Pandora's last 8 choices for my Sonic Youth-based station

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Sammy Hagar - There's Only One Way to Rock
Dio - We Rock
Scorpions - Big City Nights
Alice Cooper - Hey Stoopid
Flip - A Model Citizen
Kim Mitchell - Fill Your Head With Rock
Dio - I Speed at Night
Fastway - All I Need Is Your Love

This fascinates me (and I do really like at least the Dio and Scorpions songs.) I am able to sort of see the connection but it does seem like an unusual focus. Is it just because I skipped through the first couple indie rock tracks they picked and said I liked a Dio song. (My other stations seem to make much more intuitive sense, possibly except for when my Fred Frith station played Belle and Sebastian.)

― Sundar (sundar), Sunday, 27 August 2006 06:03 (eighteen years ago)

those are all pretty amazing tracks but yeah, where's the connexion? Kim Mitchell is the Canadian guy right? they're on to you!!

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Sunday, 27 August 2006 06:15 (eighteen years ago)

Interesting! Though maybe it would halfway make sense if the station started with Sonic Youth's cover of Alice's "Hallowed Be My Name" or "Black Juju" or "Halo of Flies" or whatever it was they covered on some late '80s bootleg or b-side or something (I have a vague memory of this). But anyway, I kind of don't understand the whole "one artist station" pandora concept to begin with, since it's physically impossible for me to turn on my pandora station without automatically thinking every time about ten more artists or songs I want to add, every single fucking time. How do people avoid that? And more importantly, why would they want to? Aren't stations more interesting if they cover all your tastes, not just a small fraction of them? (I was thinking maybe a "music to fall asleep to" station might have practical uses, but beyond that, I'm completely stumped.)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Sunday, 27 August 2006 13:49 (eighteen years ago)

I think the single artist channels work best if you're just looking for recommendations--(I like SY so who sounds sorta like them?) The more artists/songs you add the more interesting things get but it's almost because I feel that Pandora's going to get mad at me for liking so much
seemingly disparate stuff.

― cracktivity1 (cracktivity1), Sunday, 27 August 2006 14:22 (eighteen years ago)

yeah, i'm surprised i haven't made my station explode yet! but i'm still trying...and my goal is a station i can actually listen to.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Sunday, 27 August 2006 14:25 (eighteen years ago)

whatever it was they covered on some late '80s bootleg or b-side or something (I have a vague memory of this)

You thinking of Mudhoney's Touch Me I'm Sick?

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Sunday, 27 August 2006 15:26 (eighteen years ago)

uh...no. though i may just be thinking of thurston saying they're going to do "a couple alice cooper covers" on wallz have ears.. but i could have sworn they actually did a cover once. (i dont think i'm thinking of dream syndicate's cover of "ballad of dwight frye," though i might be. definitely not mudhoney though.)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Sunday, 27 August 2006 15:34 (eighteen years ago)

a-ha!

http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/sy/song185.html

― xhuxk (xheddy), Sunday, 27 August 2006 15:38 (eighteen years ago)

They did, yes -- B-sides in the Dirty era, on the reissue. "Is It My Body" at the least.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 27 August 2006 15:38 (eighteen years ago)

Whoops, x-post.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 27 August 2006 15:38 (eighteen years ago)

I quit using Pandora in frustration - I asked for things like Kraftwerk and got a bunch of really commercial female singer / songwriter type stuff. Must be some heavy marketing driving that thing.

― it's a personal (section241), Saturday, 2 September 2006 15:40 (eighteen years ago)

see, again, i don't get that. if you give a couple of those songs the thumbs down, and add some other kraftwerk-like music, and maybe some individual kraftwerk songs that are your favorites, pandora will probably totally figure out what to give you. i'm still listening to my station every day, to the exclusion of listening to almost anything else these days. i've put several hundred acts and several hundred songs in there myself, and i love my station to death. i hear new stuff every day that totally blows me away. and when i hear something i don't, no big deal; i just get rid of it.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Saturday, 2 September 2006 15:47 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, this must have been some weird fluke. Since then, the Sonic Youth station has mostly played indie rock that actually, like, rocks. I agree about the one-artist station thing, though. Since I set up a more general station, I've been getting lots of great stuff. I wish they had more classical but I am really impressed by the amount of stuff they do have. (But I do have smile when they tell me things like that they're playing John Cage or Milton Babbitt because of their "IDM influences" and "electronica roots" and "trippy soundscapes.") I enjoy your Accidental Evolution station as well, xhuxk. I never realized Nena was such a solid artist!

