Charting the internet pop world one blog post at a time.
Here’s what my iTouch shuffled for me today on my way home from work:
Pet Shop Boys “So Hard”
Breit Brothers “Feel My Body Shakin'”
David Usher “We Are Wolves Here (Electric City)”
Bob Seger “Hollywood Nights”
Demi Lovato “Here We Go Again”
Hugh Masekela “Don’t Go Lose It Baby”
Level 42 “Starchild”
Cyndi Lauper “She Bop”
Run-DMC vs. Jason Nevins “It’s Like That” (video below)
A year after concert dates that did not coincide with my schedule, or missing his show by accident after scheduling the wrong time, I finally caught up with our own Justin Nozuka’s set at The Mod Club in Toronto on Friday December 11/09. The wait was well worth it, as Justin touched the audience with his deep, deep down-in-the-soul bluesy rock that seems to have a beautiful, mystical quality to it. We got to hear some of those great songs from his CD Holly – among them, “Criminal”, “Save Him”, “Don’t Listen To A Word You’ve Heard” (with music, not spoken as on the CD), and a communal band/audience effort at my favourite “After Tonight”. His brothers Henry and Christian Bridges also collaborated with him in an acoustic jam of sorts on a new song. But the focus of this show was to give the audience a taste of his upcoming sophomore CD Gray. The bluesy rock is still there but on some songs R&B/Soul seems to be more prominent, along with the intense emotion that sounded so original on Holly. Justin’s the real deal, and at only 21 he can have as long a career as his bluesy soul is old and deep. Catch his show before you can say International Breakout 2010. Below is a highlight from his Toronto set called “I’m Free”.
Last we saw Evan Taubenfeld, he was in Toronto sharing his enthusiastic set with a small crowd at the Phoenix club. As with the great pop culture wit shown in two of my favourite songs of 2009, “Boy Meets Girl” and particularly “Cheater Of The Year”, Evan’s latest brainstorm is “Merry Swiftmas”… and while you might be able to guess some of the lyrics, you certainly won’t guess all of them, and they will leave you with a big fat honkin’ smile on your face. For as long as Ms Swift is popular, I do declare a new seasonal favourite. Thanks, Evan, and Happy Chanukkah!
I am in the process of transferring my vinyl to CD (then to Mp3). Quebec’s Bundock put out a couple of decent albums in the 80’s, which all started with “American Singer”. The single was promoted on mauve vinyl – their first release was called Mauve. With the release of their second album Societe Anonyme in 1988, I got a chance to talk with the band during a phone interview when I was doing some free-lance writing. Ah, memories. The link to the video for “American Singer” is below.
As we approach the end of the first decade of the 2000’s, I’ve decided to add my lists of personal favourites from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s in preparation for the end of this decade.
If you look at the list of songs that make up my list of favourites from the 1990’s, it must have been difficult to figure out what I really like the most in terms of music genre. But one thing’s always for certain: I love a great well-sung song with a terrific melody. Beautiful songs by Chris Isaak, Jeff Buckley, Everything But The Girl, Rufus Wainwright, Extreme, and Jann Arden grace the list for this reason. Rock songs from Live, Nirvana, Collective Soul, Smithereens, New Order, Electronic, and the Matthew Good Band all have their place on this list, and as technology expanded rapidly during the 90’s, so did the ways to make a dance song cut loose. Thus we see songs by Kristine W., Everything But The Girl, Delerium, and even The KLF with Tammy Wynette in-between the grooves. As the Internet rose, so did communication world-wide. I only found out about Faithless’ “God Is A DJ” because an email contact in Sweden was kind enough to send me a compilation CD in exchange for information about Bryan Adams. Music was still a solid hand-held CD for me… but I began to wonder how I could acquire songs that weren’t released in North America yet for a decent price. iTunes and downloading were on the horizon as I began listening to streamed music online.
It still dwells inside of me that we lost two of my favourite singers of all time in 1997, one the same age as me, and one younger. Jeff Buckley’s death was heart-wrenching; his music was only a discovery of mine two years prior, and boy did it grow on me in time, and I sought solace in the many, many online tributes. And Michael Hutchence, who I saw five or six times in concert with INXS, apparently took his own life. His vibrant on-stage personality was one-of-a-kind.
With sentimentality out of the way now, I hope you enjoy the list using the link below.
Bill’s 100 Favourite Songs of the 1990’s
As you can tell from the new edition of my chart posted yesterday, I’m having a bit of a love affair with Simon Curtis’ “Delusional”, which has been the fastest riser for two charts running. It is EXACTLY the sort of pop song radio should be embracing right now to keep its younger audience in check.
But Simon obviously has a few tricks up his sleeve for his upcoming release 8Bit Heart. “Diablo” has to be one of them. While it doesn’t come close to the wider appeal of “Delusional”, it does make you scratch your head and listen at very least. It successful flips Britney Spears’ “Womanizer” upside its head, and goes one step beyond the clingy gal of “Delusional”, by firing vitriol at an extreme infatuation gone really bad. With Simon’s appearance in Nickelodeon’s “Spectacular!”, one can only think that a path was being carved out, but with “Diablo” it is clearly more of an adventure – it’s like immediately being cast as a vicious villain after being a dreamy love interest. So while I’m not embracing “Diablo” as much as “Delusional”, I can certainly appreciate the approach and the hyperkinetic effort! So Simon’s 2 fer 2, and I’m anxiously awaiting 8Bit Heart.
Download “Diablo” here or listen below.
The shakedown of favourites is beginning on this edition of my personal chart. I have a bit of a ‘recurrent’ rule – songs drop off the chart automatically after 10 appearances (20 weeks), and 3 of my favourite songs of the year will do just that as Dan Black’s “Symphonies”, Gary Go’s “Wonderful” and Mans Zelmerlow’s “Rewind” hit that pinnacle.
But there are plenty of great tunes that remain, as Dan Black and Mika both continue their reign at the top of the chart. That same Dan Black is back in the Top 5 with “Pump My Pumps”, while Jay-Z & Alicia Keys, Michael Buble, and Lady GaGa all arrive in the Top 10.
As with two weeks ago, Simon Curtis is a talent to watch with the very hit-worthy but free download “Delusional” once again the fastest riser on the chart (I’ll be blogging about Simon’s latest free download preview of 8Bit Heart called “Diablo”, too!). Lifehouse is back in hit territory with “Halfway Gone”, and Luigi Masi has a new EP out called On Your Radar which features his previously free download “Radar”. Other debuts from last week by Roisin Murphy, Michael Buble, and Kris Allen get stuck in a logjam but should soar in two weeks.
It seems hard to believe, being in December, but I’ll have only one more chart before my year end Best of 2009 is published. Watch for it!
This edition has three debuts. Those producers extraordinaire, Sweden’s Bloodshy & Avant, along with American singer Andrew Wyatt, comprise Miike Snow, and their latest catchy piece of business is “Black And Blue (Savage Skulls Remix)”, available for free download using the link on the chart. The previously blogged-about medley of “Viva La Vida/Domino Dancing” by Pet Shop Boys is also a new arrival to the chart. But my focus this week is on new UK vocalist V.V. Brown, who you may have heard this past summer with “Shark In The Water”. I wasn’t a big fan of that song, and I am hardly one for cover versions (yet I’ve also charted PSB’s version of “Viva La Vida”…hmmm), but her version of one of my favourite Rolling Stones songs, their 1978 #1 “Miss You”, is a stunner and is my highest debut.
You can find the full chart here or in a link on the right sidebar. Enjoy!
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