Last.fm Group Journal: The Seattle Four

Revamping the similar artists formula, Part II

Mon, 2 Jan 2012 05:27:58 +0000

Last Saturday, I discussed the issues with the current similar artist formula...especially Metallica being top 10 in similarity with The Offspring (like what?).

Well, since then, I put my programming skills to work and well, I built a little program to test to see it would work with other artists. Results were noticed on several bands/artists as their similar artists over went a make over. However, it did lead to new problems as I tried testing it out super-mainstream acts including our favorite band...Radiohead.

Rage Against the Machine showed up as a similar artist.

...well, apparently. Radiohead's top 250 similar artists currently are all over the place in random genres. A bigger batch of similar artists would be needed to get the best results, but the question is...is my new formula better. I'm going to show you some examples of artists top 25 similar artists...before, and after. You guys make the decision.

Oh, you don't remember the formula? Very well...time for a quick summary
*First, grab all 250 similar artists for Artist A. Obtain them in the given order.
*Next, for each similar artist starting with the one with the highest original rank, look at the first 3 tag and count how many of the tags are similar to the tags in Artist A. Resort based on this. You should end up with 4 groups starting from top (matches all 3 tags, matches 2 tags, matches 1 tag, matches no tags)
*Next, break the ties by resorting each group based on matches among the first 4 tags (which will spawn even more groups)
*Then finally, re-sort again, this time on the top 5 tags. If there are still ties, break the ties based on their original rank.

It's a lot of technical and algorithm stuff that is complicated for the average user, so I won't go that deep. See my example in the first journal entry here for an example with The Offspring (though I work a little backwards here).

Also, I have banned several tags...here are some of them
*Tags that are the same as the artist - not all have been banned, but the common ones have been (ex: red hot chili peppers for Red Hot Chili Peppers). These tags simply group together projects involving members of a band...but really, they may not have the same style.
*Tags referring to geographical locations...american, british, swedish, german. The geographical location doesn't make sense at all. I haven't gotten into geo-genre tags much yet as they may require research before banning (some countries may have a genre as a specific style).
*Decade tags. Similar artists do not have to reside in the same decade. If there's a Led Zeppelin clone playing the exact same style of music today that Zep played in the 60s and 70s, then perhaps they should be similar.
*Nonsense tags...you pretty much know them...crap, awesome, heard on pandora, sexy, legend....they don't reflect a genre or style
*The alternative tag. To be honest, this tag was holding a lot of stuff back, especially those that are also alternative rock. This tag is incredibly abused as well to hell, so I dropped that tag. Still no decision on the indie tag...I'll have to run a few more tests through different artists to make that decision.

So there you go...the banned tags. I'll go through several examples...these are the top 20 artists, before and after.

ARTIST #1: RADIOHEAD

CURRENT ON LAST.FM:
Thom Yorke
Johnny Greenwood
Sigur Rós
Portishead
Blur

Muse
Modeselektor
Arcade Fire
Beck
Interpol

Grizzly Bear
Björk
The National
Coldplay
Placebo

Kasabian
Joy Division
Massive Attack
Pink Floyd
The Horrors

BASED ON NEW FORMULA:
#1 Placebo
#2 Pixies
#3 R.E.M.
#4 The White Stripes
#5 Incubus
#6 Weezer
#7 Blur
#8 Coldplay
#9 Kasabian
#10 Arctic Monkeys

#11 Oasis
#12 The Verve
#13 The Last Shadow Puppets
#14 Suede
#15 Primal Scream
#16 Manic Street Preachers
#17 Muse
#18 Arcade Fire
#19 The National
#20 The Strokes

I'm not sure about both lists. Radiohead seems to really have only one similar artist...themselves. But which one is closest?

Lets do another punk rock band other than The Offspring. How about Rise Against

CURRENTLY ON LAST.FM

Sum 41
Billy Talent
Anti-Flag
zebrahead
A Day To Remember

Strike Anywhere
The Offspring
Breaking Benjamin
Three Days Grace
Bullet For My Valentine

Story Of The Year
Papa Roach
Silverstein
Yellowcard
Bad Religion

Nickelback
3 Doors Down
lostprophets
Millencollin
Disturbed

Ugh...I could just puke to hell if I'm told most of these bands are similar...

