Why are we here
It seems like maybe there’s a lot of recorded music that just isn’t living anywhere online currently and maybe we can change that. Most interestingly, there’s this whole period from the mid 1990s to mid 2000s where a lot of young bands put some effort into writing and recording music, burning 50 copies of their album, giving 7 copies to friends who genuinely loved the music, 30 copies to others who kindly said thanks and never listened to it, and then storing the last 13 copies in their parents attic. Or maybe they didn’t even get as far as burning those CDs or copying cassettes, and its just some mp3s that they entertain themselves with every couple of years. But let’s try to give them a new lot on life. Outside of confidence, effort and really good luck, is there anything that really separated some of those recordings from Bee Thousand, One Foot In The Grave, Slanted and Enchanted, or Zopilote Machine? We're starting with Baltimore, but eventually, we’d like to see this expanded out to any other regions where someone feels like curating it. We’re trying to keep the initial focus mostly on the pre-Garage Band era, but all submissions are welcome.
About What
How It Works
Hit play. The radio shuffles through the archive at random. If you hear something you like, tap the heart — it saves to your favorites. Tap the artist to dig deeper into their songs or follow along and peruse their site or Bandcamp page. Use the filters to narrow by year or recording type. By default, the shuffle filters out any live or particular scratchy recordings, but feel free to add those back in. Check back often and see what else has been added.
Have something to contribute?
Were you in a band? Did some weird kid you went to high school with have a band and give you a copy of their 3-song cassette? Do you have CDs, tapes, mp3s, flyers or photos that seem like they might not have been properly archived? Reach out!
Friends of the dog
hotdogcity.fm doesn't exist in a vacuum. A handful of people keep the music of this era alive — through their own writing, their own archives, their own labels. We're grateful to them, and we point at them whenever we can. Towson Glen Arm Freakouts — a sister-project blog covering the same Baltimore-county scene, era, and ethos from the editorial side. When you see a "sources" credit on this site pointing at TGAF, that's where we got the story. https://towsonglenarmfreakouts.wordpress.com/ If you're running something in this corner of the world and we should know about it, get in touch via the submission form.