I was going to post about the wonders of Listen-to.com, but unfortunately, it looks like they may be shutting down by the end of June. This is unfortunate; like Audioscrobbler (more about this in a moment), Listen-to tabulates the music you, uh, listen to, and breaks it down in endlessly fascinating ways. Endlessly fascinating to me, anyway.

Check out my profile, for instance: it says that I listen to 48 songs per day — and that’s only on the computer — and that Guided By Voices (naturally) is my most-played group.

You can also look at the .jpg on the right side of my blog that tells you what I’m currently listening to. (I guess it’ll be back to BlogAmp after June.)

[Update: the .jpg is now from Viralsound, which works like a charm.]

Audioscrobbler is extremely cool as well, doing much of the same things but displaying the results in neat bar graphs. Here’s my profile, which has GBV leading by a mile. (Eileen may be amused to discover that she’s right between Kanye West and Radiohead on my list.) Still unimplemented — at least for people who signed on only recently — are music recommendations and a display of other Audioscrobbler-enabled people who have your same musical tastes.

The problem with both sites/plugins are their constant outages; there are 226,418 submissions currently in the Audioscrobbler queue, which means that what used to be real-time reports now take hours before they show up in your profile. (As I write this at 10:22 in the evening, the songs I listened to this morning are only just showing up.) This, unfortunately, is the result of its popularity, and the fact that it’s absolutely free.

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM GUIDED BY VOICES

After almost 20 years, assorted lineups, and countless albums, EPs, singles, triples, stolen bases, misdemeanor convictions, and broken hearts, Dayton, OH’s fortunate sons are taking leave of your senses. ‘Half Smiles Of The Decomposed,’ to be released August 24 on Matador Records, will be the final album from Guided By Voices, one of the most acclaimed independent rock bands of all time.

“This feels like the last album for Guided By Voices,” explains Robert Pollard, GBV’s lone constant member, lead singer, and famously prolific songwriter. “I’ve always said that when I make a record that I’m totally satisfied with as befitting a final album, then that will be it. And this is it.”

And there’s more here, where Pollard talks about the last concert (Dec. 31st, in New York):

We are the kings of indie rock. When we quit, indie rock will die.

But Pollard, hopefully, will continue making music on his own…

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I love a little brain dump every now and then; it reminds me of how much useless junk is stuck in my head. My brother has listed what he calls his favorite new wave songs.

My list is more like 48 definitive singles (not necessarily my favorites, and the titles may be wrong) from Philippine “college radio” from the early to mid-’80s (with some exceptions for the late-’80s). There were two stations that played this stuff, 99.5 RT (before it disappointingly switched to an American Top 40 format) and NU 107. (There was a third — BX? — but I could never get it in Los Banos on our dinky radio.) The “sound,” luckily, spread to other stations, so some singles are bigger than others. This is, in any case, a little snapshot of that era.

I won’t call it New Wave, but Filipinos sure called it that. And it’s 48 because it’s getting late and I can’t free-associate any further. In no order:

