Rock the Vote and Vote the Rock!

Well, it's that time of year again! Time to vote on the shortlist for the Contrast Podcast Festive Fifty!

Pick your top 10 favorite songs from the list below and email them to me at aodblog@gmail.com! If there's a song on there that you HATE, you can tell me that too. All votes must be in by December 9th. Happy Voting!

"But James," you're saying, "I don't know ANY of these songs!" Fear not, citizen! Our noble leader Tim has set up a Flash player with the whole list, so you can listen to, love, and vote for your favorites!
It's here: http://www.contrastpodcast.com/festivefifty

A Winged Victory For the Sullen - Requiem For the Static King Part 1
Acid House Kings - Would You Say Stop?
Adele - Rolling in the Deep
Adele - Someone Like You
Airborne Toxic Event (The) - Numb
Alex Turner - Glass in the Park
Alex Turner - Hiding Tonight
Alexis Marceaux - Leila and the Orange Moon
Anna Calvi - Desire
Antlers (The) - Putting the Dog to Sleep
Arctic Monkeys - Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair
Austin Lucas - Nevada County Line
Beirut - A Candle's Fire
Beirut - East Harlem
Beirut - The Rip Tide
Billy Bragg - Never Buy the Sun
Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears - Booty City
Black Keys (The) - Lonely Boy
Blanche Hudson Weekend - If You're Still Together
Bottle Rockets - Lucky Break
Brenton Duvall - World Tour (Weezy, Wale, Dre)
Cashier No9 - Goldstar
Civil Wars (The) - Barton Hollow
Clive Tanaka Y Su Orquesta - All Night, All Right
Cut Copy - Need You Now
Cute Lepers - Noisy Song
Dawes - A Little Bit of Everything
Dawes - Time Spent in Los Angeles
Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys
Death Cab for Cutie - You Are a Tourist
Decemberists (The) - Calamity Song
Decemberists (The) - Dear Avery
Decemberists (The) - Don't Carry It All
Decemberists (The) - January Hymn
Decemberists (The) - Rise To Me
Decemberists (The) - Rox in the Box
DeVotchKa - The Alley
Elbow - Lippy Kids
Ellie Goulding - Lights
Elysian Fields - Red Riding Hood
Farewell Flight - Out For Blood
FareWell Poetry - As True As Troilus
Feist - Bittersweet Melodies
Feist - Caught A Long Wind
Feist - The Circle Married the Line
Feist - Undiscovered First
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Fleet Foxes - Lorelai
Florence + the Machine - What the Water Gave Me
Foster the People - Helena Beat
Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks
Fountains of Wayne - Cemetery Guns
Graveyard - Uncomfortably Numb
Half Man Half Biscuit - Fun Day in the Park
Head and the Heart (The) - Heaven Go Easy On Me
Herman Dune - Tell Me Something I Don't Know
Hotel Lights - Falling Down
Hunters - Deadbeat
Imaginary Cities - Hummingbird
James Blake - Give Me My Month
James Blake - The Wilhelm Scream
James Vincent McMorrow - This Old Dark Machine
Jason Isbell - Alabama Pines
Josh T. Pearson - Sweetheart, I Ain't Your Christ
Kills (The) - DNA
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Bats in the Attic
King Post Kitsch - Don't You Touch My Fucking Honeytone
Kurt Vile - Jesus Fever
Ladytron - White Elephant
Lana Del Rey - Video Games
Lia Ices - Grown Unknown
Lindsey Buckingham - In Our Own Time
Lovely Eggs (The) - Don't Look at Me (I Don't Like It)
Lykke Li - Get Some
Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers
Lykke Li - Sadness is a Blessing
Lykke Li - Youth Knows No Pain
M83 - Midnight City
Middle Brother - Middle Brother
Mirrors - Into the Heart
Misty's Big Adventure - I See a Cloud
Mountain Goats (The) - Birth of Serpents
My Morning Jacket - Holding On to Death Metal
My Morning Jacket - Victory Dance
Nikki Lane - Gone, Gone, Gone
Okkervil River - Hanging From a Hit
Okkervil River - Rider
Okkervil River - Wake and Be Fine
Okkervil River - We Need a Myth
Okkervil River - Your Past Life As a Blast
Pains of Being Pure at Heart (The) - Belong
Pains of Being Pure at Heart (The) - Even in Dreams
Pains of Being Pure at Heart (The) - Heart in Your Heartbreak
Pete Wylie & Wah! - The Day That Margaret Thatcher Dies (A Party Song)
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
PJ Harvey - The Last Living Rose
PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder
Professor Elemental - Fighting Trousers
R.E.M. - Discoverer
Radiohead - Bloom
Radiohead - Codex
Radiohead - Lotus Flower
Radiohead - Staircase
Raveonettes (The) - Ignite
Red Fang - Wires
Ron Sexsmith - Get in Line
Silos (The) - Teenage Prayer
Sleepies - Sludge River Mouth
Smith Westerns - All Die Young
Sonya Cotton - Man in a Tree with a Gun
Strokes (The) - Under Cover of Darkness
Tom Waits - Bad As Me
Tom Williams & the Boat - See my evil
Tombs - Vermillion
TV on the Radio - Will Do
Twilight Hotel - Mahogany Veneer
Vaccines (The) - Post Break Up Sex
Vetiver - Hard to Break
Washed Out - Amor Fati
Wilco - Art of Almost
Wilco - Dawned on Me
Wilco - I Might
Wilco - One Sunday Morning
Wilco - Whole Love
Wild Flag - Glass Tambourine
Wooden Shjips - Lazy Bones
Wye Oak - Civilian
Yuck - Holing Out

New Countdown with a little help (a log of help!) from my parents!

