I totally missed this video when it made the rounds months ago — but after watching it, I think Christopher R. Weingarten is my new hero. Well, maybe not my hero. But at least he’s my favorite music critic now.
If topics like crowdsourcing and its effects on criticism interest you at all, the video above is totally worth ten minutes of your time.
A little more than five years after it fired up with a rather curious DJ-free playlist, Indie’s going off the airwaves in LA. And while I’ll miss being able to tune-in while driving around, I’m happy that they’re going to try to keep things going online.
If I ever miss it enough while rolling thru my hood, at least I can load up Tuner on the iPhone and patch it into my car stereo. The quality may suffer a bit, but at least the reception will be a little bit better… ;)
Update: Variety has a fantastic obit that does more than just regurgitate the closing statement plastered across the front page. If you listened to the station for even a few minutes, it’s worth a read.
Update: According to an interview with Mr. Shovel over at The Daily Swarm the announcement running on the radio after every song is a little disingenuous:
None of the primary DJs or music programmers at the station are involved in the website and it’s not being run by people who ran the station – there may be one person from the station. My concern is that people are confused. They are running an ad on the air saying we couldn’t play the corporate radio game anymore and that we didn’t want to change our format to be more mainstream and that we decided to play music on the web. But the guy making the announcement is the head of sales! God love him, he’s a good guy, but the staff of Indie had no control in the decision to shut down the station. I guess they had some success with the web and want to keep it going. But I don’t want the listeners to be confused.
I listened to the web stream for a good portion of yesterday and they were still playing tracks from Check One…Two artists with pre-recorded bits from Mr. Shovel. That just seems a little off to me.
I told myself that I was going to wait for the reviews before I rushed out and bought myself a pair of Nixon Nomadic headphones. Sure, the product page made them look dead sexy — but could they possibly live up to the marketing hype?
2 weeks on, my patience was wearing thin. Not a single word had surfaced and I was getting antsy. No. I wasn’t going to give in. If they were good, I’d hear about it eventually. Patience is a virtue, and I was going to stick to my original plan.
A week later, I had them in my grubby paws. Fuck patience. My want overruled any plans I might have had. And while I might be weak, at least I had a shiny new way to listen to music.
So how are they? Surprisingly good, actually. The first handful of tracks that I listened to had the right amount of punch along with just enough nuance. Even the audiobook that I’m currently consuming sounded great.
On top of that, they’re solidly built. The ball and socket joints manage to swivel freely while not getting too squirrelly and the memory foam ear pads contour quite nicely. The fact that the headphone cable detaches for easy packing and the right ear has an independent volume control built-in are just icing on the cake.
Oh, did I mention these were iPhone compatible? No? Well, they are. And the mic, I’ve been told, sounds fantastic. Like a heavy one-inch button, there’s really no fumbling for it to change tracks or answer calls. Your hand just sort of gravitates to it.
Other than feeling just a little tight on my Charlie Brown sized head, these are pretty much flawless. They’re seriously my new favorite headphones — and well worth the $120 I shelled out for them. If you’ve got the cash to burn, I highly recommend them.
This Gnarls Barkley cover of Radiohead’s “Reckoner” totally manages to make up for the fact that I didn’t really care for “The Odd Couple”.
Bands I Want To See In 2010
While my list is a little shorter than in years past, I’d be perfectly happy if I got to see all (or at least most) of these bands sometime in the next 365 days.
Who’s on your “must see” list this year?