Oh, I have a glorious toy...

[rikibeth]

Pandora. Streaming radio that you design to your tastes. And they don't sort by genre, so much... it's part of something called the Music Genome Project, so they identify style elements across genres and bring up new stuff based on that.

The first station I made was a punk and pop-punk station with a fair amount of ska, because, well, that's what I've been listening to lately. And it kept coming up with things I'd never heard of before but that Did Not Suck, so I was happy.

I tried making one based on the Kinks, but I may have to edit some of what I told it should be in there... it ended up being a little close to the first one, but minus the ska.

Now I've got a little experiment going -- I am only giving it three artists, and not adding more by name, although I'll do the thumbs-up, thumbs-down ratings if somgs strike me particularly.

The three artists I gave it were the Smiths, the Smithereens, and Suzanne Vega.

It gave me Dukes of Stratosphear (XTC's neo-psychedelia project, you remember it, right? hey_disco_joe, I know YOU must!), Adam and the Ants, and the Ramones' cover of "Needles and Pins."

Oh, this is a fun toy.

Now I want to give it Richard Thompson, but I want two other artists to put with him who Do Not Match.

Any suggestions?
matociquala, even if you like Paradise Radio better, thank you for pointing this out!

Comments

[pentane.livejournal.com]

I remember the name... sounds like a good fit... *memory is vague*

sounds like an interesting site.

[pentane.livejournal.com]

This site rocks.

Thanks!

[follybard.livejournal.com]

Hee! In my first Pandora experiment, I learned that Bjork + Radiohead + Ben Folds + Fiona Apple = Morrissey. Which, come to think of it, is probably true.

Perhaps you could try Richard Thompson + They Might Be Giants + Phish? (Just off the top of my head staring at my CD shelves....)

[hey-disco-joe.livejournal.com]

Christ yes, The Dukes were great! "25 O'Clock" was a classic!

[witchchild]

I've played with it too, quite fun.

[shadowflyer.livejournal.com]

What about Richard Thompson + Barenaked Ladies + Black 47 ?

red hair and black leather

[dana325.livejournal.com]

thank you for this post! I've been enjoying this at work (during low band with use times anyway). I have one with Shriekback and Jethro Tull going at the moment curious to see what it will come up with.

Yesterday I found a few new folk/rock ish bands yesterday that are on emusic so I can try them out as part of my subscription.

I've been kind of discovering my own music collection lately after ripping most of Frank and my CD's. Had a funny moment of synchronicity reading your post. I hadn't thought about Richard Thompson in years and Vincent Black Lighting 1952 came up on shuffle as I was reading your post.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[tubin.livejournal.com]

Ooh, cool! I was playing with some other personalized radio station but it simply wasn't working on my mac - the feedback button wasn't working, and also the view showed the last song played rather than the current one. I like this much better! Also the other required downloading software and this one seems to work fine without having to put more crap on my machine.

Let's see... classic eclectic... billy joel, meatloaf, queen, paul simon, and let's confuse the works by throwing in enya...