Party Time! (Excellent!)

Well, here we are at the end of the year. This year, I made the resolution to do more of stuff that I love. To do more things that I'm passionate about instead of just sitting around wishing I could do things that I'm passionate about. And then the Contrast Podcast went on hiatus for a little bit and it gave me the kick in the pants I needed to start doing my Podcast in earnest!

I had a special guest on the first of what I hope will be an annual year end countdown! I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it! And I hope you'll join me next week as I countdown the top 10 artists I've listened to this year according to Last.fm!

Year-end Countdown 2010

Happy New Year, everyone!!!

From the middle of a tornado

Well, it may be that I have to do next week's Year-End countdown from somewhere over the rainbow because it really feels like the house is about to be blown away. But don't worry, I have ruby-slippers. And those ruby slippers double as a wireless internet connection, so I'll be just fine in posting next week...unless the wicked witch of the west sets the laptop on fire.....(end extended Wizard of Oz reverie. It's windy, ok?)

Here's the last actual countdown of the year. Thanks for tuning in and telling your friends and I hope 2011 is just as awesome as 2010!

Countdown #37

Some alternative music for your probably snowy day!

Well, it appears that the snow of the season has begun! Enjoy the new show!

Countdown #36

Safe and sound back home

Well the file is back on its normal server, which means that you can download it directly from the site! Hooray!

I also will, for the first time, talk about a song that's on the podcast. I start off the podcast by talking about The Savings and Loan. They are on a label run by a blogger that I really look up to named Matthew. Here's his blog and here's his label's website. If you like the first song on the podcast then you need to go to the label website and get The Savings and Loan album. Also, might I recommend the Inspector Tapehead album as well.

Here's the countdown!

Countdown #35

It may be more difficult to download, but at least it's more rambly!

Well, here is the longest podcast I've ever created. I talk kind of a lot between a lot of the songs. It's so long, in fact, that I had to upload it to another site that hosts bigger files. The problem is that that means the file doesn't end in ".mp3" and so you can't play it from here. I'm really not sure how many people play it from the page and how many people download it and play it later. I have a feeling it's mostly the latter, which is why i didn't worry about it too much! You have to click on the link and then download it from the hosting site. Don't worry. I'm not going to be doing this often. Mostly, you'll be able to get it direct from here.

Oh, and sorry about the ads. Just think of it as a gig in a seedy part of town because that's where the venue is that holds more people. Maybe that'll help.

Countdown #34

Happy People Day, Turkeys! Wait....

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you have a marvelous day!

Here's the countdown!

Countdown #33

And, as promised in this weeks show (and...last week's show, too), here's information about the Festive Fifty vote!

This is the email that Tim sent everyone:

Hello Everyone,

It’s time for the final vote to determine the top fifty songs that will be crowned as this year’s Contrast Podcast Festive Fifty:

Select your favourite 10 songs from the shortlist of 100 below and rank them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 and send the list to our friendly 'statman' James ( janderson716@gmail.com ). You may also (if you are feeling evil) give a negative vote to any single song of your choice! The deadline for doing this isn't far away – Wednesday 1st December.

Please ask your friends, family, blog readers and anyone else you know to send us their votes too – everyone can take part!!

Here for your listening pleasure is a flash player with all of the tracks on it:

