SUPPORT INDEPENDENT MUSIC PRESS: 57 PAGES YOU SHOULD FOLLOW

Photo Credit 📷 : @fabmoreiraphoto

A while ago I made a post saying to support independent music press before it all dies off. Selfishly I made that post to remind people that we’re here and that there is a fight behind the scenes to keep giving your time and heart into running any DIY music press. Whether it be a blog, podcast or any DIY music documenter, often the only thing that keeps us going is a fan saying “hey that article / podcast or live footage was great thanks for doing that” ‘cause we are certainly not in this game for the money (no one’s making any but hit us up at patreon.com/notjustaphaseworldwide if you wanna support this page and the staff).

I talked the talk and now I’d like to walk the walk and show support for our brothers and sisters in arms who are fighting the good fight. This is music journalism written by music fans just documenting their scene and their music for the love of the game. Today we here at Not Just A Phase would like to salute all of you in the trenches with us and I hope our readers find some new pages to follow for the music they love. These pages are written in no particular order and have no favoritism, I started this article with the intent to do a top 10 and it got very out of control and now we’re here somehow with 57 or 58 pages you should follow.

TOC SIN MAG: @tocsinmag

Zine based in Portland and Pomona, covering screamo from all over the globe with straight to the point Q&A interviews with band ending with thee single greatest question ever asked by an interviewer “What song would you want to die to?”. I thought about this for so damn long before I came to my final answer. Garth Brooks - The Dance, yes I’m fuckin serious. I was raised on Garth and whenever my untimely death comes this ballad is gonna be the dramatic outro and I’ll be glad to see all my friends again if there’s anything after this world.

REALOEMO: @realoemo

Covering everything emo from song of the day features to amazing articles to quality memes and shitposts. They cover everything from the well known to the very obscure in real emo and are succeeding with their mission to #keepemoinhardcore 

Borderlinefuckup: @borderlinefu

Music blog from Austria that covers everything from hardcore, punk, emo and screamo to indie and hip hop. Beautiful blogspot and IG layout aesthetic full of interviews and great articles. They even do a “bloggerly love” segment to shoutout others they admire to spread awareness of other independent music press 10/10 journalism you need to be following. Has written articles for NJAP before as well.

Stop Calling Them Screamo: @stopcallingthemscreamo

A hilarious play on words from the See You Space Cowboy song “Stop Calling Us Screamo”. A UK based journalist with an IG page that covers everything Screamo, from photographing shows they attend to album reviews and more, they got screamo on lock. Has written articles for NJAP as well.

Scoped Exposure: @scopedexposure 

Western Canada based documenter Spencer Pries has been documenting DIY through filmed live sets since 2017 and began interviewing bands for his podcast Scoped Exposure in 2019 as well as being a major hand in throwing the annual Hold Your Ground Fest and being in a few bands. Spencer wears many hats while interviewing and documenting the smallest and biggest, oldest and newest names in Hardcore and more.

Open Mind Saturated Brain: openmindsaturatedbrain.blogspot.com

Canadian screamo veteran David Norman from @zegema_beach records runs this blogspot which showcases his album reviews for all bands screamo and screamo adjacent as well as his podcast of the same name all available on the blogspot we linked above. 

Bandecdotes: @bandecdotes

Started by a friend of mine Phil Paxton after being interviewed on Not Just A Phase he created his own podcast to cover the local scene of our Canadian province, Ontario. Many years later it’s now expanded to a two man team that mostly does international album reviews and reaction videos for YouTube and less interviewing yet probably more entertaining content now than ever. 

Sadder Star: @sadderstar.fm

Chelsea is a Portland based music enthusiast with a weekly emo show on @xrayfm and archived episodes available on their YouTube channel. Chelsea’s show features emo songs ranging from inactive 90s rarities to modern day day emo and screamo bands and everything in between. Started in late November of 2022, I hope this show blasts the sad jams until the end of time. 

Sad Jams: @sad_jams

A page dedicated to sad jams and ran by a record label called We’re Trying Records (@weretryingrec). Playlists, interviews, audio, radio, oh and they also make jam! I think.. 

Deckonstrukcija Yugoviolence: @xdekonxyugo_violencex

Started in February of 2024 as a blog dedicated to covering Emo and Screamo in the Ex-Yugoslavian region (Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Montenegro). Boasting a massive emo and screamo playlist on Rate Your Music and doing a stellar job of documenting and archiving those specific scenes. 10/10 for emo and screamo dorks who love finding the new and very rare bands this is where to go!

