Notes From The City

By Londonist_Laura Last edited 203 months ago
Notes From The City

Notes From The City

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As the fair weather of Spring tentatively approaches, any attempt by the pretty blue sky and sunshine to wean us all off our incessant computer based social networking by dragging us outside is made more difficult by the advent of Trig.com. Based in Sweden, it's designed to be a "new social networking site for an urban and sophisticated web community of dynamic, inspired and creative individuals, who are primarily fuelled by their own dreams, hopes and visionary approach to life".

"TRIG is a more stylish and creative alternative to competing social networking sites, says TRIG founder and CEO Jonas Midbrink. On the one hand, the site itself, along with a unique group of people with a great experience and expertise in communities, programming and design are themselves part of a modern, urban style framework, on the other hand, our members will contribute through a constant creative dialogue."



"I wanted to build an addictive platform for all your entertainment Internet interests. When I was working in the recording industry I started to see the backside of the business and figured there should be some kind of platform for creative people who, like me, never felt comfortable being part of the established system. That is how the idea of Trig was born, says Jonas Midbrink."

Trig seems like the cooler older sister of My Space. She's travelled Europe and loves underground bands and art house movies. She only goes out with musicians. She's interesting, she reads a lot, she's almost totally reliable and she looks great! Bands across the world are starting to list themselves on Trig and London bands currently include My Vitriol, Ed Harcourt, Djevara and She Makes War.

While the sheer volume of potential listeners on MySpace will keep bands coming back again and again, Trig has a lot to offer for the more discerning user including better looks, a more stable platform and a large amount of interesting, creative people using it.

Don't get me wrong, my MySpace addiction is alive and thriving, particularly now that I'm looking for band members. I've experimented with trying to find people exclusively through meeting them on MySpace (surely the next music reality TV show?) but haven't had a lot of luck, though getting gigs through MySpace is very quick and easy and saves SO much time. In the old days it was a case of dropping in your demo to the venue then spending weeks trying to get hold of the promoter on the phone to make them listen to it, then chasing them up again to see if they liked it and wanted to let you play, at which point they usually turned around and mentioned the fact that you were required to bring 400 fans along otherwise you'd never play there again.

Sometimes the number of bands on MySpace can be really overwhelming but there's always the potential to stumble across some really interesting music you would never otherwise have heard. This week I've been listening to The Primms, who moved from Crawley to New York to pursue their musical dreams; Juana Molina, who has a new album out; and Guile, who play Dublin Castle on 17th May.

And if you do manage to venture out of your houses this week, a certain someone (ME) has a couple of gigs - click here for all the info.

And no, I still don't care that I'm not going to Glastonbury...I have a ticket for Latitude!!

This Week's Five

1. Micael - Juana Molina

2. Love Around Here - Guile

3. The Dead Pretender - The Primms

4. Moths To The Flames - Djevara

5. Beneath The Heart of Darkness - Ed Harcourt

Last Updated 09 April 2007