http://www.contrastpodcast.com/festivefifty

and here’s the list …

Aloe Blacc - I Need A Dollar
Arcade Fire - Modern Man
Arcade Fire - Ready To Start
Arcade Fire - Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
Arcade Fire - Suburban War
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Arcade Fire - We Used to Wait
Archie Bronson Outfit - Shark's Tooth
Band of Horses - Infinite Arms
Beach House - Norway
Beach House - Zebra
Ben Folds & Nick Hornby - From Above
British Sea Power - Zeus
Broken Bells - The Ghost Inside
Broken Bells - The High Road
Broken Social Scene - All to All
Broken Social Scene - Meet Me In the Basement
Broken Social Scene - World Sick
Caribou - Odessa
Cee-Lo Green - Fuck You
Danny & The Champions of the World - Henry the Van
Dead Heart Bloom - Someday Will Not Come Again
Deerhunter - Helicopter
Dessa - Dixon's Girl
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Home
Edwyn Collins - What is My Role
Efterklang - Modern Drift
Elizabeth Cook - El Camino
Field Music - Measure
Field Music - Them That Do Nothing
Florence & the Machine - Heavy in Your Arms
Foals - Total Life Forever
Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks
Frightened Rabbit - Living in Colour
Frightened Rabbit - Nothing Like You
Frightened Rabbit - Swim Until You Can't See Land
Frightened Rabbit - The Loneliness and the Scream
Frightened Rabbit - Things
Gorillaz - Stylo
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - Paris (Oh-La-La)
Grinderman - Mickey Mouse & The Goodbye Man
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
Janelle Monae - Tightrope
John Grant - Marz
Johnny Cash - Ain't No Grave
Junip - Always
Kate Nash - Paris
Kings of Leon - Radioactive
Land of Talk - Quarry Hymns
Laura Veirs - July Flame
LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean
LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls
Local Natives - World News
Lost in the Trees - A Walk Around the Lake
M.I.A. - Born Free
Maroon 5 - Misery
Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone
MGMT - Flash Delirium
Midlake - Acts of Man
Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man
Mumford & Sons - The Cave
Neon Trees - Animal
OMD - Sister Marie Says
Phosphorescent - Mermaid Parade
Ra Ra Riot - Boy
Sade - Babyfather
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - I Learned the Hard Way
She & Him - Ridin' in My Car
Shearwater - Black Eyes
Shearwater - Landscape at Speed
Shout Out Louds - Fall Hard
Sleigh Bells - Tell 'Em
Spoon - Who Makes Your Money
Spoon - Written in Reverse
Stornoway - I Saw You Blink
Stornoway - Zorbing
Sufjan Stevens - I Walked
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Bottled in Cork
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - The Mighty Sparrow
Teenage Fanclub - Sometimes I Don't Need to Believe In Anything
The Black Keys - Howlin' For You
The Black Keys - Tighten Up
The Black Keys - Too Afraid To Love You
The Decemberists - Down By the Water
The Divine Comedy - Assume the Perpendicular
The Divine Comedy - At the Indie Disco
The Drums - Let's Go Surfing
The Mynabirds - Numbers Don't Lie
The National - Anyone's Ghost
The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio
The National - Terrible Love
The New Pornographers - Crash Years
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Say No to Love
The Vaselines - I Hate the 80's
The Walkmen - Angela Surf City
Tracey Thorne - Swimming
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
Vampire Weekend - Horchata
Warpaint - Undertow
Yeasayer - Ambling Alp

Happy voting!

Mister, I ain't a boy. No I'm a man. And I believe....in the Alternative Top 10 countdown!

I'm listening to Bruce Springsteen as I write this (hence the title of the post). I think he's going places.

Here's the newest countdown!

Countdown #32

As I mention in the episode, watch this space for information on voting in this year's Festive 50. We have a list of 100 songs that should be published very soon. You'll pick 10. Then we'll have a show about it at the end of the year! It's so much fun. This will be the 4th Annual Contrast Podcast Festive 50. So exciting!

Hey hey! 100 posts!

It's my 100th post! I can't believe it! This kind of stuff just sneaks up on you, doesn't it? Well, here's the 31st countdown! Enjoy!

Countdown #31

Goodnight :)

Something for to keep you warm in the all of a sudden winter!

Well here it is! The exciting and anticipated 30th countdown! Enjoy!


