STILL A SMASH: Philadelphia has long been a hotbed for popular music, whether it be soul or rock. While the City of Brotherly Love was a big force in R&B music with the Gamble-Huff and Thom Bell sounds of The O'Jays, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, The Spinners, The Stylistics and many others, by the 1980's, rock was being given its due as well. Daryl Hall & John Oates are a great example of the melding of rock and soul and were red hot the first half of that decade. Cinderella, one of the bigger bands of the "hair-metal" era, were from town, as well as The Hooters who for a brief time were red hot, especially in 1985. The local scene was burgeoning with bands like Tommy Conwell & the Young Rumblers, Robert Hazard (who wrote "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" for Cyndi Lauper), and many others.
And then there's Smash Palace. The five-piece band hailed actually from Haddonfield, NJ but were also part of the Philly scene. In fact, their major-label debut, self titled, on Epic Records, received airplay on top 40 station WPST, and one song, "Living On the Borderline" made my year-end Top 100 of 1985. Other songs from that album were "Juliet to Me", "No Love Lost" and others, which were played on that station. And although it didn't quite make the charts, they did get airplay on MTV, toured with the then-hot Mr. Mister, and they were perfectly set for a follow-up.
Music demos were recorded for their second effort in 1987, and got airplay on Philly radio station WMMS in a local band segment. They were poised for a breakthrough, but in a situation that seemed promising, an executive from Epic records left that label to go to Polygram Records. Thus, they left Epic, but the offer from Polygram didn't happen and they were left without a label. The band disbanded, with the members taking other jobs, but within and outside of the music industry. Some completely left the business. In the meantime, Hair Metal, Grunge, Electronic, Rap-Rock, and Nu Metal took its turns at the forefront of rock, and Smash Palace was probably a footnote, at best, in any rock annals.
But in 1997, original members Brian and Stephen Butler decided to get back into making music, writing and producing other local bands in the area, and finally, with original bassist Phil Rizzo and new members, finally got together and recorded Fast, Long, Hard, released in 1999, fifteen years after their debut. "Another Man" did get some rock radio airplay but otherwise it was forgotten in a sea of bands like Godsmack, Rage Against the Machine and the like.
The band released three more albums in the 2000's, but pretty much came and went. All this was unbeknownst to me, until a friend of mine, Diane Carson, who lives in Cape May, posted a link on Facebook to a Smash Palace site. I said to myself, "I remember that band", then I realized that they were still around and active. A band that I remembered well from the mid 1980's. I liked their page and started following them. Two more albums, 7 (2010) and Do It Again, were released but at the time it wasn't enough to warrant my interest in them, at least to the point in adding any songs to my blog list.
The band, now only with lead singer Stephen Butler as an original member from the 1980's, promoted their new single, "Haddontown". It got some airplay on college rock stations such as WXPN from University of Pennsylvania (the same station that bought local station WNTI in Centenary College). I added the single, and it initially hovered around the bottom of the SNS 100, until it struck a chord. Bucking current rock trends, the song had a retro-Crosby, Stills & Nash late 1960's feel to it, and it took off, peaking at #4 and just finished up a 26-week run on my blog chart, dropping off this week.
While that single was moving up my chart, they promoted a second single, "My Mistake". Again, it was a throwback sound, reminiscent of bands like The Who, Spirit and others from that era. Again, the song blew me away.
"My Mistake" is the new #1 song on the SNS 100.
Their album Some Kind of Magic was released in late 2015 and has some killer tracks on it. The rock magazine The Big Takeover (no relation to the mid-Hudson valley reggae band of the same name), named the set one of the 100 best of the year, and it got airplay on WXPN as well. The band recently finished a tour of the South Jersey/Philly area While it would be too much to ask for current alternative and triple-A stations to add them, it's great to see that they finally got back in the groove. Here's to more good music.
THE TOP 20: "My Mistake" barely wrestles away the #1 spot from Ray LaMontagne's "Hey No Pressure", with Kaleo's "Way Down We Go" advancing to #3. And although Fitz & the Tantrums' "Handclap" drops to #4, it's only three fave points from the top, and it almost snuck into the top position again. In fact, any of these four songs could rise to the top, as the songs below them are far back. The Tantrum's self-titled third album released last week, debuted at #16, their high water more, although it looks like "Handclap", peaking at #6 alternative, will fall short of the two #1 from their previous set. Much of the top 20 is in a holding pattern, with only "Dark Necessities" by Red Hot Chili Peppers, moving from 15-9, making any kind of significant move. Wild Belle does get their fourth top 20, as "Throw Down Your Guns" slides into the 10 spot.
The battle between the two big debuts from last week, Us Commoners' "The Hot Spot" and Paul Czekaj's "That Old New Jersey", intensifies this week, as the former reaches the top 20, with Czekaj's moving from 48-21. Again, a high school classmate, Richard Gugluzzi, posted the video of the song last week and got more favorable reactions. Let's hope the Mt. Olive tunesmith performs this at next month's WNTI Stage. And I forgot to mention last week that helping Paul out was the legendary Bobby Bandiera, of Southside Johnny and other Jersey Shore bands fame, and who currently plays with Bon Jovi. A Jersey pedigree through and through.
