Granted I didn't catch the entire evening's festivities as I fell asleep about halfway through. That alone should tell you how "exciting" it was. Unlike the Grammy awards, which supposedly are based on quality, Billboards awards are based on chart performance. The real kind. Heck, maybe I should make some awards based on my charts. It would certainly be more interesting. and besides, Alabama Shakes and Fitz & the Tantrums deserve such accolades. But unless you are a totally devoted Taylor Swift fan, which I have sometimes been and sometimes have not--- last night was probably the latter, you could be excused for turning the channel--or like me, dozing off.
If you're a rock fan, there was pretty much nothing to see. Well, there was Van Halen. Not sure really what they were doing there, after all, when was their last release? Or perhaps they needed some kind of rock band in there to hold all of us over forty that were turning in. Then again, you take a look at David Lee Roth and you realized "what happened"? Heck if it wasn't for his signature voice, would we have known that was him?
Well, I won't slight Fall Out Boy, who also performed. These guys basically are carrying the current rock-group banner all by themselves lately, and yes, "Centuries" hit my top 20 while "Uma Thurman" enters the SNS 100, but any song that needed to sample (or rework as the case may be) Suzanne Vega or "The Munsters" theme to succeed leaves a lot to be desired.
But, in the infamous words of legendary sportscaster Warner Wolf, you could turn your sets off right there. Unless you were a Taylor Swift fan of course. Really, this was the Taylor show tonight and she didn't perform! Then again, with eight wins, she didn't have to. I won't recap the awards she or anyone else received, but she was definitely up on stage more than anyone else. Oh, and she previewed her new video for the fourth single from her pop album, "Bad Blood", which features hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar, who just made my chart recently with "I". Okay, so "Shake It Off" was really catchy and hit my top 5, but the subsequent two singles "Blank Space" and "Style", despite the great chart showing on Billboard (#1 and 6 respectively), didn't impress me too much. If you liked Katy Perry's "E.T." you'll like this one. I didn't. And to be honest I'm not sure if I'll add this one. I did like "I" but that was because one of my all-time favorite songs, "That Lady" by the Isley Brothers was reworked into that recording.
The current Billboard number one song, for five weeks now, is Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth's "See You Again". The song was performed on the show, and does enter my "Tremors' chart this week. The song is from the soundtrack to the current movie Furious 7. I could never understand the reason for throwing a rap into a nice, tender song, which this appears to be. Puth looks and sounds like Sam Smith and I thought it was him initially. Khalifa has been on my list before with "Black and Yellow", and although I don't normally listen to his genre, I do like his raps. Khalifa also joined in on the last verse of Fall Out Boys, "Uma Thurman" as well.
As for other performances, the late Ben E. King was saluted in a performance of "Stand By Me" by Imagine Dragons. Nick Jonas, ever the bland singer he is, also performed his hit "Jealous". Britney Spears, who probably should shoulder the blame for turning pop music into the inspire-less direction it's been in for over fifteen years, duetted with Iggy Azalea, and that's about the time I fell asleep. So I missed what I heard were good performance from Little Big Town, and Kelly Clarkson, one of the few pop stars I admire. Oh I forgot, Kanye West ended the show, with...well I don't know. I heard half his performance got bleeped out. You know how I feel about Kanye, but from what I understand, he wasn't up to his usual antics. I guess Beyoncé wasn't up for any awards this time around then again, neither was Beck so the point was moot anyway.
If you're an alternative rock fan, you didn't miss anything. There was nothing really to see. I'm not sure why this awards show was moved from the end of the year (it does reward chart performances for a calendar year) to the middle of it. I have to scratch my head over that one, since "awards season" has been long gone and people most likely were out having a life this Sunday evening.
STATE OF MY CHART: As for the chart that really matters--mine--Alabama Shakes remains atop the SNS 100 with "Gimme All Your Love" for a third week. There is a big gap between that and the number two song, "Dust" by Omnia Hegazy and another to the #3 song, "Thinking Of You" by Ed Sheeran, although the latter is still gaining. There are some really good songs in the top 10, so the listening will be good for this year's Roscoe camping trip (a bit more on that later). New to the top 20 are MS MR's "Painted" and Mark Ronson's follow-up to "Uptown Funk", "Daffodils" which features Tame Impala's Kevin Parker.
