Man of Many Lyrics (SNS week of 3/29/2015)

Still lagging behind by a week and much as happened recently, with the passing of my father-in-law, so again, sorry for the delay.

AT THE TOP:   "Weight of Love" by The Black Keys sits atop the SNS 100 for the 5th week.  It's been awhile since one song spent that much time up there.   It's not doing as well on the national rock charts, however, at it is stuck in the teens on the alternative chart.  Granted it is the fourth single from their latest Turn Blue; normally, successive releases don't do progressively as well.   However, the song is more in the "Triple-A" format, and is in that chart's top five.  It is a testament to the Akron duo, who have continued to show their versatility.

Alabama Shakes jumps over the still-advancing "Uptown Funk" (which logs its 13th week atop Billboard's Hot 100, making it the longest of this decade).  Brittany Howard and company jump from 5 to 2; while Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars move up from 4 to 3.  Either one could hit the top as early as next week.  The Shakes would be my personal pick, but if friends continue to post "Uptown Funk" or any parody or reference to it and it continues to stay on top of the Billboard chart, all bets are off.

Three up-and-comers referenced and recommended by friends permeate the Top 20 this week, all of them have one-word, four-letter titles.   Omnia Hegazy advances from 12 to 10 with "Dust", Taylor Centers' "Wild" holds tight at #20 and entering the top echelon this week is Phoebe Ryan's' "Mine". One of the joys of doing this blog and keeping track of current music is discovering new artists.   These three, referred to me by my longtime friend Diane Tarantino Hegazy (Omnia's aunt). Mary Anne Nolan and Merrill Kenny Butler (they knew Taylor and Phoebe, respectively when they were children), makes it cool to follow their growth and hopefully, stardom.    Ryan's is on the verge of that distinction, gathering buzz, and the song is on Billboard's up-and-coming chart.

Centers, based on Charlotte is making sort of a career transition.   While her first SNS chart entry, "Alibi" was pure modern day pop, "Wild" has more of a rock edge to it.   And I had read that she is starting to move more in a country direction.   Sometimes it takes experimentation to figure out what works and what doesn't.   As for Omnia, she had generated some press with her last EP, Judgment Day and has spoken out about many social issues.    She will be playing in Manhattan at Rockwood Music Hall, stage 2, on Tuesday April 14, at 9 pm.    Try to check her out if you're able to.


MAN OF MANY LYRICS?:   There is one other artist who I knew, who has been  steadily climbing my chart.  Moving up from 36 to 30 is "Man of Few Words" by kjband.   Okay, you may be thinking, "What is a kjband?".    Kjband is an ongoing musical project by Ken Johnston, a native of the Trenton, NJ area (a little north of there) who I worked with at Prudential Insurance in the late 1980's and most of the nineties.    Ken was a good friend of mine during that time, and we shared love for music.    He, for the most part was a "weekend warrior" of sorts when it came to music, while duking it out in the Corporate world during the week.  We did attend some concerts together, most notably R.E.M. at Radio City Music Hall, and when I made tapes of my year end Top 100 songs for a year, I had interviewed Ken as to what his favorites were in that particular year.

Still in his 20's, he wrote and recorded many demos of his songs that reflected his ongoing life in a certain moment of time.    He and his wife Carolyn were sweethearts growing up, but the relationship, which he describes on his website, became long distance and ultimately fell apart.  By the time I met him, he had been dating another friend of mine who worked with us, Andrea Petzinger, who would became his first wife more often I was sort of a "third wheel" in hanging out with them in various events.

You probably know that artists like Adele and Sam Smith scored hit albums and garnered awards for very personal albums that reflected what their respective relationships (or in these cases, ex-relationships) were at the time.    Ken has made a career out of doing that.   His website shows all of his albums and the songs reflect where he was at a certain time in the various changes of his personal life.

Back in the late 1980's, Ken would share his demos with me on a cassette tape he labeled "Bob's Ken Tape".   Some catchy, albeit raw songs, with his vocal and probably no more than a Cascio keyboard.     Many of them, like "The Conqueror", "Slipping Away", "Slow on the Uptake", and "Waiting on Me" (a duet with his then-wife Andrea) actually made my year end top 100 lists between 1988 and 1992.  By the mid-mineties he had a family, with three kids, but, now in his thirties, he took the next step in his musical aspirations.

