Archive for March, 2009
A lesson in doing what you love
I was shocked, frankly, to see a particlar artist’s name staring at me from the surface of one of the CDs I received from Dixie Dance Kings last week. (DDK is a record pool, the oldest one in the U.S., of which I’m a proud member.)
My buddy Dan Miller (DDK’s head) prepared a pair of CDs as a special DDK promo release for the Winter Music Conference this year, and it was on one of those CDs that I saw this artist’s name: Pamala Stanley.
I’m not quite as young a guy as I look or feel, so I’m reluctant to even admit that I remember when her first hits, I Don’t Wanna Talk About It and Coming Out of Hiding were released in ____ and I still have the Atlantic Records 12″ singles in my vinyl collection today. (I just can’t bring myself to mention the year in print.) I was a pretty young pup at the time, but I also saw her perform at a Denver nightclub not long after Hiding came out.
I always sorta wondered what happened to Stanley, and her great, dance-floor-friendly, and very capable voice. I suppose I could have Googled and found her web site, but sometimes I miss the obvious.
She’s clearly been continuing to make music, and the song featured on the DDK promo, Feelin’ the Rhythm, is a fab track that I added immediately to iDanceRadio.fm rotation, and to my sets. She sounds as good as ever.
Pamala reminds me of another songstress from back in the day, Carol Hahn. Carol’s been cranking out the tunes in the past few years as well, and while I didn’t know Carol’s older work, she’s pointed me to some YouTube postings of her 80s tracks. (Cool stuff!)
Which brings me to the point of this blog posting: There’s something to be said for doing what you love, and following your dreams. Is it possible for Pamala Stanley or Carol Hahn to become the next Madonna-level superstar, crossover into mainstream, and make millions? Who knows, but is that really the point? (Truth is, nobody is going to be a Madonna-level superstar these days; the music industry has changed, and even the big stars think selling a few hundred thousand albums to be a big deal these days, and that doesn’t add-up to millions of bucks in a star’s pocket.)
But I digress. Stanley and Hahn and countless others I know (or know of) are out there making it happen, delivering on their passions, putting it all out there, and seeing what happens. I really love that, and whether you’re 25 or 35 or 45 or any other age, it’s something we should all be inspired to do.
Add comment March 31, 2009
Playlist for Friday Night House Party Mixshow #22 (3/27/2009)
Here’s a playlist for the DJ Wesley Friday Night House Party, program #22, originally aired March 27, 2009:
- Vertigo pres. Peyton – All That Matters (Original)
- Pleasure Center – If I Sound Excited (Original Club Mix)
- Tod Miner – Luv N Music (Tod Miner’s Rubber Mix)
- The White Tie Affair – Candle (Razor & Guido Club Mix)
- Butterflies Attack feat. Joe Murena – How Can I Fall? (Al B. Rich Club Mix)
- Outsiders feat. Amanda Wilson – Keep This Fire Burning (Freemasons Club Mix)
- Cybersutra feat. Jacinta – I See Fire (Asi Givati Extended Mix)
- Bobby Blue – In a Song (Tim Letteer Mixshow Mix)
- Damien J Carter & Damien Heck – Glacier In The Sun (Full Vocal Mix)
- Voodoo & Serano – Sunglasses at Night (Club Mix)
- Oliver Deville – Silent Running (Mario Lopez & C-Base Club Mix)
- Ultrabeat – Never Ever (Riffs And Rays Remix)
- Junior Caldera – Sleeping Satellite (Junior S Club Mix)
- Andi Vax, DJ Romantic & Erik feat. Nika Lenina – I Feel You (DJ Felix Club Mix)
- Kanye West – Love Lockdown (LMFAO Club Mix)
- Inez – Stronger (Jody Den Broeder Club Mix)
- Jamie Knight – Run (Almighty Anthem Mix)
See you next week at 10 Eastern, 7 Pacific, for another two hours of live mixing! (Follow me on Twitter to get notified of mixshows and other news; the link is on my web site.)
Add comment March 31, 2009
A great way not to sell music
This past weekend, I took some time out to update my Top 25 dance chart, and as I was preparing “buy” links, I was rather struck by something. Three listings on the chart come from the UK’s Polydor Records: Junior Caldera’s Sleeping Satellite, Girls Aloud’s The Loving Kind, and The Saturdays’ Just Can’t Get Enough.
All three of these songs also got added to the regular rotation at iDanceRadio.fm.
And all three songs are not available for sale in the United States anywhere I could find.
