Special Countdown: 12 Years of Last.fm (Part 2) (#40-#31)

Lagwagon

In lieu of the last episode for May, here's another part of the countdown of my most listened-to artists according to Last.fm for the period of 2/14/06-2/14/18. 12 Years and I'm counting them down.


12 Years of Last.fm (Part 2)

***Featuring***
The Ataris
Ben Folds Five
Death Cab For Cutie
Foo Fighters
Jimmy Eat World
Lagwagon
Paramore
Rocky Votolato
Taking Back Sunday
Weezer
Yellowcard

New Countdown: I'll Take Things Rising Again for 1000, Alex

Fitz & the Tantrums

I feel like the countdown these days is super eclectic and I love it so much. We have a great batch of songs as usual this week and I had a fun time, also as usual, making this podcast! I hope you enjoy it!

Countdown #194

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Ben Folds Five
The Black Keys
Cage the Elephant
Fitz & the Tantrums
KONGOS
Lorde
Phantogram
Radiohead
Young the Giant

One Year, 100 Albums: #26 Ben Folds Five "Whatever and Ever Amen"

Ben Folds Five Whatever and Ever Amen, 1997

Ben Folds has always been the master of mixing the sarcastic with the sincere. This was the first album I ever heard by his band Ben Folds Five and it taught me that you can be cynical, romantic, nerdy, AND rock the fuck out all in the same album space. Sometimes all in the same song.

The way I came to hear this album was that two girls were talking about the band in 9th grade World History class (shoutout to Ms. Rudasill. Super important teacher in my education as well as my development as a person) and I butted into their conversation (my, how little has changed since then) and told them that I had heard a couple of singles (probably "Brick" from this one and "Army" from the next one) was very interested in learning more about them. So my friend Amber said that she had both albums (I don't think any of us realized this was actually the band's sophomore release, but it's not like we could go on Wikipedia and track down the exact chronological discography of the band, so get off our backs, damn.) and was I interested in a more electric experience or a more acoustic experience? Actually, I feel like she HAD to have said "electronic" because I selected "acoustic" over what I now realize was music I imagined sounded much like Depeche Mode (though I couldn't have told you that then) and I won't swear that she used the word "experience", but you get the idea.

So I picked "acoustic" and the next day, she brought this album in for me. I took it home, put it into the big old stereo in the living room and, since the house was otherwise empty, cranked it and jumped around to the opening track: "One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces".

Over the years, I grew into my fandom of the band and began to appreciate all the intricacies of this album. The rage of "Song For the Dumped", the humor of "Battle of Who Could Care Less", and the heartbreaking 1,2 punch combo of the closing tracks, "Missing the War" and "Evaporated".

I think my favorite thing about this album is that it has something for everyone. I would feel as comfortable listening to much of this album with my grandma as I would putting it on during a road trip with a college buddy. That's a rare thing these days. 

Ben Folds Five - Fair
Ben Folds Five - Battle of Who Could Care Less

You can buy Whatever and Ever Amen at Amazon, Amazon MP3, and iTunes

Off the Charts #5: Birthday 2012!

That's right, folks! In. The. Same. Calendar. Year!

Here's the podcast I made from the blog posts that showed up in my blog reader on my birthday. Last year it was 40 minutes for like 7 songs. This year, it's just shy of 90 for 14. There's a nice eclectic mix and you can learn about some of the blogs that I'm reading in my life!

Off the Charts #5: Birthday 2012

***Featuring***
Ben Folds Five
Bourgie Bourgie
Camper Van Beethoven
The Crimea
Frank Ocean
Goldroom feat Chela
The Hood Internet feat Annie Hart and bbu
International Airport
Kevin Hearn & Thinbuckle
Kimbra
Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr.
Orange Juice
Queen
The xx

Blogs that helped create this episode by posting on my birthday (Thank you!):

Culture Pop
Daytrotter
I Sing In the Kitchen
La. Ga. Sta.
Linear Tracking Lives!
Listen Before You Buy
Panda Head
Pigeons & Planes
Pretending Life Is Like A Song (this blog is private. I think Adam has been DMC-burned one too many times)
Sexyloser
The Springfield Historical Society
Strawberries in Paris
The Vinyl Villian

I preach, ramble, AND rant on this week's Countdown!

So, I started recording this one on Friday night. Pretty typical. Then I finished up this evening (It's Saturday night as I type this) and for some reason I got myself worked up about a particular issue. I mean, don't get me wrong. There's not a blue streak of cursing or anything, but I definitely work some stuff out over the course of a couple intros. It'll either be interesting to you or not, but I hope you'll enjoy the music that happens in between!

Countdown #89

***Featuring***
Ben Folds Five
The Black Keys
Blink-182
Bush
Cage the Elephant
Chevelle
Coldplay
Foo Fighters
Gotye (Featuring Kimbra)
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Young the Giant

Passenger + Ruut in Annapolis with Andy! (8/3/08)

Ok, so while you are all losing sleep trying to decide which votes to cast on the current round of the BOTB (see previous post's first section), I'll tell you a little story.

