Archive for April, 2009
Chart update 4/10/09
Last night I posted the chart update for last week (a bit late), and I guess it’s starting to get a little dull with those first five entries sort of jockeying around amongst themselves. 
In fact, I don’t find any surprises on the chart this week, but here’s a few, brief notables:
- Pleasure Center’s If I Sound Excited makes its entry at #14. I’ve blogged about this hot new track already, and I expect it to be on the chart for awhile.
- On the last chart update I mentioned Tod Miner’s Luv N Music, and I still find myself a little surprised it on my chart at all considering my initial impression of the song. Frankly, the more I hear it, the more I like it, and it shows at #8 this week.
- Speaking of tracks I like more the more I hear them, I blogged about Danny Saucedo last week, and his track All On You is really a fave right now. His track enters at #23.
- The sole hot add for this week comes from Radikal Records’ Plasco with a cover titled Stay. It’s originally by the country act Sugarland, and I always have a “thing” for country covers; they’re just… Fun, and a little different sounding. What I think makes this work particularly well for me is that it’s a sort of “soft techno.” It’s 142 BPM, so it’s very fast, and the percussion is very hands-up like, even if the song itself isn’t quite. Interesting track regardless.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens on next week’s chart, given that there’s a new release I’m very, very excited about. But that’ll have to wait for tomorrow’s blog posting.
Can you hear me running?
One of my favorite new songs received in the past couple of weeks happens to be a remake, and it’s of a song I wish I’d thought to cover, Silent Running, the 80s megahit originally from Mike and the Mechanics.
I always liked the song. The original vocal always had this warmth about it, and it had a nice melody that sorta stuck in your head.
Well, it sorta stuck there again the moment I heard Oliver deVille’s take on it. The Vienna-based deVille is a new name to me. While his MySpace page indicates he’s produced/remixed some big name material, I’m at a loss to find any hard references to anything. Not that it matters; Silent Running is pretty good stuff, and besides… deVille has hair that looks like something on a Second Life avatar, and that’s worth something too, right?
Not surprising considering his Austrian roots, but deVille’s version of Silent Running has a nice, crisp, edgy sound that depending on the mix, is or borders on techno. Germany and Austria seem to be at the epicenter of techno, which has yet to mainstream here in the US for whatever reason, but nonetheless has a huge following here.
Techno remakes like this, and like a lot of those released by CAPP Records, seem to work for a lot of different reasons. For a lot of techno fans, they don’t even know the original song, so as far as they’re concerned, it’s great new music. For those of us who are so used to mellower house sounds we grew-up with, the familiarity with the songs serves as a sort of “bridge” to the hands-up techno sound, which has turned me and a lot of others my age into techno fans. And finally, hands-up techno, as a style of cover, takes a song into new territory that other styles of remake just couldn’t make happen.
I know a lot of DJs and radio programmers have something against cover songs, and I too often find the cover song to be an overused model in the dance music industry. But as I’ve written before, I think the simple truth is that well-produced music and good songwriting matter more than where the song happened to come from. Bad covers of good songs, or good covers of lousy ones, are where things fall apart here, but it’s not a reason to dismiss an entire category, and deVille’s new track is neither a bad cover, nor a bad song to choose for a cover. Check out his MySpace page (link above), give it a listen, and see what you think.
Idol isn’t the only way
Auditioning for American Idol (or one of its siblings worldwide) may be one way for people with singing talent to get discovered, as I blogged earlier this week. In fact, just tinkering with one’s video camera and posting the results on YouTube has proven to be another way some people get to the spotlight.
One of those people came to my attention on Monday while updating the music on iDanceRadio.fm, and that person is The Netherlands’ Esmée Denters. Just three years ago, Esmée was videotaping herself singing popular songs, Idol audition style, and posting them on YouTube. Apparently the results were impressive enough for someone in the industry to notice.
Denters was eventually introduced to Justin Timberlake, who in addition to signing her to his new Tennman Records label, had her open for his European concerts in 2007. She’s been hanging out with Timberlake since, as a sort of protégé. Fast-forward to today, and she’s preparing for the release of her first album. Not bad for a kid who just a couple of years ago was merely goofing around with Internet video.