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 2 September 2006 15:56 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.pandora.com/people/al_sucar

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 2 September 2006 15:58 (eighteen years ago)

Where else will you hear Alberto Flash's "Chica Sexy"?

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 2 September 2006 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

Glad you like Accidental, Sundar! Really my only complaints about Pandora now are logistical -- it seems to crash if I hit a backspace key at the wrong time, and I get error messages about "do I want to abort" every time I try to do the "edit this station" function. (I just say "no," which seems fine, but it takes more time that way.) Also, this may be a ridiculous question, but has anybody figured out whether, when you cut and paste the URL for a station, the one you hear at any given time thereafter is the station as it existed when you downloaded it, or does your station incorporate additional changes as they are subsequently made? Does that question even make sense? Logic tells me it has to be the latter, which I hope is true, but something on the site seemed to imply otherwise (though probably that just means they wrote something ambiguous I'm taking wrong.) I also wonder if, at any given time when I'm listening to my station, other people listening at exactly the same time are hearing the same songs I do. I doubt it (otherwise you'd hear plenty of "half songs" when I give the thumbs down), but if that's true, maybe listeners *don't* hear subsequent changes, at least temporarily? I'm probably way overthinking this, but I'm curious if anybody has any answers...

― xhuxk (xheddy), Saturday, 2 September 2006 17:20 (eighteen years ago)

I also wonder if, at any given time when I'm listening to my station, other people listening at exactly the same time are hearing the same songs I do.

No because they can skip songs, for one thing. But I'm pretty sure they just hear the formula, so to speak.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 2 September 2006 17:24 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, I was wondering if the version of "Radio Ched" I have has the specs from when I first went to it or if it keeps being updated when you update it. Been having trouble accessing your specs to see.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 2 September 2006 17:30 (eighteen years ago)

In fact, you can open up two copies of the same station in two different browser windows, and you'll get a different song sequence in each. (If you're the type of person who likes to listen to two songs at once.)

On my copy of Accidental Evolution, which I grabbed several weeks ago, the most recent "liked song" is Joe Walsh's "Meadows." (Bottom of the list.) Unless it's M.I.A.'s "Bucky Done Gone" (Top of the list.) Unless the list isn't chronological. Does that help?

― Sang Freud (jeff_s), Saturday, 2 September 2006 17:49 (eighteen years ago)

It does! I gave "Bucky Done Gun" (or however you spell it) a thumbs-up just this morning. It is, as of now, my most recent thumbs-up. Which would definitely seem to mean that downloaded stations do incorporate alterations as they occur. Excellent! (And yeah, I should have thought of that stuff about listeners skipping songs or opening two different station versions simultaneously. Duh....)

(If you're the type of person who likes to listen to two songs at once.)

bizarrely, I'm so addicted that I've sometimes been keeping pandora running when I play promo CDs that arive in the mail. Which is stupid. (More often, I turn the sound down, so I can continue to monitor what my pandora's playing even if I'm not listening to it.)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Saturday, 2 September 2006 18:02 (eighteen years ago)

I'm working on a rock and roll station but it is hard work.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 2 September 2006 18:08 (eighteen years ago)

why hard work, tim? and how are you defining "rock and roll"??

― xhuxk (xheddy), Saturday, 2 September 2006 21:38 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, I don't know - we'll see how it turns out. I've been trying to come up with particular things - not necessarily favorites, but things that I think might generate stuff I want to listen to, but then monitoring a lot and doing lots of thumbs ups/thumbs downs. Still tweaking it.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 3 September 2006 00:57 (eighteen years ago)

Somewhat informative piece on Pandora in the NY Times Arts & Leisure section today, by the way. (Though actually my favorite thing about it is the photo of all those people with headphones on, sitting at that long table figuring out musical genomes for hundreds of CDs.)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Sunday, 3 September 2006 14:10 (eighteen years ago)

anything else these days. i've put several hundred acts and several hundred songs in there myself

Not exactly a recommendation. I jiggered around with it for an hour, doing the 'make a station' thing, and found it completely wanting in ability to come up with anything even remotely like my old Sludge in the 70's show. The selection of classic hard rock was often laughable, the albums and songs exactly the one's someone with a lot of alleged acuity wouldn't choose.

