"Look at all his music post thingies." --My High School Drama Teacher
Q: How many kids with ADD does it take to change a light bulb?
A: You guys wanna go ride bikes?
MP3's
Ok, MP3's on this blog (designated by the links that seem like maybe they're songs) are for sampling purposes. So, if you like something you find on this site go buy some stuff by that artist. Go see a show.
If you're not happy that I put an MP3 up on this blog, just email me to take it down and it'll be down.
All MP3's are up for 10 days. Or when I remember to get take them down.
If you want to email me to say hi, ask me to take something down, ask me to put something up (i.e. bands wanting me to check out their music), or anything else, email me at aodblog@gmail.com. You can remember it because it's the Appetite FOr Distraction blog!"But James, you say, why isn't it afdblog?" The answer is, of course, I didn't pay attention to the letters in the initials of my blog. Le sigh.
Well here it finally is! The Artists of the Year Countdown for 2020! It's a very good one and I love making these things, it's just that I found myself doing a lot of podcasting with other people this year and kept putting the recording of this show off. You understand. But here it is! I hope you enjoy it!
Alanis Morrissette Bad Religion Barenaked Ladies The Beatles Bob Dylan Elton John Fall Out Boy The Mountain Goats New Found Glory Outkast Talking Heads Taylor Swift The Wonder Years
Here we are again for another glorious Artists of the Year countdown. I love it so much and this one is an EXCELLENT one. Great songs, but also songs that point to specific events in the year, which is just what you want in an AOTY countdown, you know?
***Featuring***
Barenaked Ladies
The Beatles
blink-182
Cast of Hamilton
Fall Out Boy
Gin Blossoms
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
The Mountain Goats
New Found Glory
Pearl Jam
Taylor Swift
The Wonder Years
ANOTHER ONE! That's right another podcast from this guy right here (me, not Bob). I am feeling absolutely on fire with podcasting right now and I'm hoping that it lasts!
This is the Artists of the Year Countdown for 2018 and there are some surprises in here, let me tell you. Of course if you look down at the "Featuring" section, some of it will be ruined, but I think you'll still enjoy it a lot!
***Featuring***
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Barry Adamson
The Beatles
Blink-182
Bob Dylan
Dessa
Echo and the Bunnymen
Fall Out Boy
New Found Glory
NOFX
Rx Bandits
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Well here we are, in the last episode of the 5 part countdown of the top 50 artists that I've listened to in the past 12 years (2/14/06-2/14/18) and there are very few surprises here, so maybe the surprises are the order that they're in? Or maybe the surprises are the friends we made along the way!
I think the Artists of the Year countdown is consistently my favorite show of the year. It's a fun way to look back at my listening habits and generate a pretty eclectic show to boot! Enjoy it! I know I will!
***Featuring***
Barenaked Ladies
The Beatles
Blink 182
Bob Dylan
Busta Rhymes
Cast of Hamilton
Diet Cig
Kendrick Lamar
New Found Glory
P.O.S
Radiohead
Smashing Pumpkins
So here we are in 2017 and it's time for another Artists of the Year countdown. A LOT of familiar faces that got shoved into the bottom 10 of the Top 20. So it makes for a very interesting list. I hope you enjoy it and I'll see you very soon for our RSP (Reg. Sched. Prog.)
***Featuring***
Barenaked Ladies
Blink-182
Bob Dylan
Leslie Odom Jr.
Modern Baseball
New Found Glory
NOFX
P.O.S
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Ruth B.
The White Stripes
Hello! I'm sick. And you can hear it in my voice. And also in my blanking on the term (during the last intro of the show) that I used for the title of the blog post. I substituted the phrase "esteemed ranks" but when you hear me pause before saying that, know that that pause (which i would have normally taken out, but have left in for posterity) is me trying to think of the phrase "rarefied air".
