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piln
High Emperor
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 906
Location: Leeds, UK |
I FEEL IT IS MY DUTY TO INFORM YOU...
...of this amazing website, which I was introduced to 3 days ago, and which has been responsible for me discovering dozens of great music acts I'd never heard of and spending many, many valuable English pounds over the intarweb.
Pandora is basically a radio station, you pick a band or song to begin with and it'll play you something related - as it continues to play songs, you tell it whether or not you like them, and add new songs & acts as you see fit. It will definitely play you some stuff you don't like, but you can just give it the thumbs down, it'll move onto another track, and your database will be refined. You'll need to register to use it at length, and while you can skip a track without saying you dislike it, there is a limit on how many times you can do this per hour (licensing reasons). But I've had it running for 3 days while I workand I'm hooked on it.
I started with a station devoted to the electronic music I like (Warp records stuff, Plaid, Squarepusher, Wagon Christ) and it played me some excellent tracks from Adam F (the guy who did the level 5 tune on Rez, "FEAR") and Minotaur Shock - and I was stunned to hear what is now possibly my favourite piece of techno-y weirdness ever, "Countdown to the End" by End. Then I expanded this station to include mellower, jazzy, trip-hop & similar stuff - Portishead, Zero 7, Laika, etc. This gave me cool stuff like Her Space Holiday and two of the most interesting bands I've heard in ages: from the US, Ilya (sound kinda like Portishead, but with more of a rock foundation) and the Swedish Baxter; if you can imagine a gloomy Zero 7 mixed up with drum & bass and guitars, you're pretty close.
I opened up an Amazon page and bought 9 albums prompted by this one Pandora station.
Now I'm working on a punk/rock/indie station, which has been throwing out tunes that make me feel (almost) like I'm listening to the dear, departed John Peel's show. Indeed, there are many bands here that were favourites of his. One of the best new discoveries for me is Red Monkey, and I've rekindled my old love for Man Or Astroman and Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 (shame there's no Truman's Water in the database). But the biggest cheers of all go to
SCHOOLYARD HEROES
I love this band. And I hardly ever listen to rock or metal these days. Imagine House Of 1000 Corpses was actually a brilliant film, but with the same style and uniqueness. Now imagine it's not a film at all, but a band - that's Schoolyard Heroes. The best thing Pandora has thrown my way (not for want of trying) and one of the best bands I've heard in a long, long time.
I urge you all to build your own stations immediately and report your findings.  |
Sun Dec 04, 2005 11:53 pm |
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Ozymandias
Leader of the Senate
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
Posts: 319
Location: Otherland |
I found it a couple of weeks ago while just surfing around - It's a groovy site! But...registration is only open to those in the US. 
_________________
"There is no way around it. Correct is correct. I am correct, therefore I win."
Roqua
Disclaimer: I can not be held responsible for anything whatsoever as a result of you reading this post. |
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Mon Dec 05, 2005 12:28 pm |
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Kamahl
King of Spam
Joined: 29 Apr 2005
Posts: 1668
Location: Slovenia-Ljubljana |
its nice but i doubt ill be listening to it hard core
_________________
Destroy the dark side, we will
De duistere zijde vernietigen, we zullen
Uničili temno stran, bomo mi
die dunkle Seite zerstören, wir sollen |
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Mon Dec 05, 2005 2:26 pm |
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piln
High Emperor
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 906
Location: Leeds, UK |
quote:
Originally posted by Ozymandias
But...registration is only open to those in the US.
Ah, yes, I made that face too... I forgot to mention this.
It says you need a valid US zip code, but I don't think that's true. I fired in some random numbers, and it turns out I live in Gainesville Alabama. My housemate typed in "54321" which is not a valid code afaik, and his registration worked fine. So just key in any old nonsense - if you want to come from the same place as me, it's 35464. |
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Mon Dec 05, 2005 6:18 pm |
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Kamahl
King of Spam
Joined: 29 Apr 2005
Posts: 1668
Location: Slovenia-Ljubljana |
lol man thats stupid like spaceballs
too bored for anytihng else so im listenign to it
wow the text is so more hearable maybe its cuz there are no bases lol
_________________
Destroy the dark side, we will
De duistere zijde vernietigen, we zullen
Uničili temno stran, bomo mi
die dunkle Seite zerstören, wir sollen |
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Mon Dec 05, 2005 7:05 pm |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
I found it last week. Absolutely brilliant.