It comes down to this. I could take a week sifting through Pandora's hard rock library, picking what I think is worth listening to, stiff arming the random suggestings by the feeble AI engine. And after sifting their library, you have . . . which is what you've done.

The New York Times article reminded me of the manner of the burble that accompanies print on YouTube.

The photo did get my attention. As a perfect example of anonymous jackasses sitting in front of computers, elbow to elbow like employees of Manpower USA, processing quarterly tax returns at a windowless bank lockbox in an industrial park. In other words, how to make listening to music look like tedious work, as opposed to fun. All that was needed was a subhed: These workers get thirty minutes for lunch and two fifteen minute breaks per day.

I'll probably steal it and put it on my website.

― Urnst Kouch (Urnst Kouch), Monday, 4 September 2006 06:36 (eighteen years ago)

I'm starting to think it sucks (overall), although it's still another way to hear some new stuff or to hear some good stuff, some of the time. It's capacity to learn things about a given listener seems very very limited. Also, it has a lot of annoying habits. It stays in the same genre area longer than it should when songs of that sort are being skipped. This morning it happened to start off with one of my least favorite Sun Ra tracks ("Where the Pathways Meet"), which I skipped, and followed it by, Billie Holiday's "Good Morning Hearache" (love that song but that is the last thing I want to hear when I am trying to get moving), two Nancy Wilson songs (skipped), an Alberta Hunter song (skipped), Prince (let it play), etc. and after a couple skips we are back with a Ray Charles song, but I am not in a bluesy or jazzy singer mood at all. I gave up on my morning station but I may need to come up with one again.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 4 September 2006 12:34 (eighteen years ago)

It stays in the same genre area longer than it should when songs of that sort are being skipped

this doesn't bug me, since usually when i skip tracks it's not that i'm not in the mood for the genre; just that i'm not in the mood for a particular song. (if i REALLY want to switch genres, i can just reboot the station.) it almost always switches genre gears when i give a thumbs down or (i think) a table-this-track "zzzzz," so i'm still not complaining. (the lack of depth in early '70s heavy rock hasn't bothered me that much yet either, oddly, though obviously i've noticed lots of stuff it's missing. probably if i was trying to specifically just make an early '70s heavy rock station it'd bug me more, but i'm not.) (also, bizarre that i'm such an apologist for pandora; i'm usually pretty cynical about this kind of thing. though i did fall for cdbaby early this year. and i have my youtube and myspace moments. maybe i'm just getting lazy about playing CDs. but i tend to get bored quick, so pandora is doing *something* right.)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 4 September 2006 12:52 (eighteen years ago)

i got a little bit sick of having to skip tracks by three doors down and jars of clay when i used pandora regularly

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Monday, 4 September 2006 12:56 (eighteen years ago)

I was in the other room hearing all this static and I was like what the hell then I got back over here and it was Merzbow. I kind of like scott's "Free Radical" station. I would never list a lot of the names he put in as favorites, and yet the results are generally okay. Maybe I will build a new morning station around Merzbow.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 4 September 2006 12:59 (eighteen years ago)

Partly, just like with cdbaby, I think I like the randomness of what pandora gives you. Which means you have to deal with the crap as well as great stuff, but lots of times the crap will surprise you. Which is how radio always was supposed to work, but which is what i've always thought was missing with iTunes etc, where the selection is so subjected to your own predetermined prejudices. I like to be surpised by stuff that I'd never expect to like. But maybe, for pandora to really work, your tastes have to be as insanely genre-hopping as mine have always tended to be, I dunno.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 4 September 2006 13:07 (eighteen years ago)

I sort of agree about the radio format (although I don't like being surprised as much as you do, and as you point out, you are exceptional in your genre hopping). Also, in general, it's sometimes really nice to take things on a track by track basis. If I download a whole album and make myself listen to it, or just skim through it and say: no, no, no, I'm less likely to give a particularly track/song a chance. If it just pops on the radio and there's not a lot of pressure, I might say, hey, I like this. (This is true with styles I am already predisposed to like. There was an Oscar D'Leon from a couple years ago that I think I heard, and dismissed, but there is one particular song that's pretty good. I probably heard it before, but in the rush to make a judgment, I think I just said, eh. OTOH, I still think I was right not to buy that album, and I still think I'm right not to buy the new one.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 4 September 2006 13:16 (eighteen years ago)

