The Dominating D's Part 3: Ronnie James Dio and Other Rockers (Finished July 2nd, 2014)

Hello,

"Holy Diver":

"Rainbow In The Dark":

"The Last In Line":

"One Night In The City":

"Shoot Shoot":

"Shame On The Night":

"Stand Up and Shout":

"Egypt (The Chains Are On)":

"Straight Through The Heart":



Halestorm's version of "Straight Through The Heart":

"We Rock":

"Invisible":



"I Speed At Night":



"Mystery":



"Hungry For Heaven":

Rick Derringer "Rock N' Roll Hoochie Koo":

Dennis DeYoung "Desert Moon":

Disturbed "Stupify":

"Down With The Sickness":

D Generation's "No Way Out":

Damn Yankees' "High Enough":

"Where You Goin' Now":

Dead Rock West's "Highway One":

Dope's "Addiction":

The Donnas' "All Messed Up":

"Not The One":

themusicaddict

The Phenomenal F's: Best Songs By Artists Who's Name Begins With F 1: Furtado, FYC, Fratellis, Fleetwood Mac + More (Updated June 28th, 2015)

Hello,

Another exciting edition of my alphabet blogs, as of now I have enough songs for 2 1/2 F blogs. With a full time job and so many other time constraints on my life I'm not able to spend as much time blogging as I would like. That's why this is a partial blog and I hope to finish it soon by adding videos for these artists great songs.

1) The Fiery Furnaces' "Single Again":



"Straight Street":

2) The amazing Nelly Furtado's "Explode":



"Turn Off The Light":



".....On The Radio "(Remember The Days)":

3) The best kind of cannibals, Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy":



"Good Thing":

4) Fergie's "Beautiful Dangerous":



"A Little Party Never Killed On One (All We Got)":



"Mary Jane Shoes":

5) Franz Ferdinand's "This Fire":



"Take Me Out":



"Dark of the Matinee":

6) Firefall's "Strange Way":

7) Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus":

8) Dan Fogelberg's "Auld Lang Syne":

9) Fratellis' "Whistle For The Choir":



"Creepin' Up The Back Stairs":

10) Foxy Shazam's "Heaven On Their Minds":



"Holy Touch":

11) The Four Seasons' "December 1963 (Oh What A Night)":



"Walk Like A Man":

12) You can always tell a Fall Out Boy song, as they all sound the same. But everyone in awhile they break through the sameness and mediocrity. As they did with "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)":

13) Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain":

"Landslide":

14) Flaming Lips's "She Don't Use Jelly":

15) Flight of the Conchords' "Inner City Pressure":

16) Foghat's "Slow Ride":

17) Foster The People's "Houdini" (Haven't you heard that one song enough?):

themusicaddict

Domo Arigato "Mr. Robot": One Of The Best Pilots I've Ever Seen

Hello,

If this seems a bit jumbled, it's because it is. Like Elliot I'm just another faceless drone at a large company. Also like Elliot I have to earn a living, even though it continues to slowly kill my soul. I would love to work on this blog more, but I have to serve my corporate masters for 40 hours a week. I will work on this as I can.

I'm not big into hype, so please believe me with what I say next. "Mr. Robot" was one of the best pilots I've ever seen in my life. It's both hopeful and frightening, positive and negative, enlightening and scary as hell. In fact I'm not sure how this show was even made in the first place. One shouldn't bite the hand that feeds. "Mr. Robot" doesn't just bite the hand that feeds it, it chews it thoroughly.

The show follows the life of Elliot, a person that has a lot of scars. He grew up in an unsettled home and hasn't learned how to truly process feelings and the outside world. He purposely walks around in a hoodie with the hood up, it's his way to limit contact with humans. Elliot is self-sufficient and so he doesn't need much from anyone else. Although he's a brilliant hacker, he works as a drone in a faceless corporate America company. He tries to remain as obscure as possible.

The boogeyman in this show is E Corp, nicknamed Evil Corp, a large company that has it's tentacles in about 70% of the world's institutions. A nice twist is that Elliot works for AllSafe, the firm that is suppose to protect E Corp from hackers.

