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My 30,000 track was....
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - I Had a Dream, Joe

As of 05.09.09:
Top ten artists
01. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
02. The Decemberists
03. The Handsome Family
04. Rufus Wainwright
05. Neko Case
06. They Might Be Giants
07. Tom Waits
08. Sufjan Stevens
09. Elliott Brood
10. 16 Horsepower

Top ten tracks
01. Elliott Brood - President 35
02. The Handsome Family - The Woman Downstairs
03. The Decemberists - On the Bus Mall
04. Songs:Ohia - The Old Black Hen
05. Jay Munly - Big Black Bull Comes Like a Caesar
06. ALEX FULLER - Mr. Handsome Shapes
07. DeVotchKa - Head Honcho
08. 16 Horsepower - Hutterite Mile
09. Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek
10. Antony and the Johnsons - River of Sorrow

Top ten albums
01. Elliott Brood - Ambassador
02. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
03. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Kicking Against the Pricks
04. The Decemberists - Picaresque
05. The Handsome Family - Last Days of Wonder
06. Pine Hill Haints - Ghost Dance
07. The Decemberists - Her Majesty
08. 16 Horsepower - Folklore
09. Toadies - Rubberneck
10. Black Kali Ma - You Ride the Pony I'll Be the Bunny

Top ten tracks demonstrating increasing popularity amongst Jessichaosi, aged 27 to 27
01. Neko Case - People Got a Lotta Nerve
02. Sophe Lux - Lou Salome
03. Pine Hill Haints - Cuckoo Bird
04. Neko Case - This Tornado Loves You
05. Sophe Lux - Lonely Girl
06. Sophe Lux - Target Market
07. Pine Hill Haints - Catfish Angels
08. Teddy Thompson - Can't Sing Straight
09. Lavender Diamond - Oh No
10. Lavender Diamond - Side Of The Lord

Step 1: Open up whatever you use to listen to music and add every song in your collection.
Step 2: Put it on random.
Step 3: Post the first line from the first 50 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing.
Step 4: Post and let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 5: Bold the songs that someone guesses correctly.
Step 6: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!

01. "As the gringos block the roads inside your head."
02. "We find the teeth among the keys and turn them into traffic."
03. "Our step mom, we did everything to hate her."
04. "Look who's pulling up outside, with a trunk full of fun and a European ride."
05. "She looked me over and I guess she thought I was all right."
06. "If you need some fun, some good stereo gum."
07. "Knocky Parker told Bowlegged Sal they all know how to kick it in Cal."
08. "I've been to Nagasaki, Hiroshima too."
09. "I'm driving north to Cheyenne."
10. "Long ago, Daisy, remember we read your name by the fire's embers."
11. "Stockholm night was leaking light when your father died."
12. "Come on baby, take it easy. Stop following me around."
13. "Hey, Bobby Malone, it's good to have you home."
14. "I went up on the mountain and I looked down on my life."
15. "Whisper in the dark - she's from the other side."
16. "I fell through channels, I broke my heart."
17. "Shut your eyes across the uneven road."
18. "You're such a strange girl, I think you come from another world."
19. "My god, this town needs a shakedown."
20. "The vacuum created by the arrival of freedom and the possibilities it seems to offer."
21. "I had a date with a pretty ballerina."
22. "With your E's and your ease and I do one more."
22. "Alcohol on my hands, I got plans to ditch myself and get outside."
23. "It's true that all the men you knew were dealers who said they were through with dealing, every time you gave them shelter."
24. "No, I couldn't tell you how the house burned down."
25. "I ain't afraid of your laughin', nor afraid of your fist."
26. "Here in line, where stupid shit collides with dying shooting stars."
27. "Gonna take a chance on her, one bullet in the cylinder."
28. "How can it feel so nice? Why does it feel so right?"
29. "Nothing can change without your say, and life can go on, no matter what they all say."
30. "Onward! And onward! And onward I go, where no man before could be bothered to go."
31. "Well, mark out the name of the girl that I love."
32. "Gettin' out of the house, I'm gonna go for a ride."
33. "I remember the year I went to camp, I heard about some lady named Selma and some blacks."
34. "Met a little gypsy in a fortune-tellin' place."
35. "I picked you out of the crowd and talked to you."
36. "Sweetness, sweetness, I was only joking when I said I'd like to smash every tooth in your head."
37. "As I wait for sleep to drag me under, in the evening gloom, I sit and wonder."
38. "Pity, milky stone. Who knows such things about ghosts?"
39. "There once was a poodle who thought he was a cowboy."
40. "What the hell is wrong with you, tonight? I can't seem to say or do the right thing."
41. "Honey, I'm a roller concrete clover, Tadzio, Tadzio."
42. "Yes, I'm jealous, I'm jealous of everything that you've ever done."
43. "Who should I marry, daddy, who should I marry?"
44. "When I was just a little boy, I threw away all of my action toys."
45. "They asked me how I knew my true love was true."
46. "Way down in West Virginia, there's some people who are one of a kind."
47. "Bonfires burning bright, pumpkin faces in the night - I remember Halloween."
48. "I swear it was the wendigo that drove me to the axe."
49. "I paint the fields that your mouth sent."
50. "There's a little black spot on the sun, today."

