League Of Pop NOMINATIONS Week 8

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I have got the poll right this time! (I think).

This week you're hunting tracks for Pop Premiership struggler katstevens and Championship title challenger skillextric. Here's what they have to say for themselves.

katstevens says: "Alright dudes! My name is actually Kat Stevens, which is a never-ending source of amusement if you work in the music industry. I like to think I have a good knowledge of music for a 25-year-old, but in reality I am more likely to have heard *about* a new track than to have actually *heard* it - unless it's been on heavy rotation on Hits!TV.

Five things I like!

- Well-produced female pop with plenty of attitude/bolsh (e.g. Bouncey, Xtina, Britters, Bonnie Tyler, Fergie, Lily, Lady Sov, Natasha Bedingfield) however I have totally gone off Le Tigre and the like so no riot-grrl please. Actually, no guitars at all, please </lex>.
- Minimal techno and electro, mostly Detroit or German (Kompakt, Bpitch, M_nus, Fabric mixes)
- Classic male vocalists with awesome voices that I want to marry, e.g. Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson, Will Young, Rick Astley YES RICK ASTLEY.
- Spooky 70s dub reggae that sounds like it has come from space through an old drainpipe (e.g. King Tubby, Upsetters) however I hate happy/plodding/80s dub reggae.
- Bosh that meets ALL the following criteria a) Pounding beats b) Bonkers things happening on several different levels c) squidgy acid noises d) Ridiculous repetition of meaningless phrases, preferably by non-English speakers.

Basically you must send me something BRILLIANTLY MENTAL or I will hate it. Ha!"

skillextric says: "Hello, I'm Will, I'm a 23-year-old, currently living in Leeds, and I edit the Singles Jukebox over at Stylus, which I think at least three or four of the people in the league currently contribute to. This necessitates me spending far more of my time than I'd really like hunting down things I don't really wanna listen to, then listening to them, then staring blankly at a wall and wondering where exactly it all went wrong. My taste in music has basically stagnated since about early-to-mid 2005, and it really pisses me off; I've kind of been stuck in this phase where I seem to find the music taste of everyone I know really, really irritating, so I just sit around listening to exactly the same things I've been listening to since 2001 and being a sulky prick.

Here's five things I like, anyhow, but please don't stick to them too much.

1) The Delgados. Pretty much over everything else.
2) The element of surprise - not in a self-conscious manner or anything, just unexpected twists and turns and so on, c.f. Shiina Ringo, 'Ringo Catalogue'; Zan Lyons, 'Suicide'.
3) Low, bassy voices that aren't being put on for effect, though even if they are that gets past me every now and then.
4) Narratives. Taylor Swift's 'Teardrops on My Guitar' might be a decent example of this, though Arab Strap's 'There Is No Ending' is even better.
5) Please don't give me any Elephant 6 stuff. For some reason, this appears to be looming in my mind as a major factor, possibly cos I'm still slightly miffed that my pick last week wound up coming in behind Apples In Stereo."

Over to you!

[Poll #967415]

Tracks to leagueofpop@gmail.com by Friday please, I will try to be a bit handier with reminders this week.

Other admin stuff: both zipfiles sent out, will post links to them later. lockedintheatti's ended up 1 track underweight. Reviews up when I get them.

Rankings - and the Koganbot Teenpop Scores - both went up on my LJ, not poptimists. I will cut and paste the rankings and the Koganbot post in the comments here.

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This Week (Last Week) Played-Won-Drew-Lost-Points

Pop Premiership

1 (5) inhibitorylinks 6-4-0-2 12
2 (4) strange_powers 6-3-3-0 12
3 (6) dubdobdee 6-3-1-2 10
4 (1) zenith 5-3-0-2 9
5 (8) alexmacpherson 5-3-0-2 9
6 (2) xyzzzz_ 5-3-0-2 9
7 (3) fugitivemotel 6-3-0-3 9
8 (7) jel_bugle 5-2-1-2 7
9 (10) bengraham 5-2-0-3 6
10 (12) katstevens 6-1-2-3 5
11 (9) braisedbywolves 6-1-1-4 4
12 (11) hauntedballroom 5-1-0-4 3

Chart Championship

1 (2) lisa_go_blind 5-4-0-1 12
2 (1) skillextric 6-4-0-2 12
3 (3) lockedintheatti 6-4-0-2 12
4 (4) koganbot 6-4-0-2 12
5 (5) blue_russian 6-3-1-2 10
6 (9) epicharmus 6-3-0-3 9
7 (7) infov0re 5-2-1-2 7
8 (6) jeff_worrell 5-2-1-2 7
9 (8) poptasticuk 5-2-0-3 6
10 (10) martinskidmore 5-1-1-3 4
11 (11) byebyepride 6-1-1-4 4
12 (12) piratemoggy 5-0-1-4 1

