IndieCollision

You remember the guy who always's the first to know about a band, and once it attained even the slightest notoriety would immediately scoff, roll his eyes, and talk about how much better it was before selling out to the corporate neofascists who control our wealth? God, he was cool. So be him, with IndieCollision.

Launched by a Chicago musician frustrated with the difficulty of building a broader fan base, IC puts access to under-the-radar bands at your fingertips with a searchable database of an ever-growing, diverse group of unsigned artists, giving you a chance to say you knew them BEFORE they hit it big and changed their name to Del Amitri. Artists, all of whom have user-determined popularity scores, are searchable by nine genre categories (Rock/Pop, Punk, Soul/R&B etc, though many insist they "don't like to be categorized") and also by location if you prefer to scout acts that are close to home, making your eventual plans to stalk them way more practical. Click on any artist to receive a range of options like streaming some free tuneage, buying their full CD, scoping out their Web site, and liking/loathing them, a feature you wish was available for stepmoms.

Because no musical elitism is complete without your live show yarns, they also plan on sponsoring artist showcases where you can get an up close look at the bands you discovered on the site, and remind everyone about the time you got nabbed trying to sneak backstage, and spent a night in County spooning a dude named Miguel. God, that was cool.