Reminds me how crappy 90% of American radio is...

This past weekend I discovered the BBC's 6Music digital radio station. They play a fine eclectic mix of rock, soul, hip-hop, electronica, and the stuff inbetween. Being Brit's when they play 80s music, they don't play the same damn 25 top40 dreck that seems to pass for "retro 80s" most of the time (see CumOnEileen/TaintedLove/FlockofSeagulls/etc.etc.etc.), instead focusing on British hits that seem somehow cooler. There's also cuts from sessions recorded specifically for the BBC going back to the 60s. And they have Bruce friggin' Dickinson as host for Saturday and Sunday night shows!

6Music is a digital-only service only available to blokes with digital radios in the UK, and over the web in RealAudio. They stream in stereo RA8 at up to 64kbps which is almost as good as 128 kbps mp3. I had it on virtually all this past weekend, beaming to my main stereo via one of those x10 jobbies (before they started they're perpetual pop-up and pop-under campaign.).

I can completely associate with this article on PitchforkMedia, "$1", all about the joys of shopping for records in the dollar bin. I don't shop the dollar bin so much anymore, due mostly to running out of room for my media collection in general, and due to having less free time for such pursuits. But when I do indulge there's almost always fun to be had. When I was in college in glorious Trenton, NJ I used to make periodic pilgrimages to the Princeton Record Exchange which has an enormous volume of LPs, with boxes and boxes of $1 discs underneath every rack in the store. I fondly remember a couple of my biggest finds in those racks, including a still-sealed first pressing of Slayer's first album, and a mint condition copy of Japanese heavy metal band E-Z-O's first record. Apparently there weren't too many metalheads in Princeton back in the early 90s, so I reaped the rewards of these LPs going unsold at full price.

Now I mostly get my $1 records at a couple of annual record sales held by our local public radio station WILL and our community radio station WEFT. There's also a nice little independent record store down the street from me where I occasionally browse. There have been only a few big finds recently, like a copy of Missing Foundation's 1933, but like the author the article, I now tend to go for classic rock and other music that I'd like to try out or have an occasional listen to but don't want to invest $8-15 in.

I've started to dub some of this stuff to minidisc for listening on the go, and because listening on MD is much more convenient than LPs. I don't typically do full albums, making mixes instead. Now that MD's are almost as cheap as good cassettes it's all a low-budget affair!