NEW AND NOTEWORTHY: Many acts familiar to my blog, or the pop/rock scene in general make their debut this week, but they are trumped by the Top Debut, Flume's "Some Meds". Flume is actually Australian Harley Edward Streten, an electronic music artist, and he has released two albums thus far, his eponymous debut in 2012, and the just released Skin. "Some Meds", however is not on either set; it was a single-only release in 2015, and was one of the songs I heard in the background that, thanks to SoundHound, I was able to identify. The song features Andrew Wyatt, the vocalist for Miike Snow which has appeared on my blog chart most recently with "Genghis Khan".
Blink-182, which was part of the punk revival in the 1990's and early 2000's, returns with a new album California and single "Bored to Death". It's their second album in the SNS era; Neighborhoods, released in 2011, yielded two SNS songs, the highest, "Up All Night" peaked at #42 on my list, in a 14 week run late that year.
IT'S HIP TO BE HOP: Let's face it, hip-hop influenced pop is what is popular these days, but at least some rock and pop artists are only lightly embracing it. Such as the case with the new singles from Pink and Beck, who both debut this week on SNS. In actually, however in both cases they are sort of going back to their early beginnings.
Pink has to be the most successful established pop artist since my blog started in 2010; she is the only one who amassed a number one song on it, and she did that twice, as well as a number two, all from her most recent album, 2012's The Truth About Love (When I say 'established', I'm not counting Adele or Ellie Goulding who attained pop success months after hitting my top spot. But I was worried that pop stations may have left her behind after that. When a fourth single, "True Love", a duet with Lily Allen didn't score at pop radio (although it still hit my top 20), and there was no action on her "You and Me" project with City and Colour's Dallas Green, nor on "Today's the Day", which became the theme to Ellen DeGeneres' talk show, I had thought that this talented diva may have been pushed aside.
Thankfully, this wasn't the case, as her latest, "Just Like Fire", from the motion picture Alice Through the Looking Glass, has returned her to the top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100. Pink compromises little here. Yes, there is a hip-hop beat, but her rock-ish sensibilities take charge over this. Remembering that she started out as an R&B/Hip-hop singer, who quickly did things her own way, and moved in a pop/rock direction, she knows what she has to do to remain relevant. She debuts at #74 this week on my list.
And then there's Beck, who, if nothing else, has gotten back into the news if only because of the attempt by Kanye West to overstage him a year and a half ago at an awards show. It was then they many started to appreciate this artist's many talents, and a standalone single, "Dreams", which spent two weeks at #1 on my list last summer, got much rock airplay. Well, he is back once again, with another single, "Wow". If you are expecting another "Dreams", forget it. As opposed to the catchy pop sensibility of that song, his one is more hip-hoppish, albeit with a more thicker textured approached, and is less accessible. If anything, it's a return to his early days, remembering that his first hit, "Loser" in 1994 was basically a hip-hop rap venture. Was this a Kanye influence? Who knows, but he is in the alternative top 20 nonetheless. It debuts at #87 this week on my chart.
Remember The Veils? Their 2013 album Time Stays, We Go, produced "Through the Deep Dark Wood", a really cool psychedelic song that rode the top of my list for 4 weeks in the spring of 2013, plus a top 20 follow-up, 'Another Night on Earth". They are back with "Axoloti", which will be from a forthcoming album Total Depravity, due in August. Unlike their chart topper, this one is more avant-garde, and if anything, very mysterious and totally different. This one might take a few listens to get it, but kudos at least for trying something new for this London-based band.
Also debuting are two bands new to SNS: Greeting Committee, from Kansas City, with "Hands Down" and Langhorn Slim and the Law, from nearby New Hope, PA, with "Spirit Moves".
Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100
June 5 & 12, 2016
| This Week | Last Week | ARTIST-Title | Weeks on List |
| 1 | 3 | NUMBER ONE:
"My Mistake"
Album: Some Kind of Magic
|
11 |
| 2 | 1 | Ray Lamontagne - Hey No Pressure | 12 |
| 3 | 4 | Kaleo - Way Down We Go | 13 |
| 4 | 2 | Fitz and the Tantrums - HandClap | 9 |
| 5 | 5 | The Parlor - The Surgeon's Knife | 12 |
| 6 | 8 | Rachel Allyn - Next Year's Girl | 7 |
| 7 | 7 | Santana - Anywhere You Want to Go | 10 |
| 8 | 6 | Avid Dancer - I Feel It | 16 |
| 9 | 15 | Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dark Necessities | 4 |
| 10 | 13 | Wild Belle - Throw Down Your Guns | 8 |
| 11 | 11 | Paul Czekaj - Up In the Sky | 8 |
| 12 | 12 | Mike Posner - I Took a Pill in Ibiza | 15 |
| 13 | 9 | Run River North - Run or Hide | 14 |
| 14 | 14 | Santigold - Can't Get Enough of Myself | 12 |
| 15 | 17 | The Joy Formidable - The Last Thing on My Mind | 14 |
| 16 | 19 | Young the Giant - Amerika | 6 |
| 17 | 20 | The Heavy - Since You Been Gone | 7 |
| 18 | 10 | Foals - Give It All● | 16 |
| 19 | 16 | Declan McKenna - Brazil | 13 |
| 20 | 38 | TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK:
"The Hot
Spot"
(Single Only)
|
2 |
Tremors:
| 101 | Calvin Harris f Rhianna - This Is What You Came For |
|
|
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.