Special Countdown: 12 Years of Last.fm (Part 4) (#20-11)

Counting Crows ca 1994

I'm back with another installment of the countdown of the Top 50 artists that I listened to from 2/14/06-2/14/18. This episode is the much-anticipated Bottom 10 of the Top 20.


12 Years of Last.fm (Part 4)

***Featuring***
Ben Folds
Cartel
Counting Crows
Fall Out Boy
Green Day
Kanye West
Less Than Jake
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
R.E.M.
Radiohead
Red Hot Chili Peppers

New Countdown: Are you more of an Adam Duritz kind of person? Or More of an Adam DON'Tritz kind of person?

Vance Joy

It's funny. This episode takes a long time to get to the first song and then the first song is really long, but this one ended up shorter than last weeks, somehow. I think it's a lack of reading FULL REVIEWS for many of the songs.

Both ways of doing things ends in entertaining podcasts, in my opinion, though, so either way works for me!

Happy "Fall Back", everyone!

Countdown #221

***Featuring***
alt-J
Bastille
Big Data featuring Joywave
The Black Keys
Counting Crows
Fall Out Boy
Hozier
Lorde
Milky Chance
Vance Joy
Weezer

One Year, 100 Albums: #39 Counting Crows "August and Everything After"

Counting Crows August and Everything After, 1993

If I'm going to do this post right, then I need to start of with about 15 seconds of silence.

...............

And we're into it. I got this album in a used record store in Brookline that was in this weird like mini, indoor, outlet mall. I'm not really sure how to describe it. You'd go in through some doors like you were going into any other store, but instead there were like 7 tiny stores. Maybe someone from Brookline knows what I'm talking about. The New England Comics was right next to it.

Anyways, I was familiar with the singles (Mr. Jones, Rain Kings) from the radio, kind of. I guess I knew Mr. Jones a little more and wanted to have a copy of the song for myself.

I listened to it a lot that trip to Boston and never really stopped. It's my rainy day album. It's one of those albums that rewards repeated listens because you learn all of Adam Duritz's pauses and phrasing and all of that. Of course all of that repeated listening will not do you much good at a CC concert, where he changes all of those pauses and phrasing and even the words to most of the songs. But I think he does it because he's feeling the emotion of the song and not limiting himself to something that he wrote more than 20 years ago. Which is a good lesson for all of us, I'd imagine.

There are so many great things about the songs on this one. In "Anna Begins", I love the stuttering drums and the bass and the way the chorus comes in like a ray of sunshine and the line "every time she's sneezes I believe it's love". In "Murder of One" I like the way it builds to that drum fill, and how he says the name of the band in the song. And I love everything about "Raining in Baltimore"

We're reaching the point in this countdown where I'm feeling like the order isn't right. Surely this is more than my 39TH favorite album. I don't know. It's such a good one. Wait until it looks like rain and then go get it and put it on repeat.

Here's the video for "Mr. Jones" because we shouldn't be ashamed of the 90's

Counting Crows - Anna Begins

Counting Crows - Raining in Baltimore

You can buy August and Everything After at Amazon, Amazon MP3, iTunes

Roung 1g!

Ok Folks, quick entry today. We have one more first round match-up after this one and then it's on to the thrills and chills and spills of Round 2!!! So without any further ado:

Round 1G:

1. Radiohead vs. Counting Crows

Radiohead - Videotape from In Rainbows
Counting Crows - Anyone But You from Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings

2. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes vs. Bright Eyes

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Goodbye Earl from Love Their Country
Bright Eyes - No One Would Riot For Less from Cassadaga

Happy Voting Everyone! Even though it's taking a long time to get this done, I'm having fun with it, aren't you? :)

Title of Entry (7/13/08) [Points For Creativity]

Hi!

So, I see that maybe some of you (read: a LOT of you!!!) have been voting! Thank you to each and every one of you for your votes! Keep them coming. We're past the halfway mark of Round 1 and that's certainly the longest round. Speaking of voting, how about...

Round 1e!!!

1.Bob Dylan vs. New Found Glory

Bob Dylan - Rollin' and Tumblin' from Modern Times
New Found Glory - Crazy For You from From the Screen to Your Stereo Part II

2.Death Cab For Cutie vs. Ben Folds

Death Cab For Cutie - You Can Do Better Than Me from Narrow Stairs
Ben Folds - Landed from Songs For Silverman

Happy Voting!

also, how about a nice shot of...

CP B-sides!!

This week was Monkeys and Apes. And it was a good time. Was it me, or was this episode especially wild?!

I submitted:

Traveling Wilburys - Tweeter and the Monkey Man from Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1

and I selected that fairly quickly. I also considered "Monkey Man", but Dirk submitted a version of that song so I didn't miss out on hearing that. I also considered submitting:

Counting Crows - Monkey from Recovering the Satellites

which I've heard is about Courtney Cox (not that he's saying she looks like a monkey, but I think that that was his pet name for her....maybe because he thought she looked like a monkey?)

Quick Side Note: In the blogs that I read, spouses are referred to in adorable ways. Nat calls her hubby Mr. Nat, Dirk calls his wife Mrs. Loser. But I think I'm just going to refer to my wife by her first initial, K. I think Mrs. Appetite isn't very flattering and Mrs. Distraction sounds like a super-villain, which I'm pretty sure K is not. But then again...where did we get all those bags with dollar signs on them?

Anywho, K and I went to go see Get Smart today and I was impressed. I really felt like it pretty much captured the feeling of the original but still seemed fresh and had me laughing really hard. It had all the gags that I would hope to see including probably my favorite thing from the series: the Cone of Silence. Great stuff.

We went down to Harrisonburg yesterday for a day full of reliving our lives in college and K's year of grad school. It's getting so developed and it's really weird to come back to a place after only a couple of years and see that it hasn't been patiently waiting unchanged in a state of suspended animation. We ate at a couple of our old haunts and paid a visit to the Green Valley Book Fair, which, if you're anywhere near the Shenandoah Valley, you should see when it's open (it closed today for about a month or so.)

And that was the beginning of the birthday celebrations for yours truly. I'm turning 25 on Wednesday and I'm feeling chill about it. Not getting any anxiety about the passage of time or the inevitability of aging. Just keeping it real. :) What does that mean, come to think of it? Can you keep anything in this life in any state other than real?

Alright, I've descended into the pit of questioning figures of speech. That means it's time for bed.

Goodnight everyone. Have fantastic weeks/days/hours!