Archive for April, 2008



New feature! A way for you to add tour dates

by ian

When we started Songkick our biggest goal was to create a place where every single concert was listed – from giant arena shows to tiny local in store gigs – a site the most hardcore live music fan could trust to know about everything.

It’s a tough thing to do. As an example Radiohead are one of our favourite bands in the office. We currently list their tour dates for their UK/US tour on their artist page along with links to the different ticket options. To do that we scrape 17 different ticket vendors in the UK and US as well as other websites. It’s a pretty powerful piece of software, but it isn’t enough.

Back in January Radiohead posted this on their site:

So, we’ve got a small gig tonight.

It’s in London at the Rough Trade East shop on Brick Lane, and we’re planning to play a short set of in rainbows material. It’s very limited free entry, first come first served. Also, as it might be a little uncomfortable for anyone queuing early, they’re planning a numbering system so people at the front of any queue can get snacks and toilet breaks in the store. Good bagels round there. But dress warm…doors won’t open until 7, and we’ll play at about 8.

For those who can’t get in – and it’s pretty small in there – we’ll have some screens and speakers outside, if we’re allowed. I think we are. And we’ll also webcast it. I’ll put the link up here, as well as any other info, later today.

I don’t know about you but that’s the sort of thing that sends shivers of anticipation down my spine – a tiny in-store gig by one of my favourite bands. Up till now the only way our scrapers could automatically get that gig up on songkick would be to run natural language algorithms on that chunk of text and figure out that they had a gig tonight at Rough Trade. That’s no mean feat and even Dr Phil our resident machine learning genius starts to frown with discomfort.

But fortunately that’s not the plan. We always hoped that if we started to get a really large percentage of the listings out there on our site using automated techniques then some passionate live music fans would let us fill in the gaps for stuff like that Radiohead gig. This has started to happen a lot recently with awesome users emailing us when we’re missing stuff. Now we’ve created an interface to let you do that whenever you feel like spreading the word about a show.

On every artist, venue and city page there is a little ‘add new concert’ link. For example on the White Rabbits artist page:

White Rabiits

Which takes you here:

Add a concert

You can check it out here, we’d love to hear any feedback you’ve got.

We’re keeping track of every show people add and will be sure to shower the most dedicated contributors with free gig tickets from time to time to say thanks!

Hopefully the next time Radiohead announce a secret date it’ll be up on Songkick in minutes…


Hacker meetup #2 – photos

by ian

Every month we host a hacker meetup at our office in London.

Last summer we took part in Y Combinator – an incubator for very early stage start-ups. It was an incredible experience – we moved to Boston for 3 months and spent a summer working crazy hours hacking up our first prototype of Songkick. We were doing this alongside 18 other start-ups and the atmosphere and cameraderie was incredible.

I’d recommend the experience to anyone interested in starting a web based company, do get in touch with me if you’re interested and I’ll tell you more.

One of the best things about Y Combinator were the weekly dinners where all the start-ups would meet up and talk about what they’d been working on that week. It was a very developer focused group (around 95% of the founders were hackers) so it was an ideal environment to get feedback on your new code and ideas.

When we came back to London we missed the atmosphere at those dinners so decided to try to replicate it.

Once a month a group of hackers meet up at our office and then go for dinner somewhere cheap nearby. It’s a great place to get feedback on ideas and meet like-minded people. This month was the second meetup we’ve done and attendance was way higher than we expected – around 45 hackers turned up to watch demos and discuss ideas. This month the demos were really varied with:

- Dennis Furey who presented Ursala, a new functional programming language he is developing

- Mark Kinsey who demoed a cool stealth mobile app for restaurants and bars – and is looking for a technical co-founder

- The brothers Moore who demoed Mibbit their online IRC client (they currenly handle 2.5M lines of chat a day…)

- Daniel Todd who showed off his personal timeline app Timetoast (just launched!)

          Here are some photos from the demos:

          demo1

          demo2

          demo3

          If any UK based hackers are reading this join the Hacker Meetup Facebook group here and come along to the next one! It’ll be on Friday 23rd May at 7pm.


          Chromatics at Cafe 1001 (London), April 19, 2008 review

          by michelle

          Thanks to Slutty Fringe‘s great concert pick, I managed to catch The Chromatics‘ first London show at Cafe 1001, right around the corner from us on Brick Lane. I fell in love with the Chromatics’ sound after reading so much about the Italians Do it Better imprint, which released their album, Night Drive.

