Sound Thrashing

I have been listening to NPR on the weekends for a few years now. I usually have it up on Saturday mornings while straightening out the house, catching up on e-mail, or whatever. The trio of Car Talk, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and Whaddya Know was a solid block of entertainment. My wife also loves This American Life after that (I'm not as big a fan.)

Anyhow, this year, Whaddya Know got the bump and is now broadcast at a time when I probably won't hear it. In its place, there's a new show called Sound Opinions with two newspaper music critics that I do not like. NPR already has a show called All Songs Considered which features the music more than the story behind the music (which rarely interests me) so I much prefer it.

This week, I decided to give SO a try. They featured Lily Allen who has an interesting record and sound, although I think I'd have a hard time listening to her music at length. She did have an interesting personality so the segment wasn't a total wash.

The only other interesting aspect of the show was the introduction of a new rapper named Tim Fite. I like De La Soul, Beck and other rap/pseudo-rap groups of this ilk. I'm not sure if Tim Fite makes music that lives up to the hype the two dolt announcers bestowed upon it but he did post an entire record for free. He makes it sound like he's doing something to shift the paradigm but I'm guessing his label wouldn't release it.

(Not like this is unprecedented - McChris put out "Life's a Bitch..." a couple of years ago and the Smashing Pumpkins released an entire free album on the internet just after they disbanded way back when.)

Conclusion - Sound Opinions is boring but they did put me onto some new, free music.