Bryan Lanning - This Is Home

So I been watching this Vlog series for a couple of months now - DAILY BUMPS - with Bryan, Missy, Ollie and Karma.... a family somewhere in the U.S. (don't exactly know which state).... they share a daily video of whatever happens in their family's life of about 15 minutes each day. The videos are tightly edited that gives the viewer a snapshot of "this is what happened today". They're quite an entertaining family as you get to see what is happening on their daily grind.

For a while I had no idea what Bryan or Missy do for a living besides making video blogs.

Bryan is a musician and he recently released his debut single called "This is Home". The song is available for purchase at the usual places... iTunes, Amazon, Google. Check the video out. It's a good contemporary, family-friendly single that is radio friendly to a number of formats including AC, Country and perhaps even Contemporary Christian.

Daily Bumps YouTube Channel

Lynda Kay - I Put a Spell on You

I've liked the few Lynda Kay songs I've heard over the years. This one is a cover from 2013 - "I Put a Spell on You" first recorded by "Screamin'" Jay Hawkins back in 1956 - Kay's send up of the track makes it originally her own. Give it a listen, it's a great cover!

She's also got a new song out. "I'll Never Let You Go" streams on her site. Check it out.

Happy Halloween!

I found this cool new video from The Rosebuds. The track is called "Where the Freaks Hang Out". Good song for a one day holiday. Check it out.

Dengue Fever - Cement Slippers

Dengue Fever is coming out with a new album. This is what the cover will look like. The first single off the album is a track called "Cement Slippers". Got a great beach vibe, fuzzy guitars and saxophone. Vocals by Chhom Nimol and guitarist Zac Holtzman are great. Reminds me somewhat of the old "Rock Lobster" song from The B52's. Give it a listen.

The new album Cannibal Courtship is coming out in April.

More Dengue Fever

Dengue Fever Official Website
Cannibal Courtship Preview
I Caught Dengue Fever (Oct. 30, 2010)

I Caught Dengue Fever

I've become a fan of Dengue Fever. They are another indie band that has been around for years. I was recebtly made aware of them a few months ago, although I may have listened to a song or two some years back too. Thanks to my friend Daniel, he turned me on to their music and today I own 3 of their albums and enjoy nearly all of their songs.

The thing that make Dengue Fever quite unique is the fact that this high powered indie rock outfit pays homage 1960s style Cambodian Psychedelic Rock, complete with female Cambodian singer Chhom Nimol singing most of the songs in her native Khmer language. The other members of the band are all from California - Zac Holtzman also on vocals and guitar, his brother Ethan Holtzman "farfisa" organ/keyboards, Senon Williams on bass, David Ralicke on saxophone/brass and drummer Paul Smith.

According to their Facebook biography, Dengue Fever was started by brothers Ethan and Zac Holtzman in 2001 "when they discovered they shared a love for the Cambodian pop music of the 60s. After adding sax man David Ralicke, drummer Paul Smith and bassist Senon Williams, they went looking for a Cambodian singer. Enter Chhom Nimol, who performed regularly for the King and Queen of Cambodia . Her powerful singing, marked by a luminous vibrato that adds exotic ornamentations to her vocal lines, and hypnotic stage moves based on traditional dances, complimented the band's driving Cambodian/American sound."

I was lucky enough to catch them at a free concert held in Honolulu on the night before Halloween (see photo slide show above). Like most bands in the alternative rock genre, Dengue Fever sounded way better live than they do on their records. They have a lot of energy with Chhom the mesmerizing center-point of their show. Any guy could fall in love with her! She's great on vocals and to me has a gracious way of connecting with her audience, not to mention that she can also ROCK.

I hardly make it many live concerts, but for 2010, Dengue Fever probably tops the list of favorite live performances that I have seen.

Find out about Dengue Fever by watching the video and listening to the audio tracks below.



Dengue Fever - Tiger Phone Card (live in studio)



Dengue Fever - Seeing Hands (music video)



Dengue Fever - A Go Go (live at UC Davis)

Chhom Nimol - Dontrey Besdoang (live, 9-2009)

The Volebeats

I hate it when I find new music that I know I will like by a band I never heard of only to learn that they have been around for months, or in this case years. The Volebeats are such a band. They hail from Detroit, Michigan and have apparently been making a blend of alternative country rock music since at least the late 1980s.