Aphhaus Records: @aphhausrecords

A @semicollectiverecords subsidiary ran by @eitherlight promoting releases and conducting interviews.

Z Tapes: @starttrack_com

Ran by @filip_zemcik (ex owner of the now defunct @ztapes) this music blog / label & YouTube channel does a ton of coverage on the underground scene from compilations to articles covering a lot of indie and folk / mellow jams to emo and everything inbetween and beyond.

Temporary Tats Zine: @temptatszine

(Ripped from their IG bio) a magazine documenting DIY music and culture in Houston, Texas. Fuck corporate press. Couldn’t have said it better myself on that last sentiment. This zine also does online interviews and covers all genres. God bless em. 

Bearded Gentlemen Music: @beardedgmusic

Ska, punk and other junk. Rants, reviews and interviews / podcasts and more at beardedgentlemenmusic.com 

Get Alternative: @getalternative

Self proclaimed best independent music site out there (I’d say second place but clearly we’re both very cocky and biased) with that being said I respect their gusto. It’s a real music blog run by real music lovers (again big fan of that mission statement) they’re on every platform doing everything. Stay independent my friends.

The Hideout: @xhideoutx

Okay I’ll admit they don’t exactly do music press, they’re a DIY venue, ran by people who love their scene and keep the community alive and thriving with these shows so they deserve your love and support. 

Versed Magazine: @versedmagazine

LA based media production & artist publication. Live interviews for their online zine (versedmagazine.us). Looks like they cover a lot of screamo. Excited to see where they take this platform.

Cross My Heart With A Gun: @xcross_my_heart_with_a_gunx 

https://xemosmakeriotx.livejournal.com

A blogspot doing reviews for emo, screamo, sasscore and metalcore. The music reviews are usually about a a paragraph or a little more just straight to the point and an out of 5 bullets rating system. The interviews have unique questions I found quite interesting and I immediately became a big fan of their format. I give it 5/5 bullets but if we are playing Russian roulette I’d say 6/6 just to make it count. 

H813video: @h813video

Archiving Tampa hardcore bands and touring bands that play in Tampa. He shoots anywhere though apparently. Discovered this page after he shot a Novely set at a skatepark in Tampa. March 20th 2024 marks his one year anniversary of the first post to go up online so congrats!

Rambler Magazine: @ramblermagazine

“A reason to put ur phone down” which is funny considering I discovered their page on the Instagram app while scrolling on my phone. They do events in NYC, London, San Diego, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, also run interviews and plenty of creative outlets. Very cool page to check out.

Everything Is Noise: @everything.is.noise

Premieres, reviews, interviews for all types of music for all types of music lovers. 

In Detentions Magazine: @indentionsmagazine

Small local arts and pop culture magazine based out of Denton, Texas.

Noven: @novenmag

Skramz mag with CDs, posters and love coming soon (or maybe already here by the time this article drops?)

Screamo Everyday: @screamoeveryday

Literally a new screamo band being reviewed daily it’s crazy.

Be About It: @beaboutitzine

Montreal based zine, does show flyers, booking, design, compilations, covers the MTLHC scene as well as the Ontario HC Scene. Lots of love for this group and all they do. 

Hal Capone: @hal_capone1

Recorded live footage of screamo and underground bands dating back to the late 80s. Host of “Chopping it up Harcore with Hal Capone” and lots of love for screamo from all over the world. 

Quahog Emo Adjacent: @quahog_emo_adjacent

Memes for Emo and screamo bands, books screamo shows in his area and recently collaborated with me to produce a Midwest emo playlist on Spotify called “Noodle Mode Engaged”. This is the page that made the family guy skate video with the VS Self track that has 300,000 or more likes somehow. Still mind boggling.

Beans and Breakdowns Podcast: @beansandbreakdowns

“A podcast dedicated to bridging the gap between specialty coffee and heavy music”. Covers HC and HC adjacent bands in the DIT culture on the podcast and provides album reviews on the Instagram page. Good music, good coffee what else could ya want?

