Desert Island XI - QUARANTINE ISLAND - Rules and Signup Thread

[LemonMelon]

Each participant will be added to a group using a randomly generated number from 1-15 (or however many lists we receive in the end). If it were based solely on who submits first, the Trashley household would consistently be among the first to get feedback.

 

[lazarus]

I'm gonna do a scroll through iTunes and chuck songs I'm feeling in a big playlist and then just curate it. haven't even started. I'll spend a few hours on it, tops.

With my first submission, I knew I wanted to do all stuff from the 90s, and divided it up between rock tracks and more electronic/rhythm tracks, so each part had very different sounds.

For my second submission, as Cobbler said above, I didn't have any guiding theme or categorization, just threw a bunch of stuff into a playlist, and eventually separated them into two sections, then slowly got them into the right order. They're both pretty diverse genre-wise.

This time it's a bit of a combination. One section is definitely more rock than the other, but I didn't limit myself to any time period. But I still started with just a long list of stuff that stood out whole browsing my library. I'm essentially done but still tweaking it a little.

If there's one thing I've held to, it's trying to highlight as many obscure acts/songs as I can, and trying to avoid the more popular tracks from better-known artists.

 

[LemonMelon]

I don't know about the board as a whole, but this is definitely the most Laz-friendly list I've made yet. Charli XCX, Carly, Stereolab, Broadcast, Saint Etienne and Fiona Apple all make an appearance.

 

[gump]

I'd go for one week per group. Who knows where we will be by mid-June. And yes, there is a bit of a burnout at the end. It takes more effort to listen to everyone's list in a shorter period of time, but they will all be fresher I think.

 

[gump]

With my first submission, I knew I wanted to do all stuff from the 90s, and divided it up between rock tracks and more electronic/rhythm tracks, so each part had very different sounds.

I really loved that list. I need to listen to it again soon.

 

[LJT]

I think one week per group is long enough in general it sounds like people have a lot of time anyway to pack in some listening at the moment anyway!

 

[LemonMelon]

We can start off with one week of listening per group, and if everyone is finding they can't fit in a list every day and a half or so, the time frame can be extended to two weeks.

 

[gump]

PSA: since Spotify has eliminated the option of exporting the playlist into a text file, the easiest way I have found to transcribe the song/album/artist/length data is through this app called Exportify (there is a link down on this page): https://github.com/watsonbox/exportify

 

[iron yuppie]

Is there a way to insert a photo that doesn't involve a hosting site?

 

[LemonMelon]

Is there a way to insert a photo that doesn't involve a hosting site?

1. Open up the Spotify desktop app
2. Open your playlist
3. Click the default collage image for the playlist
4. Click "replace image"
5. Choose the image you want to use from your computer

 

[iron yuppie]

 

[the tourist]

If the demand is there, we'll know it and try to organize something slightly more regularly. Clearly the regulars are still hanging around and waiting for a reason to get involved.

To answer your question, I'm starting a new musical project called Arid Wash that's inspired by folk rock and singer/songwriters like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Gene Clark, Bill Fay, etc. A little heavier than that though. Specifically, I wanted to capture a sound inspired by the electric half of Dylan's classic 1966 Royal Albert Hall performance. Might end up in Andrew Jackson Jihad or Meat Puppets territory by the end.

I was having a difficult time writing songs on guitar that felt fresh so I got my Casio WK-3200 out and am creating songs with the grand piano and organ settings.

Cool! Will it be on the streaming sites when it’s done? I’m about 16 months into my record. Mostly done tracking. Mixing is both fun and incredibly frustrating. You ever listen to reference tracks and wonder how they hell they got such a wide stereo spread? Even like New Year’s Day is a lot wider than I expected. The fun is figuring it out without any training I guess, and reading the same advice over and over from online publications. Haha!

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Let’s throw some quarantine spice on this and do it on Zoom

 

[LuckyNumber7]

I was originally going to go out there and craft a list of “things you might not know” and try to be all impressive and shit but honestly I’m just gonna be true to myself and write a playlist that is me.

 

[LemonMelon]

I'd be down for a zoom meet up the night of the results thread. We could organize that.

 

[the tourist]

I'd be down for a zoom meet up the night of the results thread. We could organize that.

Crap. I’d be a whole lot less anonymous then. Haha!

 

[bono_212]

There's a chat function in zoom and you don't have to share your audio or video.

 

[Jerry Dunk]

For the last week I've thought about submitting my list before tinkering with it a little more. I'm going to probably give myself a few more days, but I want to lock it in soon.

 

[LJT]

I don't think i'm ever super happy with a playlist so when I get something I am vaguely happy with I just cut the my money and run.

It helped this time that I was working on some playlists for friends and myself anyway and ended up just adding to a pre-existing one.

But even now i'm have second thoughts about some songs in there, but I would always have those second thoughts anyway...So better to just leave it and hope for the best!

 

[iron yuppie]

There's a song in my head that would be a perfect transition but I'm not sure it actually exists.

 

[LemonMelon]

I don't think i'm ever super happy with a playlist so when I get something I am vaguely happy with I just cut the my money and run.

It helped this time that I was working on some playlists for friends and myself anyway and ended up just adding to a pre-existing one.

But even now i'm have second thoughts about some songs in there, but I would always have those second thoughts anyway...So better to just leave it and hope for the best!

All I know about your list, without listening to it in full, is that using something from Death in Haiti caught me off guard and was very inspired.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Since I’ve never done this...

Could a walkthrough of the playlist serve in place of the description? A sentence or two per song detailing where we are in time.

 

[LemonMelon]

Since I’ve never done this...

Could a walkthrough of the playlist serve in place of the description? A sentence or two per song detailing where we are in time.

Absolutely, some prefer using their description portion to make a timeline with the tracks instead of writing a paragraph. I did that for DI4.

 

[DaveC]

Since I’ve never done this...

Could a walkthrough of the playlist serve in place of the description? A sentence or two per song detailing where we are in time.

i submitted a five word sentence as my description

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Without giving too much away, I’m attempting to do something a little bit maybe too ambitious. Trying to link together a story using music I’ve listened to through the course of that story, chronologically, while maintaining respectable transitions and also ensuring that each song lyrically contributes to the story.

That’s a hodgepodge but I think I made it work.

 

[iron yuppie]

Without giving too much away, I’m attempting to do something a little bit maybe too ambitious. Trying to link together a story using music I’ve listened to through the course of that story, chronologically, while maintaining respectable transitions and also ensuring that each song lyrically contributes to the story.

That’s a hodgepodge but I think I made it work.

Personally I would just let the music speak for itself. Let the listener take from it what they will rather than giving them something very specific to expect in writing.

 

[gump]

I've been tinkering with mine for several days now, mostly because it ends on three very long songs and that kind of annoys me. But I will get it done today or tomorrow.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Personally I would just let the music speak for itself. Let the listener take from it what they will rather than giving them something very specific to expect in writing.

I wouldn’t say I’m giving something to expect. I’m finding a way to tell a story.

 

[Jerry Dunk]

There's a song in my head that would be a perfect transition but I'm not sure it actually exists.

I had a good transition that I had to scrap because the volume difference between the tracks on Spotify was too stark. I actually removed the one song entirely.

 

[the tourist]

I had a good transition that I had to scrap because the volume difference between the tracks on Spotify was too stark. I actually removed the one song entirely.

How do you have your playback set? You can turn on or off normalization, which changes the loudness units full scale from whatever the artist intended to -14 LUFS (most CDs in the loudness wars were around -8, so it’s a significant drop in some places in an attempt to get their volume equal to things that were released decades ago).