PROPOSED FORMULA:
#1 Strung Out
#2 Nations Afire
#3 A Wilhelm Scream
#4 Last of the Believers
#5 Good Riddance

#6 Only Crime
#7 88 Fingers Louie
#8 Satanic Surfers
#9 Pulley
#10 Much The Same

#11 Strike Anywhere
#12 Pennywise
#13 Bad Religion
#14 Propagandhi
#15 No Fun At All

#16 H2O
#17 Polar Bear Club
#18 AFI
#19 No Use For A Name
#20 Lagwagon

Not only has every single non-punk rock band has been removed from the current list, but even mainstream punk rock bands like Sum 41 and The Offspring are also gone. The result? More melodic hardcore bands in the top 20. Strung Out is now the most similar. Sum 41 and The Offspring show up between #21-30. And Nickelback? A long way down...at 139. This is probably the main reason why the punk tag was not removed.

So, what about metal? How bout some Metallica?

Megadeth
Slayer
Anthrax
Iron Maiden
Pantera

AC/DC
Black Sabbath
System of a Down
Guns N' Roses
Motörhead

Lou Reed & Metallica
Machine Head
Ozzy Osbourne
Slipknot
Sepultura

Trivium
Testament
Avenged Sevenfold
The Offspring
Exodus

WHAT THE FUCK IS THE OFFSPRING DOING HERE? Literally. Well, for the most part, it looks OK with Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax on top first but...AC/DC, GNR...they sure may have been influenced by them, but would you really call them similar to Metallica? Would anyone even consider Slipknot or SOAD similar to Metallica either? Avenged Sevenfold?

Let's see what our new formula has spawned:

#1 MD.45
#2 Black Tide
#3 Megadeth
#4 Anthrax
#5 Testament

#6 Acid Drinkers
#7 Kat
#8 Turbo
#9 Iron Maiden
#10 Black Sabbath

#11 Motörhead
#12 Ozzy Osbourne
#13 Black Label Society
#14 Dio
#15 Bruce Dickinson

#16 TSA
#17 Lordi
#18 Danzig
#19 Steve Ouimette
#20 Slayer

Hmm...kind of strange here. Slayer actually dropped while Testament on the other hand arised. Now...MD.45 comes up #1...I dunno, many claim it's punk rock, but their top tags are thrash. But what the fuck are Acid Drinkers, Kat and Turbo? They're thrash metal bands from Poland. Both shared thrash metal and heavy metal tags with Metallica, thus the high ranking since thrash metal and heavy metal are also among Metallica's top tags too.

Slayer only shared two tags (thrash metal, heavy metal) while the Polish metal bands shared all 3 (since polish was banned due to location). It's quite interesting to be honest. Similar artists are supposed to get us into new artists. Not sure if they're good or not, but perhaps you might wanna give a spin to those artists.

What bout hip-hop? Let's take a random hip-hop artist....ok, Kanye West (I had to ban the gay fish tag in order to get similar artists).

CURRENT:
Jay-Z
Jay-Z & Kanye West
The Throne
Kid Cudi
Big Sean

Lupe Fiasco
j.cole
Drake
Pusha T
Common

Wale
The Weeknd
Kendrick Lamar
Mr Hudson
Consequence

The Game
Rick Ross
Frank Ocean
N*E*R*D
OutKast

I dunno...but I kind of feel most of the similar artist are affiliated in some way to G.O.O.D. Music.

NEW FORMULA:
#1 Diddy - Dirty Money
#2 Chris Brown
#3 Nelly
#4 Nicki Minaj
#5 Timbaland

#6 Pharrell
#7 Fonzworth Bentley
#8 R. Kelly & Jay-Z
#9 Mase
#10 Puff Daddy & The Family

#11 Drake
#12 T-Pain
#13 P. Diddy
#14 Diddy
#15 Twista

#16 Bow Wow
#17 Chris Brown & Tyga
#18 Will Smith
#19 Usher
#20 R. Kelly

Umm...is it just me or did this get a little more on the poppy/rnb side (well Kanye did do more poppy stuff on the last 2 record). LOL at the different version of the guy known as Diddy on there (hip-hop, rap rnb, pop, soul were the top tags for Kanye West after other tags were dumped...including hip hop (duplicate tag for hip-hop), kanye west (for obvious reasons) and...GAY FISH. TBH, most people tend to consider Kanye as a good musician rather than an MC.

