The lovely ladies of Digital Bliss, vol. 2 (one of SomaFM's favorite new compilations!) are celebrating their record release this Friday at 111 Minna in San Francisco.  The album - which features exclusively female electronic artists - is being hailed as the Downtempo release of the year. 

Weather Pending, Celeste Lear, Divasonic and Return to Mono - all musicians featured on Digital Bliss - will be playing sets.  Show starts at 9. 21+. $10. 

For LA listeners, Digital Bliss will also be hosting a record release at Zanzibar in Santa Monica.  Performers are Auradrone, Divasonic and Celeste Lear. 

A portion of the proceeds of Digital Bliss volumes 1 and 2 is donated to NextAid, an LA-based non-profit aiming to help African children. 

Our friends from local ambient DJ crew Ambisonic, along with AL Kal present an evening dedicated to
chillout music, at Shine (Mission between 9th and 10th, San Francisco), Wednesday, September 30th, from 9PM until 2am. Featuring Ambisonic DJs DF Tram, Traffic and a Live PA by Al Kal and Nonagon.

There aren’t that many venues for chill music in San Francisco, so we want to give a big thanks to Shine for letting Ambisonic take over the space for the evening.
There will be a combination of DJ and Live PA sets. Ambisonic is trying to make this a regular monthly happening so if you live in the San Francisco area we encourage you to come out for this. ($3 before 10; $5 after).

If you're a fan of the Americana and alt-country music found on our channel Boot Liquor, you should definitely head over to Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park this weekend for the FREE Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. The concert will be held this Friday-Sunday (October 2, 3, & 4) and will span six different stages across the park.  

[Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women]

Boot Liquor listeners will recognize acts like Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women (who also played at last years HSB), vocalist Neko Case, and influential songwriter John Prine, among others. Big names in bluegrass such as Lyle Lovett & His Large Band, Steve Earle & The Bluegrass Dukes, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, and famed New Orleans songwriter and producer Allen Toussaint will also grace the stages and surely draw the crowds. 

Hope to see you there!  

While we have heard from many listeners that the beats found on our stations provide them with an aurally pleasant atmosphere while working, SomaFM has been named among the "best sounds for getting work done" by Lifehacker.

Citing studies that have shown that minimally engaging music increases productivity, author Kevin Purdy notes that while classical music such as Mozart have long been touted as enhancing the brain, ambient music has often been chosen for the same purpose. Several of our channels— Groove Salad, Secret Agent, and Drone Zone— are named as favorites to achieve this state of musical stimulation while performing tedious tasks. We want to thank Lifehacker for bringing attention to one of the many ways our station can bring enjoyment to listeners anywhere.

Iceland Airwaves is a yearly music festival based in Reykjavík, Iceland. Airwaves' line up is a veritable smorgasbord of artists from far and wide. Genres from garage punk to re-imagined Motown pop are represented. And it all takes place in the beautiful back-drop that is Reykjavík, a city small enough to hit up four venues in one night before heading to the after party.

For years, SomaFM has been sending staff out to Iceland Airwaves to report back about the happenings and get the lowdown on up and coming bands. Sadly, due to budgetary restrictions, we won't be attending the festival this year. But that doesn't mean you can't reap the benefits of our hard work!


We've put together a collection of articles about our time at the festival in 2007 and 2008. Wondering where to grab a bite or a drink once you're in the area? Check out our guide to eating and drinking on the cheap in Reykjavík. 

If you'd just like to get a better feel for what the festival is all about, check out Rusty's observations here, here, here or even here. 

Are you going to Iceland Airwaves?  Tell us about it!  Email us at dj [at] somafm [dot] com and tell us who you're planning to see and which set you're most looking forward to. 

As SomaFM’s first intern in January of 2008, Meghan Logue began the overwhelming task of organizing SomaFM's immense CD collection into a cohesive library of music.  Assembling and sorting the approximately 7,000 titles of diverse music genres became an interesting, albeit challenging, endeavor. It was finally completed a year and a half later, and now stands as a structured assortment of music, cataloguing the growth of various genres. Initially built on station founder Rusty Hodge’s CD collection started in the mid ‘80s, the collection formed the musical basis for the launch of SomaFM in 1999.



Our music library is now an impressive store of sounds that provides the diverse selection of tracks played on SomaFM, on favorite channels such as Groove Salad, Secret Agent, Drone Zone, and more. With everything from ambient to classic rock to worldbeat to jazz among many others from independent and major labels, there is plenty to choose from when looking to the CD library to program a particular channel’s playlist. The library also includes a large number of now extremely-rare, out-of-print electronica CDs from the 90s.


Organized alphabetically and then separated into single musicians/bands and then compilations, it has become much simpler to look for a particular artist, song, or type of music. Although the library is vast in terms of musical style, the common thread is the unique qualities of each CD featured. Scanning the shelves is a veritable demonstration of the diversity of music that is part of the SomaFM experience.  The collection includes such mainstream staples as the groundbreaking album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band from The Beatles, the legendary Miles Davis recording Some Kind of Blue, and many titles from seminal English electronic duo Everything But the Girl, to name a few.  The visceral rock of Led Zeppelin sits close to the dance punk project LCD Soundsystem, while the classic crooner Henry Mancini lives a few shelves below.



Different discs evoke different musical spaces in time, with Blondie from the ‘80s, Ice Cube emerging in the early ‘90s, and recent ambience from Icelandic band Sigur Ros.  Different areas of the world are represented with electronic artist and producer Coppe from Japan, Algerian dj Cheb I Sabbah, and vintage tunes from French musician Serge Gainsbourg, for example. The many compilation sets also encompass a wide range of musical madness, including Dr. Demento’s collection of novelty songs, sets showcasing a particular genre such as United States of Ambience, hits separated by decade, and world music samplers from different regions like Desert Grooves. The vast array of Christmas music speaks much to the popularity of SomaFM’s holiday stations, with a Raffi Christmas album alongside Christmas Rap and Christmas with the Rat Pack.



One of the best things about the newly ordered musical landscape of the CD library is the accessibility. Being able to easily handpick from this broad spectrum of music is beneficial to SomaFM and its listeners. People tune into the station because virtually any musical thirst can be satisfied while perusing through the various channels, from Boot Liquor to Cliqhop. The variety of genres displayed by the CD library is a symbol of the diversity being played on SomaFM everyday. This range of sounds contributes to exciting radio that plays listeners’ favorites as well as introduces them to new artists. The CD library contributes to SomaFM never compromising its intention to play what is outside of expected radio programming.

The annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival (SFEMF) provides an opportunity for the pioneers of these soundscapes to share their work with other Bay Area electronic artists, to engage in discussion of new technologies, to collaborate in creating new music, and for fans to come and witness the beats unfolding.  SMEMF is being held this year at the Brava Theater from September 16th- 19th. Attendees will get to experience a vast array of musical styles and techniques, from contemporary classical to free improvisation to glitch. The equipment used will range from classic synthesizers to inventive displays of acoustic and electronic instruments sharing the stage.

Performers for the evening include long-time festival performers Miya Masaoka, Pamela Z, Donald Swearingen - and musicians new to the event - Lukas Ligeti, Maria Chavez.

For more information or to purchase tickets visit the SFEMF website.

Don got in touch with us recently to extoll the virtues of our freshly launched station, Mission Control.   While we got a lot of nice compliments about that launch, Don's stood out because of his career: he works in astronomy and planetary exploration! 

Don has been a fan of Secret Agent for several years.  He is currently working from the 200" Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain and Mission Control is providing the background music.  Thanks for your support, Don!