Hi Rose Quartz reader! Thanks for checking out our blog. It's people like you who make RQ the equal-624th most popular blog on the Hype Machine.
We really like it when you comment on our posts. It makes us feel validated! Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, most of the comments we get are things like "WICKED", or "SIIIIIIIIIIIIICK", or "RAD", rather than well thought out and articulated criticism of our content and presentation. Damn you!
So here's what we'd like to happen. Please leave a post below saying one (or more) things you'd like to change (or not change) about Rose Quartz. The most interesting/profane/relevant comment will get a prize pack with a bunch of CDs we like, including but not limited to HTRK, Grant Hart, Wavves, Owen Pallett, Slug Guts, The Soft Pack, Pastels & Tenniscoats and Wild Beasts. OK?
Thanks in advance!
Max, Richard, Gervin & Shea.
16 comments:
I couldn't remember if I had ever actually even been to the site. I read RQ through Google Reader--I'd like more hip-hop coverage. There's so much weird and interesting shit happening with established artists and unknowns. DO IT: SIIIICK!
Apart from the fact that Rose Quartz blogs about both Australian and International bands that I always seem to love, the thing I love about this blog is the layout and design. The banners are pretty sweet, nice work from Greedy Hen.
You guys are one in a handful of blogs I frequent because you actually take the time to dig up new talent, and it's obvious that you have a lot of personal integrity when it comes to how you run this site and a great deal of respect for the musicians you feature.
I'm a fan of the handful of mixes you've put together. Just from listening to any one, you get a total feel for the taste of this site. A peek inside, if you will.
I think you should take more advantage of the connections you've made with these up-and-coming acts, doing a regular series where you select some faves to put together mixes. It would not only help them get their names out there more, but give readers an introduction that goes a little deeper than mp3 of their personal songs.
I've never commented here before. Sorry if it was too long, but I wanna win some free shit!
The mixes you put together always worth multiple listens and the new artists you dig up are for the most part exceptional. tere isn't a post i miss through g-reader. The reason i am writing now is because you asked a question. maybe you need to ask more questions if you want better answers.
Yeah, I read your blog all the time too, its pretty RAD!
I've always really like your choices too, but if you guys want more stimulating conversation in the posts some of them should go beyond where we can find the release and a rough overview of what/who they sound like. I kinda wanna know why you chose them, why you think they're better or worse than so and so, what they're doing different to the rest of their 'genre'...etc.
I love the mixes too, its probably what I listen to most. You could do some of them with talking in between songs, like a mini radio show so we can all hear your sexy little english/australian/NZ accents.
wicked blog!
I would like Rose Quartz more if it gave me more free shit.
Hi Rose Quartz,
I am the internet.
Rose Quartz links should open up in a new tab.
That would be Rad.
But apart from that i like your vernacular and the fact that each cog of the Quartz Machine has individuality and good taste, that i have learned to trust.
So thank you.
I dont really care for the free shit, just thought you should know you are appreciated.
Cheers.
When im not the internet im a Russian Frost Farmer.
Greater variety of content would elevate things; there's too much mediocre 'garage' rock, and an awkward amount of overhyped acts going along with the stuff no one's ever heard of (ie. what are Lucky Dragons, Underwater Peoples recs, Gary War Jackie-O Motherfucker, Excepter or The Apples in Stereo doing on this site? Aren't there 20,000 million other blogs+sites out there posting that stuff?). Also, maybe more straightforward writing that was actually critical, rather than intensely abstract metaphor-laden, way-too-imagistic stuff that doesn't even really seem to describe the music (at least it doesn't seem that way to anyone outside the person wrote it)--all of this does, yes, precludes actual discussion. It's just hard to find the desire to contribute to something that doesn't really say anything one way or the other about the song/artist posted or the place and context.
But I still visit all the time; it'd just be nice to see improved these things which continuously stand out...
Best of wishes.
DOOOOOPE SIIIIIIIIICK
Actually, I kinda hate how all your MP3 links open up a Box.net page/player instead of direct linking. I guess it just makes it one more step to download...