Countdown #30

"We're From San Francisco. So we love showtunes"

It shames me to say that I have been to VERY few punk shows that took place indoors. Of course I've been to my share of Warped Tours, but a club show is different. And can I just say, Hallelujah for whatever law made it illegal to smoke in there. Smoking's stupid enough, but when you're in an enclosed space like that, it's just torture. Moving on.

So Elizabeth and I got to the Black Cat after finding a parking spot (FREE) (aka "Not spending $20 on parking!) a couple of blocks away. Got the obligatory double hand stamp (1. You have a ticket 2. You're over 21.) and walked up the stairs into the middle of the very loud and awesome Cobra Skulls set. They have a sound that is highly influenced by the likes of Rancid, the Suicide Machines, and Anti-Flag. And I just loved them. They denied the request for "Stairway to Heaven" saying "No, the fake band with real musicians is coming up later. We're the real band with crappy-ass musicians". It was a lot of fun.

Then Teenage Bottlerocket came on. These guys. They had such a tight set. They could be singing a song that wouldn't have been out of place on one of the early Ramones albums and then all of a sudden they'd be playing at breakneck speed and you could tell this was not their first rodeo. I love watching a band recognize that the audience is singing along. It's such a moment of harmony. They played the song that I had listened to when I was seeing what the opening acts were like, so that was cool. It's a great song. Kind of Vandals-esque.

(I know that it's lame reporting to compare bands to other bands, but I feel like this is a genre that wears its influences on its sleeve. If your band is influenced by the Vandals or the Ramones or the Misfits or the Descendents, it shows. Moving on again.)

And then they were on stage. Wearing matching blue Hawaiian print shirts. Dave (the drummer) had ripped the sleeves off his and Spike (the singer) was sporting a very preppy yacht jacket and big sunglasses (which matched the jacket and were not big like Fat Mike's (the bass player) were big. Also, I'm pretty sure those were Women's sunglasses. Not judging, just sayin') and a haircut that Fat Mike described as "If Hitler was a lesbian" which was horrible to say (but I could see what he meant).

They started off with "Danny's Song" which is the song I played on the podcast last week. And they just rocked our faces off with every song. They played an (apparently) inordinate amount of songs from the Are a Drag album, which is all showtunes. Let's see if I can name all the songs from that that they played. In fact, here's what we'll do. I'll go through the albums and list the songs they played. But I'm not going to have the order right. Cool? Cool.

From Have a Ball:
Danny's Song
Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard
Nobody Does it Better
Seasons in the Sun
Mandy

From Are a Drag:
Over the Rainbow
Science Fiction Double Feature
Summertime
Tomorrow

From Blow in the Wind:
Blowin' in the Wind
Sloop John B
Who Put the Bomp?
All My Lovin'

From Take a Break:
I Believe I Can Fly (more on this below)
End of the Road (appropriately, they closed with this. It's one of my favorite songs they do.)

From Love Their Country:
Ghost Riders in the Sky
Jolene (another fave of mine)
Desperado

From Ruin Johnny's Bar Mitzvah:
Stairway to Heaven (that's right. that fan had their wish fulfilled)

From Have Another Ball:
Country Roads
Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (again, I'm going to talk about this below)

Not on an album that I'm aware of:
The End of the World (see the very next line where I make good on all the above parenthetical promises)

So, Spike plays the ukulele in Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. He played it most memorably on the beginning of "I Believe I Can Fly" on Take a Break. But he also played it on "The End of the World" which he sang alone on stage with just him and his uke, the way the good Lord intended. He played the song beautifully in its entirety to a punk rock crowd. Balls. That's balls right there. And then he played the intro to IBICF as the band came back out. It was wonderful.

And THEN. As their "Leaving the stage before the encore", the band again left Spike on stage with his uke and he played as many verses of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" as he could remember. Before claiming "Good enough" and ROCKING.

It was a fantastic night and I'd like to thank Elizabeth for going with me and saving me the money I would have otherwise spent on my impatience (regarding parking, of course).