One more example. I have also banned the classic rock because it referred to a radio format rather than a genre. One band I tested was Queen:

Freddie Mercury
Brian May
Roger Taylor
Queen + Paul Rodgers
Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé

The Cross
Deep Purple
Queen & David Bowie
Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd

Electric Light Orchestra
The Who
The Beatles
Scorpions
Kiss

Black Sabbath
Genesis
David Bowie
AC/DC
Aerosmith

Well...most of the top 10 consists of random Queen side projects. But do they play the same exact style...or even have a good discography to choose from? Queen & David Bowie only has one song of existence! And the next 10 artists...hmm...feels like Queen takes in a bit of those bands, but they aren't even similar to each other. What bout this new formula?

#1 Slade
#2 Sweet
#3 Suzi Quatro
#4 Queen + Paul Rodgers
#5 Kiss
#6 The Darkness
#7 Mott The Hoople
#8 Styx
#9 Foreigner
#10 Freddie Mercury

#11 Roger Taylor
#12 David Bowie
#13 Alice Cooper
#14 Bon Jovi
#15 Heart
#16 Jon Bon Jovi
#17 L.A. Guns
#18 Journey
#19 Deep Purple
#20 Led Zeppelin

Well, most of the original British Invasion is gone...some of those arena rock bands though are now in (Styx, Foreigner, and Journey to be specific)...Alice Cooper is in, and he's considered glam rock which Queen sometimes goes into...not bad. Most of the Queen side projects are gone, and AC/DC and Aerosmith seems to belong somewhere else (got to go outside the top 30 to find them). The top band is Slade...based on their last.fm page, they seem to also incorporate glam rock and hard rock together. Same with Sweet as well. Remember Queen still has hard rock influences to their sound as well, which is why not all hard rock band on the original list are gone. Seems to feel like a better list IMO, but what about you?

Well, I'm prolly going to go through more artists and search for more tags. Perhaps I could show you some more examples as well from other genres. It should be known that not all similar artists formulas are perfect. And there will always be artists that aren't similar at all.

Remember, I'm only able to resort the original top 250 similar artists. If there are some that are clearly similar to the given artist, but not in that artist's top 250 similar artists, it may not be caught. IMO, this formula is better applied over a similar artist pool of more than 250...probably a lot more artists.

So take a look and pass me some feedback...whether it be on a formula, tags to include, and perhaps ask me for a few examples.

Revamping the similar artists formula.

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 19:45:00 +0000

As you've noticed the last several years, similar artists for bands/artists have gotten worse and more unreasonable. Especially if you keep reading on and on through the top similar artists for each artist. The one that has been baffling me for a while is The Offspring, a punk rock band that's not extreme metal or hard rock (though they do have alternative influences and sounds at times). In fact, as of 12/25/2011, these are their top 50 similar artists in order:

Sum 41
Rise Against
Bad Religion
Billy Talent
Pennywise
Metallica
Green Day
blink-182
zebrahead
Millencollin

AC/DC
Nickelback
Papa Roach
System of a Down
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Disturbed
Anti-Flag
Rage Against the Machine
NOFX
Godsmack

Bloodhound Gang
Limp Bizkit
3 Doors Down
Rancid
Farben Lehre
Slipknot
Static-X
Nirvana
Korn
Dropkick Murphys

Ramones
Iron Maiden
Audioslave
Goldfinger
Rammstein
Drowning Pool
Pidżama Porno
Bullet For My Valentine
DragonForce
Rob Zombie

Bowling For Soup
P.O.D.
Dope
Good Charlotte
Guano Apes
Flogging Molly
Tenacious D
Foo Fighters
Three Days Grace
AFI

You guys can puke now. The current formula is based on what people of Offspring listen to more often. But seriously...we know this. If one person listens to two bands, those two bands aren't necessarily similar...especially The Offspring to Metallica. The Offspring to Nickelback. The Offspring to AC/DC (seriously...). The Offspring to System of a Down...The Offspring to Disturbed and Godsmack (seriously...?) The Offspring to Slipknot, KoRn, and Limp Bizkit (when has The Offspring ever been nu metal?). And worse yet, The Offspring to Iron Maiden, Rammstein, Bullet For My Valentine, DragonForce, Rob Zombie...are we supposed to believe that The Offspring is a heavy metal band?

