1 - RADIOHEAD

First off, I want to say thank you to all of you who kept up with my blog during this countdown, whether daily (which would be more than me) or every now and then. It's been great sharing my interests with you all and here's hoping that something along the way caught your interest and you can now appreciate it for the hard work that the people behind it put into it. There are probably 100 more bands that deserve my and your ears here's hoping we find them.

Second, do not worry. After this is over, my blog will return to the trademark wit and creativity that it's known for... or something like that.

I wanna live, breathe

I wanna be part of the human race

At long last we have finally reached the end. And what an end we've reached. The acquired taste of alternative rock, the prime rib of the music steakhouse, my favorite band, Radiohead is at number one.

I'm not going to lie, there are plenty of times I wonder if Radiohead is really my favorite band. I mean Pearl Jam puts on amazing shows, changes their setlist a bagillion times, and the frontman buys beer for fans. Tool writes songs in 9.5/8 time signature and has a song that has words' syllables in the Fibonacci sequence. Incubus was the first concert I've ever been to and produced the sounds of my middle school. And Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse has a lyric in just about every song he writes that makes you think, re-think, double think and then grin because you think you understand...until you hear it a second time.

And I think for a moment of telling myself I have a new favorite band. But there's really only one thing I need to do to reinforce my favorite band. And that is listen to Radiohead's OK Computer on my bed with headphones. This will always be my favorite album, and listening to it from start to finish is one of the greatest joys I think a person can achieve solely through music. Their other albums (Pablo Honey excluded, still above average) are all also great musical achievments.

Wiki - Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, beats), Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboard, other instruments), Ed O'Brien (guitar, backing vocals), Colin Greenwood (bass guitar, synthesisers) and Phil Selway (drums, percussion).

Radiohead released their first single, "Creep", in 1992. The song was initially unsuccessful, but it became a worldwide hit several months after the release of their debut album, Pablo Honey (1993). Radiohead's popularity rose in the United Kingdom with the release of their second album, The Bends (1995). Radiohead's third album, OK Computer (1997), propelled them to greater international fame. Featuring an expansive sound and themes of modern alienation, OK Computer has often been acclaimed as a landmark record of the 1990s.

Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001) marked an evolution in Radiohead's musical style, as the group incorporated experimental electronic music, Krautrock, post-punk and jazz influences. Hail to the Thief (2003), a mix of guitar-driven rock, electronics and lyrics inspired by war, was the band's final album for their major record label, EMI. The band's first six albums, released via EMI, had sold more than twenty-five million copies by 2007. Radiohead independently released their seventh album, In Rainbows (2007), originally as a digital download for which customers could set their own price, and later in physical form to critical and chart success.

Radiohead's work has appeared in a large number of listener polls and critics' lists. In 2005, Radiohead were ranked number 73 in Rolling Stone's list of "The Greatest Artists of All Time". Radiohead's live shows have also received acclaim. In 2004, Q readers voted the band's headlining performance at the 1997 Glastonbury Festival as the greatest British gig of all time, and in 2008, the band were ranked 14th in Classic Rock's "50 Best Live Acts of All Time". While the band's earlier albums were influential on British rock and pop music, musicians in a wide variety of genres have been influenced by their later work.

Discography -

1993: Pablo Honey
1995: The Bends^
1997: OK Computer*^
2000: Kid A
2001: Amnesiac
2003: Hail to the Thief
2007: In Rainbows
*-best album
^-top 10 fave albums

top 25 Radiohead songs

25 - Just
24 - Everything In Its Right Place
23 - Lucky
22 - Talk Show Host
21 - There, There
20 - 15 Step
19 - True Love Waits
18 - Electioneering
17 - How to Disappear Completely
16 - Idioteque
15 - No Surprises
14 - Jigsaw Falling Into Place
13 - Anyone Can Play Guitar
12 - High And Dry
11 - You And Whose Army?
10 - Karma Police
9 - Optimistic
8 - Go To Sleep
7 - The National Anthem
6 - Fake Plastic Trees
5 - Airbag
4 - Let Down
3 - Paranoid Android
2 - My Iron Lung
1 - Subterranean Homesick Alien




Radiohead - Street Spirit (Fade Out)
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Radiohead - Karma Police
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That's it folks.

2 - Pearl Jam

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star
In somebody else's sky, but why, why, why
Can't it be, can't it be mine?

