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Back in the day (”the day” here refers to pre-2002, I’d say, before MySpace, Technorati, and music blog aggregators like Hype Machine & Elbo.ws), it was way harder to discover new bands than it is today. It was a combination of word of mouth, opening acts at shows, episodes of The NewMusic and magazines like Spin and NME. Today there are over 60 million blogs - 175,000 new ones are created each day, and many of them are mp3/music-based, transforming average joes everywhere into tastemakers and music mavens. Plus, any fledgling artist can fire up a MySpace page with a quick bio and sample songs without ever inking a record deal.

Here are some bands that we discovered in 2007 thanks to the glory of the Internet. And if this post is your introduction to any of these bands, for shame! Get listening
* The Teenagers: The Teenagers are JUST blowing up here now, with the announcement of a North American tour in early 2008 (finally!) but they first made waves online in the spring of 2007, at which point I strongly urged you to listen to them (or else). I remember the days when the only search results I could glean from a google search for “The Teenagers” was the song by MCR - grr. Their debut album Reality Check is due sometime in 2008, and it should be a raunchy banger of a mix. Can’t wait!

MySpace: The Teenagers
Check Out: Homecoming, Starlett Johansson, The Teenagers remixes

* Kate Nash: How many cutie British songstresses can we possibly handle in a year? An infinite number, it would seem (Amy, Lily, Maya, Beth)! Kate’s constantly compared to Lily Allen, who you’ll recall exploded in 2006 via MySpace as well. Not one to keep all the love for herself, Lily posted a coupla songs by Kate on her popular page, and voila - next thing you know, Kate was inking a record deal.

MySpace: Kate Nash
Check Out: Dickhead, Foundations, Pumpkin Song

* Chromeo: When someone first tipped me off to Chromeo, their official site was an online abomination. Totally brutal design and un-navigatable. Fortunately the Montreal duo soon hooked themselves up with a pared down page and tagged along on a few cross-Canada tours and next thing you know, DJs everywhere were playing and remixing their songs at gigs. Remarkably, singer David Macklovitch (who is DJ A-Trak’ [Kanye West's tour DJ]’s older brother) still somehow finds time to teach undergrad classes at Columbia University in NY state. WTF.

MySpace: Chromeo
Check Out: Fancy Footwork, Tenderoni

* Klaxons: Before the Mercury Prize, before gracing a gajillion NME covers and being remixed by everyone from Justice to Kavinsky, Klaxons songs slowly circulated their way from one mp3 blog to another - within no time they were being hailed them as THE band of 2007. Even uber-grump Noel Gallagher thinks they’re cool.

MySpace: Klaxons
Check Out: Atlantis To Interzone, Two Receivers

* Bat For Lashes: Here we go again with the hauntingly beautiful British voices…Bat for Lashes, aka Natasha Khan, was slated as the critics’ favourite to win the 2007 Mercury Prize for her debut album Fur And Gold. Her vocals have been compared to Bjork, Cat Power and Tori Amos, and Thom Yorke things she’s brilliant. Enough said, people.

MySpace: Bat For Lashes
Check Out: What’s A Girl To Do, Caroline’s A Victim

* Calvin Harris: He’s cute, British, he makes precious YouTube videos and he’s worked on Kylie Minogue and Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s newest albums. And his music is extremely danceable - it’s impossible for me to listen to Acceptable In The 80s without wanting to speed up the treadmill to the maximum mph.

MySpace: Calvin Harris
Check Out: Acceptable In The 80s, Girls, Colours

* Justice: OK, I don’t need to remind you how much I adore Justice. But I will tell you how I first heard of them. I was listening to Steve Lamacq on BBC6, and Waters Of Nazareth came on. I instantly fell in love, and spent the next six months (!) trying to track down that song in ANY format. I could not. I went so far as to record the archived show and cut out the radio quality song from the setlist. At the MTV Europe Music Awards in late 2006, Justice upset Kanye West by winning Video Of The Year for their reworking of Simian’s Never Be Alone (now called We Are Your Friends). Next thing you know, everyone was calling the French duo the next Daft Punk and they were igniting dance holocausts worldwide. Fin.

MySpace: Justice
Check Out: Phantom II, Waters Of Nazareth

* Foals: Oxford dance-punk band Foals haven’t quite broken yet, but that’s because we’ve only heard a sampling of the music they’ve recorded - debut album Antidotes will be released in March 2008 (just two months away!), and it won’t include either of their solo singles Mathletics and Hummer.

MySpace: Foals
Check Out: Mathletics, Hummer

* Paramore: Tennessee youngsters Paramore (ages 17-22) got their share of touring experience by participating in the last three Warped Tours, and before Riot! was even released, everyone had already fallen in love with vocalist Hayley Williams (voted Sexiest Female by Kerrang! mag) and they were selling out shows all over the UK.

MySpace: Paramore
Check Out: Crushcrushcrush, Misery Business

* Lil Mama: Early in the summer, now-18-year-old Lil Mama’s monster hit Lip Gloss became an online staple - it’s got 2 million plays on her MySpace page. That’s a LOT. The average single - even the big ones - on MySpace has like 300,000 listens. After Lip Gloss, she recorded single remixes with Avril Lavigne, Rihanna and Britney Spears. I don’t know how much longevity she’ll have, but I’ll be damned if Lip Gloss isn’t still in heavy rotation on my iPod!

MySpace: Lil Mama
Check Out: Lip Gloss, GSlide Tour Bus

Posted on Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 2:14 pm by Alison and is filed under MuchRadar.

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