New Countdown: WE DID IT!

Third Eye Blind

Well, here we are. At 10 am on Sunday morning (actually it's only 845 when I'm writing. Hello from the distant past!) It took a 3-day weekend, but it finally happened.

I'd like to thank my family for all their support, my manager and production team for all their hard work, and most of all you, the loyal listener. :)

This is a good one. And next week's will be even better!



Countdown #253

***Featuring***
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
Mumford & Sons
Muse
Of Monsters and Men
Saint Motel
Third Eye Blind
twenty one pilots
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon
X Ambassadors

One Year, 100 Albums: #85 Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind

Third Eye Blind Third Eye Blind, 1997

This album is an interesting one. It's definitely got its haters, but I think that mostly they're reacting to the era in which it was made, rather than the content of the album itself. If you are familiar with this album, you know that the band uses the first side to take care of the singles and then uses the second side to demonstrate what a fantastic band they are.

There's nothing wrong with the singles. They're varied, fun, and interesting and that's without any weight added to them by nostalgia. "Semi-Charmed Life" was all over the place in 97 and 98 and you can still hear it every new and then today, but that's because it's a different kind of song! Play me a song that's even remotely similar and I'll give you a dollar. And "One Week" doesn't count.

But then you get finished with the jumprope-whipping simplicity of "How's It Going to Be" and suddenly we're in uncharted territory. And it's in this territory that the band really gets to have fun. Whether it's on rockers like "London" or "Burning Man" or on slower songs like "Motorcycle Drive By" or "God of Wine", it's clear that this is a band that was going to be huge one way or another. The fact that they had some gigantic singles meant that they made it on a "General Public" level, but I like to think that this album was going to be a favorite of a lot of people even without them.

Third Eye Blind - Burning Man
Third Eye Blind - Motorcycle Drive By

You can buy Third Eye Blind on Amazon, Amazon MP3, and iTunes

New Countdown: Earlier Than The Last Late One!

So that means it's an improvement, right?

Things are all culminating. The year of music, the festive fifty, the holiday season, family visits. All of it. I'm not sure if I'm going to do a "Best Of the Year" post this year. Last year the top 10 were very clear to me. This year it would be a top 5 (so that it wouldn't just be the 10 albums I've heard this year) and I'm just  not sure that's worth it...

And I have a lot of musical irons in the fire. So I probably will pass this year.

Anyway...here's the show!

Countdown #133

***Featuring***
Atlas Genius
AWOLNATION
The Black Keys
Imagine Dragons
The Lumineers
Mumford & Sons
Muse
Of Monsters and Men
Passion Pit
Third Eye Blind
Youngblood Hawke

Super-nerdy-link-post. Not worth reading :)

This post is to serve as a link to the post that I just made with this week's countdown. There were bonus songs I wanted to label, but I blew past the character limit. So, here's a link to that post. More content to come soon :)

Flashback Countdown for Memorial Day

Well, I'm here in Boston and it's time for the first, non-annual, whenever i need to go away for a while Flashback Countdown!!

Enjoy and have a great weekend! I'll see you next week. I can tell you that this week's chart was full of shake-ups so next week should be VERY interesting :)

Flashback Countdown #1