_________________
Webmaster GothicDot |
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Mon Dec 05, 2005 11:30 pm |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
Great tip, piln.
They've even got shoegaze selections... 
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Tue Dec 06, 2005 1:20 am |
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Ozymandias
Leader of the Senate
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
Posts: 319
Location: Otherland |
Cool! I think I will "relocate" to Gainesville.
_________________
"There is no way around it. Correct is correct. I am correct, therefore I win."
Roqua
Disclaimer: I can not be held responsible for anything whatsoever as a result of you reading this post. |
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Tue Dec 06, 2005 2:55 pm |
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Krzychu
Hidden Character
Joined: 25 May 2002
Posts: 1738
Location: It is my little secret. |
Impressive. Darn it, are my tastes so predictable?  Although I've only tried one approach so far. Thanks, piln!
_________________
=Member of the RPGDot Shadows=
=Member of the Nonflamers' Guild= |
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Tue Dec 06, 2005 8:50 pm |
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Kamahl
King of Spam
Joined: 29 Apr 2005
Posts: 1668
Location: Slovenia-Ljubljana |
o ppl show me your stations(cuz it says you can share)
_________________
Destroy the dark side, we will
De duistere zijde vernietigen, we zullen
Uničili temno stran, bomo mi
die dunkle Seite zerstören, wir sollen |
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Wed Dec 07, 2005 3:46 pm |
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Val
Risen From Ashes
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 14724
Location: Utah, USA |
Hmm... I must experiment with this. Just as soon as I have some time.
_________________
Freeeeeeedom! Thank heavens it's summer!
What do I have to show for my hard work? A piece of paper! Wee!
=Guardian, Moderator, UltimaDot Newshound=  |
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Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:37 pm |
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Krzychu
Hidden Character
Joined: 25 May 2002
Posts: 1738
Location: It is my little secret. |
This is gettin' better and better (Just luck I guess)! Well, I don't like all of them, but most are listen-able.
Heh, I got one station with half of the songs by Ministry. Got one song by Tristania and it turns out that I like it - I should've listened to you earlier, xSamhainx!
_________________
=Member of the RPGDot Shadows=
=Member of the Nonflamers' Guild= |
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Fri Dec 09, 2005 12:01 am |
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piln
High Emperor
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 906
Location: Leeds, UK |
Glad you're all getting some use out of this.
I think I've killed my stations 
I would like to share mine, Kamahl, but at the moment they're all wrong. I picked one track in my electronic music station that sounded a bit like Depeche Mode, and it bombarded me with synth-rock and pop tunes, culminating in Pet Shop Boys (at which point I had to open up the editor and operate). Last time I listened, it was pretty consistently playing me good stuff like Aphex Twin, Squarepusher and one or two similar but unfamiliar tracks, so I might have cured it.
And after I added Man Or Astroman into my rock/weird station, it seems to have developed a one-track mind. There are tons of Astroman tunes in there. It nearly always kicks off with one, and has a tendency to then throw me a few rock tracks I don't like and then say "hey, listen to some Man Or Astroman again!" I mean, I like them, but not for breakfast lunch AND Dinner. This choice has led me to the brilliant Mermen, but as much as I like them I think I'm going to have to take the Astromen out in the interests of variety.
But I'm happy because my Schoolyard Heroes CD turned up today. I'm currently listening to the offensively-titled Battlestar Anorexia.  |
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Fri Dec 09, 2005 11:51 am |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
I´ve also had negative experience with the thumbs up/down buttons. They seem to **** up the stations big time. PJ Harvey, Rammstein, Heather Nova .... everything evolves into maintream indie rock stuff.
_________________
Webmaster GothicDot |
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Fri Dec 09, 2005 12:06 pm |
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