Ch. 35 - Sirius XMU

I have listened to this station a little bit over the years. Like when I am spinning through the dial. I listen to 1 or 2 songs and then move on. I always think it will be like that great DC/Annapolis station, WHFS. I loved that station so much when I was in high school, law school and then until I moved (although I listened to DC101 in my morning commute to listen to Howard Stern). HFS played the coolest "progressive" rock with the coolest DJs like Weasel and Damian. I remember the first time I heard REM's first single, Radio Free Europe. My alarm had gone off one morning and that song was playing. I loved Michael Stipes voice and the beat of that song. It was so different and tye beginning of a whole new sound to me. I just googled it and found REM's first national television appearance on the David Letterman show in 1983. I don't know what affected me the most: seeing a very young Letterman, seeing him hold up a record album or seeing Michael Stipes with hair. Anyway, here's the link to the video:
REM's first national television appearance on Letterman in 1983

Okay, pretty pathetic to go off on a tangent before I even discuss today's station, Sirius XMU. It is Sirius' indie rock station. Much like a college radio station. I'm guessing that's where the "U" comes from. Based on my first paragraph, is indie rock really just today's progressive rock from the 80s?

I honestly don't know the difference between alternative rock, progressive rock and indie rock other than maybe the label. I guess alternative rock gets actual playtime on radio stations and becomes more mainstream since they have more money behind them. Both seem to have punk roots. Although this station is playing much more electronic stuff. And I really do not like electronic stuff. I'm sure this is clear by my prior posts.

I like clarity of sound and music. I am such a visual person so I seem to go to clearer sounding sounds. I end up visualizing everything I hear. My favorite artist is Ella Fitzgerald. To me, her voice is crystal clear, like a perfect piece of glass. Not shear, that would be boring. No, it has ripples in it, almost flowing with some bubbles; but you can see through it. So, that's why I have no love for electronic music or liquid metal. I hate feedback and static.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with this station. I have never heard of 98% of the music I am listening to today. SoundHound is doing much, much better than I in identifying artists and songs. It has correctly identified about 95% of the songs so far. I'm impressed.

Yay, Vampire Weekend!! What a fun band. Yes, I know they are considered an indie rock band. But they have appeared on SNL. And I have heard their music on mainstream radio. They have a great beat and totally great lyrics. Kudos to SNL for putting them on-air before most people had heard of them. SNL's music producers deserve more credit for brining little known artists to the national attention. Again with the tangents. Sorry.

I have noticed a lot of female voices in these groups. Is that what the rocker girls have to do to get heard? Sign with indie labels? Such a shame. I guess Florence would be considered an indie girl. And she has made it big. We love her in my house. Youth Lagoon sounds like her. Oh no, I just learned from SoundHound that Youth Lagoon is a guy from Boise, Idaho. But literally a brand, new performance at least.

So, the station just went from the mellow with a beat sound of Youth Lagoon to some punk rock song to an electronic 80s sounding song. I like the name of the song, "Polish Girl.". Again, not digging the drum machine or synthesizer. Let's hear your real voice, dammit.

Lunch time melodies brought more synthesized music. I did not enjoy it. Neither did my SoundHound. I would comment about how happy I was that it seemed to mostly be female artists, but that got me in trouble earlier in the day.

I was waiting at the train station at about 9pm listening to XMU. Then this cool song by a guy I had never heard of, Stephen Malkmus, came on. Stephen Malkmus sings "No One Is (As I Are Be) on YouTube . It was such a cool song with acoustic guitar and a lyric that made me notice. "I don't do sit-ups. Sit-ups are so bourgeois." I'd buy this song. The night DJ, Josiah, was good and told me a lot about the bands he was playing. I learned a lot of useless stuff about music I don't really listen to. So that's good.

I didn't love this station but didn't hate it. I will probably still stop here when dial-spinning but not stay for long. Just long enough to learn a new band here and there. (The band names were the best part!) But definitely not during lunchtime.