The Challenge is Complete!

I officially finished the challenge at 2:34pm ET on Friday July 31st!

What was the last song you ask... "Where My Girls At?" by 702. What a strange ending to about 10 months of listening.

Where was I... driving through Wake Forest, NC. A wonderful place but not the current home to Wake Forest University.

Why have I waited until now to blog about this...

• laziness
• writer's block
• or I'm just scared to end the challenge because I'll have nothing else to do

I still have lots of posts that I wrote in MS Word that I plan on posting. I also plan on updating the top 20 recent songs on the left side of the blog as well as posting stats and my top overall songs.

More to come... seriously

Adios W's, X's and Y's

The W's were mostly Wilco, Weezer and the White Stripes with a side of Wham!, Westlife and White Snake thrown in for kicks.

The X's were easily the shortest letter with one song by the Xecutioners (It's Going Down) and another by Xzibit that I deleted.

The Y's were also pretty quick and finished within the same 1/2 hour as the X's. Nothing really memorable other than "New Soul" by Yael Naim and "Oh Yeah" by Yello from several great 80s movies- Ferris Bueller and Secret to My Success if I recall correctly.

Now onto the Z's which are mostly dominated by Zero 7 with a hint of ZZ Top. Of course my journey doesn't end at Z but instead continues with numbers. Tons of 2 Skinee J's coming up.

My goal is to finish by the end of this month. Not much time left.

Finished the U's in record time

Since I was working from home today I was able to get through the U's in record time. Not a lot other than U2 and Usher. Usher was a nice change of pace and the highlights were definitely:

• Yeah!
• Caught Up
• Bad Girl
• Whatever I Want

There was some other one song artists like UB40, Undeworld and Urge Overkill.

Now I'm onto Vampire Weekend which will be a real joy. I've missed them and can't wait for them to come out with a new album. I hope to finish the V's tomorrow and finish up the whole challenge in a week.

It all started in October so I'm really ready to be done

Onto the U's

I finally made it through the T's which took forever since we had an audio book in there.."The Baby Whisperer". That was torture.

U2 is the first U artist and Joshua Tree is amazing. Definitely stands the test of time.

More to come from the lazy poster as I get near the finish line. Can't wait to soon listen to what I want to.

Tenacious D All Day Today!

It's hard to focus while doing work when you have the tasty licks of KG and JB coming at you all day. Currently about half way through The Pick Of Destiny.
Kickapoo and Classico are my favorites so far. Can't wait for Dude (I Totally Miss You)

Finished the S's... Rounding Third

Although this blog was full of potential it has fallen flat. I haven't given up on the challenge and just started the T's today. It's hard to beat starting off with "T-Bird - Baby Daddy". One of my favorite songs of all time. Next a little T.A.T.U before starting some T.I. - who I once say in the ATL airport wearing sweats and drinking a BK milk shake. Jealous?

Tenacious D isn't too far away

10 20 30 40

tell me that you wanna hold me
tell me that you wanna bore me
tell me that you gotta show me....
time turning four leaf clover

Sorry not feeling well, have a bull in the heather today.

I'm finally on Sonic Youth after about 8 months of listening. Need to really finish this soon as I'm really ready for new tunes when I want them.

Latest artist...ME!

So I'm right in the thick of the R's and I have come to an interesting artist, Rich Graves, i.e. me. Yes, I have an MP3 of myself on the computer. It's a presentation I gave at a conference in March 2008 called "Hang Up the Phone and Increase Customer Satisfaction". I thought the presentation went well as I had 212 people in the room (but who's counting). So this is my job, sounds like boring subject matter but I like it.

I've never listened to the full recording of the session and it was very interesting to say the least. A few thoughts...

• My voice with a good recording isn't as horrible as I had originally thought
• I don't say "um" or "ah" a lot but I do over use "certainly"
• I wish I knew how to tell a joke. the only time I get laughs is when I use horrible lines like "tough crowd" or make fun of myself. But I still love telling bad jokes

It's really strange listening to yourself talk for an hour. I highly recommend trying it. Or if you want to listen to my session send me some money and I'll burn a CD for you.

Flying through Radiohead

I already finished

1. Amnesiac
2. the Bends
3. Coachella 2004 (Live)
4. Hail to the Thief
5. I Might Be Wrong (Live)
6. In Rainbows

Obviously The Bends was the best of these albums. The Coachella CD was ok but it's a crappy recording so not worth my time. I love "I Might Be Wrong" that's probably number 2 of these six followed by "Hail to the Thief" and "In Rainbows".

