Who Goes Out On Mondays? (Mid Year Singles, 2014 [and a couple albums])

[koganbot]

Even with S. Korea having canceled spring on account of the ferry disaster (as Subdee says), I'm woefully behind on K-pop, and my listening elsewhere has been too random and intermittent even to be called scattershot. But anyway, int'l dance cheese goes strong at its most opportunist (Chainsmokers, Orange Caramel, Badkiz [the "Party Rock Anthem" influence still potent in Seoul], PungDeng-E, Arcade Fire, Mia Martina), whereas the boring int'l amalgamated danceR&Bglaze&crud that's been weighing down charts worldwide since 2009 somehow manages to sound touching in the hands of a Shakira and a Rihanna who've had all their distinctive characteristics removed. Danity Kane go retro, referencing Teena Marie; equally retro Dal★shabet, who still can't sing for shit, nonetheless find themselves immersed in great freestyle riffs. Ole punk manages not to be dead in the hands of poignantly desperate and angry Kate Nash and Courtney Love. T-ara, Jiyeon, and Puer Kim veer smoove and After School master smoove. Few boys' mouths, as is usual on my lists these days; fewer still who sing. And as the biz still invests almost nothing in us oldsters, funky fresh young Crayon Pop represent on our behalf.

SINGLES:

1. Wa$$up "Jingle Bell"
2. The Chainsmokers "#Selfie"
3. BiS "STUPiG"
4. Kate Nash "Sister"
5. Courtney Love "Wedding Day"

Watch on YouTube

6. Orange Caramel "So Sorry"
7. Tinashe ft. Schoolboy Q "2 On"
8. Nicki Minaj "Lookin' Ass Nigga"
9. Crayon Pop "Uh-ee"
10. After School "Shh"
11. Future ft. Pharrell, Pusha T & Casino "Move That Dope"

Watch on YouTube

12. Shakira ft. Rihanna "Can't Remember To Forget You"
13. Puer Kim "Manyo Maash"
14. Danity Kane "Bye Baby"
15. T-ara "First Love"
16. Badkiz "Ear Attack"
17. PungDeng-E "잘탕 (잘 시간이 어딨어)"

Watch on YouTube

18. Dal★shabet "B.B.B (Big Baby Baby)"
19. Arcade Fire "We Exist"
20. Shakira "Empire"
21. Bass Drum Of Death "Black Don't Glow"
22. Neon Jungle "Braveheart"
23. Lady Gaga "G.U.Y."
24. Mia Martina ft. Dev "Danse"

Watch on YouTube

25. Jiyeon "Never Ever"
26. SNSD "Mr.Mr."
27. Louie ft. Boy Wonder "Twilight"
28. Low Pros ft. Young Thug & PeeWee Longway "Jack Tripper"
29. After School "Rock It"
30. Kach "Tension"
31. T-ara "LA'booN"
32. Brantley Gilbert "Bottoms Up"
33. Rascal Flatts "Rewind"

ALBUMS

1. After School Dress To Kill [Avex Trax]
2. Kali Mutsa Souvenance [Shock Music]

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Comments

Chuck's Singles-So-Far List, As Posted On Facebook Last Week

[(Anonymous)]

