I've been hearing for some time about this music site called "Pandora." It offers streaming radio stations with a twist — rather than playing preselected playlists in particular genres a la Sirius or XM or relying on listener picks and recommendations, its team of musicologists analyzes the "genome" of each song, "everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like."
A lengthy profile in the East Bay Express finally motivated me to try it out It asks you to input the name of an artist you like. I typed in "Kirsty Maccoll." It responded by playing her live duet of "A New England" with Billy Bragg, and then lined up its best guesses on what else I would like. So far, it's played me a song by Lois, another one by Belle and Sebastian, and now has moved on to Mia Doi Todd (who?) When I click on one of the songs to find out why they picked it, I'm told "Based on what you've told us so far, we're playing this track because it features folk influences, acoustic sonority, major key tonality, melodic songwriting and accoustic rhythm guitars."
So far, very nice selection, but not completely Kirsty-ish, somehow. I'm missing the lavish "wall of sound" production on much of her songs, not to mention the wry humor. I'm a bit surprised no Amy Rigby has come up yet.
Ah, now they're playing another Kirsty song, from the same live album. "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis." Well, if that album is the main example of her sound, that might explain it. Still, so far, this is pretty cool.
(Jim Lauderdale? Huh?)
Despite having taken piano lessons as a kid, One of the things I'm curious about, and which I hope this site will help me figure out, is why I like some of the stuff I like and don't like other stuff. I don't really have the vocabulary to explain it. Why do I love Hem but Sarah McLaughlin (whose voice is very similar to that of Hem's lead singer) leaves me cold? Why do I like Tom Waits but find Modest Mouse incredibly annoying? What is it about Balkan Beat Box's song "Adir Adrimi" that makes me replay it?
Wonder what they'll make of it when I put in Stereolab, Manu Chao or Danielle Dax? Guess I'll just have to find out.
