hot for teacher

One of the coolest radio stations in the country, Minneapolis' 89.3 "The Current", part of the Minnesota Public Radio network, has been getting some heavy play on my computer for the past few months. And as part of being located in such a cool city, a lot of bands go through the town, and 89.3 seems to have no trouble getting any bands to stop by the studio and play. Earlier this week they had The Shins stop by for a chat and play four songs, in addition to a brief rendition of Van Halen's classic "Hot for Teacher". One of the interesting things I learned from their interview was how they had sent their tapes to all the indie labels, with Sub Pop being the only one that bit, though they said they heard Merge had tried to shop them to bigger labels and now greatly regret that they never tried to sign them for themselves.

Other artists that have stopped by recently that you can listen to on their site: Crooked Fingers, The Hold Steady, Bloc Party, Lou Barlow, Ben Lee, Radio 4, & Low. You can see access the complete list here.