Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallett is one of dozens of musicians to take part in La Blogothèque’s magical Concerts à Emporter

When you ask independent music fans where they turn to find the latest news, videos, interviews and miscellaneous details about their favourite bands, their answer is generally one of the online juggernauts: pitchforkmedia.com, stereogum.com, NME.com and radio3.cbc.ca. Increasingly, though, these sites are linking to a burgeoning online destination called La Blogothèque (blogotheque.net).

La Blogothèque is an independent music blog founded in 2003 and largely based in Paris. It is a community of bloggers and videographers who originally shared a certain boredom and disinterest in the traditional print music press. Rather than turn their back on the industry, they decided to alter it to suit their taste.

“[Translated from French:] When we started La Blogothèque, there was no MySpace, YouTube, mp3Blog or RapidShare,” recalls Chryde, a.k.a. Christophe Abric, one of the site’s main bloggers. “It was much more difficult to discover new music and watch videos from interesting bands. Since then, we have had to distinguish ourselves. We have always tried to bring a new, more intimate, less formatted perspective on the bands we like. Originally, we wanted to show that we could talk about music differently, more freely, and that the Internet was a marvellous place to discover new music.”

The online music landscape has evolved a great deal in the five years since La Blogothèque’s founding. In order to distinguish itself from the major music websites, the site devised a feature called the Concerts à Emporter (known in English as take-away shows). Essentially, these are short, guerrilla-style concert films — generally two or three songs — recorded in public spaces in Paris.

“We felt like making videos using the same unique approach as our writing style,” explains Chryde. “We were receiving lots of requests from labels who wanted us to cover their bands. We told ourselves that there were better ways to spend an hour with a band [than to conduct a typical interview].

“The catalyst came with the first Arcade Fire concert in Paris. The group finished the show by breaking through the crowd and playing in the street with a handful of fans. I had met Vincent Moon, a talented videographer, slightly before the concert. He also wanted to shake things up [in the industry]. The two pieces of the puzzle came together there.”

Over 90 take-away shows are now available for free viewing on the site. The concerts, which feature a myriad of unique venues including parks, vans, elevators, markets and city streets, cover the whole spectrum of independent bands from around the world. With such a diverse assortment of performers, Chryde is reluctant to choose favourites.

“I’m not a good judge, because most take-away shows are linked with memories of the shoot,” he explains. “From that point of view, the best memories are of Arcade Fire, Beirut and I’m From Barcelona. Recently, our proudest moment was with Yeasayser. It was a crazy moment [in the Paris metro] — very long and very hard to reproduce. Vincent Moon captured the moment perfectly. We sense the city, the hesitation, the celebration and the freedom.”

In fact, Chryde cites the Parisian backdrop as being a major factor in helping La Blogothèque get recognition in North America. To him, though, the take-away shows are about putting artists in the street, having them interact with the bustle, the street noises and the passersby. Before being featured in a concert, bands must first meet certain criteria — they must be able to improvise and play along with the environment. A good examples of this is Canadian violinist Final Fantasy, a.k.a. Owen Pallett.

“In Final Fantasy's case, Owen Pallett saved us,” says Chryde. “It was a day where the streets were empty and he didn't have much time. It could've been a boring show, but suddenly he decided to sprint [up a street] — we had no choice but to follow him – and that animated the video.

La Blogothèque and its take-away shows are steadily growing in popularity. Recently, Moon was invited by R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe to record a show in Athens, GA. As for the site’s next move, Chryde says that there is plenty left to explore.

“At the moment, we love going to new cities that we are not familiar with,” he says. “My biggest dream would be to do a take-away show with Tom Waits.”