Here’s What’s Happening

Recently a bunch of you have been asking me about what to get for your husbands/cousins/grandmas for their birthdays/bat mitzvahs/denture-fitting-ceremonies.  I may have even been asking you the same thing.  May I offer this suggestion/unsolicited plug about Friend-Of-Blog Eileen’s new business:

TUNE ME UP is a service that builds you a playlist of all new-to-you artists based on the music you are currently playing so often that your cat has asked you several times, in English, to stop.  For example, I am going through another Josh Ritter phase.  Tune Me Up might send me a playlist including Joshua Radin and Mason Jennings (plus, they’d take into consideration other artists I like, so it’s not just an hour straight of darling boy singers telling me how pretty the light is–not that there’s anything wrong with that).  This is sort of like what the Genius playlist feature on iTunes is supposed to do but doesn’t.  This is a job for an actual human, and one with good taste at that.

The nice thing about this service is that finding good new music can be sort of a slog, what with the multitudes of Truly Awful and Just Mediocre that are lurking in every record shop real and computer-fied.  But at the same time, new music is one of those necessities, like breathing and hugs.  It takes you to new places and makes your brain think new stuff and leads to that “I’m in love with a new artist” feeling that I so enjoy when I fall in love with a new artist. (Everyone, remember the Rilo Kiley phase?)

Anycrap, unlike the mix cd that your friend made you that has four–yes, four–versions of “Right Here Waiting For You,” Tune Me Up buys brand new music for you instead of just rehashing the same ol’ stuff–so your playlist for July 2009 will be way different than, say, your playlist of December 2008.  Yes,this does lead to dangerous levels of hipness, but you can combat this by using coupons at the grocery store and wearing vests.  Always works for me.