Modern technology has allowed for instant access to information on just about anything one can think of. The simple act of "googling" any word, name or phrase, can result in an avalanche of material that ranges from very specific to minutely tenuous in connection to the original subject. Any subject imaginable, anytime you want.

Music is no exception. Along with major label artists, many unknown or up and coming artists use the web to promote their music. Myspace, Band Camp, Reverbnation, Sonicbids, I could go on and on listing music hosting sites. Talent buyers for venues no longer have to navigate large stacks of CDs and press kits, it is all on the web. Anyone who records anything can instantly share it world wide.

Pandora.com allows you to make your own radio station. With their "music genome" software, you can enter songs or artist into your station profile and the result will be a online commercial free "radio" station that is tailored to your taste. A lot of the newer additions to my musical taste were from one of my five Pandora stations. Artists like Kava Kava, Kasabian, Irepress, and The Electric Six make music that was previously stuff that I never listened to but now are some of my favorites.

My favorite way to enjoy music online is a Facebook group that I belong to called Awesome Music Weekend. It was the brainchild of my good friend Frank Ruggles. He was a doorman and bouncer at AC'S Bar and Grill when it was at the corner of King and George Streets in Downtown Charleston. Frank played guitar in local bands (most notably The DeNiros and Vroom) and also is quite the photographer.

He now resides in Alexandria, Virginia with his equally artistic wife, Lisa. He proudly serves our country and the state of Virginia as a First Sergeant - 2nd Military Police Company in the Virginia State Guard and is a photographer for the National Park Service. He recently retraced the footsteps of famous photographer Ansel Adams, for the Park Service, and the resulting photos are breathtaking.

Here is a small interview with Ruggles that I did for this column...

Me: What was your main reason for starting AMW?

Ruggles: A few of us were sharing music videos on Facebook on a semi-regular basis and it became a little contest to one-up each other with a better or more obscure song. I thought that if we organized our impromptu game it might be even better, so I made a page and some guidelines to help steer the direction of the posts. As it turns out, the guidelines have been paramount in the success of the page; people have to think a little harder before posting, which makes them post carefully. In the end , the user supplied content is top notch. People spend a lot of time researching to find the really wonderful obscure music that most of us have never heard of. We shy away from the obvious and really mainstream music. AMW is about lesser-known but awesome music.

Me: What would you say is the most surprising thing about AMW that you didn't anticipate?

Ruggles: I knew the page would be fun and I'd learn about a lot of new music, but I didn't think there would be such a "culture" which has grown around the page. People have made new friendships through AMW and old friendships have been rekindled. Music it seems has such a strong bonding quality that the members look forward to each other's personal stories about music as much as they do the music itself. I've been told that a lot of people find the page addictive and really enjoy digging up great music nuggets to share with their friends.

Me: How long has it been?

Ruggles: We started September 19th, 2010 our first theme was AWESOME music from the 1980's. We have a new theme every Friday night, which runs thru the weekend, and we recently added a "midweek boredom break," which is a one day mini-theme on Wednesdays. It was too hard to wait a whole week to meet back up and start up our virtual jukebox.

Me: What are the numbers? (members and posts)

Ruggles: We have about 250 members, and many more that just lurk and watch the videos, many hundreds I suspect. We are approaching a combined quarter million posts, likes, and comments. There are over 5000 individual videos posted, and some of the comments to each video can reach 20 or more. We used to have a "contest" to see which video garnered the most "likes" but I abandoned it for two reasons; one, music isn't a contest,and secondly, I hated counting through the likes on over 200 entries per weekend.

(Email Stu at sjohnson@allnightkungfu.com).