A new Internet radio station from Hometown Sounds, once a DJ night at the Argonaut on H Street NE, came online last night. The new site, which rotates genres but sticks to locally made music, is the creation of Paul Vodra, who spun monthly before the Argonaut closed for six months after a heavy kitchen fire. Hometown Sounds did not return to the Argonaut when it reopened, so Vodra rejiggered his passion for local music for the Web.

“I’ve got great stuff that worked well at the Argonaut, but so much more that would turn off some patrons while pleasing others,” Vodra says about the new venture. “It’s not easy to try to play hardcore, reggae, folk, house and hip-hop in the same night.”

And as far as the local aspect is concerned, Hometown Sounds isn’t kidding around. From its mission statement:

We play music made by people living in DC, or the surrounding suburbs. There aren’t defined boundaries of what qualifies, but Baltimore and Richmond are definitely out.

The station says it’s not so strict that it’s limited to only new music or will exclude bands that started here but moved elsewhere, but in those cases, it’ll play “only the music they made before leaving.”

Excluding Baltimore and Richmond isn’t antagonistic though; for Vodra, it’s a statement of pride in D.C.’s homegrown music scene.

“I figure that Baltimore and Richmond are big enough to have their own scenes and history,” he says. “If someone wants to make Hometown Sounds Baltimore, more power to them!”

Tuning in to its rock block this morning (there are also hours for punk, urban and EDM on the schedule), I was greeted with a song by Pash, whose guitarist, Erik Bruner-Yang, is known best now as the chef behind Toki Underground. I also heard cuts from Air Miami, French Toast, Eggs, Koshari and Chain and the Gang. I’m anticipating lots of Ian Svenonius all over the station.