Blog: Appetite for Distraction

Muse I am writing this from Room 201 of the Best Western in Harrisonburg. I have driven down here with my wife to attend the wedding of a dear, dear college friend and now I'm going to write this post and watch Veronica Mars for the rest of the night! I really kick the Radiohead flashbacks into overdrive on this one :) Countdown #151 ***Featuring*** Atlas Genius Capital Cities Easy Star All-Stars featuring Kirsty Rock Fall Out Boy Imagine Dragons The Lumineers [...]

So, this week has been an absolute train wreck. Lots of things going on and work and all of that. So, I have been unable to record a new podcast (beyond the first intro, which I do on Wednesday nights) for this week. BUT all is not lost. I have a guest review that my friend Andy (from RVA Playlist) sent me and I'm going to post a Radiohead music video, so that we can at least feature another aspect to OK Computer this week. First, the video. This is one of the most memorable videos I've ever [...]

So I was just looking for the latest episode of P.O.S is Ruining the Current (Which doesn't appear to have an episode from last Saturday...at least nothing archived yet.) and I found that P.O.S has a tumblr . No big surprise there, but I found two things I want to share with you from it. The first, is this remix of "Piano Hits" from his latest album We Don't Even Live Here which is apparently " the first taste of Marijuana Deathsquads’ upcoming remix album of P.O.S’s We Don’t Don’t Even Live Here, entitled [...]

I'm pretty excited that this song has finally broken into the Top Ten. It's a dance song in the 80's/90's tradition as opposed to, for instance, the song I played last week. By that, I suppose I mean that it is a little less worried with "looking cool" and a little more into having a good time. You could make the claim that it's repetitive or mindless, but I think it is just so so so fun. I think it looks like they're both having a good time. Oh, and my theory is that neither of them actually [...]

So I want to focus a little more on these Alternative Album Grammy Winners that I'm playing for bonus songs on the Countdown. So I think, on the first Monday of every month, I'm going to do a little retrospective poll related to the album from the proceeding month. April's album was Beck's Odelay Please answer the following questions in the comments section. (If you don't have an answer, feel free to skip the question) 1. What is your favorite track on Odelay ? (cool! i [...]

Of Monsters and Men I'm getting this post in JUST under the wire because we mopped the kitchen floor last night and my laptop was still in the kitchen. I could have gotten it, but, c'mon guys, it was late. And I have like 45 minutes to spare. In fact, if I hadn't told you, you never would have known how close to the airtime I'm writing this!....So just act like I didn't say anything.... Oh and we have a new Grammy Alternative Album of the Month to coincide with the new [...]

Well, this song is better than I thought it was, but that's not really saying a whole lot. I think the most fun thing to do when watching this one is to note how many times CA messes with her hair. (SPOILER: It's a lot.) And now, completely unrelatedly, here's this: .

Of Monsters and Men Well, it's one of those times when it's VERY late at night, so I won't really say a lot on this post. There's a lot of good music to hear. Just click the link below :) Countdown #149 ***Featuring*** Beck Capital Cities Imagine Dragons Lovelife The Lumineers Mumford & Sons Muse The Neighbourhood Of Monsters and Men Silversun Pickups Thirty Seconds to Mars

Justin Timberlake's second Top 10 song from The 20/20 Experience has a video with a little more of a story. Which is cool. I love a video with a story. I was interested to see how he was going to make the story last for the full 8 minutes of the song, and the solution is simple. This is basically two videos for two songs all under the name of one song. The first video has the story and the second video is a video about JT dancing. Both of which are cool with me. Enjoy! [...]

