Summer is Here....It's the Best Time of Year (SNS weeks of 5/29 and 6/5/2016)

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT I CAUGHT UP:    Well, it's taking a few weeks since my last blog, written as I had just gotten ready for my annual Roscoe camping trip with my friends.  Needless to say, between that wild five-day weekend and my continuing working night shifts, it doesn't grant me much time for anything else, much less this blog.     Sunny and comfortable days get me out on the deck in the backyard, but rainy days I just feel like watching a movie on Netflix.     And when I'm away from the current music situation, I revert back to the oldies; much of my music listening time has been devoted to songs from the 1960's thru the 1980's on Sirius XM; heck I haven't even listened to alt-nation is several weeks.

That is, until I played my most recent current top 20 and realized that indeed, I do have a good currents playlist.  Three of the songs were pretty much extended rock jams, just like the old days:   Ray LaMontagne (the new #1), The Joy Formidable and Golden Void, plus the vintage lineup of Santana.    So yes, listening to current music is still a treat, although if you look at the positions below twenty this week, there aren't many big movers, simply because I haven't listened.   Hopefully it will change now.


UN-COMMONERS:   In my last blog, I wrote about a possible showdown of new music between Us Commoners, Paul Czekaj and the latest track from Adele's 25 blockbuster for the Top Debut spot.    Well, I am happy to say that Us Commoners has come out on top; "The Hot Spot" debuts at a lofty #38.

If you are just tuning in, Us Commoners is a duo from the mid-Hudson valley of New York State, whose primary members include Wayne Nuessle on vocals and acoustic guitar, and Bernadette Marnell-Palumbo on vocals.   They are backed by Clifford Carter on keyboards, Eli Menezes on guitars and bass, and Jean-Christophe Santalis on drums.  If you remember, the song "Christmas and Hanukkah" was my holiday song of the season, reaching a lofty #13 on my SNS top 20, with the video featuring two of my friends, Gia and Rick Ness, and others in an intimate setting.

Anyone who thinks that was just a one-up release, brace yourself for new product.     And when I heard that they released a new single, "The Hot Spot", I wanted to check it out.   And wow, was I blown away!   The band really outdid themselves.   If you want a good-timey, light yet soulful song for the summer, this is the song you need to check out.   While the previous holiday song was an uplifting romp and hope for peace and tolerance and family unity, this one is uplifting in a different way.    It's a plea for love and freedom with a person you so much want to be with.     Light and breezy but very strong as well, this good time jam will convert you over with just one listen.

Many thanks, by the way, to the members for getting that download onto their SoundCloud website, where you can download it for free.    It will soon be available on Amazon.com and presumably iTunes as well.     Come on down to the Hot Spot, you'll be glad you did!


BACK TO JERSEY:    Also with a strong debut not too far behind is "That Old New Jersey" by our very own Paul Czekaj, which enters at #48 as his previous entry "Up in the Sky" continues to climb towards the top 10.   Here, the artist returns to what he does best, sing about the virtues of the Garden State.   The video was actually released to YouTube late last year, but as it wasn't available for download (as was also the case with "Sky"), I could not add it to my blog list.  In the meantime, "That Old New Jersey" which mentions memorable places in the state that are no longer around), has amassed over a third of a million views on YouTube, and many friends on Facebook have posted it, perhaps not realizing that the artist is local and has been doing songs about our great state for a long time.     If you love his "My Home New Jersey" (both parts one and two), and "At the Beach", his 2013 summer anthem, you will also dig this one as well.   

As this point, I do want to mention that Czekaj will be performing at the WNTI stage in Columbia, NJ next month at the Café stage.    He is worth checking out.


The last of the three songs that I expected to compete for the top spot this week, Adele's "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)" enters at a rather distant #74.    The song is a refreshingly up-tempo, as opposed to her first two singles, but has a hip-hoppish flavor to it, marked with her trademark strong vocals.     While for me, it's a bit of a disappointment (only natural when you've reached the mass audience), it should fit right in with radio, who perhaps may have been "bored" with "Hello" and "While We Were Young" and wanted something a bit more "exciting" to play.     With her previous album, I went in and culled a couple of deep tracks, and added them; there are still some songs that got me into the singer in the first place that I still may explore from her 25 set.


