Fever Ray "When I Grow Up"<\/p>\n
I heard this flipping the channels on Sirius.\u00c2\u00a0 More specifically, I heard it on XMU.<\/p>\n
You know how you hear something good and keep waiting for the bad part, to let you down, to disqualify it?\u00c2\u00a0 Well that didn’t happen here.<\/p>\n
I whipped out my pen and wrote down the title.<\/p>\n
This morning I ripped off the back page of the "L.A. Weekly" where I’d inscribed the words and shoved it in my pocket.\u00c2\u00a0 And I just remembered and pulled it out and fired up the track in Spotify.<\/p>\n
And it sounded just as good as it did yesterday.<\/p>\n
A bit of research will tell you, as it did me, that I am not the first one on this track.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll get a clutch of e-mails denigrating me for being an old man and being behind the times, but those people are playing an ancient game, of being holier than thou, like we all live in one little fishbowl, a virtual high school, and we’re all in it together.\u00c2\u00a0 But we’re not. Despite all the social networking, we’re off on a zillion tangents, and when we discover something new, it’s new to us!\u00c2\u00a0 Even if it’s a forty year old blues track.<\/p>\n
The YouTube video linked below is a slightly shorter take than the one on Spotify, by about thirty seconds, a little bit is lost in translation.<\/p>\n
Also, there are seven alternative mixes on Spotify.\u00c2\u00a0 Happy listening for me!<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Napster shows seven alternative mixes too!\u00c2\u00a0 As does Rhapsody.\u00c2\u00a0 So, Americans are not left out!<\/p>\n
I’m not sure what Sirius XM’s plan is here.\u00c2\u00a0 They need to move the service to the XM satellites, which have larger buffers and fewer dropouts.\u00c2\u00a0 They need to get rid of the ridiculous bumpers and repeats.\u00c2\u00a0 Who are they programming for?\u00c2\u00a0 A lowest common denominator that doesn’t exist?\u00c2\u00a0 But on those outlets that are not constrained, you can hear shit like this.<\/p>\n
Your iPod will never play a track you don’t know.<\/p>\n
And we want to hear new stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s human nature.\u00c2\u00a0 We want to grow.<\/p>\n
How does Sirius XM compete with Pandora and especially Slacker on the iPhone platform?<\/p>\n
Its only hope is to have the best programming.<\/p>\n
"When I Grow Up" resembles the Beach Boys cut with that title not at all.\u00c2\u00a0 The act has been at it for over a decade.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not Top Forty music.\u00c2\u00a0 But it stimulates your brain and body, takes you on an aural trip every bit as exciting as the San Francisco sound did decades ago.<\/p>\n
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