More Wilco

Andrew Bird provides the mournful violin line in "Jesus, Etc." from night 2 at Wilco's residency at The Riviera (still my absolute favorite Wilco song):

Xponentially awesome

Searching for a great mix of indie, new wave, classic rock and everything in between? I recommend the Xponential radio stream from WXPN - the University of Pennsylvania's unparalleled NPR music station. Recently played artists include XTC, KT Tunstall, Cake and David Bowie. Where else are you going to see all those names in one place?

While you're there, check out the concert archives for live sets from Rhett Miller, Martin Sexton, Rufus Wainwright, Andrew Bird, the Guillemots... basically everyone I've been telling you to check out all year.

By the way, this is also where you can hear the "Folk Alley" channel I told you about a few posts ago...

SxSW in my office

The internet is SO cool - even if you can't be at the legendary South by Southwest music festival (happening in music mecca Austin, Texas right now,) you can feel like you're there thanks to the miracle technology of live streams and free internet radio. My favorite coverage so far is Minneapolis's The Current radio station, who is broadcasting live all day today and tomorrow. I'm listening to an exclusive Current set with The Sights right now, but I'm most excited about Andrew Bird tomorrow at 1:45 p.m. (Central time).

If you're new to the awesomeness that is SxSW, it's basically just a HUGE music festival - this year, over 1,300 bands (yes, you read that right) will perform in over 60 venues throughout downtown Austin. It's pretty much the gold standard for indie music festivals in this country.

For a fuller schedule, visit NPR's Web site. But be warned: It's a little complicated and I haven't actually figured out how to listen to live feeds there yet. (According to smarter people than I: "The site culls performances hosted by NPR member stations (KCRW in Santa Monica, Calif.; KUT in Austin, WFUV in New York, KEXP in Seattle and WXPN in Philadelphia)."