New Countdown: Peak Cold

Rag'n'Bone Man

Hey it's Father's Day! Happy Father's Day to all Fathers out there. And Father Figures. And anyone who feels like this day is a day that's special to them! It is! And you're doing a great job. Being a parent isn't always easy, and I know I'm always wishing I could be a better Dad, but I know that, as long as I keep striving to improve, I'll be ok.

So....how about a new countdown? Sounds good. Enjoy!


Countdown #336

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Bleachers
Cage the Elephant
Cold War Kids
Imagine Dragons
John Legend
Kings of Leon
Portugal. The Man
Rag'n'Bone Man
The Revivalists
The Roots
Sir Sly

New Countdown: Patting Myself Firmly On the Back!

Arctic Monkeys

I did it! Here is a countdown that, if I can post it in the next 8 minutes, will be posted ON TIME, ON THE RIGHT DAY. And that's with Daylight Savings robbing an hour from me. I know. I'm impressed, too.

Enjoy!


Countdown #237

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Bleachers
Cage the Elephant
Death Cab For Cutie
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Modest Mouse
Robert DeLong
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: Shakin' It Up

Cage the Elephant

Here we are with another countdown. Man, I love doing these things.

Enjoy!



Countdown #236

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Bleachers
Cage the Elephant
Dawes
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Modest Mouse
Robert DeLong
St. Vincent
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: Snowflakes and Guitars

Royal Blood

Look, this thing is coming out on Sunday, you know? So we're all going to celebrate that!

It's a winter "wonderland" where I am, but the sun is melting all this vicious white stuff and we're all walking around with hopes of spring! And what better way to do that than with great Alternative music.

Enjoy!



Countdown #235

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Bleachers
Cage the Elephant
Foo Fighters
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Modest Mouse
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Royal Blood
St. Vincent
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: Presidential Pardon My Lateness

Modest Mouse

My fellow Americans...and everyone in other countries, too. This one's late, but I think if I stop pointing out the ones that are late, it'll stop seeming to matter so much. Does that make sense?

We have some fantastic songs on the countdown and some great bonus songs, too, so I think you'll enjoy it a lot!



Countdown #234

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Bleachers
Cage the Elephant
Foo Fighters
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
The Presidents of the United States of America
Royal Blood
St. Vincent
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: Secret Handshake

Cage the Elephant

Another week, another countdown coming out on Monday. I like to think that, with the subscription option and the enhanced playability that we've gotten on the podcast in the past couple of weeks, maybe a couple of late podcasts aren't that big a deal. I hope you've all been enjoying them!

I recorded the majority of this while watching the Grammys so if you are trying to avoid spoilers, then maybe watch what you need to watch before listening past #9 or so.

Have a great week guys!



Countdown #233

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Bleachers
Cage the Elephant
Foo Fighters
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Modest Mouse
Royal Blood
St. Vincent
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: Not TECHNICALLY February yet....

Vance Joy

I have most of my voice this week! There is LOTS of movement on the chart this week! We have FOUR bonus songs this week! It's a good week. You're going to like this one.




Countdown #232

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data [featuring Joywave]
Blink-182
Cage the Elephant
Doomtree
Foo Fighters
Happy Fangs
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Modest Mouse
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: A Voice Before Ice Cream

Modest Mouse

Well this is an interesting one. I've begun the process of losing my voice, and it's documented on this podcast! The really funny thing is that right after I hit "OK" and began to turn the file into an mp3, I had a big bowl of ice cream and now I sound semi-normal. So, maybe I should have had a glass of water to wet my whistle instead of having absolutely nothing at all. Live and learn. And today's lesson learned is: Ice cream solves problems.

So this is one to mostly enjoy for the music. And the music is very enjoyable :)


Countdown #231

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data featuring Joywave
Cage the Elephant
Foo Fighters
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Modest Mouse
Nirvana
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown! Subscriptions available!

Vance Joy

First of all, you can now subscribe to my podcast! If you're using iTunes, go to File --> Subscribe to Podcast... and then paste this link ( http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/BScZB ) into the blank. Then you don't have to download the file and add it to iTunes. It'll download as a podcast and the new episodes will download when they're available (I'm pretty sure)

Lots of bonus songs on this one, for reasons that I go into in the episode. Enjoy!




Countdown #230 

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data featuring Joywave
Cage the Elephant
Fall Out Boy
Foo Fighters
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: Welcome Back!

Alan Wilkis (Big Data)

Alright. Let's see if I still have this "new countdown" business sorted. Welcome to 2015, everyone!

The year always starts off a little slow, so I'm able to ease back into things.

I really like the songs that are on the countdown these days. They are eclectic but they mesh very well together.

Enjoy!


Countdown #229

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data featuring Joywave
Cage the Elephant
DNA featuring Suzanne Vega (or, Suzanne Vega with DNA on the remix)
Fall Out Boy
Foo Fighters
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

2014 Year End Countdown!!!

Bastille

Well here we are at the end of another year. It's been a year of breaking bands, for the most part and this countdown reflects that. I think you'll find this is a very enjoyable countdown and I had a lot of fun making it, as well as all of the countdowns this year.

See you next week for the Artists of the Year countdown and then the week after that for the first new countdown of 2015!!!


Year End Countdown

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Big Data featuring Joywave
The Black Keys
Bleachers
Cage the Elephant
Fitz & the Tantrums
KONGOS
Milky Chance
Neon Trees
Vance Joy

New Countdown: Welcome to the Future!!!

