ARCHIVING, EAST COAST STYLES

Before arriving here in London, I was a living in Sydney, Nova Scotia where much of my time was spent either playing music or going to shows. My band (currently named Roots and Rhythm Remain but soon to be called something newer and shorter) was one of many in Sydney. For a small town (only about 40 thousand if you include the surrounding area) Sydney seems to produce quite a few aspiring musicians. We have a strong Celtic heritage, our main industry now-a-days is tourism, and other avenues for entertainment are few and far between. All this results in everyone's cusin's bruder being at least familiar with the fretboard of a fiddle or guitar; Or, if nothing else, being willing to pitch in with a vocal harmony at a kitchen party.

All right, enough perpetuating east coast stereotypes (did I mention we like to drink?)

So how do all of these tipsy rural musicians organize themselves? For me (biased by having been born in a digital age) the answer has always been the internet. Specifically, the website www.cblocals.com It has been my home page for years, and is the first place I go when wondering what is going on in the upcoming weeks, what is going on with my favorite bands, or what idiot ramblings my friends have gotten themselves into lately. The core page consists of a sidebar relaying all of the shows in Cape Breton between now and christmas, a place to post posters or important notices, and links to a message board, buy and sell forum, and media of all types.

In addition to keeping people up to date on the goings on of the cape breton music scene, the site has a backlog of all that has been going on since it started ten years ago. Its creator, Harry Doyle, was in a band back then (77 impala special) and continues to play these days under his new project Vibratonica. In the past 10 years the site has expanded, now being run and moderated 37 administrators. It has enjoyed over 32000 guestbook signatures, 175000 message board comments and many more hits. It is a resource run for and by local musicians, and besides the odd post that is taken down for being in poor taste, is largely self governed.

Cape Breton is not the only place for which such a website now exists. There is now a 'locals' website for Moncton, Fredericton, Halifax, PEI, Newfoundland, and Pictou (as well as a separate website for skateboard culture in cape breton) All of the sites operate under the same principles as that of cblocals.com, and some have enjoyed more posts. All of this amounts to an extensive archive of music news and history for Canada's east coast.

Alright... now for a bit of shameless self promotion. Of course, the beauty of the locals website is that (like most sites) it allows the viewer to get sidetracked, clicking links and wandering around virtual space for hours. Unlike other sites, and exponentially cooler for it, cblocals.com is the only site on the net that featured a link to my band. Ha! Anyways, I encourage you to perouse the locals website and, if you are interested, to check out some of my music. My band can be found at www.myspace.com/therootsandrhythmremain and a few solo songs are online at http://www.myspace.com/industrialcreationmyth