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Music Revisit: 60,000 Scrobbles

Jeromey Balderrama

Note: This is a follow-up to a post I wrote back in 2012 when I passed the 40,000 Scrobble mark.

It’s taken 9 years, but I’ve eclipsed 60,000 listens, or Scrobbles using Last.fm.  For those who don’t know, this is a site that tracks your listens and provides data and recommendations based on your interests.  However in the years that have passed, streaming services have eaten the lunch of Last.fm’s latter goal and unfortunately it seems the site is relegated to tracking. Given how much data I’ve been pumping into them, I’m glad that CBS is still keeping them around – for the time being.

It’s taken over three years for me to amass the next 20,000 songs, which is probably slower than most given that I listen to podcasts during essentially every commute.  As you’ll see below most of my rankings haven’t changed that much, although there has been a shift in the songs that have become more popular.

Dropped off the list:

  • Pearl Jam, previously at #1 with 475 plays.

10. Ozomatli (517 Plays, New to Top 10). Ozomatli is still a mainstream in my listening, and is my default go-to band when I want to hear some music in Spanish. Top Album: Don’t Mess With The Dragon. Top Tracks: Can’t Stop, La Gallina, Cut Chemist Suite

9. Outkast (557 Plays, Previously #9). If there was one group that I wish would get back together and play music, it would be Outkast. Unfortunately with all things in life: it’s just not that easy. Until then I’ll just need to be comforted by my Andre 3000 playlist.  Top Album: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Top Tracks: Ms. Jackson, Rosa Parks, Hey Ya!

8. Jimmy Eat World (562 Plays, Previously #8). I still haven’t seen them play live yet, and I’m wondering if that window is starting to close.   Top Album: Chase This Light. Top Tracks: Here It Goes, Open Bar Reception, A Praise Chorus

7. Red Hot Chili Peppers (733 Plays, Previously #5). RHCP may have suffered from not being on streaming platforms for part of the last three years. They finally got their stuff together and sre still putting out great music. Top Album: Stadium Arcadium. Top Tracks: Under the Bridge, Soul to Squeeze, Dani California

6. O.AR. (737 Plays, Previously #6). I’ve really liked a lot of their new stuff that they’ve put out. I’m a little surprised that Peace didn’t make it into my top three tracks, given how much I’m listening to it. Top Album: All Sides. Top Tracks: Love and Memories, This Town, Fire

5. John Butler Trio (816 Plays, Previously #7). Their plethora of great new music helped them swap places with RHCP.  I’ve actually done drum covers of Used To Get High and Close To You.  Top Album: Grand National. Top Tracks: Used to Get High, Daniella, One Way Road

4. Five for Fighting (872 Plays, Previously #5). I’m sad that my favorite singer-songwriter isn’t really releasing new material at this point. Top Album: Slice. Top Tracks: The Riddle, 100 Years, Slice

3. Michael Franti & Spearhead (924 Plays, Previously #4). I’m really enjoying the latest stuff that Franti and Spreahead are putting together, with the messages being more in-line with their earlier stuff.  Top Album: Stay Human. Top Tracks: One Step Closer To You, Hey Hey Hey, We Don’t Stop

2. Muse (1,216 Plays, Muse #2). One of my other favorite bands who don’t seem afraid to try different things with different albums. I’ve had a harder time getting into their new stuff, but that has more to do with the fact that they’re releasing so much, so fast. Top Album: Black Holes and Revelations. Top Tracks: Time Is Running Out (another fun drum cover), New Born, Hyper Music

1. Dave Matthews Band (2,812 Plays). No big change except for the fact that I can’t get enough of my favorite band and am hopeful they can release some new material this next year. Top Album: Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King. Top Tracks: Two Step, #41, So Much To Say

Thank you for checking in on this journey with me. Just for kicks, I also grabbed my top 5 favorite songs (statistically speaking) from the last year:

  1. Mark Ronson – Feel Right
  2. The Weeknd – Can’t Feel My Face
  3. Daft Punk – Get Lucky
  4. Enrique Iglesias – Bailando (Spanish Version) – my daughter loves this one
    1 Mark Ronson – Uptown Funk

40,000 Scrobbles & Counting

Jeromey Balderrama

Note: This is a follow-up post to a follow-up post, when I Scrobbled 29,000 songs back in May of 2010.

