Thursday, November 30, 2017

New Countdown: The Swingin' Hits of the Alternative Songs


Radiohead


Sit back and enjoy this new countdown of all your favorite Alternative Songs, plus a couple of songs by the up-and-coming band pictured above!


Countdown #358

***Featuring***
Beck
Cage the Elephant
Imagine Dragons
Judah & the Lion
The Killers
Portugal. The Man
Radiohead
The Revivalists
Thirty Seconds to Mars
Vance Joy

Throwback Thursday: 1976

Another week with two instrumental #1 songs in one year! Pretty crazy. Enjoy!

Walter Murphy - A Fifth of Beethoven (10/9/76)


Rhythm Heritage - Theme from 'S.W.A.T.' (2/28/76)

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Top Ten Tuesday: Maroon 5 featuring SZA "What Lovers Do"

This is a weird music video but it turns out that that is due, in part, to it being directed by Joseph Kahn, who also directed a movie called Detention that we watched and talked about on my other podcast. It had some of the same weirdness.


Sunday, November 26, 2017

New Countdown: (Nice Podcast)


The Killers


This one came together so quickly! I guess that's what happens when you start talking about a new month and there's some movement on the chart! Enjoy this one and I'll have another one out to you very soon!


Countdown #357

***Featuring***
Beck
Cage the Elephant
Imagine Dragons
Judah & the Lion
The Killers
The Lumineers
Portugal. The Man
Radiohead
The Revivalists
Thirty Seconds to Mars
Vance Joy

Saturday, November 25, 2017

New Countdown: Infantilization


Cage the Elephant

Hey Everyone! We wrap up the month of October in this episode. It's a great one, even if i stumble over some of the words. We're none of us perfect, so GET OFF MY BACK. :-D



Countdown #356

***Featuring***
Bad Veins
Beck
Cage the Elephant
Imagine Dragons
Judah and the Lion
The Killers
Muse
Portugal. The Man
The Revivalists
Thirty Seconds to Mars
Vance Joy

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Throwback Thursday: 1977

It's a movie soundtrack edition for your Thanksgiving Day!

Also, the first time in this run where you get TWO instrumentals in one post! 1977 was the last time that that happened, but certainly not the first!


Meco - Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band (10/1-10/8/77)




Bill Conti - Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky) (7/2/77)

Sunday, November 19, 2017

New Countdown: Don't Get Fooled!


Imagine Dragons

It's easy to start thinking that you know things based on what I play and when I play it, but don't be so easily fooled! Maybe me saying that will make it so you aren't fooled, but maybe not! Enjoy the show in either case!


Countdown #355

***Featuring***
Bad Veins
Beck
Cage the Elephant
Dessa
Green Day
Imagine Dragons
Judah & the Lion
The Killers
Portugal. The Man
The Revivalists
Vance Joy
Thirty Seconds to Mars

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Throwback Thursday: 1979

This song rose (heh) to popularity when it was used as the background music when a woman was raped on General Hospital. And then it was played in future weeks on the show to evoke the memory of that rape. Ah, the 70's.

It was also sampled in future #1 "Hypnotize" by the Notorious B.I.G. (1997)

New Countdown: All Those W's


Vance Joy

We have another EXCELLENT show this week. Some old and even some new! I hope you enjoy it!


Countdown #354

***Featuring***
Bad Veins
Cage the Elephant
Imagine Dragons
Judah & the Lion
The Killers
The Lumineers
Marcy Playground
Portugal. The Man
The Revivalists
Thirty Seconds to Mars
Vance Joy

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Top Ten Tuesday: Ed Sheeran "Perfect"

Well this song is just lovely! And I know that girl from somewhere. Let me see if I can track her down...

Ah it's Zoey Deutch, the daughter of Lea Thompson and star of Before I Fall, the movie based on the book. Both of which we covered on my other podcast. Here's the episode about the book. Here's the episode about the movie

And here's the video!


Thursday, November 9, 2017

New Countdown: Less Guitars, More Guitar Feelings


Imagine Dragons

It's another great episode of the Countdown. We move into a new month (though not the month you might expect!) and talk about the lack of guitar riffage on the chart these days.

Enjoy!


Countdown #353

***Featuring***
Bad Veins
Cage the Elephant
Imagine Dragons
Judah and the Lion
The Killers
Portugal. The Man
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Revivalists
Thirty Seconds to Mars
Vance Joy
Weezer




Throwback Thursday: 1982

Here's the second of the two instrumental songs that hit #1 in the 80's. An absolute classic for times when you need to dramatically run very slowly!

Vangelis - Chariots of Fire (5/8/82)


Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Top Ten Tuesday: Lil Pump "Gucci Gang"

Pretty simple song, pretty short. Not my favorite, but not the worst thing I've ever heard, either. It's catchier than I thought it would be when it started.