Otherwise, you know I love ya!
Keep it up! You guys are a huge reference form me on what is really going on with music, where it is headed, etc...This is love from Cali, Colombia.
Un abrazo.
hehe i'm going to sound like a knob - but maybe less similar stuff? and maybe things made earlier than 2008?
i guess this is meant to be a new music blog though so scratch the that probably.
end perceptive comment
Dear Rose Quartz,
I liked when you put up a Melbourne band I'd never heard of and then I saw them play a week or so later and then I put one of their songs on a mixtape (CD) for my friend in NZ.
I also like your banner and layout.
Some of the music you put up isn't particularly my taste but I like that too so short of saying 'please only post about bands and music that I personally will love' I don't know if I have any worthy criticism.
Thanks for introducing me to local stuff, I'm not from Australia and kind of thought the music here was a bit shit until I started paying more attention.
In a sea of lonely and lowly blogs I think your (Quartz's) trump card is most definitely the well crafted custom mixes and wonderful artistic direction of the page's layout. There's something about the vibrant colours, cropped photographs and single file scrolling which gives the blog an hint of sophistication and dash rock and roll. Further, I think it imbues the reader with a sense that what they're listening to is unique and undiscovered.
If I could make one suggestion, it would be that the team working on the blog have more of a 'street' presence'. That is to say, a journalistic routine of snapping shots from concerts, the odd interview etc. Each blogger at Rose Quartz is uniquely located somewhere where, doubtless, cool things are happening, so why not get intrepid about it? I'd read it.
Another suggestion would be to include a more diverse range of music on the blog. I've been hearing quite a bit of washy/post-punk/wavves-y type stuff over the last little bit, which is fine, but I miss the Hip Hop, the Faux Pas and the more meaty and beat heavy material which brought me to the blog in the first place.
If there's one thing I love more than the music on Rose Quartz, it's the girls who listen to it. No idea why, but the music posted here is like fly paper for waif-ish hipster beauties and always gets a great reaction when I put it on where I work (coffee shop in Ottawa, Canada) or when I play a mellow set.
Don't go anywhere..
Aside from the collection of solid MP3 choices we're presented with on a daily basis, I always find your actual writing to be pretty top notch. Most of the write-up's RQ offers manage to avoid the rock-crit cliches that I think a lot of other sources seem to consistantly fall back on. No band has ever sounded like the love child of Stephen Malkmus and The Cramps or something, ya know?
At the same time you don't employ overly-cryptic babble to get (or not get) your points across successfully. A previous comment accused you of this, and I think they missed the mark a little. This specifically confusing "20JFGs" style of reporting generally leaves me scratching my chin, rather than giving me a real sense of what a particular band may sound like. I think you regularly avoid this pitfall.
All bum-kissing aside, I guess you might want to reconsider some of the ultra Lo-Fi sounding bands you tend to BigUp once in a while. There is a fine line between sounding raw and unfiltered, and sounding like a guy farting into his 4-track in the corner of a basement.
Thanks, and keep up the good work
-Clark
I really enjoy reading about the music you folks cover here, and I like the way you do it. My feedback is mostly in terms of design -
I know a lot of people really like what Greedy Hen have done for your look, and I like Greedy Hen's work too, but I think it sits pretty clumsily here - especially on smaller screen sizes. The navigation is big and unwieldy, and the header is kind of overblown.
Sometimes I feel like everything's a bit crowded and not that well organised - especially archives. It's hard to find older items, for example, and there's no meaningful categorisation going on.
Obviously there are limits to what you can do with Blogspot. For that reason my gut feeling is that you'd be better off with something like a custom built Wordpress site or similar. I feel like the spacing between the three columns is a bit claustrophobic for me, and it makes me feel a bit restless when I read the top items.
Anyway - keep up the goodness. I don't expect you to cover every style I'm interested in, but what you do cover, you do well - and I also like that you provide, to some degree, a gateway for other tastemaker websites to find out about Au/NZ musical happenings.
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