As songwriter, frontman, and producer of Wakes, Tim Oxton does pretty much all of his indie band’s promotion. But while he’s had success booking shows, designing artwork, and even covering Grimes, Oxton has had trouble with one basic thing: keeping track of other bands in the always-growing, forever-changing Boston music scene
His solution is called Noise Atlas, and it’s an online database of Boston bands, categorized alphabetically or be genre. He quietly launched it today with eight bands featured — Ghost Modern, Funeral Advantage, the New Highway Hymnal, and others — and is currently looking for more.
“Basically, I’ve found myself being confused by all the bands people are always talking about,” Oxton tells Vanyaland. “There’s so many bands around Boston. And Facebook and Bandcamp are great, but it’s too dense, you can never find anything. And there’s some really rad music being made, but I feel like a lot of it is being overlooked purely because there’s so much of it. And there isn’t really a way to efficiently sort through it.”
When booking shows around town, Oxton says he’s frequently asked by promoters or booking agents for help rounding out bills. He doesn’t always have an answer.
“Unless I’ve already played with them or I’m constantly going to shows, which I don’t necessarily have time for, there’s no real way to find them without dedicating some serious time to finding them,” he adds. “Which again, you may not necessarily have time for.”
He hopes Noise Atlas becomes a tool for not just Boston bands, but touring acts looking to fill bills with appropriate support or headliner. He envisions Noise Atlas as a tool for promoters, musicians, journalists, and pretty much anyone seeking out music. And stresses that the site is an ongoing work-in-progress — by no means is this a finished project.
“I thought that having a curated database of bands, each with their own page of selected songs, contact links, and other things would allow not only promoters to find bands that would otherwise be overlooked but also fans to search through bands around the area where they live and potentially find new bands to love.”
Oxton can be reached via the Noise Atlas contact form.
