Still, this is yet another setback for local and alternative rock music, as well as "freeform" programming, following the recent curbing of "The Alternate Side" on Fordham University's WFUV; that show has been reduced to one evening. Although I was slightly out of range of its signal, several friends of mine have listened to the station, including two friends who are musicians and have had their music played and/or area gigs sponsored: Tom Sterno and Paul Czekaj. In fact, the station played his 2013 SNS summer smash "At the Beach", in the middle of a block of summer-related songs, including the Beach Boys and Bruce Springsteen. These college stations are the last bastion of "free-form" radio, where on-air jocks can pick and choose any kind of music they wish, be it old, new, rock, blues, local, British, anything really. Commercial radio stations, such as the now-defunct WNEW-FM used to do that as well, before it, and other rock stations became controlled with set playlists, similar to what Top 40 stations do.
And being on a local college campus, in this case Centenary College, it has an opportunity to be run by locals and students, who can learn the broadcasting business, as well as for the station to be a part of the community, in this case being Northwestern New Jersey. One of the fruits of that service was the WNTI stage concerts that took place. Up until the late 2000's, there was a big music festival on the Delaware River nearby called "Riverfest" which featured many bands. WNTI Stage rose from those ashes and over the last several years has seen an increase in attendance, with featured performances not only by established artists (most recently, acts like The Smithereens, Marshall Crenshaw and Chubby Checker), but local up-and-comers, as well as obscure artists not from this area. Pluck your chair down and enjoy an afternoon of those festivities.
The stations slogan was "Where Great Music Lives". Reportedly, the music played now, according to Czekaj, is the same old classic rock you would hear on stations like, say, New York's 104.3 or WDHA's 95.5. As Paul put it, the slogan should now be "Where Great Music Died".
Apparently, the only silver lining to this is that the old format will continue to be broadcast on the Internet through their website, WNTI.org, beginning on October 30. And according to their website, the WNTI Stage will continue in 2016. Unfortunately, the Internet option seems to be the way many alt-rock stations seem to be going the way of, but at least it's not gone completely. Still, it's disheartening to not only see a free-form local-flavored station go, but to have a voice of northwestern NJ be taken over by one from Pennsylvania is just, plain wrong.
LAST HURRAH?: Friends once again have had a role in several songs in the top 20 this week. Although the chart-topper is still Leon Bridges' "Coming Home" for the third week, which was all my liking, the next four songs, one way or another are influenced by friends. For example, Fitz & the Tantrums' "Last Raindrop", a former #1 which dropped to #5 this week, rebounds back up to #2. This song could be the last hurrah from their great album More Than Just A Dream as it is the sixth song I've featured, five of them hitting my top spot. It was a very happening and memorable album and was indeed a soundtrack of the last two-plus years. Also, "6 AM" from the same album is still at #49 after a full chart year of 52 weeks. As that does not count my hiatus of last fall as well as the four double-issue blogs this year, we are talking now one-and-a-half years on my playlist. They are indeed a great band, but after this, it'll be time to wait for their next album, whenever that may be released.
Maroon 5 holds at #3 with the twice-posted-by-friends "This Summer's Gonna Hurt". A post by Gail Bradley, hurls Hozier's "Someone New" from 13-4, which could be the singer-songwriters' second #1, after "Take Me To Church". It's follow closely by "S.O.B." by Nathaniel Rateliff, which was referenced by another friend a few weeks back. Also, "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran rebullets 17-15 in its 30th chart week, right behind his follow-up "Photograph". Further down the list, a post by friend Diane Tarantino Hegazy propels "Like I'm Gonna Lose You" by Meghan Trainor and John Legend from 85 to 76.
The two new entries in the top 20 are Golden Void's 'Dervishing" at #17, as well as the return of "Uma Thurman" by Fall Out Boy, which returns to the top echelon to a new peak at #18.
LATE BLOOMER: Sometimes it takes a while for a song to settle in and make a big move. That's what happened to "Thinking Out Loud" back in April, and is happening to "I Can Change" by Brandon Flowers, which rises from 84-33 in its sixth week. I was heading to Asbury Park to find a milestone geocache, when this one comes up in rotation. What I didn't hear previously (and to be honest, I hadn't listen to much of the lower-ranked songs on my playlist recently) just hit me as I left my house that early afternoon. It's a very heartfelt song, as has a driving beat as well. Flowers, of course was (and still is) the lead singer of the band The Killers, who have had much success in the millennium, on SNS most notably for their Christmas singles like "I Feel It In My Bones"; his current solo effort The Desired Effect, is his second.
