Hey Mr. DJ
I’m test-driving last.fm. As an experiment, I listened for an hour to the station it served up when I entered “Julie Miller” as my favorite artist, and another hour to the station it produced when I entered “Buddy Miller” as my favorite artist. Interestingly, the first station was almost exclusively female alt-country performers. The latter station is mostly male alt-country acts (not quite as male as the Julie station was female.) If I type in “Buddy and Julie Miller” I should know in short order how many hermaphroditic Americana artists there are.
I haven’t opened an account yet, because I’m finding the test-drive feature to be useful. Specifically it’s good to be able to lie about “your favorite artist.” I asserted it was Death Cab for Cutie yesterday just so I could learn more about what constitutes emo, a concept on which I’ve always been hazy. I got a lot of the stuff Yglesias likes, like the Decemberists. The kind of stuff Cher Horowitz called “complaint rock.”
Comment by Travis —
November 29, 2006 @ 2:35 pm
Death Cab isn’t really emo - its whiny break up music, sure, but stylistically its definitely indie rock. If you want to hear what “the kids” are calling emo, listen to Taking Back Sunday or Jimmy Eat World.
Comment by Rob —
November 29, 2006 @ 3:39 pm
emo starts with Morissey.
Comment by Anna in Portland (was Cairo) —
November 29, 2006 @ 5:32 pm
Cummon, it’s *Cher* Horowitz. “We were both named for singers who now do info-mercials!”
So I was trying to figure out what Emo was, and now that you pointed out that it is “complaint rock,” i have it all down. Thanks.
Comment by lemuel pitkin —
November 29, 2006 @ 10:16 pm
Two words: Awe. Some. The quality of my workday just got a lot higher. Thanks, Jim.
(I start with Freakwater, or Gillian Welch, or Doc Watson and get, like, the contents of my CD rack.)
Comment by 555 —
November 30, 2006 @ 10:09 am
Emo does not start with Morrissey. Morrissey doesn’t even start with Morrissey. That would be the Smiths, and before that, Joy Division.
Emo starts with Rites of Spring, which had Guy Picciotto (later of Fugazi).
Comment by Eric the .5b —
November 30, 2006 @ 12:44 pm
There are two or three different sorts of music that call themselves “emo”. It’s tricky to distinguish.
Comment by Jim Henley —
December 1, 2006 @ 11:35 pm
Anna: Good catch! Fixed it.
Eric: I want the kind Michelle Malkin likes!
Comment by Eric the .5b —
December 2, 2006 @ 8:52 pm
Michelle Malkin likes emo?
Ooer.
Comment by Jim Henley —
December 3, 2006 @ 8:26 am
It was a yoke.