T&T writer’s website hits national contest’s Top 10

Article written by Eric Lewis, published in March 7, 2011 edition of the Times & Transcript

A Moncton musician and writer is hoping his website is named the best independent Canadian music website.

Ken Kelley, drummer in longtime Moncton rockers The Monoxides, freelance writer for the Times & Transcript and Chart Attack and a music reviewer for Here magazine, operates a website, The Musicnerd Chronicles where he gathers all his stories and reviews in one place and writes original music stories, interviewing bands from around the world.

The site was launched in 2009. Recently, Ken was told about a contest CBC Radio 3 is operating, where it is seeking fan votes to determine the best Canadian independent music website. A friend suggested Ken nominate his site for consideration.

“I completely missed the deadline by the time I got around to it,” Kelley says. “It was just a couple of days later when the 110-plus nominees were announced that I found out that I had been nominated after all.”

He began asking friends and colleagues to vote for Musicnerd, plugging the contest on his website and social networking sites, all the while telling folks he didn’t expect to get very far.

Musicnerd made it to the Top 50 sites, then the Top 30 and, just last week, the Top 10.

“I’m completely surprised that I have made it as far as I have,” Ken says. “It couldn’t have been done without the support of my friends who have been extremely patient in enduring my endless Facebook and Twitter requests for their votes. I am in some truly amazing company in the Top 10 and have been a little surprised at who has not survived thus far. There are some really great music websites like Herohill from Halifax that I feel deserve a Top 10 placement.”

According to the CBC Radio 3 Searchlight website, “host Grant Lawrence wants your pick for the single best independent Canadian online source for music – websites, blogs, live performance sites, label or artist sites, photo blogs and video blogs.”

Supporters can vote for Musicnerd or any of the other Top 10 sites by going to http://radio3.cbc.ca/ and clicking on the Searchlight banner. You can vote once per day.

Voting continues until 4 a.m. Thursday morning.

Ken says the big prizes are bragging rights as well as an award to be presented at the North-By-Northeast Music Festival, taking place June 13-19 in Toronto.

“There is no monetary prize but, regardless, the publicity has been amazing,” he says. “I expected a small bump in the amount of visitors to my site however my site visits have doubled since the competition started.”

Other sites in the Top 10 include The Can Con, Midnight Poutine, Ca Va Cool, Coke Machine Glow, Southern Souls, Swim Drink Fish Music, Weird Canada, Broken Speaker and Thorny Bleeder Records.

Searchlight is a yearly contest that seeks out the best of what Canada has to offer musically.