en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal The Last.fm journal for flaneur. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2007/01/21/jl7_edmonton_takes_london_(with_pics) Sun, 21 Jan 2007 20:59:34 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2007/01/21/jl7_edmonton_takes_london_(with_pics) Capsule Review: Fri 19 Jan – Shout Out Out Out Out
(originally an email sent home to friends in the arctic + elsewhere)
----

Friday night in Camden was off the hook... Shout Out Out Out Out completely stole the show and turned their opening slot into a 45-minute orgy of E-town dance madness.

The place was packed (about a 50/50 mix of Edmontonians / everyone else, I'd wager) and after a great set everyone hung out, caught up, and then headed back upstairs to enjoy half an hour of Whitey Houston (whoever thought I'd see them in London?!) and then dance our faces off to some really great DJing by Nik and the gang.

A few pics of the evening, with cameo appearances by hannahdonovan, Korean_Cowboy and friends...





























PS. Hannah, if you ever put that stuff in my hair again, I will kill you.
PPS. Yes mom, I said hi!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2006/07/14/jl6_let%27s_go_dancing Fri, 14 Jul 2006 16:56:08 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2006/07/14/jl6_let%27s_go_dancing Team Last.fm is pleased to introduce "Operation Depth Charge," our Summer 2006 visual realign.

We wanted to upgrade the site so it would be ready for all the cool features we have planned over the next year. We decided to focus on basics first: this release makes the site more usable, more social, and more friendly (especially to new users).

For the full scoop on enhancements in this release, visit our updates area.

Don't miss the dashboard, the new Last.fm download, and the other goodies we've been working on for you.

Have fun exploring... now let's go dancing!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2006/03/15/jl5_hear_more,_share_more Wed, 15 Mar 2006 17:45:05 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2006/03/15/jl5_hear_more,_share_more March is here, and so are a bunch of new features for you at Last.fm!

Music charts for your website are now better and easier than before, we've got free tag-based playlists, track and album downloads, a new user search, redesigned album pages, and much more.

It's time to hear more and share more music! Visit our new updates area to get the whole scoop...]]> http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2006/02/10/jl4_february_site_update Fri, 10 Feb 2006 11:48:35 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2006/02/10/jl4_february_site_update Last.fm is here to chase those February blues away with a whole bunch of cool new features for you!

Today we're introducing in-page music previews, shoutboxes, artist wikis, sidebars, and more... see here for the full rundown.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2006/01/18/jl3_new_feature:_recommended_reading_relevancy! Wed, 18 Jan 2006 17:53:19 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2006/01/18/jl3_new_feature:_recommended_reading_relevancy! Looking for something to read?

Last.fm's recommended reading page now sports a shiny new feature: starred "relevancy" ratings, along with a little red slider which filters the list as you drag it. Journal entries with higher star ratings are more relevant to your music taste, allowing you to quickly find the best postings by your fellow Last.fm users.

Stay tuned, as we have many more updates in the pipeline aimed at making the social music revolution even more social. Until then, happy listening!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2006/01/10/jl2_recent_track_discoveries,_vol._i Tue, 10 Jan 2006 12:18:26 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2006/01/10/jl2_recent_track_discoveries,_vol._i Lately I've been exploring a lot of recommendations I've meant to check out for a while, and unearthed some gems along the way. My listening is increasingly track-based these days, and so I've decided to start a journal miniseries documenting some of the tracks that have made me use iTunes' one-song repeat button recently...

Artist: Ryan Adams
Track: Come Pick Me Up

Okay, I'll admit it. Until now, despite being a huge fan of all things americana / alt-country / roots-rock, I thought I was Too Cool(tm) for Ryan Adams. Then, through a tip-off from another Last.fm user's journal, I decided to download (uh, I mean, "purchase") this one track to see if I had been missing anything.

It starts off kinda badly. Okay, really badly. Ryan Adams is a talented guy, but he can't play the harmonica, and the intro suffers for it. The opening few lines sound a bit weak to my ears, too. But THEN, oh god, before you know it, there is banjo, and there's Gillian Welch (!) over in the right channel, and all of a sudden she and Adams are singing:

I wish you would / come pick me up / take me out / fuck me up
Steal my records / Screw all my friends / behind my back / with a smile on your face
And then do it again / (I wish you would)

There are a lot of great "my ex-girlfriend done me wrong" songs. There are a lot of great "baby please come back to me" songs. Come Pick Me Up is a song about begging your horrible ex-girlfriend to come back, and it doesn't get more fucking alt-country than that. So good.

