New Countdown: Not TECHNICALLY February yet....

Vance Joy

I have most of my voice this week! There is LOTS of movement on the chart this week! We have FOUR bonus songs this week! It's a good week. You're going to like this one.




Countdown #232

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data [featuring Joywave]
Blink-182
Cage the Elephant
Doomtree
Foo Fighters
Happy Fangs
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Modest Mouse
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: A Voice Before Ice Cream

Modest Mouse

Well this is an interesting one. I've begun the process of losing my voice, and it's documented on this podcast! The really funny thing is that right after I hit "OK" and began to turn the file into an mp3, I had a big bowl of ice cream and now I sound semi-normal. So, maybe I should have had a glass of water to wet my whistle instead of having absolutely nothing at all. Live and learn. And today's lesson learned is: Ice cream solves problems.

So this is one to mostly enjoy for the music. And the music is very enjoyable :)


Countdown #231

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data featuring Joywave
Cage the Elephant
Foo Fighters
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Modest Mouse
Nirvana
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown! Subscriptions available!

Vance Joy

First of all, you can now subscribe to my podcast! If you're using iTunes, go to File --> Subscribe to Podcast... and then paste this link ( http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/BScZB ) into the blank. Then you don't have to download the file and add it to iTunes. It'll download as a podcast and the new episodes will download when they're available (I'm pretty sure)

Lots of bonus songs on this one, for reasons that I go into in the episode. Enjoy!




Countdown #230 

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data featuring Joywave
Cage the Elephant
Fall Out Boy
Foo Fighters
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: Welcome Back!

Alan Wilkis (Big Data)

Alright. Let's see if I still have this "new countdown" business sorted. Welcome to 2015, everyone!

The year always starts off a little slow, so I'm able to ease back into things.

I really like the songs that are on the countdown these days. They are eclectic but they mesh very well together.

Enjoy!


Countdown #229

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data featuring Joywave
Cage the Elephant
DNA featuring Suzanne Vega (or, Suzanne Vega with DNA on the remix)
Fall Out Boy
Foo Fighters
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

Festive Fifty 2014 (Part 3)

We did it! We got all three episodes published before the new year and I couldn't be more stoked. Thank you to everyone that contributed and voted and made all of this possible. I hope you've enjoyed these episodes and will decide to participate next year, too!

Hooray!

Festive Fifty 2014 (Part 3)

17. King Creosote - Something to Believe In (Shaun)
16. The Amazing Snakeheads - Here It Comes Again (Kathy)
15. War on Drugs - The Ocean In Between the Waves (Nat)
14. Big Data featuring Joywave - Dangerous (Alan (Big Data))
13. FKA Twigs - Two Weeks (Rachel)
12. Future Islands - Seasons (Waiting on You) (Kev/Bella)
11. Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues (Andrew)
10. Tiny Ruins - Me at the Museum, You at the Wintergardens (Tim via James)
9. Shakey Graves - Dearly Departed (Marc)
8. St. Vincent - Prince Johnny (Katy)
7. Johnny Marr - Easy Money (Rob G)
6. War on Drugs - Red Eyes (Mad Mackerel)
5. First Aid Kit - My Silver Lining (Stuart)
4. Elbow - My Sad Captains (Robert Todd)
3. Jenny Lewis - Just One of the Guys (Rick)
2. Hozier - Take Me to Church (Jason)
1. St. Vincent - Digital Witness (Rob G)

2014 Year End Countdown!!!

Bastille

Well here we are at the end of another year. It's been a year of breaking bands, for the most part and this countdown reflects that. I think you'll find this is a very enjoyable countdown and I had a lot of fun making it, as well as all of the countdowns this year.

See you next week for the Artists of the Year countdown and then the week after that for the first new countdown of 2015!!!


Year End Countdown

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Big Data featuring Joywave
The Black Keys
Bleachers
Cage the Elephant
Fitz & the Tantrums
KONGOS
Milky Chance
Neon Trees
Vance Joy

New Countdown: Welcome to the Future!!!

Milky Chance

Oh boy, we are cooking with grease now! It's only 4.5 years in and I finally found out how to embed a track into my blog. So now you don't have to download it to listen to it! Plus, now you don't have to leave the blog to download it! What an amazing age we live in.

This is the last new Countdown of the year and I hope you'll join me next week (presumably Sunday, though who knows, you know?) for the Year-End Countdown, where I count down the 10 best charting Alternative Songs of the year according to me using Billboard data.




Countdown #228 (To stream, hit the play button above. To download MP3, right click + save the file)

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data featuring Joywave
Cage the Elephant
Fall Out Boy
Foo Fighters
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: "Improvement"!

