Thursday: A musical odyssey
I’ve mentioned my enthusiasm for Last.fm recently. It’s an interesting service whose value isn’t immediately obvious when you first look at it. It plays music? You think. Why would I want to tell them what I’m listening to? You ask. Aren’t I just giving them information for nothing? You wonder.
The value becomes apparent when Last.fm begins to get to know you. I woke up Thursday morning with 4900 plays on my profile, all from iTunes or my iPod. I figured this was going to be the day I cracked 5000 so, to make it interesting, I connected to the Recommended station through the desktop software and started listening. There were a few skipped tracks in there, but amazingly, I came away with 89 tracks that I did not hate. That is a pretty impressive hit rate. You can see the playlist of recommendations but may need to be a subscriber to view the contents, which kind of sucks, but I guess there are limits to how much sharing you can get away with for free. In any case, here are a few of my favorites:
Fluke: A trio of electronic musicians from the 80s, their career spans over 20 years. Similar to The Crystal Method, Junkie XL or Underworld, the tracks I heard were interesting and had some depth to them.
Calla: an experimental, post-rock band with elements of (or inspiration for) I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness, Arab Strap or Blonde Redhead, they struck me as dark, noisy and worth digging deeper into.
stellastarr*: an American indie band based out of New York City. Comparisons to Interpol, The Stills and the Dears abound.
Elefant: A relatively new band in the vein of Interpol and stellastarr*. I liked what I heard.
It’s hard enough to find new bands without trusted recommendations. Having a system that can recommend music you’ll like with a fair degree of success is definitely cool.
Here’s the playlist:
1. The Walkabouts – Devil in the Details 4:25
2. Fluke – Bermuda 7:55
3. Swervedriver – Sci-Flyer 5:13
4. Elefant – Love 4:01
5. The Constantines – Million Star Hotel 4:41
6. Galaxie 500 – Blue Thunder 3:49
7. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Spread Your Love 3:44
8. Jason Collett – These Are the Days 3:00
9. Shriekback – Lined Up 4:05
10. stellastarr* – Somewhere Across Forever 3:40
11. A Place to Bury Strangers – To Fix The Gash In Your Head 3:48
12. Swervedriver – Duel 6:20
13. XTC – Making Plans for Nigel 4:14
14. Fluke – Snapshot 4:08
15. Adorable – Still Life 2:38
16. The Constantines – Time Can Be Overcome 5:43
17. The Watchmen – Any Day Now 4:39
18. The Psychedelic Furs – Pretty in Pink 3:56
19. Cuff the Duke – Take My Money And Run 2:54
20. Gang of Four – Glass 2:28
21. Memphis – Into The Wild 3:27
22. Pavement – Baptist Blacktick 2:02
23. The Diableros – Olympic Island 4:07
24. stellastarr* – In the Walls 3:48
25. Amy Millan – Come Home Loaded Roadie 3:57
26. Moist – I’m Going To Judo Chop Your Boyfriend 6:12
27. Belly – Pressure 4:35
28. The Wrens – Nightswimming full track 4:30
29. IMA Robot – Disconnect 3:30
30. The Unicorns – The Unicorns: 2014 (demo version) 3:35
31. Delays – We Together Make A City (Love Made Visible) (Torchteam Remix) 5:01
32. The Stranglers – Golden Brown 3:25
33. Nada Surf – Concrete Bed 2:23
34. Big Audio Dynamite – Rush 4:15
35. Calla – Mayzelle 3:13
36. Swervedriver – Rave Down 5:06
37. Pavement – Shoot the Singer 3:15
38. Swirlies – Pancake 3:14
39. The Telescopes – You Set My Soul 4:00
40. Airiel – Stratosphere 5:51
41. Enon – In This City 4:00
42. Modwheelmood – MHz 4:42
43. Sufjan Stevens – Ring Them Bells 6:20
44. BT – The Internal Locus 10:25
45. Ochre – Oneirist full track 2:08
46. Ochre – Sosacharo 6:39
47. The Cinematics – A Strange Education 5:24
48. Lilys – Day Of The Monkey 3:48
49. Architecture in Helsinki – Do the Whirlwind 4:38
50. M. Ward – O Lazy Days full track 3:19
51. Calla – Love Of Ivah 5:15
52. Jesus Jones – International Bright Young Thing 3:11
53. Les Savy Fav – The Year Before The Year 2000 4:10
54. Wisp – 1stop 2:05
55. Simple Minds – Don’t You (Forget About Me) 4:19
56. Plaid – Light Rain 3:49
57. Nada Surf – See These Bones 5:10
58. Abfahrt Hinwil – Tech7 3:56
59. Bedhead – Beheaded full track 4:43
60. Secede – Born in a Tropical Swamp 9:26
61. The Flashbulb – Lawn Wake IX 2:35
62. The Wrens – Destruction/Drawn 1:29
63. Guided by Voices – Hold on Hope 3:33
64. Wisp – Congratulations 4:15
65. Starflyer 59 – Underneath 4:35
66. The Telescopes – Flying 2:53
67. Simple Minds – Alive and Kicking 5:26
68. Superchunk – Pink Clouds 3:23
69. Julian Cope – Sunspots 5:15
70. Working For A Nuclear Free City – Troubled Son 2:44
71. The Divine Comedy – Diva Lady 4:16
72. Plaid – Squance 5:00
73. Ester Drang – Proustian Moments full track 4:05
74. Nada Surf – Blankest Year 2:12
75. Lloyd Cole and the Commotions – Rattlesnakes 3:26
76. Chris Clark – Bricks 2:40
77. Dinosaur Jr. – Freak Scene 3:36
78. Bola – Versivo 7:51
79. The Dismemberment Plan – A Life of Possibilities 4:33
80. Loop – Spinning 6:29
81. Lloyd Cole – Woman In A Bar 3:36
82. Proem – Invisible for All 3:51
83. Pretty Girls Make Graves – Bring It on Golden Pond 2:57
84. Jega – Phlax 3:51
85. Venetian Snares – Hajnal 7:44
86. The Music – Welcome to the North 5:09
87. Rogue Wave – Lake Michigan 3:48
88. Clark – Dew on the Mouth 1:05
89. Pop Will Eat Itself – Ich Bin Ein Auslander (Loved track) 4:00
PS, not a single member of Coldplay was harmed in the writing of this blog post.
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