[FAQ] the alt.music group list

[Brian Edmonds <edmonds...>]

After a week on hiatus, the alt.music group list is back at a new
address, and with a new format.  Of course, I won't claim the format is
any better, it's just a result of w3-mode being my text browser of
choice at the new address, and lynx at the old.

New information this week on:
  alt.music.clannad            <kevq (at) banana(dot)demon(dot)co(dot)uk>
  alt.music.enya               <kevq (at) banana(dot)demon(dot)co(dot)uk>
  alt.music.orb                <gnosis (at) brahman(dot)nullnet(dot)fi>
  alt.music.primus             <gnosis (at) brahman(dot)nullnet(dot)fi>
  alt.music.tape-culture       <ez048746 (at) dale(dot)ucdavis(dot)edu>

______________________________________________________________________________

 THE ALT.MUSIC GROUP LIST
Revision 0.4.2, February 18, 1995
Copyright (c) 1995, Brian Edmonds

______________________________________________________________________________

List compiled and maintained by Brian Edmonds.  Please send all additions
(especially relevent URLs for the web page), corrections and updates to
<edmonds (at) cs(dot)ubc(dot)ca>.  If possible, please try to format your 
entries in
such a way that I can just cut and paste them into the list.

This is intended to be a list of all known groups in the alt.music hierarchy,
along with a short description of what the group is for.  Anyone with
information to add to the descriptions should mail it to the list maintainer.
Currently the list is being posted to alt.config, alt.music.misc, and a number
of other alt.music groups each week.  It is also available on the web at:
    o http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/edmonds/usenet/alt-music.html

Thanks to:
    o Alan Brown for making me think this might actually work.
    o Joshua Kreitzer for many suggestions he'll deny if asked.  :)
    o Myra Wong for the LoMML and formatting ideas.

______________________________________________________________________________

 How To Use This List

 Known groups are listed with their newsgroups description line and a
few lines describing the intended subject of the group.  If there is a known
mailing list echo for the group, it is also included.  At the end of the list,
there are suggestions on how to create a newsgroup for your favourite musical
artist, a pointer on how to create alt groups, and a pointer to how to find
musical mailing lists.  Please consult the list of musical mailing lists and
carefully consider the suggestions for creating a musical newsgroup before
coming to alt.config to ask for a new alt.music group.

______________________________________________________________________________

    o alt.music.4-track ()

    o alt.music.4ad ()
      The music label 4AD, I presume.  A list of artists here would be handy.

    o alt.music.a-cappella (Like rec.music.a-cappella, only different)
      A-cappella (human voice only) music.  "It has been effectively
      superceded by rec.music.a-cappella which has 10 times the number of
      posts.  alt groups can't be deleted, so it's still here.  Some people
      don't have access to the r.m.a-cappella group and post here instead."
      Greg Weiss <grweiss (at) cs(dot)princeton(dot)edu>.

    o alt.music.aliceinchains (One of Seattle's Finest)
      "Discussion of Alice in Chains including Internet resources and the
      occassional update from the mailing list.  Mostly discussion amongst
      fans of the band, including info., trading, questions, answers, etc."
      KhadejahJ <KhadejahJ (at) aol(dot)com>.

    o alt.music.alternative (For groups having 2 or less Platinum-selling
      albums)

    o alt.music.alternative.female (Discussing alternative music by female
      artists)

    o alt.music.amy-grant (Discussion about Amy Grant and her music)
      The ex-CCM gone pop singer/songwriter Amy Grant.

    o alt.music.beastie-boys (Discussion of crossover group, The)
      "This group has been used for discussion of the b-boyz and other Grand
      Royals and is now getting quite a bit of mail on a group called 311
      without much interference from subscribers.  A Tribe Called Quest, a
      Grand Royal group called Luscious Jackson and just about any new phunk
      gets notice there." Tim Peter Nicholls <dyslxic3 (at) 
uclink(dot)berkeley(dot)edu>.

    o alt.music.bela-fleck (Bela and the Flecktones)

    o alt.music.big-band (Sounds from the Big Band era)

    o alt.music.billy-joel (Discussion of Billy Brinkley, err Joel)

    o alt.music.bjork (Discussion of Icelandic singer Bjork)
      Bjork is an Icelandic singer, formerly of the Sugarcubes.  Her hits
      include "Big Time Sensuality".

