20,000th Track Play on Last.fm

I started scrobbling on Last.fm back in 2006 and last week my track odometer rolled over to 20,000. My musical tastes have evolved since high school and I’ve definitely explored more since graduating college, but my top 15 artists aren’t too surprising. If this list was populated during high school then punk and ska would make up almost all of the scrobbles. Since then bands like Fountains of Wayne and The New Pornographers have crept into the top 5. Taking a look at more recent tracks I’ve branched out a bit with more indie like Vampire Weekend, but didn’t stray far from my roots by getting into The Vandals.

19999. Slick Shoes – Tired Of You
20000. Motion City Soundtrack – This Is For Real
20001. The Presidents of the United States of America – Last Girl on Earth

Top 15 Artists Overall Plays
1 The Presidents of the United States of America
943
2 Fountains of Wayne
858
3 Less Than Jake
741
4 The New Pornographers
567
5 Gnarls Barkley
494
6 Reel Big Fish
493
7 MxPx
480
8 Cake
459
9 Beck
452
10 The White Stripes
451
11 Goldfinger
446
12 The Hippos
428
13 Five Iron Frenzy
426
14 Incubus
415
15 Ben Folds Five
333

Noticed Paddy is coming up on 20k scrobbles too and we only share 1 Top 15 Artist yet our compatibility is VERY HIGH.

Enjoying Unordinary Music

When I say “unordinary” I mean out of the ordinary for myself. If you asked me if I would like Icelandic post-rock with an ethereal sound I’d probably say no, but here’s an example that would prove me wrong.

Sigur Ros – Gobbledigook:

Any bands or songs that you’ve come across that you were surprised you liked?

New Favorite Tunes

These albums are either new/newer releases or are just new to me. I’ve been listening to these albums quite a bit recently and highly recommend Vampire Weekend, it’s becoming one of my all time favorites.

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

Paramore – Riot!

The New Pornographers – Challengers

The Fratellis – Costello Music

Fountains of Wayne – Traffic and Weather

Presidents of the United States – These Are the Good Times People

These have all been added to my favorite albums playlist and I have no problem listening to them multiple times. That’s a big indication of a good album to me; if I can enjoy the whole thing without getting bored and skipping songs then it is a keeper. If you are adverse to profanity I think track 2, “Oxford Comma”, on Vampire Weekend drops the f-bomb a couple times, but everything else above should be pretty clean. Have you discovered any good tunes lately?

Evolving Musical Tastes

I’ve never been a huge music nut but the history of rock music class I took a couple summers ago at Cerritos has kept me thinking about music in ways I hadn’t when I was younger. I remember when my musical taste was dictated by what was on the radio, now I’d be surprised if I even like 10% of it.

Looking back at some of the bands I used to listen to frequently, I find they get less play time on my mp3 player, in the car, or on the computer. So what gives? Did I grow out of them? Did I listen to them because friends at the time did? Am I tired of them? Has my taste in music become more sophisticated? Am I more critical now?

I can probably answer yes to all those questions to some degree. I seem to value songwriting, composition, and the recording itself more than anything now. Before a fast beat and catchy guitar riff might have been enough to hold my interest. Now I find I don’t mind deviations from the 3 piece rock band. That probably started with my interest in swing and then ska, but has expanded from there. My new found appreciations probably came from listening to more classic rock and seeing the genre evolve from rock n’ roll to what we listen to today.

Some of my more recent infatuations include Beck (old and new), Cake, Ben Folds, Reel Big Fish, The New Pornographers, Less Than Jake, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Presidents of the United States (they just seem to never get old), The White Stripes, and probably more I can’t even think of right now. There will always be exceptions to the rules though. I’ve found recently that I actually like melodic metal and as I type I’m getting some Parliament and Funkadelic which I got a taste of in my aforementioned class.

So what trends have you noticed in your own tastes and is there anything you listen to that you are slightly surprised you liked in the first place?