Elliot has more contact with people through their Facebook et. al profiles than with them in person. He's not big into bullshit. While he tries to be polite to people, he doesn't go out of his way to encourage extended interaction with those that he doesn't want to deal with. About the only person he wants to deal with is childhood friend Angela. In dealing with Angela's boyfriend, the boyfriend doesn't like the awkwardness in his and Elliot's relationship. However Elliot tells him that he's okay with the awkwardness, he doesn't want to be any closer with the boyfriend than he has to be.

Elliot and Angela make a connection at the end of the pilot. If this show wants to avoid cliches (please USA Network and creator Sam Esmail avoid cliches- you don't want to be like every other show) then these two should not get together! Although it was a nice moment after their weirdly awkward and intimate hug when they thought everyone in the room was looking at them. But they weren't they were looking at the TVs that was showing the breaking news that the CTO of E Corp was being arrested.

While this was a great pilot, it did feel like it went on a little too long. But on the other hand I didn't want it to end.

What exactly is Mr. Robot? Is Mr. Robot truly independent of E Corp, and others of it's ilk? Or is it just another part of E Corp to protect itself from hackers?

I've been trying to think who E Corp is it based on. Back in the day I would have said Microsoft, but they are so much less relevant than they use to be just a few years ago. At least that's what they would have us believe. I still have to use Windoze computers at work, in fact I've had at all of my jobs.

Anyway "Mr. Robot" is a solid show all around. In fact, I feel like I missed a lot while watching the pilot, so I'm going to watch it again. I give the pilot an A+. Now the trick is can they stretch that out through 10 episodes. Netflix's "Bloodline" was able to stretch out the quality of it's first season over 10 episodes, too bad it went for 13 episodes. Since "Mr. Robot" was renewed for a second season I'm hoping that's a sign that the storytelling remains compelling.

themusicaddict

The Dominating D's Part 2: The Dixie Chicks and Duran Duran (Finished June 29th, 2015)

Hello,

Originally I was going to shove most of the great songs of The Doors, Def Leppard, Dio, The Dixie Chicks, Duran Duran and Depeche Mode all into one blog. But that would have made a ridiculously long blog, so I have broken that down into multiple blogs. This blog is dedicated to the great songs of The Dixie Chicks and Duran Duran. As I write this blog on this Sunday night, I'm in a Duran Duran mood. That's why I'm starting with them. I saw them in concert at Wolf Mountain in Park City. This was when they were on their comeback tour, quite simply they were amazing.

"A View To A Kill":

"A View To A Kill" (Live)

"Rio":

I love this song so much! "Ordinary World":

The other amazing ballad from their comeback CD, the so-called "Wedding Album", this is "Come Undone":

"Girls On Film":

"Is There Something I Should Know":

"Hungry Like The Wolf":

"Hungry Like The Wolf" (Live):

"Union of the Snake":

"The Reflex":

"The Wild Boys":

"Notorious":

"Save A Prayer":

The Dixie Chicks 

"Everybody Knows":

"I Hope":

"You Were Mine":

"Hole In My Head":

"Ready To Run":

"Not Ready To Make Nice":

"Baby Hold On":

"Wide Open Spaces":

"Sin Wagon":

"Without You":

"Cold Day In July":

"Don't Waste Your Heart":

"Cowboy Take Me Away":

"Let 'Er Rip":

"Once You've Loved Somebody":

Now this is just a great song: "Loving Arms":

"Landslide":

Yes, I realize I didn't include "Goodbye Earl". A great song, but the Dixie Chicks have many other great but lesser known songs. I wanted to give those songs some love.

themusicaddict

The Dominating D's, Part 1: Best of The Doors and Def Leppard (Completed June 29th, 2015)

Hello,

It didn't seem right to only give one song to each of these 3 bands. These bands have created some of the most iconic, controversial, fun, hard charging and enjoyable music ever. Enjoy! These bands are in no particular order. I've seen Def Leppard in concert 4 times. One of my most favorite concerts was their Hysteria tour. But I also saw them at the Salt Lake Fairgrounds, where you would think that they would mail in it. However they came out that night and played like it mattered. I was on the second row and despite where the location, it was one of the best concerts I've ever been too.