If I download a whole album and make myself listen to it, or just skim through it and say: no, no, no, I'm less likely to give a particularly track/song a chance. If it just pops on the radio and there's not a lot of pressure, I might say, hey, I like this

But you don't have to say you like it. With pandora, you can just let it play and save your opinion until next time. If a track just hits me as pleasant and inoffensive, I tend to give it neither thumbs up or thumbs down -- actually, I'd say most tracks fit into that category, probably. If I was listening to an entire album, it would feel more like work. (And if Pandora was playing in a car rather than at home, I might be more inclined to change the station more often, now that I think of it. But when I'm getting stuff done, pleasant and inoffensive might be good enough to sit through, at least unless the play the same pleasant inoffensive track repeatedly and I get sick of it.) Pandora only feels to me like it'd be work for those sad drones in that Times photo; for me, it's just fun. I just let it play in the background, and don't feel pressured to have an opinion one way or another about anything it plays. But when I do, positively or negatively, which is real often, I say so.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 4 September 2006 13:29 (eighteen years ago)

And by the way, "pleasant and inoffensive" does not equal "boring"; boring gets the thumbs down every time, unless I happen to be in the other room washing dishes or on the phone and I'm just too busy to get across the room to the damn computer. If I just let a track play without comment, it inevitably means I basically think it's okay, and the singing and rhythm don't toally suck, I kinda understand why pandora picked it based on my genomes, even it doesn't blow me away.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 4 September 2006 13:32 (eighteen years ago)

the singing and rhythm don't toally suck

and there's some semblance of a tune. or whatever. but rhythm's got a lot to do with it -- right now, i'm kind of amazed at the large percentage of '80s (mostly early '80s I guess but probably through early '90s) r&b I've been giving a this-sounds-just-fine pass to. Angela Wimbush, whoever the hell she is, always sounds okay, but has yet to sound great. Ditto Lakeside (though the one song of theirs that I know is great, "Fantastic Voyage," pandora has yet to play.)

Also somewhat shocked that I don't hate Judas Priest as much as I thought. They've been sounding better to me than Motley Crue, and way the fuck better than Iron Maiden, who I still find unbearable, though I'm open to changing my mind if pandora ever spins anything from their pre-Dickenson daze. (Though I actually love Samson, who I honestly don't think I'd ever heard before -- what the fuck?) Anyway, I even gave one Judas Priest song, "Delivering the Goods," a thumbs up!. "Turbo Lover" playing now; this clunky thing gets a thumbs down, I guess, but just barely.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 4 September 2006 14:19 (eighteen years ago)

I got tired of pandora this morning and am checking out this new khaleeji pop CD (that's not a recommendation or anything):

http://www.deraradio.com/Playlist/Default.asp?q=f&f=%2FArabic%2FRotana%2FAseel_Abubaker

(All sorts of albums streaming all over the place these days.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 4 September 2006 14:29 (eighteen years ago)

Looks like you can get an Arabic mix hear, though the sound isn't nearly as good as pandora's (one of pandora's strong points):

http://www.deraradio.com/

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 4 September 2006 14:34 (eighteen years ago)

Eh, most of it kind of sucks. They really need to digest western production influences better than that but it's their culture to ruin if they want to.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 4 September 2006 15:32 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah Chuck, I only meant "hard work" jokingly given that I was working on my station a lot! So, here's my attempt at an enjoyable rock and roll station. Basically pre-new wave rock and roll is what I'm shooting for, though of course it continues to throw this and that at you. Am still working on it, of course:

http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh149113116977533682

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 4 September 2006 16:16 (eighteen years ago)

ok, thanks, tim, i will try to check it out. though i think you said "rock and roll" not "hard rock," anyway. which reminds me that one thing pandora is making me wonder is why i've never paid any attention at all, period, zip, not an iota, to todd rungren, who has been consistently sounding good and occasionally sounding great. honestly, it's never even occured to me to buy a todd rungren record, ever, not once, not in my whole fucking life. i wonder why.

