Modest Mouse hit it big with “Float On” and “Dashboard”, but this LP slipped past me.  Sometimes they’re a little too schizophrenic for me.  But there are enough gems to keep me sifting through their catalogue.

The Naked and Famous are a New Zealand band that got some radio play with the song “Young Blood”, but their sound is far more diverse than that song represents.  This little pop song is from an earlier album. Find the song “The Sun” for a Radiohead-ish song (Amnesiac-like).

    These songs are things I’ve found by sifting through the internet and music collections.  I’d have a hard time describing what ties them together, I guess that’s Pandora’s job.  But take a listen, it might pay off.  Between YouTube, Pandora, and Rhapsody (if you have it), these bands have plenty to offer without you buying anything.

The Airborne Toxic Event made a double disc record for their sophomore release.  The 2nd disc is a collection of live videos.  Good stuff.  If you’ve never heard of them, search out the song “Sometime Around Midnight” for the best song in years that doesn’t have a chorus. 

It’s 1972 and David Bowie is covering Lou Reed.  Just another reason why time travel should be allowed.  A version of this song is in the movie Almost Famous (I hope you’ve seen it). 

Glass Animals discovered something new.  I don’t know whom they sound like.  The lead singer said he made an album that is meant to be listened to through headphones late at night with the lights off.  It works.  My favorite album of 2014 

Canned Heat’s “On the road again” is one of those songs you’ve heard before, but probably never knew who sang it.  I recently “discovered” them and have found their road a fun path into the past. 

The Cults are supposedly riding the Foster the People bandwagon.  The Cults managed to make a good album without using a megaphone.  They definitely have “sound”

(xylophone, drums, layered voices) and I’m curious to see how it evolves as they grow. 

Built to Spill - a below the radar nineties band that I finally got a good listen to this past month.  They remind me of an earlier Stephen Malkmus and the Jiks (see 1% of one).  Songs that slowly build on themselves the way a Led Zeppelin masterpiece does, but with the low-key indie sound.