Daytrotter

Daytrotter

URL	http://www.daytrotter.com
Type of site	Music
Owner	Daytrotter

Daytrotter is a website for the recording studio Horseshack, which hosts recording sessions with many popular and typically upcoming indie music acts, although it works with local bands in the Illinois area as well. The sessions can be compared to that of a radio station's lounge recordings, where musicians passing through the town can record live in the studio. Due to their tendency to offer an eclectic sampling of music, and their production style (see Studio section below) the sessions have been compared to that of the legendary Peel Sessions.^[1][2] According to the Daytrotter website, they have served more than 21.5 million song downloads. Wolfgang's Vault bought a majority stake in the company in 2008.

Content

• The site typically hosts around 28 songs by 7 bands per week, almost all available as free downloads.
• There is an archives section of past performers, each illustrated by a staff of illustrators.
• In addition to music, there are sections of reviews and commentaries of musicians and their releases, some done by veteran magazine writers and critics.
• The site is a winner of the Nielsen Online and Billboard.com "Music Blog of the Year"(2007) award,^[3] and The Morning News 2007 Editor's Award for Online Excellence.^[2] The site has also received praise or coverage from Rolling Stone, Wired, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Esquire, Harp, Pitchfork Media, and The Chicago Tribune.^[4]

Studio

• The studio, Horseshack, is located in Rock Island, Illinois.
• A minimalist recording process is used to record the visiting bands, the recording process is analog, with no editing, and no overdubbing.^[5] The final stage in the recording process goes digital, in order to be able to host the music on the website in . mp3 format. The setup is configurable to the preferences of performers.^[5]
• The process of attempting the perfect take, instead of months of overdubbing, combined with low pressure on the artists (it's not a live performance in front of a crowd, and it's not an album being recorded), causes the final product to be an honest representation of the band at the time in both a physical and musical sense.

Notable musicians

• Adam Arcuragi (Twice)
• Andrew Bird with guest Dianogah
• Ani DiFranco
• Annuals (Twice)
• Aqueduct
• Asobi Seksu
• Baby Teeth (Three Times)
• Bela Fleck
• Best Coast
• Bon Iver
• Bonnie Prince Billy (Twice)
• Carly Simon
• Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (Five Times)
• Catfish Haven (Three Times)
• Chuck Ragan
• Circa Survive
• Cold War Kids (Twice)
• Colour Revolt
• Copeland (band)
• Cursive (Twice)
• Cymbals Eat Guitars
• Daniel Johnston (Twice)
• Dashboard Confessional
• Dax Riggs
• Death Cab For Cutie
• Deerhunter
• Dirty Projectors (Twice)
• Dr. Dog (Twice)
• Elf Power
• Elvis Perkins
• Fitz and the Tantrums
• Fleet Foxes
• Foals (Twice)
• Freelance Whales
• Frog Eyes
• Fucked Up
• fun.
• Gary Jules
• Grizzly Bear
• Illinois (Twice)
• Iron & Wine
• Juliana Hatfield
• Kris Kristofferson
• Kristin Hersh
• Local Natives
• Los Lobos
• Low
• Margot & the Nuclear So and So's (Twice)
• Menomena
• MGMT
• Miniature Tigers
• Minus the Bear
• Neva Dinova
• Never Shout Never
• Noah and the Whale
• Of Montreal
• Okkervil River
• Paleface
• Phantom Planet
• Pomegranates (Twice)
• Ra Ra Riot (Twice)
• Raphael Saadiq
• Ryland Bouchard
• Senryu
• Sharks
• Six Parts Seven
• Social Distortion
• Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.^[6]
• Sondre Lerche
• Steel Train
• Sunset Rubdown (Twice)
• Tegan and Sara
• The Antlers
• The Boxing Lesson
• The Broken West
• The Courteeners
• The Del McCoury Band
• The Devil Makes Three
• The Get Up Kids
• The Hold Steady
• The Maccabees
• The Mountain Goats (Twice)
• The National
• Presidents of the United States
• The Redwalls (Twice)
• The Rentals
• The Spinto Band (Twice)
• The Temper Trap
• Thrice
• Thursday
• Tilly And The Wall (Twice)
• Times New Viking
• Tokyo Police Club (Twice)
• Vampire Weekend^[7]
• A.A. Bondy
• VietNam
• Voxtrot
• White Rabbits (Twice)
• Wire

References

1. ^ "DayTrotter: Somewhat Like the Peel Sessions". Wired. http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/09/daytrotter-some.html. Retrieved 2007-12-24. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "2007 Editor's Awards for Online Excellence". The Morning News. http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/awards/2007_editors_awards_for_online_excellence.php. Retrieved 2008-01-24. 
3. ^ "Best Music Blog Winners". Nielsen. Archived from the original on 2007-12-17. http://web.archive.org/web/20071217012715/http://www.heynielsen.com/blog/2007/12/best-music-blog-winners.html. Retrieved 2007-12-25. 
4. ^ "Daytrotter: Press". Daytrotter. Archived from the original on 2007-12-12. http://web.archive.org/web/20071212195759/http://daytrotter.com/press/. Retrieved 2008-01-24. 
5. ^ ^{a b} "Daytrotter: About". Daytrotter. http://www.daytrotter.com/about. Retrieved 2010-10-12. 
6. ^ "Daytrotter: Session Archives". Daytrotter. http://www.daytrotter.com/sessionarchives. 
7. ^ "XL: Vampire Weekend". XL. http://www.xlrecordings.com/vampireweekend/. 

External links

• Official website
• Interview with Sean Moeller and Ashley Marie Sansotta with REAX Music Magazine
• Gearwire - Interview with Patrick Stolley (recording engineer) of Daytrotter about his studio equipment.
• SUPERSWEET Interview with Sean Moeller, October 2010