After today’s looooonnnng day, it seems like talking about yesterday’s iTouch shuffle mix on a trek into downtown Toronto seems so….. well, yesterday. But it’s a good, interesting mostly retro mix that I want to share with you.
Karyn White “Romantic” (1991)
Boys Brigade “Into The Flow” (1983)
matchbox twenty “How Far We’ve Come”
Royal Society “You Say (It Was Supposed To Be)”
Bram Tchaikovsky “Shall We Dance” (1981)
Elvis Costello & The Attractions “(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea” (1979)
Gavin DeGraw “Follow Through”
OneRepublic “Stop & Stare”
Red Hot Chili Peppers “Scar Tissue” (1999)
Maxi Priest featuring Shaggy “That Girl” (1996)
Suzanne Vega featuring Joe Jackson “Left Of Centre” (1986)
Grace Jones “Private Life” (1980)
“Private Life” was a cover of a Chrissie Hynde tune from Grace’s CD of cover songs called Nightclubbing. The video for that song wasn’t so hot but I did find the classic video for the now 61 year old Grace’s cover of Sting’s “Demolition Man” from the same album. Enjoy!
Could Lady GaGa get her first #1 on this chart? While Mika’s “Rain” reigns steadily with former #1 “Delusional” by Simon Curtis right in tow, “Teeth” by Lady GaGa charges 12-3 to become her biggest hit on this chart, surpassing the #4 peak of “Bad Romance” and the current #4 position of “Speechless”. It’s really hard to say what’s my favourite song from The Fame Monster, I could pick and choose between the three and be very happy. Not to take away anything from “Teeth” (whose King5kat remix is outstanding) or even “Bad Romance”, but there are other challengers that could get to #1 too…
Also new to the Top 10 besides “Teeth” are Blake Lewis’ retro happiness of “Heartbreak On Vinyl” and “Pick Up The Phone”, the plea from the dancefloor by Dragonette. But just outside of the Top 10 is our first debut, and it’s the highest one in quite some time.
I lumped Penguin Prison’s “Something I’m Not” in with last week’s highlighted songs, but the tune has grown immensely on me during the last week to make it one of this year’s must have records, and it debuts on the chart at a huge #11! And the great part of it all is that it’s a free download! Chris Glover has a massive talent up his sleeve, and it’s too bad Interscope Records didn’t take him up on it as cited in this excellent story about him. I’m not sure if “Something I’m Not” can get to #1 next week, but it will give it the old college try! Do check it out – you will miss something special from this talented singer/producer/remixer otherwise!
Next, I have to comment about Evan Taubenfeld’s terrific track “Starbucks Girl”. Because of its connection to Starbucks, and Evan’s fans’ reaction to his use of autotune, the song has been pulled from the Welcome To The Blacklist Club CD and is no longer available as a free download. And that’s a damn shame. As is, “Starbucks Girl” has immense appeal, and the excellent, simple video expands on that appeal. Sure, I said that I’d like a version without the autotune too, but to no longer make the original version available is a mystery to me. Watch the video yourselfand decide! The song still moves up 25-20 on the chart!!
The chart is full of massive activity this week. P!nk’s Grammy performance of “Glitter In The Air” is her best record in more than 6 or 7 years, and debuts at #23. New Yorker Javi, of Puerto Rican and Panamanian background, debuts at #24 with the gorgeous European-sounding Monsieur Adi remix of “Situation” . UK’s Example could give Calvin Harris a run for his money with “Won’t Go Quietly” at #25. This song may seem a little static at first but it really grows on you. Then blog-darling Ellie Goulding arrives at #26 with “Starry Eyed”, which has many remixes (including one by Penguin Prison), but my preference is for the shimmering retro Monarchy remix. Justin Nozuka’s fans light up this blog as his new CD You I Wind Land and Sea gets closer to release. “My Heart Is Yours” bows at #27. And finally, Vampire Weekend enters the chart at #28 with “Cousins”. The indie band scored a #1 Billboard album with Contra a few weeks back.
One last piece of housekeeping: I don’t think I’ve mentioned it since I started this blog last Fall. I have one rule on my personal chart. Songs must leave the chart after 10 appearances (20 weeks). This allows a fresh rotation of songs to occur, but it doesn’t prevent them from re-entering at a later date, though this doesn’t happen very often. Both Mika’s “Blame It On The Girls” and Dan Black’s “Alone” left the chart this week for this reason.
Part of my ongoing quest for great music lo these past 30 years or so is to seek out artists who are “The Real Deal”. Kansas-born Clayton Senne is just that. Now based out of Florida, Clayton has been working his CD Wonderland for the last year or so and has been touring throughout the U.S., currently focusing on the mid-west and southern states.
One listen to the title track will conjure up musical memories of other recent piano kings such as New Yorker Ben Jelen, but the power of Clayton’s voice and the energy in those magic piano fingers of his lead directly back to pop icons like Billy Joel. There’s blues and soul in Clayton’s musical upbringing because the live songs on his CD and MySpace sitecome from way down deep inside.