    o alt.music.blues-traveler (For "All fellow travelers")
      This group is gatewayed from the blues-traveler mailing list,
      blues-traveler-request (at) cs(dot)umd(dot)edu, which is run by Dabe 
Murphy
      <dabe (at) cs(dot)UMD(dot)EDU>.  HORDE (non-BT) related topics are 
intended to
      be kept to a minimum, and there is a separate mailing list for HORDE
      discussion, horde-request (at) world(dot)std(dot)com(dot)  Tim Peter 
Nicholls
      <dyslxic3 (at) uclink(dot)berkeley(dot)edu> was the first to fill me in 
that
      "HORDE stands for Horizons Of Rock Developing Everywhere," and is a tour
      featuring a number of bands which seem to be gaining in popularity.
      According to Dabe, they have been going on for three or four years, and
      were orginally headlined by Phish, the Spin Doctors, BT and Widespread
      Panic.

    o alt.music.bootlegs (Discussion of unofficial recordings)
      Recordings released without the authorization of the artist's record
      company (typically these are live recordings).  In much of the world it
      is at least a copyright violation to produce and sell such recordings.

    o alt.music.brian-eno (Apparently too popular to warrant further
      description)

    o alt.music.butholesurfers (The psychadelic hard-core group Butthole
      Surfers)

    o alt.music.byrds (The music and fans of The Byrds)
      "Alt.music.byrds is a newsgroup for discussion of the folk-rock group,
      'The Byrds'.  The Byrds were the first and the best of the folk-rock
      groups of the 60's, formed in Los Angeles in 1964.  The group consisted
      of James "Roger" McGuinn (12-string guitar), David Crosby (guitar), Gene
      Clark (tambourine), Chris Hillman (bass), and Michael Clarke (drums)."
      Joel Furr <jfurr (at) netcom(dot)com>.

    o alt.music.canada (Oh, Canada, eh?)
      Canadian bands, artists, and music in general.

    o alt.music.chapel-hill (You might think hymnals and chants, but you'd be
      wrong)
      I'm told that this group is for discussion of artists from the college
      town Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

    o alt.music.clannad ()
      "Irish folk and pop band, members from the Brennan family.  Lead singer
      Maire Brennan has more recently released albums of her own.  See also
      alt.music.enya (Enya has been a part-time member of Clannad)." Kevin
      F. Quinn <kevq (at) banana(dot)demon(dot)co(dot)uk>.

    o alt.music.complex-arrang (To complex for _your_ simple mind)

    o alt.music.counting-crows ()
      An American rock band which recently became successful with such songs
      as "Mr. Jones."

    o alt.music.danzig (Discussion of the works of Glenn Danzig.  MOTHER!)

    o alt.music.deep-purple (Discussions about Deep Purple and related
      artists)
      "Related artists include solo projects of anyone who's ever been in Deep
      Purple, and bands consisting of people who have been in DP.  This
      includes Gillan, Rainbow, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath, Glenn Hughes, Roger
      Glover, Captain Beyond, Fandango, Warhorse and a host of others.
      Spinoffs of those are also allowed, and if Ritchie Blackmore's hairpiece
      does session work with the dead weasel on Ian Paice's head,
      a.m.deep-purple is where you'll hear it first.  Oh, and the career of
      Ritchie Blackmore's son (truly a related artist) has been mentioned a
      couple of times as well." R. Dijkhuis <s0499528 (at) let(dot)rug(dot)nl>.

    o alt.music.def-leppard (Talk about the rock group Def Leppard)

    o alt.music.dio ()
      Ronnie James Dio, a heavy metal artist formerly with Black Sabbath, who
      has primarily worked with his own band, Dio, since the early 1980s.

    o alt.music.dream-theater (Is "progressive metal" an accepted label?)

    o alt.music.ebm (Electronic (or not?) Body Music)

    o alt.music.ecto (Happy Rhodes and other music by plasms)

    o alt.music.elo (The Electric Light Orchestra)

    o alt.music.enigma-dcd-etc (Groups blending ambient and cultural
      influences)
      "This group exists for the discussion of both Enigma and Dead Can Dance,
      as well as any other musical group that falls into genre (eg.  Delerium,
      Deep Forest, Enya, Loreena McKennitt, and even Pink Floyd).  All these
      groups blend ambient and cultural elements, producing a new type of
      music that does not fit into any standard classification.  Whereas
      before information on the aforementioned groups were scattered
      throughout the various other newsgroups in the alt.music heirarchy, now
      alt.music.enigma-dcd-etc gives this information a home.  Since both
      Enigma and Dead Can Dance have a large following but no specific
      newsgroups, alt.music.enigma-dcd-etc provides a convienent place to
      distribute information and promote awareness of these and other groups."
      Alex Pomeranz <aapomeranz (at) ucdavis(dot)edu>.

