20. Wilco - "I Might"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNs7NLwuHx0
19. The Fray - "Heartbeat"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWnXSV6uZps
Yes, I do have The Fray in my top 20. And don't even try to pretend like you don't love this song too.
18. TV on the Radio - "Will Do"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9erHKnztSA
17. Sleeper Agent - "Get it Daddy"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUF2RDHDtzM
The underdog rock hit of the year. These guys are so young it almost makes me feel like I'm too old to be listening to their music.
16. Real Estate - "It's Real"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HWcViTXdYc&ob=av3e
15. The Decemberists - "Don't Carry it All"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEnUp2j8TV4
If you want to have one of your songs land in my Top 30 list, here's a good recipe: heavy drums + harmonica. Love it.
14. Fleet Foxes - "Lorelai"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVyLukxXKIc
13. Augustana - "Shot in the Dark"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gue2tmm8iE
One of the most underrated bands out there today, Augustana turns out a song Bruce Springsteen would be proud of.
12. Lucinda Williams - "Blessed"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubs-9C1zge0
11. M83 - "Midnight City"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX3k_QDnzHE
This is one of those songs where it's hard to explain why it's so good. You just know it is. "Hurry Up We're Dreaming" is one of the year's best albums, as well.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Top 30 Songs of 2011: 30-21
30. Coldplay - "Paradise"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6ZWlDks0nQ
29. Peter Bjorn and John - "Second Chance"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxcHS27DuEo
28. John Wesley Harding - "There's a Starbucks (Where the Starbucks Used to Be)"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X402vbMaL2E
27. MuteMath - "Blood Pressure"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv2mjAgFTaI&ob=av2e
26. Fitz and the Tantrums - "Don't Gotta Work it Out"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h-rwXG8zWs
25. U.S. Royalty - "Equestrian"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQr_qgEBNLY
24. Portugal. The Man - "You Carried Us"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwCv-SGzVYo
23. My Morning Jacket - "You Wanna Freak Out"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZZ4ScvB_rM
22. Cass McCombs - "County Line"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOcnITphyjk&ob=av2e
21. The Black Keys - "Nova Baby"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOJH7YQCcmo
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Top 30 Tunes of 2010: 10-1
Drumroll, please...
10. Jakob Dylan -"Nothing But the Whole Wide World"
9. The National - "England"
8. Broken Bells - "The Ghost Inside"
7. Kanye West - "Runaway"
6. Kings of Leon - "Pyro"
5. Jimmy Eat World - "Invented"
4. The Morning Benders - "Excuses"
3. Arcade Fire - "We Used to Wait"
2. Brandon Flowers - "Only the Young"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBENjCPS8LI (also probably my favorite video of the year)
1. The National - "Bloodbuzz Ohio"
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Top 30 Tunes of 2010: 20-11
Top 30 Tunes of 2010:
20. Cults - "Go Outside"
19. Keane - "Clear Skies"
18. Fran Healy - "Fly in the Ointment"
17. Kings of Leon - "Radioactive"
16. LCD Soundsystem - "I Can Change"
15. Josh Ritter - "Lark"
14. Brandon Flowers - "Crossfire"
13. Band of Horses - "On My Way Back Home"
12. Sun Airway - "Put the Days Away"
11. Arcade Fire - "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Top 30 Tunes of 2010: 30-21
Okay, a couple things.
First, I'm not a music expert, just a big fan. So I'm not about to claim that the following 30 songs are unquestionably the greatest musical, lyrical compilations of the past 12 months.
That said, they're 30 awesome songs that I thoroughly enjoyed this year, and I think you will too.
Secondly, it was taking way to much time to embed the videos for each of these, so I've included the links to YouTube.
Finally, please send me your comments or suggestions. I would love to hear what artists/songs made your 2010 a bit more musical.
Part 2 (20-11) will be on its way tomorrow. Enjoy...
Top 30 Tunes of 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxaGJNihf28
29. Jonsi - "Go Do"
28. Fierce Bad Rabbit - "Divided"
27. MGMT - "Flash Delirium"
26. Bob Schneider - "40 Dogs (Romeo and Juliet)"
25. The Black Keys - "Tighten Up"
24. Codeine Velvet Club - "Hollywood"
23. Greg Laswell - "Lie to Me"
22. Beach House - "Norway"
21. Chiddy Bang - "All Things Go"
Friday, July 9, 2010
The Lebron Saga: Why It's All Michael Jordan's Fault
I am not an NBA fan. This morning, the reasons for that fact have never rung truer.
