No. The topic of programming music certainly "strikes a chord" in the Hackernews community judging by the number of comments left on each topic...and I don't use Twitter. :)
Plus...I've been reading Hackernews for the past year and this is the first time I've encountered this topic. The issue may be tiresome for you but not for others. Those related topics have moved off the first two pages of Hackernews never to be seen again.
there's a reason this topic comes up so much.. it's because it is a daily issue faced by hackers alike. you need to get work done but you need some good background music.
I have a growing appreciation for Yongfook... I'm using his Sweetcron script (which is brilliantly executed), his other projects are also really well done. It's just him and it amazes me that he has time to pump out his own music.
Speaking of which, if you haven't heard this artist yet... you'd probably really like him. He was well known as a designer (iso50.com) and self-produced his own music, equally talented.
i definitely prefer repetitive or ambient, non-lyrical music. sometimes i'll even put on sleep-music albums
a couple albums in particular standout:
* philip glass & ravi shankar - passages
* kawabata makoto (of acid mother temple) - infinite love
- i think this album is tuned to my brain's beta wave frequency. its like sonic ritalin
* robert rich - somnium
for more energy i usually look to montreal. godspeed and silver mt zion always please. a little bit lesser known is "do make say think" who are one of my desert-island bands.
and sometimes, just sometimes, i just have to listen to dancey trance music. check out onnomon (who is also, by the way, my brother and an old timey hacker)
as a side note, i mostly use rhapsody for online music. its just straightforward and easy... well worth the monthly subscription fee. if only the site was a bit faster.
as far as free services go, i really like the spirit of last.fm but pandora's recommendations are consistently better.
Ditto on Air. Others: Radiohead, Tea Party, Wheezer, Andreas Scholl, Yo-yo Ma, Cesaria Evora, Coldplay, Miles Davis (especially Kind of Blue), Bossa Nova (Antônio Carlos Jobim), etc. Very eclectic.
Everything by Zappa. I discovered him this month, and he's quickly become my all-time favorite rock musician, and one of my favorite composers in any style. Today I listened through The Yellow Shark and Grand Wazoo, and "G-spot Tornado" more times than was probably healthy.
Other biggies for me are Stephin Merritt, Sufjan Stevens, Bach, and Charles-Valentin Alkan, who's the best pianist nobody's ever heard of. (I listen to the Jack Gibbons recordings of him, for the record.)
That is a great track, and the entire album is excellent. My favourite track other than Graveyard Girl is We Own The Sky.
And so are their other albums, Before the Dawn Heals Us and Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts and Digital Shades Vol. 1 and... hell, all their albums are good.
Another impressive DJ that caught my eye during the YouTube Live event: Mike Relm. I haven't heard all his stuff but his mixing on Live was pretty impressive.
I certainly can, in fact I've found it to be rather good coding music.
Then again, I also find Lighning Bolt, Slayer, and Merzbow to be good stuff to listen to while coding. Merzbow especially helps me get in "the zone".
Also: Shpongle, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Q and not U. Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, American Analog Set, Fugazi, Fuck Buttons, Radiohead, and a million other bands / musicians I can't remember right now.
Metallica's new album is actually pretty good - awesome music - though it seems that James's voice is starting to lag a bit behind the rest of the band - shame really - their first legitimate shred album in years.
btw - I've seen this post on HN a few times now - always fun to read - has anyone made a web app for this yet?
http://www.last.fm/user/ninternity
Right now, I'm listening to Other Lives's self-titled album. That's for my college radio job, though. For programming, I listen to Brian Eno's Ambient albums.
I just have Pandora with about 40 artists that I liked. Also did the whole thumb up and thumb down for most songs, so it usually just plays the things I like non-stop
Do you like Broken Social Scene? They are probably my favorite band. They have members from Do Make Say Think, Feist, Stars, Metric, Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, etc.
I saw Explosions in the Sky in Denton, TX at Hailey's in 2004. Best live performance I've ever witnessed. I saw them again last year in Austin, but it wasn't that great because their new stuff isn't as good.
I need to get Eluvium's latest album. I hear it's pretty good.
Sweet. Last, and only unfortunately, time I saw NIN was in 2005 at the tour opener in Fresno, CA. Scored 8th row tickets the day before the show for $60. They rocked the place so hard, plaster from the ceiling was falling down. Quite an experience.
Last and only time I saw NIN was Dec 1994, fourth row via out-of-state Ticketmaster, at the old Boston Garden. Marilyn Manson opened up by spiting on the security crew in front of the stage while shaking his rubber pants with 24" prosthetic inside. The NIN set starts and we're all standing. I turn around, within 60 seconds, and my chair is gone. Folks had started ripping the wooden seats from the floor to make an impromptu mosh pit. It worked well except for the stray chair still intact.
Nice to see someone recomending dubstep. The more minimal, techno-influenced stuff is good for working to, particularly anything on Skull Disco. Also check out the Millie & Andrea 12".
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=367418
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=212682
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=139901
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=132026
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=99936