So this week, I featured a song by The Mynabirds, and earlier this month I featured a song by http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/?p=10702. And in both cases I noted to myself that each artist had now been featured here on Fingertips three times. Which got me thinking.
To be featured three times here strikes me as significant. Almost any artist I feature can randomly end up releasing one more song I like a lot and therefore be featured twice. But I think there’s a line drawn after two times that becomes indicative of a band or musician consistently making the kind of quality music that I search for weekly on Fingertips. And so I wondered: who else, over the years, has been featured at least three times?
After a few minutes wandering through the Artist Index, I found my answer. You may or may not be similarly engaged, but I found it kind of fascinating. Some of the artists are pretty well-known in 21st-century indie rock circles (Okkervil River, Heartless Bastards, Yo La Tengo), others less so (Steve Goldberg, anybody?). Some I would clearly identify as among my favorite artists (Laura Veirs, Midlake, Over the Rhine, and the current all-time features leader John Vanderslice), while others kind of surprised me by their presence on the list (I did not expect to see Portugal.The Man and their unexpected period). Some of the artists would probably have more features by now but got a bit too successful to continue to offer up free and legal MP3s (I’m looking at you, Portland bands!). At least one might have had more had he survived (RIP, Joe Strummer).
I especially appreciate those who have been featured not just in a short stretch of time but who have had staying power over the years. The “winner” of this category appears to be The Ladybug Transistor, a band featured as long ago as December 2003 and as recently as March 2011.
Anyway, for the select few who might find this both interesting and helpful (perhaps a good way to check out some folks you haven’t yet listened to), here’s the list, in alphabetical order. After each name is the number of times featured to date, and then the month and year of the most recent feature.
To keep this from being too time-consuming a project, I do not offer any links on this list. Those interested are encouraged to visit the Artist Index; all the links you need are there. Apologies in advance for any links that are dead—I’m still working on cleaning that up. Talk about a time-consuming project!
Annuals – 4 – Mar 10
Asobi Seksu – 3 – Dec 10
Nicole Atkins – 3 – Oct 10
Bettie Serveert – 3 – Mar 10
Bishop Allen – 3 – Mar 09
Blonde Redhead – 3 – June 10
British Sea Power – 3 – Dec 10
Isobel Campbell – 3 – Sept 06
Decemberists – 3 – Mar 05
Eux Autres – 3 – Mar 12
Steve Goldberg & the Arch Enemies – 3 – Aug 11
Heartless Bastards – 3 – Dec 11
Innocence Mission – 3 – July 10
The Ladybug Transistor – 3 – Mar 11
Land of Talk – 4 – Aug 10
Matt Pond PA – 5 – Apr 11
Cass McCombs – 3 – Nov 11
Midlake – 3 – Feb 10
Kate Miller-Heidke – 3 – Nov 11
The Minor Leagues – 3 – Aug 11
Juana Molina – 3 – Sept 08
The Morning Benders – 3 – Feb 10
Múm – 3 – Oct 09
My Brightest Diamond – 3 – Nov 08
The Mynabirds – 3 – Mar 12
Marissa Nadler – 3 – Mar 11
Okkervil River – 5 – May 11
Over the Rhine – 6 – Jan 11
Portugal. The Man – 3 – Jun 09
The Raveonettes – 3 – Oct 08
Sambassadeur – 3 – Jun 10
Shearwater – 4 – Feb 12
The Shins – 3 – Nov 06
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – 3 – Jan 04
13ghosts – 3 – Oct 11
John Vanderslice – 7 – Sept 10
Laura Veirs – 3 – Sept 10
Wheat – 3 – Dec 11
Wye Oak – 3 – Jan 11
Yo La Tengo – 4 – Jul 09
Fingertips 