          The place was completely packed and sold out. I heard a rumor that they booked another show for Tuesday night (last night) because there was so much demand. Such is the power of the blogs I tell you! While I was waiting in line to get my wrist band, this girl asked me what they sounded like. It was really tough to describe them (I’m shit at it anyway), but I said something along the lines of really mellow, synthy music with a female vocalist. The fetching singer, Ruth Radalet, reminds me of a modern-day Nico. Maybe it was the heavy bangs framing a beautiful face, but their voices share a flat, removed quality.

          After their set, they came to the side of the stage to sell merch. How’s that for DIY?

          Here’s their cover version of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” paired with the original for comparison. I listened to this song on repeat for much of February. It was the last song of their set, and it didn’t disappoint. (It’s been a while since I posted mp3s, yes?)

          Chromatics – Running Up That Hill (cover)
          Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill (original)

          chromatics
          Pretty lights = mood shot

          chromatics 1
          All three boys in the band were wearing the exact same, pristine white Adidas sneakers. (Third boy is the drummer, you can’t see here.) Not sure if that was a nod to boy band outfits or what.

          ruth of chromatics
          This is the best shot I have of Ruth. Isn’t she a Nico for 2008?


          I’m a lazy blogger. I’m just gonna reblog and hate myself for using that word.

          by michelle

          I was really thrilled when Coudal featured Battle of the Bands in their “Fresh Signals” feed a couple of weeks ago. I really love what they do over there, and always find amusing and engaging tidbits. It’s been a while since I indulged in a geeky literary-musical pairing, so I’m now directing you to the brilliant contest they ran, “Booking Bands.” (Oh, the cleverness kills me. And books and covers, &c.) In their own words:

          “The idea is to mash up the name of a book with the name of a band. Here’s a few of our examples to get you started:

          The Things They Might Be Giants Carried*
          The Who Moved My Cheese*
          The Old Man and The Sea and Cake*
          Charlie Daniels and the Chocolate Factory*
          Catch 182*
          Horton Hears a Hoobastank*
          Of Mice and Men at Work*
          Bare Naked Lunch Ladies*
          The Agony and the XTC*”

          Horton Hears a Hoobastank? Eet kills me. They ran a contest for these, which I wish I caught because I bet I could’ve come up with some pretty good ones. Here are some of my favorites:

          The Sun Also RZA
          Last Yo La Tengo in Paris
          Chromeo & Juliet
          Megadeth of a Salesmen

          A problem we come across a lot with machine learning are band names that are also commonly used words, like Justice, Spoon, Pavement, et al. How do you train a robot to know that that’s a band and not just a normal word and vice versa? Anyway, I thought I’d give it a shot. Here are mine:

          Interview with the Vampire Weekend
          Super Furry Animals Farm (not very good, I admit)
          Legends of the Fall (This doesn’t really count as a mash-up.)
          Peter and the Wolf Parade
          Beach House of Sand and Fog
          About a Beastie Boy (Dude, what is it saying about me that I only know about most of these “books” because they were made into movies??!)
          Fast Food National
          The Sound and We are the Fury
          Burial Child
          To the Razorlight-house
          Sonic Youth without Youth (I’m on a roll!!!)
          Lady Chatterley’s Modern Lovers
          Okkervil River Runs Through It
          God of Small Faces
          White Rabbits at Rest
          The Optimist’s Sons & Daughters
          Middlesex Pistols
          The Twilight Sad of the Idols
          The Love as Laughter Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
          The Waste Land of Talk
          Of Mice and Man Man

          I have to pry myself away and get back to work! How good am I?!!!