The NBA is a sport to celebrate the individual star.
The NBA is a sport full of selfish, self-promoting egotists.
The NBA is no longer about building a team, but rather collecting the most superstars.
The NBA is the only sport that could produce the kind of marketing show that Lebron James put on in Connecticut last night.
And while everyone today searches for a villain - Lebron, Dan Gilbert, ESPN, the collective media, the American sports fan, etc. - I can find one person to point most of the blame at:
Michael Jordan.
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think MJ intentionally created the circus we know today as the NBA. I think he was the greatest player in NBA history who saved the league and made basketball a worldwide phenomenon for the first time.
But just as MJ saved the game, he simultaneously ruined it. Hear me out.
Jordan was known for his incredible individual skill. Sure, there had been great players (Magic, Bird, Dr. J., Kareem, and so on) before, but none had been so impressive to watch by himself in NBA history.
The dunks, the jumpers, the cross-over dribbles, the fist-pumps, the tongue... it was unlike anything we'd ever seen before. And with a growing sports media - more cameras, more TV stations, more magazines - we ate it up.
And seemingly overnight, the game of basketball was changed forever. Every NBA franchise began searching high-and-low for "The Next Jordan." Teams were built around marketable superstars, rather than championship-minded squads.
Penny. Shaq. McGrady. Kobe. Melo. Lebron.
While my dad's generation grew up on pick-up games, getting a group of guys together to play at the gym, my generation grew up with one-on-one games in the driveway, dunk contests and an ever-present dream to "Be Like Mike."
Even our video games changed. For example, the most popular basketball game for Super Nintendo at the time was "NBA Jams," where you played 2-on-2 basketball, complete with high-flying dunks and the ability to "catch fire" if you made enough shots in a row.
And as big as the changes were within the sport, they were even bigger away from it. Jordan became larger than life phenomenon off of the court. He was a marketing dream - and the world bowed before him to buy his shoes, his sports drink, his jerseys.
Nike became the dominant sports apparel company in the world. "Just Do It" and swooshes were on every kid's backpacks and t-shirts in America. The Air Jordan saga proved that one, ultra-talented player could be bigger than his team, bigger than the league, bigger than the game itself.
And thus was born the sports world we live in today. And, truthfully, it's not just found in the NBA.
We live in a world where Tiger Woods can be the most powerful advertising tool on the planet. A world where a football player's Twitter account can have nearly a million followers. A world where one baseball player can earn over $45,000 per at-bat. A world where the big stars get paid more to tell people what car to drive than they do to actually play their sport.
Clearly it isn't just the NBA that has been infected by this media-crazed, cash-infused philosophy, but I believe the NBA has certainly become the worst.
Can you imagine Albert Pujols holding a similar press conference to announce his new deal with the Cardinals? Or Peyton Manning being covered for an entire four-hour period on ESPN? In the off-season?
I can't. At least not yet.
But in the NBA, the individual can be bigger than the team, bigger than the league, bigger than the game.
It all started with MJ. Where will it end?
The NBA is a sport to celebrate the individual star.
The NBA is a sport full of selfish, self-promoting egotists.
The NBA is no longer about building a team, but rather collecting the most superstars.
The NBA is the only sport that could produce the kind of marketing show that Lebron James put on in Connecticut last night.
And while everyone today searches for a villain - Lebron, Dan Gilbert, ESPN, the collective media, the American sports fan, etc. - I can find one person to point most of the blame at:
Michael Jordan.
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think MJ intentionally created the circus we know today as the NBA. I think he was the greatest player in NBA history who saved the league and made basketball a worldwide phenomenon for the first time.
But just as MJ saved the game, he simultaneously ruined it. Hear me out.
Jordan was known for his incredible individual skill. Sure, there had been great players (Magic, Bird, Dr. J., Kareem, and so on) before, but none had been so impressive to watch by himself in NBA history.
The dunks, the jumpers, the cross-over dribbles, the fist-pumps, the tongue... it was unlike anything we'd ever seen before. And with a growing sports media - more cameras, more TV stations, more magazines - we ate it up.