What was my favorite part? Oh there were so many great parts, but I really liked all the PDA that Fat Mike was showing his bandmates. Hugs, high fives, and just some straight up hand clasping after basically every song. It was great to see so much support. :)

Early, you say?

Well, as I mention at the beginning of the episode this week, I'm off to a Me First and the Gimme Gimmes concert tomorrow night. I'm super excited and can hardly wait, but it did mean that the deadline I've (sort of) set for myself was not going to work and so here I am. On a Wednesday morning (technically speaking), posting the countdown!

Countdown #29

I'll let you know how the concert was :)

Ok, well, maybe not IN the eight o'clock hour. But certainly near it

Ok, so maybe I end this podcast with something that turned out not to be true, exactly, but it's still a fun podcast :)

Countdown #28

New Countdown! With a new #1!

Here's the latest episode of the countdown!

I'm enjoying publishing it on Wednesday nights/Thursday mornings. It means practically zero wait time before i can see next week's list!

Countdown #27

Countdown #26 and a bit of accidental (though maybe not entirely inappropriate) irreverence

So, before I get my comments section flooded with hate mail (which would still be preferable to the nothing i get usually), I didn't mean to pick the very least appropriate John Lennon song to play in honor of his birthday. Although, I think maybe he might have gotten a dark chuckle out of it?

Countdown #26

25 countdowns in and still going strong!

Well, here it is: That highly anticipated 25th episode of the countdown! Lots of change. Listen and love it!

Countdown #25

Cleaning and #24!

Well, amid cleaning up for company and watching webcasts, I have put together #24. I really hope you like it. I love doing it and I'm not planning on stopping any time soon!

When I get this book back from my sister, I have a post in mind about two moments in two classic rock songs. So look forward to that! :)

Countdown #24

23/Book Club!

Hey Everyone! Here's the latest episode of the countdown for your listening enjoyment!

Countdown #23

In other news, Dessa, who I played on the countdown a couple of weeks ago, is starting a book club! The first book is Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the reading starts on Saturday (9/18). Check out the Doomtree website for more information!

22 and the Boss

Hey everyone! First of all:

Countdown #22!

Second, I've been listening to a lot of Bruce Springsteen recently. I'm really enjoying the imagery in his lyrics and the stories he has to tell. Someone enjoying Bruce is not news, of course, but I was wondering if anyone out there has a favorite song of his. Leave me some comments :)

Happy Labor Day!

As Tart said "remember how you got this weekend, eh?"

Dropkick Murphys - Which Side Are You On? from Sing Loud, Sing Proud!

Dropkick Murphys - Worker's Song from Blackout

Countdown #21

What? 10:47 and i'm publishing the podcast? Fantastic! Of course it's wednesday night.... oh well. We're always improving, aren't we? hopefully.

Here it is!

Countdown #21

Conspiracy?

Well, here it is. It's a pretty interesting one and I enjoyed making it as usual :)

Countdown 20

See you next week!

Working out the bugs.

Ok hi. So I have a totally good reason for not posting a podcast tonight. I was having trouble saving my last podcast as my new podcast and I figured out why just a liiiitle too late. I'm planning on doing it tomorrow night, which I now will put up the new episode on the day that the next week's chart comes out, but I figure that as long as I get it out before Saturday I'm still covering the period of time stated in the chart. (fir instance, thursday's chart will be for "the week of September 4th")

And I'm really excited to do this episode because something fishy is going on over at Billboard...

19!!!!!

Well, it's wayy past my bedtime (when isn't it, honestly?) But I wanted to post the countdown.

Countdown #19

And say that I was disappointed that I actually missed the presale of the Doomtree show that I'm planning on going to. Everywhere else still had tickets and my show's sold out of the pre-sale. So I'll just have to make sure I get them when they go on sale on Friday at noon. I had thought that they were going to be more expensive if i didn't get them on pre-sale, but it doesn't appear to be true. So THAT'S a relief.