Anyone should know that this method isn't the best way to find a similar artist. It's not. Simple as follows. A topic on the forums discussed that and some people suggested that the bands/artists be determined by tag clouds. That could work, but a few believe that there could be problems, especially when taking the whole tag cloud as a whole and seeing a ton of hard rock and alternative bands become similar to the one artist (The Offspring in this case).

Actually, there is another way I've been looking at, and it was a waste of several hours.

What if we took the current list and re-sorted it based on just the top 5 tags, taking into account the order of the tags. Of course there are questionable tags like classic rock, 70s, and for some reason, very frequently polish and polish rock (appears that The Offspring has a huge following in Poland), but for now, let's leave them here (already, the infamous seen live tag was banned from the tag cloud).

This is what I did...I grabbed the top 5 tags for every single band and resorted the list based on how many tags a band/artist shared those tags. Those that shared all 5 tags (in this case, punk rock, punk, rock, alternative rock, alternative) came on the top followed by those that shared 4, then 3, and then 0. Here's how the top 20 now looked like:

SHARED ALL 5 TAGS
Billy Talent
Hoobastank
Pezz
Killradio
Alien Ant Farm
Unwritten Law

SHARED ONLY 4 TAGS (missing tag in paranthesis)
Sum 41 (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
Bad Religion (had political, missing alternative rock)
Green Day (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
blink-182 (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
Bloodhound Gang (had comedy, missing punk rock)
Pidżama Porno (had polish, missing alternative rock)
Bowling For Soup (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
Good Charlotte (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
AFI (had emo, missing alternative rock)
SR-71 (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
Social Distortion (had rockabilly, missing alternative rock)
No Use For a Name (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
+44 (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
Strachy Na Lachy (had polish, missing punk)

As you can notice now, all of those metal and hard rock bands like Metallica, AC/DC, Nickelback, System of a Down, Disturbed and Godsmack....GONE from the top 20...actually they didn't even break the top 30 as well. What was more disturbing though was the high number of bands that didn't even share a single tag with The Offspring. These are some of the bands that you could hear when listening to The Offspring similar artists radio, and grab a bucket, you're about to puke hard...no, Justin Bieber is not there, but still...

Bullet For My Valentine
DragonForce
In Flames
Pantera
The Prodigy
Apocalyptica
Slayer
Korpiklaani
Sabaton
Children of Bodom
Nightwish
Sonata Arctica
Hammerfall
Clawfinger
Soulfly
Hollywood Undead
Megadeth
All That Remains
Pendulum
Trivium
Blind Guardian
Volbeat
Five Finger Death Punch
Vavamuffin
Sepultura
Lacuna Coil
As I Lay Dying
Machine Head
Anthrax
Spineshank
Judas Priest
Hunter
Alestorm
Eluveitie
Sonic Syndicate
Eminem
A Day To Remember
Jelonek
Soilwork
Hatebreed
Within Temptation
Fatboy Slim
Frontside
Massacration
Alley Life

Take a look guys...enjoy listening to all that metalcore, symphonic metal, power metal, heavy metal, electronica, nu metal, thrash metal, melodic death metal, and hip-hop stuff. According to last.fm right now, they are really similar artists to The Offspring (actually, all of them except for DF and BFMV come up as medium to low similarity to The Offspring). But seriously, a band that doesn't even share any of the top 5 tags with another band/artist has no reason even being on a list with that band. And there's literally a common thread with the bands/artists listed above. Most of them are pure metal to the point they don't even have a rock tag (I suspect Priest would get one if classic rock was barred though). Others like The Prodigy or Eminem are from electronica and hip-hop genres...and..really...I can't see a similarity with those bands to begin with.

