Crosslander I: The Listening

I spent the better part of 15 hours in the car with my kid this weekend, rolling through the turning leaves of Upstate New York on a pair of college visits. Since it seems to require an engineering degree to figure out how to play music from a mobile device through my Mini's audio system, we chose our entertainment from the diverse selection available on SiriusXM. A handful of highlights for your listening pleasure:

We had the good luck to be traveling during SiriusXM's coverage of Austin City Limits, so we heard several really good live sets. Judah and the Lion are dork-rockers in the extreme, over the top in their efforts to engage their fans in singalongs and high-energy action. They covered Blink 182's 'All The Small Things', as well as arena staple Rock 'n Roll Part 2. They're a really fun live listen.



When Billie Eilish started her set with 'Bad Guy', the crowd went batshit. Near as we could tell, the batshit never stopped. Folks love that young lady.



Bridie Monds-Watson is a 19 year-old from Derry, Northern Ireland who records as SOAK. She's something else.



The Avett Brothers showed up to perform a live session on The Spectrum on Saturday morning, backing their new album. This is their first overtly political record, as the first single, 'Bang Bang' might hint.



Local Natives got a lot of run with 'Megaton Mile', as did Spoon with 'No Bullets Spent'.





Whirlwind trip for me and my girl, and maybe one of the last times we'll get to do that before she goes to college. I love that she loves music, and I love even more that she wanted to listen to it with me instead of putting on headphones and withdrawing into her own world. I'll remember this trip for a good while.