Throwback Thursday: 1976

 

1. Let Em In

2. The Note You Never Wrote
3. She's My Baby
4. Beware My Love
5. Wino Junko
6. Silly Love Songs

7. Cook of the House
8. Time to Hide
9. Must Do Something About It
10. San Ferry Anne
11. Warm and Beautiful

I know virtually nothing of Paul's career post-Beatles. I should investigate more. This album had three separate runs at #1 in 1976.

Can someone recommend to me what to check out of Paul post-Beatles?

Top Ten Tuesday (UK Edition): Carly Rae Jepsen "I Really Like You"

Not going to do the highest charting song that I haven't played from the UK chart because I have a feeling we'll be seeing it on the US chart next week (possibly at #1)!

And I don't think that this is going to make the US Top Ten. And I LOVE the video. So here it is.

On another note, I'm pretty sure that "Call Me Maybe" was why I started doing this feature, so that's cool.

Enjoy!

New Countdown: Starting the Shorter Holiday Week Off Right!

Temple of the Dog

Well, I got more than halfway through the recording of the show on Saturday night! But...then it was Memorial Day weekend and, you know, things came up.

I think you're really going to like this episode, though! So, enjoy!



Countdown #247

***Featuring***
Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness
AWOLNATION
Death Cab for Cutie
Foo Fighters
Mumford & Sons
Muse
Robert DeLong
Saint Motel
Temple of the Dog
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

Throwback Thursday: 1977

1. Secondhand News
2. Dreams
3. Never Going Back Again
4. Don't Stop
5. Go Your Own Way
6. Songbird
7. The Chain
8. You Make Loving Fun

9. I Don't Want to Know
10. Oh Daddy
11. Gold Dust Woman

Well if 1978 was about Saturday Night Fever, 1977 was about Rumors. It won Album of the Year and was #1 for 31 non-consecutive weeks. It's a killer album. It was #4 in my One Year, 100 Albums Countdown. You're probably familiar with at least a couple of the songs. And if you're not, well, I'll just recommend that you GET familiar with the whole thing!

Top Ten Tuesday (UK Edition): LunchMoney Lewis "Bills"

Well this is a fun song! I can see myself listening to this one a lot! Enjoy!

New Countdown: Vast Improvements!

Muse

Well, we're going to put this one in the "Win" column because, after last week, *only* 24 hours late is an achievement, to be sure!

We've got some great songs and some great Contrast Podcast news and it's just a really great time for everyone, I think!

It's hard to believe it's almost time to start keeping track of the Summer Jams! I've really got to get that second Birthday podcast published (Read: created and published)!

Enjoy!




Countdown #246

***Featuring***
AWOLNATION
Death Cab For Cutie
Foo Fighters
Milky Chance
Mumford & Sons
Muse
Robert DeLong
Saint Motel
They Might Be Giants
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

Throwback Thursday: 1978

1. Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive

2. Bee Gees - How Deep is Your Love

3. Bee Gees - Night Fever

4. Bee Gees - More Than a Woman

5. Yvonne Elliman - If I Can't Have You
6. Walter Murphy - A Fifth of Beethoven
7. Tavares - More Than a Woman
8. David Shire - Manhattan Skyline
9. Ralph MacDonald - Calypso Breakdown
10. David Shire - Night on Disco Mountain
11. Kool & the Gang - Open Sesame
12. Bee Gees - Jive Talkin'
13. Bee Gees - You Should Be Dancing
14. KC and the Sunshine Band - Boogie Shoes
15. David Shire - Salsation
16. MFSB - K-Jee
17. The Trammps - Disco Inferno

Basically, this album was #1 for the first half of 1978 (1/21/78-7/7/78) so it's no surprise that this is the featured album this week. I know some people have huge negative feelings about disco or whatever, but just listen to the first four songs. It's amazing. If the soundtrack had just been a 5 track EP of just the first side of the album, it would have been a best-seller.

New Countdown: The Episode That Almost Killed Me, or, The Episode That Nearly Wasn't!

