Listen now 
Monday, December 3 Beaming
It's likely that Iron & Wine mastermind Sam Beam had little notion of what was in store for him when he began making lo-fi recordings out of his Miami home a few years back. He was well into an established life, after all, with a wife and kids and a teaching job at the university, and south Florida hardly seems an obvious inspirational backdrop for a songwriter who would soon be heralded for his intimate and poetic style. But there you go. Beam's come a long way since his 2002 debut The Creek Drank the Cradle, and whether the work has been long form (2004's Our Endless Numbered Days and this year's The Shepard's Dog) or short (2003's The Sea & the Rhythm and 2005's Woman King EPs), by himself or collaborating with others (as he did with Calexico on 2005's In the Reins), he seems only to have widened his sound and scope each time out. The culmination of this can be found on the latest effort, as Beam applies touches of jazz, reggae, and even Afro-pop to his established rootsy fare, resulting in a layered album that never suffers under its own weight. Tonight finds the band (with opener Califone) at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland as they near the end of their current tour.
MP3: Iron & Wine- "Innocent Bones"
Later on in the week, it's a visit from the Boise-born, Boston-based Eilen Jewell. Her latest and second full-length release, Letters From Sinners & Strangers, swings like Bob Wills and Cindy Walker, and one might be quick to call her a throwback upon first listen. She's more than novelty, however, and songs like "Rich Man's World," and "Too Hot to Sleep," reveal more depth than meets the eye, not to mention stellar takes on tunes by Eric Andersen and Bob Dylan. Jewell and her band play Mississipi Pizza Pub on Tuesday night.
MP3: Eilen Jewell- "Heartache Boulevard"
The week closes out with a bang as retro soulstress Sharon Jones and her band the Dap-Kings play the Doug Fir. The group's recent 100 Days, 100 Nights release has elevated them to red-hot status, an event almost as unlikely as the fact that the soul-stirring Dap-Kings hail from Finland. What will be the result when Jones and her band's collective dance machine meets the notoriously subdued arms folders of Portland? Money's on Ms. Jones.
MP3: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings- "100 Days, 100 Nights"
Also this week: Tegan & Sara with Northern State (Tues., Crystal Ballroom), Tori Amos (Tues., Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall), Viva Voce (Wed., Berbati's), Aimee Mann (Wed., Aladdin Theater), Voxtrot (Wed., Hawthorne Theater), Scotland Yard Gospel Choir (Wed., Mississippi Studios), Southerly (Thurs., Doug Fir), Finn Riggins (Thurs., Slabtown), and Prefuse 73 (Fri., Holocene), among others.
Comments:
On Monday, December 3 at 0:11am, Chauncey said:
Rain-soaked indeed, but the music's doing a good job of lifting the gloom. Love the David Byrne - I'll have to go look for it. Also Grace Potter, and the rest. Wish I was at the Crystal tonight to hear Iron and Wine but your show's a good consolation prize. Thanks for keeping me in new music.
On Monday, December 3 at 0:20am, Kipp said:
Agreed that tonight's broadcast goes a long way in making up for missing I&W.
Does the "soon-to-increase online music presence" you announced include more podcasts? Like one for your show? I sure would like to never miss it. Such a cornucopia of new (and old) sounds. I get that "gotta find it" feel every time I listen. I found mention of a podcast on the old website, but not on OPB.
Thanks for the great tunes.
On Monday, December 3 at 0:32am, BG said:
Any way In House could be on more often? OPB needs more music and your show is bringing new life to the station.
On Monday, December 3 at 0:44am, jpetersen said:
Hi Chauncey,
I'm with you on the David Byrne-- that's a rather large boxed sort of release that it's on, I believe all of the lyrics were written by David Shrigley (hence the album title), although I don't know much about him. Anyway, any Byrne's good Byrne I say.
If you liked the Grace Potter, you might be interested to know that we'll be airing an in-studio session with her and her band this week during the new time slot for opbmusic (weeknights 9-11), as well as on next weekend's In House. Watch here for details over the next day or so.
Thanks for listening!
On Monday, December 3 at 1:01am, jpetersen said:
Hey Kipp and BG, so glad you asked.
Podcasts are tricky due to copyright issues, but you will have the opportunity to listen to the show whenever you like. Aside from that, there will be MUCH more music, a revamped area where you'll be able to find all of our in-studio session in one place, and the chance to play a role in shaping our programming. I think you'll like it-- you'll have to let us know what you think.
On Monday, December 3 at 4:39pm, Chauncey said:
I second the requests for podcasts, actually for both In-House and for Eclecticity. As Kipp and Bg put it, I get that "gotta find it" feel whenever I listen, but I can't always get to the evening time slots. And OPB does need more music - it's basically talk radio during the day right now (how many times do we need Fresh Air broadcast anyway?). I understand the copyright issues, though there are other music shows elsewhere doing podcasts. But if I could take the shows with me and listen during work hours I probably wouldn't miss a single show. So your cryptic comments have me intrigued and I'll be watching the website.
By the way, re: copyright -- I'm finding myself buying more CD's now that I'm getting exposure (via your shows and other podcasts) to new, great music. I make a point of supporting these great indie bands if I like 'em. So in my opinion we're in a new golden age of music right now, and streaming/podcasts are helping make that happen.