Yeah...about that flashback countdown...

Hi,

So yeah. I didn't get around to doing that Flashback countdown. I had the tracks lined up and then I just didn't do it. I was quite busy, but that really shouldn't be an excuse. But it's my excuse and so it'll suffice, right? Right.

I'm going to post this week's countdown tonight, but I wanted to also talk about some shows and tours that are coming up.

First, on 10/27, I'll (unless something goes horribly wrong) be going to see Me First & the Gimme Gimmes at a proper show, which is something I haven't done. I've seen them a couple of times at Warped Tour, but not at a show with walls and a roof. It's going to be quite a lot of fun.

Also, Doomtree is going on tour. Doomtree is the record label that I have been very keen on recently. It's a seven member label and all seven members are going to be on this tour. It's the week of Thanksgiving for me, but it might not be for you, so you should go check out their website to see when they'll be near you. I'm very very excited to see this show.

And the best thing about both of these shows is that they'll both be 15 dollars. How amazing is that?

Anyways, see you tonight for the countdown!

The podcast is legal!

I think this is the earliest I've posted the countdown in a LONG time. I hope you enjoy it. There's some movement that I was quite pleased with :)

Countdown #18

Unsinkable 17

Well here it is. Having survived power outages and A/C turmoil and everything, I finally got #17 together. I hope you enjoy. It's a fun one!

Countdown #17

Sweet Sixteen

Well, here it is. Countdown #16. Got some new stuff on there and some old stuff. And I'll get around to writing my Smashing Pumpkins experience soon.

Quick managerial note: I'm going to be taking something like the first 3-5 episodes down. If, for some reason, one of those is your favorite, but you don't have a copy, get it soon!

Countdown #16

#15 (but really #16, if you think about it...)

I suppose that I will have to update the numbering system to include the Flashback countdowns. Maybe I'll do it like the comic books and, for #24, skip right to the SPECIAL 25th EPISODE! (-sode, -sode-, -sode) (That was supposed to be an echo.)

For now, here's #15! Stay tuned for my post about the Smashing Pumpkins concert I'm going to tomorrow night...wait...it's 1:59 am. It's TONIGHT! Woohoo!!!

Countdown #15

Sometimes (every post I do) someone in China comments. What do they say? (Part 1)

"When person innermost feelings can hold the thing which different conflicts mutually, this person then started becomes has the value"

Early morning posting!

Well, it's bright and early on Wednesday and here I am posting the new countdown. It's a pretty good one, in my opinion.

Couple of other things:

- I now have a twitter account. I realized that there were some people (Contrast Podcast alums, mostly) that didn't have Facebook, but DID have Twitter. And so, to better keep in touch with them, I have a Twitter account. Its @james80d (I think that's how you tell people what your Twitter username is. That's how I've always seen it done, anyways)

- My good friend Andy is treating me to tickets to the Smashing Pumpkins (Playing the National in Richmond, July 13th) for my birthday. So look forward to a post on that as it will DEFINITELY be a lifelong (or at least "since-I-was-16-long") dream come true. I'm so so stoked.

- The Smashing Pumpkins are still going strong with their mission to release 11 4-song EP's, one song at a time, for free. They released the first song of the second EP yesterday. It's at smashingpumpkins.com. I haven't heard it yet, but the other songs from this project have been pretty damn impressive.

And finally, here's the countdown!

Countdown #14

See you later guys!

Truly better late than never.

I seriously considered skipping this week. You get to a point where it's like "I haven't been able to find the gusto to record for two nights in a row" and that's discouraging. But I love doing this podcast. As a wise band once put it: Who needs sleep?

Countdown #13

Best EVER!

So, I guess Radiohead has an album coming out this year. That's super exciting news! The band say it's their best album yet!

My question is this: Why would you ever say anything else?

"Yeah, this new album's good, but it's nothing compared to OK Computer. Seriously. That album was awesome."

