New Countdown: June 2020

The Killers

Okay, so I was doing SO well for like 2 months and then all of a sudden I'm behind again. But that's okay! I'll get the episodes out when they come out! This episode also has a special announcement that not even I was aware was going to happen until the last intro of the episode. So look forward to that! And enjoy!

Countdown #418 

*Featuring*

AJR 

The Black Keys

Cage the Elephant

Foo Fighters

Glass Animals 

Grouplove

The Head and the Heart

The Killers 

lovelytheband

Matt Maeson

powfu featuring beabadoobee 

Tame Impala

Twenty One Pilots

Weezer

What's Eating Gilbert

New Countdown!: May 2020

Grouplove

Hey everyone! Well we made it through another month (basically) and so there's another batch of songs from Alternative Radio to listen to! We'll be back next month. Stay safe and healthy. And also, I hope it's very clear that at Appetite For Distraction, we firmly support Black Lives Matter and want swift justice for George Floyd and every other Black human being that has been murdered by police officers. The system is broken and we need to fix it.


Countdown #417

***Featuring***
AJR
Billie Eilish
The Black Keys
Cage the Elephant
Glass Animals
Green Day
Grouplove
The Killers
lovelytheband
Neon Trees
Powfu featuring beabadoobee
Stephen Lynch
Tame Impala
twentyonepilots

New Countdown!: April 2020! (with special guest Lila!)

Billie Eilish

Hey! So, this is what monthly countdowns looks like! We are back with all of the songs that charted in April. And my daughter is here to weigh in on what she thinks of the songs from this month. We had such a fun time recording that this might become an occasional feature. I hope you have as much fun. The "cover art" for this episode is not random as it normally is, but was purposefully selected after Lila correctly pointed out that there's only one female voice in this whole countdown. (Diet Cig has an album you could go preorder, if you were interested....)


Countdown #416

***Featuring***
AJR
AWOLNATION
Billie Eilish
Cage the Elephant
China Crisis
Green Day
Grouplove
Hot Chelle Rae
The Killers
lovelytheband
The Lumineers
Neon Trees
Strung Out
Sub Urban
Tame Impala
twentyonepilots
The Unlikely Candidates

New Post!: March 2020! (CAUGHT. UP!)

The Lumineers

WE DID IT!!! This episode marks the official last episode I can feasibly do before the end of April. I'm feeling like I'm in a prime position to keep current with a monthly countdown show and I'm excited to do it. Thanks for hanging in with me as I've worked to get current. See you in April!!!


Countdown #415

***Featuring***
AWOLNATION
Billie Eilish
Cage the Elephant
Green Day
Grouplove
The Killers
The Lumineers
Meg Myers
MxPx
Neon Trees
Sub Urban
twentyonepilots
The Unlikely Candidates
White Reaper

New Countdown! Thanksgiving! December! Oh My!

The Neighbourhood

Well, I'm typing this on Tuesday night because I don't want to be fussing with recording and posting and all of that hooey (which I love!) down at my folks' place this week/weekend. So it feels REALLY early, but I kind of like it.

I just want to thank you for coming to listen to my podcast. If you're reading this, then I'm thankful for you and all the steps that led you to my little corner of the Internet. I hope that you're happy you came when you leave and that you'll eagerly come back soon!

Countdown #176

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Fitz & the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
MS MR
The Neighbourhood
Outkast
Panic! at the Disco featuring LOLO
Pearl Jam
The White Stripes

New Countdown: Surprise!!!

Fitz & the Tantrums

A great episode that had some surprises that even surprised me!...as they were happening! Stay Tuned to see what I mean!

...remember that movie Stay Tuned? John Ritter and....Shelley Long? vs the Devil who has them trapped in a TV and is trying to kill them and get their souls? Pretty decent, if I recall.

Countdown #175

***Featuring***
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Capital Cities
Fitz & the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
MS MR
The Neighbourhood
Pearl Jam
The White Stripes

New Countdown: In Under the Wire!

Fitz and the Tantrums

This was one of those episodes where you look at the clock and then you look at how much more recording you have before you can go to bed, and your heart sinks just a little. But I think it turned out ok :) I'm just not going to talk a lot on this post.