biggest surprise i've come across so far in terms of songs i had no idea even existed is a late '60s or early '70s (probably the former) soul-funk single called "talking the teen language" by the lost generation, which uses double dutch bus/snoop dizzle doggy dizzle type slang years before hip-hop happened. not pig latin; straight up proto-frankie smith/snoop dog stuff. crazy. but that's just the tip of the iceberg; there are many great surprises where they came from:

http://www.pandora.com/music/song/f5678860d945a95c

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 4 September 2006 16:34 (eighteen years ago)

oops, "talking the teenAGE language," duh. the least i can do is get the dang title right. spelling todd rundgren's name correctly might also be nice of me. (usually he doesn't rock, i should note, but sometimes he does. also, i never knew the nazz did "hello it's me".)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 4 September 2006 16:37 (eighteen years ago)

Is It My Body
http://www.subpop.com/bands/sonicyouth/sonic-121.wav

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Monday, 4 September 2006 16:38 (eighteen years ago)

Everyone welcome to check out my station, of course.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 4 September 2006 17:12 (eighteen years ago)

(and please tell me if it's playing anything wack!)

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 4 September 2006 17:13 (eighteen years ago)

I will, Tim, but I gotta say that...

pre-new wave rock and roll is what I'm shooting for

is a goal almost doomed by definition, since the whole point of the silly "music genome project" or whatever they're calling it is that "genres" (and hence even eras) of music simply don't exist, if music from different genres and/or eras sounds alike. jeez, no wonder i like it so much -- that's been my whole schtick for the past 20 years! in theory, it makes a lot of sense. (which isn't to say i always agree by pandora's "this sounds like this" equations.)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 4 September 2006 17:21 (eighteen years ago)

Must say it's sticking to the stuff pretty well at this point though, yeah, it gives me curveballs sometimes.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 4 September 2006 17:26 (eighteen years ago)

I actually wish (though this contradicts my original point a bit) that Pandora was more faithful to the anti-genre thing. A lot of their musical criteria are still very genre-based, e.g. "punk roots", "hard rock influences", "IDM influences", . . .

― Sundar (sundar), Monday, 4 September 2006 17:59 (eighteen years ago)

(although I guess that when they say John Cage has electronica roots, it might suggest that they are using these genre labels in flexible ways.)

Anyway, here's my station:

http://www.pandora.com/?ext_lsfi=148690161483791305

It may well be the only radio station that plays both AC/DC and Milton Babbitt.

― Sundar (sundar), Monday, 4 September 2006 18:01 (eighteen years ago)

(np: Pentangle)

― Sundar (sundar), Monday, 4 September 2006 18:02 (eighteen years ago)

from "Field Day For the Sundays" to GG Allin's "I Wanna Fuck Myself" in four songs - I like the way their database thinks

― milo z (mlp), Monday, 4 September 2006 18:23 (eighteen years ago)

my new "I Wanna Fuck My Hand" station is the best one yet. GG, 4-Skins, early Black Flag, more GG, some great DC hardcore band I've never heard of called Iron Cross

― milo z (mlp), Monday, 4 September 2006 18:47 (eighteen years ago)

Iron Cross flirted with Brit Oi skinhead semi-racist thinking but since vocalist Sab Grey and their drummer were longtime pals of the Dischord folks their 'interests' and perspectives were tolerated for awhile. Other folks liked their musical sound and ignored their message and their offstage behavior.

― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Monday, 4 September 2006 20:17 (eighteen years ago)

I've come to think that if you're going for particular things with your station, the best bet is maybe to add particular songs rather than artists. Artists, of course, can give you a whole range of attributes from all their different songs that you might not want. Of course, if you want something that's really wide open and eclectic then maybe not.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 4 September 2006 20:42 (eighteen years ago)

Pushed to the extreme, if you want something really wide open and eclectic, it doesn't matter what you add.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 4 September 2006 20:44 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah. And, you know, even adding just a song - rather than an artist - generates a lot of stuff.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 4 September 2006 20:48 (eighteen years ago)

They should develop a system where you could build a station from particular moments of particular songs. "Ticket to Ride": 2:15-2:19 (I have no idea if anything more noteworthy than the rest of the song happens then.)

I don't know, ultimately pandora.com just seems like another okay way to hear some music for free and sometimes to discover new things.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 4 September 2006 20:52 (eighteen years ago)

I'm not sure who's saying it's anything more (except the NYT?).

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 4 September 2006 20:53 (eighteen years ago)

Hmmm. Made me like an Orbital song alright, but then again, Orbital is already on my list of electronic dance stuff I really don't hate.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 4 September 2006 21:05 (eighteen years ago)

xxxp: You can do both! Add the artist, then add a few of your favorite songs by that artist -- or at least your favorites that you wouldn't mind hearing right now. (Unless you know the artist has lots of songs you just plain don't want to hear, in which case just add songs you do want to hear, and skip adding the artist.)

