About

E-mail: rawkblog [at] gmail.com
Journalism/photography portfolio: DavidGreenwald.com
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ABOUT

As Austin Powers, a hero of mine, once said, “This is my happening and it freaks me out!” Welcome to Rawkblog (formerly The Rawking Refuses To Stop!), a daily music and pop culture blog that began in March 2005. We’ve grown out of a number of musical shoes during our pubescent stages here over the years, but these days we’re into alt-country phenoms engaged married (!) to Mandy Moore, anything on Captured Tracks, the Drive soundtrack, sad bastard folk and twee-pop janglers, with the occasional toe dipped fearfully into music made by computers. Morrissey is my go-to guy for karaoke night, but I digress. You can find a reasonably complete list of my favorite bands and artists here.

(Almost) everything posted here is done so legally. If you like anything you find, please support the artists by seeing their live show and buying their albums: they are poor and probably have day jobs when they’re not playing 200 tour dates a year. Try Insound or your local record store, or you can always be an indie rock hero and go direct to the record label via the links included in each post. I get free albums e-mailed to me every day; I still buy music from bands I love. It matters. Do what you can.

Rawkblog has been sourced and recognized by such publications as Rolling Stone, LA Weekly, New York Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, Paste, Slate, CNET, VH1′s Best Week Ever, Pitchfork and Stereogum. In 2007, it was a nominee for Hey! Nielsen and Billboard.com’s Top Music Blog Contest. In October 2010, I moderated the In the City festival’s panel on music blogging in America, which included Pitchfork’s Ryan Schreiber and Drowned in Sound’s Sean Adams.

Staff

I’m David Greenwald (”Dave Rawkblog”), a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist and photographer. I’m currently a contributing editor at Billboard.com and write about music and other subjects regularly for GQ, the Los Angeles Times, the A.V. Club, MTV Buzzworthy, eMusic and others. Previously, I was the blog editor of the L.A. Times’ now-defunct Brand X, where I originated the L.A. Unheard column. (It lives on at the Times’ Pop & Hiss blog.) I’ve also written and shot photos for the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly and many other publications. You can find more about my career and portfolio on DavidGreenwald.com.

CURRENT/PAST CONTRIBUTORS: (Note: Our 2009 move to WordPress has largely erased their bylines. Sorry, pals.)

Phil Merkow knows more than anyone I know about music made by computers. Especially music made by computers while under the influence. Follow him on Twitter.

Greg Katz (”Greg aka gkla”) is the DJ behind these mixes and the former general manager of UCLAradio.com. Follow him on Twitter. Greg loves Kid A, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Trader Joe’s. He plays bass in L.A. garage heroes LA Font.

Alfred Lee (”alfred”) is a film buff and hip-hop head who used to write about both subjects with me at the Daily Bruin. He might actually like Animal Collective more than I like Ryan Adams, if that’s even possible.

Carman Tse is a former DJ on UCLAradio.com, a post-punk and free jazz enthusiast and my former roommate. He once owned a baby tarantula named “The Beast” and knows more about sports than the rest of us combined.

SUBMIT

Revised for 2012: Due to the time and listening commitments required by being a full-time music writer (read: listening to albums more than once in order to review them), I currently have very little time to plunge through new submissions. I’m still accepting them, but please be aware your email may get deleted in my morning sanity purge. (I am, however, always looking for young L.A. bands for my L.A. Unheard column.)

If you’d like to take your chances: please email me 1) a link to download your song or album (or both, please) 2) a link to stream your song or album (or both, please). You can satisfy both of these requirements in one go with services such as Bandcamp and Soundcloud. No attachments. If your email doesn’t include these links, I’m going to delete it. (Sorry.) MP3s at or above 192 kpbs are preferred.

For bands who are new to the PR game or are having trouble getting the word out, I wrote you a handy guide to getting people to write about you.

Alternatively, if you see a track you feel doesn’t belong here, let me know and we can discuss its potential removal.

I’M TIRED OF READING 30 MUSIC BLOGS. CAN YOU JUST SEND ME MUSIC?

I can! You may be interested in joining my digital record club, Mercury Music. For $2.99 a month, you get a personal mixtape and weekly picks right to your inbox for the best new albums and the classics that paved their way.

ADVERTISE

Rawkblog is a destination for thousands of readers and influencers every month. We’re always looking for more partners and happy to discuss creative campaigns. For ad rates and information, e-mail rawkblog [at] gmail.com.