"We really put a lot of time, energy, and effort into this new album. It just didn't turn out as good as we hoped it would."

"God, I'm sick of this stupid record. And now we have to TOUR it?! Sigh. I'll be in my trailer working on my solo record."

Un Poco Late

So, I was doing GREAT on time when I was recording last night. And then all of a sudden, it was 1 in the morning. Haha. No idea how that happened. I think it's a pretty entertaining episode, though. Enjoy!

Countdown #12

New countdown!

Hey everyone! It's time for another exciting countdown!

Countdown #11

Hope you enjoy it!

Number 10!

Here's the newest Appetite For Distraction Alternative Top 10 Countdown!

Countdown #10

Flashback Countdown for Memorial Day

Well, I'm here in Boston and it's time for the first, non-annual, whenever i need to go away for a while Flashback Countdown!!

Enjoy and have a great weekend! I'll see you next week. I can tell you that this week's chart was full of shake-ups so next week should be VERY interesting :)

Flashback Countdown #1

Number 9, Number 9, Number 9....

Hey Folks! It's time for the highly-anticipated ninth episode of the Appetite for Distraction Alternative Top 10 countdown!!

And here it is!!!

Countdown #9

Look for the Flashback countdown on Friday or Saturday and I'll see you on or around the 6th!

Frightened Rabbit show!

So several months ago, I decided to go to see Frightened Rabbit when they came through DC. Tickets were cheap enough and you know, why not? Also, Tart said that if I (and anyone else who reads her blog and had the opportunity to go) didn't go, I was stupid, and I certainly don't want to be viewed as stupid :) And Matthew (from Song By Toad) was talking on a podcast that I was listening to when I heard about this show about his experiences going to shows alone and how he always had a great time. This was in line with the experience I had going to Warped Tour alone in 2003, so I decided that, on April 27th, I would be seeing Frightened Rabbit.

So I worked all day and then came home for a quick meal with K, and then drove off to DC with my overnight bag (my Mother-in-Law lives in Alexandria [15 minutes or so from the venue] and I was killing two birds with one stone because she also lives near our dentist [who is way farther away from where we live, but he's a really good dentist and it's only twice a year] so I scheduled my checkup for the morning after the concert!). I admittedly left later than I intended, but the GPS said I'd get there with like 5 minutes to spare before 8 (which is when my tickets said the doors opened [which I somehow interpreted as the start of the show]). And I did, but then I couldn't find parking. So I drove around looking for somewhere to parallel park (which I suck suck suck at) and I was passing the venue again when I saw a sign that said "Park Here." Since I always do what signs tell me to do, I pulled immediately off the road and on to this side street, rolling down my window to ask the attendant how much it was to park. It was TWENTY FREAKING DOLLARS. Fully half of the money I had taken out of the ATM for the show. But, it was literally across thee street from the place, so I shelled it out and ran in at roughly 8:05, hoping that I hadn't missed the first song (wanted a complete set list for the blog post, you know.).

I got my hand stamped at two different locations and made my way upstairs. This was at a venue I'd never been to before (the Black Cat), so I really just followed the people ahead of me. I walked into a room that was obviously the right place and there were MAYBE 20 people there. For future reference, "Doors at 8" means the first band goes on at like 830ish. That was another thing I hadn't accounted for. Opening bands. The ticket just said "Frightened Rabbit" on it, so the fact that they probably wouldn't be playing alone had escaped me. So I stood around patiently listening to the 60's girl group music they were piping in over the sound system until that cut off and Bad Veins came out.

It was two guys. A drummer and a guitar/keyboards/vocalist. The drummer reached over and turned on the reel-to-reel tape player for their horn section and away they went. It has been a long time since I've been introduced to a band I've never heard of as I'm seeing them live. It's such a fantastic experience. They had so much energy, but played with such precision. I was pretty sure before they ended the first song of their set ("Found") that I would be purchasing their album. But then they sealed it by saying "Everything we're playing tonight is on our album." It made me stop worrying if the songs that I was especially enjoying ("Afraid", "Crosseyed") were on an album that wouldn't be available for purchase. Or, worse, that they would be available for purchase, but I wouldn't have enough money to get them.