Featured artists:
16 Horsepower
Air
Andrew Bird
Beck
Beirut
Billy Bragg
Billy Joe Shaver
Blood or Whiskey
Bright Eyes
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
Chris Letcher
Clairvoyants
Corb Lund
The Cure
Dan Sartain
David Bowie
DeVotchKa
Eels
Elliott Smith
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
The Handsome Family
Hank Williams III
Imogen Heap
Joe Jackson
Josh Lederman y Los Diablos
Knife in the Water
Leonard Cohen
Lonesome Wyatt and the Holy Spooks
Micah P. Hinson
Misfits
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Old 97's
Oh No! Oh My!
Paul Simon
Pine Hill Haints
The Platters
The Police
Ramones
Rufus Wainwright
Shivaree
Slim Cessna's Auto Club
The Smiths
Songs: Ohia
Sons of perdition
Sufjan Stevens
They Might Be Giants
Toadies
Tom Waits
Tori Amos
Wanda Jackson
The WIYOS

My 25,000 track was....
Matt Pond PA - Canadian Song

As of 08.17.08:
Top ten artists
01. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
02. The Decemberists
03. Rufus Wainwright
04. They Might Be Giants
05. Tom Waits
06. The Handsome Family
07. Sufjan Stevens
08. Neko Case
09. Elliott Brood
10. Johnny Cash

Top ten tracks
01. Elliott Brood - President (35)
02. The Handsome Family - The Woman Downstairs
03. The Decemberists - On the Bus Mall
04. ALEX FULLER - Mr. Handsome Shapes
05. Southern Culture on the Skids - Big Bear
06. Antony and the Johnsons - River of Sorrow
07. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Black Betty
08. Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek
09. Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
10. Beirut - Postcards From Italy

Top ten albums
01. Elliott Brood - Ambassador
02. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
03. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Kicking Against the Pricks
04. The Decemberists - Picaresque
05. The Handsome Family - Last Days of Wonder
06. The Decemberists - Her Majesty
07. Toadies - Rubberneck
08. M. Ward - Transfiguration of Vincent
09. Silver Jews - Tanglewood Numbers
10. 16 Horsepower - Folklore

Top ten tracks demonstrating increasing popularity amongst Jessichaoses, aged 26 to 26
01. The Handsome Family - The Giant of Illinois
02. Songs: Ohia - The Old Black Hen
03. Jens Lekman - F-Word
04. The Handsome Family - Amelia Earhart vs. The Dancing Bear
05. The Handsome Family - My Sister's Tiny Hands
06. The Handsome Family - Weightless Again
07. Teddy Thompson - Psycho
08. 16 Horsepower - Alone and Forsaken
09. Teddy Thompson - Sally Brown
10. Iron & Wine - Jesus the Mexican Boy

