I remember sitting in Study Hall in 1988 and settling an argument as to if AC/DC was coming to the area. I was the walking tour date listings in our High School. Granted, I was getting some of my info from the issue of Rolling Stone that everyone had access to in the library. My sources went deeper though…Hit Parader, Circus, Metal Edge. Anyway, the answer was no.

Why the flashback? I have been meaning to mention this site for a while. Last night I followed one of the emails I get back to WolfGang’s Vault to listen to some classic B.B. King that is on sale for $4.00. I tell ya, live music is such a visual thing, but there are some shows on there that are so crisp and clear from decades ago that it’s like flashing back to being there…even if you were not catching shows yet. For example, there is an awesome Aerosmith show live from Central Park in 1975 that makes me flash back to the times I seen them in the 80s. (more…)

It appears that YouTube is taking a swing at the music discovery and playlist suggestion thing with Disco, it’s own Discovery Project. Sound a bit like Pandora Radio? It’s along the same idea but not yet quite as slick yet. It does however have some points I would prefer to Pandora.

Upon arrival you are hit with a big search box. Enter the desired band name here and you will get a playlist suggested music playlist with various similar artists (but more of the searched artist), a list of the links to the searched band’s videos on YouTube that you can add to the playlist and more tunes from the similar artists you can add to the playlist.

A search for Ratt came up with a live concert video of “Round and Round” and a playlist including AC/DC, Guns and Roses, Skid Row, Motley Crue, and Great White.  There were more artists like Poison, Faster Pussycat, and L.A. Guns over in the related artists.

Remember when I mentioned it wasn’t as slick as Pandora Radio? Well, it isn’t as pretty. There is the same element of surprise when you wait to see what the next song will be. There are some things that are better. Like control over which songs are in the playlist (you can eliminate a tune by throwing a quick click on a box) once it is formed. As far as I can tell it is not going to tell you at some point in the month that you used up your listens for that time period.

Overall I think it is something I will use when I’m in the mood for a certain music (The Joe Bonamassa search results were interesting).

I raise a Zippo lighter to Mashable for bringing this to my attention. \m/

A couple of weeks ago I received an email newsletter from Joe and Vicky Price that made mention that they were nominated for an Independent Music Award in the Best Blues Album category. Wanting to support my favorite Iowa Bluesman I went and checked it out. What I found was a smorgasbord of Independent Recording Artists to discover.

From the IMA site:

Discover an eclectic mix of self-released & independent label talent culled from six continents. The Independent Music Awards celebrates artists that follow their own muse – with over 250 Nominees there’s plenty to please the most discerning music fans.

So do your part to support independent music. Listen, discover & champion your favorites.

It’s easy to get lost going through the different categories and artists. I have already found several bands whose material I have downloaded and will later give a quick profile on MusicLee Inclined. Go check it out and if you find something oters should hear please leave it in the comments or post it on our Facebook page.

Links:

Independent Music Awards

Nominees:Once here you can check out the different categories, join in the fun and register and vote.

For Christmas this year MusicWife got me a ticket to an upcoming show at the Mississippi Moon Bar in Dubuque, Iowa. I attempted to get one of the Black Friday (the one after Thanksgiving) $1 tickets to Dokken and Firehouse but they sold the allotted amount of tickets before I got there. MusicWife came through.

It has been a good ten years since I have seen either of these bands and I was curious what their setlist looks like these days. Doing a search for Dokken (clearly the band of the two I’m interested in seeing) I was led to a site called Setlist.fm. Setlist.fm is a wiki site where users can add setlists as they wish.

Being a wiki site it is only updated as often as someone enters a show of course. The Dokken show I found was ironically a year from the date I will be attending in February. It’s kinda cool though that each song there is a “play” button that will take you to some media (usually YouTube) to check it out. This is helpful for those songs being played in the “non-Dokken” years of my life.

Granted these are only as reliable as the people entering them but it is fun to look through, especially if someone was obsessed enough with a band 20 years ago that they logged and kept a setlist from a concert you attended.

Although it is not yet available in the United States, keep your ears open for Spotify. It appears that the music lover’s dream application may not be far away.

There are no restrictions in terms of what you can listen to or when. Forget about the hassle of waiting for files to download and fill up your hard drive before you get round to organising them. Spotify is instant, fun and simple.

Raising a lighter to Lifehacker