Public Radio Gets It Done Again

My Saturdays typically involve running errands, attending pre-school birthday parties, visiting my in-laws and numerous other activities that require schlepping my kids around in the car. In an effort to expand their musical and cultural horizons, I try to listen to public radio when driving with my children. This is also a remarkably selfish act--most children's music sucks. Just because I'm driving a family truckster doesn't mean I have to be completely miserable.

zson likes to run errands with me in large part because I tear around with the windows down and, if it's between 1 pm and 3 pm on Saturday, Rex Doane's "Fool's Paradise" show blaring on the radio. According to Doane's website, "Fool's Paradise examines recorded music located somewhere between low brow and no brow. Vintage rockabilly, R & B, blues, vocal groups, garage, instrumentals, hillbilly, soul and surf set the stage for a three hour sonic excursion to nowhere." And that doesn't even begin to do the show justice--check out 15 years of playlists here. Doane plays lots of stuff from Decca Records, Norton Records and all sorts of other stuff I never heard before. Best of all, zson digs it.

Whilst trucking north on zvacation last week, slogging through the wasteland between Hartford and the junction of 84 and the Mass Pike, I found a rockabilly show in the 89 section of the FM dial (which is really an LED readout, but whatever). At least two zfamily members liked it so I stopped scanning. A few songs into the show, this happened:



Public fucking radio!! How have I never heard of this guy before?

Later on in our jaunt around northeastern Massachusetts I heard this joint on WERS:



The Beginning of the End?!? Again, how come I haven't heard their music before? Oh wait, I have ... as has Mark, Rootsy, TR and anyone else who listened to hiphop and/or hung out with me in the early 90's. Check the first 12 seconds of this song:



So the next time you have a long road trip, try listening to some oddball radio stations instead of simply putting your iPod on shuffle. You might find some cool music you never would've heard otherwise.