3 posts from October 2008

"I don't know why I/ Feel so tongue tied."

I've seen this done on a few other sites and liked the idea enough to post my own version.

The way my version will work is I'll build an iTunes Genius playlist based on the first song I find myself singing Friday mornings.

Today's edition is built around Myxomatosis by Radiohead from their album Hail to the Thief.

1. Myxomatosis by Radiohead
2. Friend of Mine by The National
3. Youthless by Beck
4. Touch Me I'm Going To Scream, Pt. 1 by My Morning Jacket
5. And It Rained All Night by Thom Yorke
6. Dollars & Cents by Radiohead
7. I've Seen Enough by Cold War Kids
8. Nature Springs by The Good, The Bad & The Queen
9. Razz by Kings of Leon
10. Obsatcle 2 by Interpol

Myxomatosis is one of my favorite songs, but another goodie from this list is the My Morning Jacket track. The most-played track is Nature Springs, but honestly until I heard it I couldn't have told you a thing about the song. Another oddity brought to you by the iTunes shuffling algorithim.

At some point this week I reached 10,000 scrobbles on Last.fm. I thought it would be the perfect time to look back over my listening history(as documented by last.fm, more on that later) and see what I can discern from it.

The top five artists in my library are:

1. Radiohead
2. Kings of Leon
3. Modest Mouse
4. The White Stripes
5. Mike Doughty

 While I agree all of these artists are favorites of mine, I would disagree with the fact they are my top five aesthetically. In their favor, Radiohead was one of the first bands whose entire catalog I ripped into iTunes.  The sheer number of their tracks in my library, probably outweighs all the others, even to this day. In fact the top four bands combined make up 229 tracks of the 3231 items in my library.

Mike Doughty, on the other hand, has only 71 tracks. He truly is one of my favorite artists, though I prefer his early solo work (and his work with Soul Coughing) more than his most recent stuff.

The top five tracks tell a different story. They are:

1. 'Disaster' -- The Besnard Lakes
2. 'Plasticities' -- Andrew Bird
3. 'Neon Bible' -- Arcade Fire
4. 'Another Travelin' Song' -- Bright Eyes
5. 'Fans' -- Kings of Leon

I actually love three of these songs; 'Disaster,' 'Plasticities' and 'Another Travelin' Song'. 'Plasticities' is one of my true favorites. The other two, while good, are just flukes of the iTunes shuffling algorithm. 'Neon Bible' especially seems to always be playing in my earbuds.

Finally, the top five albums in my library according to Last.fm are:

1. Because of the Times -- Kings of Leon
2. Armchair Apocrypha -- Andrew Bird
3. Sky Blue Sky -- Wilco
4. Cease to Begin -- Band of Horses
5. Neon Bible -- The Arcade Fire 

This is probably the most accurate list. Are these my favorite albums of all time? Not exactly. Some of them would make my top 25 though. The first three are really high-ranking in my mind. My only real problem with this list is Neon Bible. I think The Arcade Fire's Funeral is a far superior album, and is most definitely in my top ten albums. Neon Bible is a good album, but I'm surprised to see it in my top five.

The problem with all of these lists can be ascribed to the fact that for the first few months of my Last.fm subscription I didn't own an iPod. I still listened to CDs and mostly in my car. The only things being added to Last.fm at the time were tracks listened to on my computer, which were few. Even when I bought my iPod I wasn't as good about scrobbling tracks to the site as I am now. I'm almost adamant about it these days, and get quite upset when I realize something I'm listening too won't be logged on the site.

In another 10,000 tracks or so I'll take another look, and see if a clearer picture has been painted of my listening habits.