RomeLeader's Last.fm Journal

Thoughts on Music Prejudice...

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:41:22 +0000

As I pop some semi-rare Kanye West, I was reminded of something one of my friends once said when I showed them my last.fm...

"DUDE! Van Halen, Daft Punk, Stars AND Kanye West? Dude, those DON'T go together."

Well, I said, who am I to care if my music "goes together"? Why should I? I would get pretty damn bored of listening to the same song, the same artist, or even the same TYPE of music over and over. Yes, my tastes are varied, and I'm proud of that. I'm allowed to have a preference too, though. I love me all types of rock. But that doesn't stop me from appreciating some of who I consider the best rap lyricists around (Big L, Kanye and Brother Ali) The only music I really have NO taste in is country. But that's cool, I can appreciate someone who does. Different strokes, different folks.

If there's one thing that really ROTS me music wise, it's people like my friend. People who themselves are zealots of a particular genre, and have never bothered to expand their taste. You guys don't know what you're missing...

I Know A Girl Who... Reminds Me of Cher...

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 21:49:10 +0000

Put your music library on random and answer these questions based on titles or prominent lyrics of the song that plays.

1. Why did you decide to take this quiz?
Track: We Are Rockstars
Artist: Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Because I'm a rockstar.

2. Where will you meet your husband/wife?
Track: Ebony Eyes
Artist: Bob Welch

She'll be the girl with those fantastic eyes and beautiful hair that I spot at a Fleetwood Dreams (Cover band of Fleetwood Mac) concert.

3. Where will you hug your husband/wife for the first time?

Track: Love It When You Call
Artist: The Feeling

It'll be a text message hug. Ah, gotta' love technology for eliminating the need for physical intimacy. <3

4. What's your secret dream?

Track: Free Radicals
Artist: The Flaming Lips

I'm gonna' follow in Abbie Hoffman's footsteps. YUPPIE FOR LIFE~!

5. What song will they play at your funeral?

Track: Miracles Out Of Nowhere
Artist: Kansas

Give my regards to mother... [face_rose]

6. Who will throw a party after you die?

Track: Roxanne
Artist: The Police

^^^^

7. What song best describes you at your drunkest?

Track: Never Be Lonely
Artist: The Feeling

I got... *hiccup* Friends in HIGGGGGHHHHH places, bro'...

8. What will actually kill you?

Track: Heart Of Glass
Artist: Blondie

My heart is gonna' be crystallized! By aliens from Indiana Jones!!! Then... POP!

9. Who will be your slave?

Track: Your Daddy Don't Know
Artist: The New Pornographers (As originally written and performed by Toronto)

Yo' daddy, BITCH. He's gonna' star in my bondage adult film. [face_cool]

10. What will you look like at 80 years of age?

Track: Good People
Artist: Jack Johnson

How does one look like a good person...? Hmm... Well, I guess I'll look like one of those kind old men who always smiles at people when they walk by his house.

11. Where will you meet your life's nemesis?

Track: The Water
Artist: Feist

Down by the harbour, I guess. Maybe he pushed me in. God, that thing disgusts me...

12. Where did your parents 'create' you?

Track: Show You How
Artist: The Killers

Sex Ed. class. Dad 'showed' Mom how sex happened. :O

13. What will happen to you tonight, after you go to sleep?

Track: This Charming Man (As made famous by... The Smiths)

I'm gonna' become even HOTTER overnight. Women will love me. [face_batting]

14. What is the meaning of your life?

Track: One More Time
Artist: Daft Punk

Keep going, never stop believing...

15. What will be the meaning of your death?

Track: Come On Come On
Artist: Smash Mouth

Hurry it up, I don't wanna have it drag out. It'll be over before I know it, with minimal pain for everyone. Eww, emo... >_>

16. What do you hate the most?

Track: Renegade
Artist: Styx

Vigilantes!