Koganbot Rankings - no formatting, sorry!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"here are the Ceremonial Koganbot Teen Of Pop Counterrankings as of April 15, 2007. lockedintheatti edges ahead during infov0re's bye week; martinskidmore capitalizes on belated enthusiasm for "Break-A-Way" to move into the thick of things, while hauntedballroom and byebyepride jump emphatically onto the scoreboard. Up to this week it had been much harder to score here than in the main competition, but the goalfest over in the Pop Premiership shook everything up, six out of an eligible nine contestants garnering points. (The judges called ace tunes from alexmacpherson and zenith "too familiar" and sent them off the field.) Also some strong near-misses over in the Chart Championships (I say while humming along with Apples In Stereo). The way it works is 0 points if I've heard it before, an unfair rule that has not only crippled the Lex but so far has left me scoreless; 1 point for every track that gets onto one of my Play This A Lot playlists; and 3 points for any track that gets onto a Put This On A Mixtape playlist. Songs can rise to a playlist or fall off at any time, so all songs are still in play*.

lockedintheatti 5 points (Michaela Melian, Faye Wong, Nachlader)
infov0re 4 points (Ben Watt, Trentemoller)
poptasticuk 4 points (S.H.E., Linda Sundblad)
martinskidmore 4 points (Irma Thomas, Ultraviolence)
dubdobdee 4 points (BarobaX, The Gentle People)
inhibitorylinks 4 points (Edo Maajka, Utada Hikaru)
hauntedballroom 3 points (Behorkestrar Bakija Bacik from Vranje)
braisedbywolves 3 points (Asian Dub Foundation, Xinlisupreme, Eve)
byebyepride 3 points (2 Live Crew)
fugitivemotel 2 points (Millionaire, PJ Harvey)
skillextric 2 points (Sing-Sing, Carina Round)
zenith 2 points (Goose, The Pack)
lisa_go_blind 1 point (Dawn)
alexmacpherson 1 point (Tori Amos)
bengraham 1 point (Oi Va Voi)
piratemoggy 1 point (AFI)
strange_powers 1 point (The Bags)
xyzzzz 1 point (Nick Didkovsky)
katstevens 1 point (LAX Gurlz)
jel_bugle 1 point (Blind Guardian)

(*Actually, once a song is on a mixtape then it's locked into its 3 points, lucky thing. But all other songs are still in play.)"

Re: Koganbot Rankings - no formatting, sorry!

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Am the only person not to have scored any koganbot points :( :( :(

Re: Koganbot Rankings

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

No you're not. There are three of us: you, me & epicharmus.

We're special.

Re: Koganbot Rankings

[koganbot]

I'm surprised by how many people are scoring on my chart, actually (and you'd have gotten at least one win from me if not more (I'm too lazy to check) if I were awarding points for everything that got in my weekly top five.

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

Got to keep the roll going! I love the track I've submitted for katstevens immensely, so I'm interested to see how it's received by the league as a whole... Looking at koganbot's alternative rankings reminds me how fickle this can be, but also how badly I might be doing if players didn't get the chance to know their opponents.

I suppose the fact that I've not lost (yet!) means I'm picking my fights rather well.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Yes - I've submitted a bunch of stuff previously that I fully expected Frank to have heard of but that Player X wouldn't have. It's quite a relief to have a week off actually, and rewarded by a cd full of lovely tunes to boot! (Well, I haven't listened to them yet but I shall tonight!)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Eh? You've not even got yours yet! :)

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I am over excited and want them NOW!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Haha I think you need to have 1X REST tonight young lady.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I'm EXCITED!

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

can i request someone keeps the zips for a week or so on their hard-drive as i probably won't have time to DL them before they explire?

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I will do so if yer want?

[koganbot]

That Apples In Stereo track wasn't so bad (especially in comparison to the new one, which is a godawful mess)(hope I get the time to pan it royally on the J-box, since I feel guilty for not sending you enough negative reviews).

Think that Taylor S's "Tim McGraw" tells an even more interesting story than her "Teardrops On My Guitar."

A hideous weekly cycle that LOP has brought to my life

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I found a track on my music player of choice last night which, from the name, looked really ace (TCW- Asymmetric Threats) and thought 'oho, I'll give that a listen and maybe send it this week, even though they will not have the benefit of that marvellous name' but it turned out to be a 45 minute edit of a Twenty-first Century Warfare lecture. Again. :( The lecturer does overuse the word 'cheerfully' with regard to brutal strategy, though, so it's quite pop in its way.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I have half thought from time to time about submitting a spoken word mp3 for LoP, but I keep chickening out.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

NOONE do this for me otherwise = automatic LOSE!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

We're going to be getting in a week or two to the point where the mid-table players have nothing specifically to play for, which may distort things a little!

Your best bet for a receptive spoken word audience is Epicharmus, I'd think.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I am tempted to take the boyfriend's voice recorder thing that he's meant to use in lectures to the harbour by me and record the boat mast noises, which are actually strangely musical in a 'HARDCORE PANPIPE TRANCE' sort of way on a windy day and then send it. But everyone would know it was me now, obviously.

Spoken word is a strange sort of line between music/not music, innit? I mean a lot of Nitin Sawhney walks a very fine line between spoken word and not, to my ears, were it not for the musical underlay and if the musical underlay is what makes the difference then does this mean spoken word is music or that Ultraviolence track martinskidmore sent me is spoken word on some level? Hrmm.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I've got some good spoken word tracks by Tom Waits and Lydia Lunch which I don't intend on using in the League of Pop at all.

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

My BOSH might not be your BOSH.