Shameless plug: WXPN

What do I listen to at work? I don't need Pandora, thanks. I've got my friends at WXPN to keep me company during my long days at the library!

XPN is a member-supported station based out of the University of Pennsylvania. They've expanded to include wavelenghts throughout Lancaster County, including York, Middletown and Lancaster City, so that I even could listen to them while at was at school in Elizabethtown. These days, my car doesn't have an antenna, so no internet for me. Luckily, though, WXPN streams online, worldwide, for absolutely free. Like a lot of radio stations, I guess, but this one is AWESOME.

If you're looking for mainstream pop or heavy metal, this is not the station for you. However, if you enjoy classic rock, reggae, alternative rock, folk, blues, bluegrass, or any combination of those genres, I guarantee you'll enjoy this station. It's also a great place to find new musical blood if you've gotten bored with your Itunes playlists, as I have. I've written down so many new artists and bands to look up! Making this task a lot easier is the very helpful playlist page on the web site, which lists the songs in the order they're played over the hour.

The selection is varied and awesome: today alone, I've heard R.E.M., The Kinks, Guster, The Arcade Fire, Adele, Belle and Sebastian, Robert Plant, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Iron & Wine, Massive Attack, M.I.A., Dr. Dog, Tori Amos and so many more. This variety is especially refreshing when you take into account the awful top-20 station I'm subjected to at my other workplace, where the possibility of hearing Kesha at least twice a shift is a certainty. Plus, they inexplicably play "Skater Boi" almost every time I work. Why on earth is that necessary?!

XPN also sponsors the XPNonential Music Festival every summer on the Camden Waterfront, though sadly I've never been able to go. This will change!! Popular events and features also include My Morning Download, artist to watch (chosen monthly), the World Cafe with David Dye and the weekly Free at Noon concerts in Center City. Today's Free at Noon gig was a sold-out session with Philadelphia native Amos Lee. The station has been promoting him for years, so I've grown to know some of his music. I can't say I knew it all, but I enjoyed it! It sounded (from back here behind the circ desk, anyway) like he put on a heck of a show!

I've been a listener since I was in high school, and XPN has never failed to turn me on to some great new artists. They also play a lot of my favorite artists who don't get airtime on mainstream stations: The Decemberists, Belle and Sebastian, etc. Added bonus: not a day has gone by in the past month of my at-work listenings that I have not heard a Mumford and Sons song! Now if I could only turn them on to King Charles...

And speaking of the Decemberists, did you hear they've got a new album out in January?? I am PUMPED. "The Hazards of Love," while unique, wasn't quite my cup of tea, so I'm very glad that "The King is Dead" seems to be a return to a more simplistic style.

Anyway, if you're in the Philly area, tune in to 88.5. Everyone else, go to XPN.org  There you go, guys, all 3 of my readers will now listen to you. Hire me?

God, "Losing my Religion" is such a great song. Makes me miss the 90's...what I can remember of them, anyway, at the ripe old age of 22.