#xpncountdown day one was a good start, Residents play is the stuff of legend, but we're really gonna need some Bill Shatner tomorrow, really gonna need some dramatic line reads.

oh man this "Born Under Punches" cover is brilliant, I had a huge "oh!" moment of recognition when the lyrics started up #xpncountdown

no matter where I go, no matter what I do, he just comes back he... he haunts me. he haunts me. I'll never be free. #xpncountdown

is the #xpncountdown just Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair sponcon now, is it gonna turn out that those 5-6-7-8's songs were *also* covers

Laura Nyro into Japanese Breakfast is my first Cool Segue of the countdown. What a cool segue! #xpncountdown

from "Crazy" to "Crazy" and now also the man who wrote a *different* "Crazy" #xpncountdown

"Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth" is absolutely a rules violation IMO but ehhhhhhhhh this is a wild enough pick that I'm down for it. I especially like including all the patter before the song. #xpncountdown

this is on me, I said "I wish we took a break from all the Grateful Dead covers" and a finger curled on the monkey's paw #xpncountdown

"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (Lingering Death Rattle of a Ghostly Wraith's Version)" #xpncountdown

I am in favor of this NIN cover making it in but it does mean I'm mostly going to be thinking of the hilarity of about 20% of "Closer" getting played in 90s A to Z and the rest being muted. #xpncountdown

this Zeppelin song sounds like an animatronic whose power cells keep draining and dying at the end of every line #xpncountdown

Al Green just randomly putting out a couple great covers last year was wild. Cool to hear one of them, wonder if "Perfect Day" makes it too. #xpncountdown

this is *not* the Cardigans cover of Black Sabbath that I voted for but hey, any port in a storm #xpncountdown

I pretty much always knew I was going to pick a Nirvana song for my ballot and it came down to "Molly's Lips" or "Where Did You Sleep Last Night." I went for the latter but I'm so glad the former made it in too. #xpncountdown

finally some normalcy, a Florence and the Machine cover from... a Final Fantasy game, with Final Fantasy music occasionally being played on the harp. Huh! #xpncountdown

it does sort of feel like it'll be "up next, Sponge Bob's cover of 'Ave Maria'"

"Bohemian Polka" into Sinead O'Connor doing Cole Porter into the Bobby McFerrin "Blackbird" is setting a high bar for disorienting runs just two hours in #xpncountdown

finally, a serious artist after all that silliness in the last block #xpncountdown

oh god, the ukuleles. it begins #xpncountdown

hahahaha RIGHT, "Black Betty" is a cover, that's right, boy did I ever need this at 6:24am #xpncountdown

"I Don't Want to Grow Up" is one of those songs I associate way more with the cover than the original so I wouldn't even have thought to vote for it, but I'm very glad other people did! #xpncountdown

Blind Faith's "Well All Right" marks the first time my blood runs cold during an #xpncountdown as I think we're about to amble our way into a lengthy jam. Not yet!

I have no idea what this Bob Dylan on helium cover is but it has woken me up so hello, #xpncountdown, how are you, it's 5:30am over here

oh I'm gonna be posting about cover songs a lot for the next week so if you don't want to experience that you gotta mute #xpncountdown. Do I have another bit like the "Murder Most Foul" one from last year that I'm going to lean way too hard on? you'll have to wait and see!

and now at long last, my 45 additional honorable mentions for #TheTwen2ie5. Went strictly with songs that already had been nominated, and it pretty much reveals the story with me and this decade so far, which is that I'm really dialed in on even numbered years and not at all on odd-numbered ones.

#TheTwen2ie5 50. "circle the drain" by Soccer Mommy (2020) (12 PTS) releasing a song in Jan 2020 that captures the urge to regress to a more innocent time to hide from the horrors of where in time you are now, yet the horrors are still lurking at the edges of that song sure is some timing, huh

#TheTwen2ie5 49. "Wet Dream" by Wet Leg (2021) (11 PTS) As much as I do like "Chaise Longue," hearing this on the radio and realizing that Wet Leg were potentially not a one-off and could actually be a going concern for a while was a very delightful moment. It's panning out so far!

#TheTwen2ie5 48. "Pumpkin Seeds" by Aesop Rock x Blockhead (ft.Lupe Fiasco) (2022) In January '23 I spent a weekend in LA using public transit/walking, and the # of times I played this on loop while walking through DTLA means it gets a spot. As verbally labyrinthine as you'd expect from these two.