Before I started DJ’ing, I was struck by how difficult it was to find dance music to buy. It wasn’t for lack of trying; it was almost as if the point for producers and artists wasn’t to sell music, it was just to make it. That’s nice, I suppose, but when you’re a music consumer who wants to be legal, and wants to support his or her favorite songs and artists, what are you supposed to do?
Polydor, once active in the US, is today a UK-only label. But it is part of the monster Univeral Music Group, and Interscope, another Universal label that is active in dance here in the US, could presumably be posting these songs for sale on iTunes. Why the hell aren’t they?
Yes, I know, licensing deals and recording contracts are complicated, territorial, etc. But come on, it’s Universal Music Group, 500 lb. music gorilla, and one of the ones whining incessantly for years now about music piracy and how it’s ruined their business.
Well, here’s a piece of advice: Offer the damned music for sale then!
What’s beyond me is why these releases are being promoted to DJs in North America, if there’s no intent to market the material here. I’m not really complaining; these are good songs. That’s why they’re in rotation on the station, and it’s why I’m playing them. I like good music. End of story. But it really does seem to defy all reasonable logic.
Maybe this is a twisted way to test the waters over here before deciding whether to offer the music. But I do know that about all it takes to post stuff for sale on iTunes is a desire to do so, a legal right to do so, and a trained monkey intern to log into Apple’s interfaces and post the stuff.
In this day and age, you’d think someone like Universal could manage to make that happen for any, every and all releases in their catalog to eek-out every last bit of revenue humanly possible. I don’t get why they’re not.
Meanwhile, I guess I just keep spinning the good music that comes my way through legitimate promotional sources, and when asked, “Where can I get that?” I’ll start answering, “Fly to the UK and snag it there.”
What a shame.
Add comment March 30, 2009
Chart update 3/29/09
Once again, my task list has exceeded the available clock cycles the past few weeks, and the chart updates are lagging. I just got them current this morning. Yay!
Not surprisingly, the amazing Carol Hahn is in the #1 position with her awesome new single, I Can Stop the Rain. I just love Carol’s work, and this new track is arguably her very best yet.
I’ve been spinning Sleeping Satellite, the latest from France’s Junior Caldera, for weeks. People love the track, and I’m surprised how many people remember Tanita Tikarim’s original. OceanLab (Above & Beyond) covered this as Satellite a few years ago to good effect, but I really love Caldera’s superb take on the song. Interestingly, Polydor Records have been promoting dance tracks very vigorously to DJs, and yet, the music isn’t for sale anywhere… Not Amazon, not iTunes, not any of the other “usual suspects” for digital music sales. I don’t get it.
Damien J. Carter and Damien Heck’s incredible Glacier in the Sun holds the #3 position. I just cannot get enough of this one (as I blogged last week, I believe). It’s an incredible track.
CAPP Records’ latest European import comes from Andrew Spencer (Zombie and To Be With You) and Lazard, and it’s a cover of 3 Doors Down’s track Here Without You. Lots of great mixes, and people really dig this track. It’s at #6.
Two more noteworthy tracks. At #9 is John Kano amazing I’m Done With the Pain, another track that like Glacier in the Sun has so much going for it, it’s gonna get played for a long time to come. And at #10, my buddy Mike Bordes (a great NYC DJ) with his new track Don’t Know What U Got with Angela Severiano, which plays well and has gotten a great reaction.
Enjoy…
Add comment March 29, 2009
In the studio
I am nearly always working on music in some way or another. But without a specific remix project in the queue, and a desire to perform a song myself, a couple of months ago I began the search for a song to work on. Originally, I was thinking of going the route of a 70s or 80s cover song, and I’ve been listening to a lot of music seeing what might work for me that’s not already been covered once or twice (or more) already.
I happened to come across a song that I really loved that isn’t a 70s or 80s track. While it’ll be a cover, the song is one that wasn’t a hit, and isn’t well known. For now, I’m going to keep it under wraps; it’s really not relevant for this series of blog posts anyway.
But part of that last sentence is key here: this series of blog posts. I decided it might be fun to document how this project unfolds, and I’ve created a new blog category for it. So to see all the posts in this series (for now, just this one), click “Production” under the categories heading here.
So late last week, I went into the studio to record the lead vocals for it. Across three days, I did a number of takes as I tried to figure out how I wanted to voice it, while sort of working through my own timidity. I ended-up on Thursday with a couple of consecutive takes that each have enough of what I want that after some cutting and blending of the two, resulted in a vocal track I can work with. I’m not sure it’s the final vocal I’ll use, but it’s sufficient to start building the rest of the song around.
