List: Music Discovery Websites

I'm kind of a weirdo.

One of my happiest moments is when I'm driving down the road, either an unfamiliar highway or one packed with traffic zooming along just above the posted speed limit.

Blasting from the radio (or the 14-year-old's iPod) is a collection of really great music that I have never heard before. No matter what my mood before, this always makes me happy.


Lately I have been streaming music from various websites and blasting music into my kitchen while I cook or bake. Our current kitchen has a swinging door that I can close to confine most of the sound to that part of the house.

Sometimes it's hard finding new music, but over time I have collected a nice list of websites that help introduce new stuff, indie bands, unheard-of labels, and emerging artists hoping to make it big. No matter what genre you like, you'll probably find some great new stuff here, too. All legal, of course.

Here's my list:


last.fm - my current favorite. Type in a song or artist you like and get a radio station with a playlist based on that artist or song. You can also "scrobble" which means last.fm will look at what you have stored in your computer and make a playlist based on what you already have. Lately I've been playing "Groove Armada radio," "Bela Fleck and the Flecktones radio" and sometimes I'll crank up the bass and listen to "the Gorillaz radio." (I need bigger woofers, though.)

pandora - same concept as last.fm but I just prefer the radio station that last.fm creates better.

ilike - listen to 30 second samples of stuff and get free downloads of stuff you've probably never heard of (because they're new emerging artists). Shows you what's popular on their site or you can explore based on what you like.

emusic - monthly subscription for bargain downloads. We discovered a lot of good stuff here, including Pam getting hooked on Of Montreal.

Amazon - Start by looking up an artist or album you love. Then scroll down to see other music purchased by customers who bought your favorite album... browse from there. This is where I nearly wet my pants upon the discovery of Mrs. Miller, Florence Foster Jenkins, and Jonathan and Darlene Edwards.
Holy crap.
(I think this subject is a blog post all by itself.)

iTunes - I'm sure you've heard of iTunes. Honestly, this is probably the last place I go for music.

MySpace - I'm personally not a fan of MS, but this is where Rachel discovered so much fantastic music like Hot Hot Heat, The Fratellis, Hard Fi, Say Hi To Your Mom, Does It Offend You Yeah?, and a buttload of other fantastic artists. We have discovered many more artists here than at Facebook.


1227.com - You're going to hate me for this, but I love this site.

A.D.M.I.R.A.L.

Some of my very creative friends have been creating acronyms lately. (They're bored.)


Today's word is: admiral


Here is what they have come up with so far....

1. A dreamer's mentality is really animalistic lies!!!!
2. a demons mask internally, reeks a lot.
3. All Day men insist Raylene's are luscious
4. Another day makes Isabel really angry, LIAR.
5. And Dexter makes Isabel recognize all lies!!
6. ALL DOGS MUST INTRODUCE REALLY, ALL LEGS
7. Andi digs men, interesting really, all lunar-cycles
8. Aliens derive many inter-species rascals all loony.
9. All day menu, incommunicado raisons, A La-carte
10. After demons make ice-cream, run all loose.
11. Adam David Moore is really always late!!
12. Although David may irritate Rachel, all love
13. A dorky man internets right, aint lyin!
14. Apples delicious make ill retch and leak
15. A daring Many induce raspberry and lemon.
16. Anonymous darling men instigate rave at Laguna
17. Amorous dazzling men incarcerated return as leeches
18. Admiring duchess mirrors iguana radiantly and laughs
19. All Disaster Monday isn't really all laze
20. Any day my irresponsible relative aims low
21. As doomsday munches in, reorganize all ladles
22. Angry demonic munchkins irritate rabbits and lizards.
23. A disruption might include reprioritizing Andi's lament.
24. All dumb movies include racing alligator legs
25. Andi decides, "maybe I'll Relocate at lanai."
26. Anchovies disgust moms, ignoring rugrats ate lots
27. Alabamaslammas do make illegal retaliators all lovers.
28. A detailed magazine investigates real-estate agents lying.
29. Accountants demand management includes reality as loss-cause.
30. Aspirational dog-lovers must investigate arf logarithms
31. Art does magic in real adult lives
32. Arch dioses meet in Rome about Lutherans
33. Artichokes do make interesting remoulade at lunch
34. Abaci destroy math ignaceously reinterpreting all lava
35. Achtung defines men investigated rationally at laboratories

Can you think of any more?

Four Letter Band Names

The other day Rachel and I were looking through CDs at the local Freddy's when we realized there are a lot of band/artist names that are just four letter words.
(The word "The" doesn't count.)

As we drove home we tried to think of all the music artists with a four-letter word as their name.

Can you think of any more to add to this list? I asked a lot of my friends and they helped to compile this list:

1. Abba
2. Rush
3. Korn
4. Fixx
5. Inxs
6. Cars
7. Enya
8. Devo
9. Styx
10. Moby
11. Seal
12. Dido
13. Beck
14. Kiss
15. UB40
16. ACDC
17. Yani
18. NOFX
19. Doom
20. Pras
21. Yo-yo
22. Ween
23. Z-man
24. Ne-Yo
25. Cake
26. RJD2
27. Bun B
28. EPMD
29. Cher
30. Mims
31. Lons
    
    
    
    
    

A List for the Ikea Junkie

I love Ikea.
Every chance I get, I make the hour-long drive up to PDX (that's Portland... Oregon) to go there and drool over their rooms and misc must-haves...
...then I hate to leave and return to my home which does not look anything like their rooms filled with misc must-haves.

And I plan my visit around lunch so I can have meatballs in their cafeteria.
Of course.

My friend Marcy put it best when we went together to the Portland Oregon Ikea soon after it opened:

"It's like the Mothership has landed."

Even her 13 (or 14?) year old son and my daughter had fun poking around the rooms and snickering at the funky textiles.

Are you an Ikea junkie, too?
Check out these links:

• Ikea Hacker
• Ikea Quiz (I scored 4 out of 10. Pretty average.)
• Positive Fanatics an unofficial Ikea web journal
• Mark Lives in Ikea
• Urban Camoflauge Hilarious. I want to try it but I'm too chicken.
• The Ikea Blog written by a serious Ikea junkie and not affiliated with the store
• The Blogadilla Swedish Furniture Name Generator
• Ikea Food photos of Ikea food
• Ikea Fabrics photos of things made out of Ikea fabric
• Ikea in my home photos of Ikea items in people's homes - nice place to look for visual inspiration
• IKEA Fans the mother of all Ikea sites (thank you, kind commenter!)

Have you even been to an Ikea? If you have, you know they give all their merchandise weird names. Johanna, my Swedish friend who is actually from Sweden, said the names don't actually mean anything; they're just random names.

Nonetheless, I did once read that Norwegians once got miffed when they realized that the higher-end merchandise was named after Swedish places and the budget, lower-end items were named after Norwegian places.

No surprise there. For me, anyway. Literally about a hundred years ago my grandfather's parents, who were Swedish immigrants, would check up on my Norwegian grandmother to make sure she was keeping the house clean enough for their son.

Because she was a lowly Norwegian.

Ah, times have changed. A little...
And sorry, Gram, I still love Ikea.