2020 Artists of the Year Countdown!

 

Mountain Goats ca 2005

Well here it finally is! The Artists of the Year Countdown for 2020! It's a very good one and I love making these things, it's just that I found myself doing a lot of podcasting with other people this year and kept putting the recording of this show off. You understand. But here it is! I hope you enjoy it!

2020 Artists of the Year Countdown

***Featuring***

Alanis Morrissette
Bad Religion
Barenaked Ladies
The Beatles
Bob Dylan
Elton John
Fall Out Boy
The Mountain Goats
New Found Glory
Outkast
Talking Heads
Taylor Swift
The Wonder Years

New Countdown: Two Decades of JLP

Walk the Moon

This week's episode felt a lot shorter than usual. I think it's because of last week's HUGE episode. The songs are here and they're so great. I think you're really going to enjoy this one


Countdown #251

***Featuring***
Alanis Morissette
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
Death Cab For Cutie
Mumford & Sons
Muse
Of Monsters and Men
Saint Motel
twenty one pilots
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon
X Ambassadors

New Countdown: It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Podcastin'

Phoenix

So it's hella late and I need to be up to make eggs and bacon with my 3 year old for Mother's Day probably pretty early, so I'll keep this short.

Happy Mother's Day to all applicable recipients of that greeting!

Enjoy this greeting card in podcast form! (PS Non-moms are totally also allowed to enjoy it. BUT NOT AS A GREETING CARD IN PODCAST FORM)

Countdown #197

***Featuring***
Alanis Morissette
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Bear Hands
Big Country
The Black Keys
Bleachers
Cage the Elephant
Coldplay
Fitz & the Tantrums
KONGOS
Phantogram
Phoenix
R.E.M.

One Year, 100 Albums: #36 Alanis Morissette "Jagged Little Pill"

Alanis Morissette Jagged Little Pill, 1995

I think this is an album that gets a lot of hate for being stereotypically, embarrassingly 90's, but that's only from people who haven't listened to it in a long time. People that have a caricature of Alanis in their minds as this hateful, caustic, burdensome woman WHO DOESN'T EVEN USE THE WORD "IRONIC" CORRECTLY.

What they're forgetting when they're going for the quick callback joke, is that Jagged Little Pill is a powerhouse. It has such a wide range of tones and emotions that it can almost be overwhelming. I think it's true that you have to be in a very specific emotional headspace to listen to it and get all of the brilliance it's putting out there. Some sort of combination of vulnerability, sarcasm, self-deprecation, and hope.

I got into this album in almost the same way I got into Dark Side of the Moon: I had a tape that someone had recorded the album onto and I listened to it almost in secret. There were curse words on it and concepts that I didn't even understand until I was much much older ("Would she go down on you in a theater?") and all of that made it the most exciting experience.

The album has only grown more meaningful as I've gotten older, particularly the non-singles like the ones I featured below the video. If you don't understand what she's singing about in either of those songs, well, then I guess you had an atypically idyllic childhood/adolescence. Congratulations!


Now let's talk about this video. Isn't it weird that it exists on a continuum from Sinead to Miley? Also, why do people hate on the harmonica so much? I think it's PERFECT in this song and video. I just love the simplicity of this one and, though I ALMOST went with the video for "Ironic" (multiple Alanises take a road trip), I'm really glad I chose this one to put up here.

Alanis Morissette - Perfect
Alanis Morissette - Forgiven

You can buy Jagged Little Pill at Amazon, Amazon MP3, and iTunes

New Countdown 17 Years in the Making!!

Capital Cities

Yes, this episode was a long time coming, but I think it's going to end up being one of my favorites. I hope it's one of yours, too!!!

Countdown #163

***Featuring***
Alanis Morissette
Atlas Genius
Bastille
Capital Cities
Fitz & the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
The Neighbourhood
New Politics
Tracy Bonham

Somehow playing catch-up already

Well, here's the first of a couple podcasts I'm going to be doing this week! I hope you're enjoying them in the blocks that I'm posting them!

Countdown #64

***Featuring***
The Airborne Toxic Event
Alanis Morrissette
AWOLNATION
Coldplay
Death Cab For Cutie
Foo Fighters
Foster the People
Incubus
The Naked and Famous
Sublime with Rome

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

Brackets

Ok. So NCAA Basketball March Madness is pretty much over now, but I decided I wanted to try something related to tournament brackets. The classic rock station that we occasionally listen to at work is having a battle of the bands with this tournament bracket and everything. So that's what I'd like to do too.

I'm a part of this website called Last.fm that keeps track of music that I listen to on my iPod or computer. And so, using the chart that it has for the Artists I've listened to most, I have made up a bracket of my own. It's really neat, but I don't think you get to see it yet. First, I'm going to gauge the interest in this endeavour with something of a pre-tournament set of match-ups. There are some positions on the bracket that are ties (basically, I've listened to two or more artists the same number of times) and so we're going to pick who gets those positions right now.


RULES FOR SAMPLE SONGS (Pre-tournament and Round 1):

For the first two contests, I will be posting songs from the contestants' most recent LP (not including greatest hits, live, or B-sides collections) that I own. Round 2 will have a different set of rules.


Oh, and the winner of the whole thing will have an entire post devoted to them including a playlist created by yours truly that you can download and burn to a CD in memory of the time we've spent together! Awww.

OK. So here are the pre-tournament match-ups and their sample songs:

1. Fall Out Boy vs. Sufjan Stevens
Fall Out Boy - You're Crashing, But You're No Wave from Infinity on High
Sufjan Stevens - Decatur, or, Round of Applause For Your Stepmother! from Come On Feel the Illinoise

2. Outkast vs. Blink-182
Outkast - Idlewild Blue (Don't Chu Worry 'Bout Me) from Idlewild
Blink-182 - Easy Target from Blink-182

3. Coheed and Cambria vs. Catch-22 vs. Taking Back Sunday
Coheed and Cambria - Feathers from Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV: Volume 2: No World For Tomorrow
Catch-22 - So Cold from Dinosaur Sounds
Taking Back Sunday - My Blue Heaven from Louder Now

4. Jack Johnson vs. Sublime
Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static from Sleep Through the Static
Sublime - Jailhouse from Sublime

5. Alanis Morissette vs. MxPx
Alanis Morissette - Everything from So-Called Chaos
MxPx - Well Adjusted from Before Everything and After

6. Ben Folds vs. The Get Up Kids vs. Foo Fighters (Now, that's Ben Folds (solo) not Ben Folds Five)
Ben Folds - You to Thank from Songs For Silverman
The Get Up Kids - Martyr Me from Guilt Show
Foo Fighters - Let It Die from Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace

7. Descendents vs. Linkin Park vs. No Use For a Name
Descendents - I Won't Let Me from Everything Sucks
Linkin Park - Given Up from Minutes to Midnight
No Use For a Name - Bullets from Keep Them Confused


So, take a listen if you don't know the artist, leave a comment with your votes and I guess the voting will close at like 11 pm EST on Monday. Thanks in advance for participating!