i always love looking for and finding new music.  there are a number of places i look. iTunes is the first place i look.  even though its not a perfect shopping experience i tend to find new stuff that strikes my interest.  other places i look are amazon.com’s mp3 page as well as The Currents web site.  as far as physical stores i usually head over to Cheapo for music shopping.  they have a great selection for old records as well as decent prices on used cds.

but, when money is tight, like it might be for a few people out there, i turn to internet radio stations. the main one i listen to is MPR’s The Current (Click for Stream). Even though i can listen to it right on my radio, i am not always in my car or in a place i can turn the radio on.  this stream is very good quality and perfect for listening on your iPhone or on your computer.  Another radio station i will listen to is Fresh Air a radio station from Edinburgh.  its a student run radio station and they play music that i might not hear on mainstream radio.  For a more ambient dj mix mood i turn to Groove Salad. its a nice mix of electronic and dance music.  very ambient and not distracting.  A really slick station that The Current got its influance from is KCRW.  they have a music only stream that is very good.  lots of non pop top 40 stuff.  mostly lesser known bands and local LA music.  Finally there is a new one that got my attention recently that is also from Minnesota Public Radio and that’s Radio Heartland. its a great mix of americana, bluegrass and roots music.

but more often than that i turn to podcasts.  with the podcasts i can keep the music on my ipod, go back and listen to it often.  i have found a few thatfeature a new song everyday.  first on my list is The Currents Song of the day (opens iTunes). like it says, there is a new song everyday.  they feature local twin cities artists as well as new songs from up and coming artists.  its definatly worth downloading every track on the list.  you will be introduced to many new artists that you may not have heard otherwise.

next on my list is IdieFeed (link opens Alternative feed in iTunes).  this group covers many styles of music: alternative, Indie Pop, Dance, Hip Hop, Electronica, Preformance Poetry and Blues. This one is very nice.  each track gets introduced and after the track plays there is a very short biography of the artist.  very informative and is updated 2-3 times a week.

next are a few music review and interview podcasts.  First on my list is Sound Opinion from American Public Media. this si a weekly program and is about an hour long.  often they spend the first half of the show interviewing an artist about a new album or they talk about the big release of the day.  the second half of the show is about reviewing certain album releases for that week.  its very informative and though i don’t always agree with them, they really know what they are talking about and they are very interesting to listen to.

After that is another one from Minnesota Public Radio called Musicheads. This is hosted by The Current’s Bill DeVille and features conversation with other DJs from the station about new music that has arrived locally and nationally.  it runs about a half an hour and is always interesting.

Than i will listen to KCRWs Morning Becomes Eclectic. This one runs between 40 and 60 minutes and covers all styles of music from jazz to pop to reggea to classical.  ussually focusing one one artist per episode they interview and give background on the artists and talk about inspirations and direction.

Which brings us to the final 2 that i like, both from NPR.  The first is All Songs Considered. this is a great show that features new and eclectic artists as well as covering the bigger names.  they also have a fantastic website with even more indepth interviews, photos, videos and blogs.  Also from All Songs Considered is thier Live Concerts podcast. This is a fantastic pocast that will feature FULL concerts by many artists like Radiohead, The Raconteurs, the Ting Tings and She & Him. There are also some videos that are called “tiny desk concerts” which are filmed in studio at the hosts desk.  also very slick.

so there you have it. a decent list of places to get FREE music when money is tight.  there are many more out there but these are the ones that i like and listen to all the time.  what do you listen to?

Someone really wanted to wear dads hat.

so its been really busy for me lately.  i have been working over at ProMedia Productions for the past 2 weeks and it has been great.  it sounds like i may be working over there on a freelance bassis for a while now.  that is great for us!  other than that we have just been busy outside working in the yard or playing with Miles.  he loves being out there.  some days we can’t get he inside with out a fit!  but that is fine, we are glad he likes to be outside.  he also enjoys going for a bike ride with us.  he has his own little pull behid trailer that is hooked onto Miriams bike.  we have also been speding time at my grandparents house since they are back from Arizona for the summer.  always good times there!

this is just a fun little post. when we are at my parents house Miles gets to “drive” grandpa’s car. just up the driveway when it is parked on the street. he has a good time with it, as you can see

this past weekend we went to my parents house for some odds and ends. one of those was going through some of my old stuff and old computers that we had sitting in the basement. there were tons of old video components and random other things, but the main attraction was my old Video toaster computer. man that thing was loaded up! (for 1993). i think it must have had at least 2GB of Hard Drive Space in it! Also the NewTek Video Toaster with which i edited video, animated with Lightwave and a few other things. i also has “personal animation recorder” in there. what that did was record my animations to the hard drive so i could watch them or record them to Video tape (imagine that). the kicker was that i was able to do all this on a 33 MHz processor! amazing!

we plugged it in to see if it would start up. it seemed to but i don’t think the hard drive was spinning properly. so we opened it up and when my dad took out his handy dandy little flashlight to look the top fell off and shorted the computer out. (this was because Miles was playing with the flashlight and has recently learned to unscrew things. needless to say he unscrewed the flashlight). so off to the recycling it went. no worries. i don’t think it worked any more any way.

here are a couple of things Miles has learned recently… enjoy!

yes that’s right, Miles can use the iPhone. he knows how to turn it on, unlock it, view photos and even answer it. don’t believe me? check out the video.

Miles is growing up fast. I took this video a few weeks ago while we were playing around. He is learning lots of new and fun things. I’m sure more videos will be posted soon!