Obligatory recommendations post

[dr_kromm]

Until early 2009, when I wanted to listen to music, I would switch on my Launchcast Plus station. Launchcast was Yahoo's streaming audio service, and it supported above-average user customization. The Plus version was paid and ad-free, and allowed unlimited skips. After a few years with Plus, I didn't use skips, because after rating some 10,000 songs, I never heard crap. Moreover, their algorithm was excellent at matching my tastes and – here's the important part – recommending similar music.

You might notice a lack of linkage up there. That's because Yahoo discontinued Launchcast Plus. They were very good about it, giving quite a few warnings far in advance and refunding my balance promptly, but my custom station is gone daddy gone. That's tolerable in itself – I'm more of an iTunes guy anyway – except for one thing: no recommendations (not completely true . . . I could use Genius, but it sucks). I know that in a few months, that'll really get to me.

Now I work 10+ hours a day from home and don't get out as much as I would like, so where most people would simply ask a friend in person, I must do so on the Internet. The problem is that asking in a more general forum tends to yield all kinds of so-so recommendations from people who don't really know me . . . they just want to pimp their favorite band. My theory – which may well be badly flawed – is that anybody who wades through my blathering here might have enough in common with me to suggest tunes that I might like.

My tastes are fairly eclectic, but here are some basic parameters: I prefer electronic to acoustic; female vocalists to male singers; and in-your-face, up-tempo tunes to dirgy, ambient ones. I have a little Top 10/40/100 music on my playlist, but not much; it really isn't my thing most of the time. I don't identify strongly with genres, but I actively dislike country, gospel, and rap music; don't get much out of j-pop, jazz, metal, or R&B; and find that while I like early and classical music, I can't work to it. Setting aside the exceptions, however, I have no problem with explicit lyrics or shock artistry; artists that are outspoken for their politics, sexuality, or whatever; or music that's extremely fast, noisy, or syncopated.

The best way to paint the picture is to give examples. Here are the artists on my current playlist – cool and uncool, new and ancient, well-known and obscure . . . I haven't omitted anyone to save face. I have music by many times this many artists; if it's listed, then you can assume that I like it enough to hear it daily as opposed to "when the mood takes me." I will, however, chop the list into three parts on the basis of how many songs and albums by that artist actually appear, and qualify each sublist. The sublists are in naive alphabetical order; that is, how iTunes hands off data as opposed to massaged to put surnames first.

1. "I like these guys, but I have lots by them. I'd welcome recommendations for similar artists, but don't bother telling me about their new album."

• Add N to (X)
• Beck
• Björk
• Chemical Brothers
• Client
• Crystal Method
• Depeche Mode
• Freezepop
• Garbage
• Infected Mushroom
• Ladytron
• Lords Of Acid
• Massive Attack
• My Bloody Valentine
• Veruca Salt

2. "I like these guys and don't have that much by them. I'd welcome recommendations for similar artists, and wouldn't mind hearing about their new stuff or side projects, in case I missed it."

• Breeders
• Curve
• Daft Punk
• Fischerspooner
• Gary Numan
• Goldfrapp
• Jesus and Mary Chain
• Le Tigre
• Pixies
• Santogold
• White Stripes

3. "I like a song or two by these guys. I'd welcome recommendations for similar artists, but they'd have to be really similar, I suspect."

• Adult.
• Apoptygma Berzerk
• Devo
• Dot Allison
• Dresden Dolls
• Fad Gadget
• Flunk
• Fuzzbox
• Lida Husik
• M.I.A.
• New Order
• Nirvana
• Orgy
• Placebo
• Raconteurs
• Skinny Puppy
• Soft Cell
• Thomas Leer
• Traci Lords

If you have a recommendation, or simply want to say "OMG! I can't believe you listen to those dorks!", then just add a comment. Thanks!

Comments

[wombattery.livejournal.com]

I'm reasonably sure that my musical tastes are sufficiently dissimilar to yours that I'd have nothing useful to offer. These days, it's a smattering of older blues and classic rock leavened by a few more recent people on the edge of mainstream like Zevon and Tom Waits, but it's mostly world music chosen by an aggressive program of randomly selecting styles I've never heard of before but are hopefully reasonably close to local traditional styles (leaning towards North Africa for me and the West Indies for my son; for a five-year-old middle-class white kid from the suburbs of the mid-South, he has a wicked Afro-Caribbean groove). There's a certain amount of Bif Naked and mid-century big band that get listened to, but that's mostly coming from my lovely and talented spouse. I suspect your reaction to my record collection would be similar to your reaction to early music: reasonably interesting, but not what you'd work to.

[muskrat-john.livejournal.com]

Have you tried Pandora.com?

I'm happy with its recommendations...

Of course, that means re-evaluating 10,000 songs...

[waitingforgo.livejournal.com]

If you like Depeche Mode, check out Cause & Effect. (Very similar.) And they were kinda one-hit, so you should be able to find their stuff for a couple dollars a CD.

If you like Bjork, you probably know she was in a band called the Sugarcubes before she hit it big as a soloist.