At the moment, I have a simple percussion bed in-place, the vocal, and I’ve started work on some of the arrangement. So far, so good.
So here we go. Post #1. I have no idea how long it’s going to take to finish this project, but I will keep the blog current with progress reports. This should be fun… It’s a great song, and I’m looking forward to seeing where this project goes.
Add comment March 29, 2009
My ears hurt
I was listening to new music on Monday, trying to figure out which songs out of the pile I want to add to the radio station or start spinning in DJ sets, and I was struck yet again by something.
First, “pile” is figurative; most of the promo music I receive these days is digital, so that means I’m listening to MP3 files. But what really struck me on Monday is how badly engineered much of the music is.
I was listening to one song which shall remain nameless, and it was over-driven on the levels to the point where the peaks were getting clipped, so the sound was horribly distorted. It’s hard to tell where in the process things went so terribly wrong, but every song in the remix package for this song was equally distorted. Given that one of the mixes was from Mike Rizzo, who knows a thing or two about producing music, I can’t imagine the problem was in the production.
What blows me away is that these promos go to DJs, who in-turn play them on some of the best (and worst) sound systems in the world. If the material is distorted or sounds less-than-ideal, a DJ is pretty unlikely to play it (I sure won’t), and if they do, all that crummy engineering is going to be amplified to the point where any DJ with his hearing left isn’t going to play it again in their right mind.
I wish this problem was uncommon. Another recent release that comes to mind had a remix package that was all over the place. Some of the mixes were perfect and release-quality, and one in particular (from a well known remix team) had extremely low sound levels, about half the level of the others. Was it even mastered at all? Was someone asleep at the mixing desk? This one was even on a professionally-produced CD sounding that way. Unbelievable.
Any artist who has the money to pay someone like Mike Rizzo to do a remix, or to order-up a 1,000 copies of a promo CD from Discmakers, probably has the budget to get the tracks properly mastered by someone who knows what they’re doing. And further, has the time or budget to actually listen to the promotional tracks before they go out to DJs, or to manufacturing.
I guess that’s sorta what gets me about this. If music is your passion, and you’re looking to make an impression on people, wouldn’t you want to put your best foot first? Figuratively speaking, you can show-up to the party in a shiny limousine, but if you step out of the back seat in fluourescent green pantsuit with most of your dinner spilled on the front and barely able to walk from all the booze, you’re not getting in the door. Clean yourself up and try harder next time.
Add comment March 25, 2009
Another thought on remakes
I promise that one of these days soon, I’ll stop talking about remakes / cover songs. But just a day after my “quality shines” post, I receive an e-mail from Almighty Records advertising their latest release:
Almighty Records Solicitation
After just saying in writing that it’s about the quality and that covers shouldn’t matter, I gotta say, I have issues with this.
For a start, My Life Would Suck Without You is a current hit song, not something where the lights have faded away and it’s ripe for a recharge.
Secondly, My Life Would Suck Without You already has a slate of dance remixes that are quite strong with Kelly Clarkson singing her own song in them. Why on Earth does Almighty think we’d need more to choose from?
Thirdly, Almighty—whose production work is almost universally strong (I’ve been a huge fan for years)—failed at this one in my view. The production work is formulaic, predictable, and thin, and as much of a fan of Jamie Knight (one of Almighty’s house vocalists) as I am, her voice just doesn’t lend anything here.
The result is exactly how I see this release to start with: a cheap knock-off, rushed to market in an attempt to cash-in on someone else’s success. Every sale that Almighty manages to make with this song is likely a sale not going to Kelly Clarkson’s record label. (The only positive is that as a co-writer, Clarkson will get some royalties from the deal.)
I have to give Almighty credit for coming-up with this clever idea. But if you’re going to hock fake Rolex watches on the street corner, so to speak, then your “Rolex” should probably not have the faux gold plating peeling off the band, and a loose second hand rolling around the inside of the bezel.
Simply put, Almighty have brought nothing new or innovative to the table. It’s just a knock-off, and not a real great job of it at that.
As long as we’re talking about Almighty, Jamie Knight, and cover songs, I might as well reveal my own semi-double-standard in the process. One of their recent projects was a cover of Leona Lewis, who was herself covering Snow Patrol, of the song Run. Neither Lewis nor Snow Patrol had an officially released dance remixes that I’m personally aware of, nor was Lewis’ version some chart smash success. And in the case of Run, Jamie Knight’s stunningly beautiful, energetic and flawless vocal resonates alongside Almighty’s strong production work. I love the track, I spin it regularly, and people enjoy it.
