For those that have known me for some time, you know that I’m passionate about music. I used to work in radio for a number of years and even got to put my 2 cents in for the programming KNRK for a little while. The biggest chunk of programming came when I picked all the music, elements and interviews on my own show (the Warped Hours). I did a 2 hour punk/hip-hop show that got great ratings on Friday nights. I loved doing the show but found my life getting too hectic between my day job, building a family and eating… so I stopped doing the show. One site that I used to use a lot (sometimes even more than what the “labels” would send me) was 3hive.com. I was turned on to it by Sean Ziebarth from Nitro Records who used to write for it.
Well, fast forward two years and I’ve found a void in my life - listening to NEW music. I find it really, really hard to find new music that I instantly like. I think it is really difficult to find music that you haven’t heard before, but have it relevant to you. The closest has been listening to Pandora and Last.FM. I LOVE Pandora, and I LIKE last.fm, however I still think that I find myself hearing a lot of music that either doesn’t hit the nail on the head, or hearing songs in which I like. But they’re songs I’ve heard.
Re-enter 3hive.com. On a whim today I went to check out the site today. Wow, I miss going there on a regular basis. I listened to a hip-hop producer today that goes by Rench. Here is the write-up. Bluegrass vs Hip-Hop (the album is called Gangstagrass, download it here). There was a song awhile ago by Aesop Rock f. Slug called I’ll Be Ok that uses a bluegrass harmonica to help with the casual hip-hop beats. This takes it a step further. Heavy sampling of country, bluegrass with fiddles and hits it with some solid lyrics. Is it my new fave, perhaps. Probably not. But the fact that it is something NEW and I would never have heard about it if it weren’t for 3hive. Another Northern Cali group, Meanest Man Contest is on there as well. I’ve been listening to “I Was Only Kidding.” Great spring, summer chill song.
This is why radio will die in the long run. They simply don’t have the flexible inventory to be tailored made for me. All the music stations currently in Portland get little to no listening by me. Why, 99% of their songs are irrelavant to me. I then listen to talk, NPR and talk radio. Seriously, I want to listen to new music on the radio and some side channel HD station isn’t going to cut it. It is still linear. It isn’t based on my preferences. Satelite radio has more options, but I find that to run into the same problem. Lack of flexibility to tailor make their product to you. And on the internet, that is what you get, exposure to new music that usually hits that nail. << I think that was a 2 Live Crew Song.
If you have a favorite online site, let me know, I would love to hear about it. Maybe I’ve heard about it, but maybe it’ll help find bands like Rench, Meanest Man Contest, Loot Pack and others I’ve found thanks to 3hive.com.
Tags: new, music, hip-hop, blogs
