I like finding new music.  There’s always a little thrill to come across a new band or singer and just fall in love.  And I admit, I enjoy it just a little bit more when it isn’t something that everyone else has heard (though I’m not going to not buy something just because it is popular either).  I’m not really prone to peer pressure on music.  I rarely pick something up because someone else likes it.  Honestly, I like what I like and I know it when I hear it.

It’s the getting a chance to hear it that can be challenging.  I find that the only way to do it is to try to inject some randomness into the equation.

In high school, I used to do those deals where you’d get 12 albums for a penny.  After you filled your quota of necessary purchases, they would put you in a bonus buy-one-get-one-free status.  I always looked for bands I hadn’t heard of to get with those free albums.  One of those freebies was R.E.M. Reckoning, which is still one of my favorite albums.  Of course, that method also landed me a whole bunch of useless casette tapes that I only listened to once.

Starting in college until just a couple of years ago, one of my main outlets for finding new stuff was the listening stations at record stores (and yes I still call them record stores).  There was a Tower Records up the street from where I worked for awhile and during lunch I’d wander up there to see what was available.  These days it seems that lots of places are kind of stingy with letting you listen to the music.  The 30-second sample seems to be the norm, and let me tell you that just ain’t enough.  For some bands, they haven’t even tuned their instruments in that time.  On the other hand, most of the great stuff that leapt out at me standing in those aisles did hit me almost immediately.  When I stumbled across Guster’s Lost and Gone Forever, I knew from the opening notes of the first song that I would buy the album.  Ditto for Sarah Harmer’s You Were Here.  She had me when the clarinet - yes, clarinet! - appears about ten seconds into Around the Corner.

Like I said, I know it when I hear it.

More recently, I’ve used EMusic to get access to indie labels.  I tend to subscribe for a couple of months at a stretch and load up on bands that don’t get a lot of play.  I’ve gotten a lot of good music there, but it also tends to be more hit and miss in the 12-albums-for-a-buck mold.  Because it’s so cheap on a per song basis, I tend to buy things I end up never listening to.

Podcasts have turned out to be a more satisfying option.  I still may not be interested in 75 percent of what they’re offering, but I didn’t pay for it, so who cares?  I subscribe to three podcasts, which I chose because they cover genres I like and they each have one song per podcast with either minimal or no talking.  They’re really just internet versions of my beloved listening stations.

I get two podcasts from IndieFeed (Modern Rock and Indie Pop).  They do a new song every few days and it is true indie, which also means it can be pretty unpolished (and that is not always a good thing).   But I get enough ideas about new bands to make separating the wheat from the chaff worthwhile.

I tend to have a higher percentage of direct hits with the KEXP Song of the Day (though I’m still only grooving to about a third of their choices).    KEXP throws in more established acts like Bob Mould.  But it is the unexpected that I’m looking for.  Like today, I downloaded a couple of weeks worth and came up with a gem of a song in Say Hi’s Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh.  I’ve already listened to it three times while writing this post and plan on looking for more on the band.

There may be a new source in the months to come.  We bought a new car that has satellite radio.  My wife probably won’t be thrilled if I start spending summer evenings out in the car listening.  But she also won’t be too surprised.  I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything good.