AMG Gratitude

From somnolence.org, my newest daily read:
‘I do think that the AMG is a useful resource, despite the whole “Like This? Try That!” tool being a waste of time. For example: Like the Red House Painters? Want something “Colder, Firmer”? Try… Henry Rollins!’

Jokes aside, I agree. At Pitchfork, Mark Richard-San writes about pre-Internet record hunting, and how searching through record bins remains more appealing to him than downloading songs. I can see where he’s coming from, but my personal reaction to it is that for me, the Internet was a godsend. Growing up in Singapore, none of my friends shared my tastes in music. We have no alternative radio stations. We had only one local magazine that reviewed albums other than the latest Mariah Carey, and I remain a regular purchaser of BigO even though I now get most of what I need from the Net, simply because it fed my hunger for something different when I had nothing else, and I remain grateful.

Anyway, once I got Internet access, everything changed, and the AMG was one of the sites I used to spend hours trawling. I’ve written about this before and I don’t need to go into it again, but I guess my basic point is that for me, finding out about Neutral Milk Hotel and Amon Tobin and even the Smashing Pumpkins (before Mellon Collie) was the result of me spending hours on the Internet, because I simply had nowhere else to go to find what I wanted. And the AMG was, and remains, a big part of that, so thanks, AMG. I owe you.