In my line of blogging, which is entirely voluntary and thus amounts to making a full strength titanium rod for my own back, I have a self-regarding obligation to seek out new bands. At some level this is entirely philanthropic - as our knowledge of the musical universe gets wider it stands to reason that young people will form bands to plug the gaps or utilise the possibilities. John Peel often said that the thing that kept him going on the radio was the idea that in the next mail delivery would be one of the greatest records of all time and he didn't want to miss out on the possibility. Thanks to the international musical relief effort that is the blogosphere and assorted social networking opportunities, this isn't as arduous a task as piling through Myspace after Myspace sounds.
