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The Legacy of Sunday Nights

In high school and in college, when a high speed internet connection was not a household item, Sunday nights were my ticket in finding out about new and upcoming bands.

The Buzz, Houston's modern rock station, had a Sunday night line-up consisting of the local Lunar Rotation with David Sadoff and the syndicated Modern Rock Live. Lunar Rotation specialized in new and older tracks with some talk breaks while Modern Rock Live was almost all interviews with some music. I heard a wide variety of stuff and it didn't matter if it was old or new - it was almost always great stuff. Hearing older tracks from Catherine Wheel (like "Judy Staring at the Sun") while hearing new tracks from Pavement's Brighten the Corners (like "Shady Lane") on LR and then hearing stuff like the Foo Fighters be interviewed on MRL made Sundays very special. And that was just on the radio.

After Modern Rock Live was done, I would set my VCR to record or stay up and watch MTV's 120 Minutes, which was hosted by Matt Pinfield at the time. Pinfield, the scratchy-voiced, portly guy with a bald head spilled his musical knowledge and made a huge impact on me. There were so many stories, cross-references between artists and current news coming out of Pinfield's mouth that intrigued me. Combined with David Sadoff's calm on-air personality, these guys came across as smart music fans sans arrogance or loserdom. This was a huge influence on me then and still to this day.

These days, I rarely keep up with Sunday night specialty shows due to my kickball games and an early bedtime. My friends on The Good Show can only really be picked up in Fort Worth, so no dice for me as a Dallas resident. Probably the closest thing I listen to a specialty show is Sound Opinions, which airs on Tuesday nights.

The internet and my friends are my main sources for finding good music, whether it's new, old or really old. However, I won't forget where the inspiration for finding new music came from. Part of it was from my natural curiosity about things that move me and another part was from these guys.

We can talk about how things are totally different with the way music is made and marketed these days, but I think younger people's curiosity with music will never diminish. Whether or not we choose to be the ones open to pass the info along to them in an understandable way is up to us.

Comments

Eric Grubbs said…
Wow-thanks for the comments David! I will definitely check into your new show.

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