That era was still a viable one for rock music...post grunge was dying down in favor of nu metal and rap-rock as well as the punk revival. While the Chili Peppers were around even back in the 1980's, it was in the 1990's that they became core artists of the alt-rock format. I had caught them live back at 1992's Lollapalooza festival when it came to Waterloo Village, an era near where I live. And they have managed to keep a high profile ever since, which included a gig at Super Bowl 49, backing up Bruno Mars.
This week, the band finally picks up its first SNS #1, as "Dark Necessities" vaults from the 3 position last week. The song is the lead single from their latest album, The Getaway. They did come close with their previous set, 2012's I'm With You, as "The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie" peaked at #3 here, and "Monarchy and Roses" made it to #4. As I write this, they are playing a festival up in Ottawa, Ontario Canada, and a friend of mine, Emma Dean is there enjoying the evening.
As for Blink-182, the fact that they are still around is somewhat of a surprise. The band never went away, still charting songs on the alt-rock chart, and albums debuting in the top 3, most recently five years ago with Neighborhoods. But what makes their latest set California, as well as "Bored to Death" notable is that it knocked the red-hot hip-hop artist Drake from the top spot on the albums chart after a nine week run, this in an era in which rock isn't even on the pop radar anymore. And although the band's founder and lead singer, Tom Delonge left the band before recording their latest effort, it obviously hasn't withered their popularity.
"Bored to Death" on my blog list is a bit behind the other lists, but it is the "Mover of the Week" as it jumps 61-33 in it's fourth week. Part of it appeal is, that the kids who were into the band are now following it for nostalgic reasons, but you have to wonder if the current teen will drop the pop and hip-hop and embrace similar sounds of rock. That may be a story for another time, but anytime a rock outfit makes some news, it's very welcome.
"Dark Necessities" drops Kaleo and Fitz and the Tantrums to the 2 and 3 spots; while local favorites take positions 4 thru 6, as Paul Czekaj and Us Commoners still advance, and Rachel Allyn drops one notch. Cage the Elephant racks up its ninth SNS top 20 as "Trouble" jumps from 24-12. And a bit of a surprise is that Edward Sharp & the Magnetic Zeros' "No Love Like Yours" also enters the top 20. It's their fourth SNS top 20, but the first since 2012, when "That's What's Up" hit #4. Their most well-known song, "Home", hit #12 during the blog's first few months in 2010 and was joined there by the follow-up "40 Day Dream". However, one of the key pieces in the band, and specifically "Home", Jade Castrinos, has left the band, but the adeptness of leader Alex Ebert to evolve their sound, as at least kept them viable.
FITZVILLE USA: With "HandClap" out for awhile (and still gaining on some airplay charts--it is still bulleted at #5 on Alternative), it's time to explore a bit of the new album, their self-titled third album released last month. Many of the songs adopt the quirkiness of the lead single, and much of the heartfelt soul which dominated their debut as well as part of their second set, takes a back seat. As I did with More Than Just a Dream, I added album cuts in between the singles. I don't know yet what the official second single is, but their Wikipedia pages shows that "Complicated" was a recent promo-only single. It is my top debut at #64, and like "HandClap", it's a up-tempo, techno romp. But the funny thing is, that within that context, lead singer Michael Fitzpatrick still has that soulful voice, and even the techno background still tugs the heart. You can change your style but you can completely erase what you're all about. I had my doubts around this album, but while I have tired out a bit with Adele, I am still behind Fitz and the Tantrums. And unlike the Brit songstress, these guys still haven't had a pop hit, but maybe that's a good thing.
MOVING THE COMPANY TO SPANTON: While other debuts are by established blog artists like Foals ("What Went Down", the follow-up to their #1 "Give It All") and Young The Giant ("Something to Believe In", following the top 10 "Amerika"), the significant debut is at #82, "Shake Your Soul" by the Billy Spanton Band, makes it's SNS debut at #82. Billy Spanton, who handles guitar and lead vocals has a long history of performing, and has opened shows for rock bands such as Bad Company, .38 Special, The Outlaws, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and several others. He performed frequently at venues such as the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, and B.B.King's in New York City. He also played in many cover bands throughout the state, including a Rolling Stones tribute band called Made in the Shade.
About a year ago, Spanton formed a new band which bears his name. Based in the Milford area of Pennsylvania, the band also consists of Renee Willoughby Savoy on vocals, Paul Alesi on bass, and Kevin Ahern on drums. And then there's the keyboard player.
Ron Pietranowicz has been a friend of mine since grammar school and has played the piano and keyboards ever since. He was also a clarinet player in our high school band, and went to the same college as I did, Montclair State. We fell out of touch after that, until about seven years ago, when I caught him playing in a band called Moving Company, up at Sheridan's in Andover, NJ. The band also was based in the Milford area (where Ron lives), and their gigs centered in that area. Ron came back home to play several gigs at Frenchy's a venerable dive bar in our hometown of Roselle Park, twice with Moving Company, and another time playing keyboards in English Creek Road, a band formed by several friends when we were all in high school.
About a year ago, Ron had the opportunity to join the Billy Spanton as their keyboard player, head on the road, and perhaps more importantly record some new music. Their album, Matter of Pride, was released last month. Don't expect any trendy alternative rock here; the music is traditional rock, country and blues, similar to the bands that Spanton has toured with in the past. And when you get down to it, the way rock was meant to be played.
The first track I selected, "Shake Your Soul" fits in that mode perfectly, and is a track that does demonstrate Ron's keyboard prowess, but if you're into traditional southern and bar-blues rock, definitely pick up this set.
The entrance of "Shake Your Soul" makes Pietranowicz the second Roselle Park native to make my SNS 100; Tom Corea, who graduated a year behind Ron and myself, of course has made the list with The Hounds of Winter and Bad Attitude. I am hoping to catch the band soon.