Loose Tooth Zine: @loosetoothzine

“Hardcore Punk promoter and sometimes a zine from Ontario, Canada” - taken from their IG bio 

Ontario Metal: @ontariometal

Posts show flyers to their IG page for metal shows all around the province of Ontario, Canada (not affiliated with our umbrella brand @ontarioxhardcore).

The Hardchives: @thehardchives

Dedicated to covering local and touring bands that come through Toronto and Ontario, profiles, reviews, concert photography and physical zines available.

Sophie’s Floorboard: Sophiesfloorboard.blogspot.com

If you don’t know this blogspot you must be new here (and that’s fine) and if you do fondly remember this blogspot you’re likely well over 30 and starting to feel old (and that’s okay too). Post #1200 in their 12th year of covering underground bands with short reviews and downloadable links to the bands music. This page was a staple of my youth and a major influence on what I’d listen to. If it was Sophie approved I’d check it out. A major inspiration behind how I want NJAP to become someday. Sophie is the queen of the underground sound in terms of blogs and I dare anyone to defy that truth.

Scena Muta: @scenamuta_

Our Italian representative and cohost for Not Just A Phase (Vicky) does so much for music it’s mind boggling. Writing for numerous music magazines, she’s the meme queen over at @screamo_affirmations and vocalist for @rescuecathc, she’s also booking shows in Italy under @rmskramz and now doing this page Scena Muta where she’s doing live interviews of fans and bands at shows and I have zero idea what she’s talking about cause I can’t speak any Italian at all but I know she’s asking great questions so check out all her work.

This Noise Is Ours: @thisnoiseisours / thisnoiseisours.com

A blog covering everything from metal to hc, punk, screamo etc, compilations, reviews and doing it all since 2010.

A Fan’s POV: @afanspov

A fans POV of underground music. Short clips of the bands often playing live with quotes from the band members speaking about their work. Covering everything from folk punk to emo and screamo. Very cool stuff, they should be way more popular. 

Hotstuff Productions: @hotstuff_production

Based in LA and filming sets for SO MANY amazing screamo bands. From new jacks like onewaymirror to pioneers like Jerome’s Dream, this camera is filming so many sets. They are all over YouTube and have a premium for only $1.99 monthly so please support this page and defend it at all costs.

Apathy and Exhaustion: @apathy_and_exhaustion_blog

UK based blog covering Punk, Hardcore, and Emo from all over the world. Vinyl reviews only currently, but tons of great reviews on this page so go give it a follow and send your record over for a review!

Treble Music: @treblezine

News, reviews, features and more. For music lovers of all kinds. 

Montana Media: @_montanamedia_

Live music documentation based out of New England. Est 2018. Quality page that’s put me onto some excellent bands.

Bucky Fanzine: @buckyfanzine

A zine / promoter booking shows out in Cali, written and run by @bimbotoolshed, one of the founding members of California Kicks Fest. Need I say more?

Miss The Stars: @missthestar.shows

Miss the stars is a music blog / zine / label / festival for screamo, emoviolence and all relatives. They also do samplers and compilations and honestly idk what they don’t do but missthestars.com has been around a long time (2009) so way before NJAP was talking about any screamo. I figure everyone in the emo / screamo scene knows this page already but if not it’s never too late to get involved with this great brand.

screamomiscellany: @screamomiscellany

“A page dedicated to screamo/ emoviolence / post hardcore / emotive hardcore” - bio stolen from their IG page. This page is non stop posting tons of live footage of bands and they even made a shirt last year which is crazy 10/10 the best page that has never returned my DMs!

Small Albums: @smallalbums

smallalbums.com is a music blog that shares all the new cool music they find as well as a couple memes, tiny playlists, reviews and more. They may be small but they are mighty and they deserve your attention so give them a follow and show some love.

Swim Into The Sound: @swimintosound

“Words on music and life. Ad-free, independent and from the heart. Forever.” (Stolen directly from their IG bio). THIS is the shit I’m talking about. DIY music press based out of North Carolina covering emo, screamo, hardcore and a ton of other genres. They hooked me in by bringing on special guest writers (an idea I directly stole from them after Elias wrote an article for them I decided NJAP was also gonna get some special guest writers when possible). 

They really hooked me with the haters delight section. If you’ve been following the podcast you know I love to hate on bad music (and good music and tons of shit really) so this was something I hold near and dear to my heart. This page is doing the lords work! Can I get an amen? Amen.

