.:DataWhat?:.

"That picture must've been downloaded from God's Brain" - Matt Tobey


Larger image Here.
Freckle-inspectingly huge size Here.
Story (as if it needs one) Here.
Mostly uninteresting video Here.

P.S. I like the picture even more if I envision that guy to be Jeremy Piven.

I dunno, something about the idea of Jeremy Piven weaseling his way into
that photo shoot and acting all serious makes me (impossibly) even happier.

::

The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll results are up, featuring some AMG folks, and some other dudes I'm interested in:

Tom Erlewine (Allmusic.com)
Tim Sendra (Allmusic.com)
Andy Kellman (Allmusic.com)
Heather Phares (Allmusic.com)
Johnny Loftus (Allmusic.com, Metro Times)
Ned Raggett (Allmusic.com)
William Ruhlmann (Allmusic.com)

Greil Marcus (Rolling Stone)
Chuck Klosterman (Spin & Esquire)
Peter Blackstock (No Depression)
Robert Cristgau (New York Guy)
Sasha Frere-Jones (The New York Times, The New Yorker)
David Fricke (New York Guy)
Gary Graff (Detroit Guy)
Greg Kot (Chicago guy)
Meredith Ochs (NPR)
Rob Sheffield (Rolling Stone)

::

Interesting new device: Gpal is a little app that brings up a window that you can type in your favorite band, and it'll bring back a playlist of "Similar Artists" in your iTunes. It pulls in songs you already own, sorta recommends new artists that you might like, and asks you if you want to download some free MP3s or Podcasts from what they deem to be "Similar" artists.

I requested a playlist of artists like Hem (quiet country folk), it recommended a bunch of things I don't own, then created a playlist of 21 Hem songs and a Chemical Brothers song.

I requested a playlist of artists like Whiskeytown and it recommended some stuff I had and some I didn't, then built a pretty decent 74 song playlist of Whiskeytown, Wilco, Uncle Tupelo and The Jayhawks.

I requested a playlist of artists like Portishead (dark ambient trip-hop) and it gave back a list of Radiohead, Massive Attack, Bjork, Sneaker Pimps, and started downloading free MP3s of other things I might like (Acapulco Soundlab? LOQAT podcast?)

They also say that they keep the other similar artists waiting in the wings of your smart playlist, so that when you eventually download some songs by artists they call similar, they'll automatically drop into your playlist.


So basically, this just groups artists together broadly, and then offers you free MP3s that you might also like.


The real problem is that its all being done by artist, so you'll get a really heavy and scary Radiohead song right next to a sweet and cute Bjork song, just because the artists are "similar" (according to someone...possibly via collaborative filtering).

Also, asking for artists similar to Miles Davis brings up Paul Hardcastle (I just threw up in my mouth a little bit).

And the metadata is atrocious.
Led Zep? led zeplin? Zeppelin? C'mon folks, standardize.

Still, the fact that they're interacting this thoroughly with iTunes is interesting.

::



::

Thanks BoingBoing
Thanks Egotastic
Thanks Chris
Thanks Jamnes
Thanks Exquisite Dead Guy
Thanks Rob
Thanks Mark
Thanks Grambo
Thanks Alec
Thanks Matt
Thanks Mr. Gary
...and anyone else who sent me the Sco-Jo thing...which is almost everybody I know.

Comments: 0