Pazartesi 6 Eyl 2010, 13:25

Did you know that third year anniversary is nicknamed leather?! Me neither! I had to google it!

Another year, another journal. This time with delayed rant. The numbers are there, and they don't lie, I listen to lots of music and I'm quite addicted to scrobbling them. OH, last.fm what have you done to me? I'm already nearing 99 thousand(!!!) scrobbles, with an average of 74 tracks per day.

Here's a three year breakdown:
Total Scrobbles
1st year - 47,036 (includes tracks scrobbled at sign up)
2nd year - 76,168 (+29,062)
3rd year - 98,209 (+22,041)

Number of artists in Library
1st year - 649 artists
2nd year - 1,119 artists (+470)
3rd year - 1,844 artists (+725)

What's interesting here is that I scrobbled 7,021 less songs during this past year, yet added about 75% more artists. There's a very simple explanation for this curious stat: blip.fm. I still use it quite a lot, in fact, it's become my primary source for discovering new music. The same limitations I noted in my Second Anniversary journal still apply, I still love it though! Not to rub it in, but I've got almost 700 listeners there. (Yay!) I've also blipped over 3,300 songs and received over 1,700 "props". Looking good!

As for last.fm, I can distinctly remember two big changes. One of them for good, another one for evil. Good = new track pages with trend graphic charts! Looking cool. Evil = there's no more "On Demand" track listening, meaning you can only listen to full tracks on the radio. Booooo. They also removed the highlighted free downloads section. Booooooo. And these changes even apply to paying subscribers. Ugh, really?! What's the point of paying here?!

Despite this last hiccup, I wouldn't worry about any wannabes that are coming out lately. Last.fm, you're still the Shania Twain one.

As for my "leisure activity" of spotting trends in my last.fm artist images, it would had gone without anything to report had it not been for the good ol' summertime. Believe me, those artist images were really digging the heat this year.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4057/4705390120_55c48bec6a.jpg

"We love the sun!"

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4027/4704764123_0b17c1dbf3.jpg

"We love the grass, even if bugs get on our behinds"

Artist charts

The week following last year's anniversary was dominated by Ramona Falls with 222 plays. This also happened to be the most dominating week of any artist ever since. The closest opponent was Menomena (surprise!) with 213 plays on the week of August 8th. This most dominating stat comes with an asterik, as the week of November 8th registered 467 plays for Xiu Xiu. Not only do I remember not playing them for such a staggering amount of time, I even remember lastfm going haywire with Xiu Xiu and Twilight Sad plays that week, registering over 40 plays for several songs. I remember going through the Recently Played list and deleting the 20 consecutive scrobbles for both bands, but apparently Last.fm had already tallied them for the weekly chart(?) *sigh*

The week prior to the anniversary was topped by Menomena with 136 scrobbles. Fun fact: Menomena has dominated every week since the release of their new totally awesome album Mines, with at least double the plays of artists on second place. This has propelled them well past four thousand total scrobbles and half-way to the exclusive five thousand club!… Looks to me like they want their Number 1 spot back! Good luck, guys. I know you can make it.

The much larger, nineteen strong group of the +1000 scrobbles club recently had the addition of The National. Even though they've only leaded for one week, they've consistently charted in the top three for the last 2 months and are currently sitting at the 16th spot with over 1,150 plays. This leaves Radiohead and Arcade Fire as the sole members of the 900 club, with 3 other bands closed by in the 800 club. I should also note the presence of sizzling hot newcomer Phantogram at No. 25 with 732 plays already! Oh my! Looks like Menomena has some competition for most played of the year… for the moment. *evil look*

Here is a recount of the artist who have dominated the charts in the past year:

Royalty for one week
A Place to Bury Strangers
Dead Man's Bones
White Rabbits
The Flaming Lips
Atlas Sound
The Jaguar Club
Sonic Youth
Telefon Tel Aviv
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Spoon
Phantogram
Wild Beasts
Local Natives
The xx
Toro y Moi
Disappears
The National
Tool
Panda Bear
The Black Keys

Two weeks a piece
Ramona Falls
Arctic Monkeys
The Besnard Lakes
Wolf Parade

No one had a three week reign. Instead we jump straight to the 4 week group!
The Twilight Sad
Xiu Xiu (*includes haywire week)
These New Puritans

Five weeks!!!!!
Menomena

And the top prize of SEVEN hard-earned weeks goes to…..
The Kills!!!!!!!

The Kills are long due a love journal. They have skyrocketed from about 100-200 plays to fourth in my overall charts with 2,418 plays. They currently dominate the 12 Month chart with 1,260 plays. And the most important thing is that a revisited 2008 Most Played Chart gives them 1,224 plays for Midnight Boom added between January - December 2009. This translated to a 102 average play per song, displacing The Walkmen for top album of 2008!!! THAT'S HUGE!

Now you must be wondering why on earth I didn't publish a revisited 2008 albums journal?… Truth is I have no idea. All I know is that I did make the count and added it to my spreadsheet. The reason may be that I reluctantly wrote the Most played of 2009 journal and didn't even publish a DGA Awards post… *sigh* Fill in the blanks.

Just because I didn't rant about it does not mean that they've been less loved! On the contrary, since then, I've been consistently devouring all things The Kills, including digging all over the place for b-sides. When you get to the most-own-all stage, you know things are going strong! Now what I need is a new album. No more Dead Weather, please!

Most Dominating Songs
Last year, I premiered a song chart and I bring you a sequel. People say that sequels tend to be not as good as the original and in this case I'll say that there's been even more domination nation.

1. Ramona Falls - Clover
36 plays - August 30, 09

This is a great sample song for all the things that work with this album, with its beautiful melody and well-crafted details. It even pulls out the top whistling guns!

