The Interactive New Bands for Old Heads
I made you a present.
This newsletter just turned two years old. In that time, I’ve recommended nearly 500 new bands based on nearly 500 old bands. That’s a lot to keep track of.1 It’s so much to keep track of that I genuinely don’t remember what I’ve already told you about.
The first way I tried to solve this problem was by making a directory to make it easier for me you to find my recommendations in one place. But that’s just one big spreadsheet, and the problem with spreadsheets is that they’re, uh, kinda boring.2
So for a few months now, I’ve been working on how to make my recommendation archive more accessible, enjoyable, and nice to look at.
Here’s what I came up with.
Let’s walk through it together with a theoretical FAQ, in which I’ve anticipated a few of your potential queries and/or concerns.3
What is this thing?
This is an interactive tool that lets you look up all of my recommendations based on the “If You Like [X], Then You’ll Like [Y]” formula that I usually use in my new music recommendation posts.
I’m obviously not one for clever names. Call it whatever you like - the “If You Like X” Engine, the RIYL Machine, the Recommendation Maker, the NBfOH App. I do not care.
Why would I use it?
On the one hand, I think we’ve all pretty much had our fill of getting music recommendations from machines.
On the other hand, we have short attention spans and love instant gratification.
Reading the newsletter is great, but it’s a slog to trawl the archives, and sometimes you need to find something quick to listen to. Maybe you forgot to write down a new band rec I mentioned. Maybe you just want all comparisons in one place instead of across a dozen posts (that’s something the directory could never do, either!). Maybe you’re trying to impress a date and you only have a few minutes before they come back from the bathroom. Who knows!
How do I use it?
Easy peasy. Just start typing in a band name, and it will auto-populate options that are available in the database. Select from the dropdown and hit “go,” and you’ll see the new band recommendations straight from the archive.
You’ll also be able to see other bands I’ve compared the new band to (if applicable), and read the newsletter post where I mentioned them so you can learn more in context. Click the “listen” button to try them out for yourself.
When you’re done, copy all of the recommendations into your notes app or a text message to a friend who detests new music to show them just how wrong they are about everything.
Why isn’t the old band I like in there?
Bad news — most bands aren’t in there!
This app is not, and can never be, comprehensive. It is not a general interest music database. It is not an encyclopedia. It isn’t objective, fairly weighted, or algorithmic in any way.
It is a view into my brain. And you get to stomp around inside. Weird!
Why do some bands have so many recs and others so few?
Because I am human and imperfect.
Building this tool has been a really interesting exercise in figuring out my own musical preferences, biases, and mental shortcuts. For instance, I seem to use Gang of Four as a catch-all for most new post-punk, Pavement as a stand-in for most new slacker rock, and My Bloody Valentine for most new shoegaze.
In future updates, I will try to add genre tags and link similar bands together so you can get more use out of it. In the meantime, if a band you like has very few new music recs attached to it, I suggest looking up a similar band to see if you get more hits.
Why are you embedding Spotify and not Bandcamp?
Because I’m a soulless monster who hates paying musicians.
Or because Spotify is the only platform where I could reliably embed the listening widget without manually entering each artist’s page. For future versions, I hope to use Bandcamp, SoundCloud, or YouTube. For now, the choice was Spotify or nothing, so I decided to risk it and use Spotify so you could preview the music.
How do I make suggestions?
If you scroll down, you’ll see a button where you can suggest an old band that you want me to find new bands for. You’ll also see that teeny tiny link in the corner to report a bug.
The directory is there in case you miss being able to look bands up by new artist instead of old.
How often will you update and how?
I intend to update this database quarterly with more bands, old and new.
Separately, on a mysterious and unknown schedule yet to be determined, I hope to:
Improve existing RIYLs so more bands are cross-referenced
Add more features, like genres and playlists
Review your other suggested improvements
Okay, I’m ready — where do I find it?
You can find the app right here. It works on both desktop and mobile.
This app/tool/toy/whatever is a thank you present to annual paid subscribers.
If you’re ready to give it a try, I’m offering a temporary discount on annual subscriptions (down to $4/mo). Press the pink button below before Wednesday July 15th to get it.
Being a paid subscriber is pretty cool for other reasons — you also get access to the Discord server (with monthly listening parties, a book club, and a bunch of nerds constantly recommending new music to each other), monthly Best Of posts, a ton of playlists, record giveaways, and extra articles. I take care of you, bb.
I have other questions!
Okay! Leave a comment! I’d love to know what you think.
Don’t forget…
And somehow also not enough in my anxious little mind?
And ugly. Don’t forget ugly.
Before I let you go play with this shiny new toy, I want to be very transparent about one thing — I did use AI to help me code the user interface. I am NOT a proponent of AI, as many of you know, and once I have the means to pay a developer (or maybe just teach my own damn self), that is top of my list for future improvements.
The entire database underlying this tool (meaning all of the actual recommendations that it spits out when you query it), all of the artwork (big shout out to my friend Rosa Jerez who created Skeleton Man!), and — most importantly! — all of my writing is 100% human.
This is an amazing piece of work, Gabbie - well done! I love the styling and the UI, of course, but honestly it’s just a really good route back into some of your archive posts. I had a lot of fun following the links are hunting down the writing about each band I stumbled upon. And while I thought I’d read most of your posts and paid attention, it turns out I either have a memory like a sieve or fail to process things in the first place. Or both.
Congrats and I hope people love this as much as I do!
Very cool!