Her debut single, which is what I added to the station on Monday, is titled Outta Here. It’s probably exactly what one might expect from someone associated with Timberlake: a nice, pleasant, radio-friendly, pop song infused with R&B, that sits nicely in an iPod playlist next to Beyoncé, Rihanna, or any number of otherwise largely soundalike female pop artists today. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, only that it’s commercial pop music that follows the rules and sticks to the formula that’s proven to work as well as anything does these days in the music industry.
I’ve not seen or heard any extended remixes of the song yet; I hope they’re coming. But the album single works for me. Listen for it on the station and see if you agree.
It’ll be interesting to see where things go next for Denters.
AmazonMP3 and the line between convenience and annoyance
Last night, I was looking for a years-old dance track in a very specific mix that I’d heard on Sirius/XM’s BPM. I went to all the places I might usually go… Junodownload, AudioJelly, DJ Download… Nothing. Since I check iTunes only as a last resort, my next stop was Amazon.com, since I figured that their AmazonMP3 service is emerging as a viable digital download service. Lo and behold, they had the track.
So, I did the simple “buy” process, and that’s where the trouble started. Instead of an MP3 file, an “AMZ” file was coming across the wire. WTF?!
From what scant information that was on the download page, I rather quickly surmised that I was being forced through assumption to use Amazon’s MP3 download tool software. I didn’t have this stupid tool, so the AMZ file wouldn’t open. I had to reject the download, go download and install their tool, and thankfully when I back-navigated to the download page, the download started again, only this time, the AMZ file was recognized.
This was annoying enough, but once the download tool did its thing, iTunes started automatically and crap was added into that, too, without asking me. Here’s a list of my issues with this process:
I don’t want help
First and foremost, single track downloads from AmazonMP3 are not supposed to require the use of their stupid tool. I’m a pretty savvy guy. I don’t need, or want, Amazon’s “help” to make sure I don’t lose a downloaded file somewhere on my hard drive, or to stick it into iTunes (and hence my iPod) if that’s where I want it to go. Why was I required to use it?
I believe at this point that the issue was that I’d tried the tool shortly after Amazon.com opened their digital store in order to collect some free promotional downloads. My account was still marked as a download tool user, so it assumed I still had it. After uninstalling it this time, it directed me to a web page that indicated my account had been unflagged as a user of the tool. Fair enough I guess. But no less irritating.
What is the point?
I find it interesting that other digital download stores don’t have this requirement. Beatport, Masterbeat, Junodownload, AudioJelly, DJ Download, and a litany of others hoping to be the next iTunes don’t seem to have any issue allowing single MP3 downloads as… Shock… Single MP3 downloads.
AmazonMP3 indicates that the use of the download tool is required for albums. Why? Other download stores simply stick all the tracks into a download folder, and let you have at it at your own pace. Others still bundle them into a ZIP file and let you download that. Again, what is the big deal here?
OK, I’ll venture a guess at answering my own question.
First, as a web developer, I understand the technical challenge of confirming successful download using web technology. The bottom line is that it’s not really all that possible, reliably, without a ton of effort. As a result, most download stores allow a window a time in which you can download the track, multiple times if necessary, before further access is barred (as a thin piracy barrier presumably). By developing and offering a special tool for the purpose, AmazonMP3 can easily confirm successful receipt of a file… They could even checksum the download if they wanted to, to ensure data integrity, before marking it “downloaded” in their database. On that level (and that level only) it’s a pretty smart idea.
Second, AmazonMP3 is setting a low bar for customers. One reason iTunes has been successful is because it’s crammed down your throat (you can’t easily use an iPod without iTunes), and because the store is fully integrated with it. It just… Works. Most of the first iPod customers were geeks, but these days, it’s your mom, granddad, uncle Harry, and that sort of person who need all the help they can get. If it’s not easy, they’ll be calling customer service in a heartbeat. AmazonMP3 understands this too.