The Doors:

"The End" in all it's full and filthy glory:

"When The Music Is Over":

My favorite of the Doors lesser known songs "Love Street":

"Touch Me":

"L.A. Woman":

"Love Her Madly":

"Riders On The Storm":

"Five To One":



"Hello, I Love You":



"People Are Strange":



Jim Morrison's "Severed Garden (Adagio)":



"Break On Through":



"Waiting For The Sun":



"Alabama Song":



"Roadhouse Blues":

Def Leppard:

"Pour Some Sugar On Me":



"Women":



"Rocket":



"Gods of War":



"Too Late For Love":



"Foolin' ":



"Bringin' On The Heartbreak":



"Don't Shoot Shotgun":



"Heaven Is":



"Let's Get Rocked":



"Love and Affection":



"Animal":



"Rock Rock (Till You Drop)":



"Excitable":



"Love Bites":



"Rock of Ages":



"Action":



"Stagefright":



"Photograph":



"Hysteria":

themusicaddict

Best of the Awesome A's: Best Song(s) of Artists Whose Names Starts With A Part 3: The Alarm, Against Me! and Alice In Chains (Partial Blog)

Hello,

I was only going to pick 10 artists to find their best songs, but after going through my iTunes I realized I hadn't written down Aerosmith and Arcade Fire. Then I remembered/ discovered several other artists that I hadn't included. Here are the best songs for 18 artists whose names begins with the letter A. I may or may not add other A artists as I go through this process.

Against Me's "New Wave":

"Stop" (The language will be offensive to some. In fact, Against Me! will rock just as much if they completely stopped using the F bomb.):

Alabama Shakes' "Hold On":

Audioslave's "Dandelion":

The Alarm's "The Stand":

Autograph's "Turn Up The Radio":

The Animals' "San Franciscan Nights":

Ace's "How Long":

Acceptance's "Different":

Adassa's "You Got Me":

Addison Road's "All That Matters":

Adrenaline Mob's "Undaunted":

After The Fire's "Der Kommissar":

All-4-One's "I Swear":

Alkaline Trio's "This Could Be Love":

Alien Ant Farm's "Smooth Criminal":

Almost Sunday's "Last Night": as of this time, there's no video for this song.

Animotion's "Obsession":

Alice In Chain's "Rooster":

"Would?":



"Down In A Hole":

themusicaddict

The Best of the Awesome A's: Best Song(s) of Artists Whose Name Starts With A Part 2: Avicii, Adam Ant & America + More (FInished June 14th, 2015)

Hello,

I was only going to pick 10 artists to find their best songs, but after going through my iTunes I realized I hadn't written down Aerosmith and Arcade Fire. Here are the best songs for 17 artists whose names begins with the letter A. I may or may not add other A artists as I go through this process.

Why did I pick at least 17 artists for each blog? I have no idea why, it just felt right. Let's begin with some Avicii. I just couldn't pick one song between "Wake Me Up" and "Shame On Me":

Christina Aguilera's "Genie In A Bottle", her first big hit is still her best song:

Joan Armatrading's "The Weakness In Me":

American Authors "Home":

The Arctic Monkeys' "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor":

Ace of Base's "Don't Turn Around":



Ashes Remain's "On My Own":



Paula Abdul's "Straight Up":



"Cold Hearted":



One of my all-time favorite songs. America's "Sister Golden Hair":



American Bang's "Wild and Young":



Arrested Development's "Mr. Wendal":



"Tennessee":



Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up":



Ambrosia's "Biggest Part Of Me":



Trace Adkins' "(This Ain't) No Thinkin' Thing":



Ryan Adams "New York New York":



Acid House Kings "This Heart Is A Stone":



Adam Ant "Desperate But Not Serious":

themusicaddict

Yeah, You Can Skip It/ That Or Leave It Behind 2, But Some Things Are Worth Checking Out

Hello,

Things that you can skip or leave behind include:

1) "Under The Dome": the Stephen King book and the terrible TV show based on his less than great book.

2) "Mr. Mercedes": the best part of this book is getting to know the characters at the unemployment fair until Mr. Mercedes kills them. Mr. Mercedes, Brady Hartsfield, is one of the most loathsome characters in modern fiction.