So there...we managed to filter in bands that are similar...but it's not over yet. Let's now resort the list again, but this time, only compare the top 4 tags for all artists/bands. Tiebreakers for this sort will be

1). Number of tags shared when maximum 5 tags are used...
2). Their original ranking on the old formula, higher goes first

After the sort, the top 20 looks even more different:

Pezz
Killradio
Billy Talent
Hoobastank
Alien Ant Farm

Unwritten Law
Sum 41
Bad Religion
Green Day
blink-182

Bloodhound Gang
Bowling For Soup
Good Charlotte
AFI
Social Distortion

No Use For a Name
+44
Sugarcult
The Distillers
Autopilot Off

Well for the most part, the ordering has changed here. Some other bands now moved into the top 20 as there's more of a focus on the top 4 tags.

Last but not least, I repeated the resort again, but only comparing the top 3 tags for all artists/bands using the same tiebreakers as before while adding another tiebreaker that takes greater precedence (basically the number of tags shared when the maximum tags is used at 3...followed by the 2 tiebreaker rules listed above). And here is the final product:

#1 Killradio
#2 Billy Talent
#3 Unwritten Law
#4 Sum 41
#5 Green Day
#6 AFI
#7 Social Distortion
#8 Ramones
#9 Pezz
#10 Bad Religion
#11 blink-182
#12 Bowling For Soup
#13 Good Charlotte
#14 No Use For a Name
#15 +44
#16 Sugarcult
#17 The Distillers
#18 Autopilot Off
#19 Transplants
#20 Pennywise

Now where did Hoobastank and Alien Ant Farm go? Even though they shard all 5 tags as The Offspring, the ordering on both bands was different (rock, alternative rock, alternative, punk rock, punk), while with The Offspring, the ordering was (punk rock, punk, rock, alternative rock, alternative). As a result, the bands only shared 1 tag among the top 3 tags and ended up going below those that had at least 2 of The Offspring's top tags (punk rock, punk, rock).

As for some of those disputed bands, Nickelback ended up coming in at #69. Much lower on the list, but still quite high as they did share 1 tag among the top 3 (rock). Also, remember we are re-ranking the top 250 bands artists and remember we are already dealing with a good 45 bands that have nothing in common with The Offspring. I do not know whether they strive to get the top 250 bands and cut off from there, or work out some weird formula there, but perhaps maybe they should apply the current formula to get a batch of even more artists, apply the above formula, and then just take the top 250 artists...honestly 250 might be too much...top 200 perhaps? You could see a real shake up on many similar artists lists.

Many mainstream bands like Metallica, Radiohead, Linkin Park and other bands could see a lot of shake-up too. There are still a few other unresolved issues, like will it actually pick up 100% similar artists? Red Hot Chili Peppers for example has their top tags as rock, alternative, and alternative rock. Didn't some of the bands listed above have those 3 tags as well? Are they really similar? But perhaps it could cut bands that aren't alternative to begin with, like AC/DC, Black Sabbath, etc...

Another issue is potential abuse of tags. I'm talking about a bunch of wackos attempting to give something like Justin Bieber the now infamous brutal death metal tag (honestly though, 1 tag isn't really going to be enough and even identifying a brutal death metal band that a Justin Bieber fan listens too is going to be real difficult...especially if it doesn't share a pop or something. Moderators can assist with issues like that.

Also, the removal of tags could have an effect on similar artists. If we remove something like 70s, 80s, swedish, female vocalists, and all those other tags, can we guarantee that the new tags will make things better, or make things worse? What about tags regarding the same thing (alternative is not the same as alternative rock, but hip-hop/hip hop/hiphop? Nu metal/nu-metal? alt-rock/alternative rock?)? Do we merge these tags into one? Or do these duplicates exist because there's no other major tag to classify them as? What about vague tags like "classic rock"? And abused tags like "alternative", "indie"? And bogus tags like "crap", "awesome", "better than radiohead"? With cases like this, it's all trial and error then, but it's really something that can be done on the go and with the assistance of user feedback.

There is one more thing I thought of regarding my suggested? Perhaps we could start sorting based on top tag for each artist, then by top 2 tags, then by top 3 tags, and all the way until the top 50th tag or something (and if an artist doesn't have a certain number of tags, TOO BAD :P). But that's something that would take a while to look at.

Who knows, perhaps someone might create a last.fm widget tool based on this suggestion. But it is clearly a possibility to use instead of the current formula, which guarantees a ton of similar artists that have nothing to do with each other.

