Web Reviewing Community Links

Web Reviewing Community Links

The Web Reviewing Community has inspired me to listen to new music and motivated me to start "Almost Credible Reviews." Without the guidance of the following websites, I would never have had the opportunity to have my own.

The Web Reviewing Ring: (http://wrcupdates.tripod.com/cgi-bin/wrcupdates.html)

This website displays all of the most current updates by every member of the WRC. It is updated weekly by Guy Peters and enables you to see what your favorite reviewer is presently working on.

Mark Prindle:

(http://www.markprindle.com/)

This is one of the oldest sites in the WRC. Mark’s older reviews tend to be more about humor than about music, but his site is massive and excellent overall with his inclusion of many Indie groups. He is our witty, drunken “Founding Father” and even has recorded his own strangely addicting music that he sells on his page. Be sure to check out his impressive interview section as well, where Mark has talked with members of the Fall, Fugazi, Canned Heat, Pavement, the Meat Puppets, the Dead Kennedys, the Ramones and many more!

Captain Marvel: (http://www.capnmusic.org/index.htm)

The Captain (Ryan Atkinson) has a very impressive site. He combines Prindle’s humor with very opinionated views on all the albums he reviews. He uses letter grades to classify his album rankings and really does have a passion for music. Without a doubt, his is one of the best sites currently out there.

Scott Floman: (http://www.geocities.com/sfloman/homepage.html)

Scott’s page is very plain to look at, but his reviews are top notch. He covers almost every style of music and does so in an exceptionally professional way. He also uses letter grades on his reviews, which are brief, but somehow still extremely informative.

Music Junkies Anonymous: (http://www.geocities.com/mjareviews/)

This enormous site is run by Nick Karn and has been up for almost six years now. What makes it so unique is that it “employs” about 40 different reviewers who might all review the same album. You get an amazing amount of groups covered and many different opinions on what is good and what sucks. The site itself might be a little hard to navigate, but overall this is an excellent place to find a review on virtually any band.

Music Babble: ( http://www.eboards4all.com/841116/)

Music Babble is the unofficial meeting place of all those involved in the WRC. The Message Board is usually about music, but tends to go off on tangents. But still, for entertainment value alone, this is worth checking out.

Sir Mustapha: (http://www.geocities.com/sirmustapha/index.htm)

Unlike me, Fernando Canto of Brazil knows his HTML. Aside from his web skills, he writes thoughtful reviews of artists ranging from the Talking Heads to Jean Michael-Jarre to his personal favorite, Mike Oldfield. His site's rating system is unique, and works very well (I've tried ranking some of my own albums using his system and nothing is lost in the averaging process). Also, instead of band photos, he creates South Park caricatures of them! What's not to like about that?

Sylvan Migdal: (http://sylvanmigdal.com/reviews/)

This newer site rivals Guy's in its overall look...meaning it is visually stunning. Besides his record reviews, the site includes a webcomic which is crazy and brilliant. The actual reviews themselves are broken down into a precise numbering system and he individually grades each song. Not to be missed is his unique take on the Beatles...he reviews each album using a haiku! The fact that he nails every album and the band's history with these three lined poems is amazing and says alot for his cleverness.

Jack Feeny: (http://www.geocities.com/jackfeeny/index.htm) Jack’s site is very well done. His reviews are packed full of information and insight making it one of the most professional out there. He has over 450 albums reviewed and has taken the care to make sure every review has substance. Not only that but he is a hell of a nice guy (Thanks again Jack)! Adrian Denning: (http://www.adriandenning.co.uk/albums.html) Ahh…Adrian. The most emotional music critic in the WRC, Adrian offers his own eccentric writing style on his ever more popular site. He is passionate about all his reviews and takes tremendous pride in writing them, as he should, as they are very unique. Although he does tend to overreact about most things, that is just Adrian…his site features a wide variety of artists covered and his message board is a nice change of pace when you are burnt out from the madness that is Music Babble. He is also mostly responsible for starting the WRC as a whole. Chris Willie Williams: (http://www.disclaimerband.com/dmra.html) First and foremost, Chris Willie Williams is a one-man band known as Disclaimer, so be sure to buy his nationally released album, "The Airbag's Lipstick Kiss" as soon as possible. His site offers hundreds of bands most have never heard of and he rates “Abbey Road” a B-, so you know he has unique tastes. The site is very well done ascetically and the reviews are short and easy to read. Guy Peters: (http://www.guypetersreviews.com/) Guy’s site is, by far, the best looking site in the WRC. BY FAR! He matches his site’s pleasing ascetics with excellent reviews. Guy clearly knows his music and has an appealing writing style, made all the more impressive by the fact that English is not his first language. He tends to concentrate on overlooked or forgotten groups, which makes his site very valuable for those of us looking for new music. John McFerrin: (http://www.angelfire.com/rock2/johntalksrock/index.html) John's site, although rarely updated more than a few times per month, is very well done. He writes reviews reminiscent of the legendary, semi-retired George Starostin meaning each review is meticulously written and researched. His rating system seems complicated at first, but might be the most methodical system on the WRC. Ryan Mulligan: (http://www.angelfire.com/rock3/ryans_reviews/) The thinking man's humorous reviewing site, Ryan's site is all about the writing and not the format. He doesn't review that frequently (although he's been on hiatus because of school lately), but when he does you'll be amazed at his sophisticated wit and irreverent humor. He's reviews range from Big Star to Fugazi to Led Zeppelin. Cosmic Ben: (http://members.aol.com/cosmicben/page/) Ben Marlin's site has a wide variety of things to keep you interested including his online journal (in all its honesty), book reviews, and songs of the ____. His total record review output isn't as staggering as some of the other, older sites, but his writing style, charm, and wit more than makes up for the smaller numbers.

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