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 Post!: 2019 Artists of the Year!

The Wonder Years

Here we are again for another glorious Artists of the Year countdown. I love it so much and this one is an EXCELLENT one. Great songs, but also songs that point to specific events in the year, which is just what you want in an AOTY countdown, you know?


2019 Artists of the Year Countdown

***Featuring***
Barenaked Ladies
The Beatles
blink-182
Cast of Hamilton
Fall Out Boy
Gin Blossoms
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
The Mountain Goats
New Found Glory
Pearl Jam
Taylor Swift
The Wonder Years

2018 Artists of the Year

Bob Dylan, 1965

ANOTHER ONE! That's right another podcast from this guy right here (me, not Bob). I am feeling absolutely on fire with podcasting right now and I'm hoping that it lasts!

This is the Artists of the Year Countdown for 2018 and there are some surprises in here, let me tell you. Of course if you look down at the "Featuring" section, some of it will be ruined, but I think you'll still enjoy it a lot!



2018 Artists of the Year

***Featuring***
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Barry Adamson
The Beatles
Blink-182
Bob Dylan
Dessa
Echo and the Bunnymen
Fall Out Boy
New Found Glory
NOFX
Rx Bandits
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

12 Years of Last.fm (Part 5) (#10-1)

P.O.S

Well here we are, in the last episode of the 5 part countdown of the top 50 artists that I've listened to in the past 12 years (2/14/06-2/14/18) and there are very few surprises here, so maybe the surprises are the order that they're in? Or maybe the surprises are the friends we made along the way!


12 Years of Last.fm (Part 5) (#10-1)

***Featuring***
Barenaked Ladies
The Beatles
Blink-182
Bob Dylan
Dessa
Doomtree
fun.
New Found Glory
NOFX
P.O.S
Smashing Pumpkins

2017 Artists of the Year!!!!

Barenaked Ladies

I think the Artists of the Year countdown is consistently my favorite show of the year. It's a fun way to look back at my listening habits and generate a pretty eclectic show to boot! Enjoy it! I know I will!


2017 Artists of the Year

***Featuring***
Barenaked Ladies
The Beatles
Blink 182
Bob Dylan
Busta Rhymes
Cast of Hamilton
Diet Cig
Kendrick Lamar
New Found Glory
P.O.S
Radiohead
Smashing Pumpkins

New Countdown: Last Call!

Alice Merton

Here we are at the end of the year again. The years really fly by don't they? But I'm excited about the Year End Countdown and the Artists of the Year Countdown and the Festive Fifty which is coming together super nicely.

Enjoy!



Countdown #363

***Featuring***
AJR featuring Rives Cuomo
Alice Merton
The Beatles
Beck
Foo Fighters
Imagine Dragons
The Lumineers
Portugal. The Man
Thirty Seconds to Mars
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: Actions That We All Do

The Revivalists

I can't believe how close to the end of the year we are! Before you know it, we'll be doing the Year-End Countdown, the Artists of the Year Countdown, and then we'll be back on the countdown grind! It's amazing how time flies when you're going 10 to 1.


Countdown #362

***Featuring***
Alice Merton
The Beatles
Beck
Dessa
Foo Fighters
Imagine Dragons
The Lumineers
Portugal. The Man
The Revivalists
Thirty Seconds to Mars
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: The Delicate Sound of Delayed Gratification

Alice Merton

I hope that you are ready for a BIG episode. We've got big names, big news, and big....me singers, the Foo Fighters? Because....that song "Big Me"? Yeah, I think that will be an excellent third item in that list.

Enjoy!


Countdown #361

***Featuring***
Alice Merton
The Beatles
Beck
Foo Fighters
Imagine Dragons
The Lumineers
Portugal. The Man
The Revivalists
Thirty Seconds to Mars
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: Artists. Plural!

Portugal. The Man

Hey everyone! I just realized that summer is fast approaching and I'm pretty stoked about that. The weather in Northern Virginia has suddenly been amazing so everything's really coming together, including the Alternative Songs Top Ten!!

Enjoy!


Countdown #331

***Featuring***
Bastille
The Beatles
Cage the Elephant
Cold War Kids
Conor Oberst and Gillian Welch
Dreamers
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
Portugal. The Man
Rag'n'Bone Man
The Revivalists
twenty one pilots

2015 Artists of the Year Countdown!

Fall Out Boy

It's funny. I usually think of this as the last countdown of the year, but really it's the first countdown of the NEW year! So, Happy New Year and I hope you enjoy this countdown as much as I enjoyed making it!