But I’m still baffled why people who actually know how to use a computer are treated like some idiot who just turned their PC on for the first time sometime last week. Besides… If they can handle downloading and installing the download tool, they can probably handle downloading and using MP3 files.
Ask first
Perhaps the most annoying part of all of this is that I was never asked ahead of time to download the tool. Its existence wasn’t verified before an AMZ file was crammed down my throat that wouldn’t open. And at no point during the tool installation was I asked if I wanted iTunes integration.
Amazon.com just assumed. Assumed I wanted the software. Assumed I had it. Assumed I wanted to integrate with iTunes. I don’t, I didn’t, and I didn’t, respectively.
I have quite enough “assuming” from Microsoft (dear user, we are God, we know what you want to do with your computer better than you do, so we’ll just do it), and I don’t need it from Amazon.com too.
In closing
I’m very pleased that AmazonMP3 is becoming a viable force in the digital distribution realm. I’m very pleased to see more labels, more independents, more artists, more content going there. I’d love to see Apple’s strangehold on the music distribution market loosened a bit, and even though Apple has removed DRM from the iTunes Store, I prefer the MP3 format to start with and will seek it out before alternatives until something better comes along.
But if what I experienced last night is the customer experience AmazonMP3 wants people like me to have, they’ve just ensured that they will be the last place I look for music, just before the iTunes Store.
The global Idol machine
I have to hand it to the folks at Fremantle Media (owned by the media giant Bertelsmann AG): coming-up with the Idol franchise was a stroke of brilliance. While American Idol might be getting a little tired at this point, it’s hardly in danger of cancellation with its millions-strong following, and Idol worldwide continues to chug along very nicely, thank you.
Say what you will about Idol, it brings to the spotlight talent we might not have heard otherwise, and while I’ve written plenty about the stars cranked out by the American version of the show, truth is, there are plenty of artists on the global stage that also have Idol roots, and as we’ve seen in the U.S., you don’t have to win the competition to get benefit of the “Idol effect.”
Take Danny Saucedo. Back in 2006, he appeared on Swedish Idol. While his Wikipedia entry suggests he wowed the judges, apparently his talent wasn’t quite sufficient to get him beyond the top 6 contestants on the show.
Apparently that was perfectly adequate, however, since Sony signed him in 2007, and he’s enjoyed a few #1 songs in Sweden since. Apparently he’s a bit of a sensation in Poland as well, but in any case, I just saw his name for the first time within the past few weeks when I got a promo of his track All on You.
It’s one of those tracks that was sort of, “yeah, this is good” on the first listen, and it’s been growing on me (thankfully not like a fungus in this case) since. As one might expect, it’s your basic polished remix of a basic polished pop song. Nothing wrong with that. And while I might feel a wee bit guilty for embracing another example of the vanilla ice cream of music (I normally prefer a little flavor and texture, figuratively speaking), good vanilla ice cream is still fun to eat, right?
It will be interesting to see if Sony are successful in getting Danny Saucedo to gain traction in North America. His “cute factor” should go a long way to help, but as I said, the music’s not bad either.
Check out his web site (if you read Swedish, anyway) at www.danny.nu.
Chart update 4/5/09
I can’t believe that even with the recent time change (Daylight Savings) I’m starting to miss the sunrise again already each morning. It’s throwing-off my rhythm big-time. But that’s not kept me keeping a chart update rhythm going for the last week, which I completed and posted last night.
The Top 5 just sort of juggled position a little bit, but Carol Hahn, Jamie Knight, “The Damiens” (Damien J. Carter and Damien Heck), Junior Caldera and Taylor Swift are all still there. Perhaps the only surprise is that John Kano isn’t in that mix, sitting at #6, but aside from Taylor, none of it’s surprising because I could have named them all anyway. (The chart is based on play frequency, so I’m sometimes as surprised with the results as anyone.)
So rather than rehash anything, I’ll talk a bit this morning about the new entries.
One of them is Tod Miner at #20 with Luv N Music. This is one of those tracks that I just did not like. Not the first time I heard it, not the second, not the third. Harry Towers is promoting the record, and after giving him my reaction to it, he encouraged me to listen one more time to a specific mix (the so-called “Rubber Mix” for reasons I can’t explain), and finally, I thought, “OK, so this isn’t that bad.” After listening to and playing the song, I have to say it’s growing on me. In fact, I think I can safely say now that I like it.
