Archive for July, 2009
Playlist for Friday Night House Party Mixshow #39 (7/24/2009)
Admittedly a bit late, but here’s the playlist from last Friday’s mixshow.
- Nick Fiorucci feat. Kelly Malbasa – Every Time You Move (Jerome Robins Back To Basics Mix)
- Chicane – Poppiholla (Original Mix)
- Pimp and Jam – Feel U Feelin Me (Sleazesisters Anthem Club Mix)
- Cascada – Evacuate The Dancefloor (Cahill Remix)
- Jessica Jarrell – Armageddon (Joe Bermudez Chico Club Mix)
- James Collins – Cyndi Lauper Said No (Sadoway’s Remix Extended)
- Kim Leoni – Again (Original Club Mix)
- Tod Miner – Totally Numb (Georgie Porgie Anthem Club Mix)
- Jordin Sparks – Battlefield (Mike Rizzo Club Mix)
- Serge Devant – Addicted (Club Mix)
- Gia Bella – Back it Up (Dave Aude Club Remix)
- Carol Hahn – Take Me and Dance (Wesley King Extended Mix)
- Lauren Hildebrandt – Boyshorts (Aaron Paetsch Remix)
- Divine Brown – Sunglasses (Rebirth Extended Remix)
- Ameerah – The Sound of Missing You (Extended Mix)
- Tiger & Dragon – Rapture (Chriss Ortega Club Mix)
- Jimmy D. Robinson feat. CEEVOX – At Midnight (Klubjumpers & DJ Maximus 3000 Extended Mix)
- Disco Freaks – Take Me 2 The Sun (Freemasons 2009 Remix)
- Nick Lachey – Patience (Mike Rizzo Funk Generation Club Mix)
- Ann Lee – 2 People (Favretto Remix)
- TR feat. Frenchie Davis – Give Me Tonight (Klubjumpers Extended Mix)
Thanks for listening each week, and be sure and tune-in this Friday for another two hours of great music, mixed live!
Chart update 7/24/09
I just posted my Top 25 Dance Chart for the week on my web site. You can read the whole chart by clicking that link, but here’s the Top 10 this week:
| TW | LW | Artist | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Ameerah | The Sound of Missing You | Robbins |
| 2 | 1 | Gia Bella | Back it Up | Xtreme NYC |
| 3 | 7 | Divine Brown | Sunglasses | Warner |
| 4 | 3 | Jessica Jarrell | Armageddon | Mercury |
| 5 | 12 | Just Jack with Phil Garant feat. Matina Parisi | Smoke | Moda |
| 6 | 6 | Vincent Medugno | We Are Meant to Be | Casa |
| 7 | 5 | Lauren Hildebrandt | Boyshorts | Red Wallet |
| 8 | 4 | David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland | When Love Takes Over | EMI France |
| 9 | 14 | Tod Miner | Totally Numb | Music Plant |
| 10 | 18 | Ann Lee | 2 People | Off Limits (Italy) |
Added this week are three great new tracks:
- Jordin Sparks’ latest single, Battlefield. This American Idol alum does it again, with a well-written song and a set of terrific remixes for the dance music audience.
- Sneaky Sound System with It’s Not My Problem. This Australian band has infected Europe (in a good way) and now has its sights set on North America. This is a solid track with great production and a good sound.
- Carol Hahn’s latest single, Take Me and Dance, is coming next month. And while this add might be self-serving since my remix is one of the ones in the package, I think you’ll agree that it’s a great song (written by Carol herself) with an infectious lyric and groove. (There are also mixes from Lenny B., Eros and VisionX.)
Once again, check out the web site for the full chart.
Feeling slighted? Write a song.
Toronto singer, songwriter and actor, James Collins, felt slighted. And in the fashion of country artist Dave Carroll (whose United Breaks Guitars has been a viral sensation), Collins responded by writing and recording a song.
Collins’ slight might not have had the broad appeal of an airline throwing around multi-thousand-dollar instruments on the tarmac, but it was significant to him nonetheless. In short, he went on one of Rosie O’Donnell’s “r Family” cruises, where one of the guest performers was none other than the inimitable Cyndi Lauper. As expected, there was a fair amount of interest from guests in being photographed with or getting autographs from Lauper, but as the story goes, when Collins asked to be photographed with her, she apparently said “no,” and walked away.
I wasn’t there and can’t vouch for the veracity of the story, but that James Collins was motivated to pen a song about the experience lends it some credibility, and certainly expresses how the simple snubbing made an impression. Why Lauper would be prompted to rebuff an adoring fan (especially in the captive surroundings of a cruise ship) is beyond me. But given the brouhaha that developed last year when Lauper was to appear on CBS Television’s Early Show, one wonders if Ms. Lauper isn’t getting a little full of her diva self as she gets older. Or, perhaps she was just having two notable and publicly documented bad days. Regardless, it’s probably not the sort of publicity one might ideally want to get for a recording artist whose peak of popularity appears to be behind her.
