My first stop for music on the web is Largehearted Boy, which manages to link to some of the smartest music writing elsewhere every day. And I can always count on Stereogum for an interesting tidbit or two.

I can never stick with anyone music forum for any extended length of time. They all seem to let me down at some point.

Thanks slack-a-goo!

Heh, I was just checking in to see what slack-a-gogo recommended. (speaking of music, slack, were you able to open those Church/Amy Winehouse files I sent you?)

I started MetaMix, but sadly discussion has been a little slow. Feel free to join and enliven the conversation.

Thanks brainwidth. I will check it out.

Folks, including Mefi/Mecha's klangklangston, whose opinions I value on matters music-related, speak pretty highly of the ilovemusic forums. Those forums might be more for obsessed, argumentative geeks than popular-music fans, though. (Ditto okayplayer for hip-hop, soulstrut for crate-digger stuff, etc.)

As for just reading interesting posts, there's a million of 'em, but I suspect that many might be more hipster/indie than what you're looking for. From what little I know about your musical tastes, Lori, popmatters, or maybe the AV Club or Allmusic, might be a good fit.