***Featuring***
Cage the Elephant
Cold War Kids
Coldplay
Fall Out Boy featuring Demi Lovato
Foals
Imagine Dragons
New Found Glory featuring Hayley Williams
Nothing But Thieves
Silversun Pickups
twenty one pilots
Vance Joy
X Ambassadors
Last countdown for the next two weeks! It goes out with a bang, though! And stay tuned till the end to see how I'm going to fill the next two weeks! I think it's pretty exciting!
***Featuring***
AWOLNATION
Beck
Cold War Kids
Coleman Hell
Death Cab For Cutie
Elle King
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats
New Found Glory
New Order
The Struts
Walk the Moon
X Ambassadors
Just as the Year End Countdown (which went up last week) closes out the year, the Artists of the Year Countdown kicks off the new one.
Sometimes it feels like it's the same artists every year, but I think there's enough variety and variance to still make it a fun listen. Hopefully you agree!!
***Featuring***
The Beatles
blink-182
Dessa
Doomtree
Idina Menzel
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
New Found Glory
Paramore
P.O.S
Smashing Pumpkins
St. Vincent
So New Found Glory released a video for their upcoming album Resurrection (coming out October 7!) This song is great and I'm really excited to hear the rest of the album!
I'll put the video right below this line and then preorder/tour info below that:
I would say that New Found Glory are the seminal pop-punk band of my life. They were the first band that played this kind of music where I loved it and jumped around to it and wanted more, more more!
The summer that this album came out, they put the first single, "My Friends Over You" on a Drive-Thru Records sampler that you got if you purchased the Something Corporate Audioboxer EP. Which I happily did. The song was so good and I was so excited.
And then it came out. And it was good. But like almost all of the albums on this list, it took me a little bit to get into. The songs weren't as immediate as the ones on the self-titled album that preceded it (Reason: These songs are more complex).
But now, of course, I look at it as a classic. It's one of maybe 4 albums I would give someone who was interested in the pop-punk genre. In fact, I can't think of any time I've heard someone who likes the genre having a bad word to say about it. So this one is kind of a no-brainer.
I'm listening to it as I type and bouncing in my seat. If I wouldn't look RIDICULOUS, I would get up and jump around. MAN, I love this album.
Here's a video for the song "Head On Collision" done by the Troma people that did movies like Toxic Avenger and stuff. This song is also where the band All Time Low got their name!
New Found Glory - My Friends Over You
New Found Glory - The Great Houdini
I don't normally take this job lying down, but, fun trivia fact, I recorded this entire episode lying down....wait, I really hope that, at this moment, you're not thinking to yourself (or SAYING OUT LOUD!) "Yeah. It shows." But I don't think it does.
This is always an easy episode to record because I know these artists so well. Of course I do! They're the Artists of the Year!
So, last year I was sitting around thinking and it struck me that it might be fun to send Dessa a bunch of questions. I did and she was kind enough to answer me faster than I could have imagined. This is the post I wrote last year based on her responses.
I've seen Dessa in concert twice more since then. One time on her solo tour and one time with Doomtree touring for No Kings. I have also been a part of the #Lithop book club on Twitter, where we have read Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Aliand Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard. So when the same idea occurred to me this year, I felt a little better prepared for what I wanted to ask her. And I'm so pleased with the results.
1. When I bugged you last year about what you were reading, you said you were working on Peoples History the United States. Are you still working on it?
People's History of the United States... beat me. Still haven't finished it, so embarrassing. Although this question is probably the cue that will prompt me to dust it off.
(Maybe I'll bring this up in every interview while at the same time trying to finish it myself. You know, to create an atmosphere of needless competition)
1a. I find it almost overwhelmingly difficult to be reading more than one thing at a time. But I know some people that are actively reading something like 5 books at any given time. Where do you stand on this very important issue?
I usually do one, sometimes two titles at a time. A lot of my reading, however, is rather modular fare--short stories or brief essays. So the alternations between two texts isn't quite as taxing as it might sound.
2. So, when I saw Doomtree in DC in February, POS (is it more acceptable to refer to him as Stef or POS?) said his new album would be coming out in the summer. Does this mean we won't see your album until the fall?