Monday, November 6, 2017

2017 Festive Fifty Shortlist Vote!

As is the yearly tradition, here are the contents of an email the went out this morning. Please feel free to participate and get your friends, loved ones, and bitter enemies to participate as well :)

OK! We officially have a Longlist for the 2017 Festive Fifty. It seems like a pretty diverse list. Some old favorites, some new favorites.
So here's what you need to do next. Send me a list (to contrastians@gmail.com) of your 10 favorite songs from this list. In order from "Most Favorite (1)" to "10th Most Favorite (10)" by the end of Sunday, 11/19.
If you would like, you may cast a Negative Vote for one song that you really don't want to see on the Final Festive Fifty.
Here's the list. The links to the Spotify playlist and 75% of the songs that aren't on Spotify is below that. Happy Voting!

Airiel - Keep You
Alt-J - 3WW
Alt-J - Pleader
Amy Lee - Love Exists
Angelica Garcia - Orange Flower
Archaique Smile - Faraway Salvation
Audiolepsia - Rachel
Besnard Lakes - Laura Lee
Big Thief - Shark Smile
Bleachers - Don't Take the Money
Blink 182 - Parking Lot
Cat Palace - Cat Palace
Cat Pierce - Hard to Be A Woman
Church - Undersea
Depeche Mode - Where's the Revolution?
Dessa - Good Grief
Diet cig - Sixteen
Diet Cig - Tummy Ache
Drive-By Truckers - What It Means
Dutch Uncles - Big Balloon
ENTRANCE - Not Gonna Say Your Name
Everything Everything - Desire
Feist - Baby Be Simple
Fleet Foxes - Third of May
Flo Morrissey and Matthew E. White - Look at What the Light Did Now
Flyte - Faithless
Flyte - Victoria Falls
Generationals - Turning the Screw
Girl Ray - Stupid Things
Gnod - Paper Error
Grandaddy - Way We Won't
Greta Van Fleet - Highway Tune
Grizzly Bear - Neighbors
Haim - Little of Your Love
HAIM - Want You Back
Halsey - 100 Letters
Halsey - Alone
Hamish Hawk - Goldenacre
Horrors - Something to Remember Me By
Humdrum Express - ePetition
Jarvis Cocker & Chilly Gonzales - Trick Of The Light
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - If We Were Vampires
Jens Lekman - How We Met, The Long Version
Jens Lekman - To Know Your Mission
Jeremy Messersmith - Everybody Gets a Kitten
Jessie Ware - Alone
Jessie Ware - Midnight
Josh Ritter (feat. Bob Weir) - When Will I Be Changed
Juana Molina - Sin Dones
Julia Michaels - Issues
K.Flay - Blood In the Cut
Kamasi Washington - Knowledge
Kendrick Lamar - DNA
Kesha - Bastards
Kesha - Praying
Lana Del Ray, The Weeknd - Lust for Life
Land of Talk - This Time
LCD Soundsystem - Call the Police
Lorde - Liability
Lorde - Perfect Places
Luke Haines - Building For Britain in the Seventies
Luxembourg Signal - Blue Field
Mark Lanaghan Band - Beehive
Meursault - Klopfgeist
MGMT - Little Dark Age
Morrissey - Spent the Day in Bed
Mountain Goats - Andrew Eldritch is Moving Back to Leeds
National - Dark Side of the Gym
Neil Finn - More Than One of You
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree
Pains of Being Pure At Heart - My Only
POS - Faded
Public Service Broadcasting - They Gave Me a Lamp
Queens of the Stone Age - The Way You Used To Do
Real Estate - Darling
Regrettes - Seashore
Residente - Una Leyenda China
Robert Plant - Bluebirds Over the Mountain
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - French Press
Secret Meadow - Vexation
Silver Torches - If I Reach
Sleaford Mods - BHS
Slowdive - Star Roving
Smiths - The Queen is Dead (Full Version)
SPC ECO - Pearls
St. Vincent - New York
Strobes - Winder
Superorganism - Something For Your M.I.N.D.
Sweet Baboo - Pink Rainbow
Tash Sultana - Jungle
Tashaki Miyaki - Get It Right
Temples - I Wanna Be Your Mirror
This Is The Kit - Hotter Colder
This Makes Us Human - Apology For a Revolution
Tourist - Sleepwalking
Tourist - We Stayed Up All Night
War on Drugs - Strangest Thing
War on Drugs - Thinking of a Place
Warm Digits ft. Field Music - End Times
Wolf Alice - Don't Delete the Kisses
XX - Replica
Zara Larsson - Lush Life
ZZ Ward - Cannonball

Hamish Hawk - Goldenacre

The Humdrum Express - e-Petition

Luke Haines - Building For Britain in the 70s is not available anywhere that I can find it. If you can find it definitely let me know!



Thursday, November 2, 2017

Throwback Thursday: 1985

So after 2013, we go back almost 30 years before the next instrumental #1! Throwback indeed! We're jumping back to almost exactly this week in 1985.

This is one of two TV themes that would make #1, although we have a #1 coming up in a couple of weeks that was #1 because of its inclusion on a TV show! Stay Tuned for that. But for now, it's Hammer time.

Jan Hammer - Miami Vice Theme (11/9/1985)