3,300 MINI owners have embarked on a cross-country journey that finds them making 17 stops along the way, and SPIN.com is rolling out all the tunes from their trek's companion album, Soundtrack to a Drive. Every song on the compilation is by a band local to each stop along the trek, which begins in Monterey before heading down the Pacific Coast to Santa Barbara. Southwestern cities Las Vegas, Flagstaff, and Albuquerque are the next destinations on the drive, and then the MINI crew heads to Texas, where they'll pull up in Amarillo and Dallas. From there, the drivers swerve over to St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Charleston, WV. Charlottesville, VA, Richmond, VA and Washington, D.C. are the trek's next stops before the roadsters steer up the Eastern seaboard to hit Jersey City and, finally, Lakeville, CT.

TODAY'S STOP: Monterey, CA
TODAY'S BAND: Oranger

Monterey is just a quick drive down Highway 101 from San Francisco, from where these indie Rockers hail. Even though Oranger have toured with Wilco, Pavement, and the late Elliott Smith, they remain humble, describing their sound as "vegan rock for muttonheads."

Song: "Crooked In the Weird of the Catacombs" (Download MP3)

Credits: Mike Drake (I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Lifetime Music) (BMI)

On SPIN.com:
Artist of the Day: Oranger

On the Web: oranger.net

Fasten your seatbelts and keep your eyes on SPIN.com for more tunes soundtracking the drive as MINI Takes the States. COMMENT