I’ve had some time to branch out away from our Get To Know Your Blogger feature to include other individuals who I think are making great contributions to the online music world. After two segments with Daytrotter, I also asked Brandon from Elbo.ws to take the time to answer a couple of questions so we could get a better idea of the musical tastes of the man behind Elbo.ws.

Could you give us some general background on you and what got you started with Elbo.ws?

When friend introduced me to music blogs, I was hooked. It was an opportunity to learn about and listen to new music from an alternate source that wasn’t trying to push Young Jeezy or some generic alt rock. The problem was that you’d have to monitor hundreds of sites to really get the entire picture. After a bit of searching, I found the former mp3blogs.com which pretty much aggregated everything into a single list. It was more comprehensive, but they didn’t really do anything with the amount of info that was available. So, I started elbo.ws with the idea that we would take ID3 tags and sort of try to track trends in the music blog world.

For those that may not be familiar at all with what Elbo.ws does, could you provide a summary?

Basically, 4 times an hour, elbo.ws goes through about 1,700 music blogs, indexes the posts and pulls out relevant links and information. Right now we’re indexing by ID3 tags in the mp3 files and tracking popular artists and tracks based on that as well as monitoring YouTube links to give people an idea of what’s popular on YouTube with the music blogging community.

How many blogs do you currently have on board at Elbo.ws?

1,700 as of Nov 22.. This changes daily as more blogs are added and approved.

CLICK HERE TO READ

I want get an idea of your musical taste evolution if you will. What were some of the first albums/tapes/CD’s you bought?

Haha.. that’s a fun question for anyone to answer. My first CD’s I purchased were Spin Doctors Pocket Full of Kryptonite, Janet Jackson’s Janet and Billy Joel’s River of Dreams. God, that’s embarrassing. My next albums were a bit better: Blind Melon, Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots.

What are some of your favorite records of all time?

I love Weezer’s Blue Album and Pinkerton, Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison, Ben Folds Rockin’ The Suburbs, Arcade Fire’s Funeral, The Shins Chutes Too Narrow and Oh, Inverted World.

What have been the albums you’ve enjoyed most that were released this year?

I consider myself pretty picky, so there aren’t many full albums that I listen to all the way through. I enjoyed Arctic Monkeys and Gnarls Barkley’s debuts.

Can you tell me what the first concert you saw was and when? To follow that up, are there any particular shows that stand out in terms of being favorites?

I grew up in the middle of nowhere in Northeast Pennsylvania, so I wasn’t really able to get to many shows before I was able to drive. My first concert was The Toadies with Bush when I was 15.

My two favorite shows would have to be Arcade Fire at Webster Hall in early 2005 and The Shins at Irving Plaza on Easter Sunday, 2004.

What are some bands that you haven’t gotten the chance to see live, but would really like to?

I would like to see Sufjan in a full show. I saw them play a few songs the New York a few months ago for some charity thing (w/ David Byrne) and they were pretty good.

I know you’re familiar with the Good Hodgkins post which states that sites like Elbo.ws might actually be hurting blogs more than they are helping them. What are your thoughts on the topic?

I think he was trying to say that elbo.ws is hurting music blogs as a whole rather than hurting a particular music blog. Do I think it’s true? I really don’t. I feel that a lot of people come to elbo.ws to discover music and music blogs. I think it’s a great way for a new blog to get some exposure. I like that elbo.ws levels the playing field a bit for new blogs to come in and be on the same level as established blogs (at least in browsers pointed to http://elbo.ws). I know there are a few bad eggs out there that are just looking for hits. These people will generally look at the top 10 list on elbo.ws and post the same stuff in order to get hits from people looking over the list. I feel that people who do this won’t retain the readers that more established opinion makers will keep and they’ll eventually tire from struggling to catch up.

Outside of music do you have any other interests or projects?

Tons of projects. Many are small or haven’t played out yet. One site that I’m trying to get the word out about is http://4ca.st – a clearer view of the weather.