The Current

[cosmolinguist]

I'm unduly excited that I finally got my favorite radio station working on the internet for me. I do a lot of digital-radio-listening on my phone, and it hadn't worked for me since I got this phone last March! That's a long time to go without the steady, reliable flow of music I love, music I am content listening to, and music I need to know about. One reason 2014 didn't seem a very musical year was that I didn't have easy new(-to-me) music discoveries from The Current.

Today I found a workaround (as a note to myself, since I'm sure this won't mean anything to anyone else: the main Twin Cities station doesn't work, but the Northfield one does! I don't get it, but whatever) and I'm basking in aural joy.

Bill DeVille's on! He's a DJ (my favorite even before The Current existed! I remember him on Cities97!) He played "September Gurls" a bit ago and though I hear Big Star a lot now cos Andrew loves them, it was this guy who introduced me to their music. He seems to like similar things to me, but he knows about a lot more than me! An ideal musical guide. Plus his voice kinda reminds me of my dad.

I love The Current partly for being full of the kind of DJs associated with rock music's early days on the radio; maybe not quite as larger-than-life as those characters -- this is still Minnesota! we're never more than the same size as life -- but there is a sense of personality and enthusiasm behind the music that's lacking from more rigidly programmed stations.

(Plus I'm utterly fascinated by the weather reports. They're so unlike anything else I hear these days that I can't help but stop reading my book when I notice one, and I am somehow soothed and homesick at the same time.)

Comments

[syntaxofthings]

There's a guy from England who DJs often on The Current. I wonder how he made it out here.

I can't stand a lot of radio lately. Cities97 has a DJ I really hate and it keeps playing the same things over and over and over. The Current is good but not as much my taste. So I've been listening to the few CDs I have in the car millions of times.

[cosmolinguist]

There's a guy from England who DJs often on The Current.

Heh, yeah, I know about that guy. :) I got out of the habit of listening to him after I moved here, because the time difference means I was almost always sleeping when he's on. But his voice too is very evocative and happy-making for me.

Cities97 was my favorite when I was a teenager, but it's gotten a lot worse: much more repetitive and unadventurous, as you say, than it was then. But it was a little more like The Current is now -- not so aggressively eclectic, but then nothing is :) -- so I'm not sure that'd have been more to your tastes either.

It's a shame how all the Twin Cities' radio stations seem so samey and dull these days. I wonder how much iTunes/spotify/phones with tons of space for all your music/digital radio are affecting this.

[syntaxofthings]

Probably the phone situation is a big deal, heh. Who listens to the radio? Mm, I grew up listening to radio so I can't discount it at all.

Cities97 got this really annoying new DJ about 2 or 3 years ago and it's just the mainstream attitudes about everything along with the constant repetition that just drives me batty. Arrrrrgh. *tears out hair except not because stressed out about enough things*

[kaberett]

:-)