Internet radio, etc.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 10:31 am

I'd be interested to know how people on the board discover new music. I remember when a station like KROQ in Los Angeles used to play all kinds of unexpected stuff. Now it's just another "alternative" station with a boring, predictable playlist. As ClearChannel snaps up station after station, I'm finding that there is almost nothing of interest on local radio, apart from NPR. Instead, I'm listening to more and more out-of-market programs over the Internet.

Apart from cosmos' show, what Internet radio stations/programs do you all listen to regularly, if any? My new favorite is KEXP is Seattle, which plays a great selection of new music, with the occasional older song mixed in:

http://www.kexp.org

Nic Harcourt's "Morning Becomes Eclectic" program on KCRW is another good one, especially the live in-studio performances:

http://kcrw.org/show/mb

Finally, my uncle Ken is a DJ at WMUA at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and hosts a regular Wednesday program called "Java Jazz", so I always give that a listen as well:

http://www.wmua.org

I'd also be interested to know if any of you have satellite radio - either XM or Sirius. If so, do you feel that it has been worth the additional investment?

Post by **BlueChair** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 10:44 am

Have been a fan of Morning Becomes Eclectic for a good 4 or 5 years by now. It played a key role in convincing me of the merits of new msuic.

I used to love listening to Idiot's Delight, hosted by Vin Scelsa (one of the originators of FM Radio) but WFUV doesn't archive his shows anymore. Still, they've got some great stuff and you can listen to some of his classic shows under 'Vin Scelsa's Be My Guest'. http://www.wfuv.org/

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 11:01 am

I recently got a new van and got a year of Sirius tossed in. there's some fun stuff on it, and you can also listen to it over the internet (it's on computers now!). the crap seems to be clearly labeled crap. I like Sirius Disorder - the first time (and this is absolutely 100% true!) I put that station on I heard 'this is Nick Lowe and you're listening to Sirius Disorder.'
it was one of those Cosmic Connection moments.

That said, I'm not sure I'll keep it after my freebie is up.

(and you can try it for 3 days free at http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentSe ... 8209032790

click on "listen" - no credit card required, but you do have to give an email address. and no, I don't work for them and I don't get a free anything if you try it!

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 11:23 am

I've been enjoying BBC6-- just such a different sort of mix.

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:13 pm

I don't listen to it that often but WOXY seems to be playing a lot of new stuff.
In the last hour or so I heard The Wrens, The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Davendra Banhart, Ani DiFranco, Paul Weller and Dinosaur Junior.
Pretty good, no ?

http://www.woxy.com/

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 2:52 pm

"Little" Steven Van Zandt's garage rock program is a lot of fun. I've also heard a spin-off on Sirius (through my satellite TV system) with Kim Fowley.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 4:21 pm

selfmademug wrote:I've been enjoying BBC6-- just such a different sort of mix.

Too many underplayed Dylan and other CDs for much radio, but I too rate 6, and so simply accessed on OS X Tiger. The one thing that disappoints me about the Mac Mini is the over-loud whir of CDs, so rather than hear that late at night, 6 is a good move if I'm not listening to iTunes. Actually, if I'm not listening to CDs in the kitchen or wherever, I'm listening to Radio 4, occasionally Radio 3, and Radio 5 when the moment dictates. And I try to pick up missed progs on Listen Again, which tends to be the Rado 2 specials, or Maconie's excellent Critical List (and apparently the Home Truths special on 4 last Sat all about John Peel was a cracker). I'm a Beeb man, me, but I do hope to finbally hear Cosmosis at some point.

Good thread, will check out Eclectic.

Extreme Honey · Post by **Extreme Honey** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 1:45 am

I google up internet radio or windows-media up radio whenever I need to hear something non-Costello (they are very very rare moments). Commerical free radio is actually not that bad, but the best radio service is for napster and musicmatch jukebox (and you gotta pay for 'em both).

