find more interesting music

Herro

sounds really interesting but I just went there & was told it isn’t accessible from New Zealand due to ‘licensing constraints’! My fault for being on the bottom of the earth I suppose.

I’ll keep endeavouring to find my way around last.fm. In fact that could be another thing to add to my list…

I can’t remember how I heard about Pandora. But it’s another music recommendation website. Rather than being based on a large collection of other people’s preferred music and listening patterns, it is based on some (supposedly) objective assessment of the music itself. You can create radio stations based on certain types of music that you like, and it will play music for you that it thinks is similar.

Things I like:
The interface is better than last.fm; there’s no outside module, it’s all right there in the webpage. I am hardly ever even aware that it is streaming music. There are never any glitches.

Things I don’t like:
The recommendations don’t seem that reliable. While based on an interesting idea (Music Genome Project) and I’m sure they put a lot of work into it, it just doesn’t seem to pan out all of the time. Sure, we found some new jazz vocalists that we like (Sarah Gazarek). But on my U2 station I rountinely get Pantera, Guns and Roses, Nazareth, and other heavy metal bands. Maybe they just didn’t put enough thought into that genre of rock. But U2 is NOT heavy metal. It does not seem to take the artists’s motivation or themes into account… except there is a parameter for “romantic lyrics”. I think that an important aspect of Ani DiFranco is that her music is about women, for example.

Also: They don’t play enough of the music I said I like. ... Ok, I know I’m supposed to be finding new music based on the music I said I liked, and they want me to find new stuff so I will buy it from their affiliates. But sometimes I just want to listen to music that I like!

And I like being able to browse other people’s profiles, as in last.fm. I can really get a sense for myself what kind of music they like, and judge any unfamiliar music that way.

I tried this, per a recommendation from someone else’s 43 things list. It is a very interesting idea.

1. Being able to keep track of artists/tracks I like, and “ban” artists I don’t like (there is something very satisfying about banning J Lo)
2. Being able to listen to music from people who share similar music tastes (have other favorite artists in common)
3. Browsing—they seem to have tons of music.
4. They have a lot of music that I am surprised to have found: Fettes Brot, Die Totenhosen, other German bands (though not Die Moulinettes!)
5. They acknowledge the existance of music that they don’t offer yet, ... makes me want to check back all the time to see what they have added.

1. I seem to be attracting a lot of electronica. Is this a secret desire of mine, ferreted out based on my other musical selections? Only therapy will tell.
2. Why the hell is it hogging all my CPU? Everytime I turn it on, my CPU shoots up to 100%
3. I don’t really like the streaming music thing
4. I wish the interface seemed more responsive. It’s a little slow, ... it reminds me of the cross-walk buttons that you just want to punch over and over until the light turns green (when you know, rationally, that one push of the button will do it).

A German band… I can’t tell if I only like them because they are German, though. Anyway, I like them!

Dude! Schnappi das kleine Krokodil! Children singing in German are just the too-cutest stuff.

Bizarre but true, I like this german rap band. I looked at their website and it seemed to be a painful amount of bad-boy posturing, but I like the guy’s voice and my German isn’t good enough to tell if he is saying anything really offensive. I heard a song of theirs (at least I thought it was theirs) a long time ago on the radio, but can’t find any reference to it. The only lyrics I can remember right now are “schreibe ich in meinem Tagebuch”, “weiss ich was Scheisse ist” and “Drei und zwanzig ecstacy Tableten”. It was good. I found a couple of downloads places of “mama ist stolz” and a couple others that aren’t as great.

Who woulda thought… me and German hip hop.

I’ve started doing this – listening to more eclectic mixes, checking out more internet radio, writing down music I like, etc.

Some good discoveries so far: The Lost Trailers – cool southern rock; Old Crow Medicine Show – eclectic mountain folk; Amos Lee – bluesy soul singer/songwriter.

Two friends of mine (seperately) insisted that I would like Phish because I like Combustible Edison.

I am skeptical.

I know I must have heard tons of Phish doing you-know-what at Reed College. And it never stuck with me, so it can’t be that good, can it?

I guess I will make an effort to give it a try. But honestly, all of the phish-culture surrounding it is a little bit of a turn-off. I am not sure why.

Another download from Salon.com. The reviewer decsribed this as unassuming and unadventurous. I’m not really sure what s/he meant by that. But I really liked this. I am unclear whether this artists other works are in french but I hope so, because it is so damned cute in a really mellow catchy way.