Indie Icon Juliana Hatfield Works For Hire

Influential indie rock chick Juliana Hatfield is writing songs for you - for $1,000.  She is allowing 20 people to pay the $1,000 as that would give her the time to finish the songs.  She is also giving one song away to anyone that enters their name in the lottery.  To enter, simply email her at yeolderecords@earthlink.net and put "free lottery ticket" in the subject line (I entered and she sent me a nice email back).

For those of you who might not know her, she emerged in the early 90's with other female indie rockers like PJ Harvey, the Deal sisters (The Breeders, Pixies), Tanya Donelly (Throwing Muses, Belly), Liz Phair and Lisa Loeb.



Juliana formed the Juliana Hatfield Three and released the song My Sister (video can be seen above).  This song propelled Juliana in the national spotlight by hitting #1 on the Modern Rock Charts.  She also had another singled called Spin The Bottle which was in the Ben Stiller directed movie Reality Bites.

Check out Juliana's website here for complete song purchasing and free contest rules.

Top 15 Worldwide Albums of All-Time

 
I just randomly found this list and I thought I would post it.  Here are the Top 15 Worldwide Albums of All-Time (according to sales):

1.  Michael Jackson   Thriller (1982) - 110 million albums sold

2.  AC/DC  Back In Black (1980) - 49 million

3.  Pink Floyd  The Dark Side Of The Moon (1973) - 45 million  (This album has been on the Billboard Top 200 Albums for 761 weeks (14.6 years) - it sits at #193 on this week's chart behind the Alice In Wonderland Soundtrack.)

4.  Whitney Houston/Various Artists  The Bodyguard Soundtrack (1992) - 44 million

5.  Meat Loaf  Bat Out Of Hell (1977) - 43 million

6.  Eagles  Greatest Hits (1976) - 42 million

7.  Various Artists  Dirty Dancing Soundtrack (1987) - 42 million

8.  Backstreet Boys  Millennium (1999) - 40 million

9.  Bee Gees  Saturday Night Fever (1977) - 40 million

10.  Fleetwood Mac  Rumours (1977) - 40 million

11.  Shania Twain  Come On Over (1997) - 39 million

12.  Led Zeppelin  Led Zeppelin IV (1971) - 37 million

13.  Alanis Morissette  Jagged Little Pill (1995) - 33 million

14.  The Beatles  Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) - 32 million

15.  Celine Dion  Falling Into You (1996) - 32 million

Any surprises?

Source:  Wikipedia

"I Swear We Fell In Love But Not The First Time"

The title of this post comes from the third single from Silversun Pickups album Swoon called The Royal We (watch the new video above).  The song is already at #12 on the Alt Rock Singles chart.  The first single Panic Switch hit #1 and the second single Substitution peaked at #17 (source:  Wikipedia.org).

I picked The Royal We as one of my Top 5 Weekly Songs on August 9th, 2009, right here on Bandology.net.  Never thought it would take this long for it to become a single!

Swoon was a Grammy-nominated album in 2010 and has sold close to 250,000 copies.  Swoon peaked at #7 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart.

A funny and true Twitter post today from one of the SSPU members is, "Woke up too early again. Still can't adjust from tour bus sleeping. I'm this close to buying a rocking crib."  Oddly enough, anyone that has slept in a tour bus bunk will tell you it's rather comforting sleeping while you're jostling and bouncing around.  It's hard to sleep off tour.

SSPU announced dates for the first leg of their U.S. tour with Against Me!.

Silversun Pickups - New Music - More Music Videos

10 Best $5 Albums on Amazon.com for May 2010

You can purchase all the albums below for only $5 on Amazon.com through May 2010:

1.  She & Him - Volume 2

2.  30 Seconds To Mars - This Is War 

3.  Spoon - Kill The Moonlight

4.  Poison - Best Of - In honor of Bret Michaels!

5.  Straylight Run - The Needle The Space

6.  The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America

7.  The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis

8.  Minus The Bear - Menos El Oso

9.  Converge - Axe To Fall

10.  Alkaline Trio - Remains

Top 10 Worst Platinum Albums of All Time

Spike.com released their Top 10 Worst Platinum Albums of All Time.  Here are the results:

1.  Billy Ray Cyrus   Some Gave All  (20 million copies sold) - I have a feeling his daughter Miley could make this list in the near future.

2.  Baha Men  Who Let The Dawgs Out  (1.7 million) - I'm sure there were worse one-hit wonders, right?

3.  Joey Lawrence  Joey Lawrence  (2 million) - Whoaaaaa....I had no clue he sold this many albums.  Being a teenage heartthrob was the only reason.

4.  Ashlee Simpson  Autobiography  (5 million) - Not bad since this was pre-Pete Wentz.

5.  Limp Bizkit  Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water  (12 million) - Should also be on the Top 10 list for the worse album titles.  This band gave husky, balding frat boys confidence and a new fashion statement - a backwards hat.

6.  Kenny G  Breathless  (12 million) - He has sold over 75 million records worldwide.  Wow.

7.  Vanilla Ice  To The Extreme  (11 million) - Maybe he should start a dating reality show and get on Celebrity Apprentice to revive his career like Bret Michaels.  Nahhhh.

