When it comes to blogs with quality content, Trash Menagerie is surely on top of the game. Features on new (talented) artists, all the latest tracks you need, interesting news, a hot layout, and the list goes on: this is the kinda place you wanna go to every day. To get a little taste, check the superb playlist they did for us!

Oh yeah, we did have the chance to ask them a few questions too! Check the interview below.

What’s the story behind Trash Menagerie?

The idea for Trash Menagerie came about a year and a half ago when we three founders simultaneously had a Chicago/New York harmonic convergence that we could start a blog featuring the music that we were into. We kept finding these amazing dirty-sounding, young electronic acts on myspace and the like, as well as getting great music from our friends and no one else knew about them. We wanted to support these artists and expose them to a broader audience. So we started brainstorming ideas on how we could make it happen. We arrived at a simple but unique concept. In order to give readers a deeper understanding of what they were listening to, we would truly showcase these undiscovered artists by giving them a proper write up with in depth information to associate with the tunes provided.

How do you pick the songs you post on your blog?

As a rule, we post music from artists that we genuinely like and are truly enthusiastic about. We devote a good amount of time digging deep to find hidden gems from new and undiscovered artists, and we also make a point not to limit ourselves or place any sort of guidelines on what type of music we feature. Anything goes on the site – new tunes, classics, genres from across the spectrum – so long as it’s good music and it’s what we’re feeling, simple as that.

Sometimes, we don’t find the music, it makes its way to us by way of the site, as we encourage music submission from our readers – if we fall in love with it, we’ll definitely put it up!

Would you say there is a “Trash Menagerie sound”?

We have 13 writers from the US, Europe and Japan and all coming with very different perspectives on music. This makes it impossible to classify the general sound of Trash Menagerie.

It’s a safe assumption to say we definitely lean towards things with electronic roots, but these days, just about everyone is using some sort of electronic element in their production. To date, we’ve covered everything from electro, breakcore, alternative, electro house, house, breakbeat, glitch, dub, techno, minimalist, indie bands, electronica, hip hop, drum n bass, deep house, funk and more – we are such an eclectic bunch of music lovers, though, that most genres get a look in.

As such, we all constantly seek out as much music as we can, be it future sounds or pioneers of a genre that have inspired us. So to pin us down would be doing our readers and ourselves a disservice. Our “sound” is whatever we’ve found that day, week or month that excites us, and the fact that our tastes are constantly changing and developing makes the site exciting for our readers.

Who do you see as the next big artists?

We don’t think predicting something like this is really possible given where the music industry is going. The idea of “big artists” is major label mentality, which is the antithesis of what music blogs are about. The ushering in of the digital era has completely changed the music industry – music fans now have more opportunities to find new music they never would have found before through the internet, blogs, and music aggregators. You no longer have to look to the shelves of Best Buy, or Walmart to see what the suits are trying to shove down your throat. “Big artists” will soon be a thing of the past and there will be a middle ground, an ‘evening out’ of sorts. People will follow and support the artists and music they like. We believe this is a great thing for both artists and their fans alike.

What other blogs do you visit regularly?

Between all of us, there’s quite a few! Curb Crawlers, Discobelle, Discodust and then other not-so-blog-based sites like Fact Magazine, Dazed Digital and This is Fake DIY out of the UK. There are others in our respective cities that we each check for party listings. And, of course, you gotta check the ultimate hater/alt-social commentary blog, Hipster Runnoff. Some of us are more into more tech/industry based sites, such as Wired’s Listening Post, Hypbot, and Fake Steve Jobs. We’re also into messing about with sites like Twitter, Vimeo, and Tumblr and search out new widgets and web apps, that sort of thing.

How do you see the blog game evolving?

It’s all about blogs – they are where it’s at. Blogs are the hotbed for what’s happening in real time, not only in music, but all media and culture: real people, with unique voices and truly passionate about what they are doing and what they believe in. No one is trying to “selling you” something you don’t want.

The media and the PR community have finally realized the potential marketing value of the blogosphere so I think you’ll see a lot more legitimizing of the blog via ad networks and sponsors.

We also see blogs becoming an alternative to record labels in that, as musicians become more comfortable with giving away their music and making money with touring and licensing, they’ll start creating free releases through blogs.

Where do you see internet in general going in the future?

This is the million-dollar question! If we were to divulge our thoughts on this, someone would have to pay us big $$$$!!! The internet is so last year. In 2k9 all information will be exchanged via microfiche and faxing. The blogging community has already started faxing each other tracks and designing our new neon cover pages. All jokes aside, we have some exciting plans we’re looking to launch this year, so watch out for Trash Menagerie 2.0.

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