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.
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.
This list for me showed a personal evolution of Top 40 oriented pop and dance songs through modern/alternative rock of the early 80’s, through to highly personalized selections from the late 80’s. 1986 was a critical year when our local Top 40 AM station shuttered, leaving listeners to find their own way through to their ‘hits’. Fortunately with my involvement in campus radio up to 1988, I had a treasure trove of selections to hear as well as access to other music buffs whose own choices might influence my tastes. By the end of the decade, though the focus was still on Singles – and I have many album tracks from the 80’s that should be on a Best Of list – it evolved into a highly personalized set of songs, some of which are not known or recalled by many. If you’re a fan of CFNY-FM Toronto (now The Edge 102.1), light splashes of Canadian success by the likes of MOEV, Rarefaction, Vis-a-Vis, Blue Peter, Saga, Scott Merritt, and Spoons may trigger happy memories. New Order, The Style Council, INXS, and Big Country were my artists of the day, while ‘one hits’ by the likes of It’s Immaterial, Wah!, When In Rome, Womack & Womack, and Secret Service also grace the list (link 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.
My list from the 70’s is a unique list, the only one written in retrospect. The list would have been significantly different had I written it when I was 19 in 1979, but many, many favourites remain from my teen years. What I enjoyed most about the 70’s were the random one-or-two hit artists, 70’s R&B, rock acts like the Electric Light Orchestra and Aerosmith, and that totally underrated phenomenon, disco. By the time I was 16 I was looking for music of different shapes and colours. I learned that my local hit radio station wasn’t playing all the hits. I began actively following national trade magazines such as Billboard and, in Canada, RPM Weekly. I started listening to radio shows that offered hit music from the UK, which is where I first encountered Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” and Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”. I became a college radio DJ and fell in love with alternative rock of the day as disco began to wane. But the 70’s were all about 45’s and 12″ dance singles for me, and so my list does not include any album-only tracks. The link to my Favourite 100 Singles of the 70’s is below or on the right sidebar.
It’s steady as she goes – lots of upward movement on this week’s chart 
And while two of my favourite songs of 2009, “Symphonies” by Dan Black and “We Are Golden” by Mika drop out of the Top 10, Mr. Black and Mr. Penniman have the top two songs on the new chart. Black’s “Alone” puts him back at #1 after 100 Akres and Roz Bell ruled the roost with “Pink Cadillac” for a month, and Mika’s insanely catchy “Blame It On The Girls” moves to the runner-up spot. The remainder of the Top 10 sees songs by David Rush & Friends, Hot Chelle Rae, and Joshua Radin moving up, while new entries belong to another track from Dan Black’s UN, “Pump My Pumps” and Roz Bell again, with “Heart Attack” from his overlooked CD October.
Songs outside of the Top 10 by Michael Buble, Jay-Z/Alicia Keys, and Madonna would normally be in the Top 10 but are shut out again this week by strong competition. In particular, Madonna’s “Celebration”, a fantastic dance song, is peaking long after radio and clubs had their way with it. All of last week’s entries, led by Lady GaGa’s “Bad Romance”, climb up nicely, with the fastest riser going to U.S. rising star Simon Curtis with his free download “Delusional” from the forthcoming CD 8Bit Heart.
I’ve already blogged about the some of the new entries, but I do want to talk a bit about Kris Allen’s “Live Like We’re Dying”, which bows at #27. Kris’ approach to his songs and his positive song choices are what sets his music apart from the rest, making it all a breath of fresh air in a cluttered 2009. And Michael Buble’s version of the 50’s standard “Cry Me A River”? Blows Adam Lambert’s dramatics out of the water.
View the full chart here or using the link on the right sidebar
As a 17th wedding anniversary gift for ourselves, my wife suggested we go to a Jimmy Buffett concert. She lived in Florida as a kid for 10 years and last saw Mr. Buffett’s show in the mid-90’s. So I had to try to get my parrothead on… we got our Hawaiian shirts… didn’t quite work, but a good time was definitely had listening to Jim’s southern stories that basically celebrate everything that’s good about life. All of the most recognizable tunes to music fans were played – “Cheeseburger in Paradise”, “Volcano”, “Fins”, “Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes”, “Come Monday”, and a little ditty called “Margaritaville” – as well as some solid new songs from his new CD Buffet Hotel like “Surfing in a Hurricane”, “Summerzcool”, and particularly “Lot to Drink About”. The latter song is a bit of a novelty but a breath of fresh air in a world full of hi-tech and autotune. I think it definitely would have been helpful to have good weather – and a beach – to see the Buffett show, so maybe next time. But he puts on a genuine, entertaining show where your troubles of the day are left at the door.
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