Music on the Airwaves blows

I'm talking Binford Leaf Blower. Lots of horsepower.
I've had enough of the oldies that play the 'safe' 269 focus-group approved songs ad-nauseum. Feel-good oldies, lite oldies, flacid rock, classic rock (If you're under 25 did you know The Who actually wrote more songs than 'Won't Get Fooled Again' and 'Baba O'Riley'? And no, there's not a song called 'Teenage Wasteland.') And any station playing new, current music plays the worst corporate candy schlock with a shelf life shorter than my ADHD son's attention span while doing his math homework.

Here in my hometown we finally got a new station that promised the best new music of the 90s and the 00s. And for about a week it was really good. Coldplay, Keane, Dave Matthews, etc., but soon I realized they were going to keep a revolving list of about 200 songs and play them over and over and over. Got stale like a 2 liter coke with the lid left off all night. So screw them.

But there is hope, the podcast music available here, Sirrus and XM satellite radio (over a hundred commercial free stations), and internet radio stations. The latter of which I'm a big fan. The deal? Nothing's free anymore and you get what you pay for. I gotta pay for my internet connection so why not enjoy the music available there? I hope the commercial stations all get run over by a bus and taste their own blood. Indie stations get bought up and force fed playlists that bears little resmeblance to my musical thirst.

But Looovvvve that internet radio. 3WK Underground, Live 365 Radio, Aural Moon, and Radio Paradise. Radioparadise.com gets me through my day. I've been turned onto so many new (and old) groups I never knew existed. What a mix, and I love that even familiar artists get played, but it's usually not the standard 'classic cuts' you've heard until your ears bleed. For example, here's a list of stuff I heard today:

Beck - Broken Drum (Boards of Canada Remix)
Van Morrison - The Way Young Lovers Do
Anna Ternheim - To Be Gone
Santana - Incident At Neshabur
The BoDeans - Fadeaway
16 Horsepower - Cinder Alley
The Wailin' Jennys - Take it Down
Colin Hay - Beautiful World
Matson Belle - Float
Devlins - Strangest Things
Concrete Blonde - Mexican Moon
Toots & The Maytals - Pomp & Pride
G. Love & Special Sauce - Honor and Harmony
Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On
Jem - Finally Woken
Smashing Pumpkins - Crush
Beth Orton - Anywhere (Two Lone Swordsman Remix)

Give'em a try if you haven't already. And support them!

I leave you now with the prophetic lyrics of an old King Crimson song, from the Starless and Bible Black album. Sums up the death of the creative artist and the rise of commercial radio.

Lament

(Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James)

I guess I tried to show you how
I'd take the crowd with my guitar
And business men would clap their hands
And clip another fat cigar
And publishers would spread the news
And print my music far and wide
And all the kids who played the blues
Would learn my licks with a bottle neck slide

But now it seems the bubble's burst
Although you know there was a time
When love songs gathered in my head
With poetry in every line
And strong men strove to hold the doors
While with my friends I passed the age
When people stomped on dirty floors
Before I trod the rock'n'roll stage

I'll thank the man who's on the 'phone
And if he has the time to spend
The problem I'll explain once more
And indicate a sum to lend
That ten percent is now a joke
Maybe thirty, even thirty-five
I'll say my daddy's had a stroke
He'd have one now, if he only was alive

I like the way you look at me
You're laughing too down there inside
I took my chance and you took yours
You crewed my ship, we missed the tide
I like the way the music goes
There's a few good guys who can play it right
I like the way it moves my toes
Just say when you want to go and dance all night...