Get the new !!! album in August…23rd I think.

There’s not much out there for music fans these days, on the radio that is.

When I moved to London in 2003 I discovered digital radio, and very quickly the BBC’s digital music station 6Music.  It was to stand me in good stead for the duration of my stay in the UK, and was a bitter loss when I moved to Dublin to find it unavailable on the digital dial (I know I can stream it online, but it’s not the same!)

So I was overjoyed, and my faith in the system somewhat restored when I heard the station has been saved from closure.   After much rallying and protest from the fans, and musicians who have I’m sure come to rely on the station as the only light in an otherwise dark music-radio landscape, the BBC seem to have realized that 6Music is what the licence fee is for.  Specialism, quality, and not in any way compromised by the pressures of commercial advertising revenue.

As a former commercial radio station employee, I can vouch for the amazing work those stations do just staying in business, no small achievement I assure you.  However, the mainstream is very well served by those stations, because their survival depends on being very firmly planted there.  They know it, they work hard at it, and it works well.

But the BBC addresses the balance of commercialism with 6Music, and because of that it’s our comfort blanket.  When something like 6Music exists, the world isn’t all bad.

You’re not alone, and that’s a very important thing for a person to know.

So what have we got to show for the first 6 months in indie rock’n'roll?

You all have Spotify right?  Put your favourite tracks of the year into this Best Of 2010 playlist, and start sharing the love!

Ask anyone and they’ll tell you the 90′s were a bit, well – embarrassing really, apart from that early stuff (Monday’s, Roses et al). However, people also said that about the 80′s, before Franz Ferdinand co. resurrected the cooler edge of post-punk and new wave.

So to mark the beginning of the next revival, and get you on your way, here’s a large playlist of the bits that really didn’t suck.

90′s (Spotify playlist)

I was saddened to hear about the death of Steven Wells (Swells).  I first came across him on the music website playlouder.com about five years ago, and I instantly loved the way he writes.

His ability to expose the absurdity of music as an artform was a unique and impressive gift.

God rest your soul Swells.  Some of his finest pieces were written during his illness – see this tale of a smartarse Brit getting lost in the Philadelphia health system.

Steven Wells died on Tuesday 24th June after a 3 year battle with cancer.