I'm still working on my album, so I'm trying to resist the impulse to plan for its release, although during moments of writer's block, planning a release party can seem like a walk in the park.
3. Something that fascinates me about concerts is the idea of building a setlist. How do you, as a solo artist pick a setlist? How does that differ from how the whole Doomtree crew picks one? Do they vary over the course of tour or is there basically one set setlist for the entire thing? (Haha that's like three questions in one bullet point...it's like a college exam. I will only be accepting answers in the approved Blue Book format.)
Doomtree's set list take a lot of things into consideration: BPM, mood, and featured performers. We try to pick a song sequence that won't have any one artist sitting on the bench for too long, or ask him or her to rap for too many songs without a breather.
When drafting my own sets, I consider mood first and foremost--I don't like to juxtapose songs with wildly different tones, doleful to cocky, for example. Then I'll consider the key and instrumentation--don't want to put songs in the same key back-to-back because I think it flattens the dynamic. 4. What songs/bands/albums have you been loving lately?
I've been listening to two songs by Jo-Jo on repeat. No one has been able to determine why I would do this.
4a. Which two Jo Jo songs? (this is hard-hitting journalism, clearly :))
Leave and Too Little Too Late
(I nearly bought both of these songs on iTunes, but I think the music videos will suffice. The thing is, I get why Dessa would dig these. JoJo is a very talented girl, the songs are poppy, sassy, and hip-hoppy. There are great hooks and they stick in your head. I get it.)
5. I have this theory about Doomtree and No Kings. The most exciting, dynamic parts of the album for me are when it goes Dessa into Mictlan. It happens on Bolt Cutter, it happens on Fresh New Trash, and I'm positive it happens elsewhere, too. I feel like it's so exciting because you two are like polar opposites. Is there any truth to that?
I think Mike and I definitely hold down the ends of the Doomtree spectrum. We are both, however, hopelessly hammy and campaign every year for some sort of costuming at the Blowout
6. How are you feeling about SXSW this year? It has to feel pretty good to go out there after such a successful album launch and tour.
SXSW is always a chaotic, bingy test of endurance. Some amazing music, some amazing lines, some amazing hairstyles, and some amazing hangovers. It's sort of like the State Fair, with skinny jeans.
6a. In an email that she sent to me right after SXSW was over, Dessa had this to say about how it went.
SXSW kicked my ass. (It has always seemed to me that SXSW would kick anyone's ass, with performances sometimes STARTING at 2am or later)
7. How awesome is it about Lazerbeak's newest project (Baby Beak)? Is it finally time for DTR to unveil its new line of baby products? Onesies, "wings and teeth"ing rings, False Hopes lullabies EP, etc.
Lazerbeak and I sit next to each other in the backseat of the mini-van and most Thursdays (ultrasound day) I get an update of how big she is (often in terms of the fruit to which she can most readily be compared). Beak is one of my close friends and I'm so stupidly excited for him and Cam (his wifepiece). I'm excited to do a bit of vicarious living and find out how the arrival of his daughter will change his life. Seems like he's about to get snow-globed.
8. Finally, my sister is visiting this week and since she's also a huge fan, I thought maybe it would be cool if she got to ask a question, too. So, here is the question from my (almost) 18 year old sister: if you could have dinner with any three people who are currently dead, who would they be and why?
I'm really not sure I'd want to meet any of my heros, because conversation would be forced and maybe they'd be jerks. I just don't think Marie Curie wants to talk to a lay person about radiation--she's probably all talked out on that topic.
BUT, for the sake of speculation, if we can be assured that conversation would not be forced and they would not be jerks, I think I'd like to have sushi (because its my favorite) with Winston Churchill, Ryan Gosling, and da Vinci. Just the three that came to mind.
9. Ok she has now bullied me into giving her a second question and since it's one I wouldnt think to ask, I gave in: what is your favorite article of clothing?