17. What do you love the best?

Track: Reunion
Artist: Stars

Nostalgia, man... Nostalgia.

18. What makes you feel like jumping out the window?

Track: Smack That
Artist: Akon

Paternity suits! GOD.

19. Where would you like to be now?

Track: Vertigo
Artist: U2

Plane, on the way to England! Cheerio!

20. Who would you like to have a tea party with?

Track: I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
Artist: Arctic Monkeys

Mary Murphy!

21. How would you describe your childhood?

Track: Girl All The Bad Guys Want
Artist: Bowling For Soup

I was watching wrestling, tryin' to be a tough guy...

22. If you could do anything you wanted, what would be the first thing you'd do?

Track: Sam's Town
Artist: The Killers

Make my own city! Scott's Town.

23. Recent obsessions/problems?

Track: 99 Red Balloons
Artist: Nena

The carefree pleasures of youth.

24. If they were going to make a movie about you, what would it be titled?

Track: Sweet Child O' Mine
Artist: Guns N' Roses

One man. Who never knew his daddy, after he was born from a porno gone wrong...

25. This Halloween, your costume will be...

Track: Just
Artist: Radiohead

I'll be going as me, in a suit. I might lay down in the middle of the sidewalk, for kicks.

200 Tracks Per Week!

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 19:47:24 +0000

Discuss!

Wow, never envisioned me getting to this milestone! last.fm has really been good at opening me up to music, especially recently. I appreciate it, .fmz. ;\

The Last 8 50 Questions About My Top 50.

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:24:35 +0000

43. What is your favorite song by 24? (None, all doubles and nears used. Randomly, I pick Rick Astley)

Never Gonna Give You Up. ;\ ;\ ;\

44. What's a good memory you have involving 46? (David Bowie)

Dad used to play him all the time.

45. What is your favorite song by 37? (Just Jack)

Glory Days.

46. Is there a song by (The other.) 9 that makes you happy? (MIMS)

No.

47. What is your favorite album by 50? ( Metric)

Live It Out.

48. Who is your favorite member of 37? (The Cars)

Ric Ocasek.

49. What is the first song you ever heard by 43? (Andy Kim)

Rock Me Gently.

50. What is your favorite song by 20? (Tom Cochrane)

Life Is A Highway.

The 20-42 Questions About My Top 50.

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:07:23 +0000

21. What's a good memory involving 27? (None, I chose 28, Great Big Sea)

This band means a lot to me from growing up in Newfoundland, they have done so much for our music and province. I'd say the best memory, out of many, was going up to a CJ (Canadian Jamboree) for Scouts when I was 14-15 and hosting a Newfoundland themed night, where we got to introduce some of their music to western Canadian kids who had never heard it before. They loved it!

22. What is your favorite song by 16? (None, I chose the other one tied at 15, Justice)

Close between a few, but I pick D.A.N.C.E

23. What's the first song you ever heard by 47? (None, 2 tied at 49, I chose Fountains of Wayne)

Stacy's Mom, of course! It's still a guilty pleasure today. I evolved past that though, and now I enjoy the band as a whole.

24. What is your favorite album by 18? (Smash Mouth)

Fush Yu Mang.

25. What is your favorite song by (The other.) 19? ( Brother Ali)

This is REALLY hard to choose, but Self-Taught gets the edge.

26. What is the first song you ever heard by 26? (2 tied, I chose Death Cab for Cutie)

Only recently did I begin to regularly listen to this artist. I had heard of them, yeah, but I had a lot of other music backlog. It was Your Heart Is an Empty Room on a car commercial.

27. What is your favorite album by 3? (Queen)

Sheer Heart Attack.

28. What is your favorite song by 1? (Jack Johnson)

There have been hard choices, but this is the hardest EFAR. And it will surprise you. Tomorrow Morning.

