Off the beaten path

Working in music shops, in nightclubs, and as a DJ has provided me with a pretty massive music collection. But it's a collection I've taken some grief over, mostly because I have a lot of music that isn't very well known. Over the years, I've fallen deeply in love with bands that never went anywhere. Actually, that's not true: They got far enough to have an album that was sent out by their label. After that, they went nowhere. (I'm sure I'll rant about payola another day, but that's not this post.) On the one hand, it makes me happy to have this music in my life. On the other hand, it makes me deeply sad that it wasn't heard by more people. Recent shifts in the music industry make me hopeful, though. I feel like we all have more access to more music than we have for decades. The problems becomes finding music you're gonna like.

How do you find new music? Are there websites, blogs, friends, podcasts or other sources that reliably turn you on to good sounds? Tell me about them!