FAMOUS INTERNET SITINGS!

Rip It Up, Issue 236, 1 April 1997, Page 7

FAMOUS INTERNET SITINGS!

Yeah, the Internet. Big time-wasting concept that keeps some otherwise socially redundant boffins employed and gives every monkey with a computer, time and cash to spare (basically 90 percent of America’s college population) the opportunity to throw up their own Website to clog some of that cyberspace. Well, not entirely true. Although there’s a plethora of ’personal’ sites with plenty of challenging stuff like pictures of supermodels in bikinis, there’s also some pretty cool stuff out there aside from weather maps. On the music front, it doesn’t come much better than the Internet Underground Music Archive: Europe’, which is basically Southern Distribution’s site (www.southern.com). It features some diverse stuff, like the official ‘Notting Hill Carnival Site’, a great 'site for ambientdub wizard Mix Master Morris (it takes a while to download all the info, but it’s worth the wait), and, of course, the : 'Southern Site’ itself. On this you’ll find areas for all the labels they distribute in Europe, which is about 90 percent of the interesting indies left out there: Dischord, Atavistic, Crass, K, Simple Machines, 1/4 Stick, Skin Graft, Touch & Go and Trance Syndicate to name a few. There’s also a page for a lot of the bands represented, so you can happily kill some serious time there. Being much impressed by their recent releases, I wandered through the Dischord site and it’s pretty fine, as you’d expect. It features some great photos of the relevant bands, plenty of bio’s, a ‘News’ section that’s thankfully light on the hype and links to a few other related and interesting sites. It’s clean, concise and relevant, without coming off as an overly slick electronic equivalent to Details magazine or something. On the actual E-zine front, the cream of the crop would seem to be ‘Crashsite’ (www.crashsite.com) who’s motto, •‘Celebrating Two Years of Fucking Your Girlfriend’, gives you an idea of where they're coming from. It’s ‘irreverent’ (read ‘smartarse’) but has some solid content to back up the attitude. There’s always changing and very readable reviews and interviews, drink recipes and assorted features. When I looked, there was a nice set of pieces on rock poster artists Derek Hess, Emek and Taz. There’s also an editorial of sorts called ‘Driverbox’, and it was a quite twisted but brilliant take on the murdered rap star conspiracy theories. Lastly, I’ll throw in a political/socially redeeming site: For starters, try the ‘Surfrider Foundation’ site (www.surfrider.org). They’re a grassroots environmental group that are get-ting-bigger and more powerful very quickly. As the name suggests, it was initially a bunch of surfers tying to clean up their local waters, and now there’s ' chapters all over the US, as well as in Europe and Australia. The site details the various battles, legal and otherwise, currently being fought, as well as giving some easily understood information on why and how these actions affect the coastal environment. It’s pretty localised to the USA, but the general information and principles remain true wherever you are.

KIRK GEE