amongst the many things in my mac lifestyle that i love are things whose names start with “smart.” smart folders, smart searches, smart groups, and, most of all, smart playlists. a while back i had the idea to make a list to play the least-played songs in my iTunes library to try to avoid those embarrassing “i had no idea that was on my iPod” moments. and with the amount of music i acquire in a given month, on top of continually trying to import the most relevant cd’s in my collection, it’s nice to get a little cross-section of what i haven’t been listening to lately. sometimes it’s even a little audio “oblique strategies” when i’m in a sound design rut.

all that aside, i think it’s pretty fantastic to see these artists lined up together, however it happens: kings of leon, calexico, weezer, carol king, beck, el-p, ozomatli, pepe deluxe, joni mitchell, the sea and cake, tin hat trio, rammstein (what?), archer prewitt, ms. dynamite, don caballero, big star, the stills, garbage, tenacious d, the streets, laurie johnson (music for tv dinners), low, grandaddy, shipping news, operation ivy, outkast… this would be a fine time to thank everyone who has turned me on to a band, ever. sometimes i forget how much a part of my life each album can be.