It's no secret that the internet has opened doors for independent bands to create, produce and distribute content in an array of different mediums. The music lover's demand for a 360 sort of experience is higher than ever, and just as quickly as new bands come together, these new forums are created.

Carlye Wisel and Donald Rasmussen have turned their Williamsburg apartment's living room that kind of  platform. They are the brains behind Big Ugly Yellow Couch, a brand new blog that has pulled itself apart from the dozens of other tastemaker "music" blogs in providing just such a multi-level experience. Over the last three months, they have invited bands into their home (yes, even providing food) and recorded them performing on their, well, "big ugly yellow couch". The bands range from Brooklyn-based groups to nationally-known bands stopping through on tour.

Each Monday, they post a new HD video session, as well as extract the audio and post them as MP3s.  Additionally, they provide commentary on pop culture and music throughout the week, as well as behind-the-scenes looks on the sessions themselves. The idea is simple, but the quality is outstanding, and has driven pickup from fellow blogs such as Stereogum.

Examiner.com asked the creators a few questions about Big Ugly Yellow Couch below. Be sure to scroll to the bottom to check out their first session with Hymns and visit their site for more information.

1) How did you come up with the idea for this blog?
Honestly, it just kind of popped in my head one day. We "inherited" the couch from a dead old lady, and since we couldn't afford to buy a couch of this size that also had a pull out bed, we sucked it up and schlepped it across the country. Stuck with this thing in the middle of our home, it just made sense to kind of validate it, and give it the underdog boost it needed by involving it in the site. Since I had just left my local music blog behind in Illinois and was looking for something new, Donald had a growing interest applying his photography training to video recording and it was the perfect excuse to buy a Canon 7D, all the pieces just naturally fit together.

2) How often do you have sessions?

Since we both work full-time jobs, we typically spend Saturdays and Sundays at home recording with bands and will have one or two a weekend.


3) What challenges have you run into?

Because we both work long hours Monday through Friday, we're really only able to record on the weekend, which can be super tough when bands we'd love to have over are only stopping through New York for the night. We're also constantly worried about disturbing other people who live in our building, but at this point no one has mentioned the odd amount of music coming from [our apartment] , so they probably just think we're mad genius talented musicians or something. We hope.


4) What bands are on your ultimate session "wish list"?

Man...if we could have anyone over, it would Hall & Oates, Spoon, Phish, Jens Lekman. But not together, since that would sound horrible.

5) How long does the process take in putting these together?
From the end of the couch session until the videos are ready takes about a week. Donald handles all of the multimedia aspects of the site, from recording the videos and the sound to editing it all together, fixing the band photos and posting the MP3s, while I handle the day-to-day updates, all of our social networking posts, booking and planning the sessions we have, and writing all the news content and poems that we post with each session.


6) Where do you find the bands that come in and play?
We're constantly reading music blogs and websites, scrolling through Twitter and just poking around on the internet, but a lot of our sessions have come from people we know recommending up-and-coming bands they're personally into.


7) What other "vlogs" do you enjoy?
Donald regularly watches La Blogotheque and Black Cab Sessions, but pokes around on Cool Hunting and other non-vlog sites that feature video content. I'm a big fan of Bandstand Busking and Yours Truly, but my favorite has to be Ray Concepcion's work — his videos are really innovative and artistic, but with just enough insanity to keep you coming back for more.

8) Have you had any weird requests from bands coming to play?

Fortunately, no. The bands we've had over have all been really great, and have been completely willing to adapt their music to our format. Now that people are starting to know more about the site, they've mostly been excited to see the couch in person. Most bands typically say it's not as ugly as they imagined it, but then again, it also doesn't take up half of their living room.

9) You also feature other music related, non video posts. Where else would you like to see this blog going?
I'm totally addicted to the web, so if I could spend all day on the internet reading blogs and writing, I'd be like Donald at Momofuku Milk Bar — mind-bogglingly happy. If I could wake up at 6am and sit on the internet for twenty straight hours, I would. But, even with our limited amount of available time, we hope to add more recurring features based around music and entertainment news, and expand our video content to include more video reviews of concerts, and silly interview pieces with bands.

10) How has the reaction been?

Really, really positive. But, then again, we feed the bands who come over, and cook or bake them whatever they want. Who could say anything bad about someone who filled their tummy?