3) "Finders Keepers": I read the excerpt in a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly. This except was King at his best. If he would have stayed with that story line from the excerpt I would be standing in line to read the book. Unfortunately the threesome, a very uninteresting threesome, Jerome, Holly and Det. Hodges are back. Once I found out these three folks were in it, I had no desire to read "Finders Keepers".

4) "The Royals": oh what out so strong ended so weakly. It reminds me a lot of "Tyrants", both shows started out so strongly. Sadly "Tyrants" had one of the worst season finales ever. "Royals" had a slightly better season finale, but I hate when loathsome characters win. Vincent Regan was so good as the king! If you aren't willing to go all the way and kill off main characters, then you shouldn't put those characters in precarious situations. Because if your characters continue to barely elude death several times then you're just like every other show. (i.e. the reason why Season 1 of "Homeland" wasn't the perfect season of television.)

Things you definitely need to check out, include:

1) The 100th Honest Trailer for "50 Shades of Grey":

2) Muse's new CD "Drones" Honestly I'm not a big Muse fan. I am a big rock music fan, although I can't think of that many mainstream rock bands. Sure there's Nickelback, but let's be honest they suck. They are corporate rock at the worst and they don't have a hint of danger about them. It's not like the good old days when one never knew what we were going to get out of Motley Crue or Guns N' Roses. Heck I went to an AC/DC concert where people died, not that I'm advocating that.

Anyway back to Muse: I've liked a few of their songs especially "Uprising". That song kicks butt. But when it comes to mainstream rock bands, they're probably the closest we have to a real rock band, Due to that I've always paid attention to them, hoping they could break through to that next level. I read about them and their new CD, "Drones" in a recent issue of Rolling Stone. I found out this CD's producer was Mutt Lange- you know the guy who produced "Hysteria" and "Back In Black" and some how improbably married the gorgeous Shania Twain. So thanks to my subscription with Rdio I listened to "Drones" a couple of times today. My first impression is that it's a good CD and has some great songs on it. It's definitely worth a listen or two, perhaps real rock isn't dead?

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Songs That Have Caught My Attention Lately

Hello,

This blog is dedicated to those songs that caught my attention of late. As I was writing my blogs about the 130 most played songs on my iTunes, I realized that I post the same songs over and over again. With this blog I'm going for posting songs that haven't been posted in my blog as often.

Ace of Base's "The Sign":

This video for Gratitude's "Sadie" only has 2,653 listens? That's a damn shame!:

Lit's "My Own Worst Enemy":

Aerosmith's "Hangman Jury":

The Lightning Seeds' "Pure":

Danny Wilson's "Mary's Prayer":

Shinedown's "Enemies":

Nikka Costa's "Everybody Got Their Something":

Collin Raye's "Someone You Used To Know":

This is probably the song that inspired this blog the most. Out on my morning walk the other day and I was on the back stretch of that walk. This song came on and I remembered how much I love this song. I love both Soundgarden and Audioslave, but this may be Chris Cornell's et al. best work. This is just an incredible song. Audioslave's "Dandelion":

Katy Perry's "Wide Awake":

Arcade Fire's "Crown Of Love":

The Aquabats "Red Sweater":

I may add more songs later.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Top 100 + iTunes Countdown Part 11: The Top 9 Songs

Hello,

This is the continuing top 100 + most played songs in my iTunes library. This is a no longer a living list. I spent over 3 hours on June 6th, 2015 finalizing these iTunes countdown blogs. After spending all that time on it, I've locked this blog. These are the Top 9 most played songs on my iTunes. As always I presented each song with a video. Occasionally I'll post a bonus video, if I do so I'll list it as a bonus song.

In () is what the song was ranked on my iTunes countdown roughly one year ago. Debut obviously means it's that songs first time in my iTunes countdown.

These four Taylor Swift songs are tied for 6th place with 41 listens. I'm ranking them in order of how much I like them, from less good to the best.

