Who are we and what's the deal?

Despite the accessibility of the internet, this is a pretty dark time for written music resources. Most of the 'professional' websites are so weighted down with advertisements, blind support for genre-specific 'scenes', jabbering bloggers and product-pushers, the notions of objectivity and quality control are enroute to extinction.

Peacedogman.com has been online since summer of 2002 (that's our old hand-drawn logo above!) Originally, we were an 8-page site with a couple of interviews and a reviews column. Over the years, we've grown significantly, providing multiple music reviews every week, and extensive features every month. Mostly, the site's focus is punk, indie rock, and all sorts of hard rock and metal from the past and present. We are entirely self-funded, with practically no advertisements at all, and zero discs to 'sell' you. Peacedogman.com strives to bring back the spirit of hand-typed underground zines and colorful publications of the past like 70s Creem, 80s Kerrang!, and a few others.

The different sections 'cheap seats' and 'peace talk' etc.

A few years ago, we set up the site with a sort of wild animal / traveling circus theme, which inspired a lot of the names for the different sections like 'Live Animals' for live album reviews, 'Cheap Seats Guides' for album buying guides, etc. Basically, the 'Cheap Seats' heading are all review-type features of albums or genres based on our ever-so-biased opinion. 'Peace Talk' sections are dialogues like interviews, lengthy debates, and the forum. If you're still confused, I don't really blame you - just use the 'search' function at the top of the page and see what comes up.

Bands and labels: What we need if you want a review:

A playable copy of the disc. Either CD, vinyl disc, or cassette. We like to receive the 'complete package' with artwork and liner notes for which we can do an all-inclusive review.

For years, we've told the bands doing the DIY thing they could send us CD-Rs of their discs to save money. But ironically, they are the ones that usually send multiple copies, complete with artwork and more than we'll ever need. It's the labels that sometimes try to 'go cheap' and send us an 'abridged copy' with no artwork or just point us at a download. So we've decided for labels that send in 'abridged' copies, we will write 'abridged reviews'. Maybe we'll leave all the vowels out to save on server space, or just leave out the 'R's. At any rate, best to send us the whole package if you want a decent review.

One sheets are optional. All we need is band member names, and where the band is from. An email "heads up" that it's coming never hurts if you actually want it reviewed in a timely fashion. Drop your email warnings to:

Where you should send it:

Scroll down. The address is at the bottom of every page, along with our email address.

What we don't review:

DVDS. Please don't send them unless they are gifts. Also, we don't do the 'check out our MySpace mp3s' deal, but that's really common sense.

If your disc gets a great review:

If your disc scores a "4" or higher, we've probably already contacted you for a feature of some kind. If we didn't, drop us an email and we'll set something up.

Other items:

Website reviews: Just email us a link to your site and let us know why you think it warrants a review.

Copy protection. The staff at Peacedogman.com is well aware of the plight of labels and bands seeking to protect their music from unlicensed downloading, blah, blah, blah. However, promos with fractured tracks, random track fading, or voiceover interrupts may be rejected if such anti-piracy tools obstruct our attempts at a fair listen.

MP3 samples. Peacedogman.com will add MP3 "snippets" to some of the reviews. If this is a problem and you do not want a sample added you need to let us know before the reviews are posted.

Turnaround time. Most reviews will be up in about 3 weeks from the time we receive them.

Discs we skip. The slicker stuff with oodles of FM-radio style glossy inserts and a PR guy emailing us every day will most likely get 'last priority'. We tend to gravitate toward the DIY bands and smaller labels first.

"Run my ad / run my banner." We don't do any. It was a revolutionary idea we had one day, to fill the site with content, instead of mindless crap about 'contests', 'giveaways' and flashing ad buttons taking up space. If you want to run our banner, it's on the 'link to us' page, knock yourself out.

Accurate information: Make sure you tell us accurate information about band members, release dates, etc, especially if you don't have a website yet. Yes, this sounds like common sense, but you'd be surprised.