i haven't listened to it yet, but a rolling playlist of previous six hours is posted here:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/thecurrent/playlist.php
...and it's fucking dire! i mean like hilariously ilm-strawman bad.
but, more broadly, is this happening anywhere else? is public radio getting into the music game a good idea? mpr exports so much product to the rest of publicradioland (keillor, sound $$, etc), is this their next nationwide thing? are they just gunning for the last sliver of city markets served by college radio, or what? does sarah vowell like it? does greil marcus? do i? no!
― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― DJ Martian (djmartian), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:10 (nineteen years ago) link
What's will all the old jazz stuff, though? (Lionel Hampton, Sarah Vaughan, Benny Goodman, etc.)
― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― youn, Friday, 28 January 2005 21:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:17 (nineteen years ago) link
Huh?
― David Allen (David Allen), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― john'n'chicago, Friday, 28 January 2005 21:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― donut christ (donut), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:24 (nineteen years ago) link
But last night I heard a fun 3-song Bowie sandwich (Brazilian Seu Jorge cover of "Rebel Rebel" into Bowie doing "Suffragette" into Bauhaus' version of "Ziggy.") Also heard Wilco into Sonic Youth, neither my favorite, but pretty noisy for MPR.
I agree, it'll often be too eclectic for its own good, but public radio often is. It'll be interesting to see how their first pledge drive goes come spring, and how it impacts other community/public stations. My jury's out on whether it's a good idea overall; I'll be listening, but probably not a whole lot.
― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:43 (nineteen years ago) link
...yes...it's a little MOR, a little bland, but in the massive horrid wasteland of FM radio here it's at least commercial free and not totally "we play the same cycle of songs in the exact same order every two hours" like the others.....
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:48 (nineteen years ago) link
it's not great, but... Stereolab? Nick Drake? the dB's? XTC? Kings of Convenience? Lifter Puller?
i don't see how this is ILM strawman levels of horridness.
― jonviachicago, Friday, 28 January 2005 21:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:54 (nineteen years ago) link
My friend heard a song off the new Fall record.....the weeknight DJ, Mark Wheat, managed Radio K and is really really cool....
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 28 January 2005 21:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― asl, Friday, 28 January 2005 21:58 (nineteen years ago) link
I know about KEXP's history and all that. (formerly KCMU, then Chris Knab fired a lot of people and made it far more NPR friendly back in the early 90s, incensing a lot of people, and then Paul Allen came in, gave it a lot of money, and moved it off campus, and all that.. incidentally, Paul Allen's funding of the station either JUST ended or will be ending very, very shortly, and KEXP is going to be truly self funded)
Also UW has its own fully NPR station, KUOW, as well, so KEXP is just as disconnected from UW as any other commercial station to me, as far as I'm concerned.
So, in many ways, KEXP/KCMU became an offshoot of the UW radio community, but it happened very slowly. Whereas, The Current does seem to be a concerted effort by NPR to experiment into a music station in one fell swoop.
― donut christ (donut), Friday, 28 January 2005 22:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― mike h. (mike h.), Friday, 28 January 2005 22:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― mookieproof (mookieproof), Friday, 28 January 2005 23:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― subgenius (subgenius), Saturday, 29 January 2005 15:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Saturday, 29 January 2005 19:53 (nineteen years ago) link
This really is a huge draw. In Sydney, I was more willing to sit through awful indie rock when I knew that "Galang" could be right around the corner and I didn't have to deal with car ads.
― C0L1N B--KETT, Saturday, 29 January 2005 19:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― tremendoid (tremendoid), Saturday, 29 January 2005 20:35 (nineteen years ago) link
You KNOW they're eventually going to slot some "specialty" show that'll spend a couple hours on hip-hop or club music. It'll be college-kid hip-hop or club music, but boo fucking hoo. NO FUCKING COMMERCIALS, PEOPLE. NONE.
― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Saturday, 29 January 2005 20:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Saturday, 29 January 2005 21:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Sunday, 30 January 2005 01:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Sunday, 30 January 2005 01:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― youn, Monday, 31 January 2005 00:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― supercub, Monday, 31 January 2005 00:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dan I. (Dan I.), Monday, 31 January 2005 03:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― g--ff (gcannon), Monday, 31 January 2005 23:43 (nineteen years ago) link
wait a second, isn't not knowing that illegal in Minnesota? (if not, it should be, since everyone and their mom is all like "I was at the Capri Theater show, yo!"
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 01:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 01:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 1 February 2005 01:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― Colin Meeder (Mert), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 09:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― asl, Tuesday, 1 February 2005 15:02 (nineteen years ago) link
the first graf is cringey, but afterwards this is a solid piece of reportage! i had no idea about the vigils to save the signal's earlier identity. and the "hey man it's really totally freeform" talk from the programmers is very VERY revealing. i mean, it seems to me (and i'm sure to all of you) like this "AAA" genre has obvious, strict genre limitations, but not to these folks, wow.