My 20,000th track was, *drumroll*....
Nick Drake - Parasite

As of 02.07.08:
Top ten artists
01. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
02. The Decemberist
03. Rufus Wainwright
04. They Might Be Giants
05. Tom Waits
06. Sufjan Stevens
07. Neko Case
08. The Handsome Family
09. Elliott Brood
10. Johnny Cash

Top ten tracks
01. Elliott Brood - President (35)
02. The Decemberists - On the Bus Mall
03. The Handsome Family - The Woman Downstairs
04. ALEX FULLER - Mr. Handsome Shapes
05. Southern Culture on the Skids - Big Bear
06. Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
07. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Black Betty
08. Imogen Heap - Glittering Clouds
09. Neko Case - Margaret vs. Pauline
10. Beirut - Postcards From Italy

Top Ten Albums
01. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Kicking Against the Pricks
02. Elliott Brood - Ambassador
03. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
04. The Decemberists - Picaresque
05. The Decemberists - Her Majesty
06. The Handsome Family - Last Days of Wonder
07. Silver Jews - Tanglewood Numbers
08. M. Ward - Transfiguration of Vincent
09. Toadies - Rubberneck
10. Black Kali Ma - You Ride the Pony I'll Be the Bunny

Top Ten Dark Horses - tracks most likely to crack at least the top thirty by 25,000
01. Jay Munly - Big Black Bull Comes Like a Caesar
02. Slim Cessna's Auto Club - Cranston
03. The Essex Green - Our Lady In Havana
04. Pelle Carlberg - I touched you at the sound check
05. Elliott Brood - Only at Home
06. Shivaree - Idiot Waltz
07. Sufjan Stevens - Come on! Feel the Illinoise! Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream
08. Rufus Wainwright - Between My Legs
09. Martin Carthy & family - Hog-Eye Man
10. Akron/Family - One Spring Morning
Wildcard: The Handsome Family - Our Blue Sky

My 15,000th track was, *drumroll*....
The Velvet Underground - Stephanie Says

As of 9.4.07:
Top ten artists
01. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
02. The Decemberists
03. Rufus Wainwright
04. They Might Be Giants
05. Tom Waits
06. Neko Case
07. Sufjan Stevens
08. The Handsome Family
09. Johnny Cash
10. M. Ward

Top ten tracks
01. The Decemberists - On the Bus Mall
02. Southern Culture on the Skids - Big Bear
03. Elliott Brood - President (35)
04. Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
05. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Black Betty
06. ALEX FULLER - Mr. Handsome Shapes
07. Neko Case - Margaret vs. Pauline
08. Beirut - Postcards From Italy
09. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - He Wants You
10. Neko Case - Hold On, Hold On
*"Mr. Handsome Shapes" downright refuses to relinquish his hold on the top ten!

Top Ten Albums
01. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Kicking Against the Pricks
02. The Decemberists - Picaresque
03. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
04. Elliott Brood - Ambassador
05. The Decemberists - Her Majesty
06. Silver Jews - Tanglewood Numbers
07. M. Ward - Transfiguration of Vincent
08. The Handsome Family - Last Days of Wonder
09. Toadies - Rubberneck
10. Tom Waits - Blood Money

Top Ten Dark Horses - tracks most likely to crack at least the top thirty by 20,000
01. Elliott Brood - Second Son
02. Elliott Brood - Jackson
03. Elliott Brood - Johnny Rooke
04. Black Kali Ma - Remain Awesome
05. The Birthday Party - A Dead Song
06. Reverend Horton Heat - New York City Girls
07. Slim Cessna's Auto Club - Viceroy Filter King
08. Reverend Glasseye - Mother is a Carpegian
09. Xiu Xiu - I Luv the Valley OH!
10. Tom Waits - Everything Goes to Hell
Wildcard: Elliott Brood - Oh, Alberta

See you at 20,000.

Step 1: Open up whatever you use to listen to music and add every song in your collection.
Step 2: Put it on random.
Step 3: Post the first line from the first 50 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing.
Step 4: Post and let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 5: Bold the songs that someone guesses correctly.
Step 6: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!