29. What was the first song you ever heard by 32? (3 tied, I used RHCP, so I will pick Eric Carmen)

Hungry Eyes, on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

30. What is your favorite song by 8? (None, I'll use the other tied at 7, The Who)

Baba O'Rielly.

31. How many times have you seen 17 live? (Rush)

Once, in person, when they came here as part of their Canadian "Come Home" tour thing. I blew a chance to see them in Toronto. ( :( :( :( ) I have a whole bunch of their live performances on disc, though.

32. Is there a song by 44 that makes you happy? (Devo)

Whip It makes me kinda happy. :p

33. How did you get into 12? (Kanye West)

When he did Stronger with Daft Punk, seeing as I already loved them. I thought his Katrina speech touched off very politically, too.

34. What is the worst song by 45? (None, 3 tied at 46, I picked Bump J)

Move Around. I don't get why people like it so much, I prefer We Don't Play No Games.

35. What was the first song you ever heard by 34? (None, I used the other tied at 35, Timbaland)

Party People ft. Jay-Z and Twista.

36. What was the first song you ever heard by 48? (None, I used the other tied at 49, Nena

99 Luftballons.

37. How many times have you seen 42 live? (None, 2 tied at 41, I chose Paul Janz)

None, but I think I had a chance once, because he opened for The Guess Who, or something.

38. What is your favorite song by 36? (None, and I've used my doubles and nears. Randomly, I'll go with one of 8 tied at 75, Bowling For Soup)

Girl All The Bad Guys Want.

39. What was the first song you ever heard by 28? (Great Big Sea, again. had to. :p )

The Night Patty Murphy Died.

40. What's your favorite album by (The other tied at.) 3? (Feist)

The Reminder.

41. Is there a song by 31 that makes you happy? (Don Henley)

None that I've heard play on that particular emotion. [face_nerd]

42. What's your favorite album by (The other.) 41? (Starship)

If we're only counting Starship, and not Jefferson Starship, or Airplane, or whatever they used to call themselves, which I guess is fair, it would have to be Knee Deep in the Hoopla.

TBC... Too much lag...

The First 20 of 50 Questions About My Top 50. (Hey, Everyone's Doing Them! :p )

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:45:47 +0000

Note: In instances of ties at numbers, rather then count, I'll just pick randomly from within the number.

1. How did you get into 7? (The Killers)

My ex used to love them, and always played them around me. I thought When You Were Young was a great song, and when I checked them out, I love most all their stuff. Hence, 7. ;)

2. What was the first song you ever heard by 21? (Bon Jovi)

You Give Love A Bad Name. I saw the video on MTV!

3. What's your favorite lyric by 33? (None, 3 tied at 32. I picked Red Hot Chili Peppers)

This town is made of many things
Just look at what the current brings

Speaks to me well. I'm from a small town that is often misrepresented. The line is from Tell Me Baby, btw.

4. How did you get into 23? (2 tied, I chose Average White Band)

I was looking for cake related songs to play at a party. I came across their classic hit Cut the Cake, listened to some more of them, and was hooked.

5. How many albums by 13 do you own? (Rod Stewart)

At least five, maybe more somewhere that my Dad might have around the house they are...

- Greatest Hits

- Vagabond Heart

- If We Fall in Love Tonight

- Out of Order

- The Best Of Rod Stewart

I love me some "Hot Rod". ;) (No homo. ;\ )

6. What is your favorite song by 50? (None, 3 tied at 49 and 51, I chose AC/DC)

Thunderstruck

7. Is there a song by 36 that makes you sad? (None, 2 tied at 35, I chose Daft Punk)

Erm... No. :p

8. What is your favorite song by 11? (The Flaming Lips)

Ouch, hard... I'd have to say, backed into a corner, Do You Realize??

9. What is your favorite song by 5? (Fine Young Cannibals)

She Drives Me Crazy

10. Is there a song by 6 that makes you happy? (Eminem)

Not any of his stuff that I listen to, no. :p

11. What is the worst song by 40? (This is before I learned to properly tag, so these are all my WWE themes.)

I'd have to say that the theme I hated most in my possession was Shelton Benjamin's. Not sure why I had it in the first place...