Last night, Andy and I went to Annapolis, where I lived when I was in 5th and 6th grades. We were going there to see a band called Passenger. Passenger are from the UK. Andy tells me that they're from Brighton and after a little confusion involving a perceived mispronunciation of the word "Britain", I understand that he means a specific place in the UK. But everyone isn't from Brighton, because the lead singer said the lead guitarist is Irish. Which I suppose doesn't mean he isn't from Brighton. And I'm rambling.


So anyways, after almost making it to the club and finding that the very street we're looking for is blocked off for some reason, and then realizing that two pre-driving years of residence don't make for a very good mental layout of a town, we found parking and made our way to the Ram's Head Tavern. This place is far bigger than it looks and it has lots and lots of routes to get from point A to point B. Only our point B seems to not be there. What we didn't realize is that the Tavern had a seperate part of it that was a stage area. So then we waited around for the doors to open. Andy was on the list. It was so cool. Except for the ticket guy immediately said "Um, there is no guest list." After talking to the aforementioned Irish/Brightish lead guitar player and Passenger's manager, we were in and sitting. I had a Diet Coke and Andy had a Yuengling. Is this too detailed? (We were at table 304.)



The first act was Ruut, a local. She played piano and was backed by cello and electric guitar. She was absolutely gorgeous and then she started singing and it didn't even matter. She has, in my opinion, a very distinct voice and the band's sound had sort of a soulful country folky sound. You know that Ben Folds Five song "Lullaby"?

Ben Folds Five - Lullaby from The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner

You do? Ok, so I kept thinking of that during their set. It was absolutely breathtaking and I bought the ep, which you can also purchase at iTunes, and she signed it for me and I was all flustered and speechless like I always am in the presence of great talent.


Here are two songs that they played that I really loved

Ruut - Nothing is Right from Ruut EP
Ruut - Sweetest Thing from Ruut EP

And then Passenger came on. Andy gives a really great description of the show (with a lot less rambling) here. When they were playing, I felt like I was a part of the beginning of something. Whenever I'm reading people's blogs and they're like "Yeah, I was at the first Smiths show" (I think that was JC, but I could be mistaken. Maybe Dirk? Same difference, really ;-)), I'm always envious and want to know what that feels like. And I really felt like that last night. Passenger are so passionate about what they do and Mike (lead singer) has a great voice. They played songs I knew of their album Wicked Man's Rest which Andy gave me for Christmas. The US version is in stores tomorrow. You can get it at amazon. And they also played other songs that were just fantastic. I think my favorite was The Stupidest Song which Mike played as an encore. Despite the name, it's freakin' brilliant.
Here were two highlights:


Passenger - Walk You Home aka Night Vision Binoculars (UK title changed for US release) from Wicked Man's Rest
Passenger - Stray Dog from Wicked Man's Rest

It was a great night.

I Posted More When I Didn't Have a Hard Drive...

...But I'm going to make an effort to correct that. I think one of the problems is that I feel like I have to get a post out in the same sitting as I start it. And if I want to include music (which I always do!), that can seem a little daunting. But I'm going to try to realize that it's not like that. It's like writing a paper for school (only more fun!): you have to write drafts. Take it slow (I never used this concept in school, either.)

OK, so, first order of business. Remember the brackets? The battle of the bands? Well, I'm going to Sally Forth on that. We have some Round 1b business to take care of. Thanks to a certain Ms. Wells, I am lacking a vote in the NOFX vs Strung Out match-up. So, the first person to vote for one of them in the comment section of this post, regardless of if you've already voted in this round, will be the deciding vote!

Now: Round 1c!!!! (exclamation points make things more exciting.....!!!!)

1. Red Hot Chili Peppers vs. Sublime

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Readymade from Stadium Arcadium
Sublime - Seed from Sublime

2. Outkast vs. Ben Folds Five

Outkast - Morris Brown from Idlewild
Ben Folds Five - Army from The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner

Now: Trent Reznor wants to give you 1.25 free albums!!

That's right. If you have ever had even a passing interest in Nine Inch Nails, here's your opportunity to pick up the new NIN LP "The Slip" and "Ghosts I", the first part of "Ghosts I-IV" which is a series of instrumentals composed in 10 weeks in late 2007. It's free! And worth checking out! Go here for The Slip and here for Ghosts I

Here's a song from each!

Nine Inch Nails - 1,000,000 from The Slip
Nine Inch Nails - 3 Ghosts I from Ghosts I

Ok. Despite what I said up there above, I'm going to go ahead and post this. I just get so excited with the links and the words and the public reading my stuff!! Plus, I only crossed like 2 things off my list of things to talk about, so maybe I'll come back in a couple days and cross some more off!

Have a great day!