And now for an insanely cool waste of time...

Totally addictive. Whacked out. Dig it -

Swedish mash up

What's Wrong With KEXP?

This is really a Seattle story, so I apologize to my out of area readers. Though you can listen to the putative 'best alternate station in the world' by going to kexp.org, after this post you may just not want to.

KEXP is Seattle's supah-hip public radio station of music. You'd think this town of any would have a cutting edge music scene (apparently still adequate, but stale by many reports - I wouldn't know because I'm not a live music person), and a cutting edge set of radio stations to go with it. But we're like every other major market - it's sliced up very finely by genre and, strangely, good alternative is not one of them.

I loved KEXP and have supported them with $100 a year for the last five years or so. But something changed there early this year. I wrote a letter to the Exec Director with my complaints - when I returned his letter pleading for money, unfulfilled, last week.

Right up front, in self-deprecation, I say the station changed. I didn't particularly want it to change. That's my failing, alright? I liked the routine of a great mix of alternative, with some interesting stuff thrown in. But it changed. It got regimented and, frankly, I think a little more like the corporate airwaves. I think they made shows they thought fit markets.

My bitches are these:

• 6 - 9pm Monday: 'Best Ambience' African/world beat/repetitive/French/drums

• 6 - 9pm Tuesday: 'Wo-pop' World beat/African/repetitive/languages I don't know
  

The world beat thing, or at least how they program it, is like Reggae to me: if you like it, it's a good thing, because it's phenomenally repetitive. So settle in for three hours of music that sounds an awful lot like the song you just heard. Great for stoners, or people with head injury memory disorders.

• 6-9pm W, Th, Fr: Roadhouse, Swingin Doors, Shake the Shack.
  

Calling these shows separate things is a ruse. Very similar - I know, they're blues and roots, or more stompin' music, but it's a lot of music that has a lot in common. Rockabilly, country-somethin', twangi-blues. It's got a place, unfortunately it fills every evening's programming that doesn't have the music of Africa.

Weekend mornings are just the perfect time to listen to music fairly intensively. Unfortunately:

• Saturday 9 - noon: Reggae. See above. You either like it or you don't. I got over Reggae by my fifth beer, first semester, freshman year.
• Sunday 9 - noon: Blues. Real blues. Suicide by lunch time.
  

My last bitch is that in their variety periods, which is much of the day, which I used to love, there is now a tendency to play songs of great merit, though of no relevance to each other, back to back. Radiohead and Spoon sandwiching some LOUD nasty HipHop. No, HipHop is not my taste. And I know there is a place for it on this station (hence I said it had merit), but mixing genre like this is diabolical. I have sprained my finger in my haste to hit the 'off' button.

I used to enjoy the exposure to a broad variety of music on KEXP. Now I fear it.

As I wrote the E.D., they lost my hundred, but who cares? As long as they have some new audience member who cares enough to send a Franklin. (My guess is that it won't be a Rastafarian.)

Do I sound like my dad yet?

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Such a joy we can only hope to ever know.
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fasterfasterfasterfasterfaster!
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