My 70 Favorite Singles, First Half of 2014
June 26, 2014 at 8:49am

Dev feat. Sage The Gemini – Kiss It
Mia Martina feat. Dev – Danse
Calibre 50 – El Inmigrante
Xavie Shorts – Get Enough
Brantley Gilbert – Bottoms Up
Kindred The Family Soul – Everybody’s Hustlin’
Spiders – Mad Dog
Jamie O’Neal – Wide Awake
Javiera Mena – La Joya
Sunny Sweeney – Bad Girl Phase
Tensnake feat. Nile Rodgers and Fiona – Love Sublime
LGB – Country Woman
Pat Brown – I’m Taking Out The Trash
El Kommander – Soy De Rancho
Wendell B. – Celebrate Cho Day
Klass Band Brotherhood – My Angel
The Pretty Reckless – Heaven Knows
Toni Braxton and Babyface – Roller Coaster
Edguy – Love Tyger
DJ Snake and Lil Jon – Turn Down For What
Sweet Apple – Boys In Her Fan Club
Busy Signal – Done Wid Di War
Kacey Musgraves – The Trailer Song
The Shrine – Nothing Forever
De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig – De Toneelacadamie
Big Jay Cummings – Can We Ever Go Home Again
El Dasa – Por Ser Bonita
Jr. Blu – She’s Been Good
Phyno – Parcel (A Big Nwa)
Raw Shaw – The End Of The Rainbow
Schoolboy Q – Man Of The Year
The-Dream – Black
Rascal Flatts – Rewind
Wa$$up – Jingle Bell
Bob Baldwin – Ain’t Nobody Got Time For Dat
Scorpion Child – Kings Highway
Tamar Braxton – All The Way Home
Riff Raff – How To Be The Man
Klingande – Jubel
Future – Move That Dope
Kate Nash – Sister
Avril Lavigne – Hello Kitty
TK Soul – Caught Up In Doing Wrong
Eli Young Band – Dust
Bigelf – Control Freak
Black Zack feat. the Force MDs – Row Row
Bob Baldwin – Welcome To Planet Funky Onion
Lenny Williams – Didn’t I
Sturgill Simpson – Turtles All The Way Down
Crayon Pop – Uh-ee
George Tandy Jr. – March
Vybz Kartel – Addi Truth
Bella Thorne – Call It Whatever
Hebe Tien – Learning From Drunk
Stevie J – I Know That I Love Her
Pitbull feat. Ke$ha – Timber
Stevie J – Miss Apple Cheeks
Y.G. feat. Drake – Who Do You Love?
Slow Club – Complete Surrender
Avail Hollywood – Rehab Ain’t Working
Keiko Mastsui – A Night With Cha Cha
Grand Magus – Triumph and Power
K. Michelle – Can’t Raise A Man
St. Vincent – Digital Witness
Black Lips – Boys In The Wood
We Are Toonz – Drop That # NaeNae
Big Freedia - Explode
Ledisi – The Truth
Tinashe – 2 On
Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison – Motor City Man

Chuck's Album's-So-Far-List, posted a couple days later

[(Anonymous)]

Not sure why the numbers aren't copying, but these lists are both in descending order. (On the albums list, I'd probably now move Daddy Long Legs down a couple spaces, and Kix up a couple spaces.)

My 30 Favorite Albums, First Half of 2014
June 27, 2014 at 6:45am

Miranda Lambert – Platinum (RCA Nashville)
(Various) – Death To Trad Rock (Cherry Red ’13)*
X__X – X Sticky Fingers X (Ektro)*
Black Space Riders – D:REI (BSR/Cargo)
Edguy – Space Police: Defenders Of The Crown (Nuclear Blast digibook edition)
A Pony Named Olga – The Land Of Milk And Pony (Saustex)
Golem – Tanz (Corason)
Willie Nelson – Band Of Brothers (Legacy)
Duck Sauce – Quack (Fool’s Gold)
Archie Shepp – Attica Blues Orchestra Live: I Hear The Sound (ArchieBall/Harmonia Mundi)
Daddy Long Legs – Blood From A Stone (Norton)
The Pretty Reckless – Going To Hell (Razor & Tie)
Grand Magus – Triumph And Power (Nuclear Blast)
(Various) – Warfaring Strangers: Darkscorch Canticles (Numero Group)*
Nazareth – Rock ‘N’ Roll Telephone (Conveyor)
Mekong Delta – In A Mirror Darkly (Steamhammer)
Battleroar – Blood Of Legends (Cruz Del Sur)
The Shrine – Bless Off (Tee Pee)
Bigelf – Into The Maelstrom (Inside Out Music)
Dark Forest – The Awakening (Cruz Del Sur)
Supermassive Black Holes - Calculations Of The Ancients (Minotauro)
Lily Allen- Sheezus (Parlophone)
Nigromante – Black Magic Night (Shadow Kingdom)
Kix – Rock Your Face Off (Loud & Proud)
Dinner Music For The Gods – Beautiful And Treacherous (DMFTG)
Hirax – Immortal Legacy (Steamhammer)
Ogre – The Last Neanderthal (Minotauro)
(Various) – Saustex Variations (Saustex)
Frankie Ballard – Sunshine & Whiskey (Warner Bros.)
Y.G. – My Krazy Life (Def Jam)


* -- Non-new recordings, so maybe these shouldn't count.

Re: Chuck's Album's-So-Far-List, posted a couple days later

[(Anonymous)]

("A couple days" actually = "One day," obviously.)

