One of the hippest and most infomative music sources on the web is (believe it or not) the National Public Radio Music website. Are you doubled over in laughter at thought of NPR being musically hip? Before you choke on your coffee and spray it all over your keyboard, check out this link to the
NPR Music website .
NPR's music coverage is quite expansive and covers everything from indie, to worldbeat, to blues, to jazz and just about any other music in the galaxy of genres that comprise contemporary music. There's even coverage of classical music.
NPR Music has introduced a number of new indie music artists to my attention long before an internet buzz. I first heard about groups like White Stripes, Firery Furnances and Cut/Copy from new music profiles on NPR Music. NPR's own studio performance videos have often exposed new indie groups to a mass audience even before they've released an album.
NPR Music also has a section with full lenth concerts on demand, including a recent Sonic Youth raveup. My favorite NPR Music feature is the Song of the Day which inspired me to carry a song of the day on my own blog here at MB. Speaking of which, here's my own selection for song of the day.
Song of the Day
The exotic and photogenic Natasha Kahn of BFL
Glass- Bat for Lashes Bat for Lashes is the musical project of Brighton England's Natasha Kahn.
Glass is a song from her recently released album
Two Suns.
Ms. Kahn is Pakistan expatriate and also does multimedia performance art. Her musical influences are as diverse as Bjork, Dead Can Dance, Portishead, Sheila Chandra and Siouxsie. She has a hypnotic singing voice and a lot of her music is downtempo. Thankfully, Natasha studiously avoids stupor inducing languor of over-chilled electronica. This live rendition of
Glass was performed on a radio show last month.