I Promise This is Not a Test

Sunday, July 25, 2010

I believe diversity is an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era.

First, make a list of your top-20 artists overall. Then, for each of these artists, add the 8 most similar artists to your list. Delete any duplicates, count up the number of entries on your list and this will give you some idea of how eclectic your listening habits are. A score of 9 represents an extremely unvaried musical taste while a 160 represents an extremely varied one.

1. Bright Eyes (8)
Conor Oberst
Desaparecidos
Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band
Monsters of Folk
Commander Venus
Son, Ambulance
Neva Divona
The Good Life

2. Monster of Folk (6)
Bright Eyes
Conor Oberst
Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band
M. Ward
My Morning Jacket
Yim Yames
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
The Low Anthem

3. We Are Scientists (8)
The Futureheads
The Mystery Jets
The Automatic
Maximo Park
Blood Red Shoes
Tokyo Police Club
Hot Hot Heat
The Cribs

4. Bon Iver (8)
Justin Vernon
Bon Iver & St. Vincent
Volcano Choir
Fleet Foxes
Blind Pilot
deYarmond Edison
Iron & Wine
The Tallest Man on Earth

5. Arcade Fire (8)
Wolf Parade
The National
Broken Social Scene
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Interpol
Modest Mouse
The Shins
Neutral Milk Hotel

6. Death Cab for Cutie (5)
The Postal Service
Ben Gibbard
The Shins
Bright Eyes
The Decemberists
Manchester Orchestra
Minus the Bear
Modest Mouse

7. The Antlers (5)
The National
Cymbals Eat Guitars
The Rural Alberta Advantage
Bear in Heaven
Volcano Choir
Neutral Milk Hotel
Wolf Parade
Bon Iver

8. The Matches (8)
Motion City Soundtrack
Midtown
The Pink Spiders
Jet Lag Gemini
Punchline
Forgive Durden
Ludo
You, Me, and Everyone We Know

9. The Gaslight Anthem (8)
This Charming Man
Against Me!
The Loved Ones
The Menzingers
The Riot Before
Chuck Ragan
The Lawrence Arms
The Bouncing Souls

10. Villagers (7)
John Grant
Cathy Davey
Fionn Regan
Isbells
Fyfe Dangerfield
Sam Amidon
Blaudzun
The Tallest Man on Earth

11. Eels (8)
E
Sparklehorse
dEUS
Grandaddy
The Flaming Lips
Gomez
Beck
The Dandy Warhols

12. Jonsi (8)
Jonsi & Alex
Sigur Ros
Olafur Arnalds
Seabear
Frakkur
Parachutes
Amiina
mum

13. Radiohead (6)
Thom Yorke
Jonny Greenwood
Muse
Coldplay
Sigur Ros
Interpol
Beck
Blur

14. Brand New (7)
Manchester Orchestra
Kevin Devine
Taking Back Sunday
Straylight Run
Say Anything
Bayside
The Early November
Thrice

15. Broken Social Scene (6)
Kevin Drew
KC Accidental
Apostle of Hustle
The Most Serene Republic
Stars
Wolf Parade
Brendan Canning
The National

16. Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip (8)
Scroobius Pip
Dan Le Sac
B. Dolan
Example
Plan B
Kid Carpet
Jamie T
Kele

17. Refused (8)
The (International) Noise Conspiracy
Snapcase
Gallows
Raised Feet
The Bronx
Fugazi
The Ghost of a Thousand
Minor Threat

18. Manchester Orchestra (7)
Right Away Great Captain
Kevin Devine
Brand New
Colour Revolt
Dear and the Headlights
All Get Out
Lydia
Winston Audio

19. The Beatles (8)
John Lennon
Paul McCartney
George Harrison
Ringo Starr
Wings
The Who
The Kinks
The Rolling Stones

20. City and Colour (7)
William Fitzsimmons
Luke Pickett
Jonny Craig
Dustin Kensrue
Anthony Green
Bon Iver
Black Lungs
Craig Owens

Score: 144

Check out the ole new last.fm page here!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Recommendations: Conor Oberst

So I was watching Spaceballs, and I realised that as parodies go it's pretty poor - in fact as Mel Brooks films go, it's very poor. And also I realised that I was really bored and already couldn't remember what happened in the preceding half an hour.

My mind wandered and eventually decided I should start something new. Some new project that would capture my imagination and also encompass some of the things I really like. Now as anyone who knows me can tell you, my attention span has, of late, dropped to a level which can only be measured in nano-seconds. So I somehow managed to string a few thoughts together, and from the Joycean mire that is my brain I decided that I should use my blog to write about new findings in music based on the bands last.fm recommend for me.

In short I'm going to listen to the artists which are recommended to me by last.fm and report what I think of them. I'm also going to only use the top three songs in the artist's charts, so I'll be listening to the people's favourites. If any of my reviews offend anyone, they can feel free to exclaim their annoyance via twitter or my bookface or through the comment section on this very blog.

My last.fm account is still relatively new, and I still haven't listened to any of Conor Oberst's solo efforts (or his stuff with the Mystic Valley band), and since I've listened to Monsters of Folk, Bright Eyes and Desaparecidos, it's no surprise that he's top of the charts.

First off, Cape Canaveral.

Maybe I'm cheating slightly as I've already listened to both of his recent albums, but I know that if this song wasn't the first song on his self-titled album, it wouldn't be top of his charts. With the quality of Lenders in the Temple, Milk Thistle, Moab, White Shoes and Snake Hill, this song wouldn't even make the top five for me.

While it is nice to see Conor has grown up, this still very much seems a sort of transition phase from Bright Eyes' angst to Monsters of Folk's maturity. He seems to be desperately trying to look at the big picture, but as he wrote before "the picture's far too big to look at kid, your eyes won't open wide enough."

Lenders in the Temple

Having been a literature and Classics student the lyrics in this song attract me. I love a good story, even the ones about Jesus which make abso-fucking-loutely no sense. There's plenty of classical and Biblical references in this one, and the fact that it's just vocals and guitar, I think adds to it. Conor's voice just seems to suit this type of song. The little sound of coins at the end is a nice touch too.

Sausalito

I'm going to be completely honest, I'm surprised that this song is so high on the charts. I imagine it is mainly because the song feels happy. There's just something very happy about it, maybe it's just the joy of escaping to somewhere different for a few days or of driving really fast with the windows down and the music up. This is good fun, but I think Oberst has much, much better stuff.

From these three songs (and I'm going to be quite honest here), I probably would tell myself to listen to Conor Oberst, but I just wouldn't get around to it. I liked Cape Canaveral, and I thought Sausalito was a fun song, but Lenders in the Temple was the only one which actually captured and held my attention. If it wasn't for the fact that I already listen to some of Oberst's music, and that I like it, I probably wouldn't have followed this up based on these three songs.

Thing is though... I have. And I'd recommend checking out these:

Lenders in the Temple, Milk Thistle, Moab, White Shoes and Snake Hill

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Word.

"Its extraordinary, its always the children who say "sir, sir, what's the point of geometry?" or "what's the point of Latin?" who end up having no job, being alcoholic, and they don't notice that the ones who actually find knowledge for its own sake and pleasure in information and in history and in the world and nature around us actually getting on and doing something with their fucking lives."
- Stephen Fry.