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Big year again...

#5 X&Y - Coldplay

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First time Coldplay take out a place, but they are one of the greats. This is a fantastic album with highlights such as Talk, Fix You, Speed of Sound, and What If.

#4 The Sound Of White - Missy Higgins

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I had origanlly given this spot to Love. Angel. Music. Baby by Gwen Stefani but decided that this album has more substance to it, more on Gwen later. This album has some awesome tracks on it, and she has such a fantastic and unique voice. Highlights are Scar, The Special Two, Ten Days and The Sound Of White.

#3 Hot Fuss - The Killers

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This was another one when i came back from overseas and all my friends were singing Somebody Told Me, i had to find out about these guys. And what an album. mr. …

The Australian and N.Z. Rock Artists League

We started the first Season but for the next we need six new artists to replace the six wich are relegated!
So, in this thread, please post your favourite six bands that meet the following criteria:

1) Are a rock artist. This is defined as an artist that plays a style of music incorporated into the rock genre.

This can be pop/rock, alternative rock, punk-rock, all forms of metal, acoustic rock (as an addition). This does not include standard pop such as girl bands, this does also not include stuff like electronica, although there may be exceptions, I will judge each case individually. If I am unsure as to whether an artist is a rock artist or not, I will use the Last.fm tags as my guide.

2) Are australian or kiwi. This is defined as originating from Australia or New Zealand.
Originating is defined as:

a) The artist or all or some members of the band of which the artist is comprised was born in Australia or New Zealand…

For the record, the landmark song was Songbird by Bernard Fanning from the album Tea & Sympathy. The CD arrived in the post this morning and I have been playing it all day so far, although I'll probably give the rest of my artists some scrobbles after dinner :o)

I have two Powderfinger CDs on the way over from Australia - they should be here by the end of next week. One of them is the 2-disc edition of Golden Rule. It's amazing how my taste has expanded since I started using last.fm - while I haven't got as many artists in my library as other people I know, I have discovered a whole load of artists that I would not have heard of just listening to the radio.

I am gradually acquiring as many of these albums as possible on CD so that I can take them with me when I go to visit friends and relatives and try and expand their tastes too. It annoys me when people use language differences as an excuse not to like a song. I have a number of songs in my library that I have only a…

This year has seen me find and add even more great music to my library. I've continued listening mainly to Latin and rock music, but I've also been exploring other genres. My collection has benefitted greatly from film soundtracks which have introduced me to artists I probably wouldn't otherwise have heard of.

A prime example is Powderfinger, who I first heard only a few months ago on the soundtrack of the Heath Ledger film Two Hands. I ordered the CD at the same time as the DVD and immediately loved the songs These Days and Belter. Since then I have been listening to almost every song of theirs that is playable on last.fm and will aim to buy some Powderfinger CDs in 2010. Their lead singer Bernard Fanning also made the beautiful ballad Shelter For My Soul for the soundtrack of Ned Kelly in which he also has a cameo as a folk singer - I found the playable versions of all of the tracks here on last.fm.

Another artist that I liked from the Two Hands soundtrack is Alex Lloyd and his song Lucky Star. …

First, make a list of your top-20 artists overall. Then, for each of these artists, add the 8 most similar artists to your list. Delete any duplicates, count up the number of entries on your list and this will give you some idea of how eclectic your listening habits are. A score of 9 represents an extremely unvaried musical taste while a 160 represents an extremely varied one.

Jack Johnson

1 Donavon Frankenreiter
2 Matt Costa
3 Animal Liberation Orchestra
4 Zach Gill
5 Ben Harper
6 John Mayer
7 G. Love & Special Sauce
8 Jason Mraz

Beans on Toast

9 Frank Turner
10 Kid Harpoon
11 Chris T-T
12 Jay Jay Pistolet
13 Laura Marling
14 Jeremy Warmsley
15 Johnny Flynn
16 Emmy The Great

Bad Religion

17 Pennywise
18 NOFX
19 Lagwagon
20 Descendants
21 Anti-Flag
22 Millencolin
23 Good Riddance
24 No Use For A Name

A Day to Remember

25 The Devil Wears Prada
26 Attack Attack!
27 Four Year Strong
28 A Skylit Drive
29 Set Your Goals
…

November is almost over so I better do this or I'll never do it. Here in Australia on Triple J radio is Ausmusic month and ABCTV show Rage has joined in this year too. In Jmag The Drones won the top spot in their "Greatest Aussie Song Ever" Top 30 as voted by Aussie muso's. Winning with Shark Fin Blues, which got the most votes and so should they, check it all out here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/triplej/2009/10/greatest-aussie-songs-ever.html

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Plus the other night The Drones won two A.I.R. Awards for "Independent Artist Of The Year" and "Best Independent Album" for Havilah and so should they too, check it out here: http://www.airawards.com.au/ (also they should win every A.R.I.A. award at the end of this week but will miss out more than likely because well, it's the crappy arias). Anyway I'm going to re-post Gareth Liddiard from The Drones top five votes for Jmag's greatest Aussie songs, which are:
…

Played live acoustically at the ceremony:

Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
Bob Dylan - Make You Feel My Love
The Beatles - Real Love


Reception background music:

Adele - Make You Feel My Love
The Beatles - Something, Oh! Darling, Blackbird, Revolution 1, I've Just Seen A Face, Girl, In My Life, The Ballad Of John And Yoko, Real Love
Calexico - Two Silver Trees, Quattro (World Drifts In)
Chris Isaak - Wicked Game
The Church - Under The Milky Way
Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane
The Cure - Close To Me
DeVotchKa - Along The Way, New World
Drive-By Truckers - Two Daughters And A Beautiful Wife
Feist - The Water, Past In Present, 1234
The Go-Betweens - Streets Of Your Town
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Over The Rainbow
Jenny Lewis - Pretty Bird
Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins - Rise Up With Fists!!, Melt Your Heart, Handle With Care
Joan As Police Woman - Real Life, Eternal Flame, The Ride, Flushed Chest, Anyone, Holiday, To Be Loved, To Be Lonely, Start Of My Heart
Little Birdy - Into My Arms
Little Red - So Long
…