After some consultation with various journal authors, I've decided to post a weekly update here which will advise what journals are being maintained, and what they're being updated with. To be nice and current, I'll probably just look at page one of the journals subforum, although if something has recently been added but pushed to page two, that can be included too. But that's as far back as I'll go, as anyone who's regularly or even semi-regularly updating will most likely find themselves on one of the first two pages.
Only proper posts will be noted, not comments, and of course anyone who's maintaining a journal and wishes to post updates independent of this is welcome to; this will just be an overall weekly update. Anyone who hasn't checked the journals section out, you should do, as there are some seriously great things happening there. Better yet, why not start one?
Any journals that I personally feel are worth pointing out, but are not (at the moment) updated, will be namechecked here, both to give you the chance to look at them and to perhaps give a gentle push to their authors to think about updating them. This first entry will be rather large, but that's only because I want to introduce and talk a little about each journal and point you in its direction. Next week's, and all future updates, will be a lot shorter and to the point.
Oh, and if anyone thinks they've been left out and shouldn't be, let me know. But the best way to get on the update posts is to, um, update your journal. As it moves up the rankings it'll come more into view and will then be included. Finally, any comments I make on anyone's journals are not meant to be taken personally, or as criticisms. If you haven't updated recently, we all understand: everyone is busy. Any little smart digs from me in that direction are purely based on the fact that I personally think your journal should be more read than it is, and should be updated more regularly, but of course not everyone has the free time I have. Coming, dear...
To be totally fair and democratic, I'm going to do this alphabetically, using the author's name as the basis. So this week we're looking at the following:
A is for
Anteater: who maintains two journals (imagine that! Who else would do such a thing? Um...) his main one originally being
The Anthill: Anteater's reviews of the curious and obscure. To date, this was last updated with an actual entry by him back in, um, 2009? However, in his defence he is also running
Anteater's guide to 80s melodic rock and
Anteater's essential guide to modern progressive rock, not to mention his off-forum blog, “The Widening Eye”.
But his current one, the one he's working on at the moment, is
Anteater's Muzak 101: legitimizing smooth jazz for the unwashed masses, and that is therefore the one we will concentrate on in future, unless he sees fit to work on any of his others. Wow! Talk about Steven Wilson's workload!
Anyhoo, the current entry in “Muzak 101” for the past week is on Kit Walker, “Dancing on the edge of the world” (album review).
A is also for
Antonio, whose journal is here
Antonio's Music Dumping Ground and has been brought back to life, after two years (yeah, I said years!) and his last entry looks to be 7/5 or 5/7 (not sure how the dates work, with you Americans reversing them! Oh wait, he mentions Independence Day, so I guess it's 5/7) and is on the subject of “Yellow submarine”, a cover by Willy Chirino. Nothing since though... tap tap tap.
B, then, is for
Blarrobarg, who had a go with a journal but it didn't seem to work out, but undaunted came back with
My Official Opinion On... which to date is mostly personal stuff from his life story, and very well written it is too. The purported last part of this was upped yesterday, 18/8, and is well worth taking the time to read through it, and the previous entries. What has he for us next? Watch this space. Well, watch
that space really, his, you know, where his journal is...
B is also for
Bob, whose take on noise rock, while not my cup of tea, is always entertaining. His journal is here
Just can't keep my filthy hands of your piece of mind (sic): Bob's guide to noise rock. Unfortunately he hasn't updated since 28/3, when he reviewed “Self totalled” by Cosmic Psychos. Hopefully we'll hear more from him real soon.
And last, but by no means least,
B is for
Burning Down, whose journal
Thoughts from a music major has suffered due no doubt to her studies, but is definitely worth watching to see when it will be updated. Her last post so far was a short piece on 25/6 promising to update her journal. Tappity tappity BD! Seriously, everyone's waiting to hear what you have to say...
A quick mention and note of thanks to Bulldog, whose journal The Doghouse V.II ran for almost two years, but on 20/5 of this year he announced he was leaving Music Banter. Others who know him better will understand why. His journal will obviously no longer be updated, unless he changes his mind and comes back, but it's still worth a read, and is a treasure trove of eclecticism in music. A sad loss. 
