Seduction City Playlist

Monday, July 26, 2010

Rising from the ashes. Like a Phoenix. Reunited with its lead singer.

Why do great bands break up?

Vanity and egos, mostly. Usually the individual parts of the groups become too big for their britches and feel like they are being dragged down. So, the egos in question dump their minions to go it alone.

Sometimes it works (Michael Jackson, George Michael), sometimes it doesn't (Mick Jagger) and sometimes it's a mixed bag (Sting, David Lee Roth).

Like spurned lovers, the remaining members are left to pick up the pieces. Some soldier on with new singers (Van Halen) and some just close up shop and pursue their own projects (The Police).

File Morcheeba under the former category. After lead singer and face-of-the-band Skye cashed out to pursue the mythical "solo career" in 2005, the remaining producing/songwriting Godfrey Brothers released two albums without her to minimal notice. At least, I didn't notice. No Skye, no Morcheeba as far as I'm concerned.

They were so off the radar that I didn't even realize that they had triumphantly reunited and released a new album, "Blood Like Lemonade."

And shocker, the new album is good. Because it sounds like Morcheeba again.

This song "Self Made Man" especially caught my attention and is on the playlist this week. You can hear it in the YouTube clip below (note: not the official video).

Friday, July 23, 2010

Scooby-Doo and the case of the missing trip-hop band

Hey...there'll be a lot of new stuff hitting the Seduction City airwaves this weekend, but keeping with the theme of obscure trip hop outfits that seemingly disappear after one album (Kolida, we hardly knew ye) I added a nice little ditty today from a Philly duo called Beauty's Confusion. The song is called "Walls" and is from their solid debut titled "Breathe In" which came out in 2004.

They have since followed that up with...well, nothing as far as I can tell. Their Myspace page says that something was supposed to release in 2009 but that year came and went with nary a whisper from them. Add to that the fact that their official website is basically dead and you get the feeling that they never made it big and there is no follow-up. That said, aside from the lousy name there is a lot to like here, especially this song Walls and several others on the album. You can hear some samples below:

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Bullet-time...Every time.

So like almost everybody else, I'm a fan of the original Matrix movie that came out in '99. The sequels, not so much, but the original movie was sick. Great action, great story and of course, the great music. But that's actually not what I'm writing about here.

Of course everybody remembers the great "bullet time" sequences in which the camera roams around a scene in which everything appears to be slowed down or stopped in motion. That movie was my first glimpse at visuals like that and was a true pioneer in special effects. Or so I thought.

Turns out that the effect had already been developed and used well before then in a few movies and music videos, including the official vid for Smoke City's Underwater Love
(which is on the Seduction City playlist this week) back in 1997. Check it out, it's pretty cool:

Friday, July 9, 2010

Q: What makes it on Seduction City?

A: Only the best of the best -- the ELITE.

To wit: The Seduction City archives contain tens of thousands of songs. Of those, about 6% make it to air.

That said, recommendations from listeners have made the list. Also, SC takes requests. Let me know what you want to hear.

Broadcasting live today

Seduction City is broadcasting live from the Vault today. What that means is that there are no commercials, no repeats and every song in the library is fair game, including songs from the 1980s Miami Vice series done by Jan Hammer. I say this because there is one particular listener that has made his/her thoughts known about that "cheesy 80's keyboard stuff," but too bad for them. The beauty of broadcasting from the Vault is that you never know what kinda stuff you're gonna hear. But rest assured, it is still within the established Seduction City guidelines and who knows, there might just be something you've never heard before that sparks you.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

LMNTL feat. Angela McCluskey - I'm Not the Girl

New on the playlist this week is an oddity...a song called "I'm Not the Girl" by LMNTL with vocals by Angela McClusky. This song was actually created and used solely for a cornball Quattro for Women commercial, which you can see here:


It's got a very cool vibe to it and even though they only used the intro for the ad, a complete version was finished. As far as I know the track is not available on any particular album, but they posted it online and you can download it free and legal here. And listen for it on Seduction City this week.