Grandaddy - Below The Radio

I have really cool friends. Five of my cool friends are super cool. These five are super cool because they are members of the “music of the month club.” As a participant in this club, each member must create a mix CD twice a year. Once a month I receive a CD in the mail with some music I’m familiar with and other music I’m not. We’ve got a cool thing going… I could cheat with Below the Radio. But I won’t, because it is Jason Lytle’s compilation, not mine. First, I don’t plagiarize. Second, I demand more creativity from my mixes. Grandaddy has assembled 15 tracks from bands they respect and feel are underappreciated by corporate radio. However, bands such as Earlimart, Snow Patrol, Beulah, Fruit Bats, Giant Sand and Blonde Redhead are no longer identity-less under the current indie-rock revolution. Other bands included are Virgil Shaw, Little Wings, The Handsome Family and Jackpot. And while these bands may be more remotely “below the corporate radio,” they do nothing to distinguish themselves from hundreds of other lo-fi bands dominating the college radio waves. Besides perhaps Pavement and Beck, Below the Radio is an album of bands that seem to be influenced by Grandaddy. A more intriguing mix would assemble bands that did the influencing. [www.grandaddylandscape.com]