8.  Creed  Human Clay  (11 million) - So low on the list?  They passed on their magic formula to Nickelback.

9.  James Blunt  Back To Bedlam  (11 million) - This spot could've went to numerous other artists.  This wasn't a bad album, was it?

10.  Britney Spears  ...Baby One More Time  (30 million) - Either include all her albums on this list or none.  She continues to sell millions.

Valley Lodge Loves All-Male Nude Furniture

NYC power-pop band Valley Lodge released their video for their song All Of My Loving in late 2009.  Yeah, it's been out there for a few months but this video is a must-see - that is if you're into all-nude male furniture (including a toilet...gross).

The video was directed by Dave&Rory.

You can listen to more of Valley Lodge on their MySpace.

HEALTH "We Are Water" Video is Gross Yet Engrossing

I posted about this video a few weeks ago on my Facebook account because this music video is something to talk about.  It is very graphic and short but this video doesn't waste any time capturing the power of the music or your attention.

Eric Wareheim, who was born in Philadelphia, directed the video and he's work includes videos for MGMT, Ben Folds and Depeche Mode.  He even has done work on Adult Swim and marketing videos for Absolut Vodka.  He also appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2009.

Make sure you check out other Wareheim videos here because he is definitely making his mark in the visual world.

This video made me look up the band HEALTH who hail from LA.  You can listen to their other songs on their MySpace.  Videos should captivate you to check out a bands other songs.  Usually, they tend to make you dismiss a band completely even if the band had little or no creative say on the video.

What did you think of Wareheim's video?




HEALTH "We are Water" from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.

Better Late Than Never....

So it's been a few months since I posted but here is the remaining top albums of 2009:

1.  Silversun Pickups  Swoon - By far, the best album of 2009.  The album was nominated for a Grammy in 2010 and has sold close to 250,000 copies.  The album is currently on it's 3rd single called The Royal We (which is my favorite song on the album).  Swoon is a perfect blend between alt rock and indie rock.  If this album didn't follow the Billy Corgan structure of 5-minute plus songs and was a tad bit more radio-friendly, this would've been a platinum album during this new music era.

2.  Paper Route  Absence - If you don't know who this band is, you soon will.  They are anthemic, original and no one really sounds like them.  I expect them to climb the rock charts and capture rock hearts with visual/audio stimulating shows like Muse, Radiohead and U2.  And don't be surprised if they actually get as big as those bands.

3.  Metric  Fantasies - This band has been on my radar since 2005.  This album is easily the darling album of 2009.  It is full of clever yet "bitchy" lyrics.  In the pre-chorus of Satellite Mind, Emily Haynes tells you that she "heard you fuck through the wall" which reminds you of the lyrics on Alanis Morrisette's Jagged Little Pill (isn't it hot when girls talk like that?).  And the music on the album is a perfect blend of guitar rock and electronic rhythm.  I'm not the biggest fan of female-led bands but this album is amazing.

4.  Brand New  Daisy - Holy shit!  Where did this album come from?  Dare I say that I was never a Brand New fan until this album??  Daisy won rave reviews from critics and made it on countless Top Album lists of 2009.  But the fans seem to have thought otherwise.  Usually, I side with the fans but not on this album.  This album rocks and it's a creative gem.

5.  Anberlin  New Surrender - Ok, so this album was released in 2008 but all the singles charted in their highest positions in mid-to-late 2009.  As a matter of fact, their first single Feel Good Drag took 27 weeks (6 months, 3 weeks) to hit #1 on the Alternative Rock charts which was a record at the time.  This album took many weeks for me to warm up to but once it did, it easily was one of my most listened to albums of the year.

6.  Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz! - This is another critically acclaimed album on the list as NME and Spin ranked this album #2 and #3 of 2009.  The album has sold over 200,000 copies.   It's Blitz! takes the YYYs into a more electro outfit but doesn't forget it's punk rock underground roots.  And quit giving Lady Ga Ga all the fashion credit.  Karen O has been doing it for way longer than the Ms. Baby Sounds.  Karen O is the original Lady G.  This album was also nominated for a Grammy in 2010.

7.  Phoenix  Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - This French alt rock band took the U.S. by storm and continues to do so.  This album was nominated and won the Grammy for Best Alternative Album in 2010.  Their song 1901 also broke Anberlin's Feel Good Drag's record for the longest run to the #1 spot on the Alternative Rock chart.  It climbed the charts for 31 weeks (7 months, 3 weeks) to hit #1.  This album is great but one minor flaw is the flow of the album.  The song order ruins the flow.

8.  Back Ted-N-Ted  Hookie "EP" LP - This Phoenix, Arizona, man is a busy man.  He was in Chronic Future, he is apart of Imogen Heap's live band and he has DJ and production credits with Chronic Future, label mates Miniature Tigers and even The Maine.  This album wasn't really on anyone's radar but it's damn good.  Miniature Tigers is getting all the press but don't expect Ryan aka "Ted" to sit idly by.  This album is the sleeper pick of 2009.

There you have it.  Look for a re-focused Bandology with more video and interactive posts.

What did you think of the Top Album list?