You may want to check out Oingo Boingo, especially their last album Oingo (where they changed the name to "Oingo"). Of course, if you hate Danny Elfman's movie soundtracks, you'll probably hate this album...

If you like Gary Numan, you might want to try tracking down his 1997 album "Dawn."

I'm surprised there's no Nine Inch Nails on here; their album "Pretty Hate Machine" is a classic (similar to Orgy).

If you want something a bit more Devo-esque, consider "Art of Noise." (No specific songs to recommend...)

"Information Society" is also similar to a number of binds you list; their first album ("Information Society") is slightly higher recommended than their second album ("Hack"); skip their last one ("Peace and Love Incorporated").

For sound/audio electronic experiments, consider Fatboy Slim. His album "The Greatest Hits: Why Try Harder" should cover your Fatboy Slim needs forever.

As far as female vocalists:

* PJ Harvey (Album "To Bring You My Love")

* Jane Jenson (Obscure song "More Than I Can")

* Poe ("Poe"; it's also worthwhile to track down the Band Version of "Hello," which is the more up-tempo version that got radio airplay, and is a fair bit different from the album one)

And that's enough for now, I think... if you come back and say, "That's awesome!" I might be able to find more, but I won't waste our time if I'm completely off-base in my assessment of your tastes. :-)

[zonemind.livejournal.com]

OMG! Your artist list is actually about what I'd imagine it if I knew more than half those artists.

I got nothin'. For auditory kicks I listen to Spanish guitar, mostly.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

Dresden Dolls -> Amanda Palmer, esp "I Google You", _Who Killed Amanda Palmer?_

Breeders -> Kelly Deal 6000

Nirvana -> Foo Fighters (not esp similar, but seem to fit in with some of your other choices)

General suggestions: Johnette Napolitano solo and as frontwoman of Concrete Blonde, a mix of styles but all very evocative

Tool, Filter, Blur, and Aphex Twin generally appeal to people who like several of the acts on your #1 list.

Just about anybody featured on AMP has a good chance of linking up with sort of music you have listed here.

[peterdellorto.livejournal.com]

Breeders -> Kelly Deal 6000

Which also suggests "100 Watt Smile" - another Breeders side project, this one by Carrie Bradley. I believe Josephine Wiggs also had her own band, The Josephine Wiggs Experience, but I never heard any of their stuff. I did like 100 Watt Smile.

I dunno, dude, it's hard to suggest new stuff. I'd try checking out Fucked Up (a kind of an arty punk band - I can't decide if I love them or not). I think I already suggested you try Lightning Bolt, and you didn't like Maximum the Hormone for some reason so I won't recommend any other punky Japanese bands unless you ask me to.

must...post...reply

[deegoddathunda.livejournal.com]

Hurm, I am so compelled to reply that lo, I will make a LJ account. The Venn diagram of our musical preferences has a considerable union.

My suggestions:
* Sleater-Kinney (esp. album Dig Me Out)
* Bettie Serveert
* Shriekback
* Magnapop
* The Prodigy
* The Primitives
* Big Black
* Meat Beat Manifesto

mixturtle.com is a handy way to test-drive bands you've never heard of -- very useful for this sort of thing.

[markcogan.livejournal.com]

Hmm. OK.

Female Vocal + Uptempo = The Clouds, an Australian group that broke up in the '90s. I recommend the album *Thunderhead*. In a similar vein, although a bit more recent and less rock-ish, Killing Heidi.

Female Vocal + Electronica = School of Seven Bells, *Alpinism*. And their name is almost a campaign hook by itself.

Similar to Devo = Wall of Voodoo

Similar to Garbage and Nirvana = Courtney Love. *America's Sweetheart* is actually really good.

Also -- Patti Smilth, *Twelve*. A punk legend does really good covers of a dozen classics.

I vaguely sense that you might like the most recent Death Cab For Cutie album, *Narrow Stairs*.

I'm inclined to recommend The Decemberists, but that might be my own bias. Start with *The Crane Wife*.

I'll assume you are familiar with the staple female-fronted punk/hardcore bands: L7, Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kenney. But I will recommend the more-recently-active and probably less well-known The Gossip.

[princeofcairo.livejournal.com]

I've heard nothing but good things about Pandora.com as a streaming music-matcher.

You might try out Bloc Party and see if they're your speed -- electronic and up-tempo, but male.

[dr-kromm.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the great responses so far! A batch reply, to avoid quote, quote, and re-quote:

• Know and like, but don't have and want to get: Big Black (esp. Atomizer), L7, The Prodigy, Shriekback (esp. Oil & Gold), Sugarcubes, and Wall of Voodoo (Call of the West).



• Know of, heard a few times, and suspect I might like: Aphex Twin, Bif Naked, Bikini Kill, Bloc Party, Kelly Deal 6000, Amanda Palmer, and Sleater-Kinney.



• New on me: Cause & Effect, The Clouds, The Decemberists, The Gossip, Information Society, Jane Jenson, Killing Heidi, Magnapop, Johnette Napolitano, The Primitives, School of Seven Bells, and Bettie Serveert.



• Know and have, but don't play much any more: Fatboy Slim (maybe after a year or two, I'll forget how every club wouldn't stop playing it), Filter (have tons of their stuff but I'm a bit burned out on it), and Nine Inch Nails (ditto).



