Same but different

I was organizing my del.icio.us links, and noticed a site I had neglected to use as I had intended. Musicbrainz takes all those unidentified iTunes sitting there, all labelled “Track 04” and figures out what they probably are. Tonight (having ganked interslice from the neighbors) I started figuring out which of the 28 Weakerthans songs were which.

Here’s the fun part. The program ‘listens’ to the song and uses the sound of each song to match it with the correct information maintained in the MusicBrainz database. So I threw in a bunch of tracks I don’t have metadata for. I have a sweet sweet mixed CD called “Chrisss Mixxx” (it’s legendary, and soon I can post the track list). I spent some quality time a few months ago trying to figure out the artists and track names by listening to the song and googling the lyrics I could catch. Also, I utilized the Mohan brothers. They were better than Google.

Anyway, I’ve been MusicBraining away, and before the program changes anything, you double check the data. Here’s what’s come up for some things I know I have right:

Vulture Shark Sculpture Park by MC Paul Barman : Cette chanson-la by Michel Sardou
Technical Difficulties by Dr. Octagon : Live On Tomorrow by Juliana Hatfield
Twenty Four Hours by Joy Division : Open Bay by Sharks Keep Moving
Travelling without Moving by Jamiriquoi : Mexican Blood by Thin Lizzie
Younger Body, Older Soul by Koufax might as well be the Ramones, White Stripes, Specials, Dance Hall Crashers, or the Forgotten.

Le Piece De Resistance —
A still unidentified Ranier Maria song : The Prince by Metallica, or perhaps I am the Sword by Motorhead.

Overall, not too shabby, and I got a few albums in their entirety fixed without having to go through myself with liner notes. I had to watch Brainz carefully, though. Turn your back for one second and my Doobie Brothers are suddenly the Four Tops. Not kidding.