STAGED: As I mentioned on my last blog, the WNTI Stage festival takes place this weekend, July 15-17, and I will be going on July 16 (today when you're reading this). The festival arose from the ashes of the old Riverfest on the Delaware River for years. This is the fifth year of WNTI, which is now in Columbia NJ near Route 46 at the Knowlton Lions Pavilion. WNTI itself has been through a big transformation. As the radio station of Hackettstown's Centenary College, it played cutting edge music and was an outlet for local artists and bands. Then late last year, the FM station was forced to sell to WXPN, a station out of Penn University, and thus took over the stations programming. At that point, the music of WNTI continued, but as an online station, WNTI.org, and it was announced that this year's Stage would go on as usual.
I will be attending Saturday, where bands like Bubba Grouch, the Grip Weeds, Steel Gravy, The Doughboys, Garland Jeffreys and headliner Los Straitjackets will be performing on the main stage. But my ears will focus on the café stage, where two friends will be playing. Paul Czekaj, currently #4 with "That Old New Jersey", whose music has been frequently played on the station, will perform at 3 PM. I have been waiting for him to play this festival and he now finally has his chance.
Later on, another friend, Tom Sterno (Sternadori), who I used to work and go camping with back around 25 years ago, takes to the stage as part of the Above Ground Blues Band. They go on at 8 PM. That band, which plays a bit of rock, jazz, funk and of course, blues, are, like Billy Spanton, planning on releasing an album soon. It's great to see bands write and put out new material!
THE DISS SIDE: Of course, not every one likes all of the artists I feature. I comb Facebook for artists and bands that play current music to see if anything was noteworthy and for me to latch onto. Then again, some friends of mine have some problems with certain artists. In this case, it's not any pop stuff like Katy Perry, Demi Lovato and the like, but with Elle King. King, one of rock music's few new bright lights of 2015, had a monster hit last year with "Ex's and Oh's". The song hit Top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100, #1 on the Alt-rock chart (where King was named top artist in that genre). On my list, she peaked at #2 with that song, which also became my #2 Summer Song as well as #2 song of 2015, in all cases, behind Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud".
My friend Cindi Robinson posted, "Someone please explain the appeal of Elle King. That scratch-squeaky voice makes my ears hurt, and then adds "I think her daddy Rob Schneider must've cajoled someone into giving her a record contract". Several of her friends liked and agreed with her.
Okay, Cindi went to school around the same time as myself, thus was raised on the music of the 1960's and '70s and most people have left their musical tastes in this decade. We've had female rockers before, such as Janis Joplin, Joan Jett, Pat Benatar and others. Artists like Bonnie Tyler and Kim Carnes also have had hit records featuring their raw, raspy voices. Modern day females who play rock like Grace Potter and Florence Welch haven't broken big yet. All of the females on the radar these days are the pop vocalists like Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, Pink (who borders on rock anyway), and Ellie Goulding, just to name a few. So if you're listening to pop radio and Elle King comes on with that rather raspy voice, well it's not a smooth and velvety sound as the others. Is this further proof that rock as a relevant genre is really dead, or did Cindi feel that other female rockers of the day come off better than King's rasp? We, of course are all entitled to our opinions. And to be honest, I wish people would debate the artists that I feature here. I would love nothing more than a good discussion on the music of today. How about it?
Incidentally King who followed "Ex's and Oh's" with my SNS #1 "Under the Influence", sees her 'America's Sweetheart", the third single from her Love Stuff set, drop from her peak of #28 down to 44 this week.
CRUEL FOR THE SUMMER: Finally we are just about at the middle of the summer season and of course I am tabulating what my "song of the summer" will be. But, unlike last year, where there were four entries that talked about summer, such as "This Summer's Gonna Hurt..." and "Cool for the Summer" that made my top 20, so far this year, none. I guess I'll have to comb the Internet for a summer-themed song for 2016 before it's too late.
Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100
July 10,
2016
| This Week | Last Week | ARTIST-Title | Weeks on List |
| 1 | 3 | NUMBER ONE:
"Dark Necessities"
Album: The Getaway
|
7 |
| 2 | 1 | Kaleo - Way Down We Go | 16 |
| 3 | 2 | Fitz and the Tantrums - HandClap | 12 |
| 4 | 6 | Paul Czekaj - That Old New Jersey | 5 |
| 5 | 7 | Us Commoners - The Hot Spot | 5 |
| 6 | 5 | Rachel Allyn - Next Year's Girl | 10 |
| 7 | 11 | Trent Harmon - Falling | 9 |
| 8 | 4 | Smash Palace - My Mistake● | 14 |
| 9 | 10 | The Heavy - Since You Been Gone | 10 |
| 10 | 8 | Ray Lamontagne - Hey No Pressure | 15 |
| 11 | 9 | The Parlor - The Surgeon's Knife | 15 |
| 12 | 24 | TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK:
"Trouble"
Album: Tell Me I'm Pretty
|
6 |
| 13 | 17 | Garbage - Empty | 8 |
| 14 | 22 | Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - No Love Like Yours | 12 |
| 15 | 14 | Avid Dancer - I Feel It | 19 |
| 16 | 18 | Strumbella - Spirits | 18 |
| 17 | 21 | Collective Soul - Contagious | 10 |
| 18 | 27 | The Revivalists - Wish I Knew You | 7 |
| 19 | 15 | Santigold - Can't Get Enough of Myself | 15 |
| 20 | 19 | The Thermals - Hey You | 10 |
Tremors:
| 101 | Coin - Talk Too Much |
| 102 | 100 | Glass Animals - Life Itself |
| 103 | Phantogram- You Don't Get Me High Anymore |
|
|
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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