There is a folder that sits atop the other folders in my email box called “@musictocheckout.” The at-symbol in the name keeps the folder at the top of the list, a trick I learned from magazine editing days in the 90s.

When my friend Henna (from the band Many Birthdays) tells me about bands that I should hear or sends me MP3s that I might like, the music goes into this folder. When something on Internet radio strikes my fancy, I send an email to myself with the name of the artist and the song title, and the email goes into this folder. At work, when I am making my way through two dozen hip-hop CDs to create a soundtrack of Queens circa 1989/1990, I make note of the songs I like best and they eventually find their way into the folder as well.

And then I wait.

The songs usually percolate in the folder for a month or two before I am afforded a rare quiet evening in front of the computer. On those evenings, I sit in a big red recliner next to the picture windows that open up to a view of San Francisco — the fog, the city lights and the ocean in the distance. I curl up with the cat if she’ll let me curl up with her.

And then I cue up my eMusic and iTunes accounts to add these songs to my music collection and to my iPhone, knowing that the next morning’s commute will be the best one I’ve had in weeks. Like slow-brewed iced coffee, steeped overnight in a pitcher of grounds, the songs seem to get stronger after some time in the “@musictocheckout” folder. I tend like them even more the second time around, and if I like a song enough, I tend to buy other songs from the same band.

There is no way to pitch or buy your way into the “@musictocheckout” folder. On a daily basis, music arrives in my inbox and in my mailbox from professionals who would like me to check out the music so that I might eventually license it and pay them some money. (Or rather, that my company’s clients might eventually pay them some money.) I usually take a moment to listen to nearly everything I receive. Sometimes I even hang onto the songs and take them with me to the gym, my favorite way to roadtest songs for a dance-based rhythm game or an action sports sequence.

But the songs that end up in “@musictocheckout” are, for the most part, not the songs that were pitched to me. They are the songs that I seized in the moment or that someone sent me for no other reason than my own edification or enjoyment. They remind me of the songs that I used to capture on my pink Panasonic cassette boombox circa 1988. In the days before Napster and digital music discovery, I listened to the radio as much as possible and hit record whenever something sounded wonderful. A few years ago, I listened to those old tapes to see what I thought was so wonderful back then: songs from Poe, Morrissey, Green Day, MC Nas D, Lighter Shade of Brown and Dr. Dre.

I finally had the opportunity to go through my “@musictocheckout” last night instead of, yes, writing this Tuesday post. This morning my commute to work was as wonderful as I knew it would be. The new songs are below because I truly would like to share the experience of listening to these songs with others. But really it won’t be the same for you because this month worth of collected music won’t mean as much to anyone as it does to me.

So get out your old pink Panasonic boombox or fire up your Gmail labels. The next time that music enlightens you, make sure you take notes.

Artist	Title
Avi Buffalo	Coaxed
Avi Buffalo	Raccoon
Avi Buffalo	Wheres your Dirty Mind
Avi Buffalo	What’s It In For
Butcher Boy	Carve A Pattern
Butcher the Bar	The Boy You Miss the Most
David Kilgour	Frozen Orange
Do Make Say Think	Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!
Get Help	Carne Asada
Go West Young Man	Chinatown
Go West Young Man	The Penny Alarm
Go West Young Man	Hard Times
Go West Young Man	The Covinas
José González	Down The Line
Kaiser Cartel	Favorite Song
Khonnor	A Little Secret
La Strada	Loved You All Along
La Strada	Orphan
L’altra	Better Than Bleeding
Murder by Death	Steal Away [Instrumental]
Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule	Beneath a Crozet Trestle Bridge
Phoenix	Everything Is Everything
Rufus Cappadocia	Melodie
The Adverts	One Chord Wonders
The Bats	Things
The Beautiful Confusion	December Morning
The Books	There Is No There
The Changes	Sisters
The Lark	Come Lately
The Owls	Isaac Bashevis Singer
The Winter Sounds	Windy City Nights
Times New Viking	No Time, No Hope
Times New Viking	Move To California
Times New Viking	Times New Viking vs. Yo La Tengo
Times New Viking	Those Days

(Sidenote: I actually have gone through these those hip-hop records this week in an effort to recreate the sound of Chinatown in Queen in 1989/1990. My compilations aren’t quite done yet, so if you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.)