My Lovely Internet Radio, Part Two

Due to the orange street lamps, the sky really is that brown around here!

Beneath the dirty brown skies of Southampton*, you often find me listening to my lovely new internet radio. For rock n roll and soul, it has to be WMFU, but for other moods, there are thousands of other stations out there, approximately 1% of which meet with my music snob approval.

One such is Dandelion Radio, who profess to channel the spirit of John Peel. They have real DJs, which makes a pleasant change from the many stations that just play MP3 playlists. My favourite disc spinner is Rocker, who was previously in The Rosehips and The Flatmates. He tends to play "my sort of indiepop", so I try and tune in when he's on in the daily schedule spinaround. Past sessions by the likes of The Wedding Present, Manhattan Love Suicides and Liechtenstein give you an idea of what to expect.

Rocker isn't the only half-decent presenter on Dandelion Radio, so it's worth tuning in at any time to hear what's happening. However, as soon as any of them play any Mogwai soundalikes, I hit the retune button!

* They have now banned blue skies around these parts, as it reminds them of Portsmouth FC - if they could have red and white stripy sky, they bloomin' well would! See also nearby Eastleigh FC and AFC Totton, who have both changed their traditional blue kits this season, as presumably that colour hits sales of replica kit in their club shops [blogger tuts and shakes his head with disapproval].

I Love My Internet Radio!

Get down off that tree Tommy, and come and listen to some rock and soul on WFMU!

After dropping a few hints, I received an internet radio for Christmas. I listen to music for an unhealthy proportion of my waking hours, and I'm always curious to hear new sounds. Being able to tune in to any radio station in the world or any available podcast or "listen again" whilst cooking macaroni in the kitchen without the hum of the PC as an irritating background noise was highly appealing.

I love my indiepop, my rocksteady and my post-punk, but I also want to know more about the soul and rockabilly sounds of the late 1950s and early 1960s, so I searched for a station which would give me the sounds that inspired The Cramps. I found it at WFMU Rock & Soul.

Below is an old programme from the excellent Fool's Paradise With Rex series. It features (at approximately 27 minutes in) the tune which may have influenced The Cramps more than any other song - Cravin' by Bobby Roberts with The Bad Habits. It rocks!

I'll link to some of my other favourite stations in the near future, but if anyone knows of any similar station to this one, I'd love to hear about it!