Also: If you're in doubt about whether giving a song they toss at you the thumbs-up is going to fuck up the mix, look at the songs they claim it sounds like before you do the thumbs-up thing. If they don't look promising, then obviously just skip the thumbs-uppedness.

I can't believe I've figured all this useless stuff out.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 4 September 2006 21:05 (eighteen years ago)

So far no thumbs down this evening:

Art Ensemble of Chicago
Albert Ayler
Bobby Womack
Funkadelic
R Kelly
Mary Mary
The Sounds
Blondie
Altered Images
Pretenders
Genesis
Frank Zappa
Dixie Dregs
Henry Cow
Missy Elliott

Thus Sang Freud:

http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh146871517711243157

― Sang Freud (jeff_s), Monday, 4 September 2006 22:32 (eighteen years ago)

Whatever Pain of Salvation is, I think I like them, care of scott's Free Radicals Radio.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 7 September 2006 01:20 (eighteen years ago)

Is this death prog?

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 7 September 2006 01:25 (eighteen years ago)

scott, what constantly annoys me about "Free Radicals" is that when I look through the lists of artists you built the station around, I say to myself, "But I already know 99% of them and I know that I don't like most of them all that much any more," and yet, I end up liking a lot of the suppoedly related music they pull up. Or I even end up hearing some Cluster and liking in that context. It may partly be the Diaspar flashback thing, or maybe just that this music works better for me in a radio format. (And maybe also because it's free and I haven't just spent a lot of money on some Heldon import.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 7 September 2006 15:13 (eighteen years ago)

This John Zorn track from The Gift is almost new agey. Unexpected. (Listening to my own station.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Friday, 8 September 2006 00:00 (eighteen years ago)

This Cracow Klezmer Band track is pretty good too. It's making me more interested in hearing their CD in that Zorn Book of Angels series (which I was already pretty interested in hearing).

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Friday, 8 September 2006 00:09 (eighteen years ago)

(Someone tell pandora.com that merengue is not of Mexican origin.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Friday, 8 September 2006 00:31 (eighteen years ago)

hey, speaking of Kim Mitchell, I just requested "Ballad Of Dwight Fry" and "Go For A Soda" came up!...and I had forgotten how much I liked that tune, and it seems to sum up the way I feel about Pandora:

nobody hurts, nobody cries

― hank (hank s), Friday, 8 September 2006 18:09 (eighteen years ago)

Start a Shaggs station and it tells you it's playing "Philosophy of the World," featuring "electric rock instrumenation, great musicianship, mixed acoustic and electric instrumenaion, major key tonality and electric rhythm guitars."

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 14 September 2006 00:53 (eighteen years ago)

I'm not really following what I'm supposed to do with most of the techie "system tweaks" in this article (or even if I'm already doing them, assuming I can on the two machines I play pandora on), and the "music tweaks" strike me as fairly obvious, but what the heck:

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/pandora/technophilia-15-ways-to-get-more-out-of-pandora-201072.php

― xhuxk (xheddy), Wednesday, 20 September 2006 10:53 (eighteen years ago)

"fairly obvious" or else "fairly pointless if you just add zillions of songs and artists you like and give thumbs down to ones you don't and thumbs up to ones you do (all of which they recommend, but I'm not sure why anybody wouldn't figure that out on their own)," I mean.

Maybe it would be fun to ogle at other stations' profiles, though; I dunno, I haven't had time to try that.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Wednesday, 20 September 2006 11:09 (eighteen years ago)

and actually, they say to request *one* song, not zillions. slight difference, i guess. but again, why you'd want to limit your station that way is beyond my comprehension.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Wednesday, 20 September 2006 11:35 (eighteen years ago)

I created a Martin Denny station today, to see what sort of lounge/EZ it would come up with. Besides the usual suspects like Esquivel, it has played *three* James Booker cuts (hey, I likes me some New Orleans piano, but...) George Winston, "Sisyphus" by Pink Floyd and, currently, "Fugue" from ELP's Trilogy record, which I am actually quite enjoying!

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Wednesday, 20 September 2006 18:21 (eighteen years ago)

What the hell is "extensive vamping"? Pandora seems to think that I am a sucker for that.