2015 Artists of the Year Countdown

***Featuring***
Barenaked Ladies
The Beatles
Dessa
Diet Cig
Doomtree
Fall Out Boy
NOFX
P.O.S
R.E.M.
Smashing Pumpkins
Taylor Swift

Throwback Thursday: 1964

 This is the final Beatles album on our Throwback Thursdays. It's the last in the "The Beatles had #1 Albums 5 summers in a row" series as well as finishing up the "Albums that the Beatles released in America had different tracklistings than those released in the UK." series

This time, I think the tracks that are on the US version are instrumentals that weren't found on the UK releases. The instrumentals are....interesting.

1. A Hard Day's Night

2. Tell Me Why
3. I'll Cry Instead
4. I Should Have Known Better (Instrumental)
5. I'm Happy Just to Dance With You
6. And I Love Her (Instrumental)
7. I Should Have Known Better
8. If I Fell
9. And I Love Her
10. Ringo's Theme (This Boy ) (Instrumental)
11. Can't Buy Me Love
12. A Hard Day's Night (Instrumental)

Throwback Thursday: 1965

Part II of the "The albums the Beatles released in America/North America that have different tracklistings than the more generally accepted UK releases" series. So let's have the tracklist and we'll break down where else these tracks can be found, since I bet you don't have this album.

1. Medley: Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!

2. Eight Days a Week
3. You Like Me Too Much
4. Bad Boy
5. I Don't Want to Spoil the Party
6. Words of Love
7. What You're Doing
8. Yes It Is
9. Dizzy Miss Lizzie
10. Tell Me What You See
11. Every Little Thing

Tracks 1, 2, 5-7, 11 are from Beatles For Sale
Tracks 3, 9, and 10 were from the at-the-time unreleased UK Version of Help!
Track 4 was only on this album until 1966 saw the UK release of A Collection of Beatles Oldies
Track 8 was the B-side to "Ticket to Ride"

That must have been very annoying to realize as a Beatles fan.

Fun Fact: They recorded "Bad Boy" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzie", both Larry Williams covers, on Larry Williams's birthday, May 10, 1965!

Throwback Thursday: 1966

Welcome to Part 1 of the "Beatles albums that were released in America that were different than the ones released in the UK" series and also, I suppose, Part 2 of the "Beatles were at #1 every August for 5 years" series.

So we're going to do the track list and then we'll figure out the albums that the tracks are more well known for being from.

1. Drive My Car
2. I'm Only Sleeping
3. Nowhere Man
4. Doctor Robert
5. Yesterday
6. Act Naturally
7. And Your Bird Can Sing
8. If I Needed Someone
9. We Can Work It Out
10. What Goes On
11. Day Tripper

Tracks 1, 3, 8, and 10 are from Rubber Soul
Tracks 2, 4, and 7 are from the at-the-time unreleased Revolver
Tracks 5 and 6 are from the UK version of Help!
Tracks 9 and 11 are from the double A-side "Day Tripper"/"We Can Work It Out" single

And here's the original "Butcher" cover

Throwback Thursday: 1967

I mean, there's not much more to say about this album that hasn't already been said.

Here's a link to when I wrote about this album last year

1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. With a Little Help From My Friends
3. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing a Hole
6. She's Leaving Home
7. Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
8. Within You Without You
9. When I'm Sixty-Four
10. Lovely Rita
11. Good Morning Good Morning

There weren't any videos from the album, but here's a fun fan-made video

12. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
13. A Day in the Life

New Countdown: I Want to See, Green on the Trees...

Milky Chance

Spring is in the air and so are the magnificent sounds of today's hottest Alternative Songs, according to Billboard! (That's how I think Casey would write my blog post)

So I hope you'll sit back and enjoy these 12 songs (two bonus songs?! has he gone mad??) perhaps with a window open and a gentle spring breeze wafting through your hair.



Countdown #241

***Featuring***
AWOLNATION
The Beatles
Death Cab For Cutie
Florence + the Machine
Foo Fighters
George Ezra
Milky Chance
Modest Mouse
Mumford & Sons
New Order
Robert DeLong
Walk the Moon

2014 Artists of the Year Countdown

St. Vincent

Just as the Year End Countdown (which went up last week) closes out the year, the Artists of the Year Countdown kicks off the new one.

Sometimes it feels like it's the same artists every year, but I think there's enough variety and variance to still make it a fun listen. Hopefully you agree!!


