Topic: If Music be the Food of Love (then read on) (Page 1 of 1)

Being a music loving quinquagenarian is not easy in a world of noise and wannabe pop stars peddling prefabricated soulless corporate effluent in the guise of music.
Ahh, I feel better for that.

Over the past five or more years I've found myself listening to music from the 20's through to 70's for inspiration, but I've always longed to hear good contemporary music. Keep in mind that I am not married nor have children, in fact I'm a bit of a hermit most of the time so I don't come into contact with other peoples musical taste and therefore am not exposed in a positive way to good exciting new musical compositions.

One thing I have found to help me overcome this is Last.FM I started using it about four months ago and I find it suits me very well. I can now look at what other people with similar musical tastes are listening to and quite often come upon an artist or record that I have not heard of before and really like it. I can also listen to a lot of music for free which pleases my bank account no end.

I took a bit of a liberty a while back and emailed a few inmates here to see if they are using Last fm asking if I could join their network or they join mine to share musical tastes. I now realise that perhaps that came across as a social networking ploy and I was/am very sorry if I bugged anyone, that was not my intention.

Perhaps there is something more sinister at work here that I am not seeing. I sometimes walk through life like Bambi in Dangerland, I'm not as worldly savvy as I like to think.
So if you use last fm I'd be interested to see/hear what you've been listening to and what you think of the programme.
Here is my my page where I go by the name of TaoBoogie

Even if you are not using this software I'd still be interested in what music you like and are listening to recently. I tend to be Jazz orientated nowadays but really my tastes run far and wide.

"Two riders were approaching and the wind began to howl"


Those who look for monsters should look to it that
they do not become monsters. For when you gaze
long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

Tao, your city has been producing some of the best music throughout the last century this one -- just step out and enjoy I was there a week ago, over bank holiday, to pub crawl -- although it was more after the performing bands I was than the bevvies

I did not know about this website, I shall take a look at it and will definitely try and share with you, although I doubt that my music tastes have much in common with yours; but like you, I like to discover news things... I do find it hard to get interested in anything too exotic however, and unfortunately, jazz is already too exotic for me... I know, I am musically shallow, and ashamed of it

I have all-times favourites which I would rather not mention, but have recently discovered The Good, the Bad and the Queen, and have to say that Damon Albarn has been surprising me with his creativity over the years, throughout the "Cool Britannia" and afterwards, when most of his "rivals" dropped out.

The Claudia Quintet is a pretty cool new jazz-y group I've run across recently. Their first four albums are a little slower and more avant-garde than I tend to like, but if you ever get the chance to see them live, it is definitely worth it. Have you ever seen a vibe player use a violin bow?

Thanks kimson, perhaps I sounded too pathetic or apathetic in my first post. I do love the musical heritage of my city, it is after all "The Pool of Life" I have also taken part in a few of the festivals as a sound engineer/driver/roadie, but not for five years now. I was at the Matthew St festival that weekend too. This is Matthew St, where the famous Cavern club was.

The Claudia Quintet sounds good, the preview on last.fm is not really long enough for me to get a good idea of their work, but at least it is a start, thanks reisio.
Miles Davis, John Coltrane play the type of Jazz my heart beats to.

I used to think that contemporary music (pop and blah! blah! music) was contrived, stolen, and just tired remakes with a modern makeover.

But if you dig under the surface, regardless of which era, you will find much of the same going on, throughout musical history.

I was quite surprised to find this out, frankly, because alot of the so-called "classics" that I like are really not original, but indeed makeovers that were modern ones at the time!

Original music, lyrics, and sound are all rare commodities, and not very many bands, groups, or solo artists are really good enough or talented enough to produce it. This does not make them bad artists - on the contrary, some very good artists have done remakes of songs before and actually produced better versions.

But it does mean that there is an enormous amout of copycatting and recycling out there.

These days, I totally ignore that which irritates me (including changing the channnel of the radio to another, or to CD when there is nothing on I can bear to listen to), and tend to listen to that which appeals to me, and I have long since stopped worrying about what form or shape the music is in.

If it sounds good to me, then I will listen to it. If it does not, I will not.

WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles

For about the last 5 years or so, I've been listening to Yahoo's Launchcast, which isn't the greatest but it hasn't been too bad. I spend most of my time on a few artists' stations:
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Royal Crown Revue, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Dave Matthews, Counting Crows, Rush, Steve Miller, SRV, Eric Johnson mostly. Others on occasion, but those are the most common that I listen to.

I'll give Last.fm a shot and see what I can find in there (just listening for a half hour now I found the Atomic Fireballs, who I haven't heard of before )

--

Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.

I'll have to check out the Yahoo Launchcast. I've been in the process of transferring my internet radio urls from WinAmp to Rhythmbox in ubuntu this past few days. Swiss internet Radio has quite a collection. There was a station called Monkey Radio that I liked but I think that has gone off the air now.
Our own trib had a great radio broadcast for a few years, to call the genre "Ambient" would be too narrow a scope, but it may give a general idea of the output. He has been far too busy making rockets to get it back up and running of late.
There was an American band I liked years ago called "Cat Mother and the all night newsboys" that I first heard on a "Sampler" album that I wouldn't mind giving a good listen to again.

(Edited by Tao on 09-06-2007 03:33)

Yahoo's Launchcast leaves a lot to be desired. It only works with IE, so Firefox is out. And the free version only let's you skip a few (I think 5) songs each hour, and I haven't found it to be worth paying for. So far Last.fm is much better. The only thing I've found missing is a pause button...

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Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.

I listen to Pandora more than Last.FM right now. I like the interface better as it's a bit more sparse.

Not real sure about the music you listen to but Porcupine Tree is one of my favorite new-er bands. I listen to a lot of 70's and 80's music too. Mostly a Jazz and classical listener though but I've been know to listen to some pretty heavy stuff as well

Later,

C:\

I like Pandora C:\ I tried the sample typed in Miles Davis and have so far listened to three complete tracks. I wanted to sign up but got a bit twitchy when the "Register Now" dialogue asked me for my date of birth and my gender! Asked? Nay, demanded.
Miles Davis, plays away and song of his I had not heard of before plays and I'm impressed again so I overcame my twitchyness and gave them the information. Then there is the box that I did not think applied to me "US Zip code (US residents only)" and hit the button. but it appears that a ZIP code is needed. So I'm assuming it's only for the US.


Did not get a chance to see if it will run on ubuntu, as last.fm does.


Those who look for monsters should look to it that
they do not become monsters. For when you gaze
long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

I can listen to and enjoy almost anything - from the Allman Brothers to ZZ Top.

But...my preference has always been "old fashioned" rock - Bad Company, Stones, Deep Purple, Cream, Hendrix, The Doors, Blind Faith, Traffic, Savoy Brown, Clapton - I can enjoy Latin Rock (if it's Santana), Celtic (Leahy), Classical, and even softer Rock (Beatles, Eagles, Doobies). Can't stand hip hop, rap, Justin T, and most of C&W.

Contemporary? Rather than say I like a certain band, it's more that I like certain songs - the list includes Muse, Nine Inch Nails, Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam - the usual suspects. Less contemporary? Rage, Offspring, Metallica.

Depends on the mood - for pick me ups give me some GnR or Van Halen. Feeling mellow? nothing beats CSNY for those lay back and chill retro moments.



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quote:

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Tao said:
Then there is the box that I did not think applied to me "US Zip code (US residents only)" and hit the button. but it appears that a ZIP code is needed.

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Whenever I'm asked for my zipcode (we don't have 'em in Canada) I always give 90210 with Ca or California as the state.


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