Pandora's Box

By now you've probably noticed the list of songs and three on-line radio stations in my sidebar, courtesy of Pandora. When I learned of this site, my first thought was "Why didn't I think of this?" Based on the Music Genome Project, Pandora allows you to create your own on-line 'stations' by planting seeds (songs of your choice). Pandora then builds your station by finding songs with similar genes; musical structures, tonalities, etc. Brilliant. You can make your playlists as concise or as open as you want, add more seeds, and tell Pandora not to play certain songs. It's a great way to find new music, something FM radio rarely does anymore. Needless to say, I'm having some fun with this. Oh, and it's free, if you can tolerate a little advertising on your screen.

The original seeds of Wild Mercury Radio were The Late Greats by Wilco and Off The Record by My Morning Jacket. The playlist had evolved and turned me on to some great stuff from the 90's that eluded me, and some great new music, like Portastatic's I Wanna Know Girls, which I've purchased.

Dinosaur Stomp is designed to be the epitome of heavy 70's arena rock. Pandora keeps trying to turn it into the Rory Gallagher station, but I'm slowly carving into shape.

Blues Before Sunrise is all about the blues, based on Albert King and the North Mississippi Allstars.

Check out my stations, then have some fun making your own. Radio as it should be.