El Dia De Los Beatles

At work, I listen to streaming music via iTunes. Yes, I know that makes me part of the problem right now: I mean, I'm not even downloading any MP3s, let alone buying CDs. I'm also not playing any LPs and my Edison Wax Cylinder player is in the shop. Anyway, I usually take turns with three streams, all actually radio station feeds.

WCBS-FM from New York City is an amazing oldies station, who are capable of hauling out the deepest oldies cuts you can imagine, like "Beautiful Sunday" by Daniel Boone or "Work With Me, Annie" by Hank Ballard & The Midnighters.

K-EARTH 101 is the Los Angeles oldies station. It's not as adventurous as WCBS, but it has an indefatigable sunniness, a sort of Beach Boys/ Van Halen/ Byrds vibe that instantly reminds me of of Southern California.

The other one is Absolute Radio, a Sky-owned radio station out of London. They tend a more modern pop spectrum, ranging from The Kaiser Chiefs to The Killers to 80s cuts from The Smiths and The Stranglers. Nice DJs with plummy regional accents and strange UK ads that aren't aimed towards me at all.

Yeah, that's a lot of oldies. I have to listen to oldies. I play bass in a cover band: It's all research. Still, bopping between these streams gives me enough musical range during the workday to keep me productive, and provides enough interesting new/old material so I can regularly make recommendations my band-mates. Lots of variety.

But not today.

It's 9-09-09, which is now apparently International Beatles day. It's not quite two in the afternoon and I think I've heard everything they've ever done, including studio noise and outtakes.

London, New York, Los Angeles, all fab four all the time. When I checked into local radio when I was running an errand, guess what? More Beatles.

It's quite stunning. The synergy for the new box set and The Beatles: Rock Band is incredible and, apparently, global. Hey, I want to go out and buy the video game-- and I don't even own a video game console.