I found them today after Amazon.com offered one of the tracks from their latest album, "The Volebeats" as a free download. I love the new song "Me and You". I will probably get their new album soon if I can find a reasonably priced CD. If not, then opt for the MP3s.

Meanwhile I searched some of the music websites and found selections from previous albums on GrooveShark which I promptly put together in the play list featured below. There are 8 songs. I also went to YouTube and did find a couple of videos there. One of those videos is embedded above.

So far the song that has grown on me the fastest is "In the Garden".

One thing for sure, this band has certainly been under the radar. They barely have a MySpace presence, just started a Facebook page and have no Wikipedia entry at all. This and being together "off and on" for more than 10, maybe 20 years. Wow.

From Bloodshot Records, the label describes The Volebeats:

"As much myth as institution in the Motor City, The Voles have been around since the late 80's and, like their namesake, are hard to track down, disappear for long periods of time, and remain totally loveable.

Sure, they've got the twang, but they infuse it with some serious Brian Wilson lushness and pop smarts. With Jeff Oakes' lazy, forlorn vocals and guitarist/vocalist Matt Smith's (Outrageous Cherry) bountiful knowledge and love of all good music as the constants (virtually everyone in Detroit has been a Volebeat at one time or another), The Volebeats managed to elude widespread success despite writing and performing some the of most supple and catchy music since Pet Sounds."

Fitz & the Tantrums

Just recently found Fitz & the Tantrums online at myspace.com and at The SixtyOne. This is another retro sounding 60s type band that blends elements of Motown soul with a touch of pop and alt rock. Their debut release is Songs For a Breakup Vol. 1 and features 5 tracks including "Breakin' the Chains of Love" and "We Don't Need No Love Songs".

My favorite is not on the album. It's called "L.O.V. (Live)". Gotta love that organ in this. Listen to the song and watch the videos below.

Mel's Weekly Top 20 & More

Mel's Weekly Top 20
Week of January 24, 2010.

TW Title - Artist - LW

1. Need You Now (4th week @ #1!) - Lady Antebellum - 1
2. Cowboy Casanova - Carrie Underwood - 2
3. Two Is Better Than One -
Boys Like Girls featuring Taylor Swift - 7
4. Bad Romance - Lady GaGa - 3
5. Chasing Pirates - Norah Jones - 5
6. I Heard of a Girl - Miss Li - 4
7. Meet Me Halfway - Black Eyed Peas - 6
8. It's Your Life - Francesca Battistelli - 9
9. The Sweetest Thing - Camera Obscura - 8
10. If You Only Knew - Shinedown - 13
11. Breakeven - The Script - 14
12. Hard (featuring Young Jeezy) - Rihanna - 19
13. White Liar - Miranda Lambert - 15
14. We The People - Ray Stevens - 16
15. Last Dance - The Raveonettes - 10
16. Russian Roulette - Rihanna - 11
17. Fireflies - Owl City - 12
18. Hey, Soul Sister - Train - new
19. Telephone - Lady GaGa Feat. Beyoncé - new
20. You and Me - Dave Matthews Band - new

CHART NOTES:

Lady Antebellum leads the charts again as "Need You Now" holds the #1 spot for a 4th consecutive week. Carrie Underwood's "Cowboy Casanova" still holds strong at #2 for another week while Boys Like Girls with Taylor Swift moves up four from #7 to #3 with "Two is Better Than One." Further down the chart we see more movement with Shinedown, The Script and Rihanna making gains. Three debut songs include "Hey, Soul Sister" from Train at #18, "Telephone" by Lady GaGa and Beyonce at #19, and the Dave Matthews Band at #20 with "You and Me."

WITHER THE SIXTYONE.COM

I am saddened to learn that with TheSixtyOne.com's new makeover that all of their embed files of independent, user chosen music published on external websites such as this blog, have all disappeared as of last week. The new makeover that the publishers gave to the place made it look like one giant iPod Touch with a user interface that is difficult to navigate, breaks many of the social aspects of the sites, and even links/comments to and from artist and fan pages. All of our favorites have apparently disappeared from site too which impacted the embed files placed on this blog.

As a result I probably will not be using TheSixtyOne.com very often even though I will keep my current membership and password there. The new site design is a low blow to finding, appreciating and most importantly saving, creating and publishing new and independent artist music and playlists that over the past 2 years contributed to the songs I listened to on my iPod and posted to my charts.