          Patrick Watson at Scala

          by songkick soldier

          After my first Songkick-guided gig it’s now time for my first blog! Patrick Watson at the Scala last night was a magical musical treat and I completely fell in love with him, his music and his band for a second time. I was originally exposed to his soft, subtle vocals on Cinematic Orchestra’s ‘To Build A Home’ and I soon after discovered that his album Close to Paradise, most of which he performed last night, is a really apt title. (Ew, cheesy but true!) The Scala is a brilliant venue – I guess I’d describe it as an intimate academy and you can either get close up to the band on the dance floor or chill out with uninterrupted views (and a nice pint) on the balcony. Mostly piano-based, Patrick’s songs were all warm, moving and inspiring. He’s distinctly comparable to Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, Coldplay and a gentle Martin Grech, yet Watson’s voice is more ghostlike, soulful (and less whiney?! Sorry!) than these influences. At times I also heard hints of Nick Drake, Manu Chau and Scott Matthews yet as sorrowful as some songs sounded, Watson’s chat to us between songs kept the mood light and informal. Casually intimate! His band were great too and several times swapped instruments; I wasn’t sure about the tea-cosy the guitarist wore though…
          Towards the end of his set Watson relocated to the centre of the room to test out the Scala’s acoustics and capacity of his voice for one song – both proved themselves as the music was carried delicately around the room…a special moment which broke up the standard gig format. If you missed out (shame on you for not using songkick!) don’t worry…Songkick recommends six other similar artists currently on tour! Phew!
          Instead of posting a shaky, dark clip of the actual gig, check out this video to one of my favourite songs from Close to Paradise:

          And here’s a dark, shaky photo from last night – see teacosy-sporting guitarist in background. Cute!

          patrick watson. scala


          Interview with The Rawking Refuses to Stop! (LA blog)

          by michelle

          LA blogger: The Rawking Refuses to Stop!
          (He swears he takes his crisp and striking concert photos with a measly point and shoot. Basically he wants to put my pathetic attempts to shame.)

          get rawking!

          1. Name? David Greenwald
          2. Age? 22
          3. Occupation? Journalist
          4. How long have you lived in Los Angeles? Five years, but in Southern California my whole life.
          5. Favorite Los Angeles venue? The Troubadour
          6. How long have you been blogging? Almost three years.
          7. How did you choose the name of your blog? It was supposed to be a bad joke. Then people started reading it.
          8. First concert? Willie Nelson and Ray Charles
          9. Most recent concert? Au Revoir Simone
          10. Most memorable concert? Elliott Smith at the Henry Fonda Theatre in 2003. Elliott’s my favorite musician ever and this, unfortunately, was one of his last shows. He played “Antonio Carlos Jobim,” an old Heatmiser classic I never expected to hear live.
          11. Most disappointing? The Walkmen at All Tomorrow’s Parties 2004, if only because I skipped out on Wolf Parade to see ‘em. I love Bows + Arrows but they were trying way too hard.
          12. Dream line-up? Ryan Adams opening for Wilco, with Jim O’Rourke and Jon Brion sitting in on both sets.

          Interview with The Catbirdseat (New York blogger)

          by michelle

          New York blogger: The Catbirdseat
          (His April podcast brought me right back to the nineties.)

          tigerostrichchair

          1. Name? Ryan Catbird
          2. Age? 33
          3. Occupation? Web/interaction designer.
          4. How long have you lived in NYC? I moved to NYC in December of ’06, but had been coming here regularly for some time before that.
          5. Favorite NYC venue? Mercury Lounge.
          6. How long have you been blogging? Six years.
          7. How did you choose the name of your blog? I honestly have no idea.
          8. First concert? Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer–The Clash of the Titans Tour, 1991.
          9. Most recent concert? Fulton Lights at Union Hall, Brooklyn.
          10. Most memorable concert? Destroyer backed by Frog Eyes, SXSW, 2004. It was the first time I finally, actually got Destroyer, and have never been the same since.
          11. Most disappointing concert? It’s hard to remember because I have absolutely no qualms about walking out the moment I stop enjoying something. And I’ve done that quite a few times.
          12. Dream line-up? Destroyer touring to support his Streethawk album, 2001.

          Interview with Songs:Illinois and Swedesplease (Chicago blogger)

          by michelle

          Chicago blogger: Songs:Illinois and Swedesplease
          (If you’re like me and obsessed with Swedish music, you’ll love Swedesplease.)