Don’t get me wrong—I have been a Cyndi Lauper fan since the 1980s, and I think her newest work is among her best. But we all like to believe that our idols are kind, and generally respectful of their fans; that being held to a higher standard, they respond accordingly. Alas, it would seem that Lauper is just like the rest of us, and not only has her bitchy side, but isn’t afraid to let it show. Perhaps she’s entitled.
In any event, I find Collins’ song, Cyndi Lauper Said No, to have a bit of a novelty element to it, not at all unlike Carroll’s United Breaks Guitars. “I have a grievance, and let me tell you about it.” It’s probably not the stuff from which ASCAP songwriter awards are made. But that being said, Collins did a good job with the track, and the dance remixes that are available are ready-made for a number of audiences, many of which will appreciate the groovy dance beat as well as the sardonic lyric. Collins’ delivery is certainly capable, but stylistically sort of underscores the derisiveness of the words.
Despite what might seem like my doubts about this song, truth be told, I like it, and I both respect and admire Collins for taking his case to the public, and translating his slight into unique way to get the last word.
Well, we assume it’s the last word; no news from Lauper’s camp as to whether she’s heard the song, what she thinks of it, or whether she’s bothered to apologize to Collins. Stay tuned.
Playlist for Friday Night House Party Mixshow #38 (7/17/2009)
Here’s what you heard last Friday on the DJ Wesley Friday Night House Party:
- Rico Bernasconi – Love Deep Inside (Original Club Mix)
- Just Jack with Phil Garant feat. Matina Parisi – Smoke (Club Mix)
- Carol Hahn – Take Me and Dance (Wesley King Extended Mix)
- Kelly Clarkson – I Do Not Hook Up (Ashanti Boyz Club Mix)
- Lauren Hildebrandt – Boyshorts (Aaron Paetsch Remix)
- D’Lannie – I Heard A Rumour (Klubjumpers Extended Mix)
- Kristinia DeBarge – Goodbye (Hott 22 Club Mix)
- Kevin Rudolf feat. Kid Cudi – Welcome To The World (Mike Rizzo Funk Generation Club Mix)
- Divine Brown – Sunglasses (Rebirth Extended Remix)
- Oceana – Body Rock (Dave Aude Vocal Mix)
- Ann Lee – 2 People (Favretto Remix)
- Kim Esty – He Doesn’t Like Me… (He Likes My Brother) (Whisper Twins vs. SBD Extended Remix)
- Lady Gaga – Love Game (Jody Den Broeder Club Remix)
- Beat Thrillerz feat. Elissa – Your Love Still Haunts Me (Original Extended Mix)
- Michael Menace – Underwear (Soul Seekerz Club Mix)
- Laura Izibor – Shine (Digital Dog Remix)
- Agnes – Release Me (Cahill Club Mix)
- Flash Republic – Twister (Bellatrax Mix)
- Gia Bella – Back it Up (Dave Aude Club Remix)
- David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland – When Love Takes Over (Original Extended Mix)
- Vincent Medugno – We Are Meant to Be (Georgie Porgie Extended Mix)
Tune-in again this Friday at 10 Eastern, 7 Pacific, on iDanceRadio.fm for two hours of great dance music, mixed LIVE! “See” you there.
Necessary evil
I really do try and keep off-topic posts in this blog to a minimum. The purpose here is to talk about dance music, the dance music industry, DJ stuff, production stuff, and related… Stuff. But hopefully you’ll permit me this opportunity to rant. I promise it won’t happen again. Soon.
These days, social media is a necessary evil. Just like e-mail, just like instant messaging, when your friends, colleagues, fans, associates, family members, neighbors, and others are all Twittering and Facebooking and whatever-else-ing, you feel like a bit of a dork when you’re odd one out, like some sort of technology curmudgeon stuck in the rotary phone era.
So, like many others, I Twitter, I Facebook, and I even still MySpace despite MySpace being the stinky armpit of social networking these days.
Facebook is arguably the most useful of the various social networking services. It’s nowhere near as ugly as MySpace, for a start. And it has some actually somewhat useful features and capabilities. Plus it seems that even my most reluctant friends have caved to peer pressure and have Facebook accounts now.
But all that said, I’m beginning to hate to Facebook. MySpace might well be a metric f*ck ton of ugly right out there on the surface, but Facebook tucks it all away under the hood where you don’t see it at first. Facebook’s “ugly” are the so-called “apps” that are reproducing like rabbits, it seems, along with all the other dingleberries aplenty that go along with them.
