Once again, Triple J has vindicated my taste in music, by having as #1 in the Hottest 100 a song I have never heard before in my life.

In fact, the entire Hottest 100 this year was comprised mostly of songs I had either never heard, or ones that I’d merely overheard in public, like that infuriating Dandy Warhols track, or the Outkast one. The remainder comprised entire albums from Powderfinger and the White Stripes. Surely this isn’t the state of the art in music.

So, I’ve resolved to start listening to the radio again. Keep up with the Joneses, and all that. That said, some of my favourite bands I have discovered without the aid of a radio.

Slipknot
I had Slipknot’s album on my hard disk, but I’d never taken the time to listen to it. That is, until a partitioning mishap caused The Great Hard Disk Crash of 2000. I’m never using Partition Magic again.

Anyway, the mishap caused all my music files to be corrupted with portions of other songs. This had the effect of creating a sort of computer mix tape. I was listening to one of these mixes out of curiosity when the second half of Eyeless by Slipknot came on. I recognised the ear-splitting racket instantly.

Death Cab For Cutie…
Just one example of a band whose album I ordered off the net, without having heard any of their music ever before. Sometimes you just hafta take a chance.

Human Waste Project
A band I got into by overhearing my housemate play the songs. I ended up having to get this album from Britain via eBay, but it was worth it. Sadly, they only put out the one album before disbanding.

De La Soul…
An example of the many bands I’ve got into after sampling their work on the Internet first. I’ve said it a thousand times, the MP3 culture is not something the music industry should be fighting against.

Edan
I came across Edan whilst searching CDNOW (rest in peace) for a completely different band. That site was great, until it was assimilated by Amazon. I swear, Amazon has the worst interface of any commercial website I have ever seen. Anyway, the soundbite was cool.

Edan is a one man band—DJ, MC and producer—whose recordings have the vibe of a 1980s rap fanboy making tapes in his parents’ living room. While Eminem is selling billions of records by rapping about homosexuals and Vicodin, Edan is keeping it real by rapping about stealing.