TURN ON THE RADIO to a random station in a hundred different cities, and you can nearly bet on hearing either the same five songs from 1964 (Format: Oldies) or the same five songs from 1992 (Format: Hard Rock) or the same five songs from 2000 (Format: Current Alternative Hits). Is it any wonder there’s so much homogeny in modern music, when the majority of what’s slipped into our collective subconscious consists of Chris Cornell knock-offs and fourth-rate Joni Mitchells?

Keep Left, whose proceeds go towards keeping Alternative Radio alive, is an awesome compilation of innovative work by artists who, for the most part, get zero commercial radio time–a little like the musical equivalent of AR’s speakers and topics.

Talk radio-wise, AR, begun in 1986 in Boulder, CO, by supreme journalist David Barsamian, offers something a little headier than your average FM dial normally happens upon. Truly independent and non-profit, AR features some of the most intellectual and progressive thinkers on subjects that often manage to slip past the radar of NPR (future programs will feature Jello Biafra, Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, and Winona LaDuke).

Elliott Sharp’s brilliant “Near the Wall,” for instance, a frantic pairing of programmed beats and steel guitar that sounds like Paris, Texas meets Blade Runner. Kronos Quartet and criminally overlooked Windy & Carl present opposite ends of the contemporary symphony spectrum. Marianne Nowottny contributes her torchy, resin voice and distorted church organ in “Mustard Seed,” while Loren Mazzacane Connors’ cohesively abstract guitar is grounded, like red clay. Indie Mainstreamers Built to Spill and Olivia Tremor Control also contribute, but diverge a bit from their more consumable efforts with static, hard-edged, faintly melodic instrumentals.

This is the kind of music people must actively seek out; the kind that, for whatever reason, is not welcome on mainstream radio stations. Keep Left is an excellent foray into that secret world of musical diversity.

You can hear AR on KBOO (90.7 FM, Wed at 11 am) and KOPB (91.5 FM, Thurs at 1 and 8 pm).