A-Town Playlist: Top Spotify Songs of 2018

It's now a tradition - the year-end A-Town Playlist! 2018 marks the first year in which I seriously used the Spotify app to listen to music (and many, many podcasts) akt work, so I thought it would be fitting to compile 50 of my top songs from the past 12 months.

Although the playlist does contain some new songs that were released this year, it is largely comprised of my most frequently played Spotify tracks, including a few of my favorite bands, some classic hits and some tunes that I discovered along the way.

My 2018 playlist can be found here:

(https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0zgYlur0pgazS7laoYmchj)

While you're listening, check out a few highlights:

• I started the list with five songs that I constantly had on repeat, like the outrageous "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meat Loaf (who I met at FanX this fall), "Africa" by Weezer (which I decided I like more than the original by Toto) and Panic! at the Disco's catchy "Say Amen (Saturday Night)."

• Two of the first songs I listened to on Spotify this year, believe it or not, were "Meant to Be" by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line, and "Havana" by Camila Cabello. I don't know.

• Summer 2018 was full of concerts for me; I saw REO Speedwagon/Chicago, the Pixies/Weezer and Dierks Bentley (my first country concert!) - and my playlist has been organized accordingly. One section is dedicated to great songs by each of those bands!

• It was also fun to see that I have spent more than 24 hours listening to my favorite band, Weezer, this year. Thanks for the fun fact, Spotify!

• Of course, what would this summer have been without adding a number from the "LOST" soundtrack? As you may recall, I spent weeks and weeks binge-watching my favorite TV show, taking extensive notes and writing a bunch of blogs, only to find out that the Comic Con panel I was scheduled to be a part of had been cancelled without my knowledge. Disappointing, to say the least.

• Alice Merton, Welshly Arms, Bishop Briggs and The Interrupters headlined the group of new artists I discovered in 2018. I've included a few of their singles for your listening enjoyment.

• I went through a phase where I was listening to a bunch of cover songs. I've got that stint represented by The Struts' take on "Ballroom Blitz" and Bad Wolves' cover of "Zombie."

• There was a point in time this year when I realized that I didn't have Billy Joel's classic "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" in my iTunes. I quickly added it and listened to it a dozen or more times on Spotify. #NeverForget

• Speaking of Billy Joel, my first concert of my entire life was Billy Joel and Elton John. I'm not sure I appreciated the magnitude of that show as much as I should have, so I went to see Billy last November. When I heard that Elton John is embarking on his final tour in 2019, I had to buckle down and get tickets. I've commemorated that occasion with a song by the Rocket Man, himself. I'll be seeing him live for the last time next September.

• I was reminded how great The Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice?" is as I played the much-maligned video game "Fallout 76," which features that song on its in-game radio.

• Without a doubt, my most iconic fashion statement of 2018 was the glorious two or three weeks in which I sported a mustache. This I did in homage to Queen's legendary front man, Freddie Mercury, in anticipation of the film "Bohemian Rhapsody," which I highly recommend. While listening to the movie's soundtrack, I came across a song I had never previously heard - "Keep Yourself Alive," which quickly became one of my favorite tracks of the year.

• I had to throw in "Take Me Home, Country Roads"  - a song that has become somewhat of an annual thing in my home on Thanksgiving night. My mom plays the song on the piano while my siblings and I belt out a rousing rendition of John Denver's redneck anthem.

• As the year drew to a close, I finally got a promotion at work (to do the job I've essentially been doing since April). The job comes with a slight pay raise, so I decided to celebrate by getting myself concert tickets to see a band I've loved for more than a decade - The Goo Goo Dolls. "Black Balloon" and "Slide" were just two of the songs I started listening to again in preparation for the show at USANA Amphitheater next June.

That's it for this year! Hope you enjoyed the music, friends. If you feel so inclined, let me know what your top songs of 2018 were in the comments section below.

And finally, for your information, if you use Spotify and would like to see some interesting statistics about your listening habits from 2018, head over to https://spotifywrapped.com/.

Concert review: Weezer, Panic! at the Disco and Andrew McMahon

USANA Amphitheater was rocking last night as Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Panic! at the Disco and Weezer appeared in concert on July 26. It was my first time seeing all three of the bands in person and my group, consisting of three siblings and a friend, had an interesting experience, so I figured I'd blog about it. It's a first draft and is by no means the award-winning journalism that I'm sure your accustomed to me producing, but here are my rambling thoughts about each of the acts:

Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness

Andrew McMahon, formerly of Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin, and his new band started promptly at 7:00 PM, as we were making our way into the venue. We made it to our seats about half-way through the set and were able to listen to the final few songs the band performed. I was previously only familiar with two of Andrew McMahon's songs ("Cecilia and the Satellite" and "High Dive"), so my expectations were set pretty low - hopeful, but low. With that said, they did about all I could possibly expect from an opening band - put on an enjoyable performance that got me interested enough to go home and look up the rest of their stuff. Andrew seemed to be having a good time (I had no idea where he was for like five minutes because, apparently, he was out in the crowd and not up on stage), singing his hottest songs, rattling off some inspirational mumbo jumbo about parachutes and ultimately jumping up and doing some good, old-fashioned stomping on his piano keys. I mean, if you're going to play the piano for a living, why not, right?