Back in December of 2006, I heard of this site known as Last.FM that tracked the music you listen to and offered recommendations based on those stats. While I rarely take advantage of the radio stations and streaming, I am fascinated by the data my “Scrobbles” bring.  Two years ago I jumped the gun and eagerly published my list before I reached 30,000 songs, so after patiently waiting for 40,000 I am eager to see how much musical tastes have changed over the last two years and 11,000 songs.

Dropped Off the Last List:

  • Gym Class Heroes (363 Plays, Previously Ranked #10).  This dropped all the way to #13.

#10: Pearl Jam (402 Plays, Previously not on the list). When the Pearl Jam Twenty documentary came out last fall, I binged on their music for a month straight. If I were to put together a Mt. Rushmore of albums of my teenage years, Ten would have to be on there. Top Album: rearviewmirror (greatest hits 1991-2003) Top Songs: Daughter, Given To Fly, Even Flow.

#9: OutKast (476 Plays, Previously at 7).  Andre 3000 is one of those renaissance men who seems to do anything besides what he does best.  OutKast has fallen down on my list simply because they haven’t produced anything relevant in nearly 6 years.  Top Album: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below Top Songs: Ms. Jackson, Rosa Parks, Hey Ya!

#8: Jimmy Eat World (502 Plays, Previously at 6). Not much to say here, except that this is a solid band that I still want to see live some day. Top Album: Chase This Light Top Songs: Here It Goes, Open Bar Reception, A Praise Chorus

#7: John Butler Trio (562 Plays, Previously at 9).  I think these guys haven’t even peaked when it comes to their music, each album gets better and better. Top Album: Grand National Top Songs: Daniella, One Way Road, Used To Get High

#6: O.A.R. (565 Plays, Previously at 8).  Another band on my “Need to see Live” list, their newest album King, is really good. Top Album: All Sides Top Songs: Right on Time, War Song, This Town.

#5: Red Hot Chili Peppers (594 Plays, Previously at #3).  RCHP was a band that I definitely missed these last few years, and am glad that they’re back with I’m With You, but these guys need to get their stuff together and get on Rdio, which is how I’m consuming 90% of my music today. Top Album: Stadium Arcadium Top Songs: Under the Bridge, Soul to Squeeze, Dani California.

#4: Five For Fighting (613 Plays, Previously at #5). John Ondrasik has got to be the classist musician out there. Top Album: Slice Top Songs: The Riddle, 100 Years, Slice.

#3: Michael Franti & Spearhead (728 Plays, Previously at #4).  When I last wrote about them, I was hoping that their next album would be like their earlier stuff. Sound of Sunshine is as good as you can get, producing one of my favorite songs in Hey Hey Hey.  Top Album: Stay Human Top Songs: One Step Closer To You, Hey Hey Hey, People in tha Middle.

#2: Muse (842 Plays, Previously at #2). Whether it’s working out, coding or having a party, Muse is a great soundtrack to life. Top Album: Origin of Symmetry Top Songs: New Born, Hyper Music, Time Is Running Out

#1: Dave Matthews Band (2011 Plays, Previously at #1). 2012 looks like to be a big year for them, with an album supposedly coming out sometime before December. Now if they would just come back to Denver… Top Album: Big Whiskey and the Googrux King Top Songs: Two Step, #41, Crash Into Me

Thanks for indulging me in the vanity of looking at my listening habits.  If you’d like to check out some of my statistically favorite songs, I’ve created an Rdio playlist.

Scobbling: 26k to 29k

Jeromey Balderrama

Note: This is a follow-up post to 26,000 Scrobbled and counting which I wrote last October. 

This week, I crossed the 29,000 song mark in the songs I’ve “Scrobbled” or tracked in Last.fm.  Now that I’ve crossed the 29k mark, I wanted to give an update as to what I’m listening.  There are a few interesting developments, such as a band making it’s debut on my top 10 at #2.

These Scrobbles primarily come from the listening I do at home & at work, as well as what I listen to on my iPod.  I use a little SanDisk Clip when I’m at the gym, but since that device doesn’t register play-counts, there is no way for me to Scrobble those songs.  Also, please note I’m listing my “Overall” rankings. If you would like to see what I’ve been listening to over the last 3,6,12 months, check out my Last.FM profile.  Also I would highly encourage anyone to use Last.FM.  It’s a great music discovery tool, but I primarily use to to examine my listening patterns.  It doesn’t cost anything, plugs in easily into iTunes or other media players, and makes your listening experience interesting.