On we go then to
C, where we find
CanwllCorfe. His journal was certainly interesting, with the last few entries being on Depressive Black Suicidal Metal and Post dubstep/Future Garage, but despite a teaser posted in July about Native American music, the search parties have not yet found this guy and his journal,
The Quiet Man in the Corner has slipped right to the bottom of page 2, where it has no right to be. Worse, with a few more journals added he'll find himself on page 3, and who ever looks at page 3? Come back to us, CC, before it's too late!
Conan, is weird. That's not a criticism, just a fact. You don't believe me? Check out his
Visions of the altered state; last updated 12/4, but if you understand what's going on in there, you're a better (or more stoned) person than I! Last update concerned “Amir”, by Henri Texier. Yeah.
And speaking of weird,
Psychedelia by
Conchobar is far outside my experience or interest, but if you're into that sort of music check his, relatively new, journal out on page 1. Last entry was 12/8, Slowdive, “When the sun hits”.
I wasn't sure whether to put
Mr Dave in
D or
M, but decided to go with the former. His mega-interesting journal,
Tales from the jam room gives a musician's perspective on, well, everything really. A very entertaining read, well written and semi-regularly updated. Last post was 6/8 and concerned the nature of time (yeah) with a video of one of my favourite Alan Parsons Project songs called, you guessed it, “Time”.
Our other entrant in
D is
DoctorSoft, who, though his journal is reasonably new and not updated since June, has managed to stay on page one. It's worth a read at
Keepin it soft, with the last post regarding Ambinate, album called “Horizon”, though the video isn't working. Still, journal opened in April and only four entries? Must do better, Doctor!
I'm sure he will, soon enough.
That takes us to
E, and the very epitome of future fossil fuel, yes it's
Engine. His journal,
Squirrel Bait family tree – reviewed hasn't been updated since 19/5 when he promised us a review of “Me hungry” by King Kong. Where is it, Engine, huh? Answer me that, if you can...
And so on we go to
F, where
Fetching's journal is another which has not been regularly updated but is definitely worth a read. It's at
Kayleigh's journal and the last entry was on 3/7, when she waxed lyrical about her favourite DJs.
G is the home of two very new journals, the first being that from
Geekoid, at
Geekoid's world of music, and be warned: this guy goes deep into the construction and even de-construction of music, but he's highly intelligent and will introduce you to some damn fine music, as well as wow you with his graphics and make your brain throb with facts and figures. Music theory? It's a lot more than that. As this is one of the journals which is regularly updated, I won't be just posting details of his last post, but of all posts this week, as I will be doing with any others that fall into that “currently posting” category.
So this week Geekoid has explored Adult Alternative 90s music in his regular “Mixtape of the week” section, looked at Christian Contemporary Music in “The Sunday Post” with an article on Leslie Phillips, gone
deeply into the analysis of music in his “Synesthetics Experiment” series, checked out music from the Faroe Islands and thrown in “My Two Cents” with his take on The Knife album, “Tomorrow in a year”. Oh, and just today he's put up another “Mixtape” concentrating on the Philly soul sound. Told you he updated regularly! Keep checking his journal, always something interesting guaranteed. Whaddya mean, you don't know what Hauntology is? Step this way, please...
Our other
G is
Goofle11, who has been convinced and encouraged to start a journal here
The regular and unexceptional world of Goofle11. He's only been running this since this week, so give it a chance, but he already has an interesting article up on El-P (no, not the prog rock supergroup, dummy!) and I see great things coming from this corner of the journal section.
J is our next journal (J for journal, huh?) and is the one, the only, the mighty
Jackhammer. His
What's the sound in my headphones today? has been going since 2008, and will take your breath away with the musical diversity in it, if you don't know him already. From punk to trance, from grindcore to classical and from prog rock to screamo, there's almost literally something for everyone in here. The last post was in July, and concerned one-man-bands, but we hope to see something new from the mighty Jackhammer soon.
Also in
J, I think everyone has read, or knows of,
Janszoon's amazing and innovative
25 albums you should hear before the moon crashes into the Earth and we all die. Not only is the music, er, different, but the prose is elegant and powerful: it's almost more like reading a book about the apocalypse, or even watching a movie. Last entry was 10/8, with a review of “Sumday” by Grandaddy. You need to check this out. Seriously. I'm not joking. Go now. Don't waste time. Why are you still here?
