South of Gilman St.

Welcome to South of Gilman St., an mp3 streaming/internet radio site dedicated to the music that put the Bay Area punk scene and the Gilman St. Project on the map. Click on the Listen link to tune-in (this may require some tweaking in your browser) or point your favorite mp3 player at http://stream.southofgilman.org:8000 and start enjoying.

And while you're listening, explore the database to find out more about the bands, albums, and songs you're listening to and even make requests. Don't forget to rate stuff you like (or dislike)!. The console is a little window that will keep you up on what's currently playing while you're exploring other parts of the site. There's even a forum where you can chat about stuff as well as see and post flyers and album art.

Want to know more about the site? Here's some info. Curious about what the Bay Area scene was like? The liner notes from the seminal Turn It Around 2x7" really captures what Gilman St. is about. For a more recent perspective, check out an interview with band-member and punk insider Jesse Luscious.

News

2012-06-07 - Updates (aka v5.1)

Well it's been an interesting few weeks handling this migration. All in all, I'm quite happy with the new system but there have been a few glitches (sorry about the requests queue getting backed up!).

Since last time:

the request system is back in place
songs are now rateable once again
a (sorta) new forum is in place
the old forum is (sorta) back

So the deal with the forums is that I wanted to ditch the old one because it was a huge spam beacon and not worth the hassle for the amount of traffic it posed. Plus, it was a pain in the butt for people to post because you had to get an account, login, forget your login, etc. So I replaced it by repurposing the image board software that was already there and focused on pictures to be more text/chat friendly. It isn't a spam magnet and it's easier for you to post because there's no login. Just say who you are!

Not like you guys are a chatty bunch, but I'm glad to have something usable for you to communicate again.

The final piece of the puzzle is playlists: this one is complicated because it integrated with the old forum which is technically in read only mode now. I'll figure something out eventually - if you feel like this is urgent, give me a prod. I've also got to add back the ability to submit band info and song lyrics at some point...

Lastly: I've uploaded a bunch of new albums since the move, so check 'em out:

The Unlovables are perfect chick pop punk while The Bangs are a nice grungy counterpoint.

2012-05-15 - Version 5.0

If you are reading this, then welcome to the new home of South of Gilman St.! I was hoping to have made the move a couple of months ago to mark the 13th anniversary of this project but true to form, I kinda missed that deadline.

So what's new? Well, there's the new URL, southofgilman.org which means finally there is a dedicated domain for the site. I don't know why I waited this long, nor do I know why I feel it important after all this time. But use it from now on! The stream itself is at http://stream.southofgilman.org:8000 now.

Next: the site has been completely rewritten. It doesn't look like much has changed at first glance as I haven't really altered much from the visual/design standpoint, but the code is a complete from-the-ground-up rewrite. Unfortunately, not all of has been rewritten yet so certain features are still missing. These include the ratings, requests, and playlists which are a priority to get to next.

Other "features" have been completely removed, particularly the old forum. It was a huge hassle to fight off spammers and no one really ever used it. In it's place, I'm going to repurpose the existing image board I had in place for general "chat" purposes. It's working now but I need to clean it up quite a bit.

Finally, the last thing I want to mention for now is the one feature I'm most happy with: the SoGS Console (click the link upper right corner) now can directly play the stream! You don't need any additional software anymore. This is a feature I've been wanting to add to the site for years and years and I'm stoked that it exists now. The old way of listening to the stream (ie point your favored mp3 player to http://stream.southofgilman.org:8000) still works and both listen.m3u and listen.pls methods still work too.

I hope you like the new digs - feel free to drop me a line or post any comments you have!

2011-03-17 - That time of year

Oh hey, it's that time of year again where I wax nostalgic about another year passing and then post some more songs.

I actually had some bigger plans to mark this year's cycle but there are some factors outside of my control that threw a wrench in that (hint: the non-arrival of Centos 6) so that news will have to wait.

I've got a pretty wide range of "new" music to throw into the mix, however, from the 90s girl-fronted power pop of Discount, to reformation band Shotwell, to the hilarious formula of Tuuli, and an early work from Pidgeon.

Discount's Half Fiction really brings to mind Co-Ed and Tilt, both that also feature really strong female vocals. Musically, it leans a little poppier than Co-Ed so give it a listen if that's your thing.

Shotwell is, well, Shotwell, filled with ex-band members: ex-Crimpshrine, ex-Gits, ex-Bedlam Rovers, ex-Flophouse. Musically, you definitely hear the post-Gilman heyday - see if you can trace all its influences on Celery, Beef, and Iron.

Tuuli... what I can I say, I saw the Rockstar Potential CD in the used bins at Amoeba and just had to get it, sound unheard, just from the cover. I was actually pleasantly surprised. It's not gonna knock your socks off, but it's a fun slice of goofy power pop.

And finally, From Gutter w/Love, Pidgeon's first release. Pidgeon was one of my favorite finds a couple of years ago and I'm puzzled why I didn't pick this one up sooner. Val's anime-cute vocals cutting through the gritty, hook-y guitars just melts me inside. Check out Down for my favorite track.

2010-11-18 - Revisiting Bands

So I gushed about Double Dagger and Japandroids recently - More and Post-Nothing remain two of my absolute favorites from this decade . I picked up follow-ups from both bands a while back (err... actually back in the summer) and while I can't say neither Masks nor Art Czars/No Singles are quite up to their predecessors, both are solid works. Japandroids' cover of Big Black's Racer X is a must-hear: they out-Big-Black Big Black!

2010-07-26 - Crimpshrine Sessionography

Paul Colucci wrote in to share some extensive research he's done into the complete sessionography of Crimpshrine. He's allowed me to share that information on the Crimpshrine page and I think all you hardcore Crimpshrine fans (me included) will find it fascinating and, frankly, AWESOME.

Thanks, Paul! I can't tell you how cool it is to have that information here.

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