“Wouldn’t it be great if there were like hundreds of people playing it like that, turning you on to some really good shit?” says Lou Reed of the new Sirius satellite radio program he’s doing with Hal Wilner. And it wouldn’t it be great if Lou was aware there are hundreds of people playing it like that, most of them toiling for free for non-commercial and/or college stations, some of whom offer programming far superior to what you’d catch on Sirius, ‘cept without the monthly subscription fee? From New York Magazine’s Andrew M. Goldstein (link courtesy WFMU’s Brian Turner)
Q: Your show is called the “New York Shuffle.” As music has been migrating from local stores and radio stations to satellite radio and the Internet, do you think there’s still such a thing as a New York sound?
I think these days it’s more of a Brooklyn sound. It’s not out of New York anymore; it’s all out of Brooklyn. I go out there to listen to music. A lot of the stuff we played, when we checked out where it came from, it was from Brooklyn.
Q: The music industry is going through a lot of turmoil, obviously, with labels closing and record stores shutting down all over the country. What role do you think radio plays today?
Stations should pay attention to what people really want to listen to and not have these restrictive playlists. That’s what I think. I’m not usually the one someone turns to about advice on how to make money.
Q: Sirius’s impending merger with XM is anticipated to boost earnings. Do you own any stock in the company?
What are you, a fucking asshole? I’m here telling you the truth about music and you want to know if I have stock in the fucking radio? You fucking piece of shit. What did I do to deserve that?
Q: Moving on. You’ve got a film out, you’ve got your radio show, you’ve got a new book of photography coming up – is there a new album in the works?
No. Nothing I feel like talking about. Good-bye.
I heard about this show on Sirius radio this afternoon on “Left of Center” the indie-whatever channel and the hostess, Jenny (?), thought huh-fuckin-larious. A fair question on the stocks thing, since that’s what got Stern over there. If Lou hosts a show of nothing but his hip-hop work, I’ll listen. Sirius is also the first time in years I heard Matt Pinfield’s name, who also gets to play whatever he wants. These aren’t bad hosts btw, but I was actually thinking “Who Cares? on the Lou Reed news. I can’t imagine it’ll be as funny or interesting as Bob Dylan’s XM show.
And what is it with all the ladies on Left of Center and their Janeane Garofalo impressions? How did she get to be the demo-proven voice of the ladies of indie?
Ben
I don’t even think Sirius is that bad. I rented a car in LA a couple of weeks ago that had Sirius and I genuinely enjoyed a lot of the music programming —- the hair metal channel, esp. And I was pleased to hear WFMU’s Bill Kelly on Little Steven’s Underground Garage station. But there’s another radio station where you can hear WFMU’s Bill Kelly. It’s called WFMU.
The whole notion of diff. channels for particular genres / subgenres doesn’t really do it for me. My fave shows on WFMU, WRCT, WXYC, etc. might have a musical direction of one sort or another, but you’re never listening to 24/7 indie, punk etc.. Lou’s show might well be terrific, I wouldn’t doubt it. But he’s pretty late to the free form radio game.
When Rob Dibble is the most interesting music commentator on XM, that’s pretty much all you need to know about the other big name in satellite radio.
Can’t we just listen to Hal Willner’s show, without Lou?
And yeah, Left of Center’s definitely better than equivalent offerings on XM, and not bad for what it is. But it definitely follows most of the same old rules of radio: repetition, favored bands, a programmed mix of “classic.” I heard the same Bon Iver song twice today in three hours, exactly 24 hours after I’d heard it yesterday.
I should clarify, the Sirius hostess I heard yesterday thought Lou Reed’s walking out on the interviewer was huh-fuckin-larious. She’s eagerly looking forward to him play music, of course. Weird, since she’s a ROLLING STONE journo herself.
As to “blog radio” (as Sirius calls them) shows for their target channels, let’s just call it an “improvement.” I don’t know the history of the celeb host thing, but ever since I heard Jonesy’s Jukebox (a great show) on Indie 103.1 here in LA, it has popped up elsewhere (Dylan’s XM show, Reed’s, Pinfield’s, Little Steven, or Drew Carey coming into Little Steven’s Garage) or even iTunes celeb playlits. Jonesy’s really does feel rambling and loose, but Jason’s right, lots of these shows feel canned and programmed, even though programming The Vaselines’ “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For a Sunbeam” is certainly welcome. Then again, the host bio section is huh-fuckin-larious all on its own:
http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/Page&c=Channel&cid=1104779639693&s=person
I’d be slightly out to lunch if I claimed Dylan’s XM show wasn’t at least as entertaining as the average college radio program. I just wish it was longer.
Howard’s way funnier than Lou (except for Berlin, and he’s not gonna do a reading of that on Sirius) and worth the cost of admission for me. But, the Classical is pretty good, too. That and the Hair Metal come in number two and three for the wife. As far as Little Steven’s goes, well, how much Dirtbombs and Raconteurs do we need?
I agree the genre isolation is contrary to how some of us might think about music, but it makes shopping easier for the rest of the world. I like the Classic Vinyl – though I’m sure there are no turntables (um, record players?) involved. It just sounds like the FM of my youth, which certainly wasn’t polyglot, did have commercials, and wasn’t WFMU. There is and will likely only ever be one WFMU.
Lou Reed…? I thought he died like six years ago.