    o alt.music.enya (Gaelic set to spacey music)
      "Enya is an Irish musician, from the same family as Clannad (see
      alt.music.clannad).  Her unique music is atmospheric and evocative."
      Kevin F. Quinn <kevq (at) banana(dot)demon(dot)co(dot)uk>.

    o alt.music.fates-warning (Fates Warning)

    o alt.music.filk (SF/fantasy related folk music)

    o alt.music.fleetwood-mac (Rock group Fleetwood Mac and its members)

    o alt.music.genesis (The rock group Genesis)

    o alt.music.green-day (The rock group Green Day)
      A recent alt.config flamefest receiving occasional traffic.

    o alt.music.hardcore (Could be porno set to music)
      I'm told it's kind of like punk.

    o alt.music.independent (Soloists without contracts with the major labels)

    o alt.music.james-taylor (JT!)

    o alt.music.jethro-tull (Ironman sitting on a park bench)

    o alt.music.jewish (Music from the Jewish heritage)

    o alt.music.jimi.hendrix ('Scuse me, while I kiss the sky)

    o alt.music.jon-spencer (Adulation of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion)
      "The alt.music.jon-spencer newsgroup will be open to any and all
      discussion of the music of and information about The Jon Spencer Blues
      Explosion.  Discussion will include (but not be limited to):
        * Albums - People's thoughts on the various records
        * Related - Related bands (i.e.  The Jesus Lizard, et al)
        * General - Sightings, tour info, release dates, etc.
      This group is not affiliated with The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion or
      Matador Records, though input from either of those would be most
      appreciated." Pujeeb Rastanfani <s0n1c (at) ripco(dot)com>.

    o alt.music.journalism (Talk about talking about music)

    o alt.music.karaoke (Please make it stop!)

    o alt.music.kylie-minogue (Music of Kylie Minogue)

    o alt.music.led-zeppelin (Discussion about Led Zeppelin and their music)

    o alt.music.leonard-cohen ()
      Canadian poet, singer and songwriter.

    o alt.music.lor-mckennitt ()
      Canadian singer and songwriter.

    o alt.music.lyrics (Bring out yer lyrics!)

    o alt.music.makers.dj ()

    o alt.music.makers.woodwind ()

    o alt.music.marillion (A progressive band; the Silmarillion is a book)

    o alt.music.midi ()

    o alt.music.misc (Like rec.music.misc, only different)

    o alt.music.monkees (Hey, hey, they were the Monkees)

    o alt.music.moody-blues (Still In Search of the Lost Chord)

    o alt.music.nin (Nine Inch Nails, aka Trent Reznor)
      And other appearances by the nightmare that is Trent.

    o alt.music.nirvana (Generation X's Seattle leaders, leaderless)

    o alt.music.offspring ()
      "The band Offspring is basically the same punk-style as Green Day, but a
      bit more chaotic....  oh, they've sold about as many records."
      Christopher Bird <cbird (at) chat(dot)carleton(dot)ca>.

    o alt.music.orb (Little fluffy clouds...)
      "Discussion of the Orb, one of the best known ambient techno/dub groups,
      and their numerous spinoff projects (including System 7 and Fortran 5).
      The group is very poorly propagated and the Cumulonimbus list
      (orb-request (at) xmission(dot)com, I think) is a much better place for
      discussion." Gnosis <gnosis (at) brahman(dot)nullnet(dot)fi>

    o alt.music.ozzy ()

    o alt.music.pat-mccurdy ()

    o alt.music.paul-simon (Discussion of Paul Simon's music)

    o alt.music.pearl-jam (The music of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam)

    o alt.music.peter-gabriel (So, it's the music of Peter Gabriel, sans
      frontier)

    o alt.music.pink-floyd (Sold out shows everywhere)

    o alt.music.primus (Primus sucks)
      "The description line is a reference to one CD where the lead singer
      shouts "We're Primus, we suck!" which has become an inside joke of sorts
      for Primus fans." Gnosis <gnosis (at) brahman(dot)nullnet(dot)fi>

    o alt.music.prince (So my Prince came; make him go away)
      There was actually a discussion on a.m.p about changing the name to
      reflect Prince's O(+> name, but it was decided that it should not be
      done due to the multiple ways to spell the squiggle in ASCII.