Artist: The Magnetic Fields
Track: I Can't Touch You Anymore

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that The Magnetic Fields' epic 3-CD 69 Love Songs should've been a single album called 16 Really GOOD Love Songs, but that's not my point. I still don't honestly know what to make of these guys, and this album definitely keeps you guessing. Some days I'm not even sure if I like them. But this track is a strange little gem, with its bizarre synth lines, 1980s-parallel-universe-Morrissey-on-drugs type vibe and perfectly deadpan vocals: you're asking the wrong questions / you're opening the wrong doors / i love you, i can't touch you anymore. Ouch. And just when the song would get cloying, it suddenly ends. A keeper.

Artist: The Innocence Mission
Track: The Lakes of Canada

Okay, so I saved the best for last. There have been a lot of near-perfect songs in the last few years of the reemerging singer-songwriter / folk movement; personal favourites are tracks like Cinder and Smoke or John Wayne Gacy, Jr.. But they are all preceded, and eclipsed, by this simple four-and-a-half minute perfect, perfect song:

I feel that I could change / rowing on the lakes of Canada

Run, don't walk, to this track. And then row. It may take a few spins, but it will get under your skin in the best possible way, promise.

Until next time, happy listening...what's on your 1-song repeat these days?]]> http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2005/12/21/jl1_holiday_site_update Wed, 21 Dec 2005 16:51:48 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2005/12/21/jl1_holiday_site_update We've just put a few goodies into your Last.fm holiday stocking! Here are some of the new features appearing on the site today:

"On Your Site" chart images:

* brand new gallery of chart styles - choose from one of 5000+ designs to put on your blog / MySpace / website, including our official styles, editor's picks, and our most popular user-contributed designs

* small tweaks to our style designer (available to subscribers)

Recommendation Improvements:

* your profile page now features a "recently recommended" sidebar on the right, showing you the latest and greatest stuff to hear and read

* don't like the new sidebar? you can turn it off from our new recommendation preferences screen, and set other settings as well. (look for more personalisation settings like this in the new year!)

* a new design for the recommendations overview page, and new features for the music page (view your overall recommendations instead of weekly ones!)

* Last.fm recommendation radio now looks at the position of the "obscure-o-matic" slider when the button to start it is clicked, ensuring your station omits Coldplay and company (should you choose, of course)

We've also snuck a few smaller tweaks around the site into the mix. Happy holidays from all of us at Last.fm!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2005/12/14/jl0_isn%27t_that...special! Wed, 14 Dec 2005 16:57:35 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2005/12/14/jl0_isn%27t_that...special! What makes your music taste unique? At Last.fm we spend most of our time trying to find similarities: people with similar music taste to you (your musical neighbours), similarities between artists, and so on.

However, it's just as valid to ask the opposite question -- what makes your profile special, who are the artists you've listened to that no one else in your musical neighbourhood knows about? We're experimenting with a "unique artists" sidebar that displays exactly that. To enable it, just add '?unique' to the end of any profile's URL, including your own:

http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/?unique

That user's top 6 unique artists will then appear at the end of the right sidebar. Give it a whirl, and let us know what you think -- does it work? Is it awesome, or embarrassing? We'll consider making this feature permanent, or implementing more like it, if it's something people enjoy seeing.

Update: Ooops, almost forgot to give props to johanoskarsson, our data miner extraordinaire, for putting the unique artist database together. Look for tons more interesting data from Johan's corner soon...]]> http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2005/11/06/jkz_a_very_bright_diamond Sun, 6 Nov 2005 23:25:45 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2005/11/06/jkz_a_very_bright_diamond Last Tuesday I greatly enjoyed "An Acoustic Evening With Sufjan Stevens" (as it was billed) here in London. While Sufjan was quite the character and predictably great, I was also bowled over by the opening act.

Shara Worden goes by the name My Brightest Diamond, and she performed an incredible set, initially featuring just her voice (and WHAT a voice) and guitar but soon joined by a string quartet. She opened with a stunning Nina Simone cover, and then proceeded to do some wonderfully varied original material with the occasional french cabaret number (a la Edith Piaf) thrown in for good measure.

Definitely one to watch. Doesn't look like she has an album out yet, but she's quite busy according to her new official site. Her track Something of an End is currently available as a free mp3 download here. Get it, love it. Can't wait for the album...]]> http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2005/11/04/jky_wanted:_your_design-fu Fri, 4 Nov 2005 11:16:05 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/flaneur/journal/2005/11/04/jky_wanted:_your_design-fu Does a good user interface make your eyes go misty? Do you dream of a better world, one where standards-compliant websites are both usable AND sexy? Are words like "serif" and "bezier curve" your thing?

If so, consider heading to London and throwing your lot in with a bunch of developers who are trying to change music and the web forever: Last.fm is looking for a designer.

World domination awaits!

(Also, we really need t-shirts.)]]>