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You Can't Hear it on the Radio is a blog about the current golden age of music. At no time since the 1960s has there been such an output of quality music by so many varied artists. Add to that technology that makes it easier than ever for the curious to find good music today. But, like an unlimited selection at an all-you-can-eat buffet, there's no table service. You will have to seek it out. The old model is dead. Generally speaking, you can't hear it on the radio. You can learn about it here, though.

My "400" playlist is made up of songs I've added to my iPod most recently as well as songs I haven't heard in over a year. This is my go to playlist when I want a nice blend of any/all of the music in my collection - it's my own private radio station. Let's go on a little tour. Here's five songs from this playlist that came up on shuffle that I felt like writing about.

1) Laura Veirs - Carol Kaye

It took me a long time to decide whether I was going to buy July Flame, Laura Veirs' album from January of this year. This was one of the songs I heard from podcast song of the day downloads that sealed the deal. Though you may or may not know that Carol Kaye is an American music legend, you've definitely heard her work. Coming into her own as a bass player right at the time the music studio was becoming a more sophisticated and integral ingredient in the production of records, Carol Kaye found steady work for decades as a session musician, completing an estimated 10,000 sessions. This song is a sweet tribute to Kaye that name drops many of her most recognizable works with the Beach Boys and on television soundtracks like "Mission: Impossible". I'm moderately obsessed with both this song and with Carol Kaye at the present. As for Laura Veirs' July Flame, I don't know why I waited so long.

2) The Black Keys - Same Old Thing
After really loving The Black Keys' album Brothers and concluding it will be one of my favorite albums from this year, it was interesting to hear this song from their Danger Mouse produced album from 2008, Attack and Release, which was just outside of my top ten that year. I like both varieties of my Black Keys' music, the stripped down garage blues variety as well as the fuller sounding more produced variety. This song, with trilling flute evocative of Jethro Tull and other (quite literally) bells and whistles, is obviously in the latter camp, but no less awesome than when the dynamic duo are doing their thing by themselves.

3) The Budos Band - Unbroken, Unshaven
A good instrumental is essential to my music collection. There's nothing like watching my kids play soccer while listening to "Summertime Killer" or something similar to soundtrack the action on the field. The Budos Band's music is so good, it's destined to be featured in a Quentin Tarantino movie some day, and that's about as big of a compliment as I can give it. This song is from a recent song of the day podcast, but I know there are three albums worth of gems out there that I'm eventually going to purchase. Like, maybe right now.

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