last.fm - Top 5 Artists

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Last.fm is an awesome service that keeps track of the music you play.  It does other stuff too I guess...like you can listen to radio stations based on the music you like to listen to.  But outside of Pandora, I have no interest in investing in other radio stations, really.

But it keeps track of what you play!  And gives you all your music stats, makes recommendations on what you might like.
 
My top 30 artists on last.fm as of 4/21/2010...

01. of Montreal - 3,846 plays
What can I say?  I love me some of Montreal.  It's not even close.  They were my definitive favorite band for several years.  I listen to a lot of other artists now, but they're still one of my faves.

Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? and Satanic Panic in the Attic are amazing albums, some of the best to come out in the past decade.  Skeletal Lamping and The Sunlandic Twins are fantastic as well.  They have multiple albums pre-Satanic that are of a different style...I've heard it described as twee.  It's interesting stuff, but for the most part, I dig Satanic and beyond.

New album later this year!  Dying with anticipation.

02. Deerhunter - 1,899 plays
Deerhunter have risen in the ranks!  Microcastle reeled me in, and I am totally hooked.  I think Bradford Cox is one of the most compelling songwriters we have out there, and dude's got a beautiful voice.  I've heard their music described as "ambient punk", and that's a pretty good descriptor.  Their music creates an atmosphere - certain tracks on Cryptograms, Microcastle and Weird Era Cont. are purely noise - but noise that comes together and sets the scene.  Then in the midst of the scene are rockin' tunes like "Cryptograms", "Nothing Ever Happened" and "Operation".

03. The New Pornographers - 1,678 plays
The new New Pornographers record Together has just leaked.  Go find it.  Only listened to it once so far, but it sounded pretty rad.  I love certain parts of Challengers ("All the Old Showstoppers", "Myriad Harbour"), but I'll concede it's their weakest album.  This is better.

The New Pornos are power pop personified.

04. Arcade Fire - 1,672 plays
I got totally obsessed with this band when Neon Bible came out.  Then I got a little burned out and put 'em down for a while.  Really excited for their third album though.  And Funeral really is incredible, holy shit.

05. Spoon - 1,215 plays
Spoon are motherfucking dependable.  Some people have twisted this quality and suggested that Spoon are boring.  In a way, I get it.  But in a lot of other ways, I totally don't get it, because Spoon are awesome.

I didn't love Transference as immediately as Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga or Gimme Fiction, but it's growing on me.  When you cover all their albums, they've built up a rock solid body of tunes.  Can't wait to catch them live again.