About

How Do I?

Listen to playlists? - Find the menu in the sidebar on the left. If the sidebar doesn't appear, click the menu icon in the top left. Click on any Spotify link to play one our playlists. 

Background:

Grew up listening to 99X FM - which was a Modern Rock / Alternative station. 

Favorite bands included: Fuel, Live, Pearl Jam, Collective Soul, Bush, Foo Fighters, Nirvana and many others. 

Many of my favorite bands released new music during or after the COVID pandemic and many started touring again, but generally they aren't getting a lot of airplay. 

At the same time, I started actively seeking out new music each week that lands similar to the music that 99X used to play. 

So this blog will be a place to rewind back to the glory days of Alt Rock and also find fresh Alt Rock because as it turns out - rock isn't dead.   

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Shut Up and Rock: Embracing Lead Singer Changes

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If I had to pick my favorite bands from high school, the list probably looks something like this: Fuel, Live, Bush, Pearl Jam, and Collective Soul. Of that group, Pearl Jam has had the fewest lineup changes since I started listening — at least until Matt Cameron’s recent departure. Collective Soul has swapped out drummers and lead guitarists since I became a fan. Bush went on hiatus from about 2003 to 2010, with Gavin and Robin being the only returning members, and today Gavin is the lone original member still in the band. Live is its own interesting case: you can catch them touring — and it’s a fun show — but it’s essentially Ed plus touring musicians. Fuel might have the most complicated member timeline on Wikipedia. For a lot of Fuelies, the “original” band was Brett, Carl, Jeff, and Kevin — but there was a version of the band before that, and the Sunburn album was recorded with a session drummer. The 2007 Angels & Devils album featured only Carl and Jeff from that “original” ...
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Something Like Alt Rock: Best of March 2026

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March was a crazy good month for new music, the March playlist peaked at 73 songs. March was full of drops from familiar names like Foo Fighters, Sevendust, Nickelback, U2, New Found Glory, Young the Giant, Depeche Mode, and so many more. And at the same time, lots of bands we've been following since launching Smells Like Alt Rock like: As It Is, Lansdowne, Kensington, L0L0, Dexter and Moonrocks, and The Haunt - dropped some real bangers too.  The task to cut the playlist down for the end of the month was really hard this time, we got it down to a top 20 with 5 honorable mentions. And in the next week, we will also post the 2026 Q1 playlist - a big thank you to all the bands for the great music, you are making this really difficult and we love it!  The Menzingers grabbed the top spot this month with Nobody's Heroes Top 20 Songs from the Smells Like Alt Rock Blog for March: The Menzingers - Nobody's Heroes Sullvn w/ Dicky Barrett- Raise A Glass Social Distortion - Born To K...
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Something Like Alt Rock - Oct 5

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In case you weren't with us before - here's the deal - we listen to a bunch of new songs each week - narrow it down to some we add to monthly list, then at the end of the month, we usually have like 50 songs that we narrow down to 15 or so songs.  By our count, it's the second week of new music for October 2025, Click Read More to see what all we found this week. We'll start things with "Promises" by Mayday Parade, followed by new music from The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Sawyer Hill, I Prevail, Starset, Nevertel, and Acceptance w/ The Maine. Checkout the  October List  on Spotify.  Mayday Parade - Promises The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Perfection Sawyer Hill - Eye for Eye I Prevail - Crimson & Clover Starset - AD Astra Nevertel - Ever After Acceptance (featuring The Maine) - The Letter New Found Glory - Laugh It Off
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