It’s actually a little tricky to find out about local music around the city, I find. This is the stuff I know about, feel free to add other stuff in the comments.

News

Brum Notes is the website for the free, monthly music and lifestyle magazine (Nov issue out now, Oct one online here).

The Birmingham Post have news and reviews here and the Birmingham Mail do rock/pop news.

Fused Magazine‘s site does the odd bit of music news, as does the website for sister magazine Area.

Surge Music takes a wider, Midlands-wide view of things, with articles and lists of gigs, bands and venues.

Cul-de-Sac turned out to be a false dawn for this sort of thing, but may come back one day.

@birminghamlive and @brumpunks are good sources for concert info too.

Reviews

Birmingham Live is the obvious choice here – someone from their ranks of volunteer reviewers and photographers will be at a gig in Birmingham pretty much every evening. Steve Gerrard organises this one (Lee Allen and I have also chipped in occasionally).

The Hearing Aid is a blog by someone called The Baron who goes to an impressive number of local gigs.

The Birmingham Mail do gig reviews too.

Get-togethers

The Birmingham Music Network meets monthly at the Department of Technology, Engineering and the Environment (T.E.E.) at Millennium Point. Their website has a good range of resources too.

Audio

I’m on shakier ground here – which radio shows promote local talent There’s Brumcast on Rhubarb Radio and Introducing on BBC WM. I don’t know enough about the shows on New Style Radio, Aston FM or any others.

Are there any Birmingham-based mp3 blogs worth talking about?

Anything else?

Let me know in the comments. Just to be clear, we’re not looking for bands/venues/promoters to plug themselves but if that’s you, where do you look to get featured?

Oh, and see also Birmingham listings.

(pic – The Editors by Steve Gerrard from the opening night of the new Academy)

Lee Allen is a self-taught photographer who originates from the wilds of Norfolk and now lives in the West Midlands. His friendly approach, coupled with his knack of capturing that “moment”, has seen him work for national magazines through to the BBC.

From the regal surroundings of a wedding in a stately home to the sweaty confines of a small club gig, Lee always approaches each job with the same level of commitment and professionalism ensuring breathtaking results every time.

Photo by Lee Allen

I had a lovely time, mostly trying to spot my twitter friends from either their name tags or avatars, I even won a raffle prize – $200 of hosting vouchers!  I asked the Birmingham tweeple to tweet a review:

If you need to remember the names of your new friends you made last night, a list of the attendees was posted on the blog today. Photographer Lee Allen (@photosbylee) took some great photos, you can see them on Flickr.

When I get word of how much was raised I will post it. Thanks to all the organisers for doing such a brilliant job.

I’ve gone on a bit about how good I think Polarbear (Steve Camden to his mum) is and a few weeks back I went to see his show ‘If I Cover My Nose You Can’t See Me’ at the REP (who joint-commissioned it with others).  In short (and I’d be prepared to go on at length if you really want) it was brilliant.

After the show everyone was ushered up to the REP’s mezzanine where musical partner Afrosaxon was manning the decks and graphic designer Goonism was sketching characters from the show. We also had a reading from one of Polarbear’s inspirations – a fantastic lady whose name, I’m ashamed to say, I didn’t get.

The photo below might need a bit of explaining.  Polarbear works with the West Brom-based Multistory on arts projects with kids, doing all sorts including making these masks (his black eye is make-up from the show, by the way).

Anyway, it was great and if/when he comes back it’d be well worth checking his show out.  For that matter, I reckon spoken word in general is a hugely underrated artform.  I know there are a few things about but if you know of/organise anything of that ilk around Birmingham then feel free to hit the comments below with detais of your next event.

All photos by Lee Allen of Front Row Photos.