Articles

There are many different opinions about the new look and feel of the Last.fm. I hereby join the "like" crowd. It's not good enough to warrant a "love", but it has many improvements to the old:

- The new "grungey" top bar
- The "Library" view, which I can configure
- The lists, from where I can see the different time sets with a single click
- The ability to add tags, playlists, and other stuff to songs from everywhere

Note that all of the above relate to the "Profile" page. I, for one, do not like the home page, do not see its use, and, therefore, never use it.

But, all in all, a good way to go, Last.fm!

Fri 21 Mar – Down

I went to see Down with the brother of my girlfriend. I didn't know much about the band, except that it was mostly made of former Pantera members. Which of course sounded nice, even though I have never listened to Pantera much.

When we got there, there was a video playing. The video showed, among other things, the band members during a previous tour throwing furniture from a balcony to a river. It was fun, and a great way to wait for the gig to start. Everyone else should take note.

The gig itself was full of energy. The band played all their hits (or so I understood... :)). I was a bit let down by the audience, though. I thought that when I went to a metal gig, everyone would be shouting and hitting the air with their fists and stuff, but the Tampere audience was mostly kinda tame. Even though Anselmo tried to get them going.

The music was very professionally played, which was probable given the members' backgrounds. There was not much memorable stuff, except for a couple of songs. Jail was really awesome, with Bower playing the congas. It was really atmospheric. On the other end, Stone the Crow rocked really hard, and got even me along. :)

All in all, a nice experience, although I probably wont be buying any of their albums. I might buy the couple of songs, though...

The mainstream percentage is the opposite of Ecelecto-meters. It counts how many listeners your top 10 artists have in relation to the most listened to artist (Radiohead) on last.fm. Here goes:

Go through your overall top 10 artists and add up the total number of listeners. Divide that number by 10; this is the average number of listeners for your top ten. Now divide the average by the number of Radiohead fans (Radiohead is the artists with the most listeners). Multiply the result by 100: that is your "mainstream percentage".

1 Calexico174 882
2 Bruce Springsteen426 810
3 dredg134 077
4 Jean-Michel Jarre124 797
5 Apulanta50 812
6 Banco De Gaia63 049
7 CMX27 936
8 Metallica819 155
9 The Gathering99 504

-- total: 1 921 022
-- average: 192 102,2
-- radiohead listeners: 1 209 107

= 15,89 %


This is an interesting calculation. It was also very interesting to check out how many listeners my top ten artists had... Of course I knew that Metallica and Bruce would top the list, but it was a surprise that Calexico, Dredg and Jarre had pretty similar listener counts... :) And I would have thought that there would have been more people listening to CMX than to Apulanta. But that's the world for you, full of surprises.

But this is it for me for journaling for a while. I have made too many entries inside too short a time already. :D

Jarno out.

There is no universally accepted way to find out whether your musical taste is eclectic or not. But there are plenty of "Eclecto-meters", that have been made around Last.FM.

Here I test out a couple of them. I consider my musical taste to be pretty eclectic, as I like to listen to different kinds of music.

So here goes:

The first test is the AEP Calculator by davethemoonman. According to him, it works in the following way:

AEP is a measure of how diverse your music tastes are, based on the top 50 artists in your Last.fm profile. It was invented by C26000 and you can find full details about how it is computed here. AEP is a number, usually below 5. Roughly speaking, if it is greater than 4 you have very diverse taste in music, if it greater than 3 then you have fairly diverse taste in music. At the other end of the scale, if it is less that 0, you are probably an obsessive fan of your top artist. If it less than -10, you are probably a fake top fan. Depending on which end of the scale you are, you can join either the We Don't Have Exponential Profiles or the We Have Exponential Profiles group.

My AEP score is:

The score calculates how much of the music you listen to is only few artists, if that makes sense... :) So, my score ain't that high, since even though I listen to different kinds of music, I listen mostly to only some of the artists.


The second test is Anthony Liekens's Eclectic Test. It works as follows:

The following script takes the 20 top artists in your musical profile from Last.fm, and finds the collection of top 5 similar artists for this top 20. The resulting is a list of artists similar to your preferred artists. As the list is larger (maximum = 100), your musical preference is more diverse.

