On the Radio

For the last 5 years I have been listening to the best radio station EVER, Indie 103.1, here in LA. I discovered it a week after it went on the air in December 2003 and unfortunately I was listening this past Thursday when they announced they are going off the air effective immediately. My first thought was, "Is this a bad joke? April 1 is months away". But no, it was true and very, very sad. It is no secret how much music means to me. When I discovered Indie I thought I found a slice of heaven on my car radio. I streamed the station on my computer at work, I bought the CD's of all these new artists they were playing on air. Without Indie I would never have discovered so many great bands - Jet, The Von Bondies, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Lily Allen, Modest Mouse, Ben Kweller, Scissor Sisters, The Vines, Snow Patrol, The Fratelli's, Feist, The Eagles of Death Metal, MGMT, Vampire Weekend... I guess I will have to rely on Apple commercials for new music now. In beginning there were no DJ's on the air, but soon the morning show was hosted by Dicky Barrett from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones (later replaced by Joe Escalante from The Vandals). Henry Rollins "Harmony in my Head" was on Monday nights, Saturday nights Camp Freddy took over the airwaves (mostly Dave Navarro & Billy Morrison with a revolving door of the other Camp Freddy members). Brent Bolthouse & Danny Masterson had a weekly show as did Crystal Method. I will miss Jonesy's Jukebox most. If you ever had a chance to listen in on some of his very memorable interviews, you could have caught Steve Jones reminiscing about the Sex Pistols with Johnny Lydon or hearing great stories about Frank Sinatra as told by Paul Anka. The last show I heard was this past Tuesday when Jonesy's guest was the legendary Brian Wilson. That was one of the many things that made Indie truly "Indie", musicians playing the music, legendary musicians. I am very happy to have an "Indie 103" playlist on my iPod. I have been adding music to it for the last 4 years and have a fairly good representation of the station's playlist that I will listen to now in my car instead of the radio.