NPR Music

There's a special place in my heart for NPR's music site. It's got a ton of great free live shows and all kids of new music. The editorial staff is very good at choosing an eclectic mix of new music so I don't keep listening to the same indie bands. And I even feel a little good about myself because by visiting and supporting the site I'm supporting public radio instead of just padding the wallets of rich people (e.g., Apple, Pandora or Last.fm).

NPR helps me find new non-mainstream music (like Dengue Fever!) - NPR has put up a HUGE collection of music, live music, music interviews, and articles. It's a great way to discover new music that is a little different from what you might hear on normal radio stations. It's good for Jazz, Folk, and Indie Rock, along with a lot of other cool random stuff from around the world. Like awesome awesome Dengue Fever, the Cambodian Pop/Rock band: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=*******

Also, great stuff from Death Cab for Cutie:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=*******

And the Raconteurs
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=*******

For some reason it's never occurred to me to look for NPR online. I guess not being American by birth, NPR isn't an institution that I've grown up with and I don't appreciate it enough. I watch public TV but don't pay much attention to the radio. So having read the other review here I had to go look and this really is an important find and one you should really visit if you have any interest at all in any kind of music. It's full of free-to-listen recordings, news, features, sessions, interviews... you get the idea. And all highly polished and professionally presented. My only nitpick is that the stand-alone player, though producing quality streaming music, would stop about fifteen seconds into the track and had to be restarted. Every single time. And somewhat disconcertingly, the player presented a message encouraging me to find out all I need to know about swine flu vaccine, while the tracks played.

The site is only one section of the parent NPR site at www.npr.org, but I'll leave the review of that one to someone else. Just now, I want to sit and listen to some music...