NAVEL: Limited Edition LP NEO NOIR XXX/500

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:17:59 +0000

Heya!

NAVEL NEO NOIR Limited Edition LP NEO NOIR 1/500 - 499/500
NAVEL's album NEO NOIR comes in an exclusively limited edition of 500, each hand-numbered 001/500 to 499/500, black vinyl. Order direct from NAVEL.
Schweiz: 15 € entspricht rund 22 CHF.

Check on BandCamp Record Store (incl. back catalogue)
NAVEL Bandcamp

Navel Neo Noir
Speedbox
Black Days

etc.

thanks and enjoy loud

NAVEL

Delonelyman - La Voz del Grunge en Chile

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 10:11:37 +0000

Originalmente Publicado en Wow.cl
http://bandas.bligoo.cl/delonelyman-la-voz-del-grunge-en-chile

Catalogado por sitios especializados como; "La Nueva Voz del Grunge" ó "El Seattle Sound Chileno", es que "Delonelyman", a través del trabajo hormiga y la Independecia Artística, ya ha superado las 500 descargas de su disco debut Homónimo, sólamente a través de su sitio oficial www.delonelyman.com y ya ha sobrepasado las 1.300 descargas, en toda su discografía. "Delonelyman Band" ha consolidado su nombre en la Escena Nacional Underground, a punta de tocatas y performances memorables en la capital ; y prontamente estarán en regiones, ya con fechas cerradas para los próximos meses, en Valparaíso, Coquimbo, Concepción e Iquique. Si aún no conoces a "Delonelyman", descarga su disco, y conoce un poco más de su "Arte Pampino". Si te gusta el Rock, el Grunge, el Folk, ó simplemente quieres escuchar una opción distinta del Nuevo Rock Chileno, esta propuesta Artística, llena de Pampa, Soledad y buenas Canciones, puede interesarte...

Descarga Gratis "Delonelyman"
http://music.delonelyman.com/album/delonelyman

DelonelyMan
Grunge, Delonelyman , Rock, Chile

7.AY VE SONSUZ AŞK

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 14:07:35 +0000

Dudaklarımda bir kaç kelime önceden hiç kullanmadığım, yüzümfeki ifadeyi daha önce görmedim, hayır yaşlanmıyorum ama büyüyorum bu aşk ile, şehirler gördüm ülkelerin içinde ama hiçbirisi senin kalbinin içi kadar güzel değil. Kelimlerin dökülmesine izin vereceğim su gibi onlarda yolunu bulacaktır.

Bir gün öldüğümde -sana söz verdim ölmeyeceğim diye- melekler bana bu dünyadaki yaptığım şeyleri sorarlarsa "Seni sevmek" diyeceğm bu dünyadaki tek meleğim sensin ve hiçbir zaman usanmayacağım "Beni seviyor musun?" diye sorduğunda "Seni Çok Seviyorum Karıcığım" dmekten.

Dünya bir insan olsaydı eğer ona söyleyeceğim tek şey "Teşekkür ederim" demek olacak çünkü seni burada buldum, sen cennetten gelen ve bu dünyada benim için doğansın.

Yürürken adımlarımı büyük atmaya çalışıyorum sana daha hızlı yaklaşmak için, yorulmuyorum, susamıyorum, terlemiyorum ne kadar hızlı olursam o kadar hızlı yanında olurum biliyorum... Sana koşuyorum.

Hala bilmediğim çok şey var ama utanmıyorum çünkü sadece bir şeyi bilmek benim gururum "Beni seven ve mükemmel bir karıcığım var" bu önemli ve senin bilmen gereken tek şey "Seni her zaman seveceğim"

Kaç kişi hissedebilir hiç hastalanmayacağını ve hep yaşayacağını? Tarih boyunca aranan ölümsüzlük iksiri ya da büyüsünü sen de buldum ama seni kimseyle paylaşmayacağım ve kimseye vermeyeceğim. Sen benim ölümsüzlüğümsün.

Dünya aşk için kurulmuş bir yerdir bunu biliyorum, silinen insan bedenleri ve yeni doğanlar hepsi sadece bir şeye hizmet eder AŞK.

Sen benim savaşım ve barışımsın.