6) "Fifteen" (This is one of my least favorite Taylor Swift songs, but still a decent song.) (Tied for 7th Place):

6) "Teardrops On My Guitar" (Tied for 5th Place):

6) "Picture To Burn" (Tied for 7th Place):

One of my favorite of Miss Swift's songs. 6) "Our Song" (Tied for 7th Place):

5) Jan & Dean "Dead Man's Curve" (Alone In 4th Place)

Tied for 3rd with 45 listens:

This song still rocks nearly 30 years after it's release. 3) Europe's "The Final Countdown" (Tied for 2nd Place):

3) The Beastie Boys "Girls" (Tied for 5th Place):

2) Dolly Parton's "Me and Little Andy" (Tied for 2nd Place):

1) Charlie Daniels Band "The Devil Went Down To Georgia (All alone in 1st Place):

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Top 100 + iTunes Countdown Part 10: Songs Tied For 15th, 12th and 10th

Hello,

This is the continuing top 100 + most played songs in my iTunes library. This is a no longer a living list. I spent over 3 hours on June 6th finalizing these iTunes countdown blogs. After spending all that time on it, I'm locked this blog. These songs are tied for 15th, 12th and 10th place for most played songs on my iTunes. Occasionally I'll post a bonus video, if I do so I'll list it as a bonus song. For this blog I added 3 more Band Perry songs. I'm so very excitedly going to see them in concert on July 25th.

In () is what the song was ranked on my iTunes countdown roughly one year ago. Debut obviously means it's that songs first time in my iTunes countdown.

Tied for 15th Place with 37 listens:

15) LMFAO (featuring Lauren Bennett) "Party Rock" (Tied for 11th):

15) U2 and B.B. King's "When Love Comes To Town" (Tied for 22nd):

Tied for 12th Place with 38 listens:

12) The Band Perry "If I Die Young" (Tied for 19th Place)

Bonus song: my current favorite The Band Perry song "Done":

Bonus song: "You Lie":

Bonus song, and finally the Brandy Clark written song "Better Dig Two":

12) Chicago's "Alive Again" (Tied for 22nd Place):

12) Justin Bieber's "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" (10th Place):

Tied for 10th Place with 39 listens:

10) One Republic's "Apologize" (Tied for 11th Place):

10) Taylor Swift's "Should've Said No" (Tied for 13th Place):

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Top 100 + iTunes Countdown, Part 9: Songs Tied at 20th and 17th

Hello,

This is the continuing top 100 + most played songs in my iTunes library. This is a no longer a living list. I spent over 3 hours today finalizing these iTunes countdown blogs. After spending all that time on it today I'm locking this blog. Five songs are tied for 30th place with 34 listens, those songs are presented below (with videos). Occasionally I'll post a bonus video, if I do so I'll list it as a bonus song.

In () is what the song was ranked on my iTunes countdown roughly one year ago. Debut obviously means it's that songs first time in my iTunes countdown.

Songs tied for 20th place with 35 listens:

20) Billy Joel's "The Downeaster 'Alexa'" (Tied for 13th Place):

Bonus video: Billy Joel and band performing "Pressure":

20) Eagles "Desperado" (Tied for 13th Place) :

20) The Raiders "Indian Reservation" (Tied for 13th Place):

20) Taylor Swift's "Love Story" (Tied for 19th Place):

20) Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" (Tied for 40th Place):

Songs tied for 17th place with 36 listens:

17) Arcade Fire's "Sprawl 2 (Mountains Beyond Mountains) (Tied for 19th Place):

Bonus: Here's the same song live:

17) Blake Shelton's "Ol' Red" (Tied for 35th Place) :

17) Smash Mouth's "All Star" (Tied for 13th Place):

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Top 100 + iTunes Countdown Part 8, Songs Tied For 25th Place

Hello,

This is the continuing top 100 + most played songs in my iTunes library. This is a living list, meaning if a song plays on my iTunes it will be updated in these blogs. Five songs are tied for 30th place with 34 listens, those songs are presented below (with videos). Occasionally I'll post a bonus video, if I do so I'll list it as a bonus song.

In () is what the song was ranked on my iTunes countdown roughly one year ago. Debut obviously means it's that songs first time in my iTunes countdown.

