myTunes

If you ask anyone who knows me what my favorite thing in the whole world is, I'm sure the answer you'd get is comics.  And depending on the day, that may or may not be the right answer.  My other huge passion is music.  I can't ever get enough of it.  My typical day starts at about 6am with me getting out of the shower, getting dressed and putting on my iPod.  And it stays on until I get home, usually around 6pm.  It stays on all day long (unless I have a meeting [one or two of those a week] or a lunch date [which I've been extremely remiss in scheduling as of late.])  I kind of have a listening pattern.  First off I play whatever podcasts I have that day to get them out of the way of the music.  Next I go to my "Unplayed Songs" playlist, which consists of anything new I haven't listened to yet.  Since I've been actively trying to give everything in my iTunes library a second listen, the next playlist I go to is "Recently Added - Played Once."  If that's empty, I go to my general "Played Once" folder and start listening.  Within that folder I have a ton of sub-folders.  I've got folders for specific years, specific artists, specific genres.  I also have them sorted by file size, or by length or by album or by artist.  Sometimes I just hit shuffle and see what happens.  I'm psyched that all of my "Played Once" songs fit on my iPod now.  As of this writing, that would be 19,131 songs.

But enough of my OCD.  There are a couple of new albums out that I've just fallen in love with.  In no particular order they are:

The Bird & The Bee - Interpreting The Masters Volume 1: A Tribute To Daryl Hall And John Oates

Now I know what you're thinking.  This sounds cheesy as hell.  Well, you know what?  It is.  But it's really, really good, too.  Listening to them do covers of Hall & Oates tunes makes me so happy.  And judging from the title, this is hopefully going to be a series of covers albums.  I cannot wait to see what comes next.  Maybe a nod to Rick Astley?  

Scouting For Girls - Everybody Wants To Be On TV  

This is their second album and I'm so excited they're back.  I fell in love with their first album a couple of years ago.  They're really just a pub band, but they've got catchy melodies and a great sense of humor.  They're really fun.

Josh Ritter - So Runs The World Away  

I only just discovered Josh Ritter about a year ago.  I don't know how I went so long without him appearing on my radar.  I'd read about him, but I wasn't too interested in what I read.  And then I heard him.  I think the guy is fucking amazing.  Ken always taunts me that all I listen to is "saggy tittied hippie" and by that, he means people like Josh.  Whatever.  He's absolutely amazing and I love this new album so much.

So my question to you, dear reader, is this.  What new stuff are you listening to and loving?  I'm always on the lookout for new stuff.  Give me three recent-ish albums you're ga-ga over.