Back in the early 00s, long before Last.fm, Pandora and Hype Machine came along, there was an ace little website called Music Buddha. You initially picked one of 7 genres which then allowed you to surf various subgenres. When selecting the subgenre you were interested in you were offered a selection of artists. You could then listen to a few sound clips, rate the music from “completely my style” to “not my style” and then when clicking on ENLIGHTEN ME you were offered tailor made suggestions, amazing! The beauty of www.mubu.com was that it relied heavily on Independent bands and not just those on the majors. A large proportion of my “discoveries” around that time came directly from what i considered the most valuable recommendation service online.
One such discovery was a little treat of an EP titled ‘Death Of The Alphabet‘ by a band called Schatzi who specialised in delightful Weezer-esque alt-rock. With big guitars, honey melodies, sardonic lyrics and more hooks than a junior school cloak room it ticked all the right boxes. The title track became one of those “songs of the summer” and i had to buy the CD and this selection of tracks showed a very confident band having a blast. Allmusic.com even went as far as saying “With its tight, appealing songwriting and surprisingly eclectic sound, Death of the Alphabet suggests that Schatzi has a lot more to offer“
I was using Music Buddha religiously (pun intended) until leaving for my summer holiday, When I got back a few weeks later the website had disappeared. Apparently the company ran out of finances just a few years before Apple would revolutionise how we listen and buy our music.
As for Schatzi? Their website has not been updated since 2004 though their MySpace strangely proclaims they will be back very soon. Though they seemingly managed to tour with every up-and-coming band in The States and recieved positive reviews all round they only ever released one other album (which reprised many of the best songs from their EP) and just didn’t manage to raise their status to the next level. Tracks like ‘Death Of The Alphabet‘ (featuring the lovely voice of Adrianne Verhoeven from The Anniversary) and ‘The Spider Smells Disaster‘ will guarantee they are gone but not forgotten.