25) Elvis Costello's "Alison" (Tied for 26th Place):

25) Jeff Carson's "The Car" (Tied for 22nd Place) (I'm a bit embarrassed this song is so high on my iTunes countdown.):

25) Lionel Richie's "All Night Long (All Night)" (Tied for 87th Place):

25) Poison's "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" (Tied for 35th Place) (I've absolutely loved this song ever since I first heard it.):

25) Taylor Swift's "Mean" (Tied for 22nd Place):

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Top 100 + iTunes Countdown Part 7: Songs Tied For 30th Place + An Impromptu Tribute To Lady Gaga

Hello,

This is the continuing top 100 + most played songs in my iTunes library. This is a living list, meaning if a song plays on my iTunes it will be updated in these blogs. Seven songs are tied for 30th place with 33 listens, those songs are presented below (with videos). Occasionally I'll post a bonus video, if I do so I'll list it as a bonus song.

In () is what the song was ranked on my iTunes countdown roughly one year ago. Debut obviously means it's that songs first time in my iTunes countdown.

30) Colbie Caillat's "Bubbly" (Tied for 26th Place):

30) Jeremy Fisher's "Snowflakes" (Tied for 35th Place):

30) Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" (Tied for 26th Place) (One of the most innovative and creative singers/ songwriters of the past decade. Although I wish she would rely more on song craft than sex):



Bonus song: Lady Gaga's "You and I":



Lady Gaga's "The Fame":



Other great songs by Lady Gaga:

"Teeth":



"Monster":



"Just Dance":



Paper Gangster":



I was just thinking the other day that Lady Gaga has been noticeably silent of late. No weird clothes, no awkward appearances, no arriving in an egg. Well I hope she comes back soon with more amazing music. Although that take on the Cher classic "Bang, Bang ( My Baby Shot Me Down)" isn't very good at all.

30) Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" (Tied for 40th Place):

30) Stan Ridgway's "Camouflauge" (Tied for 60th Place) (Yes, this is the version that plays on my iTunes and I love every second of this song, especially the goose bump giving end.):

30) Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" (Tied for 26th Place):

30) Taylor Swift's "Tim McGraw" (Tied for 26th Place):

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Top 100 + iTunes Countdown Part 6, Songs Tied For 37th + An Impromptu Tribute To The Great Whitney Houston

Hello,

This is the continuing top 100 + most played songs in my iTunes library. This is a living list, meaning if a song plays on my iTunes it will be updated in these blogs. Nine songs are tied for 37th place with 32 listens, those songs are presented below (with videos). Occasionally I'll post a bonus video, if I do so I'll list it as a bonus song.

In () is what the song was ranked on my iTunes countdown roughly one year ago. Debut obviously means it's that songs first time in my iTunes countdown. As this is a living blog, both Tift Merrit's "Mixtape" and Olivia Newton-John's "Make A Move On Me" have both played once since I started this countdown. Thus they moved from 31 to 32 listens and from the previous blog to this blog.

37) Bell X1: "Eve, The Apple Of My Eye" (Tied for 54th Place):

37) Don Henley's "New York Minute"(Debut) : 

Bonus song, Don Henley's "The End of the Innocence":

37) Linda Ronstadt's "Trouble Again" (Tied For 74th Place):

Bonus song: Miss Ronstadt and Aaron Neville's  "All My Life":

37) Olivia Newton-John "Make A Move On Me" (Tied for 26th Place):



37) Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl" (Tied for 40th Place):

37) Taylor Swift's "White Horse"(Tied for 26th Place):

37) Taylor Swift's "Dear John"(Tied for 40th Place) (I'm not a big fan of this song any more):

37) Whitney Houston's "Didn't We Have It All" (Tied For 26th Place): (Back in the day one of the most beautiful and one of the most talented women in the world. I wasn't very happy with the available videos for this song. One of the most amazing singers in the world, yet so many of her live arrangements were terrible. Then the video below isn't real great either.)



The next songs are bonus songs. I'm going to add some other Whitney songs. When she was on she was possibly the greatest female singer of all. "The Greatest Love Of All":



"Saving All My Love For You":



"Where Do Broken Hearts Go":



"Just The Lonely Talking Again":



"You Give Good Love":



Whitney with Mom Cissy, from "Chess" "I Know Him So Well":

37) Tift Merrit's "Mixtape" (Tied for 40th Place):

themusicaddict