Here, my test result is the following:

My eclectic score is currently




The 94 related artists for my profile are A Perfect Circle, After Forever, Aine, Alice in Chains, Anathema, Audioslave, Autechre, Avril Lavigne, Biosphere, Black Sabbath, Bob Dylan, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Britney Spears, Counting Crows, Creamstar, David Bowie, Deep Purple, Deftones, Dido, Disturbed, Don Huonot, Eagles, Enigma, Entheogenic, Foo Fighters, Giant Sand, Global Communication, Incubus, Iron & Wine, Iron Maiden, Ismo Alanko, Ismo Alanko Säätiö, Jewel, Jon & Vangelis, Kaddisfly, Kelly Clarkson, Kiss, Kiss the Blade, KoЯn, Lacuna Coil, Madonna, Maija Vilkkumaa, Maj Karma, Megadeth, Mike Oldfield, Monolake, Mötley Crüe, Natalie Imbruglia, Neil Young, Neko Case, Neljä Ruusua, Nine Inch Nails, Northcape, Oceansize, Orbital, Ott, Ozzy Osbourne, Pantera, Pixies, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Slayer, Slipknot, Soundgarden, Spacetime Continuum, Steve Roach, Sugababes, Tangerine Dream, Tehosekoitin, The Future Sound of London (2), The Mars Volta, The Offspring, The Orb (3), The Saints of Eden, The Smashing Pumpkins, The White Stripes, Theatre of Tragedy, Tool (2), Tristania, Tuvalu, U2 (2), Van Morrison, Vangelis, Whitesnake, Wilco, YUP, Zen Café (2), Би-2, Мара, Мумий Тролль, Ночные Снайперы, Сплин


So, here I scored a lot more points than in the previous test. I think that this one mirrors the way I think about eclecticism more than the first one. (And it's always nice to score high on a test, isn't it? :))

I bet there are dozens of tests similar to this all over last.fm and the net, with slightly differing ways of calculating your eclectic ways... Just be sure that the calculation has a similar notion of eclecticism as you do!

I am very bored (and a bit sick) atm, and I found this meme on whitetear's journal. So I'm going to give it a shot...

I assume that you take your overall artist chart and answer the following questions accordingly.


1. How did you get into 29?
Conjure One: I think that I found it on last.fm, possibly because of the connection with Delerium.

2. What was the first song you ever heard by 22?
Evanescence: It had to have been Going Under. It was playing in the radio a lot back when. I only started listening to them more when I moved in with my GF.

3. What’s your favorite lyric by 33?
Kate Bush: Whew, a tough one, taking into consideration the complexity of her lyrics... :) I guess this next one is pretty haunting (Under Ice):

It's wonderful
Everywhere, so white
The river has frozen over
Not a soul on the ice
Only me, skating fast
I'm speeding past trees leaving
Little lines in the ice
Cutting out little lines
In the ice, splitting, splitting sound
Silver heels spitting, spitting snow
There's something moving under
Under the ice
Moving under ice – through water
Trying to get out of the cold water
"It's me"
Something, someone – help them
"It's me"

4. What is your favorite album by 49?
Chris Isaak: Easy, because I only got the one: Wicked Game.

5. How many albums by 13 do you own?
Zemfira: Shame to say, none. I have copied two from a friend. I should buy her albums, and get more of her music. She's great!

6. What is your favorite song by 50?
Dingo: Nimeni on Dingo.
Enigma: The Rivers of Belief.

7. Is there a song by 39 that makes you sad?
Dead Can Dance: All their stuff is pretty sad. But also so weird, that I don't get sad by hearing them. :)

8. What is your favorite album by 15?
Alanis Morrissette: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. It's filled with awesome songs: Joining You, The Couch, I was Hoping (her best), etc.

9. What is your favorite song by 5?
Apulanta: Reunalla. It just has the raw energy of living on the edge.

10. Is there a song by 6 that makes you happy?
Banco De Gaia: The Last Train to Lhasa. I don't know what it is in that song. It just has the feeling of discovering something new and pure that I have not found in any other song. It is also his best song.

11. What is your favorite album by 40?
Pink Floyd: It used to be The Wall, but now I'm beginning to like Animals more and more...

