Alt Nation leaning a lot lighter?

[RockTheGlobe]

I've been a Sirius subscriber for about 9 months, and my 2 favorite streams are Alt Nation and Octane because I'm an alternative fan. But recently I've found myself listening a lot more to Octane because I keep hearing the same lighter-alternative artists on Alt Nation over and over. Ed Harcourt? The new Third Eye Blind stuff? Pernice Brothers? The Coral? Steadman? Gemma Hayes? I tend to think this stuff belongs more on The Trend. And how many times do I have to hear the same Replacements' song?

It just seems like whoever's running Alt Nation loves to pound this stuff because I seem to hear these same artists/songs over and over. I know that they're not afraid of playing some of the slightly "harder" alternative stuff because I've heard them play Offspring and Jesus & Mary Chain and the new Foo Fighters' track ("Low") and Bad Religion and The Used and Catherine Wheel, etc., but I can't understand why those tracks/artists are so few and far between. Alt Nation almost seems to have turned into a "wuss alternative" stream.

I'm not asking for Alt Nation to compete with Octane -- I'm happy to have the variety -- but I think that alternative should be more than songs/artists that just make me get sleepy when I hear them. Why not add the new Jet or Billy Talent or Guided By Voices, or go back to some of the songs that were kind of popular in the early- to mid-'90s but aren't heard anymore, like stuff by Matthew Sweet or Face To Face or James?

[MoonShadow]

The real problem is that not a single group/person you listed is really 'alternative'. In fact, they're all quite mainstream... especialy 3EB and Foo Fighters.

See... AltNation could be just as hard as Octane (or at least at times) and not compete because it can play the stuff you never ever hear on Mtv. But it doesn't seem to work out like that...