At #18 is Vertigo pres. Peyton. I don’t know much about this track, All That Matters, but I do like it and it’s fantastic lyrics. Peyton, a US-born singer living in the UK now, has had a number of dance tracks in the past, most notably A Higher Place.
Lily Allen’s smash hit The Fear isn’t a favorite, but I have been playing it, and it makes an entry at the bottom at#25. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a catchy song with an interesting if somewhat goofy lyric, but considering it’s one of those tracks that’s getting played everywhere by everyone, it’s already growing a little tiresome. I even heard the non-remixed version while out and about someplace over the weekend; as is often the case, I didn’t even know the track was mainstream.
Have a great week ahead.
Playlist for Friday Night House Party Mixshow #23 (4/3/2009)
In the interest of keeping-up with this a tad bit better, here’s the playlist from last Friday’s mixshow. Enjoy, and see you next Friday night at 10 Eastern, 7 Pacific, for another two hours of great music, performed LIVE on iDanceRadio.fm!
- Danny Saucedo – All On You (The Attic Remix)
- Brandy – Long Distance (Jody Den Broeder Club Mix)
- Tod Miner – Luv N Music (Tod Miner’s Rubber Mix)
- Carol Hahn – I Can Stop the Rain (Twisted Dee Club)
- Vertigo pres. Peyton – All That Matters (Original)
- Mike Bordes pres. Angela Severiano – Don’t Know What U Got (Original Extended Mix)
- The White Tie Affair – Candle (Razor & Guido Club Mix)
- Junior Caldera – Sleeping Satellite (Junior S Club Mix)
- Damien J Carter & Damien Heck – Glacier In The Sun (Extended Radio Mix)
- Mary Mary – God In Me (Dave Aude Club Remix)
- Nouveau Riche – Stay (Klubjumpers Extended Mix)
- Nadia Ali – Love Story (Andy Moor Vocal Mix)
- Pleasure Center – If I Sound Excited (Original Club Mix)
- Ferry Corsten feat. Simon LeBon – Fire (Flashover Remix)
- De-Grees vs. The Real Booty Babes – Apologize (Ti-mo vs. Stefan Rio Club Mix)
- Filo & Peri feat. Eric Lumiere – Anthem (Original Mix)
- Metro Station – Shake It (Lenny B Remix)
- Erasure – A Little Respect ’09 (Avantara Club Mix)
- Robkay & Snooky – Carry On Wayward Son (Hands Up Bitchez & Henny M Club Mix)
Pleasure Center have done it again
Back in October of 2007, I attended Billboard magazine’s last-ever Dance Music Summit. The conference itself was just not good in my view, and given that WMC each March and DJ Expo each August have adequately covered “dance music conferences” on a roughly-semi-annual basis at this point, there just isn’t room for a badly-run, off-cycle conference for an industry this size.
Be that as it may, unlike WMC and even the much smaller DJ Expo, the Dance Music Summit was pretty intimate, and there were ample chances to meet just about anyone else there. One of the highlights of attending was doing just that, and meeting some great people who have since become friends, including several artists and producers.
Among them are Cory Conley and Jennifer Rivers, better known as the duo Pleasure Center. They’ve put-out music at pretty much the rate of one good, solid track every year (an actually quite typical pace for a lot of dance artists). Last year, Love’s a Basic Freedom was that single, which like Heather Small’s Proud is bound to become a perennial gay pride anthem, and the year before, it was You’ve Got it All Wrong.
Both tracks, and Getcha Some (their 2006 release) before them, have established a distinct sound and style for Pleasure Center, with Cory writing and producing, and Jennifer’s very distinctive sound and singing style creating a sort of brand identity for them. A number of remixers big and small lend their talents to each release, and frankly, I’m a big fan.
For 2009, Cory and Jennifer have given us If I Sound Excited. It’s trademark Pleasure Center; Jennifer sounds as energetic and fun as I know she is in-person, and once again, Cory’s writing and producing have given us new material while retaining everything I’ve come to expect from the two.
