Whiskey Wednesday

Opening Pandora's Box

Get your minds out of the gutter!

Introducing Pandora, a great new way to waist time at work. Pandora allows you to enter the name of an artist or song that you like and then generates a radio station of other artists or songs you might like based on a fairly sophisticated set of criteria. For instance: Portishead has electronica influences, a subtle use of vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation, demanding instrumental part writing and extensive vamping. The resulting station includes Everything But The Girl, Bjork, Lords of Acid, Thievery Corp. and Garbage among others. Naturally, you can also buy these songs/albums through links to Amazon or iTunes.

I gave Pandora a pretty thorough test drive and must say it rarely disappoints. Of course, it had me at hello. I started out with Tori Amos and was given a station that includes Sarah McLachlan, Fiona Apple, Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith and the pièce de résistance: Stevie Nicks "Edge of Seventeen". Pandora is definately a big mo. Also, the database is huge and includes lots of obscure stuff - a great way to find new music.

posted by ThomG @ 1:03:00 PM