Muse

Well this was a tough one! I'm not sure really what happened, but I kept being SO tired at night and then I just kept recording one or two intros and calling it a night. So that's why the dual title. I'm not sure if it almost killed me or if I almost just didn't finish it.

But it's a good one with great tunes and LOTS of Bonus Songs.

And also, even though it feels silly now, Happy Mother's Day!





Countdown #245

***Featuring**
AWOLNATION
B.B. King & Eric Clapton
Beastie Boys
Dar Williams
Death Cab For Cutie
Florence + the Machine
Foo Fighters
Milky Chance
Modest Mouse
Mumford & Sons
Muse
Robert Delong
Taylor Swift
Walk the Moon

Top Ten Tuesday: T-Wayne "Nasty Freestyle"

I'm not really sure about the context of this video. Like, I'm not sure if it's blowing up on radio or what. It has lots and lots of hits on YouTube, which I would imagine is a huge factor, but I don't know if it was recently featured somewhere or what. If anyone who reads this knows, make sure to comment. It's short and sweet and it has a good beat.

Off the Charts #8: Birthday 2014 (Part 1)

She Keeps Bees

Well, I haven't finished this week's countdown, yet. But I do have something for you to listen to. It's perhaps even more alternative (in some cases) than the songs on the countdown because it's all from the blogs I read.

And this year I've decided to split the festivities into two episodes rather than making you set there politely nodding your head for three hours.

So these are the blogs that posted on my birthday last year that I picked songs from for this episode:

xkcd (specifically THIS POST)
The (new) Vinyl Villain (specifically THIS POST)
Across the Kitchen Table (specifically THIS POST)
Side One Track One (specifically THIS POST)
Song, By Toad (specifically THIS POST)
Pigeons and Planes (specifically THIS POST)
We Listen For You (specifically THIS POST)
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (specifically THIS POST)
Unrecorded (specifically THIS POST)
Last Year's Girl (specifically THIS POST)
Crestfallen (specifically THIS POST)




Off the Charts #8: Birthday 2014 (Part 1)

***Featuring***
astronomyy
Flight of the Conchords
Icona Pop featuring Charlie XCX
Male Gaze
Meursault
My Bloody Valentine
Nirvana
Pyramids
She Keeps Bees featuring Sharon Van Etten
Smashing Pumpkins
Turan

Throwback Thursday: 1979

The Doobie Brothers - Minute By Minute

1. Here to Love You
2. What a Fool Believes

3. Minute By Minute
4. Dependin' On You
5. Don't Stop to Watch the Wheels
6. Open Your Eyes
7. Sweet Feelin'
8. Steamer Lane Breakdown
9. You Never Change
10. How Do Fools Survive?

Boy, we sure have been firin' on all cylinders the past couple of weeks, haven't we? First Bob Seger and now the Doobie Brothers. It's hard to keep control, I'm being rocked so hard. ;-) What I notice first and foremost is the number of g's bein' dropped and apostrophes bein' put in their place. "Dependin'", "Feelin'". I guess the number is 2. But still. It feels like a lot. In tribute, I'm goin' to go through and drop all the g's from this paragraph. But you'll read it in the future, when I've already done it.

I can't wait to see what's in store for next week!

Top Ten Tuesday: Jason Derulo "Want To Want Me"

This song is very catchy and the video is pretty typical for the genre and what we've seen from Mr. Derulo in the past. UNTIL HE STARTS DOING BATMAN CURLS (that's the kind of curl where you hang upside down and bend in half like Bruce Wayne/Batman is doing in the 1989 Batman movie.) Why would he do those during a music video? Simply to show off his abs and ab strength? Probably.

Here's the video:

And here's a video that may have helped Mr. Derulo break into the Top Ten. I've seen this posted a number of times on Facebook recently and that really helps the song climb the charts ever since YouTube hits have started to count for the Hot 100:

New Countdown: Seems Like Old Times...

Milky Chance

Hello. I bet you thought I'd forgotten about you, didn't you? Well that is certainly not the case and we've got another great episode for you to enjoy this week. It's just a day or two...more aged? Like a wine? Yeah, let's go with that.