12. What is your favorite song by 10? (None, 2 tied at 9, I picked The Feeling)

Love It When You Call

13. What is a good memory you have involving 30? ("Weird Al" Yankovic

Watching some of his videos with friends when I was like, 11-12, lol. :p

14. What is your favorite song by 38? (The Cars)

Magic

15. Is there a song by 19 that makes you happy? (2 tied, I picked John Mayer)

Your Body Is A Wonderland makes me happy, yes. I like the smooth, sensual-ness of it. :x

16. Is there a song by 25 that makes you sad? (of Montreal)

None that I can think of that I have heard, no.

17. What is the first song you ever heard by 23? (the other one not tied, Queen & David Bowie)

My favorite of course, and their best combined product, Under Pressure.

18. What is your favorite lyric by 15? (2 tied, I picked Fleetwood Mac)

Thunder only happens when its raining
Players only love you when they're playing
Say... Women... They will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean... You'll know

From Dreams.

19. Who is your favorite member of 2? (Stars)

Amy Millan, easily. She's hot, and sings great. ;\

20. Is there a song by 14 that makes you happy? (Chumbawamba)

Tubthumping makes me a certain kind of happy... :p

TBC...

Your Eclectic Score.

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:08:31 +0000

Take your top 20 artists. For each of these artists, collect the top 5 similar artists. The resulting number of unique artists is your eclectic score. If the score is small (extreme = 5) your musical preferences are very limited, and if it is large (larger than 80, extreme = 100), then you have an eclectic musical preference. You can compute your own score at http://anthony.liekens.net/pub/scripts/last.fm/eclectic.php

My eclectic score is currently

95/100

The 95 related artists for my profile are 10,000 Maniacs, 50 Cent (2), Aerosmith, Amy Millan, Atmosphere, Beck, Ben Harper, Bloc Party, Blue Öyster Cult, Bob Seger, Boys Noize, Brian May, Broken Social Scene (2), Busy P, CRS (Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West & Pharrell), Cat Power, Common, Conflict, Crass, CunninLynguists, D12, Daft Punk, Dave Matthews Band, Donavon Frankenreiter, Dr. Dre, Eagles, Elton John, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Eve 6, Eyedea & Abilities, Fabolous, Foreigner, Franz Ferdinand, Freddie Mercury, Geddy Lee, Green Day, Hall & Oates, Hard-Fi, Heart, Huey Lewis & the News, Jack Johnson, Jack Johnson & Ben Harper, Jack Johnson feat. Matt Costa, James Morrison, Jason Mraz, Jay-Z, Jethro Tull, Jim Jones, John Mayer, John Mayer Trio, Kaiser Chiefs, Led Zeppelin (2), Metric, Modest Mouse, Neutral Milk Hotel, Obie Trice, Orson, OutKast, P.O.S., Pat Benatar, Pavement, Pete Townshend, Pharrell, Plies, Queen + Paul Rodgers, REO Speedwagon (2), Razorlight, Regina Spektor, Rilo Kiley, Sage Francis, SebastiAn, Simian Mobile Disco, Smash Mouth, Snow Patrol, Spin Doctors, Stars, Stat Quo, Steve Winwood, Stevie Nicks, Sugar Ray, Swizz Beatz, The Beatles, The Cars, The Doobie Brothers, The Hoosiers, The Most Serene Republic, The New Pornographers, The Rolling Stones, The Strokes, The Yardbirds, The Zutons, Train, Wheatus (2), Wilco, Yes

________________________

I was surprised at how eclectic I am, lol. :p

THIS IS A MONUMENTAL OCCASION!!!

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:01:19 +0000

For perhaps the first time in Romez' last.fm history, someone has ousted Stars. The lucky artist is the Double J himself, the Doctor J, Jack Johnson!!