Muse That's right! Debut month continues as we welcome another song to the big show. Hehe. That's what they call the Major Leagues in baseball. I'm implying that my countdown podcast is as attractive to these bands as making it to the major leagues. I'm truly a humble, handsome man. Countdown #148 ***Featuring*** Beck Capital Cities Imagine Dragons The Lumineers Mumford & Sons Muse The Neighbourhood Of Monsters and Men Silversun Pickups Thirty Seconds to Mars

So I'm going to post the KEXP session for two reasons: 1) If you're reading this the day it comes out, the official music video for this song comes out TOMORROW. And I didn't want to make any bets about this song still being on the top 10. Having said that, it probably will be, but you can't be too careful. 2) You can see the joy that all of the musicians performing are having a GREAT time. Especially the guys in the title. Ray Dalton strikes me as a shy man, but he is beaming [...]

One chilly night in 2007, I was looking at iTunes celebrity playlists. 3 years and some months later, I would start my podcast. But this was the night that led to all that. I happened to post in my LiveJournal that night. Here is that post. 1/18/2007 22:13 Music: Stone Temple Pilots - Plush I'm half the [...]

Imagine Dragons Pay close attention to this episode. You can hear my voice start strong, proving that my health is almost back to normal, and then get gradually weaker as the evening that I recorded most of it progresses and you start to hear how I sound when I've been up for too long! At this point, it's going to be weird when a new song DOESN'T debut on an episode. We're on the third episode in a row to have a new song on the chart :) [...]

Well, the promise was fulfilled. Yesterday, Doomtree and Dessa revealed the cover for Dessa's new album Parts of Speech . Today, they made a formal album announcement. The album comes out June 25. Here's the tracklist: 1. The Man I Knew 2. Call Off Your Ghost 3. Warsaw 4. Skeleton Key 5. Dear Marie 6. I’m Going Down 7. Fighting Fish 8. The Lamb 9. Beekeeper 10. Annabelle 11. It’s Only Me 12. Sound the Bells They also posted the pre-orders over at the Doomtree Webstore . [...]

This week's TTT was super easy. It's the song that's currently topping the Countdown! So OF COURSE I'm going to feature it when it enters the Top Ten of the BIG chart! It leaped 8 positions to go from #15 to #7. Which is awesome. The video is so strange. It has Lou Diamond Phillips and a bunch of stuffed animals who should be cute but are somehow ALL incredibly creepy (I'm including LDP in that statement). But I have ALWAYS loved a good story video and this is a fun and odd and [...]

Dessa and Doomtree just Instagrammed/Facebooked this album cover. The Facebook post bore the mysterious message "Tomorrow." so it looks like we'll be getting all the info tomorrow. Possibly a Tuesdays with Dessabeak (where she takes over Lazerbeak's weekly Doomtree blog post!)? Stay tuned here, or at Doomtree's Site , or BOTH!

Atlas Genius I don't know if you'll believe it based on the quality of my voice at some points in this podcast, but I am actually feeling better! It's just that annoying thing where the remnants of colds stick around for weeks. So annoying. Hopefully you won't be annoyed by this week's countdown, though! (I don't know why you would be....I mean, it's a pretty silly thing to be annoyed at. I was just making a smooth transition.) April's "Debut-Every-Week" trend continues! Enjoy it! [...]

So I guess Bruno Mars is going with this whole 70's TV thing with the videos from this album. And I mean, I can't blame him. The songs have a classic sound to them and the videos add that extra hint of nostalgia that makes the whole Bruno Mars thing work.

So I want to focus a little more on these Alternative Album Grammy Winners that I'm playing for bonus songs on the Countdown. So I think, on the first Monday of every month, I'm going to do a little retrospective poll related to the album from the proceeding month. February's album was Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York Please answer the following questions in the comments section. (If you don't have an answer, feel free to skip the question) 1. What is your favorite track on [...]

Of Monsters and Men I'm just really happy that I was able to get this one recorded and posted. My larynx is about to abandon my body and try to make it on the streets of New York City as the apprentice to a con artist a la Robert Redford in The Sting. On a related note, my throat really does sting at this juncture. I hope you enjoy the episode! Countdown #145 ***Featuring*** Atlas Genius The Black Keys Capital Cities Dessa [...]