This is an idea I’ve had for awhile. Basically since I’ve discovered the Shazam app is now unlimited and available in Android. Shazam is awesome. It tells you what song is playing. So say you’re hearing some muzak on hold or something (there is no accounting for taste) and you really want to know who’s playing that fine soprano sax. You put the music on speaker phone (or hold it up to the ear thing) and let your cell phone listen to the music. (This assumes you are NOT using your cell phone to actually place the call for which you are on hold) Shazam will listen to a clip and tell you what’s playing. It also works in restaurants, friends’ cars, the radio, etc, etc. It’s a pretty cool app.

So I decided one day I’d tag every song on the radio during my commute. This includes when I get sick of the radio and revert to one of the CD’s in my car. This does not include songs I don’t know and realize I dislike them after about 30 seconds. Mainly because I’d probably want to shoot myself after listening to crap for as long as the phone takes to gather the info, and I really don’t care what song it is anyway. And so I did it today. Here now is my commute home today, in music — the good, the bad and the slightly ugly:

“How He Loves” — David Crowder Band (from a CD)

“You’re The One” — Paul Simon

“Washed By The Water” — Needtobreathe (I heard this on the radio, but it would have been the next song on the CD anyway. I don’t know if it’s sad or not that my music selections sound like KLOVE)

At this point I surfed around and found nothing on the radio, and wasn’t really into my CD’s. So I listened to the deejays talk about cooking a turkey in the dish washer. Interesting……

“True Love” — Phil Wickham (I reverted back to the CD because the music selection was crap on the radio this morning!)

“You Can” — Body Language (I tolerated this one on the Alternate Side radio show because I was just sick of surfing around)

At this point I’d gotten to Starbucks anyway, so I didn’t have to tolerate Body Language for long. I was thinking when I got out that my commute had been a bust and, well, I might as well Shazam tomorrow instead. And then, I got back into the car and…

“Ready To Start” — Arcade Fire (Yeah, WFUV could have been more imaginative with their choice, since it already got tons of airplay, but, well, it’s Arcade Fire, and you really can’t go wrong with that.)

“Get Myself Into It” — The Rapture (Once again, sick of the choices, bored with the CD, had like a couple mins of commute time to kill… Tolerated.)

I miss my iPod!

The drive home (in a quick boring list because I’m about the only one who cares at this point):

“You Never Let Go” — Matt Redman; “Should I Stay Or Should I Go?” — The Clash; “Modern Love” — Bowie; “Shine” — Newsboys (Guilty Pleasure right there. I’m turning in my Indie Rock Fan creds now); “Never Let Go” — DC*B (different song entirely from the Matt Redman one); “She Bangs The Drums” — Stone Roses; “Song of Hope” — Robbie Seay Band

Anyone else have the guts to tell the world what they listen to on their commute?