The rest of the entries this week are familiar names, those who have been on my list before, such as Kongos, BORNS, The Avett Brothers and City and Colour (Dallas Green), who follows up his top ten "Lover Come Back" with "Wasted Love".

Meanwhile, I have a stockpiled list of songs already on the charts that I will add in the next few weeks, including Green's You+Me partner Pink, who has come back to the pop Top Ten with "Just Like Fire" from the movie Alice Through the Looking Glass, as well as the return of post-punkers Blick-182. Also, new material from  Beck, Calvin Harris (the latest Taylor Swift "casualty" by the way) and others, like Band of Horses, and local favorite Sarah Jean have or will be releasing new product.    As in years past, I'll be keeping track of my "Song of the Summer", which honors went to Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" in 2015.  What will it be this year?


ONLY THE NAME'S CHANGED:    As Charlotte's Taylor Centers tries to gain momentum in the country music field (she was nominated for Best Country Female Vocalist at the recently Carolina Music Awards), it apparently will not be under "Taylor Centers".   In spite of her EP having that name on there, she is changing her professional name to "Christina Taylor".  While I'm not sure why, it does sound a bit more "country," whatever that means.   But she gave a cool performance at the recent Carolina Country Music Festival.      Still, I wonder if the audience will be confused by the two different names.    The listings under the online store vendors still show her as Taylor Centers, and I'll continue to list the former Top 10 "Dodged Your Bullet" under that name until I see it changed on other online stores or websites.

SUM GREATER THAN THE PARTS:    Another local up-and coming fave is also changing their name---sort of.    That would be Omnia Hegazy and twin sister Leila Hegazy.   While it's true they recently added their surname to their work, it appears that they are going to join forces in a new band called simply, Hegazy.     While the two have similar voices, their songs styles and themes have been somewhat different, but it should be really interesting to see what they can do together.   They have been playing gigs in New York City together, and there is a hint at some recorded endeavors to come.  Good luck to them.


NO SHAME ABOUT RAY:   Ray LaMontagne's "Hey No Pressure" wrestles away the top spot from "HandClap" by Fitz & the Tantrums, after the latter's four week run at the top.    That band's eponymous album dropped last week, and is still doing well on the rock charts.     Meanwhile, "Last Raindrop" from their previous More Than Just a Dream, finally drops off the chart, thus becoming the first week since early February in 2013 that there is no track from that album on my list.   However, with "HandClap" at #2 and a slew of new songs from the new album to check out, this band isn't going anywhere for awhile.


TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY:    Since my last blog, Alison Porter did indeed win the latest season of The Voice, this was one deserved win.     It made Christina Aguilera, the winning coach, the first female coach to garner a win.   I'll be checking out some of her songs for addition.

On the other side of the coin, however, was the shooting and death of prior season runner-up Christina Grimmie, who was killed during a meet-and-greet after a concert in Orlando.    And of course, just days later in the same town, the mass murder of 49 people at a gay nightclub.    My thoughts and prayers go to the families of all the victims in that central Florida town.

Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100

May 29 and June 5, 2016

This Week	Last Week	ARTIST-Title	Weeks on List
1	2	NUMBER ONE: RAY LAMONTAGNE "Hey No Pressure" Album: Ouroboros	11
2	1	Fitz and the Tantrums - HandClap	8
3	3	Smash Palace - My Mistake	10
4	4	Kaleo - Way Down We Go	12
5	5	The Parlor - The Surgeon's Knife	11
6	6	Avid Dancer - I Feel It	15
7	8	Santana - Anywhere You Want to Go	9
8	11	Rachel Allyn - Next Year's Girl	6
9	7	Run River North - Run or Hide	13
10	9	Foals - Give It All	15
11	14	Paul Czekaj - Up In the Sky	7
12	13	Mike Posner - I Took a Pill in Ibiza	14
13	16	Wild Belle - Throw Down Your Guns	7
14	17	Santigold - Can't Get Enough of Myself	11
15	27	TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK: RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS "Dark Necessities" Album: The Getaway	3
16	10	Declan McKenna - Brazil	12
17	18	The Joy Formidable - The Last Thing on My Mind	13
18	19	Golden Void - The Beacon	13
19	24	Young the Giant - Amerika	5
20	23	The Heavy - Since You Been Gone	6

