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

One Year, 100 Albums: #84 Less Than Jake - Anthem

Less Than Jake Anthem, 2003

If you had asked me before I actually went through the rigors of figuring out which album from each band I was taking with me to this very lenient desert island, I would have said that, for Less Than Jake, Hello Rockview is almost a no-brainer. It contains a song that I waited 8 years to hear LTJ play ("Scott Farcas Takes It On the Chin") and it has more songs that I would consider "classic" Less Than Jake.

But instead we find ourselves with Anthem. And I think the reason why this seemed a better option for the Desert Island (which I know is not really a part of the exercise anymore and I haven't mentioned it since the intro) is because, unlike the songs on HR, this album has variety. And lyrics that aren't the same 4 lines repeated with a couple of chorus in between.

These songs have range. And if this album finds LTJ drifting a little more towards the poppy side than purists would like, well, that also fits my MO for albums that I chose for this list.

But I mean really, watch this video and tell me this wouldn't be a song that would make your "Beach Playlist" on the ol' DI.

And that song is different than the song that precedes it and it's different than the song that follows it. And I think that's what I like about this album. It's more of a rock record, which somehow gives it room to be a rock record, a punk record, a power pop record, AND a ska record. Which is pretty cool.

By the way, I was going to play the video for "She's Gonna Break Soon" which stars the very alluring Alexis Bledel but whoever made the video decided that he/she didn't want the horns of that song to be in the mix for the video. So you see LTJ performing. You see the horn section, but you don't hear any horns on the track that plays for the video. Which is a shame.

Here are a couple of tracks from the early middle of the album. Please note the variety. And also note how the title of the second song is somehow ABSOLUTELY PERFECT for the song it's titling, even though it's never uttered in the song itself.

Less Than Jake - Short Fuse Burning

Less Than Jake - Motown Never Sounded So Good

You can buy Anthem at Amazon, Amazon MP3, or iTunes

Three things!

1. There are still several spots left on the mix CD I'm making. Don't be shy :) It's going to be fun! I've used my random integer generator (well it's not mine, but I use it when I need random numbers) to generate my two letters. Should I tell you what they are? ;-)

2. So, apparently, Bob Dylan is going to be releasing an album on April 28th (in America) called Together Through Life. Awesome :) Modern Times was so good and I'm hoping this is just as awesome. It seems like it just randomly showed up, though. I kind of like that though, it's like a nice little surprise.

3. Warped Tour this year. I'm pretty sure my sister doesn't read this (or know about it), so I feel confident that I won't be giving anything away if I spill the beans on here. It's my sister's 15th birthday on 4/1 and I thought it would be a fun gift to give her tickets to her first Warped Tour (and really first concert). So that's the plan. So, here is a list of the bands scheduled to play that I'm excited to see (of course the list of dates that these bands are playing hasn't been posted yet, so it might be that some of the following won't be there at our venue.

*Anti-Flag
*Bad Religion
*Big D and the Kids Table (I've actually only heard a couple of songs by these guys, but I like what I hear and hey, it's a nice Boston ska band, what more can you ask for?)
*Bouncing Souls
*Escape the Fate (a buddy of mine just turned me on to these guys. The song "We Won't Back Down" is one of my current jams (and I would post it here, but I'm typing from my bedroom and the portable hard drive is in my office. If you can't find it, email me and I'll see that you get it)
*Flogging Molly
*Less than Jake (they WILL play "Scott Farcas Takes it On the Chin" this time or I swear to God, they'll regret it. No, I'm not making a threat. It's just that this will be like the 5th or 6th time seeing them and they've NEVER played it and I REALLY want them to!)
*NOFX
*Streetlight Manifesto
*The Ataris
*Thrice

The other thing is, unless they've changed the way they do it, they pick the schedule for each venue the morning of the show, so it could be that there are conflicts that will prevent me from seeing some of those. Also, my sister has bands that she wants to see that aren't listed above. So I'm hoping to get a good post out of this. And some good sibling bonding :)

Would have sucked without you here...

Ok, first, I still am taking votes for the latest round of Battle of the Bands (see the previous post).

But more importantly, I want to put some songs out here to help you out. This is kind of going out to someone, but it's also going out to you, if you need it. When I was a freshman in college, I needed this song. I found it shortly after I stopped needing it, but it still made me feel good to know it was there. It's a song for a very specific feeling and I'm not sure who's having this feeling, but I want to put it out there. It's about getting over someone and realizing that they're missing out on you. It doesn't matter if this is a romantic relationship or just a friendship or a job or whatever. If you need to replace the word "she" in the song with "they" or "he", then by all means, please do.

Less Than Jake - Great American Sharpshooter from Hello Rockview

Another song (which contains the title of this post) was written by one of my best friends. He was the Best Man at my wedding. And he gave me the song above. Well, he pointed me to the album. This is an amazing song based on a simple fact. Everyone has a song called "Everything Sucks." This one should be a mood brightener too.

Murphys Kids - Everything Sucks from Don't Wait

and if you're not feeling like having a brighter mood, here are two "Everything Sucks"'s that aren't so smiley. :)

Descendents - Everything Sucks from Everything Sucks
Reel Big Fish - Everything Sucks from Turn the Radio Off

Well, maybe that RBF song is a little smiley and who can't smile at the sheer sarcasm that Milo spews in every Descendents song?