Now onto Kid A in great anticipation for OK Computer. I probably listened to OK Computer a thousand times during college. It was the go to disc for hanging and playing drinking games. I think I play caps and ahole better when listening to OK Computer.

First Phone Post

bloggin' from my phone
Testing how it works to post via text message. Moving through radiohead nicely.. Finished amnesiac and the bends and am almost through coachella

Radiohead begins at the gym

Starting what I think will probably be at least a week's worth of Radiohead this morning at the gym. Amnesiac isn't exactly the most treadmill friendly album but tracks like "I Might Be Wrong" and "Knives Out" were certainly the highlights so far.

Here are the Radiohead albums I'll be listening to in order:

1. Amnesiac
2. the Bends
3. Coachella 2004 (Live)
4. Hail to the Thief
5. I Might Be Wrong (Live)
6. In Rainbows
7. Kid A
8. My Iron Lung
9. OK Computer
10. OK Computer B-Sides and Singles
11. Pablo Honey
12. Pop is Dead (Live)
13. Stop Whispering
    

Q's Complete

The Q's went quickly and were finished in less than a day. Not much there...
Q-Tip's Vibrant Thing

Quarashi- You've probably heard "Stick 'Em Up" as it's been in a ton of movies. The rest of the album isn't bad with a mix of English and Icelandic rap.

Queen- We are the Champions and Bohemian Rhapsody

Now onto the R's which start with R Kelly and move onto R.E.M. and then probably at least a week's worth of Radiohead.

Just finished the P's!!!

Although this blog has become incredibly stale with promises from me that I would actually pick things up... the challenge continues. I've been traveling like crazy and that allows me to listen to lots of music while on planes, in rental cars and at the hotel gym (really a large closet). I've continued following the rules and am rounding third for a long trip home in the challenge with the R-Z's ahead. R, T and S will be very long letters.

I'm on the Q's now but those should go very quickly. It could be the shortest letter with just Q-Tip, Quarashi (best thing to come out of Iceland since Bjork) and Queen.

Play, Rewind and Repeat

I finished up Phoenix yesterday but not without an interesting twist. For the first time since an unintentional mistake back during Beck (I had to re-listen to two albums since I listened to them in the wrong order) I actually decided to go back and re-listen to several songs multiple times. The songs were from Phoenix's new EP, I listened to 1901 and Lisztomania about 7 times each before deciding I better move on. Both are good songs but Lisztomania is amazing. Definitely worth checking out if you like good music.

I also finished Portishead, The Postal Service and Prodigy this morning. Prodigy got me running like a gazelle at the gym this morning. Nothing like "Smack My Bitch Up" and "Firestarter" to get you going in the morning. That was much better than December when I got stuck on Frank Sinantra when lifting weights. That was horrible.

Portishead is scary and makes me feel dirty. That and every song sounds like a James Bond theme song.

The Postal Service's album "Give Up" is amazing and definitely friendly enough for any music fan and of course those who like Death Cab. The best songs are "The District Sleeps Alone tonight" and "Such Great Heights".

Lastly I did have a nice surprise with Positive K and "I Gotta Man". Hilarious song.

And Finally New Music

Over the next few days I will for the first time in months listen to brand new music that I have never heard before. Over the past few months I have purchased a few albums and they all happened to be by artists in the K's or L's. So I'm excited to listen to some new stuff.

More specifically...
Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak
Never question hot jams from Kanye although I have a feeling I won't like this one as much as the others

Keane- Perfect Symmetry
I bought it on the day it was released in October and it's been sitting on the shelf ever since)

Lily Allen- It's Not Me It's You
Downloaded this after seeing her on TV almost every night in the UK. I liked her last album but from seeing her perform on TV this seems to be a much more gritty album that I think I will really enjoy. I always do love female Brit Pop. Shout outs to Kate Nash and Adele.

Playing Catch Up On Posts

I'm slowly attempting to catch up on the back log of posts that I have. I did some major updating of the top 20 songs tonight and hope to have a few "real" posts this week.

I've been taking lots of notes while I'm listening but just haven't had time to put fingers to keys.

I'm in the middle of Jay-Z right now and will be working from home for two more day so I should be making some major headway on the J's.

The Challenge Continues- not enough time to blog

I continue listening to lots of music but I just haven't had enough time to blog. I have a bunch of notes from listening over the last two weeks but need some time to compose them into posts.

I'm now on the I's and at the beginning of what will probably be a full day's worth of Indigo Girls. Luckily I'm swamped at work so those sultry songtresses will sooth my way through Word and Excel.

On the horizon... Interpol and then very soon onto the J's which will probably be a long run with Jack Johnson, James Brown, Jamiroquai, Jay-Z and more.