For those of you who think there is no music scene at Stanford…think again. This compilation, put together by the Student Organizing Committee For the arts (SOCA), highlights a variety of talented student musicians living on the Farm. All songs are really well produced, and cover a wide variety of genres—there’s something for everybody… I had NO IDEA that there was this many quality acts on campus.

So are you tired of your other college-age friends telling you how awesome the music scene is at their school? Well, tell them to tune in, bust out a few of these tracks on your show, and support music at Stanford!

RIYL: Stanford University FCC: 15

1. Electro party jam. You might recognize it from the promo videos for Dance Marathon. Super upbeat, pretty commercial sounding…
2. R&B dancefloor love song. Super-suave vocals with a nice rap verse right in the middle. Clean and well produced.
*3. Gorgeous female vocals with smooth piano riffs and male accompaniment. Sounds just like Stars.
*4. Lighthearted rock with awesome ringing guitar riffs. Excellent layered vocals and a bright sunny feel.
*5. The first ever song by the Sea People, the winners of the 2009 Stanford Battle of the Bands. This song was apparently inspired by Brave New World, which totally makes sense if you listen to the lyrics. Cool and mellow sounding with great female vocals and jivey keyboard lines. Lots of chill reverb and ringing guitars contribute to its lustrous, almost “under-the-sea” atmosphere.
6. Super dramatic instrumental with a 70’s hard rock intro that leads into a chill funky jam with excellent drum rhythms and a stand-out bass part. Sweet guitar solos too.
*7. A collaboration between Grahame Lesh, ‘09 (the son of Grateful Dead bass player Phil Lesh) and Brodie Jenkins (of The Jenkins). Say what? Melodramatic love song with AMAZING VOCALS. Smooth and lilty. Great accompaniment efforts on piano, acoustic guitar and drums.
*8. Strummy acoustic guitar with edgy female vocals about heartbreak. Beautiful. RIYL: Land of Talk, Fiest.
9. 4-minute psychedelic, jazzy jam with electronic drums. A heavy math-rock feel. For fans of Aphex Twin, etc.
*10. 25-second staticy intro leads into an acoustic love ballad. Smooth male vocals with lots of “coffee shop” elements.
11. Rock with a hint of country. Deep husky male vocals. Lyrics remind me a lot of the Byrd’s song of the same name.
12. Smooth, gentle acoustic rock with a bit of a New Age feel. Great production, and beautiful vocals.
13. DUBSTEP. Deep and warbly peppered with delicate synth lines and harsh high-hats.
*14. Feathery trance jam. Pretty complex, with some nice soaring melodies. Not your average FrootyLoops studio track.
15. FCC (shit) Lady Renaissance from the Stanford Hip Hop Congress. A nice call-to-arms rap about the empowering force of hip-hop, where is all the real hip hop, shoutouts to Mos Def, etc.
16. Upbeat male piano ballad. Some pretty cliché lyrics about uncertain futures, breaking down walls, hope through love, etc. Pretty catchy, but…meh not really my thing. At least it has Autotune!
*17. Nice jaunty jam about redemption and second chances. Emotional female vocals, start-stop percussion, and jivey guitars.
18. Slow piano with breathy, mediocre female vocals. Pretty unimaginative lyrics and a pretty cheap-sounding rhythm section.