12. What is your favorite song by 10?
Nirvana: It's their version of The Man Who Sold the World. It's so damn melancholy.

13. What is a good memory you have involving 30?
Leonard Cohen: About the only memory I have involving him is playing Take This Waltz on a jukebox in a bar. I guess the night was fun, so...

14. What is your favorite song by 38?
Steve Roach: I truly cannot say. All I have is the Dreamtime Return album, and it's such a continuous whole, that I cannot make any separation between the songs... :)

15. Is there a song by 19 that makes you happy?
A Perfect Circle: Nope. Sorry, none comes to mind. :)

16. How many times have you seen 25 live?
The Beatles: I'm sorry to say that I'm not old enough to have seen them live. :)

17. What is the first song you ever heard by 23?
Tool: I don't know. Might have been The Grudge, because they have played that in radio...

18. What is your favorite album by 11?
System of a Down: Toxicity. It has their best stuff on it.

19. Who is a favorite member of 1?
Calexico: Volker Zander. He plays the stand-up bass. He's just so sympathetic. :)

20. Have you ever seen 14 live?
Global Communication: Nope, I have not.

21. What is a good memory involving 27?
Johnny Cash: Seeing the movie Walk the Line. It was really good.

22. What is your favorite song by 16?
R.E.M: The One I Love. It's one of the few truly good love songs.

23. What is the first song you ever heard by 47?
Dido: Here With Me. I was going through an emotional time back then... :)

The Cinematic Orchestra: Don't know. This is one of those bands, where I don't listen to the separate songs, but to the music of the whole band...

24. What is your favorite album by 18?
Biosphere: Substrata. (Is that any surprise?)

25. What is your favorite song by 21?
Porcupine Tree: Sleep of No Dreaming.

26. What is the first song you ever heard by 26?
Delerium: Again, no idea. Who remembers these things anyway?!

27. What is your favorite album by 3?
dredg: Leitmotif. I think that it's great as a whole.

28. What is your favorite song by 2?
Bruce Springsteen: Spirit in the Night. Just perfect.

29. What was the first song you ever heard by 32?
Iron Maiden: Can't be sure, but if I would guess, it might be Fear of the Dark.

30. What is your favorite song by 8?
Metallica: Sanitarium. A long-time favourite.

31. How many times have you seen 17 live?
Alice Cooper: None. Although it would probably be fun to see him once. :D

32. Is there a song by 44 that makes you happy?
Ismo Alanko: Säkenöivä Voima always makes me really energetic, and, yes, I should think happy. :)

Grayson Capps: I like Love Song for Bobby Long very much, and it brings out a smile...

Amon Tobin: No, nothing comes to mind...

33. What is your favorite album by 12?
Myyt: I don't think they ever did more than the one, Myyt. But it sure is great!

34. What is the worst song by 45?
I have no 45, so I get to pass this one! :D

35. What was the first song you ever heard by 34?
Angelo Badalamenti: Finally, an easy one! Twin Peaks Theme.

Miljoonasade: Probably Marraskuu. Still one of their best.

36. What is your favorite album by 48?
No such number. Roll again!

37. How many times have you seen 42 live?
Autechre: None. And probably will not see them either. I like to listen to them at home. :)

38. What is your favorite song by 36?
Essence: Don't know. Again. I don't listen to his songs, but more his music in a stream...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once: Heh, a mis-tag. :D But from the Once More With Feeling album I love the song Under Your Spell - Standing Reprise.

39. What was the first song you ever heard by 28?
Tori Amos: Could have been Cornflake Girl... maybe....

40. What is your favorite album by 7?
CMX: I used to like Vainajala the most, but now I've grown more and more fond of Talvikuningas...

41. Is there a song by 31 that makes you happy?
Sorry, no 31.

42. What is your favorite album by 41?
Collide: Beneath the Skin.

43. What is your favorite song by 24?
Kitaro: Silk Road.

44. What is a good memory you have involving 46?
Nope, no 46...

45. What is your favorite song by 35?
And no 35 either... :)

46. Is there a song by 9 that makes you happy?
The Gathering: No, nothing that actually would make me happy...

47. What is your favorite album by 4?
Jean-Michel Jarre: Equinoxe. Old is ture. :D

48. Who is a favorite member of 37?
Whew, luckily I don't have a 37. How would I know any members of bands that are number 37 on my list?

