Media Monday : 5 Random Songs / Artists to Check Out

I'm awful at finding new music. I hate listening to the radio, with commercials and annoying DJs and crappy Top 40, so I stick almost exclusively to my iPod. The unfortunate side is, of course, that I rarely find anything new. Once in a while I'll hear something on a TV show or in a movie that I'll check out, or I'll try and navigate through Apple's "Genius" selections to find new songs.

Despite the fact that I listen to the same crap all the time, I'm always amazed how many people haven't heard of some of my favorite songs. So I'm sharing a random sampling of songs here. These aren't by any stretch my favorite songs or artists, just stuff that I like that I think a lot of people haven't been exposed to, or even may have forgotten about. None of it is "new," just hopefully new to you.

Most song links are all to Lala.com; if you prefer you can just Google the song names and get other options to listen online for free.

5. Blind Melon, Change - The only song most people have ever heard of from Blind Melon is No Rain, aka "That song with the video of the girl in a bumblebee outfit." Fair enough. But they made some other great songs before Shannon Hoon decided to OD on heroin. Change was always my personal favorite, but I'd say a pretty close second is Soul One. A friend of mine once saw these guys in concert, and said that watching him sing Soul One live was extremely moving. I believe it.

4. Stephen Stills, Johnny's Garden. Stephen Stills doesn't seem to have the name recognition of Neil Young, or even David Crosby, his cohorts from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Maybe having his name second hurt the cause. I don't know if I would call Stills my favorite of the group (Neil Young probably edges him out) but it's a close race. Almost all of the songs on the album Manassas are great, especially the aforementioned Johnny's Garden, Colorado, and How Far.

3. The Talking Heads, This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody). I think everyone knows the Talking Heads for their weirder / more popular songs like "Burning Down the House", but they have some fantastic lesser-known (at least to some) songs. In addition to the one above, there's also Nothing But Flowers, Road to Nowhere, and Wild Wild Life. All these songs are on the Talking Heads' Greatest Hits album but I bet very few of you own that one.

2. Jamie Lidell, Multiply - My friend Sarah introduced me to this song via a mix CD a bunch of years ago. I've managed to never hear anything else by the guy but I just love this song. Note : This song isn't available on Lala, so the link is to the Amazon album

1. The Jayhawks - The Jayhawks have been around since the '80's, but I only recently "discovered" them myself. I can't decide if my favorite song is Blue or Save It For A Rainy Day. Both are just amazing, though. Probably the two songs I've listened to the most in the past year.