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[This Just In]

WEB OF LOVE
Lonely-hearts club

BY NINA WILLDORF

Briana, a 17-year-old girl from Marshfield, has posted four arty pictures of herself on Makeoutclub.com, a Web site for indie-rock fans. In the black-and-white photos, she’s glaring at a corner, peering at the sky, and squinting at us dead on. Next to the angst-ridden shots, she lists her interests, which include " Bruce Fuckin Springsteen " and " sweatbands + hip hop chic. " As she talks about the Web site and her contribution, you can practically hear her eyes rolling over the phone. " It’s totally cheesy and everything but it’s a good way to meet people, " she says.

The Web site " is for kids who think ‘I’m all alone in this world’ and they’re listening to the Smiths and being miserable, " says Gibby Miller, the year-old Web site’s 23-year-old founder, who spends his days at the Harvard Square record store Other Music and his nights tweaking the site. " It’s a great thing for people to not feel so all alone. "

Come this Friday, what’s been simply an online community with message boards is hitting the clubs, with an 18-plus show for local Makeoutclub.com scenesters called " Start! " Unfortunately, Briana won’t make the cut. ( " Eighteen-plus is the worst, " she whines.) Others, however, will have the opportunity to chat in real life with their fellow tortured souls amid the sounds of a collectively appreciated genre. Consider it interfaith SpeedDating, slowed down and set to music.

The " Start! " party, which will take place at Bill’s Bar, is the first of Miller’s planned monthly events. (He hopes to move the gathering to a warehouse after this month.) The kickoff party’s line-up includes the Realistics and the Inflatable Men, both from New York, as well as DJs David, Kit, and M16 spinning Brit-pop, garage, electro, and, of course, indie rock.

Despite its provocative name, Miller likes to think that his Web site is not just a place to make a love connection. " Dating never was my focus, " he says. " I always wanted it to be more music-based. " Today he finds that " people use it mostly for making friends, talking about records, starting bands and ’zines — then, of course, the obvious love interests. " Briana, for example, has people " IM-ing " her all the time for dates, but she’d rather swap tapes than flirty e-mails.

Over the past year, the community has grown exponentially; Miller says the list of folks adding their pictures and profiles to the mix expands by 60 percent every month. And some of those are big names, including Rachel, the bleached-blond Midwesterner from this season’s The Real World on MTV, and K Records impresario Calvin Johnson (Dub Narcotic Sound System), who helped Miller coordinate a Makeoutclub.com event in Portland, Oregon.

Peruse the line-up of girls and boys and a few themes emerge: thick black glasses, meaningful glares, wrenching confessional angst, and abstract cryptic messages. " Red_sox_Jess " prefers " being bitter " and " hating your guts. " Among her interests, she includes " dead babie [sic] jokes, " " std’s, " and the kicker, " If you would just shut up for a second, you would hear me hating you. "

We think we might have found a companion for the surly Jess in fellow Bostonian " XsarinX. " Accompanying a color mug shot where his blue-green eyes stare straight ahead, he writes: " Forget making love, let’s just gouge each other’s eyes out so we won’t have to watch each other walk away. "

Could this be love?

" Start! " will take place at Bill’s Bar, 5½ Lansdowne Street, Boston, this Friday, September 7, at 9 p.m. Tickets are $8 and can be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at (617) 228-6000. For more information, visit www.makeoutclub.com or www.startboston.com.

Issue Date: September 6 - 13, 2001