I’ve always been intrigued by and suspicious of genetic algorithms. I’d like to think my brain is more logical than that. Of course, that, in itself, is weak, because surely genetic algorithms just define a more complex logic. In any case, I keep forgetting about pandora.com, the cool little music pushing site, except when my mind turns to knowledge engineering.

Except last week, when my mind was all about scripting languages and widgets. This is almost certainly old news, but Pandora has some cool little widgets that help you share your music with others. So I’ve decided to share some with you. In the sidebar, you’ll find some links to c2what stations. Click on one, and you’re in (or you’ll be asked to sign in or register - it’s free). My plan: use that little spot to let the quirks and capacities of the artists I talk about here morph into additional recommendations for you and me. But today I was playing with features. Here’s what’s in there now:

  • Acidic Placidity - Here I was going for a particular sound with no particular artists in mind. This station was built off a mix of 3 numbers that to my mind were wildly interesting instrumental improvs in a mellow coating. I was thrashing for what to call this station when it recommended a piece that I’d never heard of but which fit perfectly in sound and name, so I named the station after it, Acidic Placidity, by Meshuggah.
  • Bonnaroo - self-explanatory. Pandora has some pre-built stations based on the endless lists of artists playing the major festivals this summer. I through in Bonnaroo because it’s just wrapping up. But given the artist lists are very similar from festival to festival, it probably doesn’t matter. These aren’t festival performances, I don’t think, just stuff from the same people. I may be wrong about that.
  • Jason Ricci - One straight up station built off a single artist.
  • Back Door Slam(+SRV) - I built a Back Door Slam station for the obvious reason, but it quickly started playing weird stuff that was too British folk rocky. So I added Stevie Ray Vaughn to the station to get at the aspect I was interested in. Still just experimenting with what the thing does
  • Jamie Lidell(+TRP) - my good buddy, T & Jam, has blogged here and at her place about her love for Jamie Lidell. She’s even got some live tapings. Somewhere in the discussions, people have brought up Taylor Hicks as having a related sound or vibe. So I built a Jamie Lidell station to find some more music with that sound, this time not throwing in Hicks wholesale like I did SRV, but throwing in his song The Right Place, since, of his songs known to Pandora, it’s the one I’d want to clone.
  • Then the thing automatically makes a mishmash station. God knows what that’ll sound like.

But the other great thing I found on this pass thinking about pandora. Unlike way back when, the full list of “genes”, or musical attributes, is just a wiki away. Now what I want (and maybe it’s out there somewhere) is a widget that let’s me put in a random set of attributes and spits out some music. It’s a stupid way to actually think about music, but would be good geeky fun. Here’s my request list:

  • acoustic bass solo
  • altered male vocal (my first thought was:castrato, but I’m prepared to be disappointed)
  • chill rhymin’ (!)
  • flat out funky rhythm
  • ambiguous lyrics

hmm. I started out intending to build something preposterous, but couldn’t bring myself to do it. Still, I want this.

categories: music, oddities
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