Bad Veins - Go Home from Bad Veins (This is the song that their VERY pleasant and gracious Press representative, Jill, suggested I post. They didn't happen to play this song, but you can go here and listen to other songs from their album that they DID play!)

Then Maps and Atlases came on. I'm going to give you the comparison I gave a couple of friends when I was talking about the show the next day. They sounded like Claudio from Coheed and Cambria leading a Dillinger Escape Plan cover band composed of members of Carbon Leaf and Vampire Weekend (Think high-pitched male falsetto in front of a very technically talented band with roots in equal parts metal, Celtic, and Afropop.) I think in another setting it would have been a lot better received but the crowd seemed rather confused about how to respond. I would actually like the opportunity to see them again to get another opinion.

And then there was the main event. Frightened Rabbit came out and just absolutely rocked the house. There were hands in the air, beer glasses raised in the air, audience clapping to the beat. Just everything I had hoped that it would be. I diligently took down the setlist and it was relatively painless, only I can't for the life of me recognize "Footshooter". It's the weirdest thing. All the other songs are so recognizable. "The Wrestle" can be tough, but it was that line in it about "Bare those teeth to me/Maneater" which I like to think is addressing a girl, but which is almost certainly addressing a shark.

Skip the Youth
The Modern Leper
Old Old Fashioned
The Loneliness and the Scream
The Wrestle
The Twist
Swim Until You Can't See Land
Footshooter
My Backwards Walk
Nothing Like You
Head Rolls Off
Good Arms vs. Bad Arms

Encore:
Poke
Living in Colour
Keep Yourself Warm

I had a fantastic time at this show and a fairly decent time writing this novel. I hope you've enjoyed reading it and if you get a chance to see this tour when it comes through your town, you should!!!

Stoked!

I'm really excited about this one. I think it's pretty cool. As always, I'd love feedback!

Countdown #8

Lucky 7!

An exciting week for the charts, people! Woohoo! Also, I'll be posting my thoughts and experiences from the Frightened Rabbit show soon. I promise!

Countdown #7

Here it is at last!

Hey everyone, here's the latest episode of the countdown!

Countdown #6

New countdown, new feature, new song!

So, in addition to this great new podcast, you can look forward to me telling you all about my Frightened Rabbit concert on Tuesday! Easy, now. Calm down. All in due time :)

Countdown #5

The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition (Alan Wilkis Remix)

Better late than never, right folks?

Well, last night I just didn't get around to recording. But tonight I did! I'm going to pay for it in the morning...Enjoy!

Countdown #4

#3! Now with non-deafening action!

Here it is, folks. The third Appetite For Distraction Countdown. I think I've finally got the technical stuff down, so my vox and the songs won't kill your ears. Enjoy! Comment! Request dedications!

Countdown #3

Countin' 'Em Down Again!

Here's this week's countdown (better late than never, right?) Enjoy!

Also, send in some dedications! Or send me some thoughts on the songs on the countdown. Do you like one? Do you hate one? Do you like all of 'em? Hate all of 'em?

Countdown #2

Back in!

Well that was a scary hour and a half. Lesson learned. Log out when I'm done with GMail.

PS Thanks KT. :)

Locked out.

So, I guess I need to be more careful about signing out of GMail at home. I just got my account locked for up to 24 hours. Sigh. This is really jarring to me. I spend a lot of my time sending and receiving email and GChatting.

I feel very cut off from the world right now.

Are you a "good" blog or a "bad" blog?

