Facebook, iLike, And A Band Called Ishtar

I have a Facebook profile, but I only pay attention to it in spurts. I’ll go for three weeks without giving it a second thought, but then I’ll receive a notice that someone wishes to befriend me, which sends me on a week-long Facebook binge.

And during said binge, I’ll get burned out fairly quickly by all of the superfluous nonsense that permeates Facebook. No offense, but why in the world should I care that someone has poked, super-poked, prodded, or challenged me? How does that help me connect better with my friends.

And then there are the countless Facebook applications, the vast majority of which are rather silly and pointless. But being the music whore that I am, I couldn’t resist installing the iLike application, which allows you to create music profiles, receive tour information for your fave bands, share musical tastes with friends and comrades, and most importantly, find new bands.

It’s nothing Last.fm didn’t do before, but I’m all for it if I get some interesting new music out of the deal.

Case in point: I was just going through my iLike recommendations — most of which are complete bupkiss, by the way — and, under my “Related To Slowdive” listing, saw a couple of tracks by a band called Ishtar. Which, on the whole, turned out to be pretty good.

I have to be fair and say that the Slowdive comparison might be a little off, though. Rather, I’m reminded of the airy, drowsy sounds of early LN, with bits and pieces of Early Day Miners, Windsor for the Derby, and American Football drifting around throughout. Overall, lovely stuff that makes me think of lazy spring days best spent sprawled out beneath some tree, watching sunlight dapple the ground around you as clouds drift high overhead. (That Seasonal Affective Disorder must be kicking in lately or something…)

Unfortunately, finding out more about the band proved to be something of a hassle, as the Facebook links were a bit misleading. One took me to a page for an exotic R&B siren and the other to the MySpace page for a New Zealand-based progressive rock band.

Ah the joys of generic band names and WWW hyperlink silliness…

After a little more effort, I finally found the right Ishtar page on iLike as well as their Garageband page. Both of which reveal the band to be a bit more than just a breezy post-rock affair, as there’s a healthy love for electro-pop in the band’s oeuvre as well.

However, there’s precious little info about the band to be found on either of the above links. They’re from Brooklyn, they don’t have a CD, and they don’t have any upcoming concerts, but that’s about it. So if you know anything about these guys, please share it in the comments.