Grandaddy

Hyped as a "mix tape," Below the Radioincludes tracks picked by Grandaddy's Jason Lytle, including up-and-comers Fruit Bats, Earlimart, and Snow Patrol, as well as graying icons Beck, Pavement, and Giant Sand. There's even one new Grandaddy track -- the hold-hands-and-sway indie gospel sing-along "Nature Anthem." For maximum marketability, most of the fifteen tracks tread musical ground very similar to that tilled by the Modesto beard farmers: spaced-out, sad-sack rock with a vaguely Americana flair. The good news is that Lytle chose to champion a number of criminally underexposed artists. The bad news is that this is not a new Grandaddy disc.