At number 2 is Pearl Jam. Before college, Pearl Jam was really not even a band that I listened too at all. I'm so glad I started to eventually because they truly one of the best groups of all time.

Wiki - Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, guitar), Jeff Ament (bass guitar), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), and Mike McCready (lead guitar). The band's current drummer is Matt Cameron, also of Soundgarden, who has been with the band since 1998.

Formed after the demise of Ament and Gossard's previous band, Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam broke into the mainstream with its debut album, Ten. One of the key bands of the grunge movement in the early 1990s, Pearl Jam was criticized early on as being a corporate cash-in on the alternative rock explosion. However, over the course of the band's career its members became noted for their refusal to adhere to traditional music industry practices, including refusing to make music videos and engaging in a much-publicized boycott of Ticketmaster. In 2006, Rolling Stone described the band as having "spent much of the past decade deliberately tearing apart their own fame."

Since its inception, the band has sold over thirty million records in the U.S., and an estimated sixty million worldwide. Pearl Jam has outlasted many of its contemporaries from the alternative rock breakthrough of the early 1990s, and is considered one of the most influential bands of the decade. Allmusic refers to Pearl Jam as "the most popular American rock & roll band of the '90s."

Discography -

Ten (1991)*^
Vs. (1993)
Vitalogy (1994)
No Code (1996)
Yield (1998)*
Binaural (2000)
Riot Act (2002)
Pearl Jam (2006)
Backspacer (2009)
*-best albums
^-top 10 fave album


top 20 PJ Songs

20 - Dissident
19 - All Those Yesterdays
18 - Jeremy
17 - Rats
16 - I Am Mine
15 - Amongst The Waves
14 - Just Breathe
13 - In Hiding
12 - Brother
11 - Given to Fly
10 - Better Man
9 - Nothingman
8 - Life Wasted
7 - Release
6 - Inside Job
5 - Black
4 - Yellow Ledbetter
3 - Come Back
2 - Rearviewmirror
1 - Alive


A lot of people can't get into Pearl Jam (and the band who's at #1) because they don't like the lead singer's voice. And that's fine, there are plenty of bands that I can't get into because I don't like the singer's voice. But even these people cannot dismiss the fact that Eddie Vedder is one of the best lyricists of all time. Where Eddie really excels in his writing is the way that he can tell stories when he writes (see Alive, Present Tense, Gone, Why Go).





Mike McCready's solos are always full of soul and Vedder's passion on the mic is often recipricated through McCready's guitar pick.




These guys also played the best rock concert I've ever seen on October 30, 2009 at the Spectrum.


-I'm the one at 2:03 in the Phillies shirt..easy to see

Next Up: This long trip comes down... from a great height...from a greaaaaat heighttttt

Top Ten Albums

So throughout this lovely countdown that I've been taking you through, I've been dropping nuggets about my top ten favorite albums from any artist. And now, that list is finally here. My favorite ten albums of all time!!



10. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

Key Tracks: Teenage Riot, Eric's Trip, Silver Rocket, Candle


9. Pearl Jam - Ten

Key Tracks: Even Flow, Alive, Black, Jeremy, Release


8. Metallica - Master of Puppets

Key Tracks: Battery, Master of Puppets, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), Orion


7. Radiohead - The Bends

Key Tracks: High And Dry, Fake Plastic Trees, Just, My Iron Lung


6. Weezer - Weezer (The Blue Album)

Key Tracks: Buddy Holly, Say It Ain't So, Holiday, Only In Dreams


5. Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica

Key Tracks: 3rd Planet, Gravity Rides Everything, Dark Center of the Universe, Paper Thin Walls


4. The Strokes - Is This It?

Key Tracks: Someday, Last Nite, Hard to Explain, Take It Or Leave It


3. Incubus - Morning View

Key Tracks: Nice To Know You, Wish You Were Here, 11AM, Under My Umbrella, Aqueous Transmission


2. Tool - Lateralus

Key Tracks: The Grudge, Schism, Parabola, Lateralus


1. Radiohead - OK Computer

Key tracks: Paranoid Android, Subterranean Homesick Alien, Let Down, Karma Police

3 - Incubus

If this is right, I'd rather be wrong.

If this is sight, I'd rather be blind.

At numero tres is alternative rock band, Incubus. Incubus was my favorite band all through grade school and through some of high school, and was my first real concert that I attended.

