#640: Quitting Radio 2

It's sick, but sometimes my stash of 3-dozen CD's isn't ENUF motivation 2 get me thru a bad workday.
I'm slowly adding more motivational music, on my tight budget. & I've tried test-driving previously-unheard stuff at work, which often doesn't work 2 well 4 me, or 4 the public. Ghod knows what kind of damage I mighta caused 2 people's psyches when I tried out Cromagnon's CAVE ROCK at work a few months back....
But no matter what it is that's playing, even if it doesn't Xactly keep me moving, I know it makes me happier than hearing local radio spin something lame & WAY-played-out like the Eagles' "Heartache Tonight" 4 the 9-millionth time.
How did things get like this? & why do people settle 4 it? Maybe they don't -- & that's why portable music devices (iPods, Walkmans, Discmans, etc.) have been so popular since the early '80s.... Way better 2 program your own music, rather than letting commercial radio make completely predictable choices 4 you....
Anyway, 2 go along with my mostly-continuing radio boycott, here's what I've bn playing lately at work, in the car on the way 2 work, & elsewhere....

Florence + the Machine -- Shake it Out.
Stevie Wonder -- I Was Made to Love Her, Signed Sealed Delivered, Superstition, Higher Ground, You Haven't Done Nothin', I Wish, Sir Duke, That Girl.
Chicago -- Old Days.
Camel -- Never Let Go, Rhayader, Rhayader Goes to Town, Unevensong, Breathless, Echoes, Sasquatch, Mother Road.
Love -- Alone Again Or, A House is Not a Motel, The Daily Planet, Old Man, The Red Telephone, Maybe the People Should be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale.
Turtles -- Sound Asleep.
Beatles -- Ticket to Ride, Eight Days a Week, Paperback Writer, Help!
Kansas -- Miracles out of Nowhere, Questions of My Childhood.
Rush -- Time Stand Still, Force Ten, Marathon, Mission.
Fleetwood Mac -- Oh Well, Green Manalishi, Why?

...Stevie Wonder went over pretty well at work. I hadn't heard "Higher Ground" & "You Haven't Done Nothin'" in YEARS, & they both still sound great. "I Wish" is practically a themesong 4 a nostalgia nut like me -- which makes it a good companion-piece 2 Chicago's "Old Days." "That Girl" unfortunately sounds better coming unXpectedly out of the car radio....
Should note that Love's FOREVER CHANGES features some really Xcellent, powerful acoustic-guitar strumming & slashing along with occasional electric-gtr freakouts 2 accompany the superb songs....

Checked-out a couple local 2nd-hand stores last week, grabbing cheap old albums by the Turtles, 2 by the Rascals, Youngbloods, Paul Simon & Gordon Lightfoot. Haven't actually LISTENED 2 any of these yet. (Crap, I still have stuff I grabbed last JULY that I haven't played yet....)
Left Bhind a few things that might B worth some $$$ -- King Crimson's DISCIPLINE (couldn't justify spending $8 4 an album cover since I already have it on a home-burned CD), + the Four Seasons' STORY 2-record best-of (on Private Stock, out-of-print since about 1978), Bobby Goldsboro's 20TH ANNIVERSARY 2-record best-of, & Rod Stewart's 2-record Mercury BEST OF.
I already have enuf Rod the Mod 2 keep me happy -- & tho I briefly thot about grabbing the 4 Seasons & Bobby Goldsboro cos they might B worth some $$$, then I started thinking about HOW 2 sell them & 2 who, how quickly I could turn the $$$ around, & decided it wasn't worth it -- these days I can only justify buying stuff I might actually LISTEN 2.... (But if you're intrested in these, check out the Port Orchard, Wash., St. Vincent DePaul's Thrift Store -- they're CHEAP....)

...About the only thing I can find worth hearing on local radio these days is rock critics Jim DeRogatis & Greg Kott's weekly SOUND OPINIONS program, carried here on the University of Washington's KUOW FM. In recent weeks they've had interviews & live performances with/by Aimee Mann, Lucinda Williams & others, reviews & samples of good-sounding new stuff (Richard Thompson's ELECTRIC, Rye's WOMAN), & overviews of shoegaze, '80s psychedelia, etc. Some critics' babies, 2 B sure, but not enuf reviews or Desert Island-worthy picks....
Oh, & Seattle's news station KOMO aired a pretty good 5-minute interview with Paul Revere of the Raiders. Did you know the Rolling Stones OPENED a show for the Raiders once...?
More soon!