RATING: 7 out of 10

Panic! at the Disco

Unlike their predecessor last night, I am familiar with a bit of Panic! at the Disco's music. They've got some fun stuff from the past 10 years or so (12, to be a little more precise), so I was a little excited and anxious to hear what they'd do in concert. They kicked things off with "Don't Threaten Me with a Good Time" from the 2016 album "Death of a Bachelor," which I had listened to a time or two in the days leading up to the concert, transitioned to the 2013 song "Vegas Lights" and launched into one of my favorite songs of theirs, "The Ballad of Mona Lisa," and the show progressed from there. Panic! would go on to play songs including "Nine in the Afternoon," the profanity-laden "Crazy=Genius," "Miss Jackson," "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" and (their closing number and most recent success) "Victorious." The highlight of their set was almost undoubtedly their cover of Queen's legendary mega-hit "Bohemian Rhapsody," which, I thought, was tremendous.

When I go to concerts, I try to give bands I'm not entirely familiar with the benefit of the doubt - I genuinely want to like them. This has worked out well for some bands (Guster, for instance) and unfavorably for others (Ben Folds Five, for instance, who followed Guster and was horrible). As much as I didn't want to say anything, I found lead singer Brendan Urie's otherworldly falsetto to be WAY out of tune for most of their set, especially in the opening three or four songs. (I've got video recordings to prove it.) The other problem I had was that -- now, I don't know if they just didn't realize that they were having an issue or whether they didn't properly do a sound check beforehand or whether it was just that I don't know the words to most of their songs -- but I couldn't understand a bloody thing the dude was singing. It all pretty much sounded like screaming and random wailing, for the most part. When Brendan talked to the audience, there wasn't much of an issue with clarity, but when the music kicked up, it almost all sounded like muffled, garbled garbage.

Music completely aside, I do have a bone to pick with Panic! at the Disco, and their aforementioned lead singer. As far as a front man goes, Brendan Urie is pretty much everything you want. The dude has got swag up the wazoo, is a heck of an on-stage dancer and has an incredible voice. But I knew we were in for it when he took a moment to pause from the music and explain that he was born in St. George, Utah, and raised by his parents in Las Vegas, where he said, "they thought it was a good idea to raise a Mormon kid." At first glance, it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the guy has intentionally distanced himself from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but he came straight out and said it, himself, to put all speculation to rest. He referred to Mormons as "very smart people" and said he has nothing against them, but had no issue taking slight jabs at the Church throughout the evening, at one point jokingly mocking the LDS repentance process by telling the audience that he wanted to confess a childhood sin like he would to a bishop. He prefaced his religious commentary by saying he didn't want to preach to us (because he got that for the first half of his life - a veiled reference to Mormon culture), but what he did for the remainder of the set was exactly that - he preached to us. Now, he wasn't preaching doctrine or trying to convert us to a different religion, but he bombarded the audience with constant suggestions that willy-nilly, premarital sex is what "we're supposed to" do here during mortality, which I didn't think was a great concept. Brendan also made a point to tell us that, since it's 2016, nobody has the right to tell us what to do - and if they try to, we should simply give them The Finger and say, "F--- you." Direct quote. How kind.

By far, the most humorous moment of the night was what Brendan referred to as "Hardcore Positive Thursday," which consisted of him screaming into the microphone for a minute and a half. (Listener discretion is advised if you decide to YouTube that, by the way.) It was an odd and fascinating metamorphosis from emo-punk rocker to scream-o monster. I'm sure he was trying to make some kind of profound statement or if he was just goofing around, but his surprising stream of F-words was shocking at first, but had us laughing the entire way home. What a fool. Honestly, what was he trying to prove? How "un-Mormon" he had become? It was all just very strange to me. Whatever makes you feel good, dude. I'm not going to judge him because what he chooses to say and do really have little-to-no lasting effect on my personal life, but I lot a lot of respect for the guy after his shenanigans last night. More than anything, I'm just disappointed in the guy.

Something that I believe many people don't understand about life in this P.C. society of ours is that you can disagree with people and not hate them. People leave the Church. I get it. But why do they have such a hard time leaving the Church alone? Sing your songs, do your thing, but leave the bitter-ex-Mormonism out of it, please.