Foo Fighters

So, here this is!  A day later than scheduled but a day EARLIER than last time it was late, and that's what they call, in the industry, "improvement"!

It's the penultimate countdown-based-on-a-new-chart of the year, you guys, so soak it in. I love when we have a run of weeks with debuts every week. I'm not necessarily hinting at anything, but i'm not necessarily NOT hinting at something

Countdown #227

***Featuring***
Bastille
Big Data featuring Joywave
Cage the Elephant
Doomtree
Fall Out Boy
Foo Fighters
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: Done Early, For Once!

Fall Out Boy

 Well I had some time to myself on Saturday morning/afternoon. So that, plus the announcement of the Grammy nominees yesterday made for a quick and easy recording session. I was done recording by 11pm!

So there are lots of Grammy nominee things on this one, and that's the kind of thing I like: when the songs that we've been looking at all year start pulling Grammy noms!

It's a good one! Enjoy!

Countdown #226

***Featuring***
alt-J
Bastille
Big Data featuring Joywave
Fall Out Boy
Foo Fighters
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Milky Chance
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon

New Countdown: Indestructible!!

Milky Chance

Well, we did it. It's finally done. 225 nearly defeated me, but I said, "Nay! I will not let a nasty stomach bug prevent the Alternative Tunes from reaching the ears of my fans! They've worked too hard for too long to keep up with my ramblings for me to quit now! I must create an episode with extra ramblings! Extra windy ramblings!"

And that's just what I did :)

Countdown #225

***Featuring***
alt-J
Bastille
Big Data featuring Joywave
The Black Keys
Fall Out Boy
Foo Fighters
Girls
Hozier
Imagine Dragons
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Milky Chance
Vance Joy

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: Danny DeVito

Weezer

A chilly November morning with some hot tunes!...would be my synopsis of this song if I were advertising it in a newspaper, or posting it on iTunes. :)

It's a good one this week. Short, but good. Like Danny DeVito.

Countdown #222

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

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

New Countdown: And so shutters shut and so and also.

Vance Joy

So, right before I went to bed last night, I tweeted: "I'm going to wager that my podcast this week is the only one that starts with Rise Against and ends with Gertrude Stein"

And I think that pretty much covers it.

Enjoy the journey! (No songs by Journey appear on this episode)


Countdown #220

***Featuring***
alt-J
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Big Data featuring Joywave
The Black Keys
The Dirty Heads
Gertrude Stein
Hozier
Milky Chance
Rise Against
Vance Joy
Weezer

New Countdown: From Off the Wall to Right Smack Dab in the Middle of the Wall

The Black Keys

Ok, so based off the title, you might be thinking this podcast has some early solo era Michael Jackson and maybe Pink Floyd singing "Hey You." And you'd be well within your rights to think that. But it is sadly not the case. Although it occurs to me now that those two albums were out right around the same time, which is weird to me.

No, the title just is referring to the range of song on the countdown this week. Sometimes the really kooky songs are immediately followed by songs that are 100% safe. There's nothing wrong with either category and I think the show is helped by a healthy serving of both!

Enjoy!

Countdown #219

***Featuring***
alt-J
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Big Data featuring Joywave
The Black Keys
The Dirty Heads
Hozier
Jonnie Common
Milky Chance
Weezer
Vance Joy

New Countdown: Is Hozier a BNL Fan??

Coldplay

 Whoa a gif for a cover photo! It's like we're living in Harry Potter or something!

Pretty straightforward show this week. I kind of have an idea about what I'm going to do for bonus songs for a while, so that's good.

And, even though it's 1:44 in the morning as I'm typing this, I'm not feeling too tired, so that's good!

Enjoy!

Countdown #218

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

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

New Countdown: I Wonder When THIS Became the Template For Podcast Post Titles

The Dirty Heads

 This one went so well this week. I'm not feeling totally sick anymore, so I'd imagine that helped. Sometimes it just goes easy. I bet Casey would have agreed with me. God, wouldn't it be awesome to do this kind of things as a JOB? It baffles the mind, I tell you.

Countdown #216

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

New Countdown: Sleepy James and the Undying Hit Song

Vampire Weekend, ca. 2013

This one's going up a little late. We've had quite the Sunday morning, so I didn't really have time to post it this morning and I didn't have the energy to post it last night. I think I mention it in one of the intros that I was SUPER tired this week. I'm really hoping it didn't translate to the intros. The music is really good regardless and I think the episodes might be redeemed by that fact.

There's an unprecedented event this week on the chart, so you definitely want to tune in!

Countdown #215

***Featuring***
alt-J
Arctic Monkeys
Big Data featuring Joywave
The Black Keys
Coldplay
The Dirty Heads
Hozier
Milky Chance
Vampire Weekend
Vance Joy
Weezer