It’s all so ugly that if I get one more invitation to from some stupid “app” a friend thought I might find as cute as they did, or one more wall posting from an “app” a friend just interacted with, I think I’m going to go postal.
Dear Facebook friends, let me be clear:
- If you want to kiss me, just kiss me for real, and don’t bother sending me some digital Facebook app version of one.
- I don’t care what city my friends are most suited to live in, based on a test they took, and I don’t want to see it on my wall.
- I don’t care what five actors my friends most look like, based on a test they took, and I don’t want to see it on my wall.
- I don’t care which Harry Potter character my friends are most similar to, based on a test they took, and I don’t want to see it on my wall.
- I don’t care which ______ my friends most ______, based on a test they took, and I don’t want to see it on my wall.
- I don’t collect hearts, lollipops, Peeps, or any other form of digital tchotchke. (I got over digital tchotchke when my Tamagotchi died.)
- I don’t want to be “poked.” If you want to say hello, say, “Hello!” Really; it’s just six keystrokes and a couple of clicks more effort.
- I don’t want to be a fan of anything or anyone I don’t choose myself, and no, I don’t want to be a part of a group that I haven’t already joined.
Oh, and while I’m at it…
Dear Facebook,
- I do not know why you think I’m interested in being friends with friends of friends, friends of friends I defriended (yes, that happens), fans of people I’m a fan of, other people in a group I belong to, or people in some sort of affiliation I’m in. Just because I share one interest or contact with someone doesn’t mean I know them—or want to.
- Just because a friend became a fan of someone or something, or joined a group, doesn’t mean I want or need to know about it, nor does it mean that I have even potential interest in doing the same, so stop telling me about it. Really. Stop. Please stop.
I like Facebook. I do. Mostly. Sort of.
But all the rest of the crap that comes with it is just a new version of spam. Instead of communicating, or communicating something useful, let’s just send a bunch of digital detritus around and call it communication.
It isn’t.
Just to be very clear as well, if my friends love all this stuff? That’s awesome! Great! Have at it! I’m glad you’re enjoying it, and part of me wishes I did too, but I don’t. But it’s not unlike other areas of life; for example, just because you enjoy eating balut eggs or escamole tacos doesn’t mean I should have to choke them down.
It’ll never happen, but I sorta wish there was a “Block All” button or a “Hide All” button for Facebook apps. They need to get off my wall, out of my “Highlights,” and they need to stay off.
I guess if all this makes me a social networking curmudgeon… Well… I’ve been called worse. Earlier today, in fact. 
Rant complete. The next posting I make will be about dance music. I promise.
Taking the wraps off
I’ve alluded for the past few months about a remix project I’ve been doing, but it’s been a little premature to talk much about it. But today, it’s time to take the wraps off.
Back in May, I started working with Carol Hahn on a new track titled Let Me Go. The remix was pretty well completed, but for a number of reasons, Carol decided in June not to release Let Me Go right now. While I was pleased with my mix, the song is a bit “dark,” and the mix itself ended-up being a bit dark as well. In any case, it’s been shelved for now. Hopefully at some point it’ll see the light of day.
The good news is that last month, Carol wrote a different new song, Take Me and Dance. When I heard her own rough of the track, I fell in love with it immediately, and started work on a remix of the song. It came together quickly, and I think, very nicely. It has a nice sort of grungy element to it that, as Carol said, “has good energy, power, and attitude.” I hope everyone likes it when they hear it.
Also providing remixes on the release are the renowned Lenny B., who I think has remixed just about everyone under the planet, and my British-expat friends from Spain, Jamie Exley and Peter Hayward who are better known as VisionX, and who also did a really strong remix. Between the three mixes, Take Me and Dance covers some broad sonic territory, and I’m stoked about the release. I believe it’s going to be a successful track, so thanks in advance for keeping your eyes open for it and snagging a copy on iTunes or AmazonMP3 once it’s available (sometime in August).
For those anxious to hear, you expect it to show-up in this week’s DJ Wesley Friday Night House Party, and I’ll be posting it to my Facebook and MySpace pages as well soon.
Now that this track is in the can, I’ll be starting a new project here in the next week or so for another artist. I’ll post details about that as soon as I have them.
Chart update 7/13/09
My most recent Top 25 Dance Chart was posted yesterday. Following are some highlights:
- The incredible track from Ameerah, The Sound of Missing You takes-up the #1 spot. I’ve blogged about the track before, and it really is a great example of a solid blend of songwriting, vocal and production.
- High school girls take-up two high positions, Gia Bella at #2 with Back it Up, and Jessica Jarrell at #5 with Armageddon. I wish I understood how and why 17 year olds end-up being dance vocalists, but with these two tracks, who really cares? They’re both great tracks with all the right parts in all the right places.
