New Countdown: Welcome to the Moment

Portugal. The Man

Here we are. At the start of 2018. And only a day behind. I'm planning to be caught up in the next episode and, as I explained in the beginning of the show, it's not my fault that I'm behind. I'm excited to have no idea what comes next in the chart!


Countdown #364

***Featuring***
AJR featuring Rivers Cuomo
Alice Merton
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Beck
Bleachers featuring Lorde
Imagine Dragons
The Lumineers
Portugal. The Man
Thirty Seconds to Mars
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: Three Three's and an 11!

Cage the Elephant

It gets super mathy this week, but what would expect from me when dealing with episode #333? :)

Enjoy!



Countdown #333

***Featuring***
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Cold War Kids
Conor Oberst
DREAMERS
Gillian Welch
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
Portugal. The Man
Rag'n'Bone Man
The Revivalists
Semisonic
Sir Sly

New Countdown: Trivia

Cold War Kids

This episode came together very quickly and it has some excellent bits of trivia. So I think you'll definitely enjoy it. I hope I'm right :)



Countdown #332

***Featuring***
Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch (and Emmylou Harris)
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Cold War Kids
Dreamers
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
Missio
Portugal. The Man
Rag'n'Bone Man
The Revivalists

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

New Countdown: This Podcast Does Not Exist

Busta Rhymes and Lin-Manuel Miranda

We wrap up the last week of April this week with a doozie of an episode! Tune in and hang out!


Countdown #330

***Featuring***
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
Bastille
Busta Rhymes, Joell Ortiz, and Nate Ruess
Cage the Elephant
Cold War Kids
DREAMERS
Imagine Dragons
Kendrick Lamar
Lorde
Rag'n'Bone Man
The Revivalists
twenty one pilots

New Countdown: Wistful Music for Children

Lorde

I was really pleased with how quickly this one came together! I hope you will enjoy it!



Countdown #329

***Featuring***
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
Bastille
Busta Rhymes featuring Q-Tip and Chauncey Black
Cage the Elephant
Cold War Kids
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
Missio
Rag'n'Bone Man
The Revivalists
Rockapella featuring The Persuasions
twenty one pilots

New Countdown: Diaphaneity

Busta Rhymes

Hello! Want some alternative music? Some bonus songs? Some delightful commentary? Well, step right up and enjoy!



Countdown #328

***Featuring***
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
Bastille
blink 182
Busta Rhymes
Cage the Elephant
Cold War Kids
Green Day
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
Rag'n'Bone Man
The Revivalists
twenty one pilots

New Countdown: Hip-Hop Influenced Alternative Hits!

Rag'n'Bone Man

There's a point on this countdown where it becomes clear that hip-hop has a big influence on a lot of the songs on the countdown right now. It's super interesting to see and the Artist of the Month highlights that :)


Countdown #326

***Featuring***
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
Bastille
Busta Rhymes
Cold War Kids
Green Day
Imagine Dragons
Judah & the Lion
Lorde
The Lumineers
Rag'n'Bone Man
The Revivalists
twenty one pilots

Festive Fifty 2013 Top Ten

And this catches us up to last year! You can look at similar posts from the previous Festive Fifties, or listen to the new episodes for this year as they come out by clicking the Festive Fifty tag at the bottom of the page!

10. Josh Ritter - Joy to You Baby
9. The National - I Should Live in Salt
8. MS MR - Hurricane
7. Arcade Fire - Reflektor
6. Bastille - Pompeii
5. James Blake - Retrograde

4. Dessa - Skeleton Key

3. Dessa - Fighting Fish

2. Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams - Get Lucky

 
1. Lorde - Royals

New Countdown: Late Night Inspiration

Kendrick Lamar

For having started as late as I did, this one came together quite quickly and quite easily. That said, this late late night nonsense has got to stop! Buuuut it probably won't.

Happy Sunday, everyone! Don't forget to vote on the Festive Fifty if you haven't already!

Countdown #224

***Featuring***
alt-J
Bastille
Big Data featuring Joywave
The Black Keys
Fall Out Boy
Foo Fighters
Hozier
Kendrick Lamar
Lorde
Milky Chance
Vance Joy

New Countdown: Not Insanity

Big Data

It's a fun countdown this week. It's one that changes up the order of things a little (I mean, the bonus song isn't right at the beginning. Otherwise, you know, i'm not counting down out of order or whatever. That would be insanity.)

I hope you enjoy it!

Oh and don't forget to vote on the Festive Fifty. Look down a couple of posts for more information!

