Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Last.fm

So my good friend Sandy told me about this site some time ago, and we were looking at our mutual friends' song statistics. I found it to be interesting, but a bit too Big Brother for me. Then the Bulls posted about Last.fm and its wonderful radio function. You put in a favorite band and it plays what it thinks you like and want to hear - pretty simple and pretty smart. It sounded like a no-brainer, a win-win situation.

If the fucking thing worked it would be genius.

Being the Morrissey lover that I am, I put The Smiths as my band. What do they play? Fucking Rolling Stones "Dead Flowers". Crappy country rock with worse singing (I truly hate Mick's vox on this one). So I ban that track and continue on...and it just gets fucking worse. Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, SOUNDGARDEN?!?! Seriously, for every one song I could stand listening to there were at least 12 songs that make me want to scream (in anger and frustration, not the "hoo yes, motherfuckers, shout at the devil!" party scream). Who the FUCK thinks of The Smiths as a classic rock band?

It is also a bone of contention that they never even play the god damn band you list as your favorite. Why the fuck else would I list them?

So it's not perfect. I DID get to hear a couple of great songs I hadn't heard in donkeys, but it just wasn't enough. The band that returned the best results was the Cocteau Twins. Subsequent attempts have been better, but still seriously lacking. I think I could only use this sparingly, like when my Duran Duran mp3 cd goes missing, or I would be at my wit's end.

18 Comments:

At 12/13/2005 5:16 PM, Blogger Smartypants said...

Crazy. I just listened to The Smiths AND the Cocteau Twins today.

 
At 12/13/2005 5:54 PM, Blogger pop renaissance said...

that is why i heart smartypants, boys and girls. right there.

 
At 12/13/2005 7:53 PM, Blogger Smartypants said...

I heart you right back, PR.

= )

 
At 12/13/2005 7:56 PM, Blogger Smartypants said...

One more thing before I dash off to bed.

I listened to Siouxsie and the Banshees today as well.

Because my iPod rocks.

 
At 12/13/2005 10:48 PM, Blogger teh l4m3 said...

OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!!! Every time I come here it just makes me want to pick up a This Mortal Coil box set...

...And burn it.

 
At 12/14/2005 6:26 AM, Blogger Smartypants said...

They have a This Mortal Coil boxset? ::running over to Amazon::

;)

 
At 12/14/2005 7:08 AM, Blogger lilmammal said...

I like Launchcast at Yahoo. It takes a bit of work, but once you rate enough bands, it is really spot-on. Here's mine: http://music.yahoo.com/lc/?rt=0&rp1=0&rp2=1239002510

 
At 12/14/2005 9:36 AM, Blogger pop renaissance said...

the this mortal coil boxset is awesome.

oh yeah - fuck you, teh l4m3. =)

i'm a-gonna check yers out right now, indy.

 
At 12/14/2005 10:58 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Pop: I heart a boy who hearts my boy Morris! You are god damn right when you say that the Smiths are NOT classic rock.

Goddammit! I thought video killed the radio star and the tweerps who code music like that.

 
At 12/14/2005 11:11 AM, Blogger pop renaissance said...

indygirl, your link has great music!

 
At 12/14/2005 11:22 AM, Blogger pop renaissance said...

oh, and smarty - we listened to siouxsie too. "strange brew" and "the killing jar".

 
At 12/14/2005 12:35 PM, Blogger lilmammal said...

Butn girlfriend, "Twerps who code music like that" doesn't really rhyme with much. That's the real reason they went with video.

 
At 12/14/2005 1:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

you can also try Pandora for the same kind of thing. it played some obscure shit I didn't know, but that was cool with me...

 
At 12/14/2005 2:20 PM, Blogger pop renaissance said...

i thought pandora was just a thing that would tell you what bands to check out when you put a band name in. i'll have to give it a listen.

launchcast is rockin' pretty hard this afternoon. massive attack then new order - very fine indeed.

 
At 12/14/2005 2:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

No, it makes up to 100 radio stations for you.

 
At 12/14/2005 2:48 PM, Blogger pop renaissance said...

100?! holy shit, between that, ebay, and blogs i'll NEVER get any work done...

 
At 12/14/2005 7:52 PM, Blogger mdhatter said...

try "the sundays".

I like last fm because it plays album tracks, not just singles. You can check the play count stats and ratings for individual songs, which is neat.

yes, neat.

 
At 12/15/2005 7:13 AM, Blogger pop renaissance said...

that ratings system was what attracted me at first. i will try the sundays, who were a great live band.

 

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