is excellent, the presentation is not
as flashy as other high-end sites around the Web. The site contains
thousands of listings to indie band Web sites and their labels. A
huge amount of information is definitely contained on the site. The
site, however, is by no means flawless. Aside from being blatantly
ugly, the site is also unorganized. While the bands’ Web
sites are categorized based on musical genre, the listings within
certain genres are listed randomly. The site also allows indie
bands to add their own listing to the site. Indiemusic.com thus
gives free publicity to struggling bands around the world. What a
bunch of sweethearts. While the site in itself is not informative,
what it does is bombard indie-music lovers everywhere with helpful
links. Indiemusic.com is almost like “Yahoo” for
independent music. And although it’s difficult to find the
information music fans might be looking for, the Web site just
might force them to stumble across something they never knew
existed.

Suneal Kolluri   www.erock.net

A rock “˜n’ roll memorabilia auction site sounds
exciting, but erock.net is a disappointment. Viewers can even call
the site sad as all but one of the auction’s bids are empty.
The one item that does have one bid is for a $1 new Jeff Lynne
cassette. Auction categories include Elvis Presley, The Beatles,
The Rolling Stones, Magazines and books, and General Rock-n-Roll,
among others. Some item fans can choose from are a Beatles dress
from 1964 for 25 cents, a Monkees puzzle from 1967 and a rare
videotape titled “Elvis The Early Years” from 1989.
Commendable qualities of erock is the Daily Rock Music News, which
includes special reports and album reviews. The site also
celebrates an artist every week with his/her link. Although the
site wants to be known for its auctions, the items listed are
unlikely to attract Web surfers.

Sophia Whang