My Tunes Genius

Snap. iTune's Genius function saves what may have otherwise been a dull day at the office. No, this is not the Apple Genius Bar, the ironically named parade of snooty, black-shirted, singularly-skilled men and women whose favorite phrase is "we can fix that, for (INSERT INSANELY HIGH PRICE)". I'm talking about the Genius Playlists, which take web-based data and your own music library to create a "similar-artists" playlist from one song.

(And yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of the Genius Bar. I always seem to get the old balding dude with the scowl who doesn't believe that my iPod freezes frequently because I can't recreate the episode in a 2-minute time-frame. Also have I mentioned I've gone through about 6 iPods since my first? Well I have.)

Genius Playlists are a lesser-used function of iTunes, because generally we humans assume that we're capable of creating playlists based on what we know we like. And what machine can so intuitively wrap its mind around, say, my random uncontrollable urges to hear Brand New every fourth or fifth song? It seems a little tough in practice, and for good reason. Genius still doesn't work like a charm, you'll still get the same 3-5 artists repeated over and over again. If you try to re-"Genius" your results, things don't get switched up much. It depends on your library, of course, but I think it still needs some tweaking.

That being said, sometimes Genius can just get things right.

Today's playlist was off of Vampire Weekend's "California English." It's an almost nonsensical song with some obvious auto-tune and a seriously catchy pop tinge to it. But it inspired one of my favorite iTunes Genius lists of all time. And here it is:

Vampire Weekend - California English
Passion Pit - Little Secrets
Phoenix - 1901
Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension
Discovery - Osaka Loop Line
Volcano Choir - Island, IS
Ra Ra Riot - Oh, La
Grizzly Bear - While You Wait for the Others
Vampire Weekend - The Kids Don't Stand a Chance
Yeasayer - Ambling Alp
Animal Collective - Brother Sport
Miike Snow - Burial
The Big Pink - Dominos
Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Matt & Kim - Good Ol' Fashion Nightmare
Passion Pit - Sleepyhead
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
Phoenix - Lisztomania
Discovery - Orange Shirt
Julian Casablancas - Out of the Blue
Ra Ra Riot - Dying is Fine
Arctic Monkeys - Cornerstone
Dirty Projectors - Stillness is the Move
Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
Los Campesinos! - Death to Los Campesinos!

All in all, a great playlist. With a few gems I hadn't listened to before (Julian Casablancas), some surprises (Los Campesinos!), and a couple of my recent most favorite songs (Cousins, Sleepyhead, Dying is Fine) .

So there's my point: use your Genius. It may save your day.

KevDev Pre-game

This week is going to be completely Kevin Devine centered. I have no idea why, I just decided while listening to his album "Put Your Ghost to Rest" the other day that his lyrics and name need to get out. So be prepared for a lot of quality links and lyrics being Facebook'd, Tweeted, and whatever.

http://www.myspace.com/kevindevine