So. Maybe it does come down to quality afterall…
Add comment March 24, 2009
Daring 2 B Dif’rnt
These days, I’m pretty well pelted by new dance music from all sides. It’s a good problem to have, as a lover of dance music, but it has a down side, in that listening to as many as a few hundred new songs each week (hundreds and hundreds of tracks, if you include multiple mixes of the same song) takes either a lot of time, or you tend to make hasty decisions about songs. Some weeks it’s former, some weeks it’s the latter.
It’s nice to know that there are PR and promotions people out there doing their jobs. Over the weekend, I was contacted by one of them representing Dare 2 B Dif’rnt, an act out of New York. Their most recent release, There’s Somethin’ in the Air (I’m sorta getting these guys like aopstrophes) came across my desk in November. For whatever reason, I did choose to program it on iDanceRadio.fm, but never pulled any extended mixes to include in DJ sets.
So after being prompted by the PR gal, I took a second look, and I’m not sure why I didn’t decide to spin this track when it first came around. I’ll start.
What I’m sorta finding out about myself is that a lot of things color my musical impressions… Mood, how tired I might be, whatever is going through my head when the song plays, and the fact that even on a good day, it often requires hearing a song 2 or 3 times before forming an opinion about it, which is time I just don’t have. All are reasons why, when someone happens to encourage me to pay attention to a specific song, and I’ve previously dismissed it, I always take another listen.
Invariably it’s a promotions person, or a label rep, or whatever. Harry Towers, who as Deet Promotions is one of a handful of promoters in the dance space (he’s also a mixshow jock on the radio station), has been working with CAPP Records for months now. But when he recently took some time out to ask me about the songs he’s currently repping, embarrassingly, I was only familiar off-hand with about 40% of them.
Of course, I don’t like all of them, but that’s not really the point. One track in particular, Tod Miner’s Luv ‘n’ Music, was one of those I’d dismissed. After Harry’s prompting, I took another listen. While some of the mixes still don’t appeal me, a couple of them did on a re-listen, and I’m adding it to the radio rotation, as well as playing it in DJ sets now. So much for hasty decisions; clearly they can’t be trusted.
In any case, it is what it is. I’ll review what I get, make decisions (invariably quick ones) as I have the time available, and thankfully committed artists, producers, labels and promoters who reach out will continue to get me to slow down on their priorities.
Maybe I’m a music ho, or it’s the dance industry ecosystem at work. Not sure which. 
Add comment March 23, 2009
I still think it’s an issue of exposure
When my friend Kevin, a former Sony Music exec, suggested that I sign-up for Bob Lefsetz‘ letter (an e-mail based blog, essentially), he told me that anyone who’s anybody in the music industry reads it. So, a few months ago, I did. And sometimes a couple of times a week, and sometimes a couple of times a day, I get an e-mail from Bob.
Lefsetz goes on about a lot of things music industry related. Sometimes it strikes me a bunch of hot air. Sometimes I have no idea who or what he’s talking about (insider industry references that go well over my head). But more often than not, Lefsetz is just telling it how is, and wondering why some people are so slow to accept it. I don’t always agree with him, but most of the time, it’s a great read.
How does this pertain to dance music? Well, I was a little surprised when one of Lefsetz’ missives landed in my in-box, quoting Filo & Peri’s lyrics to Anthem. This was the first time I’ve ever heard Lefsetz acknowledge dance music, let alone talk about it at all.
While he’s not yet posted it in his archive (as of this morning when I write this, but I’m sure it’ll show-up soon), Lefsetz apparently decided to tune around a bit on his Sirius receiver, and ended-up on BPM, Sirius/XM’s primary dance channel. Anthem was playing, and apparently the lyrics struck him enough to quote them.
Since I don’t have the letter in front of me, this will be an inexact quote, but Lefsetz said something to the effect that, ‘Apparently there are dance hits, but it’s a world most of us don’t see.’ (I may correct this blog posting later with the actual quote, but that’s the gist.)
I’d be hard-pressed to pick a song better than Anthem with which to introduce sometime for the first time to dance music (depending on which mix it is anyway). Well-written, well-arranged, well-sung, it’s just a great song, which is why it’s still getting played almost two years later.
But there’s the rub, right? Someone has to hear the music to know it exists really. It’s not pop, it’s not rock, it’s not country, where everybody already knows what it is, and whether or not they like it. And I don’t need a study to tell me that a significant percentage of the population don’t go to dance nightclubs regularly where you might hear dance music. I’d venture to guess that most have never been.
