Another reason to love NPR

I had a hectic morning. Calls and e-mails to the eastern part of my continent had me up early. My coffee pot (along with half of my kitchen) was still in the sink, unwashed. I was out of EmergenC. None of my morning comforts were available, and I was running late.

Luckily, my steadfast bathroom radio allowed me to enjoy one of my more important morning elements: NPR. Stephen Thompson was on, talking about his trip south to South By Southwest and providing some music recommendations. My ears perked up. I love NPR's Song of the Day feature - its RSS feed is in my Bloglines.

I went to my iTunes music store this morning and downloaded a couple of Thompson's suggestions:

Headlights - The Enemies. This EP is incredible. Maybe the best thing I've downloaded all month. I was obviously hooked by the title of the first track, "Tokyo," which starts out with these beautifully slow lyrics that would provide a perfect soundtrack for the first steps out of Shinjuku Station. Now, I just need to get back to Japan. The easy part will be enjoying this song.
You're walkin', walkin' slow/but you gotta move fast/in Tokyo
You can't believe your eyes/you finally got here/so many little red lights/it's so alive here

David Meade - Wherever You Are. You'll dig this if you like Josh Rouse. Great songwriting.