― f--gg (gcannon), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 04:35 (nineteen years ago) link
I know, it was weird reading it on Pitchfork! (Which is not a dismissal of PFM -- just saying this kind of piece is not usually what they go for! I'd like to see more stuff like this, though.)
― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 04:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 05:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― f--gg (gcannon), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 05:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― f--gg (gcannon), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 05:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 05:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― f--gg (gcannon), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 05:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 09:26 (nineteen years ago) link
so far gff and dylan hicks are the only people i've run into who are not at the least apologetic or, better, hateful about 'the current'. though tonight in a sandwich shoppe the counter boys were informing some customers about the 'pretty cool' station they had on; apparently despite the massive word of mouth and signage over the past few months there are still young men out of the LOOP. (of course, they're out of the TARGET MARKET anyway; the people i know happy about the current probably avg. around 30 years old rather than 20.)
― Josh (Josh), Thursday, 12 May 2005 04:56 (eighteen years ago) link
I have such ambivalent feelings about twin cities radio right now. On one hand there's this new station and the fact that radio k's evening-and-nighttime FM translator now covers the whole of Minneapolis, which are both good things, I guess; but also 104.1 got turned from an 80's station into some weird post gen-X eclectic crap! I doubt most people even noticed, but fuck, I listened to 104.1 more than 89.3 and radio k combined!
― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 12 May 2005 06:56 (eighteen years ago) link
To summarize:
Overrated: radio k, currentUnderrated: KMOJRIP: 104.1
― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 12 May 2005 07:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 12 May 2005 07:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 12 May 2005 12:25 (eighteen years ago) link
Me and a friend were having a convo re: The Current the other day, and neither one of us listens to it nearly as much as we thought we would.....Mark Wheat's 7 to midnight is the best by far, and those SNOOOZ-O MPR REJECT MORNIING DUDES HAVE TO GO! You're putting everyone back to sleep with yr tweedy "aaaaaand....thaaaat....wasAimeeMann" voices! Sheesh
I think Radio K is a great great station for the most part. I mean, I could see getting sick of the student DJs sometime, but overall it's great...also, their punk show (out of step) and hip hop shows (the beatbox) are great....great live local music every friday at 4pm on off the record too.
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 12 May 2005 14:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ryan Pitchfork, Thursday, 12 May 2005 14:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 12 May 2005 14:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 12 May 2005 14:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― Josh (Josh), Friday, 10 June 2005 09:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― nothingleft (nothingleft), Friday, 10 June 2005 10:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― joygoat (joygoat), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 10 June 2005 17:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― joygoat (joygoat), Friday, 10 June 2005 19:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dan I., Tuesday, 25 October 2005 20:12 (eighteen years ago) link
http://internetfunk.com/TheCurrent
http://i61.tinypic.com/2iavp5y.png
― did click through tho on the money (Eazy), Tuesday, 10 June 2014 21:44 (nine years ago) link
Ugh so painful and so true
― Everyone is awful except you. Wait, no, you are also awful. (jjjusten), Tuesday, 10 June 2014 22:27 (nine years ago) link
Also they have a beer now it's just all so embarrassing
― Everyone is awful except you. Wait, no, you are also awful. (jjjusten), Tuesday, 10 June 2014 22:28 (nine years ago) link
When I first started coming to Minnesota in 2009 (From the UK) I used to love listening to The Current but over the years I've gotten pretty bored with it. Now I live here I barely listen to it all. They do still play some nice surprises now and again but it is the repetition that's killed it for me. I'm not as interested in a lot of the local music they play either. Some of it is really average.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 10 June 2014 22:56 (nine years ago) link
it's a bit frustrating that their very narrow view of what constitutes the local music scene is sort of codified as "what's happening"
like for example there was an amazing festival last weekend all local acts, pretty uniformly great from the psych/weird/experimental axis and it's def not something the current would play
http://heliotrope-festival.com/
― sinister porpoise (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 10 June 2014 23:09 (nine years ago) link
Yeah I'm sure there is good stuff around. I just find most of the new local bands they play blend into one another after a while (Apart from Atmosphere)
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 10 June 2014 23:12 (nine years ago) link
yeah i mean there are a lot of cool bands, lots more mediocre onesmpls is probably better than average but i mean i dunno it's a bit overblownwe are lucky to have a lot of venues where you can do weird stuff pretty easily
― sinister porpoise (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 10 June 2014 23:14 (nine years ago) link
hey ums, missed you dicking around on fri but i caught the saturday bill and it was pretty awesome. prostate!
