There are certain things in life which make you wonder how you ever survived without them. The internet, cell phones (for better or worse), and for me, Satellite Radio. I’ve been a Sirius subscriber for about a year now, and have discovered so much great music because of the multitude of commercial free channels.

One of my regular stops is Jam_On, which is Sirius’s ‘jam band’ channel, offering up your expected assortment of Phish, Dead, Widpespread Panic, etc. But they also feature some of the lesser known quality jam bands out there.

One of them is Frame of Mind. Their web site shows them to be “from the beaches of Southern California, to the mountains of central Idaho”. Definitely a couple of nice places to hone your craft. They’ve spent the last 5 years or so playing throughout the western states with such bands as Gov’t Mule, The Mother Hips, Arizona’s own Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers, and Soulive (who I’ll be seeing in a couple of months at the Telluride Jazz Celebration).

It was this tune I heard on Sirius. The verses / choruses will conjure up thoughts of Blues Traveler (the harmonica riffs), but it’s the 8 minutes of instrumental meat in the middle which drew me in.

Frame of Mind: It’s All Good (mp3) – recorded live at John’s Alley. Moscow, Idaho – Feb 3, 2006 – check out and buy their music

Speaking of instrumental jam goodness, the Motet, based out of Boulder, Colorado, have been mixing up funk, jazz, afrobeat, and afro-cuban since 1998. It was founded by drummer Dave Watts, who composes all of their music. If you like percussion oriented music, you’ll like these guys.

The Motet: Belly (mp3) – from their Live CD