I never thought I could love an artist more then Torquil and crew, but it is true! (Hey, rhymez. ;\) Mark yo' calenders, you will be able to tell your grandchildren you were there~! ;\

You Know What One of the World's Biggest Problems Music Wise Is?

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:52:12 +0000

Subconsciously "turning yourself off" to music or snubbing it based on one or more of the following reasons.

1) It's too mainstream. Everyone likes this artist, I want to be different.

2) I don't like this artist, therefore, I don't like this song.

3) This artist is supposed to be similar to my favorite artist. I don't want to be a "traitor" to my favorite artist, so I'm not listening to this guy.

I mean, really, I'm so guilty of these myself, especially #'s 1 and 3. Take my case of John Mayer. I had heard a lot of praise for him, and a lot of friends talking about him, but I made myself resistant to his music on the grounds that "Urgh, he's so over-popular, I'm not giving him a chance" and convinced myself he wasn't that good. Also, with Jack Johnson as maybe one of my all-time favorites, I did not want to listen to Mayer, convinced that either: A) Jack Johnson was far better then John Mayer B) If I listened to Mayer, that this would somehow make me like JJ "less" or put him out of my artists list.

What a load of crap I told myself. I finally manned up, and listened to some Mayer samples, and they are quite good! I haven't heard enough yet to rule on Mayer over Johnson or vice-versa, but at least I've opened my eyes and liked what I saw.

Please guys, I urge you, don't be like me. Don't limit your music taste foolishly! At least give all music a chance!

Your Earliest Memory of Some of Your Favorite Artists?

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:48:23 +0000

I was just thinking about how I discovered some of my now favorite artists and I thought "Oh, hai, why don't I last.fm. blog about it?" So I did. Self explanatory question, go ahead! No real order.

5) Jack Johnson

How I Remember First Hearing Him: It was a day like any other... Most of the day was over, the day's work had been finished, and Rome was looking to kick back and watch a movie on the Movie Channel. The movie in question wasn't important, but I think it was one of the first three (Chronological, not released.) Star Wars. Anyways, on comes this commercial for the network. The song they were playing was JJ's Upside Down. I thought, wow, what a perfect sound this guy has, I love him, I have to check out some of his songs!! So I committed some lyrics to memory, searched, found out, and the rest is history.

4) Stars

How I Remember First Hearing Them: It was a day like any ot- Wait, fuck it. No, it wasn't, as far as I can remember. But anyway, I woke up sluggishly, and decided getting out of bed wasn't worth it. I reasoned to myself the normal reasons why I might not get out of bed.

"I have a cold."

"It's raining."

"There's a spider near the door."

So, in an attempt to jar myself awake, I fumbled for the remote, and flipped on the TV. Low and behold, MTV was still on for last night. I'm not the biggest fan of MTV, but, you know, they have some cool features. The video they were playing just happened to be Stars' Reunion. Needless to say, I was hooked, much like JJ's sound. That music really spoke to me.

3) The Flaming Lips

How I Remember First Hearing Them: I was out at a party for Canada Day some 3-4 years ago, and one of the songs someone did on karaoke was Do You Realize??. Now, granted, the person singing it sucked. But I liked the song and, to my amazement, The Flaming Lips didn't suck.

2) Jin

How I Remember First Hearing Him: I was supposed to be searching for calming Chinese music to try and put me to sleep, but I stumbled across Jin's Learn Chinese. I like some rap, and I liked his sound and lyrics. Needless to say, not much sleep was had as I played his tracks over and over.

1) The New Pornographers

How I Remember First Hearing Them: No. No, it was not a search for you-know-what. On a connecting flight from Toronto to Halifax, I was surprised to hear a rather indie-ish sounding emission from my headset. I had luckily stumbled onto the TNP's The Jessica Numbers, followed by Centre for Holy Wars.

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