All I'm going to do is to link you to the Shortlist Voting that I talk about in the episode. Please vote!!!

Countdown #174

***Featuring***
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Capital Cities
Fitz & the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
MS MR
The Neighbourhood
Pearl Jam
The White Stripes

New Countdown: Done Early! Feelin productive!!

Capital Cities

Well, I'm writing this on Saturday morning. It feels very weird to be done with the podcast already. Not bad. Not at all bad, in fact. Just weird.

My son gets baptized tomorrow and we're having family come visit us. Unfortunately not as much family as we thought we would be having before this morning, but still a lot of family and that's a good thing!

Countdown #173

***Featuring***
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Capital Cities
Fitz & the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
MS MR
The Neighbourhood
Thirty Seconds to Mars
The White Stripes

New Countdown! 500 Posts!!

The White Stripes in 2003

Well, you can definitely feel how tired I am by the end of this one. Sometimes the podcast just takes longer and I get distracted by watching Batdad Vines. Fortunately/Unfortunately, it's Daylight Savings tonight, so it's not actually as late as it feels and maybe this is my way of acclimating? Who knows.

I meant to mention that this post was my 500th on the podcast, but I forgot. So let me do it here.

THIS POST IS MY 500TH!!!

In about a month and a half, this blog will turn 6. So that means...an average of about 83 a year. Or 7 a month. Or about a post ever 4 or so days. But the thing is that 299 of those 500 have been in the past 2 years. And 392 of them have been in the last 3 years. So you could say I've picked up the pace.

Wait. That's counting my 6th birthday as today, but I still have a month or so to go till then. But it's pretty close. So, the averages aren't exactly right but the 299 and 392 stats still are.


Oh, the podcast? Sure. Here it is. And thanks for coming to my blog. Here's to 500 more posts before we all simultaneously decide to stop using the Internet and go outside for a global kickball tournament.

Countdown #172

***Featuring***
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Capital Cities
Fitz & the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
MS MR
The Neighbourhood
Thirty Seconds to Mars
The White Stripes

New Countdown! Back on Time!!!

Fitz & the Tantrums

Not going to do a big long explanation/preface this week. Just happy that I'm getting this posted in time!


Countdown #171

***Featuring***
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Capital Cities
Coldplay
Fitz & the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
The Neighbourhood
Tame Impala
Thirty Seconds to Mars

New Countdown! Keepin Myself Honest

Cage the Elephant

Hey there! So....it's not Sunday at 10 am, is it? Well, Saturday night came and I just was not on the Muse's "to-inspire" list. So I kind of let it go. But then Sunday came and I suddenly had the inspiration! It was VERY exciting. And I just don't ever want to fake inspiration. I want it to actually come from the heart, you know?

So I hope you'll enjoy this countdown and then also enjoy one on Sunday. It's a practical smorgasbord of countdown-y goodness.

Countdown #170

***Featuring***
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Capital Cities
Coldplay
Fitz & the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Johnette Napolitano & Danny Lohner
Lorde
The Neighbourhood
Tame Impala
Thirty Seconds to Mars

New Countdown: A Journey Through My Inbox

Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head Tour

I get a lot of music-related emails in a given week, but this week seemed like there was an unprecedented number of them devoted to artists on the countdown. Maybe the robots are getting close to calibrating the perfect combination of music to email me about, or maybe it's just a coincidence. Either way, I spend a good deal of time reading from things that showed up in my inbox in the last week or two. The plus side: Very little mention is made of Wikipedia in this episode (though I recently donated to the Wikimedia Foundation, so my conscience is pretty clean on that front).

Countdown #169

***Featuring***
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Capital Cities
Coldplay
Fitz and the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Kings of Leon
Lorde
The Neighbourhood
Tame Impala

New Countdown: There's a Reason For the Parallel Structure of My Other Regularly Scheduled Blog Posts (or, I Can't Think of a Title!!!!)

