I used to post my weekly artist charts on vox.com when that was a thing and it was kinda fun. I thought I’d start doing it on my Steemit blog and see if we can get some others doing something similar as a way of finding new music.
I’ve been on last.fm since 2007 and scrobbling pretty much everything I listen to ever since. I love having data like that to hand and seeing my listening trends. It’s a cool platform for discovering new music too, by searching through users who listen to the same stuff and finding out what else they listen to.
So, here are my top 5 artists for this week.
I’ve been a fan of Lou Reed’s going back to about 1986 when I got my first CD player. The first CD I ever bought was New York and I played that album to death. From there I went back the way, getting into the Velvet Underground and absolutely loved it. I’m not sure why it took me so long to find this music, but better late than never. I also really enjoyed Magic and Loss and I’ve enjoyed playing it at work this week.
I don’t know David Grisman’s music all that well. I put on a Tony Rice album at work on Spotify and it used the autoplay thing when the album finished, so a bunch of songs of Dawg’s must’ve been on the algorithm. I’ve seen videos of him interviewed and playing and I know that he’s a phenomenal musician. I really ought to listen to him more often.
Ah, Pierre Bensusan. His music has got me through some really tough times. When my mum was in hospice care, I listened to Altiplanos and Intuite A LOT. The compositions Hymn 11 and The Alchemist are astoundingly beautiful. Hymn 11 was composed in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks in the USA and it’s haunting. I’ve seen Pierre play many many times and been to workshops. He’s one of the most musical people I’ve ever met.
I’ve never been much of a fan of Van Morrison’s, but after I played a show this week I got talking to one of the front-of-house staff at the venue about music and she said I really ought to listen to Astral Weeks and Moondance, so I did. They didn’t jump out at me, but I was at work so only really half listening. I should give them another go.
The same girl talked about Courtney Barnett. I had listened to her before, particularly her album with Kurt Vile, so I put that on at work and enjoyed it.
So, that was my week. If you’d like to follow me on last.fm, hit me up and we’ll share some music.
Happy listening!
