Music

I do everything with music. It really makes life better, and when I have the right music, I feel like I'm more in touch with myself and with the Universe. Aside from getting music from friends on mixes, which I am HIGHLY grateful for (wink), these are my main resources for finding music, listening to music, and identifying music:

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Pandora - Good for finding stuff that resembles a specific song or artist. Make sure to thumbs down whatever doesn't match, otherwise the station won't develop to your taste.

Grooveshark - Has a large database, like ONE ad every time you go to the site, and is useful for listening to an artist you're not sure you want to buy (/pirate). Good for sharing mix playlists with people, too.

Tuneglue - Uses radio.fm's information to pick 5 artists that are similar to one that you enjoy. The search bar is at the top right of the screen, in case you get confused by the blank slate like I did.

Stereomood - Has amazing playlists for basically every mood or activity for which you would require music. Each playlist is very different, with some specializing in certain genres and others completely different ones, so make sure you sample a few before you judge the site overall. There's a free mobile app that's really sleek, and once you figure out how it works, it's pretty convenient.  You get one video ad at startup, and a thin top-screen ad when you're listening, but the app is cool enough I recommend it.

Turntable - Basically sets up a public turntable where everybody takes turns DJ-ing and playing music of certain themes.  I haven't explored it yet, but it looks really sweet.

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Here's a sampling artists I really like, with no real rhyme or reason to the ranking:

Performing Artists
Bear In Heaven
Grizzly Bear
The Rutgers University Glee Club (in other words, myself)
The National
Iron & Wine
The Antlers
Department of Eagles
Daniel Rossen
DM Stith
Ben Howard
Chick Corea
Foreign Fields
Phoenix
OK Go
Foo Fighters
Owen Pallett
Boy & Bear
Fleet Foxes
Foals
Kimbra
Au Revoir Simone
Andrew Bird
Wild Beasts
P!nk
Elbow
Anna Calvi
Pink Floyd
Beirut
The Antlers
Muse
Télépopmusik
Camera Obscura
The Killers
The xx
Gorillaz
Adele
Lykke Li
Mal Blum
Charlie Parker
A Perfect Circle
Daughter
Lana Del Rey
Strahi
Imogen Heap
Arcade Fire
Flight of the Conchords
RATATAT
The Beatles
Death Cab for Cutie
Dudley Saunders
Silversun Pickups
The Bird and The Bee
Antony and The Johnsons
Jónsi
Florence and the Machine
Sufjan Stevens
Mumford and Sons
Feist
The Temper Trap
CHEW LiPS
Jason Mraz
Björk
Snow Patrol
Vienna Teng
Fanfarlo
Bon Iver
Radiohead
Bat For Lashes
Sigur Rós
Siouxsie And The Banshees
Foster The People
Norah Jones
Tegan and Sara
Obadiah Parker
Wild Beasts
The Arcade Fire
Brandi Carlile
The Decemberists
Simon & Garfunkel
Belle & Sebastian
Metric
Delphic
Passion Pit
Oh Land
deadmau5
Joni Mitchell
ON AN ON
Home Video
Röyksopp
Goldfrapp
Daft Punk
Hiromi Uehara
WU LYF
Coldplay
John Lennon
Kimya Dawson
Michael Kiwanuka
Múm
Rene Aubry
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Gotye
Janelle Monáe
Martin Newell
Bonobo
St. Vincent
My Brightest Diamond
James Vincent McMorrow
Midlake
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Kishi Bashi
Lianne La Havas
Wires Under Tension
Télépopmusik
Martha Argerich
Ella Fitzgerald
Caribou
Efterklang
Explosions in the Sky
Burial
Four Tet



Composers/Arrangers
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Claude Debussy
Gustav Holst
Gustav Mahler
Sergei Prokofiev

Yoko Shimomura, especially Drammatica
Jesper Kyd

Yoko Kanno
Vivaldi
Akira Senju
Johann Sebastian Bach (what he's written for string and organ, at least)
Masashi Hamauzu
Nobuo Uematsu
GermanSeabass


Compilations/Albums
Dark Was the Night