Wiki - Incubus is an American rock band, from Calabasas, California. The band was formed in 1991 by vocalist Brandon Boyd, lead guitarist Mike Einziger, and drummer Jose Pasillas while enrolled in high school. The band expanded to include bassist Alex "Dirk Lance" Katunich, and Gavin "DJ Lyfe" Koppell, both of whom were eventually replaced by bassist Ben Kenney, and DJ Kilmore respectively.

Incubus has received both critical acclaim and commercial success, reaching multi-platinum sales, as well as releasing several highly successful singles. The band started branching out creatively and earned mainstream recognition with the release of their 1999 album Make Yourself. In 2001, Incubus became hugely successful with the single "Drive" and their follow up album Morning View. Their latest studio album, Light Grenades, debuted at #1 in 2006 and has received Gold certification in the U.S. Incubus released their first greatest hits album Monuments and Melodies in June 2009, accompanied by a tour of the United States and Canada.

Discography -

Fungus Amongus (1995)
S.C.I.E.N.C.E. (1997)
Make Yourself (1999)
Morning View (2001)*
A Crow Left of the Murder... (2004)
Light Grenades (2006)
*-best album/top ten fave album

Top 20 Incubus Songs

20 - Pardon Me
19 - Talk Shows On Mute
18 - Stellar
17 - Dig
16 - Circles
15 - Warning
14 - Aqueous Transmission
13 - Nice to Know You
12 - Are You In?
11 - Hilikus
10 - 11AM
9 - Psychopsilocybin
8 - Idiot Box
7 - Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)
6 - Sink Beneath The Line
5 - Wish You Were Here
4 - Under My Umbrella
3 - Sick Sad Little World
2 - Deep Inside
1 - Nowhere Fast


I've seen Incubus 3 times, and that number needs to go up. I'm hoping they tour again in 2011 because I missed them last time they came around. There may be better musicians on this countdown, but there aren't better people.







Old Incubus is way different than newer Incubus, but both kick ass, so both are getting their due in my blog



next up: my top ten albums

Best of the Rest

In the spirit of music lists, here are my favorite songs that definitely deserved to be recognized from bands that did not make my top 100 (at least they wouldn't have in February)


Minus the Bear - Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse


Thrice - Stare at the Sun


Mos Def - Quiet Dog


Jay-Z - 99 Problems


Fatboy Slim - That Old Pair of Jeans


Street Sweeper Social Club - 100 Little Curses


Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated


Passion Pit - The Reeling


Cake - The Distance


Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up


Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal


The Used - I Caught Fire


Wu-Tang Clan - Wu Tang Clan Ain't Nothing To Fuck With (Tom Morello remix)


Streetlight Manifesto - Somewhere In The Between


Talib Kweli - Get By


Rancid - Ruby Soho


Temple of the Dog - Say Hello 2 Heaven


Yeasayer - O.N.E.


Aaaaaand guilty pleasure time:

Earth Wind & Fire - Shining Star


Rod Stewart - Gasoline Alley

4 - Tool

We'll ride the spiral to the end, and may just go where no one's been.

At number 4 is metal icons, Tool. The above quote is so awesome that it made my middle school yearbook quote. What an honor.

Wiki Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1990. Since their inception, the band's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since 1995, Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour. Tool has won three Grammy Awards, performed worldwide tours, and produced albums topping the charts in several countries.

Tool emerged with a heavy metal sound on their first studio album Undertow in 1993, and later became a dominant act in the alternative metal movement with the release of their second effort, Ænima, in 1996. Their efforts to unify musical experimentation, visual arts, and a message of personal evolution continued with Lateralus (2001) and the most recent album 10,000 Days (2006), gaining the band critical acclaim and success around the world.

Due to Tool's incorporation of visual arts and relatively long and complex releases, the band is generally described as a style-transcending act and part of progressive rock and art rock. The relationship between the band and today's music industry is ambivalent, at times marked by censorship and the band members' insistence on privacy.

Discography -

* Undertow (1993)
* Ænima (1996)
* Lateralus (2001)*
* 10,000 Days (2006)
*-best album/top 10 favorite

Top 20 Tool Songs:

20 - The Grudge
19 - Sober
18 - Rosetta Stoned
17 - Flood
16 - Third Eye
15 - H.
14 - Right in Two
13 - Parabola
12 - Intolerance
11 - Opiate
10 - Jambi
9 - Vicarious
8 - Eulogy
7 - Stinkfist
6 - The Pot
5 - Aenema
4 - Forty Six and 2
3 - Schism
2 - Lateralus
1 - Prison Sex



Tool Lyrics:

"I'm breathing so I guess I'm still alive, even if signs seem to tell me other wise."

