About This Site
Each month I select 20 songs (10 songs twice a month) that I am either hooked on or am curious about. Most of the music I select are rock, hip-hop, R&B and pop songs.
My song selection comes from 20-30 CDs I get from various sources each month, as well as recommendations from iTunes and Amazon. I also check out the charts in US, UK and Japan.
If I could only choose one day to attend Fuji Rock Festival 2009, I’d probably choose Sunday, mostly for Weezer, Fall Out Boy and Jimmy Eat World. Actually all the artists I mention down below plus Street Sweeper Social Club would be worth the admission. Not sure if I can stay up to catch Basement Jaxx though, who would be coming on around midnight. Here's my review (or preview) of who I would see at Fuji Rock Festival on Sunday 7/26.
 | Cobra Starship - Good Girls Go Bad /ft. Leighton Meester This latest single from New York band, Cobra Starship features Leighton Meester, who is a star on Gossip Girl. The track is a leading single off of their new album to be released in mid August, and was produced by Kevin Rudolf and Kara DioGuardi. It is doing well on the chart. They are also known to put on fun show. |
 | The Airborne Toxic Event - Wishing Well Thanks to the successful single, “Something Around Midnight” they are doing really well. In fact, their tour is so successful that lead singer (former writer) Mikel Jollett hasn’t had time to work on his novel. The second single hasn’t been announced yet, but this is one of my favorites from their album. Anytime a group has a violinist in the group, it’s cool to check them out live. |
 | Jimmy Eat World - Always Be I haven’t heard much about them since the release of “Chase This Light” album in 2007, which contains this catchy track, “Always Be.” Actually early this year, they went on tour to play their “Clarity” album in its entirely from beginning to an end to commemorate its 10th anniversary. “Bleed American” was the first album I got into, so I don’t know any songs from “Clarity” |
 | Fall Out Boy - America's Suitehearts I wasn’t a huge fan of their last album, “Folie A Deux” which contains this somewhat forgettable single. It was recently remixed by Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus, which sounds softer with piano in it. I haven’t had a chance to see them live, so it would be cool to check them out at a festival like Fuji Rock. |
 | Weezer - The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations On A Shaker Hymn)Is this Weezer’s version of My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome to the Black Parade” or Green Day’s “Jesus of Suburbia”? Compared to their usual catchy pop rock, they attempted more of epic rock. I heard them perform this live, and they sounded good. |
 | Royksopp - What Else Is There? I had never heard of these guys from Norway before until I saw that they are closing on the white stage for Sunday night, and realized that they must be quite popular to do so. After hearing some song clips, I began to like their music. Is Norway the next Sweden for good music (well, so far just Ida Maria and Royksopp, but… who knows in the near future!) This was my favorite track, which featured vocal from The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson. |
 | Basement Jaxx - Good Luck /ft. Lisa Kekaula Recently UK dance duo, Basement Jaxx has announced that their new album will be released in October. The new set will include various guest vocalist ranging from Yoko Ono, Sam Sparro and Santigold. The first single from the new album, “Raindrops” is already doing quite well in the UK chart. I haven’t really listened to them since their hit album “Rooty” (containing songs like “Romeo” and “Where’s Your Head At.” Going back to some of their other recent songs, I came across this single from 2003. |
When "
Boom Boom Pow" first came out, I was a little disappointed (mostly because of Vocoder effect, which EVERYONE is using). But after a few listens, I got used to it and even really liked it. Peas second single, "I Gotta Feeling" gives me the same feeling as I don't particularly enjoy the song so much. But it is the #2 song in the US, and #1 in Japan right now. It is produced by David Guetta, who's current single featuring Kelly Rowland is #1 song in the UK. With "Boom Boom Pow" still maintaining the #1 spot on Billboard chart, having #1 and #2 song in the US hasn't been done (with #1 album) since Outkast did it with "Hey Ya" and "The Way You Move."
Fronted by American vocalist and backed by Swedish band (and produced by Swedish Max Martin), Carolina Liar found success with the song, "
I'm Not Over" last year. The second single, "Show Me What I'm Looking For" is an overambitious slick pop song with bells and catchy hooks. The song title was too irresistible for Overstock.com to want to use this song for their TV commercial.
