The Inevitable "I Have a Zune" Post

There are some places I expect to discover good new music from. For some of these places, not only do I expect to discover new music, but I'm downright disappointed when I'm not pointed in the direction of at least a few good tunes. When I flip through one of Dan's old CMJs, or when I start up my In Rainbows - style subscription to Paste, or when I tune in to the only station that matters, I fully expect to discover something good and new. If I don't, I feel let down.

There are other places where I don't necessarily expect to discover music, but I am more than open to the possibility. How I Met Your Mother, for example, gave me The 88, the Violent Femmes' "Good Feeling," and name-dropped Otis Redding. Music discovery isn't the goal of watching a sit-com, I know, but it sure is a great side effect.


Other mediums, however, absolutely stun me when they introduce me to some good tunes. I did not, for example, expect to discover a rapper like K'naan flipping through the pages of Utne. Nor did I expect to find anything good among the preloaded content on my new Zune. Normally I would have assumed any preloaded content to be garbage not even worth dabbling in for a bit, but since I at least recognized the names of some of the bands, I thought an exploratory listen was in order. Still, my hopes were low.

You can imagine my surprise then, as I walked to class yesterday morning, fiddling with my new gadget before settling on Band of Horses for the remainder of my four or so minute walk to class. It wasn't garbage!

In fact, not only is it not garbage, but the song, "Wicked Gil," is pretty great. Not a pantheon song to be sure, but good enough to make me want to listen to more Band of Horses, and isn't that the point? Whoever (or is it whomever? I have no idea about that sort of thing) has the job of creating the playlist to preload onto every Zune has done his or her job well if new Zuners like me are turned on to even one band from the list. For the record, I am convinced that this is one of the greatest jobs ever, not quite as great as owning a record shop, but almost certainly better than any other job one could have at Microsoft (or anywhere, for that matter).

I won't bother attempting a song review because: a) I've only listened to "Wicked Gil" three times now; b) the only person I can guarantee will read this is Dan; he already listens to Band of Horses and, as far as I know, didn't need the guidance of one of the world's largest corporations to discover them, making him infinitely hipper than I am; and c) a much more efficient way to find out if you like it or not would be to simply listen to it yourself. So go buy yourself a Zune. Or, you know, find some other way to listen to it.