On Monday, December 3 at 5:53pm, bak said:
You're going to have to watch the website closer than that, Chauncey --- you're already there. Up at the top of this page there are 3 links you'll be interested in --- "Listen Now" for our new 24/7 music stream, "In Studio" to hear the sessions we've recorded at OPB, and "In House" to listen to the past two weekends of the show, on-demand. Have fun.
On Tuesday, December 4 at 9:37am, glorenzow said:
Many thanks for the new site! Enjoying it a lot. I'm not seeing the In House playlists anywhere ... the ones listed seem to show the stream playlist, not In House. Also, it would be nice to be able to cue around inside the hour long track. I was 45 minutes into one hour and lost my connection. I don't mind re-listening, but it'd be nice to cue ahead right to where I left off. Any possibility of adding that feature in the future? Thanks again for the great work and thanks for listening to my $0.02.
On Tuesday, December 4 at 10:41pm, gunky said:
Thanks bak. Lookin' good. So good I even just signed up. Streaming will be great when I get the chance.
A quick question about playlists. I've found the In House, Listen Now, and In Studio pages, including playlists (or their equivalent), but don't see anything for Eclecticity. Is that supposed to be shown on the Listen Now page? The playlists or song titles seem to be hours behind the broadcast, or am I missing something (again)?
On Tuesday, December 4 at 11:44pm, jpetersen said:
Hey Chauncey-
Glad you like. It's true, we've been experiencing some bugs with our playlists thus far. Were everything running smoothly, you should have been able to see the most recent four songs played in the black and green box on the front page. Hopefully, we'll get that back in operation soon. Aside from that, hope you're enjoying the site. We'd love to hear any feedback and/or suggestions you may have.
On Wednesday, December 5 at 11:14am, silviat said:
I couldn't believe it when I heard it. I always had the idea of writing OPB so they would maybe make a CD with a compilation of some of the tunes played in the station, but a whole music station is... wonderful.
What a fantastic idea!
On Thursday, December 6 at 10:51am, Chauncey's Brother said:
Nice site, and great concept!
For those of us who like to stream internet radio via SqueezeBox and Squeezenetwork, it appears there might be some more work to be done on the content type of the stream. See the attached discussion at the SN forums about efforts to get opbmusic.org to understand the issue by some folks (ok, really just me) to make this work.
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?p=247388&posted=1#post247388
Cheers
Chauncey's Brother
On Thursday, December 6 at 11:22am, bak said:
Hey Chauncey's Bro, thanks for the link and the footwork. We've changed the stream config, would you mind trying again and posting back with your results?
If you register on the site, your comments won't have to queue for moderation.
On Thursday, December 6 at 12:22pm, chaunceys brother said:
Well,
I can tell you did something, now the message says "Warning: no valid audio streams were found in the playlist you entered (http://stream1.opb.org/opbmusic.pls), which is a different message than below."
If it helps, OPB radio’s url that works for this is http://genesis.opb.org/radio.mp3, although *.pls files should work just fine too.
-cb
On Thursday, December 6 at 3:01pm, jeffreyadamyoung said:
Hey CB,
thanks for asking this, I am also a Squeezebox user wanting to tune into this exceptional new channel *away* from my computer. Please post the solution, once you get it to work properly. Until then, I am trying to remain within earshot of a PC when I have time to listen.
for those at opbmusic: thank you!! your new station will help me justify supporting OPB, instead of (or, perhaps, in addition to) my usual annual contribution to LA-based KCRW. (will there be a way to specify a contribution to opbmusic versus all of OPB radio/TV?).
one more question--will you be adding the track, album, and artist info to your streams at some point, so I can view that through my squeezebox or standalone audio player application on my computer?
Thank You, from the bottom of my ears,
-jeff (in Portland)
On Thursday, December 6 at 3:38pm, bak said:
Hey squeezebox guys - say 'aye' if you're okay with one of our devs contacting you via e-mail (I can look up the addresses), and with your help on the testing end I bet we can get this issue sussed out.
On Thursday, December 6 at 4:05pm, chaunceys brother said:
Aye!
(although i will be out of town Friday)
CB
On Thursday, December 6 at 5:08pm, jeffreyadamyoung said:
Aye, Aye!
-jeff
On Thursday, December 6 at 10:54pm, gunky said:
Hmmm. The things you learn online. Hope my geeky bro can help out. -c
On Friday, December 7 at 11:25am, Karen said:
Is there any way for music-obsessed listeners like me to search your playlists (archived or current) for particular songs or artists, even if we don't know when they've been played? I know a couple of artists whose music you've played and they would be thrilled to know that their songs have reached your listeners' ears, but I don't have the gobs of time it would take to open each hour's playlist and look at each song...
BTW, this thing you all are doing--it's really, really great. You're giving independent musicians a equal place alongside bands who happen to be backed by big record labels. That alone is a truly wonderful thing. And then, to make things even better, you're giving music listeners a chance to air their opinions, and express what music they like and don't like, and actually be heard by those choosing the music. Wow.
Keep it up.
On Friday, December 7 at 11:37am, bak said:
Karen - we knew that being able to pinpoint what was playing at a given time would be important, but flipping that around and doing it in reverse is a good idea too. We'll consider it a feature request - thanks for the feedback!
On Monday, December 10 at 9:37pm, wnshall said:
Has any squeezebox user found a good way to tune in this stream?
-Steve (in Portland)