2. The Besnard Lakes – And This Is What We Call Progress
31 plays - March 21, 10

This is probably their most melodic song with an extremely high dose of mind stickiness. This is not the only time this has happened, the week right before that one it received 21 plays! That's right, it got more addictive.

3. The Twilight Sad – The Neighbours Can't Breathe
30 plays - September 27, 09

Happy to say this song lived up to early bootleg and I unanimously award it "most awesome song of that album". Now, you probably think I must had gotten tired of this song after that week… well, I have to say that it repeated the exact same feat the following week of October 4th!

4. The Kills – Hit Me When U-1-2 (Xfm Session)
29 plays - February 21, 10

Just like I had previously noted, my love for The Kills have already expanded to b-side territory. This moment of b-side awakening is rightfully represented with one of those awesome, can't-believe-it's-not-on-an-album songs. Heck, there's not even a studio version!

5. Arms – Shitty Little Disco
22 plays - January 17, 10

From time to time I enjoy the simple pleasure of a catchy pop rock song.

6. Dead Man's Bones – Pa Pa Power
21 plays - October 25, 09

This album was the biggest surprise of 2009. I'd describe it as haunted children catchy choir destruction pop.

7. Local Natives – World News
20 plays - April 4, 10

What did I say about catchy pop songs? This one shamelessly pulls the repeated vocal note gun out of its catchy arsenal: Doooo-dooo-dooo-dooo… Oh, oh, oh, oh, OH, OOOOOHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh…. Sooooooooo gooooOOOOOOOOooooddddd.

7. These New Puritans – Swords Of Truth
20 plays - June 13, 10

For the first two or so minutes you think it's all going pretty well…. and then final minute comes after you with a bloody ax in hand!

7. Menomena – Queen Black Acid
20 plays - August 15, 10

Don't know if you paid attention before so I'll repeat it again: I love Mines! You know what I also love? Playing albums in order… with "repeat all" selected.

10. The Jaguar Club – Antarctica
19 plays - January 3, 10

All right, all right, I guess it's time to admit this past year has been very melodic pop oriented for me. No way I can keep hiding all the quality catchy songs featured on this journal.

11. The Drums – Let's Go Surfing
19 plays - February 19, 10

This is one of the catchiest songs I've heard in the last year, if not the most. Another serious contender for that title would be Saddest Summer.

12. Menomena – TAOS
18 plays - August 1, 10

This song is so good it almost repeated the feat the following week of August 8, 10 with 17 plays.

13. The Twilight Sad – The Wrong Car
17 plays - May 30, 10

One of those songs that fell flat at first but you start enjoying it after a couple of plays.

14. The xx – Islands
16 plays - May 2, 10

I'm not the biggest fan of The XX's S/T debut, as a whole, it can knock you out to sleep, but there are still some good songs, like this one!

>Listen to most dominating song on Blip.fm
scroll down a bit

Journal index
Since last year's anniversary, I've added 10 more journals, two of them mere lists. A measly total if you compare it to the 16 journals I had accumulated over my second year and the 30 journals of the first year.

These band are forever associated…
Lackthereof
Menomena
Some thoughts about Menomena, Ramona Falls and Lackthereof - September 20

These bands graced 2009 with albums that ranged from good to totally awesome.
Fever Ray
The Horrors
The Phantom Band
Grizzly Bear
The Jaguar Club
Wild Beasts
Arctic Monkeys
Maybeshewill
Dead Man's Bones
A Place To Bury Strangers
Animal Collective
Micachu
Atlas Sound
Morrissey
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions
The Flaming Lips
Bat For Lashes
The Big Pink
Arms
Fuck Buttons
Antony and the Johnsons
White Rabbits
Japandroids
Most played albums of 2009 - January 3

These bands had the discourtesy of playing way too long while opening the following gig.
We Were Promised Jetpacks
Brakes
The Twilight Sad @ Bowery Ballroom/Southpaw (Oct 09) - October 8

On the other hand, these bands had the courtesy of opening a gig and were experienced with much pleasure!
tUnE-yArDs
Zola Jesus
Twin Sister
Xiu Xiu/tUnE-yArDs/Zola Jesus/Twin Sister @ Bowery Ballroom - April 11

The following bands have made a lasting contribution to the 2010 tag.
Phantogram
The Besnard Lakes
Local Natives
Spoon
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Dum Dum Girls
Liars
Gorillaz
Beach House
Caribou
The National
Toro y Moi
Most Played Mid-2010 - July 20

These bands have all released a pretty good album and two of them were also enjoyed in flesh and bone, giving them the honor of two journals. Still waiting for the third band to come through in the last department.
Ramona Falls
Most played albums of 2009 - January 3
Some thoughts about Menomena, Ramona Falls and Lackthereof - September 20

Xiu Xiu
Most Played Mid-2010 - July 20
Xiu Xiu/tUnE-yArDs/Zola Jesus/Twin Sister @ Bowery Ballroom - April 11

These New Puritans
Most Played Mid-2010 - July 20
Hidden - April 16

And the "most talked about" band, but with much disappointment compared to a previous total of eight journals, is….
The Twilight Sad
Most played albums of 2009 - January 3
The Twilight Sad @ Bowery Ballroom/Southpaw (Oct 09) - October 8
Forget The Night Ahead - September 20

I also added two playlist journals with very little rant, therefor disqualifying the artist on them to be considered a "talk about journal".
Round-up of the freebies - May 15
Halloween Playlist - October 31

So that's it, my love. Hopefully this next year will bring a lot more scrobbles and journals between us!
- xoxo

Past Celebratory Journals
> Second Anniversary Journal
> First Anniversary Journal