Dropped off since 26,000:

  • System of A Down (Previously at 10) – If I was Scrobbling my workout music, System of a Down would not only be on the top 10, but probably be pretty high in the list.
  • Fiction Plane (Previously at 9)

10. Gym Class Heroes (298 Plays, Previously at 8 ): Previously I was addicted to 2-3 songs by them, now I’m addicted to 4-5. The Quilt is a really good album though). Top Album: As Cruel as School Children; Top Songs: 4th Period: Clothes Off!!, Peace Sign/Index Down, Cupid’s Chokehold.

9. The John Butler Trio (299 Plays, New on List ): John Butler Trio’s latest album, What You Want, is probably the reason why it shot it’s way up. It’s a good album that’s easy to listen to from start to finish. Top Album: Grand National; Top Songs: Daniella, Zebra, Better Than

8. O.A.R. (368 Plays, Previously at 7): It’s interesting that for as much as I thought I listened to O.A.R., I’ve only shot up 70 more plays since October. Top Album: All Sides; Top Songs: War Song, Shattered, The Stranger

7. Outkast (370 Plays, Previously at 5): I really wish they’d release some new material, and quickly. Top Album: Stankonia; Top Songs: Humble Mumble, Ms. Jackson, Rosa Parks 

6. Jimmy Eat World (386 Plays, Previously at 4): I still haven’t seen them live, but do really want to. Top Album: Chase This Light; Top Songs: Open Bar Reception, Here It Goes (if you want to see something stupidly funny, click on this link and watch the video these guys made dancing to this song), Big Casino

5. Five For Fighting (412 PLays, Previously at 6): Seeing John Ondrasik live is the biggest reason for this leapfrog. The new album “Slice” is great as well. Top Album: Two Lights; Top Songs: World, The Riddle, 100 Years

4. Michael Franti & Spearhead (459 Plays, Previously at 2): I wasn’t a huge fan of All Rebel Rockers, so I’m hoping their next release they’re working on sounds more like Stay Human, Everyone Deserves Music, and Yell Fire! Top Album: Stay Human; Top Songs: One Step Closer to You, People In Tha Middle, Listener Supported

3. Red Hot Chili Peppers (460 Plays, Previously at 3 ): It sounds like they have a new guitarist.  We’ll see if they’ll be able to put out a new release soon.  Top Album: Stadium Arcadium; Top Songs: Under the Bridge, Dani California, Show Me Your Soul

2. Muse (555 Plays, New on List): I was pretty shocked when I saw that Muse wasn’t really on my radar last fall, and yet have risen all the way to #2.  Part of it is that I bought tickets to their show in Denver, and boned up on as much Muse as I could. The other part is that Muse is really easy to listen to when you’re coding. Top Album: Origin of Symmetry; Top Songs: New Born, Hyper Music, Time Is Running Out

1. (With no surprise) Dave Matthews Band (1,408 Plays, Previously at #1): DMB continues to pad their stats in my listening list, but if my Scrobbles were reset 6 months ago, Muse would be up nearly 2:1 over DMB. I need to get to a Dave show pretty soon to get that spark again. Top Album: Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King; Top Songs: #41, Grey Street, Two Step

Thanks again for indulging me in my few minutes of vanity. I’ll probably post something again when I cross 30,000 Scrobbles, if there are any changes in the rankings.

26,000 Scrobbled and counting

Jeromey Balderrama

Yesterday I eclipsed my 26,000 song that I Scrobbled on Last.fm.  A “Scrobble” is essentially a song play that was tracked by Last.fm. By keeping track what I listen to, Last.fm has put together some pretty interesting statistics of my music tastes, as well as recommended songs that I would like (a feature I really haven’t used too much).

I’ve always wanted to write a reflective post of my top 10 artists according to Last.fm but missed the boat on the 20,000th and 25,000th thousand Scrobbles, so I figured that 26,000 was a nice round number and would take the opportunity to do so.  Without further ado, here are my top 10 favorite bands:

10. System of a Down (262 Plays) – Probably my favorite hard rock band – and I guess statistically-speaking, this is right. Top Album: Toxicity Top Songs: Chop Suey, Prison Song, B.Y.O.B., Hypnotize, Revenga

9. Fiction Plane (276 Plays) – I heard them open for the Police and have loved them ever since. Top Album: Left Side of the Brain Top Songs: Two Sisters, It’s A Lie, Death Machine, Running the Country, Presuppose