Energetic and fun are probably the correct words for Pleasure Center itself. While tracks like Love’s a Basic Freedom have an unabashed message in their lyric, not to take anything away from Cory’s songwriting, there’s always a let’s-not-take-ourselves-too-seriously quality to their work. That’s not to say they don’t put a lot into it, I know they very much do. But I guess when you enjoy what you do, it translates into the end result with aplomb.
If I Sound Excited can be heard in the line-up on iDanceRadio.fm, and I’ll be spinning it in my sets for some time to come I’m sure. It’ll be released later this year when additional mixes have come back from the remixers on the project. Definitely check it out; their web site is at www.pleasurecenter.net.
The language barrier
I was listening to iDanceRadio.fm last night. One of the songs we have in rotation is called Some People, and it comes from Ocean Drive feat. DJ Oriska. I like the song, and I always enjoy hearing it when it pops-on.
But the song stands out a bit, because it has a lead male vocal sung in English, and a secondary lead of a female vocalist sung in French. This makes sense; Ocean Drive is producer Nicolas Carel, a Frenchman. DJ Oriska, one of those rare female DJs, is ostensibly the female vocalist, and she too calls Paris home.
But it got me wondering: Why are there not more songs sung in languages other than English that get played here?
I’ve wondered this for a long time, actually. When you look at pop or dance music charts from other countries, the majority of the tracks are artists I recognize, with songs performed in English, intermixed with some local artists singing in the respective country’s native language.
Are Americans that narrow-minded, or do we just like singing along? I think we’re missing out on a lot of good music.
There are historic exceptions. I recall Nena, back in the day, with her 99 Luftballons, which after the track gained traction here was re-recorded in a poorly translated English version, 99 Red Balloons that caused a great war commentary song to lose all its original meaning. But normally about as close as we get to foreign language here is Feliz Navidad each holiday season (a song which is mostly in English anyway).
Another track playing on iDanceRadio.fm is David Tavare feat. 2Eivissa, and the track, Hot Summer Night (Oh La La La). Like Feliz Navidad and Some People is mostly sung in English, and like Navidad is accented (so to speak) with some great Spanish language lyrics. That song has some great energy and nice “interest,” and part of it is the use of the languages.
Another artist that comes to mind is the sister act Paola & Chiara, an Italian duo unknown in the U.S. I actually spin their big hit, Vamos a Bailar, periodically. Bailar is yet another example of language twists; the original has an Italian verse and a Spanish chorus. I have the Spanish version (all Spanish) and an English version which, like the Italian original, retains its Spanish language chorus.
I’d like to hear more of this stuff here if artists or labels would be bold enough to try promoting it here, and audiences would be bold enough to listen. As I blogged just the other week, it’s about the music… And if a song has great energy, a great beat, and makes you wanna dance, does it really matter if it’s in English, French, Spanish, or Italian? I just don’t think it does.
My, but 25 years goes quickly
In yesterday’s blog posting, I mentioned Carol Hahn and Pamala Stanley, and how I thought it was cool that so many years down the road, they’re still doing what they love, and what they’re good at. This month a new album drops from yet another, somewhat bigger-named example of this: Pet Shop Boys. (The album is titled Yes.)
Their first single from this release, Love etc, is on my Top 25 Dance Chart this week. I’m frankly just not that wild about the song, but I’ve been a fan of the Boys’ work for a very long time indeed.
Which is what the title of this post is about. I’m amazed (or appalled) that it’s been 25 years this month since West End Girls was released, Pet Shop Boys’ first megahit. They had a few powerhouse singles in the 80s and 90s, and while they haven’t really since that I can recall, they’ve certainly never gone away, having worked with numerous other artists including Madonna and Robbie Williams, and producing albums quite regularly throughout the time together.
Which is also amazing… For a non-solo musical act to last 25 years with its original members, let alone keep producing music regularly, is a bit of an accomplishment.
Time flies.
Anyway, learn more on their web site at http://www.petshopboys.co.uk.
