Erik Moe Art & Design

An overhaul of the Chicago Public Radio website went up today. For those of us who can’t be bothered to turn on a radio anymore but are always looking for new ways to get that old public radio fix, they’ve added no less than eight RSS feeds for different categories of local news: arts, education, business, etc. The new design is a vast improvement as well – clean, semantic, and easy to find what you want. I’d like to see a little more design around all those text blocks than just thin gray lines, but plain vanilla done well is sometimes better than Chubby Hubby. Actually, I take that back – nothing beats Chubby Hubby.

Ice cream analogies aside, this web re-launch is nicely timed timed for Chicago Public Radio to shine in the spotlight of its debut in television production. I’ve just laid hands on the first six episodes of Showtime’s This American Life series to review for About Documentaries. As a longtime TAL junkie, adjusting my critical eye for this new incarnation is tricky. First impressions are mostly very good, though. It is a little odd to see Ira Glass posing as a hipster newsman all over the press kit. Then again, he actually is the hipster newsman – so I guess there isn’t a problem. More thoughts soon over on the documentaries site…

With this week’s announcement that Chicago’s own This American Life is podcasting its new episodes, I now have a nicely well-rounded weekly playlist of sonic ear and brain candy to entertain me while I work. I play wordy brain candy while doing visual/design work:

• This American Life
• Jazz in Chicago Podcast
• Harry Shearer’s Le Show
• From NPR: Driveway Moments, Shuffle, Pop Culture, Talk of the Nation Opinion, Science Friday
• BBC NewsPod - best of BBC news
• Economist - more world news from the UK. Ryan recently was raving about the print version - which caused me to add this to my rotation.
• Filmspotting - based in Chicago, this podcast discusses film and often has running themes discussed over several weeks (recently: Herzog, Animation, Documentary)
• …and some random podcasts that are published sporadically like Barack Obama’s podcast, and POV’s documentary previews

And I play ear candy when I’m writing or doing work that requires a little more attention from the left side of the brain. Actually, when I’m writing I usually turn things way down or off.

• In Over Your Head - I actually listen to this more for Julien Smith’s rants from Montreal, but the indie hip-hip tracks he plays are also amazing
• Local Support - Philadelphia bands
• CBC Radio 3 - Canadian Indie music
• KEXP Music that matters - long eclectic chuncks of time spent with Seattle indie DJs
• NPR All Songs Considered - a nice mix of new music and discussion of it
• …and a handful of random ’song of the day’ or ’song of the week’ type podcasts I’ve run across here and there, making for a nice mix of new music

I really love being able to listen to what I want, when I want and being able to skip ahead, pause, and rewind whenever I feel the need. Sometimes I miss the immediacy of live radio and the surprises that come with it, but since moving to Chicago I haven’t adjusted well to the daytime schedule offered by Chicago Public Radio - though overall I prefer their offerings over Philly’s WHYY.

So, what are you listening to?

…are (Minnesota) Public Radio, wikis, and music. Roll them all together and you get Minnewiki: The Minnesota Music Encyclopedia. I couldn’t resist contributing a few sentences here and there, though my knowledge of Minnesota music is lacking since coming East in 2001.

I’ve been listening off and on to MPR’s new new-music station, KCMP “The Current” online during it’s inaugural day. So far I’m liking this inauguration better than the (presidential) one in the news last week. My fears of a wimpy station heavy on folk or new-agey music have thankfully not come to pass. I’m actually impressed so far (aside from the odd Ani DiFranco track). They took a bold first step by playing Atmosphere’s “Shh…..” as a first track fresh out of the blocks after Classical WCAL signed off at 9AM. If you don’t know the track, it features the Minneapolis Hip-Hop maestro Slug rhyming about how amazing The Minny is (even Slug doesn’t call it “The Minny,” though). Some of the song’s lyrics sort of make me cringe because they are a bit sappy, but he is so earnest and it’s all true more or less, so I say it was a good pick. Other tracks have been very eclectic, but still mixing together well. Replacements, Frank Sinatra, Iron & Wine, plenty of Minny bands, and plenty of good-sounding stuff that I’ll be happy to get to know better.

The New York Times Magazine yesterday wrote about how powerful Santa Monica’s KCRW has become with the music industry due to the number of people who listen to it’s eclectic programming in their offices on the internet all day. In fact, much like Seattle’s KEXP, they host parties and concerts on this side of the continent for the large contingent of members they have in New York. MPR is surely eyeing that big money with this new new-music station. If you’re reading this Bill Kling, I’ll take a job as your East Coast concert planner…

Free Tech Tip: Mac people should listen to KCMP with the free VLC Media Player, since iTunes doesn’t yet support the great-sounding aacPlus stream. You can use WinAmp on Windows to access that stream. KCMP also has a less good mono Windows Media Player stream that you can use on either platform.

Minnesota Public Radio has announced that it is launching a music station for “listeners who have grown up in the digital generation. Whatever that means. From all appearances, this looks to be a Minnesota-flavored KEXP. The key staffers announced so far are Steve Nelson, who helped start Radio K, and Thorn, a DJ from the departed and much-loved Rev105. Yow.

“Once it debuts, the audience can expect to hear musical artists ranging from local favorites such as Mason Jennings, The Replacements, Olympic Hopefuls and The Jayhawks to modern icons such as The Postal Service, Lucinda Williams, Alejandro Escovedo, Joni Mitchell, U2 and the Arcade Fire. Artists such as Chet Baker, Johnny Cash and Ella Fitzgerald will creep in periodically.”

That language is almost exactly the way Rev105 used to be described (substituting The Jesus & Mary Chain, Morphine, Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Soul Coughing, and Soul Asylum, for the newer acts), which makes me optimistic that the station won’t be too folked out or new-agey the way some of the new music public radio stations lean.

Back in the day (the day being 1995 or so), there were adventurous commercial radio stations owned by smallish companies. In Minneapolis there was Rev105 (and KJ104 before it). These commercial stations were run by people who were deeply involved in the local music scene. Most notably, by Kevin Cole a former First Avenue DJ (Cole now is at Seattle’s KEXP). In high school and college I learned to love music throuh Kevin Cole and the other DJs on those stations. Here’s hoping the best for the new MPR service.

Related: What’s Up with 89.3

After writing the last post, I somehow ran across a planned 2006 film version of A Prairie Home Companion to be directed by Robert Altman and star Tom Waits, Lily Tomlin, Meryl Streep, Lyle Lovett, and GK himself. Huh? I’ve been a Keillor apologist/defender/scholar for many years – surely in part due to my intensive immersion in Minnesota Public Radio during my formative years – and this move is truly baffling. This kind of celebrity collision is exactly the kind of thing Keillor supposedly lives in fear of. His whole schtick depends on his outsider status. Even though APHC has some amazing rockabilly, bluegrass, and folk-rockers on from time to time, and even though Keillor has some of the edgiest politics in the mass media, he has always somehow maintained his ground firmly on the uncool side of the hipster divide. You simply can’t continue to be uncool after you complete a project with Tom Waits and Lily Tomlin. Right? Remember when he quit in the late 80’s and ran off to live as an expatriate in Denmark or Finland or Scandanorweeden with his new wife? That was because he had become a media darling and couldn’t pull off his folksy attitude anymore. Sort of like the situation Michael Moore is in right now…

Yes, I listen to too much public radio. Probably enough to justify an entire category that I shall hereby dub “pledge central.” Have I mentioned my bootleg vintage Ira Glass tape yet? (thanks Mel)