Library-licious…

by on December 1, 2005

hey everyone!
It’s been busy busy around here lately, as we’ve worked to keep up with all of you! It occured to me that I should communicate my thanks to each of you who has send us music requests. It’s a very big world, and as I suspected, there are many many many cds in it. And yet, in classic late-aught-5 style, the combined efforts of many of you dedicated listeners have helped us more than any individual could have (see wikipedia, web 2.0, etc). And it’s only been a few months. Please keep the requests coming!
A little advanced addendum for the supremely devoted: if you’re sending us info for a brand new band, or a local band that’s probably not yet signed or distributed, please consider emailing the band directly and cc’ing us on that email. We are 100% receptive to independent music, and will listen to whatever people send in, and we’ll add it if we can. And we absolutely hate it when we can’t find copies of the music that you suggest to us!!! The same message goes out to those of you in bands who want to be considered for inclusion to Pandora. Please send us your music!
Also, believe it or not, certain genres are hard to find, even here in the commerce-glutted US of A, so if you feel that we’re light on a particular genre, please feel free to send us information on resources like online stores and review sites for your fave micro-genres. Sometimes that’s all it takes for us to be able to provide a comprehensive catalog of your favorite stuff….
Your requests are being logged and worked through, and we’re getting everything that we can, so long as we feel confident that it’s up to your standards…
OK. ’nuff about that. here are a very few of my favorite current musics, new and old, to spice up the holidays. In no particular order, a partial list:
City Bird (Pandora station based on this song by Of Montreal)
Magic Carpet (sitar folk from the 70s!)
Nirvana (1967) (the original nirvana! from britain – classic british 60s pop – a cult classic – see esp. the song Wings of Love… this makes a great vintage 60s pop station! but beware, you need to ask for “Nirvana (1967) or you’ll get the Kurt Cobain Nirvana….)
Mark Hollis (this brilliant and mercurial frontman from Talk Talk made a sublime, self-titled solo record… moody and perfect)
Jose Gonzalez (!!!!!! beautiful contemporary indie-folk stuff, subtle not sentimental. definitely one of my best-ofs this year…)
The Dirty Projectors (freaky low fi pop, blindingly brilliant. oh man.)
Goldspot (clean, smart pop from a new band that’s not that well known, yet…)
The Teeth (more great pop, sort of punkish, kinks-ish, totally excellent and original)
The Stares (a great new band from Seattle with strings and horns by the great Eyvind Kang)
Ghosts of Monkshood (very strange psych folk – from Oklahoma I think – very weird and wonderful)
Diane Cluck (nyc folk-innocent. so simple. so great.)
Vashti Bunyan (long lost folk lass from Britain, just released her second album, 30 years after her first!)
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings (old school neo soul…)
Dungen (scandinavian epic psych-pop……. superb)
Black Sabbath (get your vintage Sabbath metal fix. never checked em out??? you should.)
Davy Graham (60’s acoustic folk)
Dr. Dog (more great interesting pop.)
well, I just know I’m forgetting a bunch more… you’ll let me know, though. of that I am certain……
yours,
mz

Comments

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  1. Steve Stinson
    December 01, 2005 at 6:55pm
    Glad to hear it. Dry Tobacco Road is going into the studio this Sunday Dec 4th. A friend of mine at UTSA told me about Pandora and so far I'm really impressed. It looks like you guys might be making a commitment to something new and dangerous on the internet. A streaming radio outlet for unsigned underground music. Although I have yet to hear any on my radio station, I'm glad to see you welcome submissions. That's really cool. This is how radio should be. More variety, taylored to smaller audiences, even audiences of one, with a DJ who plays what you like and occasionally throws something in that you may not have heard, but might fall in love with. Excellent. On top of all that, it's portable, marketable, sustainable, and has it's own blog. Fantastic!
    Reply
  2. john
    December 01, 2005 at 7:02pm
    I can't say enough about how wonderful Pandora is. May I be the first (?) to wish you a prosperous new year. Although I haven't seen mention of it, Pandora's jazz library is worth noting. The search filter is cool, but lacking a mechanism for sharing individually groomed Pandora stations with strangers (hint to Santa!), here's a nod to fellow jazz fans: 'Trane Station - http://pandora.com/?sc=sh1417423
    Reply
  3. Steve Stinson
    December 02, 2005 at 12:04am
    Hey John, When I clicked your name it opened a window with Trane Station and began playing it. In the same window it also had my station KEWL. Dig the jazz.
    Reply
  4. DJ Gundy
    December 02, 2005 at 3:32am
    So far the techno scene is represented well. Humpty Vission, Bad Boy Bill, and Baby Anne all get much love from pandora!
    Reply
  5. DJ Gundy
    December 02, 2005 at 3:37am
    So far the techno scene is represented well. Humpty Vission, Bad Boy Bill, and Baby Anne all get much love from pandora!
    Reply
  6. Bill Mill
    December 02, 2005 at 11:39am
    When will there be a Pandora API? I would love to play with it...
    Reply
  7. linndc
    December 02, 2005 at 7:31pm
    Pandora is .the.most. extraordinary internet discovery of the year for me. My co-worker and I have spent this whole week listening at work and trading songs, artists, new finds back and forth. We may get fired, but for now it's been great! All the best for the coming year. I've forwarded music submission information to my two favorite local artists, and I'm sure there will be more to follow. I think this is going to be the thing that will push me over the edge into getting a direct cable hookup for my internet at home instead of my poor low tech dial-up connection that I've had for so long. No small feat, I can tell you. Thanks!!!!!
    Reply
  8. serima
    December 02, 2005 at 10:04pm
    Hey,I'm japanese student learning C programming and computer sciences but I use regularly Pandora. I was amazed at the new idea and business model. I recommend around my friends. I'll keep track of Pandora. Thanks.
    Reply
  9. Jacob Day
    December 03, 2005 at 2:02am
    I was very impressed to see 2 out of 3 of my favorite obscure bands represented... :D But I wanted to comment/question: Are there any plans in place for the theme of a song or artist to be included amongst its characteristics? I put in Weird Al Yankovic, expecting to hear bands like the Arrogant Worms, maybe some Dr. Demento show tracks, and got several different "serious" songs back instead...
    Reply
  10. hereNT
    December 03, 2005 at 10:18am
    I've only been playing with this for a few days, and I'm really impressed. I was looking for a way to submit feedback and found this blog. I was going suggest that you change the title bar of the browser to show the album/song/artist so you could see it in your taskbar, but it looks like you added that since I was listening at work yesterday :D So here's a few more ideas: 1) Create a new station by genre. For instance, Acid Jazz or Dirty Rock and Roll 2) Add tags to stations you create. Kind of like the genre idea. If you add that in, then you can: 3) Search other stations. 4) Thumbs up or down is cool, and seems to tailor the stations pretty well. But it might be better if you had a sliding scale, say 1-10, on how appropriate the song is to the station. 5) "Block Artist" option. I've had some artists show up who I hate, but are still similar to the other ones I'm trying to get on a station. I can give them a thumbs down, but they'd still come back. Anyways, I just wanted to say thanks for a really great application. Oh, and if anyone knows of a better place to put suggestions, please let me know. I kind of figured this would work, but who knows if there's anyone actually reading the comments here?
    Reply

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