WHAT'S ON TOP: Ed Sheeran grabs the brass ring for the second week as "Shape of You" remains at #1, and by a pretty decent margin. It just had its 11th week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 so you know it's a great song all around. Foxygen holds at #2 with "Follow the Leader" but the rest of the top 10 is very competitive, with the big significant move coming from Fitz and the Tantrums' "Get Right Back" flying from #13 to #6, in a bid for its sixth number one in a row. Keep in mind that in the six and a half year history of SNS, no other act has more than four chart-toppers. While Phoebe Ryan's "Boyz n Poizn" drops out of the top 20, it's replaced by her current single "Dark Side". And although Ryan has made the Hot 100 as a featured artist on the red-hot Chainsmokers song "All We Know" (#18 and #14 SNS), she is oh so close to breaking the big chart as lead artist, once again settling for the up-and-coming chart. A little more on her later. Cold War Kids also breaks into the top 20.
It's been awhile since we heard from Lana Del Rey, but she has the top debut here with her latest, "Love". It's from her forthcoming album Lust for Life (which will be the second single). It's in her usual haunting yet dreamy style. As its been sometime, it's great to welcome her back. The other debuts are by The Chainsmokers, with "Paris" (I will add another one of their tracks that feature Coldplay, possibly next week), Lorde, best know for "Royals" which topped both Billboard and my lists, with "Green Light", Mid-Hudson reggae outfit The Big Takeover, which has a strong new one in "Love Understands" (as their prior single "Come Before Five" drops off my chart; Livingston NJ-based Kjband which follows their top 10 "Waves" with "What Dreams" from their latest album Noise, and Waters, with "Hiccups".
SIGNING OFF....SORT OF: "The good times are the best times / the bad times fade away / The good times are forever / but baby, the last time is today". That lyric comes from "One Last Kiss", a 1978 single by the J. Geils Band, of whom we lost its namesake member John Geils last week. But as I've been hinting for the last few weeks, it's time to give the blog a rest. Since August of 2010, I have been writing my thoughts on anything to do with music: the people making it, the people listening to it, the surroundings of which I hear it, and really any experience gaining where music played a part.
The problem is that it's taking up too much of my time, hours to not only sift through new music, but to also tabulate and create my new playlist, find links to the song, then put them all on my spreadsheet and incorporate them into Blogger. That part is still fun because I am amazed what chart positions I come up with (and I don't technically rank the songs from 1 to 100 myself, I give it a relative point value from week to week, and sort the whole thing). The hard part is that I have to come up with a blog narrative. Some weeks its tough, and it is just the new songs I add, but when I do have an idea for a theme, I can go crazy and write for hours.
But six hours is just too much time to spend on this when I could be doing other things, spending quality time with my wife and my friends, and enjoying activities such as geocaching, skiing and the Jersey Shore. But of course, music always plays a big part and when I decided to make this undertaking in 2010, it was to appreciate the new stuff that was important to me, and make a memory out of the people and events that I enjoyed in the 2010's. Up until then I was downloading around 20 songs each month and burning them to a CD where I'd hear the latest songs--all in the same order--for the most recent months, as well as on this month five, ten, twenty...thirty and even forty years prior. I love music and all its eras. But online technology, and social networking enabled me to publish my thoughts and a playlist of what I'm currently listening to, and putting it out there for all to see.
I have had almost 150,000 "hits" on the blog, although much of it supposedly are views overseas in places like France, so I'm not sure who actually reads it or how accurate that is. I do know that the number of likes and comments from Facebook friends are much less now, and hence not justified by writing each week. Besides, for me, it was always my chart that was important; I just needed words to support it and make it a good read.
You might remember twice in 2014, I went on a hiatus. It wasn't planned but with everyone that was going on, including working overtime to save my job (which I eventually lost anyway that fall), and I just didn't have the time to keep this going. I had put this on hold, and it was probably because of my overwhelming support from friends that I decided to bring it back in November 2014 and have pretty much kept it going continuously (in spite of double-week blogs, like this one) since then.
Doing this blog has introduced me to several new artists and helped me keep track of current trends, both in rock and pop. The Black Keys were my first #1 song with "Tighten Up"; the band had some good, obscure stuff prior to that, but they really took off in the blog era. Adele was another that I had embraced back, prior to the blog, and I saw her explode into a mega-superstar during the blog era. But it was new artists that I got exposed to during the last seven years that made it worthwhile: Florence + the Machine, Foster the People, Foxygen, Alabama Shakes, Lana Del Rey, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, and many, many others, are now favorites because I tracked them on my blog. I guess here I should mention Fitz and the Tantrums, which graced my chart for the first time back in December 2011 with "MoneyGrabber", and have rarely been off the chart, with ten #1 songs on SNS, and have had at least one song on my list each week for over four years straight.
Pop artists thrived on my list as well, like Pink, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Pharell Williams, Rihanna, and the current #1, Ed Sheeran.
But the best thing about discovering new music, are those artists, either who I know, or are friends of people I know, who are doing it in hopes of making it big someday, or just playing for the love of it, making their own CD's and putting it out there. When I started doing this, I really though Rachel Allyn, from nearby Ogdensburg NJ was about to explode as she had gone to college in Nashville and has had fateful brushes with major stars, but thus far it amazingly hasn't happened. Two artists who do seem to be on their way are Christina Taylor, and the aforementioned Phoebe Ryan. It was in 2012 when I wrote about a New York-based band called Town Hall, and that one of its members had made it to the Hollywood round on American Idol a few years back. The band broke up, but Ryan headed west and gain some prestige from artists such as Taylor Swift. She is oh-so-close to making the big time. I was on board with Taylor as well, back when she was Taylor Centers and was doing pop songs, before she decided on country. She is getting airplay on some country outlets with her latest single now.