And then there was the annoying Panic! fanbase, who could be easily identified out of the sold-out crowd by their tattered clothing, ridiculous haircuts and penchant for vaping. Stereotypically, they seemed to be the fanatically crazed type of millennial girls and emo-kids who go wild at the mere sight of a man taking his shirt off or discussing how his friend has been sober for two years (great news for the guy, but, like, why are we screaming at the top of our lungs for him? - he can't hear you!). Again, just kind of weird to me. Thankfully, a lot of the Panic! fans sitting around us left about 20 minutes into Weezer's set.

RATING: 4 out of 10

View the setlist here

Weezer

Weezer has been my favorite band for more than a decade, but I had never before seen them live in concert. Needless to say, when tickets went on pre-sale months ago, I bought mine immediately. My excitement for this show could not have been greater. I listened to every Weezer song in my iTunes library in the 24-hour period before the concert, so I was ready and raring to go.

Let me tell you this, Weezer could have stopped playing three songs in and still have blown away Panic! at the Disco. From the get-go, Rivers and the crew blasted "California Kids" from their new "White Album," then moved to "Hash Pipe" and their classic, "My Name is Jonas." From then on, it was an hour and a half of the band's greatest hits, including "(If You're Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To," "Perfect Situation," "Beverly Hills" and "Island in the Sun." They also were sure to include new songs like "King of the World" and "Thank God for Girls," to which I am proud to say I rapped along the entire time. Mid-way through the set, they broke out a medley of five songs that would have been nice to hear in their entirety, but I was happy to hear, nevertheless. The high point of the set, in my opinion, had to have been "Say It Ain't So," which practically broke into a gigantic audience sing-along. (Check my Instagram for a quick video. Watching it makes me a little emotional. I'm a nerd.) Also, it's worth mentioning that the gigantic, head-banging Troll dolls on the screen during "Say It Ain't So" were the greatest things ever. Weezer closed the night with an encore of "El Scorcho" and "Buddy Holly" to crown things off.

Front man Rivers Cuomo was everything I imagined (#mancrush), sounding identical to his recordings and embodying the rock dreams of nerds around the world. The man is like a modern-day Elton John, with some hilarious wardrobe changes - a sombrero, a Hawaiian lei and a cap/crown combo. During "Perfect Situation," Rivers made his way through the audience, down the aisle probably 15 feet away from where we were sitting (I slightly panicked and failed to get a picture due to nervousness), and later randomly encouraged the audience to join him in singing a partial cover of fun.'s "We Are Young."

Rivers is a legend. That's all I can say.

Admittedly, I'm a bit biased when it comes to my thoughts about Weezer. I was more prepared for this concert than any other that I've ever attended and was stoked out of my mind the entire time, but I genuinely feel that they have a lot of singable songs that made the show fun for everyone in attendance. However, as biased as I was, I can definitely say that Weezer shattered the ridiculously high expectations that I set for them. With most bands, I'd be good seeing them once in my life - and, to some extent, that's how I felt Weezer would be, as well - but, after the show they put on last night, I would love to go back and see them again the next time they're in town. My only regret or critique was that it was a little too short; there were a couple songs that I would have liked to hear that they didn't have time to play, so the next time I see them, I'd prefer for them to come alone, without another major band to share the stage with. I want more Weezer!

Overall, I loved the show and know that everyone that I went with did, too. They put on a heck of a performance and it was all certainly worth my hard-earned money.

RATING: 9.5 out of 10

View the setlist here

Were you at the show? If so, what did you think? How would you rate the bands? Let us know in the comments below. Have a good one - and remember, "if it's too loud, turn it down."

The End of Summer Time

      Hello Again! It is that time again, time for the end of my summer, though we are in October and it is cold and rainy. I just wanted to hold onto my summer a little longer, hence the next blog in my installment of magical music! I am a huge supporter of my friends and my friends just so happen to be in bands, not all of them, but many of them so some of my blogs will include their bands. So to start this blog off I am going to go back to the end of August it was my friend Tiffani Barney’s birthday and she was having a birthday bash of sorts. The new band she and her husband Mike Barney, have joined called Johanna Johanna was amazing. 

        They regaled us that evening with their Eisley like music and spunky attitudes. They quickly became one of my new favorites, I know it seems like I say that a lot but I like to focus on the positive and bands I like, not so much on ones I don’t.  The night was truly incredible! My other friend Rob Alvord also played with his band Fat Candice, which I think is a pretty stellar name. Johanna Johanna was one of a kind and their music was very inspiring, I can’t wait for them to release their album. Soon J until then they have a place where your ears may enjoy the magnificentness that is them!  Your ears can be mesmerized by their musical glory! Here> http://johannajohanna.bandcamp.com/#zplays. I personally recommend the song “when we were young” to get you started. Also know I write a lot about different friends bands and there are two reasons why, I LOVE LOCAL Music, seriously and because I really enjoy what many of my friends have to share with the world.  Many of my blogs will be mainstream and local mixed together or sometimes just straight local and not always my friends because I want to make it equal. I hope you can appreciate all of it and if you ever have any suggestions on what to listen to hit me up, I always love finding new bands to listen to.