    o alt.music.producer (Discussion about record production and A&R)

    o alt.music.progressive (Yes, Marillion, Asia, King Crimson, etc)

    o alt.music.psychedelic (Music to take drugs to)

    o alt.music.queen (He's dead, Jim)

    o alt.music.ramones ()
      An American punk group, founded in the 1970s, yet still active today.
      They were featured in the movie "Rock 'n' Roll High School" and their
      best known songs include "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker," "Blitzkrieg Bop,"
      and "Pet Sematary."

    o alt.music.rockabilly ()

    o alt.music.roger-waters (To Pink or Not to Pink)

    o alt.music.rush (For Rushheads)

    o alt.music.s-mclachlan (The music of Sarah Mclachlan)
      Canadian singer, songwriter, and general goddess Sarah McLachlan.  Does
      this include much general Nettwerk (her label) discussion?

    o alt.music.seal (Discussions & news about the British musician/singer/
      songwriter, Seal)
      According to information from Gareth Edwards
      <config (at) ultim(dot)demon(dot)co(dot)uk> the following network 
resources are
      also available:
        * http://minerva.cis.yale.edu/~ariedels/seal.html
        * ftp://ftp.mission.com/pub/users/eheintz/text/seal

    o alt.music.ska (Discussions of ska (skank) music, bands, and suchlike)
      The following pointers to network resources were provided by Tomas
      Willis <tomas (at) dialin-8(dot)engr(dot)wisc(dot)ed>.
        * ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/music/ska-faq/
        * 
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/music/ska-faq/top.html
      I'm still interested in anyone who will provide me with a few lines
      describing just what ska is...

    o alt.music.smash-pumpkins (The Smashing Pumpkins)

    o alt.music.smiths ()
      Discussion of the now-defunct British band and the solo career of its
      singer Morrissey.

    o alt.music.sondheim (Life and music of Stephen Sondheim)
      "This group is for the discussion of the life and music of Stephen
      Sondheim, called by some 'the greatest composer in musical theatre.' He
      is known for his unorthodox use of both music and lyrics, and has had a
      prolific and active career." Andrew Stephen Damick
      <asdamick (at) unity(dot)ncsu(dot)edu>.

    o alt.music.sonic-youth (Loud enough to make you deaf)

    o alt.music.sophie-hawkins (News & Discussions on Sophie B. Hawkins)

    o alt.music.soul (Soul, rhythm, and blues)
      The discussion pertains to the genre of music equivalent to rhythm and
      blues.

    o alt.music.soundgarden (The rock group Soundgarden)

    o alt.music.stone-temple (The group Stone Temple Pilots)

    o alt.music.swedish-pop (ABBA and beyond)

    o alt.music.sylvian ()

    o alt.music.synthpop (Depeche Mode, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, and much
      more!)

    o alt.music.tape-culture (For fans of the underground, cassette-culture)

    o alt.music.techno (Bring on the bass!)

    o alt.music.the-doors (A rider on the storm no more)

    o alt.music.tmbg (The group They Might Be Giants)

    o alt.music.todd-rundgren (Todd Rundgren music fandom)

    o alt.music.tragically-hip (The rock group The Tragically Hip)
      Another Canadian band.

    o alt.music.u2 (The rock group U2)

    o alt.music.video-games ()

    o alt.music.ween (Marble Tulip Juicy Tree)

    o alt.music.weird-al (The parodist Weird Al Yankovic)

    o alt.music.who (Rock group The Who and its members)

    o alt.music.world (Music from around the world)

    o alt.music.yes (The progressive band Yes)

    o alt.music.yngwie (Talk about Yngwie J. Malmsteen)

______________________________________________________________________________

The following groups seem to be receiving traffic, but have illegal names:
    o alt.music.barenaked-ladies
    o alt.music.bruce-springsteen

______________________________________________________________________________

 How To Create a Newsgroup For a Musical Artist

 The purpose of this mini-faq is to help people who want to create
newsgroups for their favourite artists/bands avoid the flamefest of
alt.config, and the poor propagation of alt.music.  Taking this route will
require an investment of three months to a year before you have a newsgroup,
but if the fandom really exists, then it will be worth it.