Imagine Dragons

This one was a fun one. It was the first time I've ever kind of teased something from next week. It's the first time I've talked about a completely different song for a song's entire intro. And it's the first time I've gotten into the deepest most interesting discussion with myself (I'm insane.) in the very last intro of the show. So I hope you'll inaugurate October 2013 with me and enjoy this episode!

Countdown #168

***Featuring***
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Capital Cities
Coldplay
Fitz and the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
The Neighbourhood
Phoenix
Tame Impala

New Countdown: Return of the King(s)

Imagine Dragons

Very late-night recording. And started the session on very very little sleep. I think it's maybe possible that we should count ourselves fortunate that what I spoke in my groggy state was actually English.


Countdown #167

***Featuring***
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Capital Cities
Coldplay
Fitz & the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Kings of Leon
Lorde
The Neighbourhood
Tame Impala

New Countdown! I have issues! Well, AN issue!

Tame Impala

This is the kind of episode that half of me is freaked out about posting and half of me couldn't be more stoked. There's a lot of reading involved. Let's leave it at that. That way there's some surprise to the way the episode unfolds!

Two debuts this week! It's good to be back in good ol' 2013. :)

That must be the toughest part of being a time traveler. Keeping up with contemporary pop culture!


Countdown #166

***Featuring***
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Capital Cities
Coldplay
Fitz & the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
The Neighbourhood
New Politics
Tame Impala

New Countdown and a Look Back at Summer Jams

The Neighbourhood

Do you realize how hard it is to be named James and type the word "jams"??

Anyway, it's the first countdown of the Calendar Fall and I've been playing with the spreadsheets, so that gets a lot of discussion in this episode. I really enjoyed the retrospection. I hope you did too!

If you DO enjoy retrospection, you should come back for a Very Special Countdown next week (HUGE HINT) :) See you then

Countdown #165

***Featuring***
Atlas Genius
Bastille
Capital Cities
Coldplay
Fitz & the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Kings of Leon
Lorde
The Neighbourhood
New Politics

New Countdown: When I'm 164...(doot doo)

Capital Cities

This was one of those weeks where it felt like the podcast had been in production FOREVER. It was really only a couple of days, but I feel like it has literally been months since I started recording #164.

We're also in one of those waves where the bands on the countdown (with a few minor exceptions) aren't that well known, so it gives me the feeling that I'm really sharing some NEW music. Which I like :)

Speaking of which, I am pondering starting a series for Mondays called "Mailbag Mondays" where I play songs by bands who I first heard about because they emailed me. So, you heard it here first. And if it doesn't come to pass, then you get first dibs on the ridicule and shaming.

Countdown #164

***Featuring***
Atlas Genius
Bastille
Capital Cities
Fitz & the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
The Neighbourhood
New Politics
Radiohead

New Countdown 17 Years in the Making!!

Capital Cities

Yes, this episode was a long time coming, but I think it's going to end up being one of my favorites. I hope it's one of yours, too!!!

Countdown #163

***Featuring***
Alanis Morissette
Atlas Genius
Bastille
Capital Cities
Fitz & the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
The Neighbourhood
New Politics
Tracy Bonham

New Countdown: James's Bonus Song Emporium!

Imagine Dragons

If you were looking for the nonsensical, seemingly random ravings of a madman, you're in the wrong place, bub! But if you want a podcast where sometimes we have more than 2 bonus songs, then step right in, my friend, have I got the podcast for you!!!

The weather is becoming increasingly fall-like and we're going to have to start to accept the fact that our summer anthem this year was a song about needing to put on a sweater because the weather is too chilly.....which I think we can all do. I'm really excited for some fall weather, actually.

Countdown #162

***Featuring***
Atlas Genius
Capital Cities
Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams
Fitz and the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
The Neighbourhood
New Politics
Radiohead

New Countdown, or, a Descent into Madness

Fitz and the Tantrums

Here's another episode where you hear me in various states of consciousness/fatigue. Which can either be a fun ride or a descent into madness....no, not the Muse song. :)

I'm really loving the songs on the countdowns of late. I hope you are too!

Countdown #161

***Featuring***
Atlas Genius
Capital Cities
Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams
Fitz and the Tantrums
Grouplove
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
The Neighbourhood
New Politics
Radiohead