ALBUM DOWNLOAD: Todays Hits

By Sarah Cobarrubias in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 13, 2012 6:45PM

We first ran into Todays Hits at Township a couple of months ago. We were just there for the beer; there was no music scheduled for that night, but then this young, bashful guy holding an acoustic walks up to our table and asks if we want to hear a song. Of course we did. He handed us a torn sheet of paper with a bunch of songs titles scribbled all over, we picked one, and then he went into a full-on serenade, crooning and strumming his own jangly pop melody. He spent the rest of the night making his rounds in the room and occasionally leading a sing-along.

Todays Hits’ real name is James Francis Swanberg, and he’s a recent Chicago transplant from Lexington, Kentucky. That explains his bluegrass charm and cordiality; in fact, when people tried to tip him, he refused and asked them to forward the money to the bartender.

His most recent recording, aptly titled Who Ordered The Pizzas, is a 4-song collection of tracks entirely about pizza. Is it possible to swoon over a song about a pizza pie? Yes. Like most of his material, these tracks take on the form of catchy love songs, and would likely make any girl wish her boyfriend could love her as much as he loves sauce, cheese, and a crispy crust. Check it out (it's available for a price of your choosing, including free):

ALBUM DOWNLOAD: Todays Hits Who Ordered The Pizzas

If you go clicking around his Bandcamp page, you’ll notice how very lo-fi his recordings are and that he has amassed a pretty hefty collection of songs (and they’re all free to download). That’s because this guy’s been recording a song a day for about a year and a half. You can hear them as he posts each daily over at his Tumblr.

You can also see a performance by Todays Hits if you tune into Chic-A-Go-Go Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. (or Wednesday at 3:30). He’ll be sharing a guest list with Scott Lucas & the Married Men, AKA the band with the guy from Local H.