New Pandora Stations

Well this post is going to be short, since I'm about to leave the library. But I wanted to give an update on some new Pandora stations. If you listen to these, keep this in mind: I steer these stations by starting them based on a particular band or song, and then Pandora plays songs that it thinks are similar. I then rate whether I like the songs or not, and it continues to refine the station based on those ratings. Thus you never really know what its going to play, and most of what you hear I've probably not heard before.

Proto-Indie delves into early indie rock and its roots and influences. As I got into music in the mid-90's and into the new millenium, I never really heard much about all of the bands that had directly preceded the indie and alternative rock I was hooked on (ie Pedro the Lion and eventually Pavement/Stephen Malkmus, Seam, etc etc). All I knew was that a few bands I liked, eg Yo La Tengo, had been around since the late 80's, but I thought of them as an anomaly. In general, I thought of 80's music as all of the cheesy metal and pop (think "Whip It") I heard as a kid when Joel would sneak on MTV. And then of course about 2 years ago or so, I started going back to the 60's to see what I could find there, starting with Simon & Garfunkel I guess. And the 60's and early 70's definitely had their influence on the turn of the millenium. But over the past few months, I've been discovering all of the great music from mainly the 80's and very early 90's that constitutes the immediate parents of Indie Rock and Alternative Rock. This station is built from the starting point of bands like My Bloody Valentine, the Pixies, REM, the Smiths, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Sonic Youth, and a bunch of other stuff. Every once in a while I'll add something older that seems to have a direct influence, like the Velvet Undergound or some new-wave/post-punk from the late 70's. But of course who knows what Pandora will decide to play.

Gazing at your shoes is sort of a showcase of Pandora's weakness. I meant this to be a station of "shoegazer" rock, which I really can't even describe for those of you unfamiliar with that term (basically, everyone besides Joel). You'd have to just hear. Thus what I hoped this station would do. However as hard as I try to stear it in the right direction with songs by Starflyer 59, My Bloody Valentine, and Lush, it continually delivers all sorts of rock that have nothing to do with shoegazer. So really, I wouldn't recommend this one until I can improve it some more.

Epic Space Melodramatica stays true to its verbose title. Starting with Muse and it's recent grandiloquent space opera of an album, "Black Holes and Revelations," this station generally plays music with delusions of grandeur and a 2001: A Space Odyssey twist. This is the very station Luke Skywalker was listening to when he launched those two fateful proton-torpedos that destroyed the first Death Star.

Instumental Indie serves up continual enjoyment in the form of lush indie rock that verges on orchestral. This is one long soundtrack for the independent film that could be your life (how is that for lame advertising?). The heavy-hitters here are Godspeed You Black Emporer! (yes, that's actually the title of a band, a Canadian band no less), Explosions in the Sky (that harkens back to the days of "Top Secret Tomorrow" and other fun band names; this band actually did the soundtrack for a very unlikely film: Friday Night Lights), and some Tortoise. I can't remember what else I based this one on.

Well I think that's all for now. Enjoy! Jon

p.s. I think one of my next stations will be a folk-rock one. I already have my broad "All Folk" station, but I want something more focused on the Byrds, CSNY, and some Damien Jurado on the modern end.

p.p.s. Today is library day.