01. "Well, I'm trying hard to pass the time, but I just got more time to kill."
02. "This is the story of our first teacher."
03. "Turn on my VCR - same one I've had for years." When the World Is Running Down
04. "People stared at the make-up on his face." Lady Stardust
05. "Ever since my baby left me, you know this ghost town ain't no fun no more."
06. "Fifteen minutes, just waiting for a train."
07. "Just like a bird that sings up the sun in a dawn so very dark." There Is A Kingdom
08. "Here on these Cliffs of Dover, so high you can't see over." We Both Go Down Together
09. "Oh, where are we going? Oh, where have we been?"
10. "It's dark in here - visions are flashing into my head."
11. "Send my appeal without delay."
12. "I changed my mind and looked no better."
13. "And if the snow buries my, my neighbourhood." Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
14. "She came from a happy home, a very happy home."
15. "There's a great and bloody fight around this whole world, tonight."
16. "I fell into the ocean when you became my wife."
17. "Sometimes it rains inside my head, and the words run dry."
18. "I'm a junkyard full of false starts."
19. "Well, the clock says it's time to close, now." Soul Kitchen
20. "I gets up every morning, about the break of day."
21. "I want to be with you, I want to be clear."
22. "Daniel says it's over, now, for good." Still Be Friends
23. "Oh, I know my job's just working in a store."
24. "With the money from her accident, she bought herself a mobile home."
25. "Feel sick without you and I can't let you go." Primitive (The Way I Treat You)
26. "Full-grown porcupine dead on the road." Hair In My Eyes Like A Highland Steer
27. "This place is trouble waiting."
28. "I lay here at night, I toss and I turn." You're the Reason
29. "Innocent victim filled up with pills." Chicago Overcoat
30. "Oh, it's been getting so hard, living with the things you do to me." Ballroom Blitz
31. "Where's the paper bag that holds the liquor?"
32. "First: I tried to kill it with a hammer."
33. "I can't wait to watch you get older." Nieces Pieces
34. "Better stop dreaming of the quiet life, 'cos it's the one we'll never know."
35. "Make a hole with the gun perpendicular to the name of this town in desk-top globe." Ana Ng
36. "I count the days the great frontier, forgiving, faced the seventh year."
37. "The king ordered his kingdom - find the flies."
38. "There's a spider crawling on the bathroom mirror."
39. "Well, all kinds of people want all kinds of things."
40. "No matter how strong, I'm gonna take you down with one little stone." Dinner At Eight
41. "You thought that it could never happen to all the people you became."
42. "September, '75, I was forty-seven inches high." One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces
43. "There's a stain on my notebook where your coffee cup was." Black Coffee in Bed
44. "Hot air hangs like a dead man from a white oak tree."
45. "Come sit with a total stranger."
46. "Red spots in the blow, sweet valentine snow."
47. "Funny how I find myself in love with you." It's My Life
48. "If god moves across the water, the girl moves in other ways." Nite & Fog
49. "I've got syphilitic hetro friends in every part of town."
50. "All around me are familiar faces, worn out places, worn out faces." Mad World

16 Horsepower
Ambulance LTD
The Arcade Fire
Ben Folds Five
Billie the Vision & The Dancers
Billy Bragg
The Birthday Party
Bumble Bee Slim
Cash Brothers
Cathal Coughlan
Corb Lund
David Bowie
The Decemberists
The Doors
Eels
Elliott Smith
The Flaming Stars
Hank Williams III
Imogen Heap
Imperial Drag
The Jam
The Jesus & Mary Chain
Jim White
Knife in the Water
Leonard Cohen
M. Ward
Medicine
Mercury Rev
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Peter Case
Peter Gabriel
The Pink Spiders
The Police
The Proclaimers
The Ramones
Rufus Wainwright
Silver Jews
Social Distortion
Songs: Ohia
Squeeze
Sufjan Stevens
Sweet
Talk Talk
Tears for Fears
The Telephone Company
They Might Be Giants
Tito & Tarantula
Tom Waits
Woody Guthrie
Xiu Xiu

The following is a copy of an e-mail I just received from Tim Westergren, of Pandora radio:

Hi, it's Tim from Pandora,

I'm writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays and broadcast radio doesn't pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends - the more petitioners we can get, the better.

