The radio station TripleJ in Australia does really great stuff. I don’t know how it compares to radio elsewhere in the world, but I like it a lot. They do a lot for the Australian music industry, such as support touring bands (how, I’m not actually sure…) and discover new artists (you might have heard of Missy Higgins). And provide free music to download, which is always nice.
(They’ve recently launched JTV, which runs mostly on ABC2, a digital-only free to air channel, which shows live recordings and other radio-type stuff that would be appropriate to actually watch. Check out the JTV website rather than hear me inadequately describe it, which even features “vodcasts” of some of their material.)
This year, JJJ’s repeating their “Impossible Music Festival”, in which they take votes for a whole bunch of live recordings they’ve taken, and then proceed to play only that live music over the course of an entire weekend. My highlight last year was Muse, who seem to be even better when left to their own devices — except on their official live album, Hullaballoo. I guess they’d get bored of playing the songs the same every time, or something.
In the hope of being able to listen to that recording again, I’ve voted. Included for your (perhaps lack of) interest, here’s my shortlist. Only ten were allowed, and JJJ doesn’t have a recording of the Pixies. In hindsight, I might have shuffled some choices around, but no matter.