Johnston, put together various studio musicians to form the Ken Johnston Band, which he shortened to "kjband".   There were various lead singers as well as musicians (either friends or session people) on various instruments, with Johnston, a keyboard player but also a trombonist as well as occasional singer, the lone constant.   His first album, All I Want (1998) consisted of many of the aforementioned songs, as well as others he wrote early on. In 1999, he had a party at his house, with the band set up and performing on his back deck.

I would see Ken for the last time at his 40th birthday party in March 2001, which was at the Exchange, a pub in Rockaway NJ, at which time he and his band performed.    I would lose touch with him shortly thereafter, a time with many changes in his life, documented with his subsequent album releases.   He also set up a website to showcase his music.

His follow-up album Pretending (2003) which contained songs with documented his now-faltering marriage.  In 2005, I actually saw Ken and his family having dinner at a place called Damon's (now the Rockaway River Barn) where I used to play Buzztime Trivia, but, not having seen him in four years, I decided not to walk over and talk to him as he seemed to be  having fun with his three kids.   And as it turned out, he was going through a lot of changes in his life.

His third set First Love (2006), was a reference to Carolyn, who he at sporadically kept in touch with during his married tenure, and consisted of some of his early songs, many written with, and/or, about her.  During one of his contacts with her, he shared some of these compositions, and it helped them get back together, meaning his first marriage, already on the rocks, would come to an end.

Matters of the Heart (2011) shows Ken, fully reunited with Carolyn, performing with renewed vigor.  They married in 2008 and some of the songs on this album were played at his wedding (which I was not invited to, not having been in touch with him for seven years at that point; I actually had found out when I ran into his first wife at the Black River Barn around that time).  Those songs were written, either after their reunion, or in some cases, he wrote music to Carolyn's existing lyrics.

Lies (2012) was sort of a departure for Johnston, in that they didn't document a stage of his life, and it was more of a stripped-down, acoustic album, similar to say, Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska effort.  He still had other musicians assisting him, and he also collaborated with his sister Barbara, who drummed on several of the songs.   One song was dedicated to his mother, Nancy, who had recently passed.

Ken had briefly, in 2010 joined a band called Love Goat, but that was short-lived.   He began work on his most recent endeavor, Real Life (2014), which has a revolving set of musicians.   This is an upbeat album, the "real" follow-up to Matters of the Heart, and shows he and Carolyn, happily married and carrying on their lives, along with their recently-born child Adam.   The album cover shows a picket fence, presumably part of their home and depicting the good life and where they wanted to be.  Songs were written together, and include titles like the aptly-named "Second Life".   Carolyn performed mandolin on one track and also provides background vocals.   At this point, his website,  www.kjband.com, after being neglected for the longest time, was finally updated, and eventually this album was distributed through iTunes and Amazon.com.   I will explore this album once "Man of Few Words" runs its course.

As for "Man of Few Words", this was released as a stand-alone single in December 2014, as a tribute to his father who recently passed.   His dad, like Ken is, was a quiet person but perhaps his actions spoke more about him and anything could be done verbally.  The song is mellow, soft-rock, with vocals, presumably by Kayla Scott, who did the vocals on Real Life, and has worked with the likes of Stevie Wonder and Tony Bennett.   This is a slow-paced, mostly piano ballad, very understated, that, although it won't win any accolades, is catchy in his own way.  And for me, it's sort of a "what's-he-doing now" sort of thing, not having talked to him in fifteen years.

Will I ever get back in touch with Ken?  I most likely can't answer that.   Friendships come and go, ships pass in the night and move on.    He seems to be in a happy place with Carolyn, whom I also have never met but based on the music which seemed to document his personal life (and on his website, he'll be the first to admit it, which is why I feel comfortable blogging about it) they seem to be in this happy place.   I tried friending him on Facebook a couple years back but after a few months without a response, I deleted that request.