21	15	Half Moon Run - Turn Your Love	23
22	20	Halo Circus with Allison Iraheta - Desire	8
23	26	Strumbella - Spirits	14
24	29	Trent Harmon - Falling	5
25	28	The Thermals - Hey You	6
26	34	Garbage - Empty	4
27	21	Gwen Stefani - Make Me Like You	10
28	22	Taylor Centers - Dodged Your Bullet	16
29	32	Collective Soul - Contagious	6
30	35	Elle King - America's Sweetheart	6
31	38	Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats - I Need Never Get Old	5
32	37	Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - No Love Like Yours	8
33	31	The Mainland - Outcast	13
34	25	DNCE - Cake By the Ocean	16
35	41	Demi Lovato - Confident	9
36	43	Mutemath - Light Up	8
37	44	Tokyo Police Club - Not My Girl	7
38	---	TOP DEBUT: US COMMONERS "The Hot Spot" (Single Only)	1
39	52	The Revivalists - Wish I Knew You	3
40	36	Kelly Clarkson - Piece by Piece	10
41	30	Elle King - Under the Influence	17
42	33	Zac Brown Band - Beautiful Drug	12
43	42	The Lumineers - Ophelia	11
44	40	Nada Surf - Believe You're Mine	7
45	50	Matt Simons - Catch and Release	7
46	60	Awolnation - Woman Woman	5
47	57	Meghan Trainor - NO	6
48	39	Naughty Boy f. Sam Smith - La La La	11
49	---	Paul Czekaj - That Old New Jersey	1
50	56	Chef Special - In Your Arms	6
51	64	Mayer Hawthorne - Cosmic Love	5
52	61	Charles Kelley- Lonely Girl	5
53	62	Atlas Genius - Stockholm	4
54	45	Beach House - Space Song	16
55	79	MOVER OF THE WEEK: CAGE THE ELEPHANT "Trouble" Album: Tell Me I'm Pretty	2
56	46	Hippo Campus - South	16
57	47	Tame Impala - The Less I Know the Better	13
58	68	The Dreamers - Drugs	4
59	48	Jana Kramer - I Got the Boy	21
60	49	Martin Courtney - Northern Highway	25
61	55	Newbeat Fund - Sikka Takin' The Hard Way	11
62	74	Twenty-One Pilots - Ride	4
63	59	Dorothy - Raise Hell	9
64	75	Catfish and the Bottlemen - Soundcheck	3
65	66	The Rubens - Hoops	5
66	67	Lady Gaga - Til It Happns To You	5
67	51	City and Colour - Lover Come Back	21
68	54	Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats - Look It Here	14
69	58	Florence + the Machine - Delilah	14
70	83	Palma Violets - Matador	2
71	73	Saint Motel - A Cold Cold Man	15
72	53	Adele - When We Were Young	17
73	78	Pop Etc. - What Am I Becoming	3
74	---	Adele - Send My Love (To Your New Lover)	1
75	81	Weezer - King of the World	3
76	85	Bishop Briggs- River	3
77	86	Parquet Courts - Dust	2
78	63	Mew - Witness	17
79	71	Coast Modern - Hollow Life	6
80	89	The Temper Trap - Fall Together	2
81	84	Silversun Pickups - Circadian Rhythm	14
82	90	Alessia Cara - Here	2
83	---	City and Colour - Wasted Love	1
84	65	Coldplay - Adventure of A Lifetime	22
85	82	The Mowgli's - Freakin' Me Out	4
86	72	Chris Stapleton - Traveller	23
87	---	Kongos - Take It From Me	1
88	80	Skaters - Mental Case	12
89	---	BORNS - American Money	1
90	69	Smash Palace - Haddontown●	26
91	92	Galactic - Right On	2
92	76	Lake Street Dive - Call Off Your Dog	19
93	77	Florence + the Machine - Queen of Peace●	27
94	97	Aurora- Conqueror	2
95	91	Banners - Shine a Light	7
96	70	Ellie Goulding - Something in the Way You Move	9
97	12	Best Coast - In My Eyes	8
98	---	The Avett Brothers - Ain't No Man	1
99	---	Bloc Party - The Love Within	1
100	96	Alabama Shakes - Gimme All Your Love▲	49

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.