And seemingly overnight, the game of basketball was changed forever. Every NBA franchise began searching high-and-low for "The Next Jordan." Teams were built around marketable superstars, rather than championship-minded squads.
Penny. Shaq. McGrady. Kobe. Melo. Lebron.
While my dad's generation grew up on pick-up games, getting a group of guys together to play at the gym, my generation grew up with one-on-one games in the driveway, dunk contests and an ever-present dream to "Be Like Mike."
Even our video games changed. For example, the most popular basketball game for Super Nintendo at the time was "NBA Jams," where you played 2-on-2 basketball, complete with high-flying dunks and the ability to "catch fire" if you made enough shots in a row.
And as big as the changes were within the sport, they were even bigger away from it. Jordan became larger than life phenomenon off of the court. He was a marketing dream - and the world bowed before him to buy his shoes, his sports drink, his jerseys.
Nike became the dominant sports apparel company in the world. "Just Do It" and swooshes were on every kid's backpacks and t-shirts in America. The Air Jordan saga proved that one, ultra-talented player could be bigger than his team, bigger than the league, bigger than the game itself.
And thus was born the sports world we live in today. And, truthfully, it's not just found in the NBA.
We live in a world where Tiger Woods can be the most powerful advertising tool on the planet. A world where a football player's Twitter account can have nearly a million followers. A world where one baseball player can earn over $45,000 per at-bat. A world where the big stars get paid more to tell people what car to drive than they do to actually play their sport.
Clearly it isn't just the NBA that has been infected by this media-crazed, cash-infused philosophy, but I believe the NBA has certainly become the worst.
Can you imagine Albert Pujols holding a similar press conference to announce his new deal with the Cardinals? Or Peyton Manning being covered for an entire four-hour period on ESPN? In the off-season?
I can't. At least not yet.
But in the NBA, the individual can be bigger than the team, bigger than the league, bigger than the game.
It all started with MJ. Where will it end?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Just Happy to Be There: Why the Saints will lose Super Bowl XLIV
I really want to root for the Saints this Sunday.
How could I not? They've got a blue-collar, likable quarterback in Drew Brees.
They have a (truly) rags-to-riches story - the city of New Orleans needs a Super Bowl title worse than probably any other NFL hub.
They are the most entertaining team to watch since Kurt Warner's "Greatest Show on Turf" St. Louis Rams.
I really do want the Saints to win.
But they won't.
And the person I have to blame for bringing me to this sad but true realization is my friend Mike Donovan.
Just days following the Saints' victory over the Vikings in the NFC championship, Mike pointed out that the Saints seemed to have gone into party mode.
For example, the day after their historic win, interviews with players revealed a team that had celebrated the night before like they had just won the Super Bowl, not simply made it there.
And who could blame them, right? New Orleans had never been to the big game before. And now here they were, on the shoulders of a talented and easy-to-root-for team, headed to Miami to play for sports' biggest crown.
It was a celebration long overdue, and the Saints (understandably) were not going to miss their opportunity.
But the Indianapolis Colts' reaction to their second AFC title in four years could not have been any different. They seemed business-like, calm and immediately focused on the next task at hand.
Do you think Peyton Manning went out and partied all night in Indianapolis after the team got past the New York Jets?
No, though Manning probably was up all night - watching film.
And it's likely that most of the Colts players were already turning their focus to the Saints, instead of relishing the accomplishment of simply getting there.
The Colts mantra has seems to be: been there, done that.
Meanwhile, the Saints appear to be the "happy to be there" team. They've been craving a Super Bowl so long, that just getting there might seem almost as significant as actually winning the game.
And, as he usually does, my friend Mike found copious amounts of statistics to back up his point.
He researched all of the Happy To Be There (HTBT) teams to play in the Super Bowl in the last 30 years. "HTBT" is loosely defined as a team that had either never been to a Super Bowl or had made it following an extended drought.
Below are the statistics Mike found from such games. Teams in bold are the "Happy To Be There" teams. Following the teams/scores is the result of the game for HTBT team, as well as whether the HTBT team covered the final Las Vegas point spread.
Take a look:
Happy to be there Super Bowls since 1980 (HTBT in Bold):
How could I not? They've got a blue-collar, likable quarterback in Drew Brees.
They have a (truly) rags-to-riches story - the city of New Orleans needs a Super Bowl title worse than probably any other NFL hub.
