Okay, y’all, I must admit that while I am a pretty frugal person by nature, sometimes there are things even I don’t realize that are free and totally worth checking out. For instance, the exciting world of Internet radio. Thanks to Celebrity Intern, I’ve recently discovered the brilliant tab on my iTunes labelled “RADIO,” and the vast wealth of tunes contained therein!
Don't touch that dial! Wait, what dial?
The first radio station I found that truly kicks ass is under the Classical heading. Before you roll your eyes and surf to the next blog on your To Do list, hear me out! The station you want is called Venice Classic Radio, and it plays excellent non-stop classical music of all genres (i.e. early, baroque, chamber, symphony and even opera), and only interrupts the tunes for a short station tag with a woman saying “Venice Classic Radio – beautiful classical music!” in a funky Italian accent. I have been imitating her all week long, asking if my cat wants to listen to BOOO-tee-full claaaaahsical mooooosique” and he, in turn, has been giving me the wide-eyed “you crazy” stare.
Ned says: "Human, you CRAZY!"
Something like that, but usually with less tongue and more terror.
Anyway, after that I started clicking around on the other stations in other genres to see what tricks they had up their sleeves. And it’s a goldmine!
If you like the blues—and I mean real blues music that’s got heart and soul and is played by the people who wrote it, not the bastard versions covered by popular bands like Led Zeppelin and (god forbid) Eric effin’ Clapton—you must check out the appropriately named Blues Classics channel, featuring American blues from the 1930s to the 70s. Right now, for example, they’re playing Louise Johnson singing “Long Way From Home.” Pretty much everything on there is golden, Ponyboy.
Another great one for the golden oldies is JAZZRADIO.com’s Swing and Big Band station, though if you are a jazz connoisseur, you will probably want to check out all of their stations to find the genre that best suits your tastes, as they’ve got everything from cool to hot, bebop to funk, Latin jazz, piano trios, and even divide things up by instrument and contemporary or classic vocalists. Get hep!
Now, in the realm of stand-up comedy, you’re also in luck, cus Comedy Pipe Radio Network is spinning everything from old George Carlin rekkids to David Sedaris reading his humorous books to Margaret Cho screaming “Her fucking pussy exploded!!!!” Seriously, these people play everything, and whole albums too, not just a few bits here and there. Full-on comedy, totally uncensored, as it should be. Awesome.
I must say, I find it hilarious that the CBC (that’s Canada’s national radio station, FYI) gets listed under “Adult Contemporary,” a genre I recommend avoiding at all costs. Unless you are 100 years old and living in a nursing home, or are trapped under something very, very heavy. Okay, to be fair: the not-entirely-weak CBC Radio 3—an online-only station that features 100% CanCon, a very dubious designation indeed—made it to the “Alternative Rock” category. I will blame this on the fact that while CanCon can be extremely weak (i.e. the usual suspects: Celine Dion, Avril Lavigne, Rush, etc.), sometimes Canadians can be very cool. For instance:
One of the reasons Canadians actually do rock: David Suzuki's "Playlist for the Planet"
If you don’t know who David Suzuki is, you should definitely look him up. He’s about the coolest Canadian I can think of, and not just because of his naughty fig-leaf photo and dashing good looks!
Also weirdly miscategorized is Austin’s own BOB-FM, the station famous for its slogan “We play anything.” Currently they’re rocking Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which hardly falls under the “Adult Contemporary” genre, but maybe someone at iTunes is confusing the concepts of “Adult” (aka pr0n) with “Adult Contemporary”?
Looking for something different? Scan through the 705 offerings in the International/World music offerings; you’re sure to find something to catch your fancy. Maybe even AM 940 Hawaii, featuring all traditional Hawaiian music 24/7?
One of the stations I really want to like, but which has been streaming some truly annoying artists today, is the all-female music station, KGRL. (Don’t be fooled; when they say “flower-powered” they’re not talking about hippies, if you catch my drift.) As a lady, I do like hunting down chicks who rock in the often male-dominated music world. But Chantal Kreviazuk? You’ve got to be kidding me (yet another instance of CanCon suckitude!). Also, if the station’s supposed to be “sugar-free,” then she violates your first tenet right there. However, they did just introduce me to Dragonette, a Canadian band that rocks 80′s style. So if you like chick-rock, check it out. For me, the jury’s still out, cus I’d like to see some more Joan Jett, Ani DiFranco, Hole types of ladies dominating this station.
And if you’ve got rather, um… let’s just call it special taste in music, do check out both Zappa Radio (the home of Frank Zappa and the Zappa Family Trust) and GothVille Radio (“dark music for people dressed in black”).
You can also find pretty much any major city’s radio stations, like the “world-famous KROQ” (out of L.A.) and K-Rock (out of NYC), both of which are, oddly enough, “alternative stations” playing most the music the kids are diggin’ these days. Bi-coastal, baby!
Got any recommendations for iTunes radio stations you’ve been grooving on lately?
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Tags: adult contemporary music is evil, alternative rock, AM 940 Hawaii, American blues from the 1930s to 70s, Ani DiFranco, Avril Lavigne sucks, baroque music, beautiful classical music, Blues Classics, blues music, BOB-FM, Canada, Canadians rock, CanCon, CBC, CBC Radio 3, Celebrity Intern, Celine Dion sucks, chamber music, Chantal Kreviazuk sucks, chick-rock, classical music, comedy albums, Comedy Pipe Radio Network, coolest Canadian, dark music for people dressed in black, David Sedaris, David Suzuki, don't touch that dial!, Dragonette, early classical, Eric Clapton sucks, Frank Zappa, Frugal Fun, George Carlin, GothVille Radio, her fucking pussy exploded, Hole, international music, Internet radio, Italian accents, iTunes, iTunes radio, jazz connoisseur, JAZZRADIO.com, Joan Jett, K-Rock, KGRL, KROQ, L.A., Led Zeppelin, Long Way From Home, Louise Johnson, Margaret Cho, Michael Jackson, Ned says, New York, NYC, online-only radio stations, opera, Playlist for the Planet, rekkid stow, rekkids, Rush sucks, stay gold Ponyboy, Swing and Big Band, symphony music, Thriller, uncensored comedy, Venice Classic Radio, we play anything, world music, Zappa Family Trust, Zappa Radio
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Looks like I need to spend some time wandering around in my iTunes radio! The comedy channel sounds especially cool. I’ve been a fan of Pandora for a while now, and I guess the main advantage is that I can access that anywhere I have an Internet connection – not just on my home computer where I have iTunes. But I do like the organization of the different channels in the iTunes radio. I wouldn’t have to put in a band to establish a genre like with Pandora. Thanks for the great info/review!
I discovered Internet radio a few months ago too, I love it . who needs to buy music?
I guess I never got into Internet radio for the opposite reasons of yours, Suzanne, as I don’t typically listen to music while I’m at work (usually because it’s banned at the work sites, bummer!), so I only listen at home. iTunes radio definitely has a good selection, and I like the way it’s organized by genre, even when some of the genres aren’t *quite* accurate. The only downside I can really see is there’s no particular way of bookmarking the ones you like into a kind of Internet Radio Favorites list.
Exactly, Kate! While I’ll buy certain CDs or MP3s from favorite artists, I tend to be a 99-cent iTunes buyer type, as I’ll get things in my head and want to listen to them on repeat… but not necessarily a whole album. Gotta love free Internet radio, though, cus you can usually find them playing somewhere!