― goole, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 00:02 (nine years ago) link
ah too bad, but what a great festival they put together, intermedia was a cool venue
yeah prostate is something! some weird nexus of black metal, old school industrial, and goth/synth pop...
feel like they should be getting some buzz on the national level in extreme music circles but they probably are hurt by not fitting nicely into a genre
― sinister porpoise (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 14:07 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9QGq4P66mQ
― sinister porpoise (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 14:08 (nine years ago) link
i'm no current fan but isn't that chart misleading given that we are only partway through 2014? or were the statistics adjusted accordingly
― global tetrahedron, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 16:44 (nine years ago) link
This article on the chart makes note of that
http://www.reviler.org/2014/04/09/89-3-current-variety-decline/
― chr1sb3singer, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 16:55 (nine years ago) link
And I would add I am basically ambivalent on the Current, it is what it is. I sometimes listen when I flip around the dial, they do occasionally play great stuff, but more often they play music that isn't exactly my cup of tea, to put it politely.
They can play whatever they want to play, I just don't think they should act like they are WFMU or something, which according to the ads they run all the time and they do.
And they are certainly supportive of a certain segment of local music, probably the segment that least needs their help.
― chr1sb3singer, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 17:02 (nine years ago) link
aww heliotrope <333 miss that so much
― JoeStork, Wednesday, 11 June 2014 17:06 (nine years ago) link
The Current introduced me to Tom Vek so I'm still okay with them rolling along as a white bread indie caricature radio station because sometimes that's exactly what you want to hear
― Star Gentle Uterus (DJP), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 17:08 (nine years ago) link
they had the band X play at their yearly festival. does the average current listener give a fuck about X or know anything about them? just seemed so weird
― global tetrahedron, Sunday, 30 June 2019 18:11 (four years ago) link
probably not. seriously fuck rock the garden tho
re-reading the thread and: whatever happened to heliotrope festival ?
― budo jeru, Sunday, 30 June 2019 19:15 (four years ago) link
I was tempted to go just to see X and The Beths. The National headlining was a major turn off though.
― kitchen person, Sunday, 30 June 2019 19:44 (four years ago) link
heliotrope was back this year at heart of the beast, wasn't able to catch much but glad it's back
― global tetrahedron, Sunday, 30 June 2019 22:06 (four years ago) link
dang i didn’t realize.
i wonder if there are enough mpls posters to sustain an ongoing show / events thread
but then the NYC thread hasn’t been active for a bit so idk
― budo jeru, Sunday, 30 June 2019 22:32 (four years ago) link
There’s always this one: Rolling Totes PWNING Awesome Shows in Twin Cities Thread!
― JoeStork, Sunday, 30 June 2019 23:57 (four years ago) link
ah thanks
― budo jeru, Monday, 1 July 2019 01:17 (four years ago) link
Separately, the Current's Minnesota music history podcast, the Current Rewind, written by ILXor vet M. Matos, has been a consistently great listen.
https://www.thecurrent.org/collection/rewind
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 1 July 2019 03:39 (four years ago) link
they had the band X play at their yearly festival. does the average current listener give a fuck about X or know anything about them? just seemed so weird― global tetrahedron, Sunday, June 30, 2019 1:11 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― global tetrahedron, Sunday, June 30, 2019 1:11 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Does the Current even play X? Or are they just another one those bands the Current talks about playing but never seems to get around to?
I suppose it would have been cool to see them the Robins Kaplan LLP VIP Area, I heard there were a lot of great snacks and of course the respite from the rest of the unwashed upper-middle class white people in attendance in the General Admission area
― chr1sb3singer, Monday, 1 July 2019 16:58 (four years ago) link
fwiw, X was great in the heat. Billy and Exene looked to be doing well. was getting a bit of Sabbath vibe on Nausea and a couple other songs, which is not a connection I've made in the past. got a little nervous-where is this going?-when Exene thanked the signing interpreter, but thankfully didn't go anywhere weird.
and the Beths were really good as well, harmonies were right on. would have preferred seeing their first pass at the Hex or the Entry, but glad to see them (and Courtney). that whole record is great.
― by the light of the burning Citroën, Monday, 1 July 2019 17:37 (four years ago) link
still bummed i skipped that hex show
― budo jeru, Monday, 1 July 2019 17:39 (four years ago) link
https://www.thecurrent.org/countdown/march-music-madness--greatest-movie-soundtracks/
Words can not describe how much I loathe listeners of The Current.
― Vegemite Is My Grrl (Eric H.), Friday, 27 March 2020 17:16 (four years ago) link
LOL!!Good Will Hunting51.8% Repo Man48.2%
― morrisp, Friday, 27 March 2020 17:27 (four years ago) link