Wonderland is available for a very reasonable price on iTunes. Keep your ears tuned for further information about Clayton Senne because those Real Deals are few and far between!
Dan Black’s show at Wrongbar in Toronto on Saturday, February 20, 2010 showed a lot of promise for this UK musical mad scientist whose debut CD UN I have been listening to for months now.
Black is an engaging performer, and he was in great voice, wearing stylish red and white war paint on his face, but unfortunately didn’t get the response that he deserved from a club crowd looking for a regular Saturday night out. The complexity of Dan Black’s music commands attention, and only a select few of the crowd was willing to give it. Black made the most of a very small stage – he deserves a huge stage full of props that would expand his story-telling and allow him to let loose – accompanied by two musicians (guitarist/percussion, and bass) instantly revving up the club with “Pump My Pumps”, and continuing on with great songs like “Alone”, “Cigarette Pack”, “Yours”, and of course “Symphonies”, which unfortunately seemed lost on the crowd. He even worked in some of his mashup work from mixtape Weird Science, such as the rollicking “Pass That Head Noize”.
There wasn’t much of a crowd when he began shortly after 11:30 but by the time he finished at about 12:20 the club was packed. I was definitely left wanting more – he disappeared into the crowd to sign autographs but I couldn’t locate him – but figure better showcases were to be had in New York City, Los Angeles, and Montreal.
Toronto is definitely losing its edge in terms of what audiences seem to want and don’t want in a club setting, and it’s no surprise based on concerts like this that someone like Dan Black might return as an opening act or on a multi-artist show. So once again I feel very fortunate in seeing this show and the remarkable talent on display, however restrained it might be given the venue and audience.
I snapped a few pix but unfortunately my Blackberry doesn’t give very high quality shots. I doctored one pic up to interesting if unintended effect using Adobe Photoshop. At least it’s proof I was there 🙂
So many good releases will be upon is in the first half of 2010, it’s getting hard to figure out what I want to hear and succeed more!
Simon Curtis is over 7,500 followers on Twitter. He’s promised his mixtape 8Bit Heart will be issued when he gets to 8,000 – whether or not that’s preceded by another single is a good question right now… and there are gonna be several great songs from which to choose! And take a look at the provocative website of photographer Tyler Shields! He’s shooting the artwork for 8Bit Heart! Follow Simon on Twitter!
UK fave Sam Taylor is teasing us with snippets of a wonderful new song called “Every Time We Fall”. You can find excerpts of it on You Tube (below) or his MySpace site. As I mentioned last month, Sam’s looking at giving us a full song when he gets to 1,000 Twitter followers. So, as with Simon, follow Sam on Twitter !
Justin Nozuka’s been pretty generous with two singles already out, “My Heart Is Yours”, which appears be out in Canada and the U.S., and “Woman Put Your Weapon Down”, which is U.S. only. The new CD You I Wind Land and Sea will be released soon, and there are many glimpses of Justin’s songs from this CD that you can find on You Tube, like this one, below.
It’s February 20 and I’ll be seeing Dan Black’s show in Toronto at Wrongbar tonight!! Really looking forward to seeing what Dan has to offer in a club setting, and hopefully I can report back on the show tomorrow. The deluxe edition of his CD UN is now available in North America.
Plus… three great new songs:
Ellie Goulding’s “Starry Eyed (Monarchy remix)”
I’m hit and miss on some of Ellie’s songs, which have been gracing the Blogverse for months now, but this subtle remix is unique with a dash of late 70’s flavour.
Chris Glover is Penguin Prison, and he’s been remixing many other artists’ songs lately (including Ellie Goulding’s “Starry Eyed”!). This American talent really mixes up the music styles in “Something I’m Not” – a little bit of something for everyone, without it sounding like the kitchen sink was thrown in for good measure.
Vampire Weekend’s infectious “Cousins” – I love tidy, fun songs done in two and a half minutes!
Before I get to today’s interesting iTouch shuffle mix, I want to remind readers that I have a Soundcloud drop box link on this page on the right. If recording artists want to send me their track to hear and possibly review, feel free to send it to my Soundcloud drop box right here.
I’ll have to admit, this morning’s shuffled short playlist (but still 35 minutes – some of the songs are long) was great 🙂
“Romeo & Juliet” Dire Straits
“Tears of Pearls” Savage Garden
“Roll Over Beethoven” Beatles
“Chainsaw” Daniel Merriweather featuring Skinnyman
Two songs that have been growing on me during the past week are DJ A-Trak’s electro take on “Money To Blow” by Birdman featuring Drake – yes, you read that right, electro – here called “Loonies To Blow” (hope you know your Canadian currency!), and Example’s low-key but catchy “Won’t Go Quietly”, both below. Enjoy 🙂
He finally did it! After reaching #3 with “We Are Golden”, then #2 with “Blame It On The Girls”, British vocalist Mika goes all the way with the joyous “Rain”. It should easily stay atop the chart into March while other songs make headway.
