WAY UP WE GO: Kaleo, the biggest act to come out of Iceland since The Sugarcubes, is the fourth #1 on my SNS 100 in as many weeks as "Way Down We Go" takes the top spot. Fitz and the Tantrums move back up to #2 with "HandClap", while last week's list-topper and the leader the week before that, Smash Palaces' "My Mistake" and Ray Lamontagne's "Hey No Pressure" drop to #3 and #4. Rachel Allyn's "Next Year's Girl" inches up to #5 while Red Hot Chili Peppers "Dark Necessitites" jumps to #6.
Paul Czekaj released his new album Gallimaufry last week, and I will be reviewing it in the coming weeks (although almost the entire album consists of prior singles), and he has the rare feat of having two songs in my top 10: "Up in the Sky" moves from 11-8, while "That Old New Jersey" jumps, in its third week, from 21-9. And if that wasn't enough, the Jersey laureate has just released the next single and video from the album, "A Place I Once Called Home". I will be adding the song to my playlist in a few weeks after "That Old New Jersey" peaks, whenever that will be. Then again, I may not wait that long.
Other big movers in the top 20 include "The Hot Spot" by Us Commoners, and Trent Harmon's "Falling", the first song by an American Idol winner to hit the top 20 since Phillip Phillip's "Home" four years ago.
THOSE BOYS NEED THERAPY: Eight debuts this week (including one that was in Tremors last week). Does anyone remember The Avalanches? Chances are, if you were in ski country back in the winter of 2001-02, you do. Back in those days, I had a share in a skihaus with friends, up at Mt. Snow, and alternative radio station WEQX played this bizarre song called "Frontier Psychiatrist". The song was from this Australian band's debut album Since I Left You, released in 2000. The most unusual thing about this song and the album is that the entire musical selections are made up of samples. Talk about your song collages! That song, along with the second single, the title track, both landed in the top 10 of my year-end list of 2002, Then they disappeared.
Well, apparently, they didn't, as they finally release their sophomore effort, Wildflower. Apparently the project began in 2005 and finally was completed. It again features samples, along with some live studio performances. The top debut this week is "Frankie Sinatra", which again show the band at its quirky best. It's catchy and harmless (maybe unless you're a big Sinatra fan, as, aside from the name, doesn't really have anything to do with Hoboken's "Chairman of the Board". Still it's a fun romp, and we will see how far this one goes.
CALVIN AND ....: The next highest entry is the latest by DJ Calvin Harris, who has had much success on my blog, mostly with songs done in collaboration with other pop and rock starts. This entry with Rihanna, "This is What You Came For", enters at #79. The song returns him to the top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100. After scoring SNS top 10 smashes with John Newman, Ellie Goulding and Florence Welch, as well as his solo "Summer", his "How Deep is Your Love" was kind of a stiff, peaking at #56. This one is a return to his previous formula--sort of. The heartfelt vocals of Rihanna are there, but instead of his electronic jam interludes, they are a bit muted, with the single still adding vocal chops during the breaks. A worthy effort from Taylor Swift's latest ex.
HEY, HEY: Also debuting is the recommended-by-friends "Casual Party" by Band of Horses, a band that made one previous appearance on SNS: "Knock Knock" spent four weeks on my list in 2012, peaking at #94. Beth Orton, formerly of the 90's band Spill, and solo for the ensuing twenty years, has released her sixth solo effort Kidsticks, with the lead single, "1973" entering, as it was a featured song on Brian Sniatkowski's 'Song of the Week". Apparently the original video generated controversy for showing the Joshua Tree, which is federally protected being spray painted, as well as other desert plant life. The video was removed, the link provided here just features a still, with the music. Death Cab for Cutie returns, with its single-most-likely in awhile, "Good Help (Is Hard to Find)". And then there were the Monkees.
That's right, the Pre-Fab four are back (actually the three surviving members, after the passing of Davy Jones a few years ago). Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of their landmark television show which debuted in September, 1966, this is the band's first new release since 1996's Justus. While that album was a departure in that the four members entirely wrote and produced their own songs (in their heyday, the band used mostly outside songwriters, namely Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart), and in their first two albums, provided only the vocals, and not playing instruments.
For this album, however, they went back to relying on outside songwriters, some who originally wrote the songs (Boyce & Hart, Carole King & Gerry Goffin, Neil Diamond) as well as some relatively more contemporary writers whose style would have been a good fit for the Monkees' brand of pop music. The three surviving members did write one song each, but the reminder of the album was written by Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, Andy Partridge of XTC, Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie (which debuts one position behind the pre-fabs this week), Noel Gallagher of Oasis and Paul Weller of The Jam and The Style Council, and finally Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, That Thing You Do! and Words and Music fame. Davy Jones appears on one track, which is a remix (with vocals added by the others) from sessions back in their heyday. It is Cuomo who wrote the lead single, "She Makes Me Laugh", and it's a pop music romp which maybe sounds out of place in this day and age, but a good pop ditty that could take you back to the 1960's if it wasn't produced with current decade's technology. Harmless, good clean fun here.
As the Monkees released their first album (along with their first single "Last Train to Clarksville" and of course, the premiere of their TV show), in 1966, they are the third act from that decade to make my list. Santana, whose debut came out in 1969, drops 7 to 16 this week, with their reunion of original members; and the reunion of The Beach Boys had two songs from their 50th anniversary reunion album from 2012 make my list, including the #23 "That Why God Made the Radio".
Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100
June 26,
2016
| This Week | Last Week | ARTIST-Title | Weeks on List |
| 1 | 3 | NUMBER ONE:
"Way Down We Go"
Album: A/B
|
14 |
| 2 | 4 | Fitz and the Tantrums - HandClap | 10 |
| 3 | 1 | Smash Palace - My Mistake | 12 |
| 4 | 2 | Ray Lamontagne - Hey No Pressure | 13 |
| 5 | 6 | Rachel Allyn - Next Year's Girl | 8 |
| 6 | 9 | Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dark Necessities | 5 |
| 7 | 5 | The Parlor - The Surgeon's Knife | 13 |
| 8 | 11 | Paul Czekaj - Up In the Sky | 9 |
| 9 | 21 | TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK:
"That Old New
Jersey"
Album: Gallimaufry
|
3 |
| 10 | 10 | Wild Belle - Throw Down Your Guns | 9 |
| 11 | 20 | Us Commoners - The Hot Spot | 3 |
| 12 | 14 | Santigold - Can't Get Enough of Myself | 13 |
| 13 | 8 | Avid Dancer - I Feel It | 17 |
| 14 | 16 | Young the Giant - Amerika | 7 |
| 15 | 17 | The Heavy - Since You Been Gone | 8 |
| 16 | 7 | Santana - Anywhere You Want to Go | 11 |
| 17 | 15 | The Joy Formidable - The Last Thing on My Mind | 15 |
| 18 | 23 | Trent Harmon - Falling | 7 |
| 19 | 12 | Mike Posner - I Took a Pill in Ibiza | 16 |
| 20 | 13 | Run River North - Run or Hide | 15 |
Tremors:
| 101 | Disturbed - The Sound of Silence |
|
|
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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