Oh, before you do go, take note that Jansz also has
Time and place which is a journal he describes himself as an “open-ended music column”. Sadly, the last update was back in May, and was about San Jose. Hopefully he'll update this again soon.
K just has the one author, but what an author! Check out
My music journal and many other things by
Ki, with current entries focussing on his 100 favourite albums, a work in progress.
N brings us
The Nice Guy (where did you learn English? “The” is always ignored when sorting things alphabetically!) whose journal
A Nice Guy's Music Musings was fast becoming one of my favourites, but hasn't been updated since April, when he wrote an interesting article about the Sex Pistols. Where are you, Nice Guy?
Next up is
P, where we find a journal maintained by the creator of this thread, and one of our favourite mods,
Pedestrian. She's
Crosswalking here and you can find not only great reviews and essays, but some pretty amazing poetry and her ongoing sitcom scripts there. Her last entry was in June, as far as I can see, and was on the punk band Cardiacs, and their album “On land and in the sea”. Obviously, being a mod takes up a lot of her time, but we still hope to see new entries in her journal in the not-too-distant future.
The Chum Bucket is a journal recently started by
Plankton, but is already highly entertaining. His most recent entry is on Black Sabbath, linked to his childhood/adolescence, and was posted on 16/8. Expect more soon, I would think.
TheBig3 has been running his eclectic journal,
Screaming at the moon for three years now, and it's always an amazing, deep and satisfying read. Unfortunately, the last update was in February, concerning the death of Whitney Houston. Hoping for a new entry real soon...
Oh crap. That brings us to some prick called
Trollheart, who obviously thinks he's God's gift to music journals. Christ I hate him. But I suppose we have to include his bloody journals, huh?
I actually maintain two, as you may know, the first of which, my main journal is
The Playlist of Life, and covers most music I'm interested in, leaning towards the likes of metal, prog rock, AOR and so forth, but with a lot of different stuff in there too. I try to update every day, or every other day, but you can at least be guaranteed that there'll be a new entry twice a week at the very worst.
Current entries for this week include a review of Spanish power metal band Saratoga's new album, “Nemesis”, Gerry Rafferty's “Snakes and ladders”, Del Amitri's “Waking hours” (in the “Meh” section), ELO's last album, “Zoom”, and our regular slot “Helen's selected cheese of the week” features Kylie with “Better the devil you know”. Then there are reviews of David Gray's “White ladder” and the classic “Desperado” by the Eagles. Finally, in my occasional “Trollheart recommends” slot, there are six tracks for you to consider, including offerings from The Gaslight Anthem, The Reasoning and Stevie Nicks.
My other journal has not been in existence that long, but I still try to update
Bitesize: Trollheart's Daily Album mini-reviews as often as I can. It's not always daily, but it isn't too far from that. This is where I run much shorter, less in-depth reviews than those that typically appear in my main journal. Bitesize, you see? Each album is awarded a rating, from one Cookie (don't ask!) for the very worst, up to five Cookies for the truly outstanding. This week's reviews include albums from Stevie Nicks, Bell X1, Knight Area, Ben Howard, No-Man and Tiamat.
Another of the older journals in existence,
Urban's Journal of stuff is of course maintained by
Urban Hatemonger? And features all sorts of strange things, as you would expect. Urban's last act was in July, when he had Stacey-Lynn kidnapped on her way to my journal. Yeah, I'm serious. Look, just read his journal, all right? There's no telling what he might do if he feels he's being ignored.
Bringing us to
V for
Vanilla. Her journal,
Vanilla's Eargasms has unfortunately not been updated since March, when she wrote about Gotye, but we hope something new will be forthcoming soon.
Another lady takes up the
W spot, the multispecies-named
Wolverinewolfweiselpigeon. You should check her journal
Ego Tripping if only to hear her beautiful voice: she really can sing (and play)! Her last entry though was in June, with a video from Hanson.
And finally (alphabetically speaking, and for no other reason) we have
Zero. The Final Sound is ony sporadically updated, but worth checking when it is. To date, Zero's last post was in July, when he talked about some of the songs he was currently enjoying, including Prefab Sprout and Butthole Surfers.
That's it for this week. Any updates that appear over the next week will be in next Sunday's post. But don't rely on this thread: go check out the journals now for yourself. They're only a click away...
