NxEW Reloaded: What Has Changed And Why

In case you haven't noticed yet we've done a bit of renovating at NxEW.ca. It's not as clean and streamlined as it was but NxEW is a content heavy web site and the goal was to make it easier to find the things you are looking for and to keep up with the things you are interested in.

Previously the front page simply listed the most recent posts, and it still does. The problem was that those posts would frequently disappear within a week so if you hadn't checked in awhile you missed stuff. So we've added some sections like reviews, interviews, and tour dates - these will show reviews and interviews we've done and reviews and interviews we've talked about that you might want to check out.

We've also added a section called Elsewhere that lists recent articles from some of our favorite Canadian music blogs. Although only a few from each category are shown on the front page each has it's own page that goes back quite awhile and there are now a number of different feeds you can subscribe to so you can get the stuff you want the way you want it.

We've also added a Spotlight Artist feature. Every week a different artist will be featured in the hope of shining a light on someone we like and think you should be aware of.

We have not built in an archive section, because we can't build one that works very well with the way our site is set up. NxEW is run through Blogger and Blogger limits us to just 100 contributors per blog - so we have multiple blogs that are all collected together into our feed. So an archive would only show the articles from that particular blog and not all of them - what we do have though is a site specific google search (see the right hand column) so if you just type in what you are looking for it will give you any and all mentions of that topic on the site.

Another thing we have not done is build regional feeds - doing that would go against the very idea that NxEW was founded on: The goal is to have contributors from all over and for everyone to be aware of what is going on everywhere - so our contributors from Saskatchewan (or Manitoba, or Nova Scotia etc) can share the things they are excited about with the country. Regional feeds would allow people in Toronto, or Montreal, etc., to go back to naval gazing, reading only the stuff that is about them in particular. So we could build regional feeds, but we won't.

So again, quickly, what we currently have:

About: The obligitory about us page

Join Us: Where we try to talk you into becoming a contributor to the blog

Who We Are: Brief bios of our many, many contributors.

Links: Other stuff on the internet that you should check out

Mixtape Podcast: NxEW's own podcast where we STFU and play music

Promote NXEW: Where we encourage you to help promote the site

Awards - a small section for now but this is where we'll list all of our awards like the Shadow Polaris and the Album Hall of Fame

Reviews: The latest reviews by us and others that we like

InterviewsThe latest interviews by us and others that we like

Vinyl: The latest info on what is being released on vinyl

Video - the latest video, live and otherwise.

Tour Dates - see who is on tour and where they are going.

Free Stuff - The latest free stuff, samplers, MP3s, albums and free shows

Podcasts - we talk about podcasts alot - not just our own, but many that are done by others. This will keep you up to date - there are also lists available of the CBC Radio 3 Sessions, Radio 3 TV, CBC Radio's Bandwidth, Soundcheck from the National Post and Colin Medley and, of course, our own Mixtape Podcast.

Elsewhere - The latest stuff from our favorite Canadian music blogs (other than our own.)

I Heart Radio - with details on how to get over a hundred channels of free, independent and mostly commercial free radio on your computers media player.

And a long list of Feeds that we offer - which allows you to subscribe to absolutely everything and/or subsets on information.

We'll keep doing our best to keep making it all bigger and better for you.

Cheers!