I'll continue to listen to, download and buy indie music that I like but probably not preview them through this TheSixtyOne.com until the U.I. is made more user friendly.

MEL'S TOP 10 OLDIES
As posted to Plannine's Classic Top 20 Page
January 22, 2010

1. Hi Hi Hi - Paul McCartney & Wings
2. Wrack My Brain - Ringo Starr
3. Give Up Your Guns - The Buoys
4. If Not For You - Olivia Newton John
5. Take A Litle Rhythm - Ali Thompson
6. I Only Want To Be With You - The Tourists
7. 1984 - Spirit
8. Take This Job & Shove It - Johnny Paycheck
9. Ahab The Arab - Ray Stevens
10. Rock the Casbah - The Clash

New Music of Note

The following embedded tracks and videos are some of the new and current music that I am listening to this week.

MISS LI - I Heard of a Girl - A bittersweet tune of an outcast girl.



MISS LI - Oh Boy - from a few years ago, a song that looks like fun.



From THE SIXTY-ONE Music site, the following tracks have been recently favorited:

The Agency: "Bumpers"



AM "The Other Side" - went to #2 on Mel's Weekly Top 20
Buy AM's album Future Sons & Daughters - one of my favorite albums of 2009.



Lovers & Poets - " I Keep Falling" featuring Shannon Hurley
I think they have an album upcoming in 2010.



Shannon Hurley - Beg Steal Borrow - great new track... love it!



Tiffany Desrosiers - Alone




Asteroids Galaxy Tour - The Golden Age - burning up my chart at #3 this week.



Caitlin Hart - Seven Minutes



Listen to more indie songs by selecting the Digital 45 player to the right. Be sure to listen to the full length albums posted on the right hand column.

Discovering New Music & Artists @ TheSixtyOne.com

Over the past 18 months I have discovered a lot of new music and artists, many of them obscure and relatively unknown at TheSixtyOne.com music sharing website. Nearly all the songs and artists there are independents. Many genres are featured and a lot of it is crap. However there are many good songs and artists which I have "favorited" and featured on TheSixtyOne.com website as well as on this blog and my music site.

There are a small handful of mainstream established artists there ranging from golden oldies such as The Kinks and Gary Numan to current bands such as The Shins and The Ting Tings.

That all said, I have come to like several of the previously unknown artists and their songs a lot.

My most recent song and artist discovery is a musician from California by way of Oklahoma and Lousiana who goes by the name "AM". From his bio at TheSixtyOne.com, it states:

"Is this the new classic rock? Echo Park indie artist AM brings a heady brew of twinkling Anglified folk-rock-pop to his new album “Future Sons & Daughters” being released on Filter US Recordings (Fontana/ Universal Distribution) exclusively on iTunes on August 11th, 2009. AM does all this with an acute, finessing ear for the ancient art of real, true songcraft. With, arguably, some of the best bridges and choruses in the bizness, drawing from the Beatles and Badfinger or Curtis Mayfield and Jorge Ben, AM demonstrates over and again the simple fact of songwriting life: that imagination and taste is what it's all about. If you watch the tele maybe you've heard AM's tunes on HBO's "Big Love" MTV "The Hills", ABC's "Brothers and Sisters"."

Most notoriously, AM probably prides himself on the fact that his professional name is hard to find on major search engines such as Google and even on TheSixtyOne.com site itself.

That I believe.

AM has dozens of songs posted at TheSixtyOne.com website. He must have been there for quite some time. However in the last 18 months since I been on the service, his name or music has never shown up until last night. I'm probably not listening to the music at the site often enough or whenever I listened to The Rack, his music never came up. Until yesterday when I clicked on the "new music" tab to see just what was recently added.

It was then that I found my first AM track and possibly my favorite song of his so far, "Self Preservation." It is a wonderful pop rock track with good vocals, lyrics and guitar work. It's off AM's new album Future Sons & Daughters which is slated for an August 11 release on iTunes only. If the album is reasonably priced, I'll probably get it. The six tracks I heard from the album are all outstanding.

I hope that the album will also be available on Amazon.com. I'd like to get it on a standard CD if possible. AM's earlier albums are available on Amazon.