#TheTwen2ie5 47. "Special Treat" by Hello Mary (2023) botched the hashtag so here's a late repost of a "ah I just want to vote for this song even if it's just me voting for it" because I loved this song a lot. Spooky vocal harmonies! Singing in the round! Grunge guitar! All the stars are here!

#TheTwen2ie5 46. "Good Luck, Babe!" by Chappell Roan (2024) I haven't settled on the moment that makes this song an all-timer for me but it might be the sad little sympathy strings that come in on "and I cry/it's not fair." Kind of tongue-in-cheek without actually undercutting the mood. Real good!

#TheTwen2ie5 45. "My Love Mine All Mine" by Mitski (2023) sticking on the theme of dance music from my last pick! I mean, slow dancing is still dancing...

#TheTwen2ie5 44. "Holiday" by Confidence Man (2021) I already voted for "Janet Planet does some schtick" ConMan, which is my favorite type, but I figure I should also throw a nod to "here's the single that's going to get snapped up for multiple soundtracks " ConMan which is also good.

#TheTwen2ie5 43. "Brontosaurus" by They Might Be Giants (2021) A jaunty tune that's either bittersweet reflections on a lifetime being a niche artist on the fringe of mainstream success, craving that validation even if you'd never change yourself to get it, or maybe it's about a literal dinosaur.

#TheTwen2ie5 42. "Modjeska" by Nightjars (2021) Pretty song! Another "this turned up in a Pop Poll and lost terribly and I became obsessed with it and put it in a bunch of playlists" pick. Be glad "They Can't Believe He's Risen Again" isn't eligible again for this, is all I have to say.

#TheTwen2ie5 41. "Hysterical Us" by Magdalena Bay (2021) I think maybe still my favorite Mag Bay song, even with how great the last album was top to bottom? I haven't listened to the two dozen singles they've put out in the last month, though...

YOU GUYS WANNA SEE SOMETHING CURSED???? HOW ABOUT NEON GENESIS LEHIGH VALLEY PHANTOMS HOCKEY?????

#TheTwen2ie5 40. "Loretta" by Ginger Root (2021) (11 PTS) Saw Ginger Root recently and they did a bit where the second half of the show was determined by spinning a wheel, and for the last song they just spun a little "Loretta"-only miniwheel because yeah that's not going anywhere. Nor should it!

Always repost ska Oscar Isaac.

#TheTwen2ie5 39. "Paprika" by Japanese Breakfast (2021) still have too many songs in my "maybe" pile and going through Choice Paralysis so let's get something from the "for sure" pile on my list. One of the best album openers of the decade! Thusfar! But probably still five years from now!

#TheTwen2ie5 38. "Bloom" by Necry Talkie (2023) anyway the last pick was a doom vortex pick and I think sometimes it's good to surrender to the doom vortex, but other times you gotta snap out of it and that's what high-energy J-rock is for, baby

#TheTwen2ie5 37. "Mahashmashana" by Father John Misty (2024) I feel like I typically kind of brush FJM off, but boy was there never a better time to put out "what if there were a George Harrison/Phil Spektor joint about the 21st century careening into oblivion" than the back half of 2024.

When I encounter myself as a different colored cursor because I have the Google Doc open in two tabs

#TheTwen2ie5 36. "XS" by Rina Sawayama (2020) there's a great TikTok post about '00s fashion that includes the line "I think about how we really wore every accessory at the *same time,*" and that is this song, and that's why this song triumphs at the revivalism game it's playing. More. More!

C R Y I N G this is so perfect lmao x: www.instagram.com/reel/DQ7cPSf...

welcome

#TheTwen2ie5 35. "Dumb Feeling" by Mei Semones (2025) Is 2025 the year of delightfully bossa nova-forward indie pop? According to most of the charts probably not, but according to the stats of what songs from this year I've put on repeat the most, possibly! I'm still gathering the facts, mind.

second verse on this is one of the funniest things i've ever heard

#TheTwen2ie5 34. "After the Earthquake" by Alvvays (2022) Really love this one. Lot of fun jangling into time standing still on the bridge into a sudden exhilarating freefall for the last thirty seconds. Are you awake now?

inspired