I’ve decided to stop chasing new music. I’m old. I can’t keep up with all the new music available. Even my oldest daughter has given up. She remembers (barely) living in a time before streaming music. We were dependent on the radio to expose us to new music from new musical artists. Okay, maybe the local record store might have been playing something new and interesting, but you’d have to talk to the dude behind the counter with the long, greasy hair pulled into a ponytail to find out what it is, and nobody wanted to do that.

My search for new music goes back to the early days of FM radio playing rock music. In Chicago, we were blessed to have an evening progressive rock radio show (although every kind of music was played) called Triad. I would sit next to the console stereo in the living room to listen while my mother frowned. I quickly purchased a receiver and speakers for my private listening studio (my bedroom). Click this link for some Triad history. I saved some of their Triad magazines, but I seem to recall recycling them at some point in my past. My loss.

It was Triad’s loss when WXRT burst onto the Chicago radio scene playing progressive rock, folk, blues, jazz, and even classical. WXRT killed Triad, and over the decades have become a very good corporate radio station, albeit with a narrower playlist these days. They do try to play new music, especially Chicago-based artists, but there’s just no way they can play all the new music around these days and still keep a listening base.

Don’t have access to a recording studio? No worries. Record your new music on your phone in your basement or spare room. Fun fact: Boston’s killer debut album was recorded in a basement, but one that had a makeshift studio. There’s just so much new music now that I am officially giving up trying to follow new artists. For example, take a look at the 2024 Lollapalooza line-up.