ABBAnatic
What's an ABBAnatic? A mental patient who slaves away on a Web page about
Scandanavia's finest pop quartet. Featuring primo graphics, lyrics to all
of ABBA's songs, track listings, and cover art to all the albums (including
a bunch of bootleg recordings), this site is overwhelmingly comprehensive.
Catch up with post-ABBA solo projects, including the Broadway flop CHESS,
which spawned the early 80s smash, One Night In Bangkok. Even if you hate
ABBA and all things Swedish, the site's worth visiting for the album art
alone.-MP
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Be
Happy Or Die
Be Happy or Die is dedicated to the 80s techno-pop band, Art of Noise, which
is no longer with us. How sad. The discography features album cover art
and track listings to most of their stuff. The "text" section
separately features the liner notes to all the albums. The "images"area is simply a standard directory listing of all the images on the site.
Not very helpful. Maybe a class on the Art of Web Design would be more in
order.-MP
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Beyond
Infinite Connections
The Infinite Connection celebrates the magical music of pop stars PM Dawn...
and Beyond! The Web site includes a text-heavy discography, lyrics, and
liner notes to some of the songs, a few pictures, and some information on
how to get in contact with the record company. The one unique resource on
this page is a set of links to various music charts, like Billboard's Top
40 and the Gavin Report, which track PM Dawn's success (or lack thereof).
Also check out the site's news bulletin center to follow the latest news
on their DJ, who was arrested for having sex with his 14-year-old cousin.
-MP
B
Bird
on a Wire: The Leonard Cohen Home Page
The Leonard Cohen Home Page looks terrific with Netscape. Like Mr. Cohen,
it's got professional class in a morass of tired-looking nobodies hurriedly
cobbled together. The discography and lyrics are listed by album, complete
with scans of the original record's art. There are a few articles and interviews
to be perused and pointers to choose Lenny-related resources. If you're
a fan, it's an indispensable resource, and if you're not, the crooning shots
may be worth the visit alone.-MP
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Gordon
Lightfoot
Hotfoot it over to the Gordon Lightfoot page, where you can get a fanciful
band biography, up-to-date tour information, a decent discography, guitar
tab, and links-a-plenty to outside Gordon-sites. The "band" area
contains separate pages for each band member detailing their vital stats
and outside interests and hobbies. A sort of Rock & Roll resume. The "You
and the Gord" area is filled with user-submitted pictures of Gordy
and themselves throughout the ages. And age they have. While not the prettiest
or most comprehensive fan resource, it functions and has funny pictures
to boot.
-MP
B
Labyrinth Oz
Music Site
Personally, I think we have enough unsigned bands in this country, but If
you're into local bands from Sydney and Melbourne, you'll like this site.
There are links to information on independent bands including any e-mail
addresses or Web pages they might have. The best link they feature is the
Rick James Prison Web site which has been keeping him busy. Unfortunately,
all this information comes with a price: being so far away, it's incredibly
slow. Save time, turn the graphics off, and read about the band SILVERTHRONE,
a SILVERCHAIR knock-off... only these guys are 15!-MP
B
NoMeansNo
NoMeansNo claims to have toured the world over since 1981, selling out stadiums
and everything, but so does David Haselhoff. There are the usual lyrics,
list of tour dates, and a nice set of publicity stills to prop up this otherwise
anemic site. I'm not familiar with this band's music and might have liked
some sound files or some other content to give me a sense of what they do.
I guess if you're a fan (and I'm sure you are) you'd like this O.K. I just
Say No.-MP
C+
Street
Justice
Gatas Parliament is the Norwegian Communist rap group that makes up 67 percent
of the funk in that country, and 100 percent of this Web site. Even though
the bulk of it is in indecipherable Norwegian, there's enough English to
let you understand what's going on. Read (what you can) of their bios. Don't
they look cute? Sure, these young Red Shirts may want to overthrow their
parents capitalist agenda, but that doesn't stop them from Rockin'!-MP
A
The Byrds
Psychedelic, man! Even though I was through with the 60s in the late eighties,
this brought me back. A trippy logo dominates this site, featuring tons
of band photos and album artwork, a few sound files, a giant unformatted
Usenet FAQ, guitar tab, and the latest news from the band members themselves.
Also, peruse "fan memories" of the great times and the concerts
they were too drugged out to remember. Visit the "Folk Den," which
has a new, unreleased folk song every month available for the download.
Maybe these Byrds can sing, but William Shatner still does a better Tambourine
Man.-MP
B+
The GRAMMY Awards
By the time you read this, the Grammy Awards will be a glint in the eye
of a fickle public. A visit to the Grammy page will yield a big list of
who's been nominated in every category, from Rock to Classical. There's
also a mysterious link to a Rock Artist Showcase, which never works. A few
days from when I am writing this, the site promises to have daily updates
and live feeds leading up to the awards. Of course, by the time you read
this, it'll all be moot. My bold prediction for 1996: The Monkees sweep
this year's awards... again!-MP
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