The Hickensian

8.11.06 Daytrotter

11 comments
Tagged with: music, pimp, sites

Normally a site I love simply gets a mention in the sidenotes, but I particularly wanted to spotlight the new(ish) music site Daytrotter. To quote the about section:

“We’re going to give you something that you truly have never heard. We are not giving you songs from someone you love’s record album, thereby stealing from someone you love. We’re giving you exclusive, re-worked, alternate versions of old songs and unreleased tracks by some of your favorite bands and by a lot of your next favorite bands.”

The list of bands recording sessions with Daytrotter is enough to get me excited (and the fact that they use Textpattern), but here’s the part I really, really love: illustration. There are a team of illustrators that work on the site, and rather than rely on publicity photographs, each session or feature has its own unique artwork. And damn fine illustration it is too.

As Mark Boulton said at SXSW this year “Illustration is missing in action on the web”.

Stock images in particular have become the fast easy way to illustrate content, while traditional artwork is barely anywhere to be seen. When A List Apart relaunched, they made the brave move to use illustration to accompany each article, and the effect was a huge breath of fresh air. Daytrotter joins that revolution! Rejoice!

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No.1

∞ Pierce said 1220 days ago:

Wow, neat. What a cool site. I see Joe from thingpart is one of the illustrators.

Also, go Textpattern!

No.2

∞ paul said 1220 days ago:

i love using illustration too whenever i can. i hired adam and kenny to do all the swirly bits in the headers on getmobio.com just to give it more of a interesting look than photos alone. anytime i can use illustration is a good time!

No.3

∞ Doug March said 1220 days ago:

Such a great site, so many hidden gems have been found on this site and from what I understand it has really just begun.

No.4

∞ Ben said 1219 days ago:

Yeah an “illustration to accompany each illustration” really helps to illustrate the illustration.

No.5

∞ Stuart Frisby said 1219 days ago:

Thanks for posting this John, there are some belting tunes on there, Casey Daniel and the Two gallants track are awesome.

No.6

∞ Jon Hicks said 1219 days ago:

Yeah an â€œillustration to accompany each illustrationâ€ really helps to illustrate the illustration.

Yeah, alright smartass! ;o)

No.7

∞ Hamza said 1219 days ago:

Another reason why I love A List Apart, the wonderful watercolor style illustrations that accompany each article.

No.8

∞ Shane said 1219 days ago:

Hadn’t seen that site before. I would go as far as saying that the illustrations on alistapart are my favourite part of the site.

I give it a few months – illustrations’ll be every-blinking-where.

No.9

∞ Ryan Flynn said 1214 days ago:

Hey guys, I just stumbled on to this page. I’m an artist/contributer to Daytrotter, and it has been so much damn fun. I’m hoping this illustration thing catches on. It really is the most underrated part of the site. Thanks for noticing!

No.10

∞ kabari said 1209 days ago:

straight outta Illinois! I’m glad it’s getting big, some friends have passed throught there, hopefully they get big too now.

No.11

∞ shannon palmer said 1206 days ago:

hi all! I, like Ryan Flynn, have just stumbled onto this page, and I’m also an illustrator at daytrotter. It’s been one of the most rewarding illustration gigs I’ve ever had. There’s such a great team over there, and the music is incredible. And it’s gonna keep getting better, just wait. Like Ryan said, thanks for giving a nod to the illustrations, we love doing what we do :)