Define: "New."

Since my iPod got run over a few months ago, my listening habits have changed drastically.  First and foremost, I've been listening to the radio while driving.  I hate most of the music on commercial radio these days, but I've found a few acceptable stations in the Boston area: WZLX has some reliable (though tired) classic rock, and WXRV is varied enough, though not what it used to be.  Mainly I'm on WERS, operated by Emerson College.  It's non-commercial, it features new and independent music, and heck, I even like their news.  It's my favorite station by a long shot; where else am I going to hear Florence + the Machine followed by Ray Charles?  However, it has two noticeable shortcomings:

1.  Anything that's not their daytime programming.  On weekdays at 7 pm, they switch over to reggae, then hip-hop at some point.  On weekends they do a cappella and children's programming.  Which is fine, I guess.  I understand that there's probably nobody else who's going to play a block of reggae music, and people like hip-hop at night.  But at 7, I'm all of a sudden stuck with two music options.  And NPR.

2.  This is hardly specific to WERS, but I think it's fairly prevalent with the deejays there: they're overly broad with describing their music as "new."  As in, "and that was the new one from A Fine Frenzy, 'Blow Away!'" despite the fact that the album it's on, Bomb in a Birdcage, was released in August, almost four months ago.  I hear this often.  I get excited for new stuff from artists, and when I hear a promo for "the new one from Andrew Bird" and I hear "Oh No" from January, I'm disappointed.


I submit that the cutoff for "new music" should be six weeks from the release date of the album.  After that, I guess it can still be "the newest" from whomever, but please, stop getting my hopes up.


And in a side note, everybody please stop referring to Phoenix as a "new band."  They've been putting out great music for almost 10 years, people.

phoenix too young
by YoungFool