Band of the day! Month, really, but house sets the rules. This is the band I called Raleigh about an hour ago, The Jam Pain Society. It was tough to get this information over the cellphone with a noisy studio in the DJs background and I thought he was saying "champagne." The song I heard on the radio was "Goodbye Song", which is available on their MP3 download page at MP3.com. They also have an MP3 from their new still in progress album at their own MP3 page. I haven't listened to all these yet, but just "Goodbye Song" is so good to qualify them even if I hate the rest.

These guys are such music geeks that on the web page you can see diagrams of their pedal layouts and drum kit! Jesus, that is hilarious and beautiful. I've listened to several MP3s now, and they are all good. One sounded like Korn or Rob Zombie, one sounds like really rocking Sheila E. They are awfully cool. k, etc. It's kind of like a toned-down commercial version of what WREK does. I strongly applaud this and I really hope this works out for them. Their slogan is "It's all about the music", which is a rarity in modern commercial radio. The CNN story has some quotes from radio consultants basically giving WBZB no chance. I'd love to see them eat their words and WBZB make it - radio consultants are why commercial radio is now unlistenable. Screw those guys and their cynical horseshit.

There's a second level to this, which is that the station has a pretty small signal range but I in fact really wanted to live in it. When we moved from Oregon, my wife was going into grad school at either Georgia Tech or NC State. I really was rooting for the latter, as I wanted to live in the triangle. I like Atlanta and all (less now than I did 15 years ago) but Atlanta was the choice of the comfort zone. We had friends here, history, etc. Raleigh would have been a leap into the unknown but one I wanted to take. I love the music there - a lot of bands I really dig come from that area. I just wanted something different and didn't think I would have any problem coming up with a job there. I've never even been in the area other than driving straight to the airport once, but I had in my head that I'd enjoy living there. I'm impulsive that way. I was completely and totally prepared to load up the truck and head there. As it played out, the NC State offer sucked compared to the one Georgia Tech made, so as much as I wanted to live in the area I really wouldn't have asked my wife to make any decision differently than she did. She has worked out a deal where she is going to be doing an intercomparison of her atmospheric measurement stuff up there this summer, and maybe I'll fly or drive up and visit while she is there. That way my desire to live there can hopefully be coupled with some empirical data. It's still in the south (and frankly, living in Atlanta is less like living in the south every day as it becomes an island full of transplanted carpetbaggers), it is close to some family, drivable to the rest. I'm dreaming a little dream.