The question we get asked most often by listeners, friends and acquaintances is how we find all the music we play week in and week out on The Joint.

(Interestingly enough, we’re not asked specifically where we get the music from. So we’ll leave it to you to obtain the music how ever you prefer. But please allow us to recommend the joys of visiting old-fashioned record shops such as Galaxy Records, Penny Lane Records, Real Groovy, Slow Boat Records, and Conch and droppping some dollars).

Now, I can’t vouch for The Herb Whisperer’s mysterious methods but here’s my tried and true, hit and miss method for finding music. It all boils down to finding some trusted starting points and then letting serendipity take over. Listed below are my current starting points…

Radio shows and podcasts

Human Pleasure @ Hourly Rates – every Monday night at 7pm NZT on RDU98.5FM William Bird Esq. plays two hours of fresh indie tunes. How he keeps up with it all I don’t know but the man is an inspiration to us all (even if he likes to sound grumpy about it).

The Sound Pellegrino podcast – Based in Paris, France the Sound Pellegrino record label is the baby brother of Institubes. The podcast is irreverently and lovingly hosted by DJ Orgasmic & Teki Latex and they play some very lovely house, techno and electro. Damn I would love to see their studio.

Stones Throw podcast – Peanut Butter Wolf’s Los Angeles record label is host to some of my favourite artists (Madlib, Dam-Funk, Madvillain). The podcasts are really mixes and contain some good random selections.

Guardian Music Weekly – More talk than music (which I curse sometimes) but good interviews, conversations and wit.

MP3 blogs, magazines and mailing lists

Rough Trade weekly mailout – heaps of releases and a silly amount of genres listed.

Keytars and Violins – god bless Leighton Jones. Hope he doesn’t mind me plundering his techno and cosmic disco selections for our show. But I can never resist.

Avant-Avant – a curated music selection updated every day at 10:00am GMT

Dub dot dash – Peter McLennan aka Dub Asylum (ex Hallelujah Picassos) writes and DJs. Lately he’s been writing about the 1990s Auckland label Deepgrooves. Catch him on his show “Ring the Alarm” Base FM every Saturday at 10am.

20jazzfunk greats – even after all this time still one of the best.

FACT mixes –  courtesy of FACT magazine. Hundreds of classy mixes available free.

And then if you feel nerdy you can do some further research using…

Discogs – perfect for checking back catalogues of labels and artists

The Hype Machine – possibly the simplest way of all. Pop in a favourite artist and you can end up joining the dots for hours on end. It’s how I ended up finding most of my favourite MP3 blogs.

“Huh?” you say…

If you’re wondering why we’re giving our “secrets” away, it’s all in line with the mission statement that our board of directors recently adopted: “We will be truly successful when people have stopped listening to us because they can find the good shiz for themselves.”

A Post About Post Dubstep

I now feel comfortable having used the term “Post Dubstep” on yesterday’s show, so I’m retracting the offer to give me a good kicking the next time you see me. The comfort comes from having Paul Morley uttering the same phrase in the introduction to his latest edition of Showing Off.

Within the many multi-media elements that make up this particular episode, which is dedicated to Dubstep, there is an extended interview with Joint favourite Jah Wobble where links are made between brie cheese and Miles Davis.

Image: Jerrell Conner

Leighton Jones’ excellent Keytars & Violins MP3 blog is my usual starting point when I put together my part of The Joint playlist every week. The brilliant selections of deep techno, deep house, retro disco, and old synth action – mostly from artists and labels I possibly never would have discovered on my own – keep me going back for more.

As well as posting tracks Leighton also posts delicious mixes full of hypnotic tech-house. Perfect stuff for long plane and train rides. Last year I contacted Leighton and asked him if he would like to put together a mix for The Joint. To our delight he was keen to oblige and we played the mix on our 16 January 2010 show.

Download the Keytars & Violins mix for The Joint [MP3 40MB]

• Abraham – Magpie
• Mark E – Codsall Juniors
• Paskal – Sweet Settings
• John Talabot – Naomi
• Comtron – C64 Carat (Tom Trago Remix)
• Idioma – Landscapes (Tim Paris Remix)
• Geheimtipp – Geheimtipp 3 Side A
• Ron Geesin – Mominous
• John Daly – Juno Skies
• Servi – Laistrygonen

Not too long after it got busted we discovered that Indie Passion had been reborn as We Are The Sleepyheads. The postings may not be quite as prolific but there’s still the nice indie selections that will keep you occupied.

And be sure to bookmark indiepassionrevival.blogspot.com just to stay in touch with any changes.