49. What is the first song you ever heard by 43?
Emma Salokoski Ensemble: Damn, this would even be possible to know, since I first heard her at Ilosaarirock last year... But I have no idea of her setlist then. Sorry.

50. How many albums do you own by 20?
Tatu: 2. Though I think that the first is superior by, about, 570 miles. :)


Whew, this took longer than I thought. :)

Fri 13 Jul – Ilosaarirock

This year's Ilosaari was my first in about 5 years. I mostly went because I found out that Calexico, Porcupine Tree, and The Cinematic Orchestra would be playing there. The ticket price was pretty steep with the Friday club ticket, but I can totally say it was damn well worth it!

FRIDAY

On Friday we came to the area while Stella was playing. It was a nice little Finnish band, didn't arouse my interest. The next act we saw was Ismo Alanko Teholla, which was great! Ismo's songs worked really well trimmed down to just the basics, him on the guitar and piano (and of course singing), and Teho Majamäki playing all kinds of percussion stuff. They played an Ismo hits galore, ending with a great singalong, Kanoottilaulu.


Ismo Alanko Teholla

The next bigger artist was CMX. I've seen them once before, and boy, has A.W. Yrjänä gotten even fatter and uglier than before or what?! They played a really fast and energetic set, not my favourites. Although I really liked how they played Taivaan Lapset, it rocked a lot mre than on CD.

Apulanta closed the rock evening nicely. The tent was packed, everybody sang together, bounced, and were enjoying themselves. They also played a hit parade, but I would have liked to hear Reunalla as well. Ah well, you cannot have everything...

So, Friday was a perfect start for a rockin' weekend! The only problem was that the taxi queue was hellishly long (ab. 200 people!), and we had to walk ab. 5 km to get to bed...

SATURDAY

So, Saturday came and the weather was nice. No sign of the rain that was forecast. We arrived late, only just in time to see Maj Karma. The act was great, mr. Ylppö was all over the place. I didn't get into the set that much, which probably had to do with the fact that we were about a hundred meters from the stage. All in all, the bands on the main stage were a bit of a disappointment to me. I liked the gigs on the smaller stages a lot better...

Next we saw Husky Rescue, a melodic Finnish band, then Ville Leinonen, whose Finnish "schlager" songs were much fun. Then we went to chill out to the beach, where Suhinators played a nice reggaey set.

After a short break came the main attraction of the festival (for me), Calexico. It was their first time in Finland, and I got to see it! Yay! I had already bought a t-shirt earlier that day:



so I was good to go. Luckily not many Ilosaari goers knew about Calexico beforehand, so we got to the front row by being there a half an hour early. The set was everything that I'd hoped for it to be. I recognized only few of the songs from the start, because they played all the songs very differently from the album versions. I liked their on-stage charisma a lot and they seemed to liked playing for us much as well. All in all, I think that both the band and the listeners got a really nice experience out of it...


Calexico

After Calexico had left (they did not come for an encore, damn the festivals and their tight schedules!), We went to see
PMMP on the main stage. I think that they are more of a girls' band, even though I like their music on cd... :)

Next up was Porcupine Tree. I had high hopes for the gig, since I like their stuff. But when the set started, I never quite got into it. I think that I'm not big enough a fan yet, since everybody else seemed to enjoy the show a lot. It might also have been tiredness creeping in... They did have a nice video show, nevertheless.

The evening ended with the major attraction of the festival, HIM. I have never cared for them that much, but we stayed for the show. And I really am glad that we stayed, since after Ville Valo had left the stage (he was very laconic during the whole set), a magnificent set of fireworks was displayed! The light show went on for about 15 minutes.