Johanna Johanna

          Last but not least to end my epic summer of music I had the opportunity to go to Park City, well technically Deer Valley, and see some of the most inspirational singers to me. Sara Barellies and One Republic (NOT to be confused with One Direction who I personally do not care for.) It was an unforgettable night, I love them both so much I was just in awe of their musical beauty and in the mountains, it was so breathtaking! One of my favorite songs by Sara is actually quite ironic because it sounds very similar to Katy Perry’s Roar. There was an article released  not to long ago about both artists reaction to it and they say that it is cool that they sound similar. 

       

         Anyway the song is called Brave and it is meaningful because sometimes I just need to be Brave and share how I feel or what I think and let it go from there. She ended performing this song and I couldn’t help but sing along, what an inspiration! As far as One Republic, I have seen them 4 or so times and they have NEVER disappointed, Ryan Tedder is just fantastic live! His energy, his sound, the way he interacts with the audience I could not ask for a better artist, he is right up there with Ben Kweller for me. I took a friend from Cali  with me and it was her first Utah concert, I was so excited to share it with her and she seemed to have just as much fun as I did! It was an unforgettable summer and I can’t wait to see what fall brings with Imagine Dragons, The Fictionist, Macklemore, and my local buddies Kiss Me Kill Me, and Fat Candice. Until next time, tomorrow J which actually that blog will have very little to no music it will be all about Comic Con. Till then “Live life to the fullest, enjoy every moment and every experience!”

One Republic and Sara Bareilles

~Crystal Nichols

Saturday in the Park

So there I was on Saturday night, looking for something fun to do. I decided to head on down to Draper Park and catch a free concert. I was flying solo, but that's another blog for another day. I got there and found myself a lovely spot on the grass. Took a seat. Realized that I was sitting directly behind two large shade umbrellas that completely obscured my view of the stage. Fortunately, I was so far back that actually seeing the stage wasn't going to make much of a difference, anyway. Plus, once the sun went down, they put the umbrellas away.

The band I was there to see was a Canadian band called Brass Transit - a Chicago tribute band. For those of you that don't know what a tribute band is, that means that this band was playing covers of songs by the popular 70s and 80s band, Chicago. The poor chap sitting in his lawn chair directly to my left started making phone calls to his friends about five minutes into the concert. "Did you know Chicago was playing here tonight??" About 30 minutes later, he called somebody back and apologized. "They sound just like them! I could have sworn it was really Chicago." I felt bad for him.

I enjoyed the concert. I've liked the music of Chicago since I was a wee lad, so it was fun to go out in the good weather and hear some of their stuff played live. Plus, it was free, so what is there really to complain about?

How about the fact that all these freeloaders that want a free concert in the park bring all their whiny, rambunctious little Kindergarteners? At one point, I was surrounded by nine or 10 screaming, dancing kids on either side. They, at times, would bump into me or swing their light-up, glowing sabre inches from my head. What am I supposed to do? Push them away? Knock them over? Yell at them? Tell the guy who thought it was actually Chicago to keep his kids in line? So... I sat there and I did nothing. And I strained to hear the music admist the chaos. Eventually, they ran out of energy, so I was able to enjoy the rest of the evening (mostly), but seriously, people. If you're going to be taking all eight of your young children out in public - especially in a situation where other people are within a very close proximity for an extended period of time (two and a half hours, in this case), please be considerate. Not ONCE did either of the parents on my left or right tell their kids to tone it down or to take it easy. Not a single time! I considered just getting up and moving, but hey - I was there first... and I'm just lazy, I guess.

What are you supposed to do in those situations? Help me out, guys. Do you shatter the guy's dreams and tell him early on that it's not actually Chicago or do you let him enjoy it while his ignorance lasts? Do you purposely trip the little kids? Do you offer the parents some duct tape or handcuffs? Do you unleash your emotions like unto Vesuvius, embarrassing the folks bad enough that they get up and leave?

Eureka! I've got it! I'm going to start a petition to ban young children from public parks. Think of it now - no screaming, no dancing, no annoying whining to their parents... No little kiddies bumping into me as I attempt to listen to my free concert, no one to get in our way as we play football or frisbee. Less potential lawsuits waiting to happen, more peace and quiet, more relaxation for those wishing to picnic in the park. And, arguably best of all, less of a line for the merry-go-round and the big green slide. There's really no downside to this. It'd be amazing! Join with me now and ban young children from public parks!

If you'd like to add your name to the petition, you can leave a comment in the section below or you can follow us on Twitter - @SotTUnderground. Or both. Deuces.