As stated on my flagship blog Unencumbered Music Reviews, changes are afoot on my remaining 2 blogs. In effect, Under the Radar is now out of the review business. All of the existing reviews will eventually be moved over to UMR. It will take some time, and it won't be a dedicated project, so this blog will be a hodgepodge for a long while I suspect. I was miles behind on getting the contemporary reviews up (1990's and on), and rather than force a band page because a review existed, I have given up on that quest.
What this does do, however, is free this blog up for something that I've wanted to do for some years. Basically a gathering place for active - or potentially active - contemporary progressive rock bands and their activities. My coveted "A-List" as it were. So each band page will have an overview, along with the latest album news, as I hear about it (or you all alert me!). As news evolves, I will just simply move the band page to the top to highlight that news. This will replace the need for a monthly Roundup post, and it will also allow me to get band pages up much quicker, and not worry about reviews and discographies, which is what slowed this blog down to a crawl. Bands that are no longer active, and have no active internet presence (many of the bands we featured from the 90s for example), will simply be removed, and added to the UMR site. So you will see some pages go away while new ones get added at a quicker clip.
In addition, when I do add new reviews to UMR, I will also move the band page forward. To see the review, simply click the album cover and it will take you there. I'm still messing around with the design of the new band pages, but it must be simple, or I'll be back to taking forever to get anything done.
Look for some new band pages to go up first thing in 2017, and then like UMR, it really just depends on when I have some free time.
Oh, and one design note. Since links are an important part of UTR, I have tweaked the HTML code so that a new window always opens when you click on a link. I think that's easier than using the back button, and it allows you to open Facebook, a webpage and some samples without having to open them up manually.
What this does do, however, is free this blog up for something that I've wanted to do for some years. Basically a gathering place for active - or potentially active - contemporary progressive rock bands and their activities. My coveted "A-List" as it were. So each band page will have an overview, along with the latest album news, as I hear about it (or you all alert me!). As news evolves, I will just simply move the band page to the top to highlight that news. This will replace the need for a monthly Roundup post, and it will also allow me to get band pages up much quicker, and not worry about reviews and discographies, which is what slowed this blog down to a crawl. Bands that are no longer active, and have no active internet presence (many of the bands we featured from the 90s for example), will simply be removed, and added to the UMR site. So you will see some pages go away while new ones get added at a quicker clip.
In addition, when I do add new reviews to UMR, I will also move the band page forward. To see the review, simply click the album cover and it will take you there. I'm still messing around with the design of the new band pages, but it must be simple, or I'll be back to taking forever to get anything done.
Look for some new band pages to go up first thing in 2017, and then like UMR, it really just depends on when I have some free time.
Oh, and one design note. Since links are an important part of UTR, I have tweaked the HTML code so that a new window always opens when you click on a link. I think that's easier than using the back button, and it allows you to open Facebook, a webpage and some samples without having to open them up manually.
Comments
Post a Comment