Sunday's Best - The Californian (2002)

If you haven't watched Clone High yet, we can't be friends. But we are friends, so I'll just assume you have. You remember that episode where Abe and some other people keep running through the airport to prevent Cleo from leaving repeatedly throughout the episode for the sake of hilarity? Well there's a song called "Don't Let It Fade" that keeps playing every time that happens (you can hear it in the background in this clip), and it turns out that song is on this album! What a coincidence, huh? Besides bringing Abandoned Pools to the attention of all 12 people that watched the show, Clone High was known for showcasing a bunch of budding artists from labels like Polyvinyl Records (GO CHECK OUT THEIR GARAGE SALE RIGHT NOW IT'S FULL OF GREAT PRICES AND AWESOME) that were just starting to get their sea legs. As a diehard Polyvinyl fanatic (GARAGE SALE! THIS WAY!), I decided to check out some of the bands used on the show, and this one proved to be my favorite of the bunch. Besides "Don't Let It Fade," the album includes such catchy tunes as "The Salt Mines of Santa Monica" and "Our Left Coast Ambitions."

If you dig early 2000s indie rock just before it was about to take off and be ruined by Arcade Fire at the Grammys (Just kidding. Or am I?), or if you're just looking for a nice Summer album to jam/chill out to, do yourself a favor and check this out (as well as Clone High. Unless you hate funny. Do you hate funny?)

Jeremiah Nelson - Drugs To Make You Sober (2011)

This guy's cool. He used to be in the Madison band Achilles Heel, and now he just debuted his first solo album. It's...pretty good. Parts of it feel really unfinished, but man...

that title track is worth it.

Rockabye Baby! - Lullaby Renditions of Radiohead (2006)

Vibraphones are the bomb.

Now you'll be able to share "Paranoid Android" with your kid(s) without scarring them for life.

Clint Mansell - Moon OST (2009)

You know what? That Moon hip-hop EP I just posted made me want to listen to the actual film soundtrack as soon as it was over.

So here it is.

P.S. - This was done by Clint Mansell, the guy who also scored Darren Aronofsky's (now of Black Swan fame) The Fountain, another fantastic film/soundtrack combo you should all check out if you haven't already.

Max Tannone - Selene (2011)

Did you see the movie Moon? You should have. It was easily the best film of 2009. It was so good, in fact, that Max Tannone (the guy who did the brilliant Jay-Z/Radiohead mash-up project Jaydiohead) put together a hip-hop EP that is based around and uses samples from the film. He released it for free, so you should probably go check it out.

Do so here.

Tides of Man - Empire Theory (2009)

Remember when Coheed was fucking awesome?

These guys do.

Blazo - Alone Journey (2009)

Blazo's Alone Journey is a bit of an oddity. It is, I suppose, an instrumental hip-hop album. However, there is nary a skanky beat, cheesy 808 "cowbell", Funky Drummer break, Amen Brother break, or any of a multitude of cliché techniques to be found. Blazo instead opts for a remarkably elegant approach, laying down beats that are no less bumpin' than their oversexualized contemporaries underneath string arrangements that border on orchestral. I swear you'll hear a bit of oboe, clarinet, maybe even a french horn in the mix a few times over the course of this album, underneath the achingly lush strings that make this album so lovely to begin with. These tracks are confident and groovy yet undeniably sentimental. To be quite frank, this is one of those albums that you get queued up just as you're about to walk out the door pretty late on a warm summer night for a pleasant stroll around suburbia, and as your foot hits the pavement outside your front door, the first beat drops and you can't help but think, "Awww, shit yeah" as you get that added swagger to your step in an almost Saturday Night Fever-esque way. Just look at the cover art. Look at the title. I pride myself in thinking that I've found precisely the scenario the album was meant for.

Yeah dude.