But there's more where that came from. I followed the similar but distinct careers of Staten Island twins Leila and Omnia Hegazy, which combined for three #1 songs here and several others in the top 10. They are currently beginning to record an EP under the name Hegazy and have gotten some buzz as well. And I am hoping artists such as Long Island's Matt Weiss will put out some new music as well. And as for Rachel Allyn, I hope her voluntary hiatus to reexamine where she wants her career to head finally pays off, as she has spent half her life doing what she loves best.
As for those who just loved making music, there's my Roselle Park friend, Tom Corea, who has his own production studio in his home and has given us some great music as well, such as The Hounds of Winter, Bad Attitude, Sarah Jean, Thom Sebastian and also produced the prog-rock The Wizards of Winter's debut holiday record. And my inclusion of "My Home New Jersey' a song and video that went viral amongst my Facebook friends, netted me a new friend in Paul Czekaj, who I guess just happened to come across my blog five years ago. I also reconnected with a good friend Tom Sterno, who plays in the Above Ground Blues Band who, along with Czekaj, I saw play at last summer's WNTI Summer Stage, and am hoping they put out an album soon. And artists with no real connection who I discovered at a local festival, such as Shannon Marsyada, E'lissa Jones, The Big Takeover, The Doughboys and many others, have grabbed hold of me and have become fans as well.
As far as subjects of my blogs go, I think the favorite on of my was the story of the time my Mom talked to Jimi Hendrix on the phone, but she didn't know who he was. And maybe another one was my almost 30-year search to find the name and artist of a song I recorded from the radio back in 1989 but they never announced the song (it turned out to be the flip-side of the '88 hit from MARRS, "Pump Up the Volume", called "Antina"). And sadly, my blog on what a then-ailing Amy Whitehouse needed to get off of alcohol and drugs to save her career and life; but alas, she would fall victim just a short time thereafter. Then there were the songs we listened to on my high school senior ski trip to Lake Placid, and many other subjects that I was able to cover but rarely duplicate week after week.
But two of the blogs that I am very proud of writing were tributes to fallen friends. Although my friendship with Jeanne Marie Ahrens , a music fan like I was, met as patients in a hospital, of all places, was very brief--the winter of 1983/84, I had just reconnected with her on Facebook and was just starting to resume our friendship, when she passed away. And remembering music---she was a really huge fan---and the songs we listened together that they will forever be linked to her. And finally, Ron Pietranowicz, who embraced music as a kid, known since the fourth grade and the bands he was in (including the Billy Spanton Band currently on my list) and his impact on my life as well as his friends and family. That blog, published last December, shortly after his untimely passing, was even referred to during his funeral service. That to me was a reason right there to write this blog.
I just want to stress however, that Scenes 'n' Soundwaves isn't going away. I still intend, in the near future, to continue publish my SNS 100. Whether I will post on Facebook, I'm not sure. It will probably be posted though on my Scenes 'n' Soundwaves Music Page group though. Of course, if something really cool happens (like one of my up-and-coming actsbreaks big, something musical like a festival or concert I went to, or sadly, something horrific, like a death---or anything that warrants a voice, I will be back....but just not every week.
Keep listening, my friends!
Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100
April 9 - 16, 2017
| This Week | Last Week | ARTIST-Title | Weeks on List |
| 1 | 1 | NUMBER ONE:
ED SHEERAN
"Shape of You"
Album: Divide
(2 weeks at #1)
|
9 |
| 2 | 2 | Foxygen - Follow the Leader | 9 |
| 3 | 4 | Cage the Elephant - Cold Cold Cold | 7 |
| 4 | 5 | The Palms - Push Off | 8 |
| 5 | 9 | Lolo - Not Gonna Let You Walk Away | 7 |
| 6 | 13 | Fitz and the Tantrums - Get Right Back | 5 |
| 7 | 7 | Christina Taylor - Don't Look Good in Your T-Shirt Anymore | 8 |
| 8 | 8 | Coin - I Don't Wanna Dance | 7 |
| 9 | 6 | The Knocks and Matthew Koma - I Wish (My Taylor Swift) | 16 |
| 10 | 12 | The Hounds of Winter - Lesson Learned | 8 |
| 11 | 11 | Billy Spanton Band - Faith (Hands on Me) | 9 |
| 12 | 3 | Rihanna - Love On the Brain | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | Tennis - Ladies Don't Play Guitar | 7 |
| 14 | 15 | Electric Guest - Back For Me | 6 |
| 15 | 10 | Capital Cities - Vowels | 17 |
| 16 | 18 | Keith Urban f. Carrie Underwood - The Fighter | 8 |
| 17 | 19 | DMA's "Timeless | 6 |
| 18 | 23 | TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK:
"Dark Side"
(Single Only)
|
5 |
| 19 | 20 | The Heydaze - Hurt Like Hell | 9 |
| 20 | 30 | Cold War Kids - Love Is Mystical | 4 |
|
|
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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