• Know but don't dig (sorry!): Art of Noise (burned out on them in the 80s), Blur, Death Cab For Cutie, Foo Fighters, PJ Harvey, Courtney Love (more love/hate, heh, but not right now), Meat Beat Manifesto, Oingo Boingo (another case of heard-too-much), Poe, Patti Smith (ditto, and Joan Jett is closer to my tastes), and Tool (whoah, double-plus unKromm . . . what band on my list is even a little like them?!).

I haven't tried mixturtle.com or pandora.com as yet.

Thanks again!

[dr-kromm.livejournal.com]

I should've added one thing: My most favorite band in the world right now is without question Ladytron, in the "they make up 1/4 of my playlist all by themselves, and yes, I have all their stuff on CD at least once" sense. Other artists that I'll skip songs until I hear are Client, Curve, and Goldfrapp.

[raven-walker.livejournal.com]

You might try Perfume Tree (BC band from the mid-late 90's in the Curve/Cranes line.) They reformed as Veloce around 2000, but broke up sometime shortly after.

[wombattery.livejournal.com]

Know of, heard a few times, and suspect I might like: Bif Naked

The spouse is fondest of Purge and Superbeautifulmonster, and you'd be supporting a Canadian artist by listening to her. I recommend them as well, though I'm not sure, under the circumstances, how much of a recommendation that is, sort of like how those of us who generally don't drink have apparently perverse tastes in the little alcohol we've tried.

[2h2o.livejournal.com]

I, too, mourn the loss of my custom Launchcast station, and have not found Pandora to be an adequate replacement.

You might like Elastica, Hooverphonic, Lush and Sneaker Pimps.

[dr-kromm.livejournal.com]

More confirmation:

• Know and like, but don't have and want to get: Elastica (well, maybe . . . liked Elastica, didn't like The Menace) and Gravity Kills.



• Know of, heard a few times, and suspect I might like: Sneaker Pimps.



• New on me: 100 Watt Smile, Conjure One, Fucked Up, Hooverphonic, The Josephine Wiggs Experience (know who JW is, but didn't realize she had a band), and Perfume Tree.



• Know but don't dig (sorry!): Lush (not "dislike," just "not me at all").

Thanks again!

Edit: I won't be trying pandora.com, I guess . . . they don't allow Canadian listeners. My IP address is in the block used by a large Canadian ISP, so it looks like that's that. :(

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

No Canada love from Pandora? Sad! That's exactly what I was going to recommend. That's about the only way I find new bands anymore, your recent recommendations (and Neil Gaiman's links to Amanda Palmer) aside. And I gather you're not up for trying IP-spoofing services just to get to try them.

[dr-kromm.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd be up for anything . . . but violating my ISP's TOS so that I could listen to music would be unwise given that I need my Internet connection for legitimate, income-earning work. I'll just hit various aggregators and YouTube to hear a few of these recommendations on demand, and then buy 'em on iTunes if I like 'em.

[aota.livejournal.com]

One of my old favorites is Kate Bush for her very unusual style.

[wgahnagl.livejournal.com]

Fratellis might be a good choice. On the electronica front BT and Delerium are classics, though Delerium isn't really working music. Electronicaesque would be Jupiter and the Rudess/Morgenstein Project - both feature Jordan Rudess on keyboards. You won't like any of their parent bands (to heavy), but you might like them, Jelly Jam. And just for humor, Flight of the Concords is great.

I like too much metal and progressive rock to offer much else.

radioparadise.com?

[claydowling.livejournal.com]

I've found that to be an excellent site for finding new music. Their mix is pretty eclectic. Listening to commercial radio in my area does nothing for experiencing new artists, so I resorted to internet radio.

Sadly, I don't think I can offer a lot of useful suggestions. Our musical tastes are very divergent: I prefer classical, jazz and heavy metal.

[woodmanx.livejournal.com]

Hi
If you like Björk you might give Rya a try, i usually describe her music as like Björk, it just sounds completly different and most poeple agree after listenig. In the synth-pop department De/Vision and Mesh might be worth to listen into. And as an idea not tiued to a specific band, just an overall feeling The Birthday Massacre.

[jaysumallah.livejournal.com]

Okay, enough lurking! Hi.

Off hand, I'd recommend you give a listen to:

Kirlian Camera http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZsdu-snSTk
Emmon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSeGGnGoAnA&feature=related
Yelle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bytf3gZMFkY&feature=channel
Ladyhawke http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUyuEyVb6KU

These based mostly on a shared liking for Ladytron and Client. I'm a sucker for hipsterish female vocals coupled with intensive beats.
¨

Music Reccomendations

[mpearlstein.livejournal.com]

All Hail Kromm!

I recommend to you the Pandora web site, AkA the music Genome Project...
they are exceptional at playing the tunes you like based on the bands you input and throwing other similar music into the mix. You can give the tunes they suggest a thumbs up or down and they shy away from or towards depending on your responses similar types of music, and will even tell you the criteria and whatnot. Check em out at...
http://www.pandora.com/