NPR's All Songs Considered

I listen to music all day long, always in the car (unless it’s NPR time), and when I’m printing, cleaning the house, etc. Like, basically? A lot. A ton if you will, even. And despite the fact that between me & my fella’s huge collection and varied tastes in music, I still find myself bored with what I’m listening to from time to time. It’s really sort of crazy if you look at it from a volume standpoint. But, it makes perfect sense really if you think of music as a driving force in creativity. Especially for people like us who also work in and for the music industry. Music, creativity, art, emotion, thought…they are all linked in a nice messy complicated creature.

One of the ways that I regularly combat this need for fresh sounds is to check out what’s new on National Public Radio (NPR)’s awesome show All Songs Considered, (a show featured in NPR’s also excellent NPR Music offerings) hosted by music fanatic and super open Bob Boilen. If you are a NPR junkie like myself, you’ll get the pun, if not…the title is still apt and clear.

What I love about All Songs Considered is the easy mixing of live shows at music clubs or in studio at NPR and exclusive studio recorded music, as well as the variety of bands and performers covered. Lots of music outlets promise variety in their catalogue, All Songs Considered delivers. It’s a little bit insane. You are as likely to find the newest in new movements, let alone artists, from all around the globe working in genres as varied as human history as you are an old favorite working out something new over yonder. I consistently find stuff that I didn’t know existed, forgot that I had liked, or thought that I would never dig and yet…BANG. Awesome. There is something to be said for excellence in curation.

A  new and cool feature for 2009, All Songs Considered will be debuting new work from musicians with online record release parties, followed by live chat sessions to review and discuss a couple of days later. To start off this new venture, January has record special releases from Andrew Bird, M. Ward, and Animal Collective Neat, right? The first in the series is Andrew Bird’s record release yesterday  Janury 5th, 2009 followed by a live chat on Thursday January 8th, 2009 at 1pm EST.

Enough chatty-chat by me. If you like music, this is heaven. GO listen, GO dig, GO play!