2014 Artists of the Year Countdown

***Featuring***
The Beatles
blink-182
Dessa
Doomtree
Idina Menzel
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
New Found Glory
Paramore
P.O.S
Smashing Pumpkins
St. Vincent

One Year, 100 Albums: #7 The Beatles "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band"

The Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967

So, what the hell am I supposed to say about this album that hasn't been said before? It's not a niche album that's near and dear to my heart like Dessa. It's not a genre classic that maybe isn't familiar to some people like Thursday or the Get Up Kids. It's The Beatles.

I remember checking this and Rubber Soul out of the library in Brookline one summer and realizing that the band that I had grown up hearing play songs about love and submarines also made this weird psychedelic stuff that wasn't as straightforward as who loves whom (yeah, yeah yeah) or how much loving they're giving or how many days a week they're loving that person or what kind of day's night it'd been.

It was nearly impossible to pick just one Beatles album for this project, so I went back to the first principles of this whole thing: the Desert Island. What Beatles album do I love but also haven't listened to to death? Weirdly, I feel like I listen to Revolver more than anything else and then maybe Abbey Road? After some amount of deliberation, I decided this one was eclectic and great enough that I could listen to it sitting on the beach watching hope of rescue dwindle for weeks.

Of course, I'd probably make some sort of Beatles mix CD to take with me. I mean, that's what everyone would do, right? Because surely there's no one that can say that all of the Beatles songs they could ever want to listen to exist solely on one album. I just can't imagine that being the case. I mean, for one thing there's the second side of Magical Mystery Tour which is all Sgt. Peppers outtakes (Ok, I just looked it up and only "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" were Sgt. Peppers outtakes. But my point remains the same.)

All the songs on this album are my favorite songs on this album. Favorite moments? I like the "animals that eat each other" part of "Good Morning Good Morning". I like the "Leave It" part at the end of "Lovely Rita". I love how trippy "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" is. I love how hard the "Sgt. Peppers (Reprise)" rocks.

I mean come on. This album is one of the greats. I know it's been hyped to death and there are probably people that are like "Ugh, that album is SO over-rated" or whatever. And I readily accept that there are people who don't like the Beatles or don't know who they are and have no interest in finding out. But I maintain that this album has something for everyone.

I couldn't find an acceptable video of a performance of a song from this album. So here's three songs from the album. And if you've never heard this album before and these songs are an introduction for you, please leave a comment. I'm very very interested in learning more about your world view.

The Beatles - Fixing a Hole
The Beatles - Within You Without You
The Beatles - Good Morning Good Morning

You can buy Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (I'm assuming to upgrade from vinyl or something) at Amazon and iTunes

2013 Artists of the Year Countdown! Some new some old!

Barenaked Ladies, ca 1996

Here we are again for another Artists of the Year Countdown! It's good fun, though, as happens every year, it feels like I have a list of 4 or 5 (or 6) standbys that are ALWAYS on this list. But that's ok. I like them! That's why I listen to them!

2013 Artists of the Year

***Featuring***
Barenaked Ladies
The Beatles
Dessa
Doomtree
Fall Out Boy
Frightened Rabbit
NOFX
P.O.S
Smashing Pumpkins
Vampire Weekend

All Time Hot 100 (Part 10) (aka The Final Countdown)

This is it, folks. I am VERY interested to see what this top 10 can possibly be. Will there be songs from this decade? Hmmm....let's find out.

10. The Beatles - Hey Jude (1968)

9. Debby Boone - You Light Up My Life (1977)

8. Olivia Newton-John - Physical (1981)

7. Los Del Rio - Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix) (1996)

6. The Black Keys - I Gotta Feeling (2009)

5. LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett & GoonRock - Party Rock Anthem (2011)

4. LeAnn Rimes - How Do I Live (1997)

3. Bobby Darin - Mack the Knife (1959)

2. Santana featuring Rob Thomas - Smooth (1999)

1. Chubby Checker - The Twist (1960, 1962)

Wow! I did NOT see that #1 coming! Amazing. Love it. What a twist!

All Time Hot 100 (Part 6)

Oh no! I'm a day late on this one! It's the beginning of the top half of Billboard's All Time Hot 100 in celebration of their 55th birthday. So check this out and then check out the next one in a little bit!

50. Boyz II Men - End of the Road (1992)

49. Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You (1992)

48. Alicia Keys - No One (2007)

47. Elton John - Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About The Way You Look Tonight (1997)

46. Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe (2012)

45. Andy Gibb - Shadow Dancing (1978)

44. The Beatles - I Want To Hold Your Hand (1964)

43. Tommy Edwards - It's All in the Game (1958)

42. Dawn featuring Tony Orlando - Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree (1973)

41. Nickleback - How You Remind Me (2001)