My Heart Can’t Rest Till Then

Miley Cyrus' 'See You Again' has been one of my favourite songs over the last 6 months, and has to be one of those pop songs to go into the annals as a classic. Now LA punk disco band have covered it in their own psychadelic way. There's no live lounge irony here, it's just full on fun with swirling synths, banging drums and Muse-esque roaming chords; and it makes me very happy because I now have a version I can play at Popstarz.

Download it here.

Whedon Whedon Whedon

I bemoaned to my spiritual tv buddy Abby the other day that I was out of things to watch. My new loves of the fabulous Gossip Girl and the fantastical Pushing Daisies (neither of which the UK really seemed to 'get') will return in the Autumn and after next week I'm looking at a pretty Doctor Who / Torchwood lite time until 2010.

In the meantime I'm amusing myself with this:



Yup it's How Do You Solve A Problem like Maria (in Canada!). Loser!

Tonight though I'm enthused about what's coming because the brilliant Sizemore has posted the trailers for not one, but two new Joss Whedon projects, including the forthcoming Dollhouse. It'll be joining American schedules mid season in January and stars Buffyverse alumni Amy Acker and Eliza Dushku. Mike's got it covered so go see him. In the meantime I guess I should use the time to finally watch Firefly.

Cherry Chap Sticks

You might have heard about Coldplay getting the transatlantic double by scoring #1 in both America and the UK with 'Vida La Vida' last week. A cool feat but their success may be shortlived all thanks to a girl called Katy Perry.

Katy went to #1 in America this week and has been causing a storm in the states with her 2nd single 'I Kissed A Girl'. She's 23 and as seems to happen quite a lot with America stars, has transformed from a sweet, polite Christian gospel singer into a right little madam!

The song is written by UK pop goddess Cathy Dennis and American producer Dr Luke who's the man behind Sugababes 'About You Now', Kelly Clarkson's 'Since U Been Gone' and P!nk's 'U + Ur Hand' to name but a few. Basically if you hear anything big and bouncy with a powerful female singer, he's more often than not behind it.

I heard the song a month or two back but couldn't really decide what I thought of it. It's sure as hell a trashy grower, but deep down I think it's just ok, nothing mindblowing. I think it would have been much funnier had Miley Cyrus sung it in any case. Ooh imagine the controversy.

Now we've started playing it at Capital so it's no doubt going to explode over here also.

Check out the video:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=L-fAWmszxBE[/youtube]

Via Katy, my friend Ben introduced me to Jill Sobule who had a minor hit with a song of the same name in 1995. It was featured in Clueless but I've never heard it before. The video is cute, and it's a fun song from a girl Whigfield obviously took style inspirations from!

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=zpI7znS8Fuc[/youtube]

Pot Kettle Black!

Various people have mentioned Tilly & The Wall to me over the years, but I've never payed much attention other than to the fact that apparently they tap dance on stage. Now they're releasing their 3rd album nicknamed 'O' and I can't get enough of lead single 'Pot Kettle Black'. It's shouty, devastatingly catchy and makes me want to stomp the floor. Plus check the cute video:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=E7HjBr_QMXI[/youtube]

The Curse Returns

It's a year since Rihanna went to #1 with 'Umbrella' and on Sunday she scored her 2nd #1 with 'Take A Bow'.

Let's look at the weather forecast for the rest of the week:

Abracadabra

I really like new Island signing Leon Jean Marie. He's from South Woodford and has been knocking about in the right circles for a couple of years. His last single, the Mark Ronson produced, Bed of Nails had a spooky Madness feel to it, that once it clicked hooked into your head for ages. As a buzz single it didn't really do much but he's plowing ahead with single #2, Bring It On and I really hope it does well, although i'm not entirely confident. I met him a couple of months ago for an interview which you can read here and here and I'm pleased to report he was really lovely and we had a good chat about working with Bloodshy & Avant in Sweden!

Here's the video for 'Bring It On'. It's got a similarly 80s feel and I couldn't quite figure out what it sounded like until it was pointed out as being pretty much exactly the same as Steve Miller Band's 1982 #2 Abracadabra (what a tune!). I hope it's referenced as being an 'interpolation' or what not as it's blatant! Compare the two, and laugh at the 80s spook of the 'Abracadabra' video.

La Chart

As much as I personally like The Ting Tings, I never in a billion years thought they would have much mainstream success, but it seems this Sunday I may have to eat my words very very largely when they chart at a very high position. I'm still not entirely convinced by them - I love the songs but when I saw them live in January they were quite ropey. That probably doesn't matter to all the people who find them irresistible to jump up and down to in a club and I certainly have enjoyed playing them for the last year or so.

But, what the hell is going on with the chart? It's gone from being irrelevant and a bit rubbish to being completely amazing in the last 12 months. Downloads revolutionized it but it seems they also made people into better music? I think it all started when Robyn went to #1 - an artist bloggers had been banging on about for ages was suddenly adored by the mainstream. Forgetting Eva Cassidy and Leon Jackson, have there been any bad number ones in recent times? They've only been 4 all this year and we're in mid May! Basshunter deserved it for proving no radio play still creates an amazing buzz on a dance record (if you've not checked out Boten Anna you need to!), Duffy might be annoying now but it gave me the 'must listen to 20 times in a row and scream about this' feeling on first listen, Estelle nailed it and finally got the success she deserved and Madonna created a brilliant dancefloor record.

So what else is going to be #1 this year? Fingers crossed on Sara Barielles, Late of the Pier, Lykke Li and Jordin Sparks w/ Chris Brown. Two of those are extremely likely and two of them are could bes depending how things take off.