Countdown #223

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

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

Another Mockingjay Soundtrack Update

So iTunes revealed almost all of the tracklist for the Mockingjay Part One soundtrack. The two songs we knew about this afternoon are still on there (why would they go anywhere? why did I write that sentence??) and 11 more tracks have been revealed. There's still a track that's called "Track 5" by "Various Artists" that's listed with a duration of six seconds, so that'll probably be revealed later.

iTunes says the soundtrack will be available on November 17th. Here's a link to the iTunes page. It's not going to take you to iTunes, but it's basically like the browser version of iTunes.

Here's the tracklist:

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Pt. 1 OST:

01 Stromae: Meltdown [ft. Lorde, Pusha T, Q-Tip, Haim]
02 Chvrches: Dead Air
03 Tove Lo: Scream My Name
04 Charli XCX: Kingdom [ft. Simon Bon]
05 Various Artists: Track 5
06 Raury: Lost Souls
07 Lorde: Yellow Flicker Beat
08 Tinashé: The Leap
09 Bat for Lashes: Plan the Escape
10 Grace Jones: Original Beast
11 Lorde: Flicker (Kanye West Rework)
12 XOV: Animal
13 The Chemical Brothers: This Is Not a Game [ft. Miguel]
14 Lorde: Ladder Song

Mockingjay Soundtrack Update

So another song has been announced on the soundtrack that Lorde is curating for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.

So, so far we have these songs:

Lorde - Yellow Flicker Beat
The Chemical Brothers, Miguel, and Lorde - This Is Not a Game

Here's a Radio Rip from Zane Lowe's BBC1 Show:

New Countdown: Pecos Bill

Coldplay

I was listening to the 2000-2009 station on SiriusXM yesterday and "New Divide" by Linkin Park came on and it made me think about how much the chart has changed in the time that I've been doing the countdown. It's gotten a lot weirder, and maybe a little more mellow?

I know that music is in constant flux and I'm just really happy to have lassoed onto that flux so that we can enjoy the ride together!

Countdown #217

***Featuring***
alt-J
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data featuring Joywave
Coldplay
The Dirty Heads
Hozier
KONGOS
Lorde
Milky Chance
Vance Joy
Weezer

Lorde has revealed the first song from the Mockingjay, Part 1 Soundtrack she's curating

 

So Lorde is curating the soundtrack for the next installment of the Hunger Games series: Mockingjay, Part 1. So I guess that means she's picking artists she likes and asking them to record songs for the album. It should be very interesting to see what she comes up with.

So she revealed the first song from the soundtrack and it's a new song by...her! It's a new song called "Yellow Flicker Beat"

So folks are going to be stoked about any new Lorde track I'd imagine, and I'd bet that they'll gobble this one up when it becomes available on iTunes and other digital retailers on September 30th. And it'll probably be fantastic.

Hopefully it'll get a bunch of airplay and we'll see it on the podcast soon!

New Countdown: K is for Kwaito

The Black Keys

It's a fun countdown that was pretty easy to put together and I am really glad that that's the case. I don't know why I'm so tired, but it's not even midnight yet and I feel like it's 3 AM (I must be lonely).

Enjoy this one and let me know what you think of the current batch of songs on the countdown!

Countdown #195

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
The Black Keys
Cage the Elephant
Coldplay
Fitz & the Tantrums
KONGOS
Lorde
Phantogram
Radiohead

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

New Countdown: Gonna be sleeping in the podcast doghouse for a bit here...

The Black Keys

Well, once again, I've forgotten the anniversary of the podcast. Actually....now that I think of it, this is the first time that's happened. I was thinking of the anniversary of the blog itself, which i have missed, I believe, every single year. No, I usually remember the podcast's birthday. Hopefully, the 4th birthday isn't a big one.

It's a great show this week. A bunch of movement and surprises and bonus songs and stuff that I included without remembering that i could be playing bonus songs to celebrate, but rather just playing bonus songs because I like them! (Idea for t-shirt: "Live life like it's your podcast's birthday")

Countdown #193

***Featuring***
Alan Wilkis
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
The Black Keys
Cage the Elephant
Fitz & the Tantrums
Foster the People
Jaydiohead
KONGOS
Lorde
Phantogram
Radiohead
Young the Giant

New Countdown: It's April, Fools!

Bastille

Well it's a new month, so that means it's time for a bunch of change, apparently. Some of the change was expected (new Alternative Album Grammy winner) and some of it wasn't (New Song?!). Enjoy, you guys!

Countdown #192

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Fitz & the Tantrums
Foster the People
KONGOS
Lorde
Phantogram
Radiohead
Young the Giant