By Andy Wang

Blogger Gurls
And the indie critics throw a party.

jenyk.com/melodynelson.com presents Vicious, with Ambulance Ltd, Blue Sparks, Mommy and Daddy, Nimbus
Tues., Aug. 12 at Sin-é. 7:30, $9.

Jasper Coolidge, 29, probably goes to more shows than you. He’s almost certainly taken more pictures than you. Armed with a Sony Cybershot DSC-F717, he sees about a dozen bands each week and puts their photos on his website, jenyk.com. He also writes about each show, often mentioning how wasted he was and how overwhelmed he is by each band’s potential. So far, he’s chronicled more than 200 shows and posted close to 10,000 pictures.

Jasper likes bands on the rise. There are no pictures of the Strokes or White Stripes at jenyk.com. There are, instead, 10 sets of photos of the charming, moody loverboys of Elefant and four sets of the fierce, hot-as-fuck gals (and one guy) in the Twenty-Twos.

Jasper lives in a blissful world of honest, unabashed fandom. He also manages nine other music-related websites, including rainermaria.com and sin-e.org. He isn’t paid for this work, although he sometimes makes money taking promotional pictures of bands.

"My philosophy has always been: I can’t play an instrument; I’m tone-deaf," Jasper told me. "Even though I played piano for nine years, I don’t recall any of it. So this is my way of contributing to the creative process, of not just being another fan in the crowd."

Jasper’s pal Laura, 22, says she didn’t even care much about music until the Strokes and White Stripes arrived. Now, as proprietor of themodernage.org, Laura updates her site frequently with news and commentary about just-announced shows, secret performances, bands she likes, and bands she hates. Through a network of sources who often instant-message her, Laura is among the first people to find out about last-minute, unannounced shows. When she posted something about a secret Walkmen show, it took just a couple minutes for the band’s manager to e-mail her, asking her to take it down. Some journalists were shut out of Blur’s Bowery Ballroom show and Beck’s Valentine’s Day show at Maxwell’s, but Laura and friends got to go. Not a bad life for somebody who claims to be somewhat antisocial.

"I don’t like to do anything," Laura says. "I don’t like to make the effort. I don’t like to go out. [And] for someone who does a lot of Internet stuff, I’m kind of anti-Internet. I don’t like people I don’t know."

Somewhere in between Laura and Jasper is 27-year-old Audrey, who runs melodynelson.com. (Like Laura, Audrey enjoys her online privacy and doesn’t want to reveal her last name.) Audrey, who’s French, if that matters, uses her site largely to review and preview shows.

"I was going to so many shows," she says. "I was getting 10 e-mails and 15 IMs asking, ‘How was the show last night?’ It made me think that people want to know what I have to say."

It’s not just fans who pay attention.

"You wouldn’t know how publicists use us," Audrey says. "I get e-mails from people, saying, ‘Can you break this; can you say this?’ It’s such a platform to reach the right audience."

Unlike Laura, Audrey doesn’t write about bands she hates. Audrey loves Stellastarr*, and apparently Stellastarr* love her back. Frontman Shawn Christensen wore a Melody Nelson pin when he recently played on Carson Daly.

Things are starting to happen for Jasper, Laura, and Audrey. Laura’s parlayed her site into assignments from NME. Jasper and Audrey are running a new party at Sin-é called Vicious, which Jasper, Audrey, and Laura are promoting on their sites.

The first Vicious on July 8 sold out and was highlighted by a blistering set by the 22s (Laura’s site has mentioned them in the same breath as Sahara Hotnights and Joan Jett, so I won’t bother). Stellastarr* guitarist Michael Jurin and drummer Arthur Kremer DJ-ed, even though the band, recently signed to RCA, was leaving early the next morning to go on tour.

The crowd was full of scenesters, including members of Longwave, the IO’s, and the Hissyfits. The IO’s singer Chris Punsalan told me he was thinking of starting his own site, which would be the audio equivalent of jenyk.com. I also ran into Stellastarr*’s Christensen, and we talked about the impact of jenyk.com, themodernage.org, and melodynelson.com.

"They’re extremely important, and they’re also brutally honest," Christensen says. "That’s really the thing. No one’s paying them to like anything. There’s no agenda."

There is, however, an agenda for Vicious.

"What we’re trying to shoot for with our party…we’re trying to catch the bands at the exact right time, on their way up," Jasper says. "Before they go to Reading, before they sign with RCA. It’s like a fantasy baseball team where we’re banking more on potential than past success."

Audrey added: "It’s much easier for a band to play at something that’s organized, where they’ll be promoted through us, where there will be more of a crowd, where it feels more like a community."