  1. Create a mailing list.  For a list of mailing list providers, see
     http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/edmonds/usenet/ml-providers.txt.
  2. Advertise it every few weeks in the appropriate related alt.music
     groups, and in rec.music.info.  An informative and well written
     advert of a paragraph or two (with CLEAR subscription instructions)
     will be more likely to attract positive attention than a "Hey, join
     my k00l list" type posting.
  3. While it is growing, familiarize yourself with the Big-7 newsgroup
     creation guidelines, found in news.announce.newgroups.  Reading
     news.groups for a month or two will also be helpful.  Make sure that
     you stay active on the mailing list to maintain a steady traffic and
     keep people interested -- interesting lists grow fast.
  4. Wait until your mailing list has a few hundred members.  I would
     suggest 200 as a minimum, and 500 being almost a sure thing.
  5. If the list never gets this many readers, then there probably aren't
     as many fans on the net as you thought.  At this point, you can go
     propose an alt.music group, or (more sensibly, I think) stick with
     the mailing list.
  6. Submit an RFD for the group under rec.music[.artists].  Come up with
     a good name, and make sure the RFD/CFV are posted to your mailing
     list, and encourage members to vote.  If you can get a few hundred
     yes votes from the list, then you're almost guaranteed to get a group
     with worldwide propagation.
  7. Suggestion: arranging to turn the mailing list into a gateway for
     newsgroup once created will help in avoiding negative votes from
     members of the list who cannot receive news directly.

______________________________________________________________________________

 How To Create an Alt Group

 Absolute requirements for creating an alt group:

  1. No component of the name may be more than 14 characters.  Allowed
     characters are lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens and pluses.
     Components consisting solely of digits are strongly discouraged.
  2. The group must be discussed in alt.config, to general agreement, and
     any serious objections raised must be dealt with.
  3. The name must be as indicative of the intended topic as possible.
     Ambigious names will likely raise serious objections.
  4. Groups which are intended for binary traffic must be under
     alt.binaries.
  5. Groups which are intended for topics which won't be interesting next
     year must be under alt.current-events.

Recommended guidelines for creating an alt group:

  1. Proposals which create new hierarchies will be harder to support.
  2. Proposals whose topic(s) are fully covered in other groups will be
     even harder to support.
  3. Groups for local or regional topics should be created in your local
     or regional hierarchies, not in alt.
  4. Would this topic be adequately handled by a mailing list, or does it
     really have widespread interest?

For complete information on creating an alt group, please refer to the alt
group creation FAQ, which is available as follows:

    o WWW: http://www.pop.psu.edu/~barr/alt-creation-guide.html
    o FTP: anonymous (at) rtfm(dot)mit(dot)edu
      /pub/usenet/alt.config/So_You_Want_to_Create_an_Alt_Newsgroup
    o email: majordomo (at) pop(dot)psu(dot)edu with "get file 
alt-creation-guide" in the
      message body

______________________________________________________________________________

 How To Find Musical Mailing Lists

 If you would like the latest version of the List of Musical Mailing
Lists e-mailed to you at any time, please send your request to
<mkwong (at) sdcc13(dot)ucsd(dot)edu>.  Requests will be processed manually.  
Include
"LoMML" or "List of Music Mailing Lists" in your request; there is not a
distribution list for this document to subscribe to.  If possible, please try
to get this document by another means first.

This document is also be available via finger mkwong (at) 
sdcc13(dot)ucsd(dot)edu

This document is also available via anonymous FTP at:

    o ftp://server.berkeley.edu/pub/misc/lomml
    o ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/lomml/version-9501dd.gz
    o ftp://ftp.uwp.edu/pub/incoming/misc.music.files/lomml
    o ftp://ftp.uwp.edu/pub/music/misc/mail.lists.music

This document is also available on the World Wide Web (WWW) at:

    o http://server.berkeley.edu/~ayukawa/lomml.html

Thanks to Scott Southwick  for pointing out that
Indiana University also maintains a searchable archive of over 9000 mailing
lists.  It is accessible on the web at:

    o http://scwww.ucs.indiana.edu/mlarchive/

---UY---Maison-Ikkoku---Riding-Bean---UF--KOR--Akira---/================
 Brian Edmonds (MSc CompSci) aka Jubal (at) tmi-2          / SCA: Bardas,OFLT
 http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/edmonds       ...soviet / Lions Gate, AnTir
----Cranberries----Enya----Sarah-McLachlan---NIN----/___inux spoken here
      RoA #109:  Dignity in an empty sack is worth an empty sack.