Mittwoch, 14. Jun 2006, 1:05
Per my weekly feature, I listen to the preview tracks of artists recommended to me by last.fm. The procedure is to start writing the review while the first 30 second preview track is playing and finish by the second. After all, first impressions are what actually count in life; in that spirit I keep it plenty snarky.
To replay the dialogue for those just rocking in:
*Week one: I lay down the law and defined the rules of the game.This week I additionally address the question: what's the point of forming a first impression after all? In three poignant bullets to the heart of the issue:
*Week two: I showed that, as first impressions are short and snap (unlike long impressions) 30 seconds is more than enough to impress or disgust.
*Time: Long impressions take time. First impressions are a starting point for dialogue about an artist, and if you've got friends with trustful tastes they'll tell you if they think caught the wrong soundwave and should bother with a long impression. I trust you guys!p.s. For the techies, here's a bitty python script I wrote to screenscrape artists from the recommendation page's html and output them in last.fm format, journal ready. A last.fm API would be better. Lesigh.fm.
*Dialogue: A good impression gets a foot in the door to my ear canal quicker than a bad one, but as a radio DJ, I'm often on the spot for a track or two. I'll play an artist I've heard over an artist I've only heard about in a heartbeat, forming a longer impression and while letting me bring the conversation about its discrepancy (or lack thereof) with my first impression to the airwaves.
*Crispy Honesty: It's easy enough to get your opinions mingled with someone else's, especially in unfamiliar territory. Even if an artist I hated at first decibel ends up aging on me like a the finest champagne of beers or suddenly grips my soul like a snap bracelet with a new spine, I want to start getting to know an artist without bias.
Enough of the chatter, onward, upward!
=======================================
Spicy
Thanksgiving: Hints of The Microphones and Mt. Eerie, fantastically chill.
The Sea and Cake: Lispy vocalist pull off the ethereal instrumentation without annoying my earbuds. If I heard this in an elevator I'd take it out-of-the-way up to the penthouse.
The Ark: Minor key: check plus, vocals: check, the ability to manage melodrama without making me want to slit my wrists: A minus, vague AC/DC touch: somehow they get away it.
Songs: Ohia: The simple slow melodies should be boring in droves, but I'm caught. You've got me?
Heavenly: Evil: Norwegian black metal meets anime theme? Sort of Mine: Camera Obscura on Adderall? In the confused hope that Turbonegro goes indierock, I'll headbang to one identity per ear.
Hot Chip: Sultry, passionate, creative, hard to pin in pidgeonholes, fantasmic.
Tapes 'n Tapes: The music is manic, chugging forward into what must be good music land in the end. A few seconds and already I've scrawled the need to hear more in sharpie.
Medium
Clinic: Fun but I'd rather shoot up Placebo.
Tilly and the Wall: Naive but dancy enough if liquor be plenty, Bright Eyes before Oberst gets to to the last fourth of the forty and the last pack of the razor blades.
Bland
Y.A.C.H.T.: The beats are interesting and experimental, the instrumentation talented, ultimately these are moot points without structure to cling to.
Kent: Minor key: check plus, vocals: check, the ability to manage melodrama without making me want to slit my wrists: F minus.
Adam Green: Silly like your annoying 3 year old cousin. From Georgia.
Manic Street Preachers: I want to send them the bill for the pinkie strain I am going to get putting the requisite exclamation points after bad!!!
Art Brut: Energetic, in your face British poppunk, The Darkness of punk, respectably entertaining during the nanoseconds it takes to push the next arrow on the iPod.
Phoenix: I would rather walk an extra 10 flights than hear this in an elevator.
Sparklehorse: Such a waste of great name! I could write a computer program to write a computer program to write more interesting music: silence.
Beat Happening: The smooth voice doesn't even make swallowing the music easier.
Seu Jorge: I'd need a few attractive Brazilians to rope me into a second listen.