"I know the pieces fit, cause I watched them fall apart."

"Vicariously I live while the whole world dies. Much better you than I."

"Pain is an illusion."

"Silence leech and stay out of my way"

"Learn to swim"

"Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA. The only way to fix it is to flush it all away."





Picture hint was Tim Allen. It's "Tool Time"!
And hey, I was here!


next up: my favorite songs from bands that didnt make this countdown

5 - Modest Mouse

THE TOP FIVE IS FINALLY HERE! NOW HERE's FIVE AWESOME BANDS THAT SOUND NOTHING LIKE EACH OTHER!

In this life that we call home, the years go fast and the days go so slow.

At number 5 is Modest Mouse, the second best band to quote on this countdown. Like seriously, some of the lyrics Isaac Brock writes are some of the best things I've ever read. But maybe that's because I haven't read many books.

Wiki - Modest Mouse is an American indie rock band formed in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington by singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. They are based in Portland, Oregon. Since their 1996 debut album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About, their lineup has centered around Brock, Green and Judy. Guitarist Johnny Marr (formerly of The Smiths) joined the band in May 2006, along with percussionist Joe Plummer (formerly of the Black Heart Procession) and multi-instrumentalist Tom Peloso, to work on the album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. Guitarist Jim Fairchild joined the band in February 2009.

The band has accrued significant mainstream success since being signed to Sony's Epic Records in 2000 and have been one of the leading bands in the popularization of indie rock, beginning with The Moon & Antarctica and Good News for People Who Love Bad News, which have been certified gold and platinum by the RIAA respectively. They have gone on to sell over three million records since. Elements of Modest Mouse's early sound have been likened to or inspired by that of Pixies and numerous other alternative rock and space rock bands. Their name is derived from a passage from the Virginia Woolf story "The Mark on the Wall" which reads, "I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises."


Discography -

Studio albums
This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About (1996)
The Lonesome Crowded West (1997)*
The Moon & Antarctica (2000)*^
Good News for People Who Love Bad News (2004)
We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (2007)

EPs
Blue Cadet-3, Do You Connect? (1994)
Interstate 8 (1996)
The Fruit That Ate Itself (1997)
Night on the Sun (1999)
Building Nothing Out of Something (2000)
Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks (2001)
Sad Sappy Sucker (2001)
Baron von Bullshit Rides Again (2004)
No One's First and You're Next (2009)

*best albums
^top 10 favorite album

Top 20 Modest Mouse songs (deciding this alone almost took the whole 2.5 weeks between posts)

20 Dashboard
19 Gravity Rides Everything
18 Satelitte Skin
17 The View
16 Dark Center of the Universe
15 Ocean Breathes Salty
14 Jesus Christ Was An Only Child
13 Tiny Cities Made of Ashes
12 Float On
11 Parting of the Sensory
10 Florida
9 Spitting Venom
8 Night On The Sun
7 Never Ending Math Equation
6 Talking Sh*t About A Pretty Sunset
5 Missed the Boat
4 Dramamine
3 Trailer Trash
2 3rd Planet
1 Styrofoam Boots/It's All Nice, Alright




Modest Mouse is sharp, poignant indie rock. It is loud and aggressive, but it is also peaceful and ambient. Frontman Isaac Brock is known for his strong stage presence. Seeing them live is a must as they change their setlist around show-to-show, which I really respect in a band (see Pearl Jam), and you never know what shenanigan Brock might get into with the crowd.

For me, MM is introspective, and I love listening to them while contemplating life. LCW and tM&A are both worth listening to front to end, and Dramamine is my hangover song.

Now check them out, and their two drummers.




Ah yes, the clue for ModestMouse was the drawings done by the late Heath (Heath Heath Heath Heath) Ledger for the music video of the song "King Rat". The next clue is not quite so obvious.





next up: Shadows, Spirals, and Sodomy.

The Top Five

There you go. That should be easy enough to figure out, but don't worry I'll still do my posts on each of the top 5 bands.