Is it just me or are the first few days of the new year almost always the most depressing of the year. Everything is winter bleak. Well the holidays are over and it’s back to work full throtle and while the weather screams joy I myself am finding it increasingly difficult to leave the warmth and comfort of my bed. Actually I sleep on a couch but that’s not important.
Ibrahim over at Ocean Creep blogged about Pandora recently which I think is a really cool concept and as soon as I started messing with it I got another one of those wish-i-thought-of-that kinda moments. Basically you enter an artist name and it creates a radio station which searches through loads of music to find something similar to that artist. Then you start by simply listening and saying whether you like the song being played or not. If you don’t it apologises, tells you it will never play it again, and cuts to the next track. On and on goes the process till you’ve basically customized your radio to play the kind of stuff you like and chances are a lot of it or at least some of it is material you didn’t know about. Hence Pandora helps you discover new music. So check it out at Pandora Dot Com.
As I jog from lecture hall to library to coffee shop to lecture hall, the following music is playing in my head this week:
“Fresh Feeling” is a feel good song by the Eels, a depressing song by them would be “Novicaine for the Soul”. Jack Johnson is coming out with an album of original songs next month under the animated Curious George soundtrack which I will be eager to listen to. The movie features the voices of Will Farrell and Drew Berrymore. A lot of people in the Arab world don’t know who Curious George is but I grew with the curious little monkey as a childhood staple. One of my favorite road trip songs is “Santa Monica” by Everclear from the Sparkle and Fade album which conjures up memories of the 9th grade I am still trying to supress. Also check out “Us” by Russian/Bronx native Regina Spektor.
There all up on the Black Iris Radio this week so check’em out.
Fresh Feelin – The Eels
Flake – Jack Johnson
Everclear – Santa Monica
Cigerettes – Fort Minor
Give You Back – Vertical Horizon
Us – Regina Spektor
Caught in the Sun – Course of Nature
I’m Still Here – Johnny Rzeznik
Five Candles (you were there) – Jars of Clay
Windmills – Toad the Wetsprocket
Lovely songs, especially “give you back” and “fresh feeling”. And I agree with you, it is “depressing” to leave bed when it is cold outside it.