There are still too many good songs on the SNS 100, thus many of the new ones I added were confined to the Tremors chart of "up and coming" songs. Two of those songs do make the big chart and are the top two debuts this week. Leading off is Zedd's "I Want You To Know" which features Selena Gomez. Zedd is a producer in the Calvin Harris - Mark Ronson vein; "Clarity" and "Stay the Night" both were in my top 20 previously. Fave Matthew Koma was involved in those two records, although he is not involved here. The approach is similar to Calvin Harris'--a lot of techo influences surrounding Gomez's nice voice. In a pop-dance vein, no doubt, but Harris' records have appeal to them as does Zedd. Another good bid for a third top 20 effort.
The next debut, also coming from Tremors, is Fall Out Boy's "Uma Thurman". As mentioned above, the surf-rock of the original "Munsters' theme permeates the song throughout, and it's a decent effort for the former emo band. The song has some little Adam Levine/Maroon 5 overtones to it as well, which, given that band's recent success, isn't a bad way to sound.
The highest newly added song this week goes to "Our Art" by Kjband, the project fronted by old friend Ken Johnston. "Man of Few Words", his dedication to his late father who passed last year, did impressively here, reaching #23 a few weeks ago. Prior to that standalone single, he released the album Real Life, which is a more upbeat record in contrast to the recent single. This one rocks...well, at least for him, more in a Fleetwood Mac vein. This one has a bit of everything in it: guitar, sax, keyboards. Kayla Scott handles the lead vocals, she is an accomplished session vocalist out of New York City. A nice uptempo soft rock effort from his project.
LET'S GO CAMPING: Memorial Day weekend is upon us; the start of another summer. Unlike last summer, I hope to keep the blog up so we can have a legitimate summer song this year. What will it be? Something already in release or something that may not hit the airwaves until, say July? There will be many music festivals, both local and on a national level (perhaps the ones in Hunter and Seaside Heights in early June. And of course, this weekend will be my annual camping trip to Roscoe, where my songs will most likely be featured on day one, then my friend Alan Corso will take over with his usual eclectic mix of tunes, old and new. Thanks to him (with an assist from SoundHound), relatively recent tracks by Vivian Girls, Yast, The Launderettes, and other undiscovered gems have reached the heights of my SNS 100.
Finally, for those traveling this holiday weekend, please be safe, and that includes my geocaching friends going to Geowoodstock in Maryland. To my music fans, that is a geocaching festival, not a music one unfortunately!
Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100
May 17,
2015
| This Week | Last Week | ARTIST-Title | Weeks on List |
| 1 | 1 | NUMBER ONE:
"Gimme All
Your Love"
Album: Sound & Color
(3 weeks at #1)
|
6 |
| 2 | 2 | Omnia Hegazy - Dust | 11 |
| 3 | 3 | Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud | 13 |
| 4 | 7 | Florence + the Machine - Ship to Wreck | 4 |
| 5 | 8 | Calvin Harris f. Ellie Goulding - Outside | 5 |
| 6 | 5 | The Decemberists - Calvary Captain | 8 |
| 7 | 4 | Tennis - I'm Callin' | 9 |
| 8 | 15 | St. Paul and the Broken Bones - Like a Mighty River | 5 |
| 9 | 11 | My Morning Jacket - Big Decisions | 7 |
| 10 | 16 | Mumford & Sons - Believe | 7 |
| 11 | 6 | Alabama Shakes - Don't Wanna Fight | 14 |
| 12 | 13 | Kongos - I Want to Know | 10 |
| 13 | 9 | Jungle - Busy Earnin' | 11 |
| 14 | 12 | The Black Keys- Weight of Love | 15 |
| 15 | 32 | TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK:
"Painted"
(Single Only)
|
3 |
| 16 | 10 | Phoebe Ryan - Mine | 15 |
| 17 | 14 | Launderettes - Red River | 16 |
| 18 | 19 | The Big Takeover - Dolphins | 13 |
| 19 | 21 | Mark Ronson f. Kevin Parker - Daffodils | 9 |
| 20 | 17 | Catfish & the Bottlemen - Kathleen | 18 |
Tremors:
| 101 | 98 | Night Riots - Contagious |
| 102 | 102 | Train - Bulletproof Picasso |
| 103 | 104 | The Adventures - Heavenly |
| 104 | --- | The Kooks - Forgive and Forget |
| 105 | 105 | Alternate Routes - Nobody Else |
| 106 | --- | Surfer Blood - I Can't Explain |
| 107 | 107 | A Silent Film - Tomorrow |
| 108 | --- | Wiz Khalifa f Charlie Puth - See You Again |
| 109 | 106 | Glass Animals - Hazey |
|
|
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.
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