RETURN OF THE COUNTRY: Last week I mentioned that I was adding more country music; this week, four tunes debuted; two as a result of the list that friend Cindi Arteglier; however two other ones debuted: Kenny Chesney's "Wild Child" (as a Tremor at #103, mainly because my fave Grace Potter also contributes vocals) as well as Thomas Rhett's "Crash and Burn" which becomes the Top Debut at #72. I saw Rhett on the Ellen DeGeneres show last week, in which he performed the song. This is an awesome song that probably shouldn't even be considered country music (at least by traditional standards), in fact, this song could have some out during the original British Invasion in the 1960's. It has that kind of a gutsy pop characteristic to it; his voice is what still considers it in the country genre. Then again, with pop becoming all hip-hop (more on that in a future blog), much of the traditional rock and pop are being moved into the country arena. Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan and Sam Hunt also debut on the big chart this week, and join Tyler Farr's "A Guy Walks Into A Bar" (while holds at a still-bulleted #43) in the new country invasion on SNS.
STILL HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF: Two Duran Duran songs also debut on SNS. The last time we heard from this band, which came over on the MTV-induced "Second British Invasion" in the early 1980's, was in 2011, when "All You Need Is Now" and "Leave A Light On" were major chart entries. The latter was bittersweet as it was released at the time of the passing of a dear friend Jeannemarie Ahrens, who was a close friend during Duran's heyday in the early 1980's. This new effort, "Pressure Off" is from their new set Paper Gods, which debuted in the top 10; their first album to hit the upper part of Billboard's 200 chart since 1993's "Wedding Album". The song features Janelle Monae, who also provided backup vocal's on fun.'s "We Are Young" which logged four weeks at #1 on SNS in 2012; as well as guitar and production work from Nile Rodgers, originally from the band Chic, but more recently featured as producer of Daft Punk's most recent work. Rodgers was instrumental on much DD's 1980's work as well. It's a worthy effort, but it's also great to see a band from that era still around and making music. It should be noted that four of the original five members are still (or back) with the band; only Andy Taylor is absent from this line-up.
One of Duran's 80's songs, "Do You Believe In Shame", from 1989, also debuts as a cover from Alison Iraheta & Halo Circus, as the follow-up to the SNS Top 20 "Gone". The former idol contestant slows down the tempo slightly from this song (which originally sounded a lot like "Suzie Q", in my opinion). In one sense, it doesn't seem to get off the ground as it is more resembles a cover that would be performed on, say The Voice or American Idol. Still, Iraheta's voice means business, and her voice is indeed more suited for this kind of music rather than the fluffy pop from her album she released after her appearance on Idol.
Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100
October 4 - 11,
2015
| This Week | Last Week | ARTIST-Title | Weeks on List |
| 1 | 1 | NUMBER ONE:
"Coming Home"
Album: Coming Home
(3 weeks at #1)
|
7 |
| 2 | 5 | Fitz and the Tantrums - Last Raindrop | 13 |
| 3 | 3 | Maroon 5 - This Summer's Gonna Hurt | 15 |
| 4 | 13 | Hozier - Someone New | 10 |
| 5 | 14 | Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats - S.O.B. | 4 |
| 6 | 4 | Phases - I'm In Love With My Life | 12 |
| 7 | 7 | Foals - Mountain At My Gates | 9 |
| 8 | 9 | Matt Weiss - Black Magic | 11 |
| 9 | 2 | Elle King - Ex's and Oh's● | 20 |
| 10 | 6 | The Arcs - Outta My Mind | 14 |
| 11 | 8 | Mumford & Sons - The Wolf | 12 |
| 12 | 10 | Demi Lovato - Cool for the Summer | 8 |
| 13 | 11 | Lana Del Rey - High By The Beach | 8 |
| 14 | 15 | Ed Sheeran - Photograph | 12 |
| 15 | 17 | Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud● | 30 |
| 16 | 19 | Hippo Campus - Suicide Saturday | 8 |
| 17 | 21 | TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK:
"Dervishing"
Album: Berkana
|
7 |
| 18 | 23 | Fall Out Boy - Uma Thurman | 18 |
| 19 | 12 | Beck - Dreams | 15 |
| 20 | 16 | I Am Dynamite - In the Summer | 12 |
Tremors:
| 101 | 103 | Jason Isbell - 24 Frames |
| 102 | 102 | El Vy - Return to the Moon |
| 103 | ---- | Kenny Chesney f. Grace Potter - Wild Child |
| 104 | ---- | JR JR - Gone |
| 105 | ---- | Smash Palace - Haddontown |
| 106 | 95 | The Oh Hello's - Hello My Old Heart |
| 107 | 105 | Boots - I Run Roulette |
|
|
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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