― Baaderonixx: the lost ILX years (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 12:25 (eighteen years ago)

Pandora sez:

Q: What is "vamping"?

'Vamping' is a term that refers to extended improvisation over a repeated chord change. One of the quintessetial examples of vamping is the outro to Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd, featuring a 5-minute epic guitar solo over some repeated chords.

The more I listen, the more I'm convinced that the people at Pandora are a little too eager to expose me to anything OTHER than what I requested. No, I don't want solo piano, New Orleans or New Age. No, I don't want a capella vocalists doing a barbershop harmony version of "We Are Family." How do The Boswell Sisters fit with Martin Denny?

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Thursday, 28 September 2006 19:04 (eighteen years ago)

The more I listen, the more I'm convinced that the people at Pandora are a little too eager to expose me to anything OTHER than what I requested.

Hahaha!

I swear it has it's good days and bad days.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 28 September 2006 19:17 (eighteen years ago)

I'd like some vamping!

― hank (hank s), Thursday, 28 September 2006 19:20 (eighteen years ago)

I'm pretty much ready to give up on Pandora. In theory I love the idea of an internet radio station that would not pigeonhole an artist or style of music and, using the magic of genomes, expose me to music similar to the artists I have carefully selected (and avoid music that sounds like stuff I have given the thumbs down to.)

In actuality, it just seems intent on making me listen to WAY too much NPR-type jazz. And Bruce Hornsby.

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Monday, 9 October 2006 15:40 (eighteen years ago)

i started a station with ONLY fela's name typed in and after fela they played the jam.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 9 October 2006 18:27 (eighteen years ago)

i still like it though for testing out my new computer speakers. and i still like my metal station. and rockist's stations. and that johnny guitar watson station. did chuck delete his station? i keep getting nothing when i click on it.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 9 October 2006 18:29 (eighteen years ago)

You have selected Fela. His music contains prominent use of woodwind instrumentation and extensive vamping. Here is "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight!"

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Monday, 9 October 2006 18:37 (eighteen years ago)

I hadn't listened to mine in a while, but I went to it the other day and it played Sandy Bull's version of "Memphis, Tennessee," which is my favorite Sandy Bull jam, followed by "When Big Joan Sets Up" - pretty snat!

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 9 October 2006 18:39 (eighteen years ago)

I was already taking a break and now I am between dsl accounts, so that's why I've been so quiet about it lately.

― R_S (RSLaRue), Monday, 9 October 2006 20:03 (eighteen years ago)

In case anyone was worried.

― R_S (RSLaRue), Monday, 9 October 2006 20:35 (eighteen years ago)

see, right before i did the dishes and started making dinner i started a station with nothing but fabulous 50's people like webb pierce and charlie feathers and eddie cochran and the like and i've been listening to a cool mix of rockabilly/r&b/country ever since. pandora is good for stuff like that.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 9 October 2006 21:00 (eighteen years ago)

My station still exists, Scott!

http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh123684599888936884

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 9 October 2006 23:45 (eighteen years ago)

i know, after i said that i checked again and i got tunes. stranglers into devo into missing persons into dave mason.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 9 October 2006 23:50 (eighteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

Wow, I really like this Dave Holland solo ("Emerald Tears"). Vaguely reminds me of a Hans Reichel track I like, thanks to some of the unusual bent notes. This is great. I could listen to this all the time.

― R_S (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 00:13 (eighteen years ago)

Hmmm, came out around the same time. I had no idea.

― R_S (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 00:16 (eighteen years ago)

I think I like Brad Mehldau (at least some of the time), which I find slightly embarrassing given that he seems like one of those quintessential jazz musicians for the non-jazz set. I haven't noticed much about his new House on a Hill here on ILM, but maybe I just wasn't looking for it.

(Also, Frith's guitar playing with Henry Cow really did sound much more on a continuum with Fripp's, don't you think? Or maybe I mean Santana, even.)

― R_S (RSLaRue), Saturday, 28 October 2006 14:14 (eighteen years ago)

Sorry, House on Hill.

― R_S (RSLaRue), Saturday, 28 October 2006 14:14 (eighteen years ago)

N.O.R.E.: Y Voy

Nice to hear the bachata/merengue touches in a crossover reggaeton track. In general, bachata flavoring enhances reggaeton.

― R_S (RSLaRue), Saturday, 28 October 2006 14:59 (eighteen years ago)