NP - Pandora Radio

[Dave Monroe]

On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 8:08 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> http://www.pandora.com/

My first experiment with this was to start 'er off with The Pandoras ...

http://www.juliepatchouli.com/

... and then to run it neck to neck with last.fm ...

http://www.last.fm/

They both coughed up bona fide surprises for me, I even went out an
blew ca. $60 on a 45 I heard on Pandora, though they both also tend to
get stuck in certain ruts ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ruts
http://punkmodpop.free.fr/ruts_pic.htm
http://www.punk77.co.uk/groups/ruts.htm

But the most interesting thing for me was, how they differ in their,
uh,  modi operandi (?).  Pandora seems to work by matching various
preselected descriptors (e.g., fast, loud, female vocalists, garage
rock, et al.), whilst last.fm seems to work like amazon.com
recommendations (if somebody liked this AND this, then maybe you will,
too).  I also actually find msyelf getting less annoyed by lapses in
taste and/or the lack of "flow" because there's no one (i.e., an
actual DJ) to blame.  It's the only way I've been able to listen at
length to "radio" beyond, say, a few people I know and trust, e.g.,
...

http://wfmu.org/playlists/SV

Anway, starting both with The Pandoras ...

Pandora: The Pandoras to Daisy Chainsaw to Penetration to, uh, recent
Joan Jett and post-Plasmatics Wendy O. Williams, then back to The
Pandoras--strong start, but lost wind/direction early ... oh, dear,
and it's on to Greg Kihn ...

Last.fm: The Pandoras to Gravediggers IV to '68 Comeback to The
Miracle Workers to ... well, more of a tortoise to Pandora's hare in
this case, but ...

But both are well worth a spin.  You CAN tweak either one a bit,
thumbs upping or downing any given track, but I prefer to takes my
chances, so ...