New Countdown: School's Back For Autumn

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Fall is here. Ring the bell. It's so crazy that it's already September. It feels like the year is flying by, but at the same time it feels like we have a whole bunch more year left to go. One of the thing I love about the charts is not knowing what songs are going to be on it in the upcoming weeks and months. By Christmas, who knows what we'll be listening to? I find that super exciting!

Countdown #213

***Featuring***
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Big Data featuring Joywave
The Black Keys
Bleachers
Coldplay
The Dirty Heads
Jack Johnson
KONGOS
Milky Chance
Vampire Weekend
Vance Joy
Weezer

One Year, 100 Albums: #96 Jack Johnson - Brushfire Fairytales

Jack Johnson Brushfire Fairytales, 2001

When we were dating, my wife gave this album to me. I hadn't really heard of Jack Johnson at that point. It can be very intimidating to buy music for me and it was a big leap she took to give me an album that she loved, but had no idea whether I would like it or not.

Well, it turns out I liked it very much.

I find that, often, context helps me appreciate an album deeper and faster. So it was very very helpful that she included notes about her favorite songs and lines on the album.

The album is very mellow. Almost as mellow as Iron and Wine's Our Endless Numbered Days, but with a little more flourish. It's not surprising that Johnson's first career was as a professional surfer. His voice is calming like the white noise of a crashing wave, but then he'll do quirky little time changes or interesting rhymes and you can imagine that he enjoys showing off a little when he's riding the waves.

It may very well be that I enjoy this album more than Johnson's other albums because of the context and memories that my (eventual) wife adorned it with, but I feel like it catches Johnson at a period of time after he'd discovered that he could make enjoyable, interesting music, but before he was all over the radio with songs from (admittedly, very enjoyable) kids movie soundtracks.

Here's a semi-recent video of a performance of one of the albums "hits":

And here's my favorite song from the album. I still have my wife's note, but it is somewhat buried in papers in my memory box. I believe she, like me, enjoyed the time changes, but she also said that the image of "Bubbly Toes" is kind of gross...she's not wrong about that.

Jack Johnson - Bubble Toes

You can buy Brushfire Fairytales at Amazon, Amazon MP3, and iTunes

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!