B Side Presents, "A Year In Review"

Today marks a really big day for all of us at the B Side. It's been ONE YEAR since I started blogging. I'm not sure about you, but that absolutely blows my mind. We've amassed around 500 posts, about 25,000 unique visitor hits and somewhere around 1,000 comments. I've personally reviewed 435 albums - which has been nothing but fun the whole time. Here's to another year of fun, and hopefully all you guys keep reading, and tell your friends too. I'd like to keep getting more readers, more comments and maybe even more writing. I don't want to overload you guys at all - but I think getting multiple perspectives could be exciting. Thanks for reading and continuing to read. Please keep the comments coming and the suggestions plentiful. I couldn't do it without you guys.

Now for a little fun. I want to reflect on some stuff from the year. Hopefully you guys join me and do the same!

Favorite Artist I'd Never Listened To Before: The Black Keys. Around April of last year I decided to pick up the entire Black Keys catalog on a whim. I'd heard a song played on a new TV show I enjoyed, so I decided to look up who it was by. The first album I listened to was 'Magic Potion' and I fell in love. These guys are coming to Summerfest, and I really want to go. Their style is so unique with what else is out there today. Very refreshing.

Favorite Album I'd Never Listened To Before: Passion Pit - Manners. It took me a year to hear about this and listen to it - but once I did, I knew I loved it. Like the Keys, it's just different from what else is out there. Shoutout to Shaqwanda for tuning me into this one. It's been nothing but regular play ever since.

Favorite New Album: There was some really good stuff that came out over the last year. REALLY good stuff. To list some off, Eminem - Recover; Eels - End Times; Deadmau5 - 4x4=12; Arcade Fire - Suburbs; Black Keys - Brothers; STP - Self Titled. Those all saw and do see regular play for me. But based on sheer number of plays thufar - the winner is Kanye West - My Beautiful, Dark Twisted Fantasy. I think I skip one track on the album and that's it. Top to bottom, it's a great album to listen to.

Favorite New (To Me) Artist: I didn't pick up on a lot of new artists in the last year. I don't have a great outlet to pick up on bands that are just forming. If you have any suggestions, let me know. But the most recent band that I can think of that I really enjoy is Cage The Elephant. Their debut album rocked my world for a while and I've been digging the new one quite a bit too. Very much worth checking out if you haven't already.

Favorite Album I Blew The Dust Off Of: Tie. This is a tie between Nirvana - In Utero and Fugees - The Score. In either case, how could I forget about it? In Utero was flat out amazing. And if you think you know it because you know the "hits", you're way off base. The best songs are the ones you don't know about. And Fugees? Wow. Maybe I shouldn't have stopped listening to this as a teenager. As an adult, I love this way more than I did back in the day.

Favorite Artist I Blew The Dust Off: Without question, Radiohead. I backed out of my big Radiohead phase in college. I remember thinking that I was going to drop into deep depression if I kept it going. Now, it doesn't have that effect on me. And the stuff that came out since then is simply brilliant. Kid A is flat out amazing. But so is OK Computer, The Bends and EVERY other album they've done.

Thing I've Learned Most: There is a lot. I don't hate country music. I actually like quite a bit of it. Pop music today fails to meet the gold standards it's set in the past. Gaga is good, but nothing is quite like Jacko and Madonna back in the day. I adore new music. Putting on an album I've never heard of before is very exciting to me. Even if i hated it, I still come away smiling for some reason. Techno music makes running on a treadmill or doing an hour on the elliptical WAY easier.

I STILL WANT TO LEARN MORE: I appreciate and really take to heart all the feedback you guys give me. Please keep it coming. Anything I can do to make this thing better and get more and more people interested, I'm all for doing. It seems silly for just a blog, but I'd love for this to turn into something bigger someday....someday.


Thanks for a great year one! Here's to an ever greater year two!

Cheers!