SUNDAY

On Sunday we came to the area much earlier, since we wanted to see Emma Salokoski Ensemble. I had only heard a couple of their songs, but had heard so much good about Emma, that we decided to wake up early to see her. And it was well worth it! The music was great, jazzy, bossa-novish sort of thing, and her singing was awesome. I don't think that I have ever heard anyone sing so well... Their show was the best of the festival for me, alongside Calexico... She also has a great stage charisma, and her band (which includes, among others, Tuomo) was also great. After Ilosaarirock I went to buy her CD, which was also good, but not as good as her performance on Sunday. I guess she has gotten better during these couple of years... :)


Emma Salokoski, Tuomo Prättälä on the left

Next up was Lännen-Jukka on the main stage. Lännen-Jukka is actually J. Karjalainen, who plays in the style of old Finnish-American folk. It was interesting. :)

Sunday turned out to be a jazz-day for us, because next we went to see Dalindéo, a small Finnish bossa nova jazz band on stage 3. They played well, and were nice to hear. Then was Viikate's turn on the main stage. I like their kind of heavy rock with steel string guitars. They also had a nice rock thing going on through the whole set.

Then, while we went once again to chill out on the beach and listen to Fat Beat Sound System, it started to rain. Well, it had to happen sometime... Luckily no good acts were coming, so we tried to stay warm while listening half-heartedly to the punk of Disco Ensemble. The rain stopped nicely in time for Maria Gasolina on the beach stage. They also play a nice summery reggae. I'd like to see them again, they really seemed to have a nice time on the stage...

Our Ilosaarirock ended with the perfect band: The Cinematic Orchestra. We just chilled on the ground in the large tent listening to their groove. They were the last band on that stage, so they even played an encore even though they had already played about 10 minutes overtime... :) I really liked how they seemed to wrap things up for the whole festival.


The Cinematic Orchestra, thanking Ilosaarirock

All in all, the whole weekend was totally worth it! I got to see Calexico and The Cinematic Orchestra play for the first time in Finland, and totally fell in love with Emma Salokoski's performance. I didn't even miss not getting to see Metallica, who played on Sunday evening in Helsinki... :)

Fri 6 Apr – Tuvalu, Candy Cane

I just last week checked out what Annina Antinranta, formerly of Myyt, was doing lately. I found Tuvalu, her new alt rock project with futuristic undertones. (You can find their homepage at http://www.tuvalu.ws/) I promptly checked their page at last.fm, and found out that they were playing in Tampere during Easter!

So I went to Vastavirta-klubi with my girl and my sister to check them out. There were three bands that night, Tuvalu, Navigations, and a HC punk band Candy Cane as the last artist.

Navigations was very interesting. They played their own kind of instrumental art rock/metal, which sounded ok at times and great at others. I think that if some record producer should pick them out and hone their stuff to perfection, they would really become something!

Our main attraction for the night was up next. At first I was again impressed by Annina's singing. What a formidable rock voice she has! But as the gig went on, I got more and more impressed by the whole band. Especially the guitarist and bass player (Antti and Jussi, respectively) were awesome in their rock energy! The only gripe I had with the set was the place's mixer. He was not up to his task (which is understandable considering that the place mostly houses local punk bands), and the singing was muffled during the whole set... They mostly played stuff from their upcoming album, and I will be eagerly waiting for next fall to hear them again.

We didn't stay to listen to Candy Cane, as they were a bit too rough for our tastes. But my evening got a perfect conclusion as, after buying Tuvalu's cd from the band, I got to shake hands with Annina before leaving for home. :)

Wed 28 Mar – Trio Candombe, Martin Alvarado
When Wladislaw told me about a Tango gig that costs 15 €, I was very sceptical at first. I knew that there is better tango than the Finnish dance hall type, but had never heard any. My surprise was great when I enjoyed last nights music very much.

First on the stage was Trio Candombe - two boys of about 20 years and a funnily dressed man. The younger guys played guitar and percussions and the older one played bass guitar. The music was mediocre, except for the percussionist, César. He was magnificent. I can only wonder what he'll be like in ten years...

Then Martin Alvarado (from Argentina) and Quinteto Otra Vez (from Finland) took the stage. I, again, thought that Alvarado was only mediocre. But the Finnish band was sensational! The quintet had a guitar, a violin, a piano, a (I think) double string bass, and a French-style accordion. Especially the accordion was awesome. I have always liked the sound of a French accordion, but this guy could really play some beautiful music with his instrument.

The event was a preview of a Tango festival in Tampere in the fall. I think that I will be attending the festival as well... :)