Which leaves satellite and Internet radio as just about the only way the general population might hear a dance song (unless it’s used on a TV commercial, perhaps), since there’s a mere handful of terrestrial stations that play it in the U.S. You don’t accidentally tune across an Internet radio station; it’s a destination, not a scene you run across at mile marker 156.
As for satellite radio, kudos to Bob Lefsetz for venturing above channel 30 on Sirius. Those 100+ channels are pretty intimidating, and one has to have a lot of time on one’s hands—or be bored to tears with the channels on one’s tuner presets—to go surfing. I’m guessing Lefsetz won’t be a BPM regular, but at least he knows we’re out here, and he knows what it sounds like. Go Bob!
Maybe if a few other people tuned around a bit, they might find something in our little world to like.
Add comment March 20, 2009
Why do some songs get so old, so fast?
As I was preparing my morning coffee this morning, as usual, I was listening to iDanceRadio.fm. (I don’t have a choice; it broadcasts to every radio in the house that’s turned-on over an ultra low power FM transmitter. Don’t ask; yes, I’m a geek, we knew that already.) The song that was playing, Madison Park and Monodeluxe with Come Out And Play, is one I feel like I’ve heard about 10,000 times, and I wanted to throw the radio in the neighbor’s yard.
I have nothing against the song itself, or Madison Park, I want to be clear. I love DeAnna Cool’s smooth vocals, and I’ve been a fan for years. But there’s just something about her singing, “Why don’t you play with me, under my apple tree,” that after so many plays just grates on my last nerve. I want to go cut her apple tree down and burn it at this point, which in a way is pretty disappointing, because I still think it’s a groovy song.
But it got me thinking… Why does it seem like some song get so old, so quickly? Prematurely, even? While others seems to last and last. Here’s my list, and I may add to this post later if other ideas occur to me. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think it is, and I’ll do a new post to revisit this subject later on.
- Lyrical Variety or Complexity
First, I listen to lyrics, as I like to sing along to songs a lot of times. I know that not everyone does (like my friend Bobby, who says he never pays attention to the lyrics at all). So for some, this might not matter, but for me, if a song has complex lyrics—I don’t know how better to explain it, but basically more than just a couple of verses or a chorus repeated over and over—it seems to hold better.Notable exceptions: Filo & Peri’s Anthem, which in some of the mixes is quite redundant, and Ferry Corsten’s epic Fire where Simon LeBon sings the same small block of lyric over and over. And over. An exception to every rule, I guess.
But if DeAnna Cool didn’t sing about her apple tree about 15 times in a single track, it probably would have lasted longer for me.
- Lack of Novelty
Novelty songs, or songs with a novelty angle, get tired fast for me. Sally Jaxx’s take on 9 to 5 which I blogged about for other reasons a good 18 months ago, is an example of this for me, because it’s a remake that is incredibly close to the original to the point that it sounds like a remix of the original, and not a remake. And hearing something like 9 to 5 remixed is pretty novel to me.Some novelty songs don’t even get off the ground for me in the first place, like amberRose Marie’s Wanna Be a DJ which I mentioned earlier this week.
The “novelty” moniker is subjective, I suppose, but if a song is intended to be “cutesie” or silly, or maybe is even if it’s not intended to be but comes across that way, it won’t last long.
- Sonic Complexity
This is probably the biggest single reason why some songs last and last… I’ve often called this “ear candy” because it describes anything that lets your ear go for a little ride.This complexity can be done any number of ways. If I was talking jazz piano, it’s often achieved with complex, rich chords and chord progressions. With electronic music, it’s usually sophisticated production with layer after layer of synth action, rich percussion, clever use of patches, clever use of filtering, and/or a very defined rises and falls in energy level that give a feeling of anticipation and fulfillment.
It’s not an easy thing to do, and frankly, it’s also what separates an “OK” dance track from a “WOW!!” dance track, and the aforementioned Filo & Peri and Ferry Corsten tracks are good examples of this.
But when a track manages to achieve that complexity, it takes time for it to become familiar, because you keep hearing something new every time you listen to it. I really like songs (or more accurately, I suppose, mixes) that manage to achieve that, and moreover, knowing how difficult it is to achieve it, I appreciate the sheer artistry and craftsmanship that went into it.
So, what did I miss? What do you think gives a track an extended life, vs. those that are tiresome in a week? It’s fascinating for music nuts to ponder in any case.
Add comment March 19, 2009