But music is universal, listening to old songs, will immediately evoke many memories.  And with the Internet and social media, you can find out what people are they're doing even though you haven't spoke a word to them in a decade and a half.     Check out his website, perhaps listen to some samples and read his bio, as well as his personal progression in each of his albums.    And if Ken perhaps Googles and finds this blog on the Internet, I'll say right here,  "good luck" in keeping your musical spirit alive.


NEW AND BRIEF: Tame Impala, the band, which a few years ago, was recommended by my friend John Piacentini, is back with a new song, "Let It Happen" which is the top debut this week at #77.   It is along the lines of their last album, Lonerism, which yielded the #11 SNS hit "Elephant" as well as two others "Feels Like We Can Only Go Backwards" and "Apocalypse Dreams" which both just missed the top 20.   This one is from their forthcoming third album Currents.  The first single will actually be "Cause I'm A Man", but Brian Sniatkowski featured this track as a recent Song of the Week.

Also of note are "Calvary Captain" by The Decemberists, their second song off of their What A Terrible World, What a Beautiful World.   Although I tried to like "Make You Better", and it was a well-done song, I just didn't "feel" it.   This new one is a lot more to my liking.   Starting off with horns, which would recur throughout the song.   The pop side of R.E.M. is much more apparent here.   I like this song a lot and should put them back in the top 20.  Good effort.  The song debuts at #80.

Finally, Real Estate came out of the mini Ridgewood NJ scene (along with Vivian Girls), but now are based in Brooklyn.    "It's Real" reached #4 on SNS back in 2011, but like the Tennis song I reviewed last week, never heard anything more from them; thus I checked out whether they released anything since.   As it turned out, that was the case.   Their third effort, Atlas was released in March 2014, and debuted and peaked at #34 on Billboard's album chart.  "Talking Backwards" comes in at #90.  The album received positive reviews and was on several "Best of 2014" lists, including #14 on Brian Sniatkowski's list.     Better late than never on this one!  This song has a bit of an XTC feel to it, some jangly pop, some indie-rock, a lot of good stuff on it.


 

Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100

March 29, 2015

This Week	Last Week	ARTIST-Title	Weeks on List
1	1	NUMBER ONE: THE BLACK KEYS "Weight of Love" Album: Turn Blue (5 weeks at #1)	8
2	5	Alabama Shakes - Don't Wanna Fight	6
3	4	Mark Ronson f. Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk	10
4	3	Belle and Sebastian - The Party Line	8
5	2	Florence + the Machine - What Kind of Man	7
6	6	White Arrows - We Can't Ever Die	10
7	7	Calvin Harris f. John Newman - Blame	10
8	8	The Raveonettes - Killer in the Streets	12
9	9	Ariana Grande - Love Me Harder	11
10	12	Omnia Hegazy - Dust	4
11	14	Future Islands - Seasons (Waiting On You)	9
12	16	Hozier - Angel of Small  Death and the Codiene Scene	7
13	15	Waters - I Feel Everything	13
14	11	The Kooks - Bad Habit	9
15	27	TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK: CORINNE BAILEY RAE "Bluebird" Album: The Art of McCartney (Various Artists)	6
16	10	Foster the People - Are You What You Want To Be	16
17	21	Phoebe Ryan - Mine	8
18	29	Jungle - Busy Earnin'	4
19	13	Lucius - Hey, Doreen	14
20	20	Taylor Centers - Wild	8

