www.blip.fm/martinwong

So a couple weeks ago, Wendy and I had dinner with my friend Sandy Yang (Red Krayola) and her friend Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth). They mentioned that they had started their own radio stations on the blip.fm website, and that I should check it out... After listening to their playlists for a while, I started my own just for fun. Until now, I've only told one or two people.


It's pretty fun because you can type in just about any song and find not only studio versions, but live versions, demos, covers, and televised bits. Because the songs are listened to in the order you add them, there's no random play or editing of the playlist--when you've played a song, you've played it. I think that's actually a good thing because it's more like real radio.


I started off just adding things that I thought should be staples on any station (New York Dolls, Clash, Cramps, Bowie, J Church), but started thinking about groupings (clusters of old L.A. punk, '90s indie rock, proto punk), transitions (Damon & Naomi to Boris, Weirdos to Laughing Hyenas) and themes (Big Audio Dynamite, 7 Seconds, Prince, and Ice T doing songs with "99"; Seaweed, Ramones, Sleater-Kinney, Dickies doing classic rock covers; Carbon/Silicon's "What the Fuck" to the Buzzcocks' "Oh Shit!"). Some old reggae and a little bit of funk, too. Sometimes, even some newer bands--especially ones I review or interview for GR.


The site is quite addictive, but super low maintenance. Great songs occur to me all the time every day, and I can add them in a couple minutes. Anyway, check it out at http://www.blip.fm/martinwong if you have a chance, and become a listener if you like it. Better yet, start your own station so I can check out your tunes...

***MORE*** Last night I added The Specials doing "Gangsters" on SNL circa 1980 to my playlist, and a pop-up ad came up for an upcoming show in L.A. Would have totally missed tickets going on sale this morning if not for that. A good thing, but kind of scary, too.