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I'm no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster's business potential.

I hope you'll take just a few minutes to sign our petition - it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

Please sign the petition and show your support for the only decent radio we have left!

One day, I'll use this space for something other than memes. Well, technically, my 10,000th-track entry wasn't a meme - it looked like one, but it was my own creation.... as though it matters to anyone passing through.

First, make a list of your top-20 artists overall. Then, for each of these artists, add the 8 most similar artists to your list. Delete any duplicates, count up the number of entries on your list and this will give you some idea of how eclectic your listening habits are. A score of 9 represents an extremely unvaried musical taste while a 160 represents an extremely varied one.

01. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
02. The Decemberists
03. Rufus Wainwright
04. Tom Waits
05. Neko Case
06. They Might Be Giants
07. Johnny Cash
08. Sufjan Stevens
09. Toadies
10. M. Ward
11. Billy Bragg
12. The Handsome Family
13. Beck
14. Elliott Smith
15. Beirut
16. Southern Culture on the Skids
17. Silver Jews
18. Antony and the Johnsons
19. Voltaire
20. Edith Piaf

01. Leonard Cohen
02. PJ Harvey
03. David Bowie
04. Joy Division
05. The Cure
06. Lou Reed
07. The Shins
08. Neutral Milk Hotel
09. The Arcade Fire
10. belle and sebastion
11. Iron & Wine
12. Death Cab for Cutie
13. Broken Social Scene
14. Damien Rice
15. Bob Dylan
16. The Velvet Underground
17. Neil Young
18. Nick Drake
19. The New Pornographers
20. Cat Power
21. Wilco
22. Destroyer
23. Yo La Tengo
24. CAKE
25. Barenaked Ladies
26. Weezer
27. Ben Folds Five
28. The Beatles
29. The Flaming Lips
30. Talking Heads
31. The Rolling Stones
32. Led Zeppelin
33. R.E.M.
34. Burden Brothers
35. Stone Temple Pilots
36. Local H
37. Bush
38. Sponge
39. The Smashing Pumpkins
40. Andrew Bird
41. Devendra Banhart
42. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
43. Okkervil River
44. The Mountain Goats
45. The Pogues
46. The Smiths
47. The Jam
48. Elvis Costello
49. The Clash
50. The Replacements
51. Jim White
52. Lambchop
53. Giant Sand
54. Gillian Welch
55. Uncle Tupelo
56. Willard Grant Conspiracy
57. Gram Parsons
58. Radiohead
59. The White Stripes
60. Modest Mouse
61. Bright Eyes
62. Grizzly Bear
63. Sunset Rubdown
64. Islands
65. Joanna Newsom
66. Animal Collective
67. TV on the Radio
68. Wolf Parade
69. Reverend Horton Heat
70. The Cramps
71. Cracker
72. Mojo Nixon
73. Supersuckers
74. Hank Williams III
75. Drive-By Truckers
76. Camper Van Beethoven
77. Pavement
78. Stephen Malkmus
79. Guided by Voices
80. The Cruxshadows
81. Rasputina
82. Bella Morte
83. Switchblade Symphony
84. Audra
85. Black Tape for a Blue Girl
86. Faith and the Muse
87. The Dresden Dolls
88. Billie Holiday
89. Nina Simone
90. Ella Fitzgerald
91. Jacques Brel
92. Serge Gainsbourg
93. Bjork
94. Francoise Hardy
95. Marlene Dietrich

Combined total = 115, although judging from my results, and those I've seen in various other journals, this meme says more about last.fm's weird artist-matching criteria than it does about taste variance. Led Zeppelin is in Johnny Cash's top-eight similar artists - come on!