The Pandora Experience

You kids have probably heard of this whatchacallit "Pandora" before, am I right?  I remember back in my younger days I would hear talk about it too.  The talk mostly consisted of, "have you tried out Pandora yet?  It's awesome," or, "my new favorite thing is Pandora!."  I am generally averse to things that everyone recommends to me, so I ended up avoiding this musical engine for some time.  It finally caught on for me (as most things I avoid usually do) after the popular phase has passed, so it's not quite as hip and cool as it once was.

Anyways, you're probably still wondering about this "Pandora Experience," yes?  Well okay then, I shall explain to you the thing I just made up.  The Pandora Experience is where you're listening to the station of a band you enjoy and you hear an outstanding song from some band you've never heard of (or vaguely heard of), and the song is so outstanding that you go out and look up further songs by said some band at home, possibly even in your free time!

Yeah, for quite a while I didn't think the Experience actually happened.  I'd go and listen to the Pete Yorn station (for example) and it would play a PY song, followed by a Death Cab for Cutie song, followed by a Counting Crows song, further followed by a Rhett Miller song, until it finally got back to another Pete Yorn song.  I was fine with it at first, because I know and like all those bands, but after a while I wanted to scream: "play something new!  DO IT!"

Finally, it happened.  It was a normal day, like any other.  I flipped on the ol' Pandora, mostly just to drown out the annoying music what gets played at the job.  It happened to be on the Pete Yorn station.  I'm kinda half listening (as one often does when one knows what one is going to hear), and all of a sudden BAM! awesome song.  The awesomeness struck me in the face approximately 1/4 of the way through the track.  I listened and just wanted to rewind and hear that track again and again, but (unfortunately) Pandora doesn't let you do it.  I won't lie, I was disappointed when the song ended.  But then, out of nowhere, BA-BAM!, back-to-back awesome songs!  I was in disbelief.  How was this possible?  I thought I must have died and gone to some awesome heaven.  So, how 'bout some band names-slash-tracks you say?  Okay!

I had actually heard of Matt Nathanson a while back (it was hard not to if you were at any time a Howie Day fan).  I had randomly listened to tracks by Mr. Nathanson, but none of 'em ever drew me in.  That is until I heard Curve of the Earth on Pandora.  It's nothing ground-breaking, but it is good solid pop-rock with a great hook.  Songs like this one are going to force me to probe his work more thoroughly

[mp3] Matt Nathanson - Curve of the Earth (Live)

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I can almost say positively that I would not have heard anything by this band had it not been for my random Pandora moment.  It's not that I'd never heard of Matt Pond PA, I definitely had prior to this.  No; but it's kind of hard to explain.  They're one of those bands that you've heard talked about and described just enough to think you know what they sound like without ever hearing them.  It's a strange concept, I know, (and probably another type of thing that solely applies to me) but I think it definitely applied in this case.  I'm glad I finally heard them though, 'cuz Matt Pond PA has some good stuff.  I'm not even gonna hint at the sound either; you're going to be forced to listen yourself!  Bwahaha!

[mp3] Matt Pond PA - Devil in the Water

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