Scenes 'n' Soundwaves: Roselle Park Showdown? (SNS week of 8/21/2016)

Just a short and brief rundown in my continuing attempt to catch up to the current week.    M83 grabs its first SNS #1 as "Ride" reaches the summit, knocking out Fitz and the Tantrums' "Complicated" after just one week.   That song drops to #2, while Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Dark Necessities", a leading candidate for my "song of the summer", holds at #3.

Making advances towards the top are the Billy Spanton Band's 'Shake Your Soul", and Santana's "Blues Magic".   My guess is that one of these two songs could grab the pole position in a couple weeks or so.   Phoebe Ryan and a surprising Nada Surf also make their way into the top 10.   The Avalanches, with their first record in fifteen years also advance towards the top part with "Frankie Sinatra", and Young the Giant have their second straight top 20 from their Home of the Strange Set, with "Something to Believe In".

BATTLE OF THE BANDS:   Back when I was going to school in Roselle Park, there were many dances, featuring the "Battle of the Bands", various area rock bands competing against each other.   Two guys I went to school with, who were in my band class, are on my charts and doing every well.   Ron Pietranowicz plays keyboards with the Billy Spanton Band, who are in my top five; while the Top Debut this week is the new Hounds of Winter single, "Oh Paige", which features Tom Corea on drums, and vocals, at ##55.   And both of their musical aspirations don't end with these bands.   Ron has been playing piano and keyboards since grammar school; and he currently also plays with Moving Company, a cover bar band which plays northwest New Jersey and the Milford area of Pennsylvania.   They have also come to Ron's hometown of Roselle Park for a few gigs at local hangout Frenchy's.

Tom, as I have mentioned many times before, is somewhat of a music entrepreneur. He runs a recording studio, Babyfishmouth, at his East Hanover home.   He, too, plays gigs with a local band, Bad Attitude, mostly around the Central Jersey area.   He is also responsible for producing other bands such as The Wizards of Winter, Sarah Jean, the late Thom Sebastian and others.

The Hounds specialize in holiday recordings; but are equally adept in new music; their "Amy's World" reached #2 two summers ago, and "Oh Paige" could very well rival that song.    It shouldn't be too long before it will join the Spanton band in the top 10.

In a very lean summer in which the established bands have left so much to be desired, it is worth watching the locals, many of them will show up on the short list of summer SNS smashes.   We've seen Paul Czekaj with two top 20's, along with Phoebe Ryan, Us Commoners and Rachel Allyn score hits this season.   Sarah Jean, Hegazy (the joint effort of Leila and Omnia), Matt Weiss, and The Above Ground Blues Band are promising new material as early as this fall, so there is a lot of things to look forward to, if you're a fan of local music.

Having said that, some good songs debut this week behind The Hounds. The first new Green Day song in awhile, "Bang Bang" is sort of a wake-up all to the punk revival heyday of the mid-1990's, a great effort from Billie Joe Armstrong and company.   Dinosaur Jr., like Nada Surf, had brief success in the mid 90's, are still around, with a great new song, "Tiny" that Brian Sniatkowski featured in a recent "Song of the Week"; last time out "Don't Pretend You Didn't Know" reached the top 10 in late 2012.   Also, checkout some worthwhile alt-rock from Band of Skulls, The Head and the Heart and Bleached; and some 'quality pop" from Demi Lovato and Meghan Trainor and you have some good listening to wind up your summer.

Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100

August 24, 2016

This Week	Last Week	ARTIST-Title	Weeks on List
1	2	NUMBER ONE: M83 "Go" Album: Junk	8
2	1	Fitz and the Tantrums - Complicated	7
3	3	Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dark Necessities	13
4	9	Billy Spanton Band - Shake Your Soul	7
5	6	Finish Ticket - Color	9
6	13	Santana - Blues Magic	5
7	7	Mayer Hawthorne - Cosmic Love	15
8	12	Phoebe Ryan - Chronic	8
9	15	Nada Surf - Believe You're Mine	17
10	4	Paul Czekaj - That Old New Jersey	11
11	16	City and Colour - Wasted Love	11
12	5	Kaleo - Way Down We Go●	22
13	8	The Revivalists - Wish I Knew You	13
14	10	Adele - Send My Love (To Your New Lover)	11
15	17	Bishop Briggs- River	13
16	22	TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK: THE AVALANCHES "Frankie Sinatra" Album: Wildflower	9
17	18	Charles Kelley- Lonely Girl	15
18	11	Us Commoners - The Hot Spot	11
19	14	Cage the Elephant - Trouble	12
20	26	Young the Giant - Something to Believe In	7