They are the most entertaining team to watch since Kurt Warner's "Greatest Show on Turf" St. Louis Rams.
I really do want the Saints to win.
But they won't.
And the person I have to blame for bringing me to this sad but true realization is my friend Mike Donovan.
Just days following the Saints' victory over the Vikings in the NFC championship, Mike pointed out that the Saints seemed to have gone into party mode.
For example, the day after their historic win, interviews with players revealed a team that had celebrated the night before like they had just won the Super Bowl, not simply made it there.
And who could blame them, right? New Orleans had never been to the big game before. And now here they were, on the shoulders of a talented and easy-to-root-for team, headed to Miami to play for sports' biggest crown.
It was a celebration long overdue, and the Saints (understandably) were not going to miss their opportunity.
But the Indianapolis Colts' reaction to their second AFC title in four years could not have been any different. They seemed business-like, calm and immediately focused on the next task at hand.
Do you think Peyton Manning went out and partied all night in Indianapolis after the team got past the New York Jets?
No, though Manning probably was up all night - watching film.
And it's likely that most of the Colts players were already turning their focus to the Saints, instead of relishing the accomplishment of simply getting there.
The Colts mantra has seems to be: been there, done that.
Meanwhile, the Saints appear to be the "happy to be there" team. They've been craving a Super Bowl so long, that just getting there might seem almost as significant as actually winning the game.
And, as he usually does, my friend Mike found copious amounts of statistics to back up his point.
He researched all of the Happy To Be There (HTBT) teams to play in the Super Bowl in the last 30 years. "HTBT" is loosely defined as a team that had either never been to a Super Bowl or had made it following an extended drought.
Below are the statistics Mike found from such games. Teams in bold are the "Happy To Be There" teams. Following the teams/scores is the result of the game for HTBT team, as well as whether the HTBT team covered the final Las Vegas point spread.
Take a look:
Happy to be there Super Bowls since 1980 (HTBT in Bold):
2009- Steelers (-7) 27, Cardinals 23 Loss, Cover
2006- Steelers (-4) 21, Seahawks 10 Loss, No cover
2004- Patriots (-7) 32, Panthers 29 Loss, Cover
2003- Buccaneers (+4) 48, Raiders 21 Both teams happy to be there
2002- Patriots (+14) 20, Rams 17 Win, Cover
2000- Rams (-7) 23, Titans 16 Both teams happy to be there
1999- Broncos (-4.5) 34, Falcons 19 Loss, No cover
1997- Packers (-14.5) 35, Patriots 21 Loss, Cover
1996- Cowboys (-13.5) 27, Steelers 17 Loss, Cover
1995- 49ers (-18.5) 49, Chargers 26 Loss, no cover
1989- 49ers (-7) 20, Bengals 16 Loss, Cover
1987- Giants (-9.5) 39, Broncos 20 Loss, No cover
1986- Bears (-10) 46, Patriots 10 Loss, no cover
1982- 49ers (-1) 26, Bengals 21 Both teams happy to be there
1981- Raiders (+3) 27, Eagles 10 Loss, No cover
1980- Steelers (-11.5) 31, Rams 19 Loss, No cover
Totals:
- HTBT Teams are 4-15 overall and 1-12 against non-HTBT teams.
- All 13 games against non-HTBT teams came against opponents who had won a Super Bowl in the previous five years.
- HTBT Teams are 6-7 Against the Spread (ATS), however, 6-3 ATS in the last nine games.
So, history tells us that HTBT teams struggle mightily against non-HTBT teams in the Super Bowl, especially when the non-HTBT team has recently won a title themselves (like this year's Colts).
However, the trend is that HTBT teams do keep the games close, covering the spread in six of the last nine Super Bowls.
So, what does all of this mean? I'll tell you:
Colts 34, Saints 31
It will be close. It will be high-scoring. It will be a great game.
But in the end, the Colts will be more prepared, more focused and (as strange as it sounds) more motivated.
Because, if answering honestly, I'm not sure any of the Saints players would tell you that losing Super Bowl XLIV would make the 2009-10 season a disappointment.
But for a guy like Peyton Manning, anything less than another Super Bowl title equals complete failure.
The Saints are just happy to be there. Which is exactly why they won't be the happy ones Sunday night in Miami.
*Note: All stats provided by Mike Donovan, sports researcher extraordinaire, February, 2010
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