I’m really enjoying Punch Brothers, which is led by Chris Thile, formerly of Nickel Creek. The album is sort of bluegrass chamber music. It’s a fascinating listen. I’m also enjoying the last Nickel Creek album “Why Should The Fire Die?,” which I never got around to buying when it came out in 2005. I picked up both albums this weekend on iTunes.
I’ve also been playing with the Pandora app on my iPhone. You pick an artist you like, and it starts streaming songs you can give a thumbs up or thumbs down to, and as it learns your preferences, it builds out essentially a radio station. I have a few channels set up, including ones based on Old Crow Medicine Show, Moby and Mother Hips. It’s very similar to SonicNet’s app, which was available in the late ’90′s, but was killed due to licensing restrictions.
What are you listening to?
Music Listening Thread
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i’ve been a Pandora fan for a while now, and have found new artists to love based on the stations it creates from songs/artists i already like. for data-heads, the programming and logic behind the machine they’ve built for analysing and sorting music is quite cool.
i’m a new fan of The Airborne Toxic Event, out of L.A. So far i’m thinking they’re the lovechild of the Violent Femmes, Franz Ferdinand, and Agent Smith from The Matrix (especially on Does This Mean You’re Moving On).
i’m digitizing my entire CD (500-1000) collection so i’m listening to EVERYTHING!!
I did that – about 800 CDs – about a year ago. I’ll keep some CD’s, maybe a quarter of them, and will sell the rest once I get more redundancy on my digital storage.
I’m using “Apple Lossless” which is an uncompressed format, so it’s a perfect copy of the original AIFF track.
I’ll probably end up with around 300GB of music, so I’ll need to buy another 1.5 or 2 TB drive just for the heck.
But I will save all the original CDs just for heck (and the art)
Here’s what I’ve been listening too !
M4GW
Oh, man, you guys…I’d not discovered Pandora before this!
Begone Sirius! This is WAY cool!!!!!
Well…yet another thing to get obsessed by, at the expense of the things I’m supposed to be doing in my life…
Thanks a lot…
No, really, thanks!!!
Now I gotta figure out how to use it on my new IPhone…do I have to download the app on the phone?
Best,
Leigh
Leigh – download the free Pandora app for the iPhone. They just released v2.0 this week. I believe that there’s a single sign on for iPhone and the web version.
Here’s what I’ve been doing – I put the iPhone in its little cradle, and then I take my speaker cord out of my laptop and plug it in to the back of the cradle. So then it’s Pandora on iPhone running through my nice computer speakers with subwoofer. Pretty low tech, but good stuff.
I listen to all kinds of music – drives my wife a bit batty when I setup a playlist of wildly different genres.
Today’s playlist includes The Waifs, The Coup, The Postal Service, Fleetwood Mac, Mos Def, Muse, Modest Mouse, Funkadelic, Rilo Kiley, Pink Floyd, Smashing Pumpkins, Pachelbel, Black Sabbath, Salt ‘N Pepa, Tori Amos, NIN, Iron & Wine, Beethoven, Andrew Bird, THC, Johnny Cash, The Dresden Dolls and The Roots.
I tend to get obsessive about certain songs or albums for weeks at a time. Right now it’s the live version of “Spotlight,” by The Waifs.
I’ve not tried Pandora because I’m pretty happy with my Launchcast station – I’ve been “teaching” it for years and it has a pretty good handle on what I like and what I might like.
http://ca.music.yahoo.com/launchcast/station.asp?u=1323428874
What’s up with Yahoo/Launchcast? No Firefox, no Google Chrome, no Safari support and it flat out crashes Opera.
OK, I’m listening in IE, and not particularly happy about that, but you’re worth it, Tan.
I know, I know. it sucks.
They’ve been saying for years that they are going to change it. LC is the only thing that keeps me tied to IE.
Enjoy!
mmm, Dresden Dolls. good stuff.
Jessie actually likes Joaquin Phoenix better than Cash himself (as in, the soundtrack from Walk the Line).
C’mon people. Grateful Dead. You’ve got the 1960s. You’ve got the 1970s. You’ve got more of the 1970s. You’ve got the 1980s. You’ve got the 1990s. You can hear yourself in the audience mix. You’ve got young Jerry. You’ve got old Jerry. You’ve got rotund Jerry. You’ve got skinny Jerry. You’ve got Donna. You’ve got Phil. You’ve got noodles. You’ve got Morning Dew. You’ve got your first show. You’ve got your craziest day ever, the one where you met those freaks and fill in the blanks.
The number one thing Obama needs to do for this country to recover is reinstitute the Grateful Dead. Make it like a secret highly funded undercover federal program. (Pay for it by de-funding the DEA.) Or just pour some TARP funds onto the scene and see what sprouts. Imagine what a well funded giant traveling freak circus powered by endless jams and plenty of bus seats could do for this country right now.
You know its true.
Check out: http://www.archive.org. You can download a terabyte of live shows, not get sued, and listen to Jerry sing the sweet ones until the end of time.
(As well as lots of other traveling troubadors.)
Obama may have smoked some weed but he ain’t no deadhead.
i listened to the dead once and my whole world tumbled down around me.
then i joined the marines
Obama may not be a deadhead, but they do say he is pretty smart. Surely he can see what a brand new Grateful Dead could do for us?
And surely all would agree it would be a better use of TARP funds than we’ve seen so far?
Imagine: A miracle ticket for every man, woman and child.
A bus seat for every head.
A veggie burrito for everyone who gets up off their tail and gets to the show.
We’d be reinvigorated tomorrow.
BTW in case you did not know, Obama did rally the surviving members of the Grateful Dead for at least two get out the vote shows. He might just be a closet head.
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/02/05/grateful-dead-reunite-for-barack-obama-benefit-show/
and…
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/10/14/the-dead-reunite-for-obama-at-scorching-penn-state-benefit-gig/
Totally amused by the Deadhead theme, but I…just…couldn’t…resist…
“You’ve got young Jerry. You’ve got old Jerry. You’ve got rotund Jerry. You’ve got skinny Jerry.”
Yup, and now we’ve got dead Jerry.
Gratefully, one would hope.
Again, sorry! I lacked the discipline to keep from sending this!
>;-)
Leigh
And cool beans about the Dead reunion at Penn State — them’s my old stomping grounds!
You can listen my latest musical pleasures at misc.joy
Hey people,
If you’re into some new heady jams, with some Phish, Dead, and Umphrey’s influences, you should listen to us – Quactus. http://www.quactus.com
We’re heading to Ojai for the first time at the Hub this Friday night for a FREE show, starting at 9. We’ll probably be playin’ some Dead and Phish covers, along with our prog-rock/psychedelic blend of originals.
Hope you all can make it out. We know what a close-nit community you have in Ojai, and we hope to share in the good vibes up there.
Peace,
Quactus
Quactus has a great song on Radio Ojai, “Might Be You!” Plus, there are now 25 other original songs on the site, all free and downloadable.
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