Although Eels has been around for a long time, I still consider them to be a one-hit wonder for the hit, "Novocaine For The Soul" in the 90s. After numerous lineup changes, Eels released their seventh album. I hadn't really listened to any of their songs since "Novocaine" but I was quite blown away. I particularly fell in love with this poignant song, "That Look You Give That Guy" with lyrics like "That look you give that guy
I wanna see Looking right at me. If I could be that guy Instead of me. I'd give you all I got" (with John Lennon-ish music). Thanks to this song (and few other great track on the album) I no longer consider them to be one-hit wonder (at least in my heart).
"Heavy Cross" starts out like Stevie Nick's "Edge of Seventeen" and continues to rock out. Gossip hit big time with their previous effort, "Standing the way Way of Control" from 2006. For their latest album, Rick Rubin took the producer seat to bring their fourth album to life. The new album is filled with danceable rock songs. I'd love to hear this song played live as they are known for very energetic performance.
California rock band Incubus has been around since the early 90s (though they became mainstream in the late 90s), and they released their first "greatest hits" album. The two disc set has Monuments disc which contains their greatest hits plus two new songs, one of them being "Black Heart Inertia". The second disc, Melodies has rarities such as B-sides including Prince's cover of "Let's Go Crazy." There is no mistake that this track, "Black Heart Inertia" is Incubus song, which sounds like it belongs in their previous album.
The Lemonheads became popular in the 90s with hits like "Into Your Arms" and cover of "Mrs. Robinson." They are back with covers album, with songs by Leonard Cohen (featuring vocal from Liv Tyler), Arling & Cameron (featuring vocal from Kate Moss), and Townes Van Zandt to name a few. In these relatively unknown lineup (to top 40 listener at least), there's Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" cover. It sounds like something out of a jukebox. The Lemonheads are currently working on a new album with all new material.
Brooklyn rapper, Maino had a moderate hit last year with the single "Hi Hater." A year and a few months later, he's finally getting an album release with If Tomorrow Comes. The current single, "All the Above" featuring T-Pain. The track was produced by Just Blaze who uses tight violin sample to make this track one of the hottest hip-hop songs of the summer.
Michael Johns was a contestant on Season 7 of American Idol (same year as Brooke White, Jason Castro, David Cook and Archuleta). His Aussie charm and soulful voice put him as a top contender when the season started, but was voted off early to everyone's surprise. Now he is releasing his debut album with "Heart On My Sleeve" as his lead off single, which was written by British singer/songwriter, James Morrison. It's a well structured pop ballad. This song is currently available for a free download from Amazon MP3.
no sample
It’s the 25th anniversary of Prince’s Purple rain album, and the music magazine, SPIN decided to do a full tribute album featuring indie artists such as Of Montreal and Chairlift. Although the concept is great, most of the cover sounds like a cheap imitation. It’s Prince. Unless you do something drastically different, it’s tough. There were two noteworthy cover. One was by The Twilight Singers who completely changed the sound of “When Doves Cry.” But my favorite was Sharon Jones take of “Take Me With U.” It’s not the most famous Prince song on the Purple Rain album, but it’s a brilliant cover.
At the first listen you may think, "they sound just like Rage Against the Machine." Well, you are not all wrong. Street Sweeper Social Club is formed by rapper Boots Riley of the The Coup (never heard of them) and Rage Against the Machine guitarist (also lead guitarist of Audioslave), Tom Morello. Instead of social conscious lyrics of Zach de la Rocha, Boots Riley raps about partying. All the songs has killer guitar riffs thanks to Morello, but hearing these songs makes me wish that Rage Against the Machine would get back and record a new album, already.
Sounding a bit like The White Stripes, this Kentucky band found success in UK before generating some buzz in the States. They toured and opened for popular UK rock band, The Pigeon Detectives and gained audience. This single climbed the top 40 chart in the UK and was also featured as iTunes free single of the week several weeks ago.
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