AM is the latest SixtyOne.com find that I like and will place into high rotation on my iTunes as soon as I get the music. He joins other artists from TheSixtyOne.com that I think are extremely good and should be getting mainstream exposure and airplay on more venues. Those artists include Meiko, Shannon Hurley, The NuRu and Darrin Kohavi. All have music that I enjoy and tracks that have been previously featured at this blog and on my website.

For all to enjoy now, here are some of my favorite tracks from AM:

Shiny Toy Guns on top with Major Tom

Shiny Toy Guns tops Mel's Weekly Top 20 with "Major Tom", a good remake of Peter Schilling 's 1980s era hit. This is the song that has been featured in a Lincoln-Mercury MKS ad (see video clip two posts below). Shiny Toy Guns have been around since at least 2002 and have issued two albums. Samples of their music can be heard at The Sixty-One.com and also on their website.

Here are this week's most popular singles as played on my iTunes and iPods.

MEL'S WEEKLY TOP | May 31, 2009

This Week Song Title Artist Last Week

1. Major Tom - Shiny Toy Guns - 2
2. Know Your Enemy - Green Day - 1
3. California - Shannon Hurley - 3
4. I'm Not Over - Carolina Liar - 4
5. Halo - Beyonce - 6
6. 1, 2, 3, 4 - Plain White T's - 8
7. Show Me What I'm Looking for - Carolina Liar - 7
8. 99 Times - Kate Voegele - 9
9. Poker Face - Lady GaGa - 5
10. I'm Just Here for the Music - Paula Abdul - 11
11. Focus - Cyndi Harvell - 12
12. What's So Bad (About Feeling Good)? - Ben Lee - 13
13. Lucky - Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat - 14
14. Two Hands - Jars of Clay - 15
15. People Got a Lotta Nerve - Neko Case - 10
16. The Great Defector - Bell X1 - 18
17. Free To Be Me - Francesca Battistelli - 19
18. Failure - Operation Aloha - 20
19. Ain't No Rest for the Wicked - Cage the Elephant - new
20. I Just Want You Around - Anuhea - new

TOP 10 OLDIES | June 4, 2009
As submitted to Plannine's Classic Top 30

1. Revolution - The Beatles
2. The Story in Your Eyes - The Moody Blues
3. Jennifer Eccles - The Hollies
4. Arms of Mary - Sutherland Brothers & Quiver
5. Sad Sweetdreamer - Sweet Sensation
6. Don't Ever Leave Me - Connie Francis
7. Pretty Lady - Lighthouse
8. Too Much Time on My Hands - Styx
9. Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep - Middle of the Road
10. Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin

For your listening pleasure I'm tossing in the following tracks from TheSixty-One.com. Enjoy!

Four Tracks

Here are four new tracks that I added to my favorites at TheSixty-One.com.

Playing on The Sixty-One

The Sixty-One is a fairly popular new music website where many unsigned artists publish independent music for people to listen to and vote on. Every song posted to the site is a full length version. All genres are available at The Sixty-One including rock, pop, alternative, jazz, hip-hop, classical, instrumental, country and more.

While there are some very well known songs and artists on The Sixty-One website, most of them are people and groups that you never heard of. Some are very good, others are not. If you are adventurous and want to listen to fresh new music, this is the place to be. Some of my favorite undiscovered artists at the Sixty-One site include The NuRu, Meiko, Chairlift, Joe Sibol, Tegan & Sara, Rebecca Ann and The Nobodies to name a few.

Lastly songs that you discover, listen to, favorite and share are compiled into a point system that are part of a "game" that I really don't keep up with. Some people like the game aspect of The Sixty-One where the only aspect of the game is to pile up points and achieve certain levels of coolness and possibly respect among your peers at the site. I don't go to the site often enough to make my measly collection of points matter.

Besides listening to free streaming music, the features that I like about the Sixty-One are free downloads of some tracks. links to Amazon.com to purchase other tracks, favorite lists and the ability to share tracks on other websites and blogs. I have my own page at The Sixty-One.com as well as a Sixty-One Jukebox page at my music charts page. There is also a Hawaii Ning site where people can go to discuss The Sixty-One and share tracks there too.

Here are a few tracks that you can listen to right now by clicking on the song links below:











I will be featuring more songs on this blog from The Sixty-One.com in the weeks and months ahead. Stop by my Sixty-One page and jukebox to listen to more music.