Milky Chance

Oh boy, we are cooking with grease now! It's only 4.5 years in and I finally found out how to embed a track into my blog. So now you don't have to download it to listen to it! Plus, now you don't have to leave the blog to download it! What an amazing age we live in.

This is the last new Countdown of the year and I hope you'll join me next week (presumably Sunday, though who knows, you know?) for the Year-End Countdown, where I count down the 10 best charting Alternative Songs of the year according to me using Billboard data.




Countdown #228 (To stream, hit the play button above. To download MP3, right click + save the file)

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data featuring Joywave
Cage the Elephant
Fall Out Boy
Foo Fighters
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: And so shutters shut and so and also.

Vance Joy

So, right before I went to bed last night, I tweeted: "I'm going to wager that my podcast this week is the only one that starts with Rise Against and ends with Gertrude Stein"

And I think that pretty much covers it.

Enjoy the journey! (No songs by Journey appear on this episode)


Countdown #220

***Featuring***
alt-J
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Big Data featuring Joywave
The Black Keys
The Dirty Heads
Gertrude Stein
Hozier
Milky Chance
Rise Against
Vance Joy
Weezer

New Countdown: From Off the Wall to Right Smack Dab in the Middle of the Wall

The Black Keys

Ok, so based off the title, you might be thinking this podcast has some early solo era Michael Jackson and maybe Pink Floyd singing "Hey You." And you'd be well within your rights to think that. But it is sadly not the case. Although it occurs to me now that those two albums were out right around the same time, which is weird to me.

No, the title just is referring to the range of song on the countdown this week. Sometimes the really kooky songs are immediately followed by songs that are 100% safe. There's nothing wrong with either category and I think the show is helped by a healthy serving of both!

Enjoy!

Countdown #219

***Featuring***
alt-J
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Big Data featuring Joywave
The Black Keys
The Dirty Heads
Hozier
Jonnie Common
Milky Chance
Weezer
Vance Joy

New Countdown: Is Hozier a BNL Fan??

Coldplay

 Whoa a gif for a cover photo! It's like we're living in Harry Potter or something!

Pretty straightforward show this week. I kind of have an idea about what I'm going to do for bonus songs for a while, so that's good.

And, even though it's 1:44 in the morning as I'm typing this, I'm not feeling too tired, so that's good!

Enjoy!

Countdown #218

***Featuring***
alt-J
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Big Data featuring Joywave
Coldplay
The Dirty Heads
The Griswolds
Hozier
Milky Chance
Weezer
Vance Joy

New Countdown: Pecos Bill

Coldplay

I was listening to the 2000-2009 station on SiriusXM yesterday and "New Divide" by Linkin Park came on and it made me think about how much the chart has changed in the time that I've been doing the countdown. It's gotten a lot weirder, and maybe a little more mellow?

I know that music is in constant flux and I'm just really happy to have lassoed onto that flux so that we can enjoy the ride together!

Countdown #217

***Featuring***
alt-J
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data featuring Joywave
Coldplay
The Dirty Heads
Hozier
KONGOS
Lorde
Milky Chance
Vance Joy
Weezer

New Countdown: I Wonder When THIS Became the Template For Podcast Post Titles

The Dirty Heads

 This one went so well this week. I'm not feeling totally sick anymore, so I'd imagine that helped. Sometimes it just goes easy. I bet Casey would have agreed with me. God, wouldn't it be awesome to do this kind of things as a JOB? It baffles the mind, I tell you.

Countdown #216

***Featuring***
alt-J
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data featuring Joywave
Coldplay
The Dirty Heads
Hozier
KONGOS
Milky Chance
Thom Yorke
Vampire Weekend
Vance Joy
Weezer

New Countdown: Sleepy James and the Undying Hit Song

Vampire Weekend, ca. 2013

This one's going up a little late. We've had quite the Sunday morning, so I didn't really have time to post it this morning and I didn't have the energy to post it last night. I think I mention it in one of the intros that I was SUPER tired this week. I'm really hoping it didn't translate to the intros. The music is really good regardless and I think the episodes might be redeemed by that fact.

There's an unprecedented event this week on the chart, so you definitely want to tune in!

Countdown #215

***Featuring***
alt-J
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data featuring Joywave
The Black Keys
Coldplay
The Dirty Heads
Hozier
Milky Chance
Vampire Weekend
Vance Joy
Weezer

New Countdown: In Which I Actually Look Up Two Word Definitions At One Point, or, Non-Stop Fun on The Podcast

The Dirty Heads

The title of this blog post is both sarcastic AND factual. I *do* look up the definitions of two words in one intro, but it's also pretty much non-stop fun around here. Is there a word for when you're being sarcastic but also sincere about the exact same thing?

Kind of a lot of rambling on this one, but I like to listen back to some of these rambles that I occasionally get myself lost in. Hopefully you will too!

Countdown #210

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data featuring Joywave
The Black Keys
Bleachers
Coldplay
The Dirty Heads
Gotye
KONGOS
Milky Chance
Vance Joy
Weezer

New Countdown: Falling Into Fall

Bastille

August is always a weird month for me with regards to the podcast. I know I already talked about how it feels like the beginning of the end of the year, but with each passing week, that feeling grows. The "summer songs" begin to be etched into memory and sprinkled with nostalgia. All the fall releases are looming. Anyway, I love it.

Enjoy the show :)

Countdown #209

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Big Data featuring Joywave
The Black Keys
Bleachers
Coldplay
The Dirty Heads
Gotye
KONGOS
Milky Chance
Vance Joy