Amanda HockingFun Fact & a Top 10 List
Yesterday was my friend Valerie’s birthday. Also – it would be Alice and Wendy and Remy’s birthday. Yep. My main character’s always share a birthday with Val. I don’t know why exactly. I started doing it years ago, and every character I’ve had since then has had January 9 for their birthday. It just makes it easier for me keep straight, I like my friend Val, and having birthdays in January makes it easier to keep track of their ages through the years (if that makes sense).
So that’s today’s fun fact about Ascend.
In a completely unrelated note, I’ve been thinking lately about what albums I would classify as the Top Ten from 2000 through 2010. Why have I been thinking of that? I don’t know. The year ended or something. But I’ve thought about it. And here’s what I come up with.
- Silverchair – “Young Modern”
- blink 182 – “(Untitled)”
- Green Day – “American Idiot”
- Interpol – “Antics”
- Ryan Adams – “Gold”
- The Killers – “Hot Fuss”
- Death Cab for Cutie – “Plans”
- Lady Gaga – “The Fame Monster”
- Kanye West – “808s & Heartbreaks”
- Modest Mouse – “Good News for People Who Love Bad News”
Honorable mentions that I loved a lot but enough to make it to the Top 10 – Fall Out Boy – “From Under the Cork Tree,” Band of Horses – “Everything All the Time,” Metric – “Fantasies,” Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “It’s Blitz,” MGMT – “Oracular Spectacular,” Bloc Party – “Silent Alarm,” Adam Lambert – “For Your Entertainment,” Kanye West – “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” Chris Garneau – “Music for Tourists,” Death Cab for Cutie – “Narrow Stairs,” Panic! at the Disco – “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out,” Cobra Starship – “Hot Mess,” Arcade Fire – “Neon Bible,” The Shins – “Chutes Too Narrow,” Elliott Smith – “Figure 8,” Deftones – “White Pony,” Tool – “10,000 Days,” Snow Patrol – “Final Straw,” and Coldplay – “A Rush of Blood to the Head.”
Yep. Those are albums that I think are fantastic. So you should go listen to them all now.
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Amanda Hocking says: @kris10sing I love The Black Keys! I’ve been listening to them a ton the last few weeks.
You introduced me to Black Lab and i love them :} you should check out The Black Keys awesome 2 man band
Nope, we don’t have the same taste in music, but hardly anyone…or maybe no one? likes the same music as me. I’m a jazz fan. Pretty much not a fan of anything mainstream. Adele is about the closest I get to mainstream music…and I do love Adele.
YEs! How good is Young Modern!? Like E.J. said earlier, it’s a great album from start to finish. It’s one of those rare albums i can listen to without skipping any songs. That’s so cool it’s your number 1.
I was also originally against their move away from the grunge sound but Young Modern is their best by far. And they were like 15 when they made Frogstomp. I’m pretty sure Daniel Johns doesn’t even like their earlier stuff (I think I read or heard that somewhere. I could be wrong). But i’ve seen them in concert a couple of times and they rarely play anything from Frogstomp.
Also, he co-wrote the song ‘Straight Lines’ with a guy called Julian Hamilton from aussie band ‘The Presets’. They are also super brilliant and defo worth checking out.
Ahocking lover says: I love Modest Mouse and Death cab. not so sure about the other’s though. There to pop for my taste.
Amanda, the first time I listened to new Silverchair I thought it was crap so I didn’t listen again, but you know I love Daniel Johns. Also, thanks for the birthday shout out. I thought about saying something on Facebook, but I wasn’t sure if that was something you wanted to reveal. I’m not sure why it would bother you, but to be on the safe side I decided against it.
Anonymous says: This is a total sidenote, but I have been reading your Tyrlle series and it’s wonderful. I haven’t been so engaged in a series in a couple of years. Not to mention, I have the world of respect for you as an author. It’s tough but you fought for the name that you have and are still making for yourself when many people would have just given up.
I have a Kindle, which is where I read most of your books, and I try to follow you on here as much as I can. But have you thought about getting on blog on the Kindle itself? Like just posting what you place here on there as well? With how well your books are doing you would have many followers. Thinking a dollar a month to subscribe (or whatever you chose to go with), that could easily bring in a ton of money. (For things you’re already writing at that…)
Just a thought! I’d love to hear what you think about it. Thanks!
Silverchair makes me feel like I’m 14 again!
I’ll definitely be checking out some of these, I’ve been looking for some new music..so thanks! haha.
@E.J. I loved old Silverchair. “Frogstomp” was great. When I first got “Young Modern,” I was like “What? This isn’t Silverchair.” And I’ll be honest, at first, I didn’t like it, because I was expecting something grunge-y. But when I separated it from the fact that it was Silverchair, and just listened to it, I realized it was super brilliant and fell in love with it. Then, taking into account the band’s overall growth from “Frogstomp,” I think it’s an even more amazing album.
It wasn’t what I was expecting, but I think it’s totally underrated in the U.S. and completely awesome. I’d easily put in the top 5 albums of the past 25 years. It’s genius.
FINALLY! I’ve found another fan of Young Modern! Very few people even have a clue about how fantastic a listen that album is from start to finish.
I think maybe folks think, “it’s Silverchair = heavy grunge guitar, etc.” But they really started getting away from that in Neon Ballroom, and in YM almost entirely (although you can hear some solid guitar grinding on a couple of tracks if you listen for it). YM has more in a common with a Beatles album than Frogstomp.
Sorry about that; was just excited to be able to let my Silverchair fanboy flag fly for a minute! 🙂