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 10:41 am

Thought I'd piggy-back on this thread for a bit of a plug for Richard Hawley, who will be the guest on Janice Long's BBC Radio 2 program this evening - interview and acoustic session:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/long/

A little preview of what you might get here (Hawley doing a lovely cover of Johnny Cash's "Long Black Veil"):

http://www.faceculture.nl/hawley/video/lied.htm

BTW, Otis, if you go to the FaceCulture homepage, there is an interview with Guy Garvey of Elbow in which he talks about the new album. Interviews with some other interesting musicians as well. Kind of a lame interviewer, but some interesting comments from Garvey:

http://www.faceculture.nl/

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 5:12 pm

Nice one. Will check that out dead soon.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:33 am

Oh boy - was too distracted to check out the Nic Harcourt's 'Morning Becomes Eclectic' show as listed above by WSS. With some extra input from IP (thanks again!), I'm now thrilling at the prospect of checking out scores of shows from this from the last 12 months. All these people I've read about here and not heard - Clientele, playing now, sounds good, like the guitar and voice, M. Ward, Sufjan Stevens - and all my current faves - Doves, Arcade Fire, Martha and Rufus, etc. And all of them with video clips of thr session that seem to have as good a sound as the audio clips. It's amazing.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:36 am

That's such a great show, Otis. Glad you're enjoying it. He also does occasional segments with Steve Lamacq from the BBC where they share new music from either side of the Atlantic - if you poke around on the site a little bit you can find those too.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:47 am

Will do. Used to listen to Lamacq a lot in the 90s though in recent years almost never put on BBC1. Real enthusiast though. One of his main claims to fame is being the man who asked Richie Edwards (is that right?), ex of the Manics, if he really meant what he was writing, or words to that effect, and Richie carved '4 Real' into his arm, big and deep, blood everywhere.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:59 am

Had assumed Clientele were American (WSS was into them and I'd never heard of them - dumb assumption!) and it turns out they're English! I swear they are seriously unknown here. I couldn't place NH's accent at all. English with obvious US tones and some Oz too, sure enough: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nic_Harcourt

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 11:03 am

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Had assumed Clientele were American (WSS was into them and I'd never heard of them - dumb assumption!) and it turns out they're English! I swear they are seriously unknown here. I couldn't place NH's accent at all. English with obvious US tones and some Oz too, sure enough: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nic_Harcourt

He's essentially a Brummie (Villa fan to boot, the poor bastard), but a well-traveled one. He used to be the music director at my local alternative station, WDST in Woodstock, New York. When he moved to LA to take over at MBE, I immediately started listening to his program.

I am surprised there hasn't been more buzz about The Clientele over there. It was one of the Hawleyboard guys who turned me on to them. Very retro, reverb-y sound, perfect for this time of year.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 11:05 am

More search results! that reverby guitar reminded me in places of the Durutti Column. So not entirely surprising but entirely pleasing that on their homepage they cite the DC debut LP The Return of... as something they are currently into. Nice one!

http://www.theclientele.co.uk/

They appear to be doing a tour of Knitting Factories, well LA and NY anyway. I hope they do a cover of Needle Time at each. Are you going on the 23rd, WSS? They've done lots of records - got any others?

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 11:08 am

Otis Westinghouse wrote:They appear to be doing a tour of Knitting Factories, well LA and NY anyway. I hope they do a cover of Needle Time at each. Are you going on the 23rd, WSS? They've done lots of records - got any others?

That's the only record I have of theirs, but I am intrigued to hear more - may try to pick up one of their earlier discs. I saw that they were going to be at the Knitting Factory on the 23rd, but the timing couldn't be worse. It's the day before Thanksgiving and we are hosting this year, so I will be knee-deep in preparations.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 11:14 am

Who Shot Sam? wrote:He's essentially a Brummie (Villa fan to boot, the poor bastard), but a well-traveled one.

That accent is even more all over the place than Elvis's! A lot of it is straight American in terms of ways of pronouncing ('prodoocer', 'noo', etc.), but occasionally a Brummie vowel will slip out ('todie' for 'today'). I do enjoy these mongrel cases. Gillian Anderson is another case. You can tell in Bleak House that she isn't quite English, but it's hard to put your finger on it, and her normal speech sounds completely mid-Atlantic.

whar · Post by **whar** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 2:44 pm

http://www.thecosmiccircus.com

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 4:19 pm

Lovely!

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:00 am

That's an unorthodox way of giving mouth to mouth resuscitation.