5.21.2008

music to my ears...










OK, so I am always looking for new music. Especially new indie music. (I am, after all, a very white person according to the Stuff White People Like blog. I'm an oh-so-painfully, damn-near-translucent shade of white.*) And in true White Person fashion, I like to discover new indie music before you do. Entry #41 proves it.

This is usually very easy.

I have sources. I have my primary source, followed by a few dozen sites, magazines, stations and podcasts. These sources are infinitely helpful.

But today I hit the mother lode of musical reference.

Today I discovered TuneGlue. It's basically "six degrees" of musical separation. Read more about it here.^ In three clicks it helped me discover a few bands not otherwise on my radar. Example:
  • I enter "Elbow" in the search; it links to 5 bands I already like: Athlete, British Sea Power, The Dears, The Doves, and Turin Brakes.
  • Since I like Athlete, I click to see what other bands are like them; results include Editors and Snow Patrol, among others. (Note to self: check on bands called Feeder and Thirteen Senses...)
  • I love Editors, so I click to expand them: yep, sure enough, I find more bands I like - Interpol, Bloc Party, Kasabian. But wait...who the hell is Maximo Park? What about The Rakes?
  • 3 clicks = 4 new bands to research. It could be easier, but how?
Amazon and iTunes already give those "You might like" recommendations, but they're not diagrammed on-screen in such a snazzy way. What can I say? When my A.D.D. kicks in, I'm a sucker for shiny things that lead me down a rabbit hole...



* Could I be any whiter? #100: liberal bumper stickers. #99: grammar geek/typo finder. #96: New Balance shoes. #79: modern furniture. #64: recycling. #48: Whole Foods. #47: arts degrees. #44: public radio. #42: sushi. #40: Apple products. #35: The Colbert Report. #6: organic food. #1: coffee. (It's official! I am a fucking stereotype.)

^The site "Very Short List" is also quite informative in a "60-seconds of daily emailed enlightenment" kind of way.

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