Oh! Quick correction: in the episode I say that Mumford & Sons were on SNL this past Saturday. That is incorrect. They were on the episode before last, which i believe was the 11th of April.

Enjoy!


Countdown #244

***Featuring***
AWOLNATION
Death Cab For Cutie
Florence + the Machine
Foo Fighters
Milky Chance
Modest Mouse
Mumford & Sons
Muse
Robert DeLong
Tracy Chapman
Walk the Moon

Dar Williams - Emerald (Album Review)

Dar Williams has a new album out and it's quite good.

I first listened to Dar Williams (always full name. First and Last.) when my Dad and I bought my stepmom The Honesty Room after she heard "When I Was a Boy" on a local Boston radio station (It may have been a public radio station. I couldn't hear it very well. There was a LOT of static). We obsessed over that album that summer and that was where I learned about how nice it is to give music as a gift. (I told this story to her when my wife and I saw her perform in February of last year. She seemed touched and she understood what I meant about giving music. She referenced the story when
she signed my CD.)

Then she released her next album, Mortal City, and, while it was perhaps a little less folky than the first album, it was still full of songs that ranged in emotion from laugh-out-loud hilarity to chilling doses of mortality and reality.

I sort of lost touch with Dar Williams over the next couple of albums, but then when I found out she would be coming through on tour, I bought tickets and got her most recent album, In the Time of Gods, for Christmas. I listened to it on repeat until I knew it almost as well as I knew her earlier work. But something was a little off. The songs were very enjoyable but the effortlessness with which she had played the earlier songs was missing.

When I saw her in concert, the ease and effortlessness was there, and I was happy to see it. She's an amazing storyteller (and has great stage banter. You should definitely see her live, if you have the chance)

I also heard that same welcome ease on this new album, Emerald. She is playing these songs like she's been playing them for years. The range of emotions is there too. There are touching stories like those in "New York is a Harbor" and "Mad River". And there are moments of pure joy like on "FM Radio" which has more references to musicians of the 60's and 70's than you can shake a stick at. (My favorite line of that song is "It's like a public pool/You decide where to jump in/To feel the sexiness, the passion and the fusion and the fission/Remember: Bruce Springsteen divorced a model and married a musician"

I'm excited to get to know this album. You should be, too. If you love Dar Williams, or if you are hearing about her for the first time, you should pick up Emerald. It's out today in the UK and tomorrow in the US.

Dar Williams has a new album and it's quite good.

Here are some songs from the album for you to peruse before you buy!

May 2015 Media Update

Last Thing I Watched: Last night, I decided that I wanted to watch a movie. I looked through the "Action & Adventure" section of Netflix and narrowed it down to four options: Total Recall, Olympus Has Fallen, The Italian Job, and Starship Troopers. I put up a status with those four and asked people what I should watch. After initially having a tie, Starship Troopers finally won. So I watched Starship Troopers. It was kind of a surreal movie to watch. More than half tongue-in-cheek. I think it MIGHT be an intentional satire of the military-industrial complex. And it might be like a satirical propaganda piece. It was definitely memorable.

Last Thing I Read:  I am about 20% of the way through The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and I'm really enjoying it. Although I will say that last week I BLASTED through The Girl Who Played With Fire and I don't think this is going to be able to compare, although it is quite enjoyable.

Last Thing I Listened To: So I remembered that today was the the 1st last night/this morning at about 2 AM. And by that point, I couldn't for the life of me remember what the last song I heard was. So I planned to just post the last song I heard when I drove back from dropping my daughter at preschool. But then I sort of maybe semi-remembered what it was that I listened to. So, here are three songs.

I was listening to the SiriusXM station 80's on 8 when I was driving home last night and I'm pretty sure THIS was what was playing as I pulled into the drive.

And then this morning, I was listening to 90's on 9. THIS song was the last song I heard in its entirety....

And THIS is what I heard most of as I pulled into the drive and pulled into the garage.

Things I'm Seeing On the Internet: The news for the past several days has been about the Freddie Gray-related protests/riots/lootings in Baltimore and that has definitely been reflected on the Internet. It's a big mess and I really hope it sorts itself out very soon.