IRC's Background and Mission

The purpose of this blog is to highlight mostly independent (‘indie’) and alternative (‘alt’) rock music, and other genres as well, including folk, pop, acoustic, electronic and hard rock, much of which is largely unknown to the mass music market. Nevertheless, IRC is convinced that much of the music that most people have never heard is some of the best music being made. And this has been the case for more than two decades.

We are a small team located in northern California with contributors located in other areas. This is no budget and the blog itself makes only enough money each month in Google Ads to cover the server and hosting costs of the site – about $10 monthly, on average.

During the past two years, IRC has published many indie rock news items, band profiles, festival updates and playlists of downloadable MP3s from a vast array of indie musicians and groups.

Thus far, feedback on IRC’s playlist series has been positive to overwhelming, and that's wonderful because the whole idea is to turn on music lovers to new music they wouldn't otherwise be exposed to.

If featured MP3s make their way to your permanent music collection, chances are you will want to hear more from the artists, go to shows and keep tabs. It's hard to do that, I discover over and again, with so much great music to listen to.

I cannot think of anything more awesome than sharing great music with others. Admittedly, not everyone will like IRC’s song selections, but it should be known that I do not have a fixed genre. Simply, IRC seeks, find and publishes great independent and alternative music regardless of when and where and who it comes from.

Every imaginable musical genre has some great songs, and you'll find plenty of such music on IRC. While there will definitely be mainstream rock that is published on IRC, for the most part, this is a music blog of indie and alternative music.

Anyone who really appreciates really good music, over time, realizes that a huge chunk of the best music ever made falls into the 'obscure', most especially in the saturated entertainment culture we live in. And that's just fine because for those of us who have come to the same conclusion, would, for the most part, like it to stay that way.

The artists and bands featured in this playlist series will most often not be well-known artists (except to hard-core indie, alternative and underground music enthusiasts). That's exactly why this music blog is so important.

As a blog about indie rock, and various genres that fall under this widening 'umbrealla' term, IRC’s central mission is to find, filter and deliver the best under rated music to our regular readers, visitors, RSS and email subscribers.

The volume of amazing music released around the world every month is overwhelming, thanks in large part to the explosion of the Internet worldwide.

An entire music editorial team, such as AllMusic.com or Rolling Stone magazine, let alone small music blog, cannot possibly scrap the surface of the mountains of new music that comes out each month.

But we try.

Enjoy.

Labels: About IRC

Indie pop rock icon Morrissey still has the pull to sell out stadiums and other venues worldwide thanks to his adoring fans - young and older - who just can't seem to get enough of his catchy pop songs and more often, dreary, whiny ballads about how the world hates him, how sad and depressed he is and why love never seems to work out for him.

Morrissey has been touring the world for the past 21 months, notching up more than 150 shows from Seattle to Tokyo to London and New York. What's going on man? Are you trying to prove something?

But more interesting is why does Morrissey continues to say no to a Smiths' Reunion. In fact, he recently turned down a $75 million payout to perform 50 shows as part of a Smiths' reunion.

Naturally Morrissey (I hate writing your stupid name, much less having to say it; use your full real name dude - it's not like you're Oprah), the former lead singer of indie pop legends, The Smiths, has stirred up speculation of a possible reunion of the one of the most popular post punk bands ever.

According to TicketNews, Morrissey was approached during the course of the summer by a consortium of music event promoters, in the wake of the success of The Police, U2 and The Rolling Stones tours, with a $75 million offer for a Smiths' reunion tour in 2008 and/or 2009.

The offer called for Morrissey to do a minimum of 50 shows worldwide with the other members of the band. The promoters only conditions were reportedly that the shows be promoted with The Smiths' moniker and that Johnny Marr be included in the reunion tour.


Morrissey apparently turned down the offer. Despite this news, Morrissey and Smiths' fans worldwide are relentless and continue to speculate if a reunion tour was imminent.

Morrissey put an end to those rumors this week, instead announced a string of new solo shows, with extended dates in New York City and Los Angeles. What a jerk - get over it and do a reunion tour bitch before it's too late. 8-

See IndieRockConcerts.com for more information on the show schedules, tickets and fan pages.

(Check this page later for updated links, MP3s and more from Morrissey and The Smiths)

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Labels: 2007 Indie Concerts, Free MP3s, Indie Singers, Morrissey, Reunion Tours, The Smiths