Dünyamızı kimseye vermeyeceğim ve kimseye emanet etmeyeceğim.

SENİ ÇOK SEVİYORUM KARICIĞIM

NAVEL bei Visions.de auf 1 in Online-Charts

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:56:31 +0000

Navel
Neo Noir

wow

New NAVEL song BLUES ON MY SIDE – Tour starts 14. January 2011

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:35:49 +0000

yeah, check out BLUES ON MY SIDE from new NAVEL album NEO NOIR, out Februar 4th, 2011 on Nois-O-Lution Records
Navel Neo Noir Blues On My Side
[event=]NAVEL Tour startet in St. Gallen / Schweiz[/event]

Enjoy

alternative

Alain Johannes - Chile 2010

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 09:34:36 +0000

En el Sexto Episodio de Rock`n Grunge, estaremos compartiendo en exclusiva la presentación Especial y Gratuíta del Gran Maestro Alain Johannes en Chile, luego de su exitosa Gira Sudamericana por Makinaria Fest. El show , se realizó en el Viernes 15 de Octubre, en el Bar Rock y Guitarras de Nuñoa, en Santiago. Los dejo invitados a recordar ese único y bello momento!!
Alain Johannes de vuelta a su tierra, Rock`n Grunge!!
Por Ricardo González DelonelyMan

Descargar Rock`n Grunge - Capítulo 6 - Alain Johannes
Alain Johannes
Descargar Rock`n Grunge - Podcaster.CL

New NAVEL single Speedbox now on last.fm and myspace

Sun, 5 Dec 2010 22:21:43 +0000

NEW NAVEL-ALBUM «NEO NOIR» OUT FEB 4, 2011 ON NOIS-O-LUTION RECORDS, BERLIN

New Single SPEEDBOX now on last.fm and Myspace
Speedbox (Single Edit)

Still you can get free download of «Rockin' In The Free World live on
mx3
and
SoundCloud

Navel
Neo Noir
Speedbox

Enjoy, turn on LOUD
NAVEL

Damnation Festival 2010

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:48:39 +0000

Sat 6 Nov – Damnation Festival 2010

Leeds University Union, Leeds, United Kingdom
6th November 2010

Originally taking place at Jilly's Rock World in Manchester upon its inception in 2005, before upgrading to Leeds Metropolitan University in 2007 and finally to the University Of Leeds in 2008, Damnation Festival has gone from strength to strength. Despite undergoing a downsizing and a reduction in ticket numbers this year, the event itself was an absolute success.

Having last attended Damnation in 2008 (a stellar lineup which included My Dying Bride, Carcass, Napalm Death and Cathedral, among others), I was eager to discover how the downsizing would impact on the atmosphere in and around the Leeds University Union. It turns out that the large hall previously used to house the Jägermeister Stage was out of bounds, and this year said stage was situated in the more modest room previously used for the Terrorizer Stage. As a result, the Terrorizer and Rock Sound stages were placed in small rooms, essentially the size of a nightclub. However, this did not mean that spirits were dampened. The mood at this year's festival was as vital as it was two years ago, and this is surely down to a strong lineup and an exemplary festival experience.

Now, I'm only one person, and thus was not able to see all the bands. Far from it, in fact! If that were possible then of course I would've taken that opportunity, for the sake of a damn good review, if nothing else! But no, in order to see every band, I would've had to constantly move from stage to stage, at carefully timed intervals, always missing a significant portion of every band's set. That would not have been a problem with certain bands, but there was no way I was missing even a second of Paradise Lost.

After spending some time re-familiarising myself with the university building and making myself feel important in the press area, I made my way to the Terrorizer Stage to watch colonel blast (sometimes abbreviated to Clnl Blst). Consisting largely of former members of Onsetcold, Colonel Blast served up a powerful mix of death metal and progressive elements. The band was on top form, with frontman Darryl Jones the obvious focal point, tearing shit up like there was no tomorrow! (There was a tomorrow, incidentally. It consisted mainly of me sleeping.)

To be perfectly honest, I found The Antichrist Imperium - formed early this year by two members of Akercocke - to be thoroughly boring and completely uninspiring. This was especially disappointing after two of my friends had been raving about them, and I had always enjoyed Akercocke. I just wasn't moved at all, and found nothing of interest in the music whatsoever. "Prepare yourself for the prophecy of the satanic apocalypse", says their MySpace. Next!