Chainzmag: @chainzmag

Chainzmag is mainly focused on covering local skate crews and their local music scene to help them both reach new audiences. They’re Ontario based and book hardcore shows around the province as well. Super cool group that just started up. Raised some funds for a skatepark recently. Really grass roots DIY shit. Can’t wait to see them grow and what else they have in store for the future!

Dead Relatives: @deadrelativesmag

So Elias (@letsgetpivotal) put me onto this page cause I was at like 46 pages and really trying to hit 50 so I asked him to name a top 5 independents and he mentioned this very cool page. @deadrelativespress does affordable publishing & artist fundraising, booklets, magazines, comics, posters, stickers, art / photo prints (taken from their Instagram bio). deadrelativesmagazine.com has a bunch of interesting articles. Owned and operated as a non profit brand I respect the hell out of that and you should too so go give ‘em a follow and poke around their Instagram page and website.

Everything Remade: @everythingremade

Host Edie Quinn (owner of @middlemanrecords) chats about music with DIY emo & screamo guests. Art, life, music, stories that much dig further than skin deep. Great podcast, proudly independent and doing it for the love of the game.

Screamo Index: @screamoindex

On YouTube and Facebook, and always up to date on covering all things Screamo and Emo. They even have a bird on their logo so you know it’s real screamo. Not to mention their massive counterpart @mathcoreindex that has a podcast and does fests and tons of other shit. If you’re sleeping on these pages now is the time to check them out.

Punk Black | Alt POC Network: @punk.black

ATL based community network that features  P.O.C. In the rock, art, cosplay and nerdlore communities. They do articles, playlists, events, they’re also a record label . They’re doing everything and they’re on YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, Twitter and online at punkblack.com 

What It Takes HC Blog: @what.it.takes.blog

Hardcore blog doing reviews and features that covers hardcore bands worldwide and keeps ya up to date on new releases, they book hardcore shows in Roanoke and they have a podcast with Scoped Exposure called “Listen Up!”.

Blackmarket Playlists: @blackmarketplaylist

Hand curated Spotify playlists. Support for emerging and or unsigned artists. Covers new punk, indie rock, shoegaze, heavy and fast music. Very cool page 10/10 you should be following it.

Evangezine: @evangezine

A zine based in Toronto, Ontario as well as San Francisco. In its very earliest stages of development. No zine out yet no articles nothing at the moment but lots to come very soon.

What Planet Is This? Magazine: @whatplanetisthismagazine

Southern Ontario based magazine focused on the local and underground music scene.

Where It Went: @whereitwentpodcast

(Taken from their IG bio) A podcast discussing the Revelation Records discography in chronological order. By the kids, for the kids. BY THE KIDS, FOR THE KIDS. That’s what I’m talking about, music lovers talking about music for the love of the game. We salute you.

Micro Spy: @microspymusic

“A podcast that takes a closer look at the lives and work of the musicians and creatives I admire + record label.” (stolen for their IG bio). A podcast and record label run by @erik_rate who is the drummer of Jeromes Dream. I’m not much of a podcast fan, despite being the founder of one, but Erik is very insightful and definitely has a “podcaster personality'“. Go check that out asap.

Preserving Hardcore: @preservinghardcore

Seems that their original youtube channel was deleted and they were at 3500 subscribes and 1.5 million views and uploaded over 1000 full live sets over the past decade. I was unaware of this page until very recently I came across them while doing some research for a podcast. Check their website at preservinghardcore.com and watch some core that’s old enough to be fossilized!

Doomed and Gloomed: @doomedgloomed

Part of the @heavyunderground_se network. Seems to have started in 2024 and covers underground music with monthly “round ups” stating which new albums to check out that month. I came across them because they covered some screamo.

hi8hound: @hi_8hound

Seems to be footage shot on a hand cam and looks like early 90s skate videos or (if you’re older than 30) it looks like the footage your family took of your birthdays when you were a kid. I’m not knocking the footage, I fuck with the retro look and this page covers everything from Spy to Sinema so check it out!

If you’ve made it this far down the list and actually read any or all of those I thank you. Instagram is awful to navigate so click that little bell in the top right hand corner of these pages and turn on notifications that way you can keep up to date with the pages you love and beat the menacing algorithms.

Writer : @just_reidz

Editor : @obijuan.cannoli

10/08/24