- A new entry this week is a fabulous track at #20 from Canada’s Divine Brown, Sunglasses. We’ve been playing this one on iDanceRadio.fm for weeks, but for some reason didn’t get the track into my pool of DJ music. The production has some cool and unusual elements that are infectious, and Brown’s vocals are hot.
- One of my adds for the week is a new track from Ann Lee, whose 2006 tracks 2 Times was a global hit. This time around, it’s 2 People, and it’s a laid back, pleasant track with a nice groove. I play the great remix from Italy’s Favretto, whose work I’ve long admired.
Listen for these tracks and more each Friday night during the DJ Wesley Friday Night House party on iDanceRadio.fm, and of course, at other gigs as they happen.
Miner uncovers a gem
A couple of months ago or more, I blogged about a then-still-new track from producer Tod Miner, Luv N Music. As I explained at the time, I absolutely couldn’t stand the track the first 10, 20 or 30 times I played it. (Literally.) After being encouraged to give it yet another chance, I did, and ended-up warming-up to and really liking the track… Proving that first impressions might well be important sometimes, but they are not always accurate. (This also happened recently with amberRose Marie’s Wanna Be a DJ, which I also just hated the first several listens.)
In any case, I’m pleased to report that Tod’s latest track didn’t quite play out this way. The track, Totally Numb, made quite the first impression. There are a large number of mixes available, and I warmed-up rather quickly to Georgie Porgie’s take on the track, which is richly programmed and well-structured.
Part of the difference this time around is that arguably, Totally Numb is simply a better song than Luv N Music (in my opinion anyway). It’s nicely written, and the vocals, performed by Michelle Watt, are nice, and pleasant to listen to.
While the Georgie Porgie mix is not among them, you can hear some of the other mixes on Tod’s MySpace page.
Playlist for Friday Night House Party Mixshow #36 (7/3/2009)
Here’s what you heard last Friday on the DJ Wesley Friday Night House Party:
- Divine Brown – Sunglasses (Rebirth Extended Remix)
- Pet Shop Boys – Did You See Me Coming (PSB Possibly More Mix)
- Just Jack with Phil Garant feat. Matina Parisi – Smoke (Club Mix)
- Miami Starfish feat. Jermaine Stewart – Clothes Off! (Soul Seekerz Club Mix)
- Lisa Law – Wicked Ways (Soul Seekerz Remix)
- amberRose Marie – Wanna Be a DJ (Josh Harris Club Mix)
- The One Hundred – Still & Fine (Bellatrax Club Mix)
- Yass – When Doves Cry (Yass Main Mix)
- Pepper MaShay – Freeway of Love (Oscar Salguero Club Mix)
- Gia Bella – Back it Up (Dave Aude Club Remix)
- Charlie Ward – Straight Up (Craig C’s Master Club Mix)
- Vincent Medugno – We Are Meant to Be (Georgie Porgie Extended Mix)
- Jessica Jarrell – Armageddon (Joe Bermudez Chico Club Mix)
- Gathania – Blame It On You (Wideboys Club Mix)
- The Perry Twins feat. Niki Haris – Bad, Bad Boy (DJ Escape & Dom Capello Club Mix)
- Taboo Logic feat. Kaitie Thomas – Can’t Give You Up (VisionX Vocal Mix)
- D’Lannie – I Heard A Rumour (Klubjumpers Extended Mix)
- Destination X feat. Lisa Molina – Little Secret (Bassmonkeys Club Mix)
- V Factory – Love Struck (Gomi & Rasjek Club Mix)
- Georgie Porgie – I Believe In Love (Georgie Believes In Love Club Mix)
- Waking Up in Vegas (Jason Nevins Electrotec Club Remix)
I hope you can listen-in this Friday for another two hours of great dance music, mixed live, on iDanceRadio.fm!
With chops like this, there’s no need to “back it up”
Last week, I received a promo for a new track from both an artist, and a record label (XtremeNYC), I’d never heard of. I’m always a little skeptical when I get total unknowns, but I dutifully slipped the CD in my player, and was very pleasantly surprised.
The song is Back it Up, and the artist is 16 year old Gia Bella. The photos on her MySpace page convey a look that’s far more mature and mischievous, but be that as it may, she has a great voice that paired with a decent song and the strong production work on this release, is a combination that works.
Dave Audé’s name might be plastered on every other dance release these days, but his mix of Back it Up is incredibly solid; it’s got the perfect funky feel for the song, and a nice, dark, gritty percussion that just begs for you to get on the floor.
You can hear a sample on Gia Bella’s MySpace page (link above).