21	24	Modest Mouse - Lampshades on Fire	8
22	28	Launderettes - Red River	9
23	25	Sir Sly - You Haunt Me	8
24	26	Ellie Goulding - Love Me Like You Do	7
25	22	Alvvays - Archie Marry Me	11
26	19	St. Paul and the Broken Bones - Call Me●	18
27	17	Meghan Trainor - Lips are Movin'	11
28	31	Fitz and the Tantrums - Fools Gold●	19
29	35	The Big Takeover - Dolphins	6
30	36	Kjband - Man of Few Words	10
31	37	Maroon 5 - Sugar	5
32	33	Kelly Clarkson - Heartbreak Song	7
33	32	TV on the Radio - Happy Idiot	11
34	34	Catfish & the Bottlemen - Kathleen	11
35	18	Foxygen - Cosmic Vibrations	11
36	23	Fall Out Boy - Centuries	10
37	38	Fremont - All That I Needed	12
38	77	MOVER OF THE WEEK: TENNIS "I'm Callin'" Album: Ritual in Repeat	2
39	43	Fitz and the Tantrums - 6AM●	28
40	48	Kongos - I Want to Know	3
41	40	Interpol - My Desire	10
42	41	Stater-Kinney - Bury Our Friends	13
43	30	Cage the Elephant - Cigarette Daydreams	16
44	50	Alice Russell - Breakdown	5
45	39	The Big Takeover - Children of the Rhythm●	22
46	44	The Drums - I Can't Pretend	6
47	47	Django Django - First Light	5
48	53	Glass Animals - Gooey	6
49	52	The Mowglis - Through the Dark	5
50	54	Rihanna, Kanye West, Paul McCartney - FourFive Seconds	4
51	42	Hozier - Take Me To Church●	30
52	62	Avi Buffalo - Think It's Gonna Happen Again	3
53	55	Yelawolf- Till It's Gone	10
54	61	Madonna - Living For Love	4
55	56	Lana Del Rey - Shades of Cool	16
56	73	Zella Day - Hypnotic	4
57	63	Death Cab for Cutie - Black Sun	5
58	68	The Griswolds - If You Wanna Stay	5
59	45	Cold War Kids - All This Could Be Yours	15
60	70	George Ezra - Budapest	8
61	67	The Wombats - Greek Tragedy	5
62	72	Blondfire - Waves	7
63	51	The Black Keys - Gotta Get Away	15
64	69	Ed Sheeran - Think Out Loud	6
65	57	The Fresh & Onlys - Animal of One●	26
66	66	Deers - Bamboo	10
67	58	Vivian Girls - Take It As It Comes●	28
68	49	Arctic Monkeys - R U Mine●	27
69	64	Jungle - Time	26
70	46	The Decemberists - Make You Better	18
71	78	SomeKindaWonderful - Reverse●	34
72	89	Best Coast - California Nights	2
73	---	TOP DEBUT: TAME IMPALA "Let It Happen" Album: Pitchfork	1
74	79	Locksley - Let It Ride	3
75	81	Courtney Barnett - Pedestrian At Best	3
76	60	The Orwells - The Righteous One	15
77	94	Mark Ronson f. Kevin Parker - Daffodils	2
78	105	Awolnation - Hollow Moon	1
79	75	Shakey Graves - Dearly Departed	13
80	---	The Decemberists - Calvary Captain	1
81	87	Christina Perri - The Words	3
82	85	Vance Joy - Mess Is Mine	4
83	88	The New Basement Tapes - Kansas City	4
84	93	Matt & Kim - Get It	4
85	97	In the Valley Below - Peaches	2
86	65	Meghan Trainor - All About that Bass	19
87	76	Yast - Heart of Steel	17
88	71	Taylor Swift - Shake It Off	17
89	83	Foxygen - How Can You Really?	19
90	---	Real Estate - Talking Backwards	1
91	59	Wizards of Winter - Gales of December	14
92	92	U2 - Every Breaking Wave	5
93	96	Walk the Moon - Shut Up & Dance	3
94	---	Taylor Swift - Style	1
95	---	Kid Rock - First Kiss	1
96	74	Colony House - Silhouettes	18
97	82	Maroon 5 - Animals	15
98	84	My Goodness - Cold Feel Killer	6
99	91	Sam Smith - I'm Not the Only One	10
100	95	Houndmouth - Sedona	3

Tremors:

101

Elel - 40 Watt

 

102	101	Linus Young - Fun In the Sun
103	102	Offspring - Coming For You
104	103	Harts - Red & Blue

105

106

Robert LeLong - Long Way Down

106

Matthew E. White - Rock and Roll Is Cold

Songs with the greatest increase in favorite points over the prior week.

●    Songs with 25 or more plays on my iPod.

▲       Songs with 50 or more plays on my iPod.