LAST POST FOR LAST.FM?

Steerpike – subscriber – but not for much longer.

Appropriately funereal logo

A bombshell email from team Last.FM today.  Their radio streaming service Last.fm offers to me as an Italian subscriber will no longer be available as of January 15.

This massive change also affects services in Spain, France, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Turkey and China. the official explanation is that it’s “because of licensing restrictions”  but unofficially it is the inevitable consequence of a CBS takeover some years back.

TOM CARTER APPEAL

Really saddened to hear that Tom Carter of the duo Charalambides was taken critically ill with pneumonia while on tour  in Europe. He is currently in intensive care in hospital in Berlin.

Charalambides were one of the first bands that symbolised all that is great about the free folk movement that, for better or worse, has been grouped under the umbrella label New Weird America. I set up a group in their honour on Last.Fm.

Glasgow’s Volcanic Tongue record store  have established a page where they will post regular updates on his condition.

All the proceeds from titles featuring Tom and Christina Carter or Charalambides sold by VT will go direct to Tom and his family as well as all sales of releases on Blackest Rainbow Recordings.

For more details please go here: http://volcanictongue.com/tomcarterappeal.

2011 IN REVIEW : MUSIC

Cover images of my top 15 favourite albums of 2011.

2011 was without a doubt P.J.Harvey‘s year. Let England Shake was the best album  by a mile and her interviews and concerts confirmed her as an artist at the top of her game.

Otherwise, this was a year for renewing old acquaintances rather than making fresh discoveries.

The welcome return of Gillian Welch (and Dave Rawlings) was an event and the album proved well worth the eight year wait.

It was also a nice surprise  that Charalambides released another Kranky studio work, a belated follow-up to 2007’s Likeness and as consistently excellent as ever.

ANIMAL MY SOUL GROUP CHARTS

Pleased that my Animal Soul Group on Last.Fm, which I created on 2nd January 2011, has, to date, a grand total of 88 members.

Thanks to  those who have joined! I love you all!!

What I like about these groups is seeing, and playing, the weekly charts.

The way that overall charts work (edited from the last f.m FAQ section) is that every “1” will represent a group member. For example, say there are 3 people in a group who listened to a certain artist in a given week, it’ll say “3” in the charts .

The first overall chart for the AMS group is quite a solid, conservative list headed by Sonic Youth. The only surprise for me was The Knife at number 3 , an electronic duo from Stockholm, Sweden who I never really rated that much.

The ‘unique to this group’ charts are usually much more interesting.