8. Gym Class Heroes 286 Plays) – The most surprising to me. I think it’s because I really like 2-3 tracks and have really overplayed them. Track #3 (29 plays) nearly doubles Track #4 (15 plays)  Top Album: As Cruel as School Children Top Songs: 4th Period: Clothes Off, Cupid’s Chokehold, Peace Sign/Index Down, 3rd Period: New Friend Request, Catch Me If You Can

7. O.A.R. (296 Plays) – O.A.R. is great music to unwind to.  I get in these moods where I’ll queue up a bunch of tracks on the playlist and let it rip. Top Album: All Sides. Top Track: War Song, Shattered, The Stranger, Something Coming Over, This Town

6. Five for Fighting (330 Plays) – One of my favorite bands, and I’m so excited that I’ll get to see John Ondrasik acoustically on Sunday!  Top Album: Two Lights. Top Songs: World, The Riddle, 100 Years, Something About You, Superman (It’s Not Easy)

5. Outkast (344 Plays) – Definitely my favorite rap group, I especially love the stuff that Andre 3000 does. Top Album: Speakeroxxx/The Love Below. Top Songs: Rosa Parks, Humble Mumble, Hey Ya!, Ms. Jackson, Spottieottiedopaliscious

4. Jimmy Eat World (345 Plays) – Probably tops my “Bands I haven’t seen live but really want to” list. Top Album: Bleed American. Top Songs: Here It Goes, Open Bar Reception, Big Casino, Sweetness, The Middle

3. Red Hot Chili Peppers (425 Plays) – Not much to say, just a great, solid band whose old and new stuff I enjoy. Top Album: Stadium Arcadium. Top Songs: Dani California, Under the Bridge, Show Me Your Soul, Readymade, Californication

2. Michael Franti & Spearhead (431 Plays) – A band that I have loved for years, and am glad that more people are finding out about them. Also the only band in this list where I’ve personally met the singer. Top Album: Stay Human Top Songs: One Step Closer to You, People in the Middle, A Little Bit of Riddim, Listener Supported, East to the West

and as if #1 was going to be any surprise.

#1 – Dave Matthews Band (1,255 Plays) -  Almost triples #2 on the list.  Considering how much effort I’ve put in to seeing them live, I should love to play them a lot. Top Album: Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King. Top Songs: Grey Street, #41, What Would You Say, Ants Marching, Funny the Way It Is

Note: I removed podcasts from my top 10 list.  There was one that fell under this list (ESPN at #2 – which is a family of podcasts).

I would highly recommend that if you’re a fan of music and would like to see what you’re listening to, that you give Last.fm a try.  We’ll see what happens when I approach 50,000 Scrobbles, and if my music taste changes much.  If you’re on Last.fm, I’d love for you to add my as a friend: RomeyInFC

Mile High Music Festival Schedule Out

Jeromey Balderrama

I mentioned last spring that Dave Matthews Band was coming to the Mile High Music Festival.  Originally I wasn’t too enthused with only seeing them in a festival setting, but after digesting the lineup I’ve really warmed up to the idea, and happy spent my summer’s concert budget on the festival (which $150 for 2 days isn’t really that bad).

MileHighMusicPoster

The performers schedule was finally released last Friday and I’m beginning to plot my itinerary for the day.  I’m a little disappointed because many of the bands I was excited to se will be overlapping, although some just overlap slightly.

Also when planning the itinerary it’s also important to remember that it’s impossible to see all the bands, and you physically can’t watch shows from 11am to 11pm in the hot sun both days.  As much as I’m looking forward to seeing the bands, I’m just as excited about tailgating in between shows.  It reminds me of football games, where sometimes tailgating beforehand can be just as much fun – or even more than – seeing the actual game.

With that in mind, here’s my in-progress schedule:

Saturday

  • 12:00pm Tailgating
  • 2:00pm Gavin Degraw
  • 3:00pm Jason Mraz
  • 4:00pm Steve Winwood (or Tailgating)
  • 6:00pm O.A.R.
  • 7:00pm Michael Franti & Spearhead
  • 9:00pm Tom Petty

    • Sunday

  • 12:00pm Tailgating
  • 2:00pm OneRepublic (although I’ve heard they’re not great live)
  • 3:00pm Colbie Caillat
  • 4:00pm Rodrigo Y Gabriela or Flogging Molly – that one’s up in the air
  • 5:30pm Flobots
  • 7:00pm The Roots
  • 8:45pm Dave Matthews Band

    • Do you have any suggestions for bands that are worth seeing?  As you can see,  I need to do some listening of the other bands, especially before 2pm.