So, I clicked on my Google reader this morning and I had a whole bunch of posts about something called Paul Haig day. This is something I hadn't heard about before, but apparently it's in its second year and it started when JC (aka the Vinyl Villain) posted a song by a musician named Paul Haig and his post got shot down by Google/Blogger. I'm pretty sure that this has happened to every mp3 blogger and it's a VERY upsetting experience.

JC blogged about the experience and Paul saw the post and did something about it! He not only authorized the posting that JC had done, he posted a bunch of other mp3's for free download!

So, I'm reading all of these great blog posts from my community about the blogging world and how we're saving the industry and I am totally behind that! But I'm worried about my own blog. I don't want to be a drain on the industry or an example that someone could use against the blogging community. I have learned about so much great music through this community and I certainly don't want to be responsible for negative publicity against it.

I'm planning on posting another countdown podcast tonight. Should I not? Should I stick to only posting bands that aren't precisely going to be on next week's countdown, if you know what I mean?

I know I'm not the best blog on the internet, but I want to at least be a "good" blog and not a "bad" blog, you know?

Feet on ground? Check. Reaching for stars? Check.

Ok, I've decided that I want to try to publish this every week. Please feel free to comment or email me with questions, comments, or DEDICATIONS! (Listen to the episode for more information about that last one :) )

The mic volume is a little quieter than the music volume, but I'll work on that for next week. It's a work in progress, folks! I hope you enjoy it!

Countdown #1

So, there's this band, Friday Mile...

There are some albums that are just absolutely fantastic from beginning to end. No songs that I would even DREAM of skipping over. I recently came across an album from a band that I'd never heard anything from: Friday Mile. The description that I read about them compared them to "The Magic Numbers, Rilo Kiley, and even Fleetwood Mac" and I was interested.

The first track "Handle It" is the ideal opening track. It has a nice, plucky piano bit and it gradually adds drums and guitar. And then the male voice (Jace Krause) comes in and it's nice enough, but then the female voice (Hannah Williams) chimes in and I'm hooked for the whole record. Each song is as good as the first track, but they all have different shades and flavors. Check this out.

You can go to the band's website and download the fantastic song "Autograph" so here's the song I've just been gushing about:

Friday Mile - "Handle It" from Good Luck Studio

You can listen to this and three other songs on their site! Be sure to check out "Lives of Strangers"!

Also, isn't the album art awesome? I just love it!

OH OH! And the album dropped nationally YESTERDAY! I have fantastic TIMING! And great CAPITALIZATION skills!

Tuesday night?

So, I have something to complain about. And it's COMPLETELY irrational.

Why do all the bands I want to see have to play during the week?

Frightened Rabbit is about to start touring to support their new album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks. And they'll be coming through DC and playing the Black Cat on April 27th. But it's going to be on a Tuesday. Now, I know that this is going to come off as very old-mannish, but that's kind of late to be out on a weeknight!

This isn't even an actual complaint because, if the price is right, I'll probably go anyway. But it still feels like "Ugh, and then I'll have to get up in the morning!"

UPDATE (2/2/10): Found out today that tickets are $15 and they go on sale on Friday, February 5th.

Anyone else planning on going?

Here's something from their last album. It's so good. You should go over to their myspace page and listen to "Swim Until You Can't See the Land" and "Nothing Like You" to see what the new stuff sounds like. And then listen to the rest!

Frightened Rabbit - Good Arms vs. Bad Arms from The Midnight Organ Fight

My favorite new VW song...

So the new Vampire Weekend CD showed up in my mailbox from Amazon. I put it on and at first I was a little put off by it. It felt like they had taken what they did on their debut and did it more thickly. But then today in the car, it all clicked into place. It's more complex, sure. And yeah, it takes a bunch some of the same musical influences as the debut, but it feels like they've hit the accelerator. Like in the debut, they were testing out a new car and easing it down the road, but wit this one they're on the highway. And this was the song that really did it for me. I also have really been enjoying California English, but this one is just kickass!

Vampire Weekend - White Sky from Contra

Love it.