New Wave Outpost Forum

So I'm a little suspicious of iTunes' new "Genius" feature that puts together playlists from your songs based on similarities to a track one chooses. First, Apple doesn't explain how it works at all. It clearly doesn't work strictly on waveform similarities or some-such like <a href="http://www.pandora.com/">Pandora</a> because none of my vinyl rips find anything - very disappointing. Secondly, songs from this year tend to find strictly other songs from 2008 and 2007 only - clearly some forced selection rather than anything "intelligent". Thirdly, I'm just suspicious that I'm being manipulated by The Man - I don't like being manipulated by The Man. Fourthly, godammit, I kinda like this new Genius feature - shit!

Anyone fire it up yet? Any interesting playlists? This results from The Plimsoul's "Now":

Wall of Voodoo - Can't Make Love
Sparks - Upstairs
The Dickies - Gigantor
The Knack - Heartbeat
The Untouchables - Stepping Stone (Live)
The Long Ryders - Looking For Lewis And Clark
The Plimsouls - How Long Will It Take? (original)
Surf Punks - My Beach
Nick Lowe - Heart of the City
The Vandals - Ladykiller
Sparks - Angst In My Pants
The Pretenders - Up The Neck
The Long Ryders - I Had A Dream
X - The Have Nots
The Knack - Oh Tara
XTC - Helicopter
Minutemen - This Ain't No Picnic
The Plimsouls - I'll Get Lucky
Sparks - Tips For Teens
Killing Joke - Follow the Leaders
Joe Jackson - Don't Wanna Be Like That
The Dukes of Stratosfear - Vanishing Girl
Oingo Boingo - Violent Love
Human Sexual Response - Ann Frank Story

<p align="justify">What is this "iTunes" you speak of?[}:)]

I am currently downloading the latest version of iTunes to see what the hype is all about. [}:)]

I have yet to experience this "Genius" feature, but DAMN, Blir--that's a freakin' great playlist ![8D]

You should definitely try it KYYX. It's not ideal by any stretch - too much sameness in some of the selections and too little cross-genre or cross-era selections that I think people would be hugely interested in. I did finally strike up a very satisfying mix by selection the Embarrassments - the so-called "most influential band ever from Wichita". Their brand of very signature-sounding American post-punk yielded this very cool playist (IMHO) of old and new:

The Embarrassment - Drive Me To The Park
New York Dolls - Looking For A Kiss
The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner
The Thermals - A Pillar Of Salt
World Party - Way Down Now
The Futureheads - Decent Days And Nights
The Jim Carroll Band - People Who Died
The Embarrassment - (I'm A) Don Juan
Dinosaur Jr. - Freak Scene
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Down Boy
Belly - Feed The Tree
David Bowie - Oh! You Pretty Things
Sonic Youth - Teen Age Riot
The Replacements - Alex Chilton
Devo - Satisfaction (I Can't Get No)
My Morning Jacket - Off The Record
Charlatans - The Only One I Know
Superchunk - Slack Motherfucker
The B-52's - Dance This Mess Around
The Raveonettes - That Great Love Sound
Mission Of Burma - Academy Fight Song
The Replacements - Androgynous
Dinosaur Jr. - Little Fury Things
Nick Lowe - So It Goes
Wolf Parade - Shine a Light

Greater diversity in the resultant playist = cooler band?? [8D]

[I hope I'm not the only one who ever posts a list, but this is kinda fun [:I] ]

My first list:

The Chameleons - Don't Fall
Specimen - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
A Certain Ratio - Shack Up
Gang Of Four - To Hell With Poverty!
Psychedelic Furs - Dumb Waiters
Magazine - The Light Pours Out Of Me
Inspiral Carpets - Two Worlds Collide (Dub Mix)
The Mission - Wasteland
Killing Joke - Requiem
The Chameleons - Swamp Thing
Skinny Puppy - Assimilate
The Stranglers - Nice 'N Sleazy
Cocteau Twins - Amelia
Sex Pistols - E.M.I.
Sisters Of Mercy - Lucretia, My Reflection
Simple Minds - Theme For Great Cities
The Chameleons - As High As You Can Go
Bauhaus - She's In Parties
Cocteau Twins - Frou Frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires
Lords Of The New Church - Russian Roulette
Echo & The Bunnymen - Never Stop
Alien Sex Fiend - I Walk The Line
Modern English - Someone's Calling
Cabaret Voltaire - Sensoria
Ministry - Work For Love

I like it! Though Work For Love seems a bit of an orphan in there.

Ran Genius on Classix Nouveaux's "Is It A Dream?"

Is It A Dream? - Classix Nouveaux
All Stood Still - Ultravox
Blind Vision - Blancmange
Wishful Thinking - China Crisis
Teenage Rampage - Sweet
Chorus - Erasure
Leaving Me Now - Level 42
The King Of Rock 'N' Roll - Prefab Sprout
Hunting High And Low (Remix) - A-Ha
Dance Hall Days - Wang Chung
Obsession (12" Remix) - Animotion
Sleepwalk - Ultravox
Underpass - John Foxx
Sailing On the Seven Seas - OMD
Lucky Number - Lene Lovich
Blockbuster! - Sweet
Together In Electric Dreams - Giorgio Moroder & Phil Oakey
Lawnchairs - Our Daughter's Wedding
Love & Pride - King
(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang - Heaven 17
Bedsitter - Soft Cell
Night Train - Visage
Imagination - Belouis Some
To Cut A Long Story Short - Spandau Ballet
Living In A Box - Living In A Box

Simple Minds - "Book Of Brilliant Things" (playlist created from this song)
Big Country - "Wonderland"
OMD - "Messages"
Howard Jones - "Pearl In The Shell"
Thomas Dolby - "Windpower"
Altered Images - "Don't Talk To Me About Love" 12" mix
Ultravox - "The Thin Wall"
Simple Minds - "White Hot Day"
The Icicle Works - "Love Is A Wonderful Colour"
Human League - "Life On Your Own"
Spandau Ballet - "Instinction"
Cocteau Twins - "Sugar Hiccup" 12"
New Order - "Everything's Gone Green"
China Crisis - "Wishful Thinking"
Big Country - "Where The Rose Is Sown"
Depeche Mode - "More Than A Party"
Simple Minds - "Up On The Catwalk"
Japan - "Life In Tokyo"
Howard Jones - "Hide & Seek"
Heaven 17 - "Come Live With Me"
Talk Talk - "Dum Dum Girl"
ABC - "That Was Then But This Is Now"
Echo & The Bunnymen - "Silver"
The The - "Slow Train To Dawn"
Ultravox - "One Small Day"

Pretty cool list, although personally, I would never (unless there was a specific reason) duplicate an artist in a playlist. Even when I would DJ, I'd never repeat an artist during my 5-hour sets...)

"Words like conviction can turn into a sentence"