Well, Thanksgiving was this week in America, so my Dad and stepmom came down to visit. Those of you that were listening back in February will remember that I asked them to help me out before.

This time I REALLY put them to work!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving if you celebrated, and great week if you didn't!

Countdown #81

***Featuring***
AWOLNATION
The Black Keys
Bush
Coldplay
Doomtree
Foo Fighters
Foster the People
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Switchfoot
Young the Giant

No Kings.

So, I want to write about No Kings the latest crew album by Doomtree, a rap collective that I've certainly written about before and probably talked to you about.

I can't stop listening to this album. Seriously. I got my preorder on Friday (the album came out the following Tuesday. Preorders should always work like that.) and, aside from two podcast episodes, it was all I listened to until my parents came for Thanksgiving and we did this week's podcast.

I've tried to figure out why it is that I can't press stop and listen to another album or something when the album ends. It's a number of things:

1. The album closer "Fresh New Trash" doesn't end on a downbeat. It cuts off before that conclusive downbeat would hit and I think that gives me this aching feeling of incompleteness that I just can't STAND!

2. Over the course of the album's 12 songs, Doomtree covers the full range of human emotion. I'm not sure how this is possible, but they do it. I just don't find myself yearning for a missing mood. This album has it all.

3. It's different. The songs are all very different from each other and from anything else that's out there right now. It's like rap music for hardcore punk kids. Raw, tough, but vulnerable and thoughtful.

In addition to struggling to figure out my addiction, I've done a lot of thinking about the structure of this album and these songs. It seems to me that it's all about the contrast between Dessa and Mike Mictlan.

Dessa, who I've definitely talked about before, has this amazing sultry singing voice, and a hypnotic, vocubularily rich rap voice. She's thoughtful and confident and wise.

Mictlan, has a deep, tough voice. He raps fast. He doesn't sing, but his flow has a sing songy quality (sorta like how ODB would rap) and he gets the party going.

There are at least 4 moments on No Kings where Dessa's verse comes right before (and is occasionally overtaken by) Mictlan's. This is the secret album-wide hook. Doomtree is already so diverse, but when you put these two together like that, it's like taking a highlighter and making the diversity Day-Glo.

I want to go on and on about this album. I think I may do a Top 10 albums of the year list, if only so I can talk some more about No Kings!

I just realized that both of the songs I would feel comfortable posting DON'T feature that Dessa/Mictlan pairing.

So I'm going to attempt to link you to the video for "Bolt Cutter", which does.

I would say watch the video, then go to Doomtree's website and listen to "Beacon" and "The Grand Experiment" in the player on the right. Then go to Doomtree's Store (or click the link on the top of the homepage) and by this album. And buy a copy for your friend.

Here's the video:

New Countdown, just in case you're worried I've forgotten how to ramble

I did so well up until the last intro and then I literally stopped talking to try to do some calendar math. Oh silly James. But that's just me being me, you know? Sometimes I ramble and that's ok :)

I'm really enjoying the context of this podcast being on the radio.

You guys, lots of awesome stuff is coming up and I talk a little bit about it in the aforementioned last intro. If you've been with me since last year, you won't be surprised, but it's still super exciting!

Countdown 80!

***Featuring***
AWOLNATION
The Black Keys
Bush
Coldplay
Foo Fighters
Foster the People
The Nearly Deads
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Switchfoot
Young the Giant

New Countdown! Breath of Fresh Air!

So did you hear me on the radio?? Its so fun to listen to yourself in a format where someone else is causing you to be heard. I hope that that makes sense. If I was a movie star or something, I feel like I'd feel the same way as I do now.

So, once again and then I promise I'll stop plugging: If you go to shoutcast.com or get the shoutcast app, then search "Destado", you'll find Destado Radio, where the Countdown plays every week at about 830 on Sunday Mornings!

This week marks what I believe is the official end to the craziness that was the month of October. I went and saw Dessa, Lila had her Flu shot and now we are taking it easy this weekend. It feels so luxurious to be able to take it easy, you know?

Countdown #79

***Featuring***
AWOLNATION
Blink-182
Bush
Coldplay
Foo Fighters
Foster the People
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Rise Against
Young the Giant

Tune In to New Countdowns!

Hi there! If this is your first time at Appetite For Distraction. Then welcome! Tell your friends!

If you've been here before, welcome back! Tell your friends! ;)

So, this morning, I was on the radio. Internet radio. If you go to shoutcast.com or download the Shoutcast app and then search "Destado", you will find the Destado Radio Network that will be broadcasting the Countdown every Sunday morning at around 8:30 am!

It's such an honor to be on there and I think back to when I started the Countdown and how Casey Kasem was sort of the model that I was trying to emulate. And now my show will be heard on Sunday mornings. Just like Casey Kasem!

I hope you'll tune in. And then I think I'm going to set it up so that at 10:30 or so, the blog post with the Countdown that has just played will go up and you can download it to listen to over and over again!

Here's this week's!

Countdown #78

***Featuring***
AWOLNATION
Blink-182
Bush
Coldplay
Foo Fighters
Foster the People
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Rise Against
Young the Giant