21	19	Beck - Wow	10
22	23	The Dreamers - Drugs	14
23	31	The Strokes - Oblivius	7
24	21	Trent Harmon - Falling	15
25	28	Pop Etc. - What Am I Becoming	13
26	33	Barns Courtney - Fire	7
27	35	Amos Lee - Vaporize	6
28	20	Flume f Andrew Wyatt- Some Minds	10
29	30	Twenty-One Pilots - Ride	14
30	29	Foals - What Went Down	7
31	24	Pink - Just Like Fire	10
32	38	The Blossoms - At Most A Kiss	8
33	25	Fitz and the Tantrums - HandClap●	18
34	40	Coin - Talk Too Much	6
35	41	Death Cab for Cutie - Good Help	9
36	51	Coldplay - Hymn For the Weekend	8
37	55	Michael Kiwanuka - One More Night	3
38	44	Langhorn Slim and the Law - Spirit Moves	10
39	42	Hozier - Better Love	8
40	27	Awolnation - Woman Woman	15
41	52	Zac Brown Band - Castaway	4
42	37	Collective Soul - Contagious	16
43	46	The Monkees - She Makes Me Laugh	9
44	49	Leon Bridges - Better Man	5
45	54	Two Door Cinema Club - Are We Ready (Wreck)	5
46	36	Blink 182 - Bored to Death	10
47	39	Smash Palace - My Mistake●	20
48	43	Ray Lamontagne - Hey No Pressure●	21
49	60	St. Paul and the Broken Bones - All I Ever Wonder	3
50	32	Kongos - Take It From Me	11
51	67	Halo Circus with Allison Ireheta - Nothing At All	3
52	34	Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats - I Need Never Get Old	15
53	47	Calvin Harris f Rhianna - This Is What You Came For	9
54	61	DMA's - Too Soon	6
55	---	TOP DEBUT: THE HOUNDS OF WINTER "Oh Paige" (Single Only)	1
56	62	The Doughboys - For Your Love	5
57	81	Elle King - Good Girls	2
58	85	MOVER OF THE WEEK: RACHEL ALLYN "For What It's Worth" Album: Next Year's Girl	2
59	75	Disturbed - The Sound of Silence	8
60	63	Phantogram- You Don't Get Me High Anymore	6
61	64	The Grip Weeds - Rainbow Quartz	5
62	69	Eagulls - Velvet	4
63	82	The Hunna - You and Me	4
64	90	Paul Czekaj - A Place I Once Called Home	2
65	45	The Heavy - Since You Been Gone	16
66	74	Passenger - Somebody's Love	4
67	57	The Parlor - The Surgeon's Knife●	21
68	93	Ray Lamontagne - The Changing Man	2
69	56	Rachel Allyn - Next Year's Girl	16
70	50	BORNS - American Money	11
71	48	Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - No Love Like Yours	18
72	77	DNCE - Cake By the Ocean	26
73	80	Deerhunter - Snakeskin	4
74	84	Trails and Ways - My Things	3
75	83	Grouplove - Welcome to Your Life	3
76	53	Santigold - Can't Get Enough of Myself	21
77	58	Goo Goo Dolls - So Alive	8
78	65	Avid Dancer - I Feel It●	25
79	89	Wilco - If I Ever Was A Child	2
80	59	Greeting Committee - Hands Down	10
81	92	Glass Animals - Life Itself	5
82	---	Dinosaur Jr - Tiny	1
83	68	Parquet Courts - Dust	12
84	71	Paul Czekaj - Up In the Sky	17
85	103	Sia f Sean Paul - Cheap Thrills	1
86	73	Run River North - Run or Hide●	23
87	79	Foals - Give It All●	25
88	96	Katy Perry - Rise	3
89	---	Band of Skulls - Bodies	1
90	98	Bell X1 - Out of Love	3
91	---	Green Day - Bang Bang	1
92	66	Chris Stapleton - Nobody to Blame	8
93	---	Bleached - Wednesday Night Melody	1
94	95	888 - Critical Mistakes	4
95	100	Bastille - Good Grief	2
96	101	Mass Gothic - Every Night You've Got to Save Me	1
97	102	Leagues - Dance With Me	1
98	---	Meghan Trainor - Me Too	1
99	---	The Head and the Heart - All We Ever Knew	1
100	---	Demi Lovato - Stone Cold	1