Sound Check — Geoff Carter: Surfing the Internet eliminates the need for car radio

Friday, Sept. 10, 1999 | 9:30 a.m.

Geoff Carter's music column appears Fridays. Reach him at carter@ vegas.com

I have no radio in my car. I haven't had a radio since day one; I bought the car with a gaping hole in the dash and profuse apologies from the previous owner. At first I thought I really wanted one, at the very least to satisfy the radio-blasting top-down gene that lives inside the DNA strand of every transplanted Southern Californian. No Jan and Dean, please -- not while we're driving.

But I can live without a car radio, for several reasons. One: I listen to enough music in the course of one day, and it's nice to have some "quiet time." Two: KUNV 91.5-FM persists in going without rock programming. Three: I hear one more tattoo parlor commercial and I'll trash the joint. Four: I've got Internet radio, and when you've got Internet radio, the other kind seems like a gaping hole in your dashboard. Once they figure out a way to get this stuff into my car, boy ...

Start at the biggest station on the dial. San Francisco-based Spinner.com (www.spinner.com/) has been "on the air" since March 1996. To paraphrase former "Kids In The Hall" troupe member Scott Thompson: In Internet terms, that's a lifetime and three reincarnations. Download the Spinner player -- it sets up in less than five minutes -- and dig into their 100 channels of uninterrupted, commercial-free music; the only hard sell you get is a banner ad across the top of the player, a couple of tile ads and a link to Amazon that facilitates the purchase of whatever CD you're listening to. And if you don't want to click on any of the commerce links -- hey, world! -- you don't have to.

Almost every conceivable genre and sub-genre (there's a Jungle/Drum & Bass channel) is represented, and even within those genre channels the stylistic mix is impressive. A 25-minute listen to the '90s rock channel yielded World Party's "Way Down Now," Everclear's "Santa Monica," Seal's "Prayer for the Dying," Collective Soul's "Precious Declaration," 311's "Beautiful Disaster," Liz Phair's "Polyester Bride" and Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight." It isn't quite the eclectic mix KUNV's "Rock Avenue" once offered -- then again, since station management pulled the plug on rock programming in 1998 no one has offered anything similar.

Narrower in scope, but nonetheless equally eclectic, is the music mix on House of Blues Internet Radio (hob.com/internet radio/). While without myriad choices offered by Spinner -- there's just one channel -- it's very cool to hear Soundgarden segue into Buddy Guy. House of Blues Radio also has human hosts back-announcing the tracks and dropping informational tidbits about the artists who recorded them. Plus: Every now and again, Dan Aykroyd shows up and spouts bluesy hipster jive. "We're gonna make this as funky as possible. Lotsa harp music, man -- lay one on me, Kim Wilson."

There are literally thousands of other stations on the 'Net -- some existing only in your cable modem, others with real-life counterparts. One of my favorites of this latter variety is Gregg Wolfe's Swanktown Radio (www.visi.com/

gwolfe/swanktown.shtml). In another life, it's a Saturday night happening on Minneapolis-based public radio station KBEM; the shows are archived on the website as (unfortunately) somewhat tinny RealAudio files. One look at the playlist will help you overcome the sound quality: Find a local station that plays Louis Jordan, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Henry Mancini and the Atomic Fireballs in the same, smooth-talkin'-finger'-poppin' set. It's enough to make you wanna mount that iMAC on the dash, kick-start the mouse and drive, drive, drive.

Stereo Dynamics

"This Time," Los Lobos, Hollywood Records

Los Lobos should be selling records in the millions. Simple as that. It has long since transcended its self-appointed stigma as "just another band from East L.A." and become one of the most meaningful rock acts out there. True, the band's career arc has taken some strange turns: It recorded a brilliant album ("Kiko") and an artistic belly-flop ("Colossal Head") with the exact same producers, fame was a flicker ("La Bamba"), and the decidedly nonphotogenic band was recognized by -- of all things! -- the MTV Video Awards ("Kiko and the Lavender Moon").

But no one has ever acknowledged Los Lobos' greatness with the singular motion granted a Pearl Jam or U2; even the critics who are in the band's corner hamfistedly declare a 15-year-old album ("How Will The Wolf Survive?") the band's best.

Hopefully "This Time," Los Lobos' first album for new label Hollywood Records, will thump the right skulls. (Disney-owned Hollywood has the worst promotional record I've seen -- it doesn't bode well.) Produced by the team of Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake -- you've seen their names on Soul Coughing and Suzanne Vega discs, as well as Lobos' brilliant "Kiko" --- "This Time" takes the band's Tex-Mex stew and spices it just so. The lo-fi guitars of "Viking" growl over a deliciously fat snare drum sound. The brown-eyed soul of "This Time" rivals the Nevilles at their best. And there's nothing I could say about "High Places" that, oh, a few hundred rock radio stations couldn't say better, at least 30 times a day.

Get Up, Act Out

Try mentioning Tony Bennett without the phrase "living legend" in the same paragraph. It's not possible. The man Frank Sinatra called "The best (expletive) vocalist in the world" appears in Caesars Palace's Circus Maximus Showroom tonight at 9. Tickets range from $65 to $75 -- a bargain at twice the price. Call 731-7333 for more information.

"Guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music..." Call it country, call it western, call it whatever you like -- Dwight Yoakam only knows how to make one kind of music, the honest kind. The sometime actor ("Sling Blade") plays the House of Blues Saturday night at 8 (see story on page 10E). Tickets run $37 to $44.50. Call 632-7600 for more information.

He jumped around in House of Pain; tonight at 8 he slides into the House of Blues. Hip-hop/blues poster boy Everlast rocks the House Sunday night; tickets are $22. Call 632-7600 for more information.