“Rain” knocks Simon Curtis’ “Delusional” to #2 after 4 charts (8 weeks) at the top. Once Simon’s mixtape 8Bit Heart is released though when he gets to 8,000 followers on Twitter – he’s now over 7,500 – watch for an influx of new Simon songs on the chart! The free download of “Delusional” is still available right here (as well as in a link in my chart).
Lifehouse’s “Halfway Gone” moves up to #3, while Pet Shop Boys have their biggest hit on this chart in its 11 1/2 year history – of course the chart would have been generously filled with PSB songs in the 80’s and 90’s – with their cover of “Viva La Vida” mixed with dashes of “Domino Dancing” at #4. Lady GaGa’s set to have her biggest hit on this chart with “Speechless” moving from 10-5, as “Bad Romance” tumbles to #7. Nelson Clemente’s slick and mysterious “90 Days” and Crystal Method/Emily Haines’ “Come Back Clean” each enter the Top 10 for the first time.
Despite mixed public reaction to the Fixin’ To Thrill CD, the blogverse is steadily promoting the CD as Canadian band Dragonette’s latest single “Pick Up The Phone” is picking up believers. The song is the Fastest Riser on the chart this week, up 23-15. Other songs bowing in the last few weeks are no slouches either, such as those by Lady GaGa (check out the bottom heavy King5kat remix of “Teeth”), Blake Lewis (check out the LA Riots radio edit of “Heartbreak on Vinyl”), Justin Timberlake/Matt Morris/Charlie Sexton, John Mayer (oh despite the self-induced bad publicity, his songs will get him through), and Jason Derulo.
I’m not going to re-blog about the many pleasures of Dan Black’s Weird Science mixtape – “Pass That Head Noize” charts at #23 – or Evan Taubenfeld’s “Starbucks Girl”(debuting at #25). After a six year absence from my chart, it’s great to have producer/songwriter extraordinaire BT back on the scene. After a few years of critical acclaim with more experimental offerings such as This Binary Universe, BT is back in 2010 in more accessible dance territory with songs from his latest CD These Hopeful Machines. His first single, including vocals by The Bleach Works singer Christian Burns (also ex-BBMak – you heard Christian a few years back on Tiesto’s “In The Dark”), is “Suddenly”. As much as we like to get caught up in fun, lightweight dance music of the moment, the immaculately detailed layers in BT’s production and the vibrancy of the melody make “Suddenly” more than worthy of your attention.
View the full chart using the link under ***BILL’S PERSONAL CHART*** to the right, or click right here.
Two months after his show at the Mod Club in Toronto, the first single from Justin Nozuka’s sophomore CD You I Wind Land And Sea is upon us! And the young man keeps it simple with the simply beautiful “My Heart Is Yours”, now also available on iTunes Canada.
It’s hard to say whether or not it takes its cue from a song like Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” but even if not it’s in great company. The key would be not to have it get lost in the shuffle – Mraz’s single broke the longevity record on Billboard’s Hot 100. “My Heart Is Yours” is a welcome international calling card for Justin Nozuka! A clip of his performance of the song from the Mod Club is below.
In 2009, we saw the cutting side of Baltimore-born Evan Taubenfeld – the second one of my 10 Performers to Watch in 2010 to release something new in the last week – in the intensity of “Cheater of the Year”, and then his playful side in the sing-along of “Boy Meets Girl”.
Now, to kick off 2010, some sentimentality and romance accompany a great cup of coffee in “Starbucks Girl” (and if you follow Evan on Twitter, he does like his coffee – Tim Hortons in Canada natch!).
If you’re gonna do a double take and go ‘Oh no, AUTOTUNE!” on your first listen, well you’ll just need to give it a few more spins and watch the cute, sincere video clip below (honestly, they don’t make ’em like this anymore!), and you may just listen past it. You might want to reference a catchy recent tune like Owl City’s “Fireflies” or look back a few years ago to the equally infectious helloGoodbye’s “Here (In Your Arms)” as companion pieces. And while “Fireflies” has yet to grab me, “Here” is on my iTouch, as soon will be “Starbucks Girl”. I do have one request though: An autotune-less version – maybe a live one – available for all of us that also enjoy Evan’s voice as is – please!
“Starbucks Girl” is the third glimpse of songs that will be part of Evan’s anxiously awaited Welcome To The Blacklist Club CD when it’s released later this year. Starbucks has definitely got to appreciate the free plug too!
As I anxiously await his Toronto debut on February 20, one of my 10 Performers to Watch in 2010, Dan Black, dropped his FREE all-things-unusual-and-wonderful mixtape “Weird Science”, in conjunction with the North American release of his debut CD ‘UN’.
Kate Bush? Bruce Springsteen? Bryan Ferry? Madonna? Missy Elliott? They’re all here in this very cool mashed up experiment, which will probably be amazingly hot in his club show.
Recommended track: “Pass That Head Noize”, which bounces and slams along till the break of dawn…
UPDATE: Unfortunately the link above is now offline. If a new one surfaces, I’ll post it here! You can hear “Pass That Head Noize on his my space site http://www.myspace.com/danblacksounds
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