A good pair of jeans is tough to beat. And they don't come easy
10. I thought I'd round this off at an even 10 questions and ask you what your favorite song from the year you were born might be.
Oh man, to be honest, I'd have to see a list of songs from '81. I'm lousy at music trivia--never seem to remember what came out first, which label bought which, or who was on the charts when. But I remember that "King of Wishful Thinking" was an early favorite--maybe the first that I plunked out on the Casio at home.
[Ok, so "The King of Wishful Thinking" was released in 1991 and it was on the soundtrack to Pretty Woman. But I love it. So. What I'm going to do is threefold.
Thanks so much to Dessa for being a constant inspiration. And thank you for reading. Go to Doomtree's Website or the Doomtree Bandcamp page or Dessa's Bandcamp Page and just buy a whole bunch of stuff. They're also on iTunes, so I mean, if you have a Gift Card....you know....use it.
This is one of my favorite episodes of the year. I look forward to it and I think that all my anticipation has paid off. I had so much fun putting it together and I think you'll have a lot of fun listening to it!
***Featuring***
Dessa
Doomtree
King Post Kitsch
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
New Found Glory
NOFX
P.O.S.
Rise Against
Smashing Pumpkins
Wild Flag
Monday, December 26, 2011
So, they didn't have two of my top 10 (which I posted earlier this month) so I naturally replaced them with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes EP's. This is to vote in the Hype Machine's blogger category for their Zeitgeist 2011 (I love end of year stuff!!)
5. Wild Flag - Wild Flag A big part of this year, for me, was about female led bands. And one of the best female led bands was Wild Flag. This is a supergroup, but only if you're pretty familiar with the 90's riot grrl scene, which I am not. When I listen to this album, and the same goes for when I saw them in concert, I hear four women IN LOVE with rock and roll. It's refreshing and entrancing. And addictive.
4. Original Broadway Cast Recording - The Book of Mormon God, what an amazing set of songs. I'm probably never going to see this musical on Broadway, but I almost feel like I don't need to, with this in my life. My favorite superpower of Parker and Stone is their ability to tease and mock and flat out ridicule something, all the while filtering the bullshit down to the essentials. This musical is about belief and how important it is to believe in something, even if it seems weird or stupid to other people. It was so hard to pick a song to feature from this. So I went with some exposition, to draw you into the story!
3. King Post Kitsch - The Party's Over Oh dear. I love this album so much. I think it's the effortlessness that gets me most. Charlie doesn't seem like he's breaking a sweat as he's cranking out song after song of glorious rock. It's catchy, it's addictive, it's hummable, it's amazing. I hope that 2012 is as full of KPK as 2011 was! For the featured song, I've chosen the song that started it all for me, nearly a year ago.
2. New Found Glory - Radiosurgery 2011 was a great year for music, if you ask me. But the cherry on top of it all is this. New Found Glory charging back into my heart with this album of the kind of pop-punk genius that I have been yearning for from them, or Blink, or Green Day. Don't get me wrong, though. You can tell that these guys have matured as songwriters. I would feature "Summer Fling, Don't Mean a Thing" because that's maybe the best song on the album, but I wanted to show that there's even more to love, if you've already heard that one and you're still hesitant (although, I don't know how you can still be considered "sane" if that is what's happening for you)
1. Doomtree - No Kings I don't even know where to begin. I suppose I could direct you to my review of this album less than a month ago. I had to wean myself off of this album. I'm still not sure why it hit me so hard. And it's not like all my friends are listening to this so I'm being social about it. In fact, I feel quite miserly about Doomtree in general and specifically about this album. Because what if someone listened to it and didn't like it? Or didn't get it? Or didn't like it as much as I do? It kind of feels like I'm dating a girl from outside my circle of friends and feeling wary about introducing her around. It's not that I doubt my taste. It's that I doubt everyone else's! And I mean that in the best of ways. You should buy this album and love it deeply. Like I do. Oh, and when you love an album as completely as I love this album, it's damn near impossible to pick a song from it to feature. So here's my best shot
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...
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:
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!
