Top 5 On Friday – My 5 favorite sources for discovering new bands
After starting the Jam Yeti Music Blog six months ago, I have posted reviews for 98 albums (10 from 2023, 74 from 2024, and 14 from 2025). I average about three or four per week. In today’s Top 5 On Friday post, I want to share my five favorite sources for discovering new bands and staying current on new releases from established artists that I follow. Doing this blog provides me great pleasure being able to discover, listen to, and write about, the best of the heavy underground riff/ psych/ stoner/ desert/ sludge/ instrumental/ doom/ punk & hardcore/ fuzz/ rock & metal bands today. I really love this scene and want to help spread the message of great music from the many talented bands that move me, that I truly love and enjoy. I only review the records that I personally love and my tastes can be quite particular and peculiar at times. I can be set in my ways and be overly critical in my assessments at times, depending on the style of music that I’m hearing. However, I will never talk badly about a band that I don’t like because music is subjective and personal. I always try and listen to new discoveries several times and see if it sticks with me and my interests. I approach everything with an open mind and try not to judge too harshly on the very first listen. I will revisit things several times before I decide whether or not that it appeals to me, or not. Obviously, I encounter albums that I like from the very first listen and know that it’s something that I will be interested in reviewing. When I do find a band and album that I like, I will listen to it many times before I actually review it. Here are my top five sources for hearing new bands and albums. They are not in any particular order.
THE OBELISK
JJ Koczan has done an incredible job with his website The Obelisk. He is a huge contributor in this music scene for the latest information on bands and releases. He does multiple posts daily and provides a quarterly review on albums and a huge end of the year poll as well. He provides his top picks and even has a complete list of every person who submits their top twenty picks. This has been a valuable source of information for the many bands that I have missed throughout the year. I even wrote a post about The Obelisk when I first started my blog. Check it out here.
https://theobelisk.net/obelisk
DOOM CHARTS
The Doom Charts is also an incredible source of information for the newest and latest releases. Each month they compile a list of the top forty releases that were submitted and voted on from some of our top industry leaders. They have a large pool of contributors who are journalists, podcasters, bloggers, music executives, etc. Each month they receive over a hundred submissions sometimes and narrow it down, based on research and reviews. They compile a top 100 list at the end of the year also. I only recently discovered and looked into the Doom Charts intently, about four months ago. This has been an essential website to discover the latest releases for each and every month.
OTHER BLOGS THAT COVER STONER & DOOM MUSIC
There are a great number of well established blogs on the internet that write and review about all of these great established and up and coming bands. Some of my favorites are: Stoner Hive, Outlaws Of The Sun, Clean And Sober Stoner, More Fuzz, and Doomed & Stoned. I am sure that I’m missing a bunch more but the ones I named have been around for some time now.
UNDERGROUND RECORD LABELS
I have discovered so many new bands from the record labels that release their music. I did several Top 5 On Friday posts about my current favorite labels: Blues Funeral Recordings, Heavy Psych Sounds, Magnetic Eye Records, Ripple Music, and Small Stone Records. However, there are many other great labels like: Majestic Mountain Records, Fuzzorama Records, Tee Pee Records, Southern Lord, Napalm Records, Peaceville Records, Metalville Records, Electrohash, Polderrecords, Kozmik Artifactz, Svart Records, Relapse Records, Stickman Records, and many others. I appreciate all of these fantastic labels and the work that they do to release and promote the bands.
FACEBOOK/ YOUTUBE/ BANDCAMP
Social Media has been a necessary evil in regards to building up interest in my blog. Ninety nine percent of the traffic that goes to my website is via Facebook. I don’t even use my personal page much anymore, only rarely to share a post regarding the Jam Yeti Music Blog page. However, Facebook has its perks in connecting with the bands that I review and write about, and sharing my blog with like minded individuals who share the same interests with this awesome music. I belong to almost a dozen stoner and doom specific groups that allow me to post links to my reviews and view excellent content that people post, regarding other bands, shows, releases, etc. Some of my favorites are: Vegas Rock Revolution : Heavy and Hard Rock, Waveriders Unite, HeavyStonerDoomBlues, I Like To Rock II, Stoner/ Desert Rock, DOOMED & STONED, Doom/Stoner/Sludge/Psychedelic, Doom/Sludge Metal, and more. John Gist and the Planet Desert Rock Weekend United Group page is also excellent! His Planet Desert Rock four day festivals are legendary for the United States scene. I have learned a lot about new bands from Facebook and have made some great connections too. I really try and avoid the doom scrolling nightmare that I was once caught up in.
YouTube is also excellent for viewing music specific material from bands, like videos, shows, and reviews. The Heavy Underground Farm Report is an excellent resource for discovering new bands with the great interviews that S. Patrick Brooks provides. There are countless other ones too and they all serve a great purpose for promoting bands.
Bandcamp is also awesome for the bands and labels themselves, for selling their music and merchandise. I follow a bunch of Bandcamp accounts and get notifications on new releases and merchandise regularly. I think they do a decent job at paying the bands compared to most of the other streaming services.
Well, those are my big five sources for information on new releases and bands. I also get emails from bands and promoters who submit music that they want me to check out. I don’t currently have an Instagram account and I probably won’t bother with one either. There is only so much social media that I can handle. My goal is to continue doing this blog as long as I can, and continue to spread the good word on all things heavy rock related. My passion for this music is very strong and I hope to add a little value for the amazing bands that create such exceptional work. Thank you for reading, I appreciate all of you who took the time to browse through this. I would love to build a huge community of like minded individuals, so please like and follow my page if you dig the content that I’m writing about. Thanks again and much love!