Re: Chuck's Album's-So-Far-List, posted a couple days later

[koganbot]

Had no idea there was an X___X comp. Not at my home computer so don't have my bookmarks; otherwise I'd look to see if Andrew Klimek blogged about it. [UPDATE: Found one of his blogs, but he hasn't updated it since 2011. He tweets occasionally, but no X__X content so far.]

I'll look for the Kix; glad you like it (was wondering if they'd be viable without Donnie Purnell).

I've got two and a half eardrums in the can, waiting for liner notes and then for me to journey post-office-ward, though by now you'll have heard most of what's on 'em.

Re: Chuck's Album's-So-Far-List, posted a couple days later

[(Anonymous)]

Well,I do like the Kix album, but this is what I posted on fb about it: "I wish Kix were higher on this list. It's clearly their worst studio album, and I'm hesitant to recommend it to anybody who's not as obsessed with them as I am. Donnie Purnell's songwriting is hugely missed -- The lyrics are incredibly, sometimes embarrassingly, dumb: Single entendres instead of double entendres, everywhere. But the band still *sounds* great. So who knows, maybe it will grow on me..." (And it has, a little, partly because the lyrics aren't all dumb. But they've never made a studio album that I would've ranked this low before.)

Re: Chuck's Album's-So-Far-List, posted a couple days later

[(Anonymous)]

Also, for whatever it's worth, the lost of Purnell does not seem to have noticeably hurt their sense of rhythm. Which it could have.

Re: Chuck's Album's-So-Far-List, posted a couple days later

[(Anonymous)]

"...LOSS of Purnell...."

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Shades of the Austral-Romanian empire or maybe just Ga-In's tango flirt

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[koganbot]

This is very good. And indeed, the shimmer that decorates her verses sounds similar to the flourish in "Tu Es Foutu," though the main beat here keeps the "Tu Es Foutu"–like squiggle from dominating enough to genuinely put this on my Austral-Romanian continuum.

Is still hard to come up with an explanation for why I think some squiggles get you on the continuum and others don't: I'd say for now it's that "Tu Es Foutu" and "We No Speak Americano" build themselves around the squiggle, whereas in "Goodbye My Love" the squiggle is more decorative than defining.

There's a similar example from the Romanian side, "Tu" by Oanu Radu & Dr. Mako featuring Eli. Radu's skitter-scat is wonderful and would get us on the continuum except that the arrangement goes reggae rather than clip-cloppity, so loses the particular feel. (Also makes the track vastly more mundane than if the skitter-scat had had a clip-cloppity to dance with à la Delia's "D-D-Down," which by the way I'm about to embed questioningly on my bohemia-from-nowhere-near-bohemia thread.)

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(Meanwhile in actual Australia, Yolanda Be Cool seem to be going out of their way to no longer resemble "We No Speak Americano," e.g., their very housey "Cause I Like It," though their Mayra Veronica mashup goes the other direction, pushing the "No Speak Americano" freneticism to ever more frantic levels, almost feeling punk.)

[askbask.livejournal.com]

That's pretty good, I should get up to date on the summer's Romanian pop

[koganbot]

I meant Celia's (not "Delia's") "D-D-Down."

D comeback of Z creature of the night

[davidfrazer.livejournal.com]

Only a year and two months after her debut, Z.Hera has released a comeback teaser that looks like the trailer for some kind of fantasy romance surf movie epic...

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P.S. Z.Hera has also appeared in a BuzzFeed video. She's the one with green hair, except when she isn't.

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Re: D comeback of Z creature of the night

[koganbot]

Can't tell if the first is just an mv the evokes a story, or is an actual story vid. Can't tell if the second is scripted or if it's a reality show.

Re: D comeback of Z creature of the night

[davidfrazer.livejournal.com]

The BuzzFeed video is scripted. There are credits in the description:

Cast:
LEIGH (Big Sister) -- Grace Su
ESTHER (Middle Sister) -- Hannah Jun
WINNIE (Little Sister) -- Z.Hera
YOUNG LEIGH -- Evelyn Warner
YOUNG ESTHER -- Kyla Kikkawa
YOUNG WINNIE -- Kadyn Ito
MOM -- Barbara Woo
DAD -- Stephen Woo

Special Thanks To:
Z.Hera's Team
On location in Seoul, South Korea