1. The Cure, “In Between Days” [this should really be "Fire in Cairo"]
2. Psychedelic Furs, “The Ghost in You”
3. The Lotus Eaters, “The First Picture of You”
4. Wire Train, “Chamber of Hellos”
5. Prefab Sprout, “When Love Breaks Down” [better: "Cars and Girls," but that was later]
6. The Style Council, “You’re The Best Thing”
7. Seona Dancing, “More to Lose”
8. Aztec Camera, “Still on Fire” [better: "How Men Are," but that was also later]
9. Fiction Factory, “Feels Like Heaven”
10. Modern English, “Melt With You” [though "Ink and Paper" is probably the better song]
11. Vitamin Z, “Burning Flame”
12. Fra Lippo Lippi, “Everytime I See You” [better: "Light and Shade"]
13. Cock Robin, “The Promise You Made”
14. China Crisis, “Wishful Thinking”
15. New Order, “Thieves Like Us” [better: "Temptation"]
16. The Smiths, “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”
17. Orchestral Maneouvres In The Dark, “Secret”
18. Depeche Mode, “Somebody”
19. Tears For Fears, “Change”
20. A Flock Of Seagulls, “The More You Live, The More You Love”
21. The Icicle Works, “Birds Fly (A Whisper to a Scream)”
22. Red Flag, “Russian Radio” [awful]
23. The Care, “Whatever Possessed You”
24. The Fall, “C.R.E.E.P.” [though "Cruisers Creek" and "No Bulbs" are my faves]
25. Gene Loves Jezebel, “The Motion of Love”
26. The Bolshoi, “Away”
27. The Sisters of Mercy, “Walk Away”
28. Big Country, “In a Big Country”
29. The Mighty Lemon Drops, “Inside Out”
30. Nik Kershaw, “Wouldn’t It Be Good”
31. When In Rome, “The Promise” [a little later]
32. The Adventures, “Two Rivers”
33. Industry, “State of the Nation”
34. Simple Minds, “(Don’t You) Forget About Me” [big everywhere]
35. Everything But The Girl, “When All’s Well”
36. Alphaville, “Big in Japan” [horrible]
37. The Alarm, “Absolute Reality” [even worse]
38. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Cities on Fire” [what a great goddamn song]
39. Xmal Deutschland, “Matador” [another great song]
40. Echo and The Bunnymen, “Seven Seas”
41. Talk Talk, “It’s My Life” [way better than what's-her-face's version]
42. Cactus World News, “Worlds Apart”
43. Joy Division, “Love Will Tear Us Apart” [earlier]
44. Propaganda, “Duel”
45. The Primitives, “Crash”
46. Real Life, “Catch Me I’m Falling”
47. The Fixx, “One Thing Leads To Another”
48. Ultravox, “All Stood Still”

Sigh. I feel like firing up Soulseek and looking for this stuff now, but… Man, dial-up sucks.

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From the Bush Sloganator, via ToT.

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Is there some secret group of swimsuit designers who have Buddha on their minds? Or, in this case, Buddha somewhere else:

Images stolen from Onda de Mar — that closeup wasn’t due to my crop-and-enlarge skills, it was really on their website — though don’t be surprised if the images are taken off soon. (Thanks to Enji (or are you Heidi?) for the link.)

The fetching bikini above is called “Baby Buddha Bikini” on this website, and is described — mystically, serenely — as follows:

Totally Zen…

Take a mystic journey in ths fabulous bikini by Onda De Mar Swimwear of Colombia. Colorful watercolor scenes are embellished with tiny jeweled beads giving it serene beauty.

And Ondademar can be contacted here, and enjoy the runway music, too. Hey, I’m just providing a link — I wouldn’t dare suggest you fill up their mailboxes with complaints!

Meanwhile, Victoria’s Secret tries to cover their, uh, behinds (see this forum for the entire thread):

Dear Minh,

Thank you for your e-mail regarding the Asian print tankini, #173444. We are pleased to address your inquiry.

Based on the information provided to us by our merchandise department, we do not believe that the personage depicted on the tankini is Buddha. Be that as it may, our photographs have offended you and for that we are all truly sorry. Please accept our sincere apologies as our intent was certainly not to offend anyone.

Although we feature this item in our catalogue, we do not manufacture this tankini. If you have additional concerns regarding this tankini, we recommend contacting the manufacturer, Ondademar? directly.

Again, thank you for expressing your feelings about the tankini. We appreciate your candor, and hope you will accept our regrets for any distress we may have caused you.

If you need further assistance, please reply to this e-mail or call anytime.

Thank you for contacting Victoria’s Secret.

Sincerely,

Iris I.
VictoriasSecret.com Client Services

Someone politely asked me, in a comment to my previous post, to take the image(s) off my website. I fully realize the offensiveness and insensitivity of these depictions — which is why they’re staying on my site so that people remember. (Someone on another list commented that the Buddha himself would probably say that we should instead overcome our own delusion of anger and continue to strive for inner peace and happiness. True, but my point here is that such contempt for religion is inexcusable — and yes, that goes for my flippant comment about Jesus on a bikini too.)

(Meanwhile, Bali Dog has a whole line of ugly exercise wear with Buddha, Ganesha, Krishna, Shiva, Durga, Tara — hey, collect ‘em all!)

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