I tried a few searches on Ixquick, and I’ve had the same experience, even with more obscure terms, I get at least a few commercial links before any useful stuff, and even the useful stuff isn’t particularly good.
Teoma, on the other hand is sometimes a good alternative to Google. It varies, though, for some searches it’s results are very relevent. My first impression was “woah”. However, after a few more searches, I did get a few duds. Commercial links are rather rare though. Compare the “national anthem” search: