Out Of The Box

I still love my new toy, the iPhone, but as a toy rather than as a phone.

But there are some really cool things to love. I especially love my Pandora which unlike it's name sake doesn't release the ill's of the world from a box but musical goodies. When I bought this current car it came with Sirius radio and they tried to get me to subscribe. It came, they enthused, with dedicated channels for 'all (my) favorite artists'. Now I may be a difficult old bugger but the Elvis Channel, the Beatles Channel and the Michael Jackson Channel do not my favourite artists make.

But the Pandora app has let me really make my own 'channels'. I started out by being deliberately difficult and creating Radio Henry Cow and expecting it to say... 'Henry who now?' But what a miserable old cynic I was.  In the car this morning Henry Cow Radio, via iPhone, gave me;

 

Arcades by Henry Cow from the Unrest album

Dogbreath Variations by Frank Zappa from one of the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore live albums

Etude for Combo by Thinking Plague who Id never heard of but turn out to be a band orginally formed by the excellent Bob Drake. They will be checked out further in the near future.

Red by King Crimson It has put up several King Crimson tracks but noticably only instrumentals. Yesterday it played Larks Tongues in Aspic Pt1.

and finally just before I got to work

Viva Pa Ubu by Henry Cow from Western Culture.

Even the one I didnt know was great and it's now started throwing me Frank Zappa tunes too.

Here is the Henry Cow Viva Pa Ubu!

 

I don't want to sound like a commercial for Pandora but its really rather splendid. I have 'difficult' tastes in music and this seems to be doing an amazing job of finding me goodies. My other 'channels' are a Brian Eno station that brings good stuff including many I'd quite forgotten like Eno Moebius and Roedelius 'The Belldog' from After The Heat and other more or less interesting 'ambient' style tracks.

 The Van Der Graaf Generator channel is less successful as it casts it's net a bit too wide and I have to 'Thumbs Down' tracks from Yes, Cream, Genesis after Peter Gabriel (really!?!?) and the Beatles. Sorry but I only want somewhat eccentric prog rock. Likes and Dislikes may improve this one over time but then its not something you can or should do when driving. 

But, overall Viva Pa Ubu and Viva Pandora