Actually, 'next' wasn't for another hour or so. I went and bought a veggie sausage roll (and ate it, obviously). I hung out with some friends, then went and hung out with some others. I wandered around and took in the atmosphere, and noticed various Leeds University students wondering who the hell all these sweaty metalheads were, and why they were infringing on their territory. Then I went and met four fifths of Paradise Lost at their signing. Met more friends. Paradise Lost signed a photo for me. Nick Holmes needs a better pen. His signature had nearly disappeared by the end of the night! I felt the need to shake Greg Mackintosh's hand, so I requested this, and my request was granted. Hurrah!

Next, I headed for the Jägermeister Stage for some Sabbat. Featuring at least two metal legends, vocalist Martin Walkyier and guitar/producer extraordinaire Andy Sneap, it was time for a healthy dose of old school metal. Martin led the band through their hits, regularly battling balloons emblazoned with the logo of UK Metal Underground, no less. The man certainly knows how to rally a crowd, and band and audience seemed to feed ravenously on each other's energy. Inevitably climaxing with 'For Those Who Died', the band promised more UK dates in the near future, so go out and see them if you appreciate top quality old school metal! Bands just don't do it like this anymore.

Back on the Terrorizer Stage, Hecate Entroned brought their brand of melodic brutality to Damnation. Guitarist Andy Milnes had already impressed with Colonel Blast earlier, and certainly delivered again with Hecate. I'd seen Hecate in Liverpool only days previously, and based on that experience, their performance this time was a tad more restrained than I was expecting. Still, the material itself is excellent, and was delivered with more than enough quality to keep the fans happy.

Next came the reason I was there in the first place: the mighty gothic metal pioneers Paradise Lost. They were only allowed a one hour slot, and with twelve studio albums behind them, it was not an enviable task to pick a good setlist. Some personal favourites, like 'Gothic', 'Forever Failure' and 'As Horizons End' were absent, but that was to be expected. As it happens, the band managed to cram in about as many of their classics as was feasibly possible. 'Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us', 'Pity the Sadness' and 'As I Die' demanded audience participation, while other highlights included 'Erased', 'The Enemy' and closer 'Say Just Words'. My personal favourite was 'Enchantment'. I was not expecting that one, and it's always been one of my favourites by Paradise Lost, so nice one lads!

Importantly, it was very apparent that the band were enjoying themselves. This is not something that could always have been said about Paradise Lost on stage. Quite the opposite in fact. They are sometimes criticised for being relatively dull and lifeless as a live act, but this was not the case at all this time around. Greg Mackintosh was visibly engrossed in the music, and this was particularly noticeable during 'One Second' and 'The Rise Of Denial'. Meanwhile, Nick Holmes' dry Yorkshire humour was on full display. "Back from Damnation, my favourite show in 45 years, Im serious. man & boy.Thanks to all that didn't throw sharp objects at me for been shit", he Tweeted that evening. Nice!

After that, I'd have quite happily gone home. I did want to check out Alcest though, so I did. At least, I went to hear them...I was not able to see them. The Rock Sound Stage was not even a stage as such, as it was barely an inch off the floor. The room was full by the time I got there, and I had to stand at the back. Being a short arse, that meant I couldn't see a thing. Still, Alcest's blend of shoegaze, post-rock and black metal (for want of a better description) did not fail to hit the spot. In fact, it was a great way to end the festivities. Wind down metal! Having said that, I did attempt to watch the remainder of The Dillinger Escape Plan's set, but was whisked off somewhere else. The rest of the evening was spent being very tired and talking to other people about how tired they were. We were all so very, very tired.

Anyway, in conclusion, Damnation is a great day (and night) out in Leeds. It was in 2008 and that hasn't changed since then. I suspect I will be in attendance next year and I suggest you show your face too! This year's downsizing is almost certainly a temporary measure, so any complaints you may have just read above about the Rock Sound Stage presumably won't apply. The University Union is an excellent location, positioned close to Leeds city centre, with a handy shop and an ample selection of band merch available. All in all, not bad for 27 quid!