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The InsiderOne Daily Report |
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Friday, December 15, 2000
Tales Of The Pacific Building InsiderOne's Michael Goldberg writes: On a Thursday morning, December 1, 1994, with the help of a small team of programmers (some still in college), I launched Addicted To Noise, the first music magazine on the Web. We — a group including IUMA founders Jeff Patterson, Rob Lord and Jon Luini — had been up all night putting the site together. We were in downtown Santa Cruz, working in a room on the third floor of a commercial building on Pacific Avenue so small it was more like a walk-in closet than any kind of office. But we had a bunch of workstations, a scanner or two, a box of CDs to sample, photos to scan, digitized logos and icons to put in place and edited copy to turn into Web pages. I had spent the previous two months gathering and editing material — interviews and feature stories, reviews and columns — preparing for the day when my online magazine, invented and reinvented in my mind for over a year, would materialize on the Web. That night, I was blown away when one of the team created the first ATN album review, complete with sound samples of some of the songs. (It was my review of Mono Men's Sin & Tonic, still one of my favorites — the album, that is.) Back then it seemed a miracle to actually be able to listen to song excerpts as you read an album review. I was literally vibrating, I was so excited. While I had rationalized that this could be a grand business, that night I truly didn't care. This was about the ability to create something new and make it available to music fans the world over. When the night was still young, some of us broke away and walked a few blocks, through the chill air, to pick up a load of Chinese food to bring back to the office — I recall that the egg rolls were excellent, as was the Kung Pao chicken. There was a feeling almost of revolution — I think everyone there could sense it. I'd worked for Rolling Stone magazine for over a decade — 1982–1993. By the time I got there, it was big business. Pre-Web, starting a rock magazine seemed impossible, requiring millions in financing, newsstand distribution deals, and on and on. But the Web was changing everything, and here was the proof. Slowly the HTML pages were coming together: an essay on the Beach Boys by Paul Williams, a column by Dave Marsh, an interview with Ry Cooder by Neil Straus and another I'd done with Mark Eitzel of the American Music Club. And all over the site, neon graphics by the great rock poster artist Frank Kozik. Every time I saw our original logo — a coat of arms comprising two syringes — I started to laugh. I had brought a sleeping bag with me, and while HTML coding was still going on, somewhere around 3 AM, I lay down in a corner of the room and passed out. When the site went live somewhere close to noon the next day, I felt like a different man. I could feel a new and different energy coursing through my body. Some of us left the office and staggered down the street to a café, where we ordered up omelets and orange juice and toast and bagels and coffee. Lots of coffee. Datastream: Dreamy Mazzy Star vocalist Hope Sandoval is finally back fronting a new combo, Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions. Her new 4-song EP, at the doorway again, an English release on Rough Trade, finds her collaborating with former My Bloody Valentine drummer Colm O'Ciosoig. One song, "Charlotte," features guitar by the British folksinger Bert Jansch... Return of the Breeders? That could be good news if sisters Kim and Kelley Deal follow through on comments they made during an unannounced Breeders performance — the first in six years featuring both sisters — on Tuesday night at Mr. T's Bowl, an L.A. club, according to SonicNet. Producer Steve Albini, who has been working on a Kim Deal solo album, confirmed that he will be producing the new Breeders sessions... So sad that England's Melody Maker, first published in 1926, will cease publication. Weekly circulation figures dropped from a high of 1/4 million to 30,000 copies, according to a BBC Online report. Some of Melody Maker's features will be folded into the NME, which is also owned by Melody Maker publisher IPC. The InsiderOne Daily Report appears weekdays at 9 AM PST, except when it doesn't. Michael Goldberg is the president of insiderone.net. He founded Addicted To Noise in 1994. |