          songs:illinois

          yespleaseblondes

          1. Name? Craig Bonnell
          2. Age? Older
          3. Occupation? Music writing, film and ad music placement, some promo work.
          4. How long have you lived in Chicago? A decade or so.
          5. Favorite Chicago venue? Schubas
          6. How long have you been blogging? Four or five years.
          7. How did you choose the name of your blog? I’ve got two blogs. Swedesplease is all Swedish indie pop. The name just popped into my head. Thankfully, several years later, I still love it. The name for Songs:Illinois is taken from Jason Molina’s band, Songs:Ohia.
          8. First concert? Probably the Throwing Muses at The Rat in Boston in ’84.
          9. Most recent concert? Chris Bathgate in my living room (part of the Songs:Illinois Presents House Concert series).
          10. Most memorable concert? Probably one of the early ones. All of them were all-ages in Boston, underneath a German bar called The Rathskellar. The venue was know as The Rat (a real dump). [The venue is now closed.] Highlights would have been Gang Green, The Pixies, Til’ Tuesday, and, as I said, The Throwing Muses.
          11. Most disappointing concert? I was really looking forward to seeing Martin Sexton a few years back. I was into his record that was out at the time and dragged people out to see him. Turns out he was pretentious, arrogant, drunk (?), and annoying.
          12. Dream line-up? Galaxie 500, The Feelies, and Yo La Tengo, circa 1987.

          Interview with Song, by Toad (Edinburgh blogger)

          by michelle

          Edinburgh blogger: Song, by Toad
          (With fantastic toady illustrations and amusing chat.)

          toadilicious

          1. Name? Matthew Young
          2. Age? 32
          3. Occupation? Industrial designer
          4. How long have you lived in Edinburgh? Nearly three years now.
          5. Favorite Edinburgh venue? They are pretty much all terrible as buildings. A lot of promoters and booking agents are making a real effort to put good lineups together these days, but the venues themselves are awful. The ones that are nice spaces have abysmal acoustics, and the decent performance spaces tend to be grotty little shitholes.
          6. How long have you been blogging? Unofficially on my static site since mid-2004. Actually on a proper blog since November 2006.
          7. How did you choose the name of your blog? From The Wind in the Willows. We always used to listen to it on cassette in the car, and my Mum used to call me a “little toad” because she couldn’t bring herself to swear at her darling child, no matter what an insufferable little bastard I was. So when I was naming the blog, the valedictory banquet [in the story] came to mind: “Speech, by Toad. There will be further speeches, by Toad during the evening. Song, by Toad (Composed by himself.) Other compositions, by Toad, will be sung in the course of the evening by the composer.”
          8. First concert? Probably Tina Turner. Blame my bloody mother. Under my own steam, probably The Pogues in Manchester in ’93.
          9. Most recent concert? Broken Records at The Caves. They’re going to be famous, these lads, I think. And I can claim to be the first person to ever write anything about them, ever. Given the Edinburgh music scene, this might be the only time I am able to say this!
          10. Most memorable concert? Why?
            Tom Waits at the Orpheum in Boston. Why? Because he’s Tom fucking Waits, that’s why!
          11. Most disappointing? Why? Michael Jackson in Vienna in 1991. Because he turned up. And, shamefully, so did I.
          12. Dream line-up? I really don’t care. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. My favourite gigs are the ones where you take a chance on someone you barely know and they turn out to be brilliant. It’s rare, but it’s worth the wait.

          Interview with Slutty Fringe (London blogger)

          by michelle

          First in a series of interviews with bloggers contributing recommendations to Songkick!

          London blogger: Slutty Fringe
          (One of my favorite blog titles of all time.)

          the fringes are sluttastic

          1. Name? Tony Poland
          2. Age? The wrong side of 20.
          3. Occupation? Definitely not what I wanted to be when I was five.
          4. How long have you lived in London? Long enough to have lived through electroclash.
          5. Favorite London venue? Plastic People
          6. How long have you been blogging? Since July 2006
          7. How did you choose the name of your blog? Girls with fringes is a good look, and I couldn’t think of a music-shaped name that didn’t sound proper wack. (Ed., a fringe is the same as bangs in Americuh.)
          8. First concert? Cypress Hill at Brixton Academy in 1994.
          9. Most recent concert? Poney Poney at 93 Feet East
          10. Most memorable concert? Santogold at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen cos I kept trying to steal Mapei’s hat
          11. Most disappointing? I don’t think I’ve ever been to a gig where I’ve left less than impressed by the music. Actually… scratch that. A girl somehow convinced me to go Reverend & The Makers last year–truly awful stuff
          12. Dream line-up? A reformed Gang of Four and LCD Soundsystem to open, then Funkadelic space jamming with Daft Punk with mic support from A Tribe Called Quest with dance routines from Gwen Stefani’s Japanese muses. The after party has Maurice Fulton, Carl Craig and Boys Noize playing records.