Brendan Stark

If you haven’t played with the Genius button in iTunes, you should. In iTunes 8, all you do is start playing a song you like, then hit the little “genius” molecule-looking button on the bottom right corner of iTunes and it will automatically create a playlist of 25 songs (you can increase the number in preferences) similar to the song you chose. Bottom line is that you’ll listen to songs you have in your library but forgot about.

For example, I chose Blue Orchid by the White Stripes as my starting point, hit the Genius button, and have since heard Buddy Holly by Weezer and now London Calling by the Clash. I like all those songs, but the odds of me scrolling through my library to choose them are about 0 in 1000. Random shuffle probably would have picked Miles Davis or Mozart or something other than what I want to listen to.

I won’t even try to put these an any order:

• Lolapalooza - with Janes Addiction and Nine Inch Nails (Irvine Meadows)
• Lolapalooza - with Smashing Pumpkins and Beastie Boys (Cal State Dominguez Hills)
• Smashing Pumpkins - with the drummer from Tool (Forum)
• AC/DC - Blow Up Your Video tour (Irvine Meadows)
• Metallica - Justice tour (Irvine Meadows)
• Metallica and Guns ‘N Roses - (Rose Bowl)
• NIN - Downward Spiral tour (Universal Amphitheatre)
• Erasure - Tank, Swan and Balloon tour (Wiltern)
• Depeche Mode - Violator tour (Dodgers Stadium)
• The Cure - Wish tour (Rose Bowl)
• Primus and Fishbone - Seas of Cheese tour (Palladium)
• Tori Amos - Arlington Theatre, Santa Barbara
• Morrissey - Santa Monica Civic
• DC Talk - Universal Amphiteatre
• John Mayer - Coors Amphitheatre
• David Crowder Band - Angel Stadium
• Delirious? - Arco Arena

I saw most of these bands more than once, but these are the shows that stick out in my memory.

So here’s the first of a few top 10 lists: my 10 (well, maybe 24) favorite bands of all time. Not all are my current favorites, but all were my “favorite” once upon a time.

1. Beatles*
2. Men at Work
3. Stray Cats
4. Wham!
5. Thompson Twins
6. Prince
7. Huey Lewis and the News
8. Van Halen*
9. The Smiths*
10. Talking Heads*
11. Depeche Mode*
12. AC/DC
13. Metallica*
14. The Cure*
15. Nine Inch Nails
16. Primus
17. Bob Marley*
18. Jane’s Addiction
19. Smashing Pumpkins*
20. Radiohead*
21. Switchfoot*
22. White Stripes*
23. John Mayer Trio*
24. David Crowder Band*

*Still currently on my iPod

(runners up: Coldplay, U2, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Danzig, Sting, George Michael, REM, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Footloose soundtrack, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Clash, Jars of Clay, Erasure, Spandau Ballet, Hall&Oats, The Clash, The Cult, Beastie Boys, Tori Amos, Sarah McLaughlin, DC Talk, Delirious?, Elvis Costello, Jennifrer Knapp, Electronic, Jimi Hendrix, New Order, Oingo Boingo, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Pixies, Police, Salvador, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Weezer, Wilco, 311)

That’s all. Maybe that means I should be doing something productive.

Nah.