CANADIAN IDOL: WORST SEASON EVER:









I know the saying: If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all. But I just have to say that the Top 10 on this season's Canadian Idol seem to me to be the weakest crop of talent I've ever seen on the show. Theo Tams does appear to be talented and should probably win, and Drew Wright was okay at first but he know comes across as a bit full of himself. Earl Stevenson can be entertaining at times, but the rest are pretty boring no matter how hard the judges try to tell the viewers how great they are.

Season two was the best season of Canadian Idol so far with Jacob Hoggard, Kalan Porter and Theresa Sokyrka.
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NAKED EYES & TAHITI 80 NEWS:





















Naked Eyes are about to start the Regeneration Tour across the U.S. with ABC, The Human League and A Flock Of Seagulls among the bands. Pete will be selling a new three song EP on the tour called "Movies I Dream" - track listing is: Movies I Dream, (What) In The Name Of Love 2008 and Voices In My Head 2008. 'Movies I Dream' is a song written by Rob Fisher and Pete Byrne but never recorded until now, can't wait to hear it. The new electronic Naked Eyes cd titled 'Piccadilly' is now scheduled for a Spring 2009 release.




Tahiti 80 have a new album titled "Activity Centre" due out on September 22nd, 2008. Check out their MySpace site to hear their new single called "All Around". Click here to download the Yuksek Remix of the single.

VARIOUS BITS AND PIECES:

Darren Hayes is about to release his new live concert DVD 'The Time Machine Tour" next week, and Amazon has it right now with a pre-order price of $10.99 so if you were thinking of purchasing the DVD order now while that price is still valid. It sounds like it was an amazing concert so I look forward to checking it out (since he didn't bring this show to North America). He is selling an expensive limited edition version of the DVD at his website if you feel like spending a lot more of your hard earned cash. I reviewed his Toronto gig back in June of 2007 here.



Fave Jonatha Brooke is set to release her new cd "The Works" on August 26th, 2008 and you can pre-order it at her website now. This is Jonatha's new album using Woody Guthrie's unpublished lyrics from his archives.
Jonatha also has some new concert dates coming up this October, November & December, some are a double bill with Glen Phillips formerly of Toad The Wet Sprocket fame who does a duet with her on the new album.

Jonatha has also been working on writing new songs with Nolwenn Leroy, the French winner of "Star Academie" with Rupert Hine producing (who's Tamboo website seems to be no longer), looking forward to hearing the results of those collaborations.












Track listing for "The Works":
1. My Sweet and Bitter Bowl
2. You'd Oughta Be Satisfied Now
3. All You Gotta Do Is Touch Me (with Keb Mo')
4. My Flowers Grow Green
5. Madonna On The Curb
6. There's More True Lovers Than One (with Eric Bazilian)
7. Sweetest Angel (with Glen Phillips)
8. My Battle
9. Little Bird (lyric by Jonatha Brooke)
10. Taste of Danger (lyric by Jonatha Brooke)
11. New Star (with Derek Trucks)
12. King of My Heart

Imogen Heap has a new video blog up on You Tube (#26), she mentions the song titles she's already planning to put on her follow up to "Speak For Yourself". She also plays a snippet of the song "First Train Home" and talks about changing it because as many people pointed out to her the chorus was very like the Donna Lewis song "I Love You Always Forever". If her webmaster could only get around to changing the audio player from saying "forthcoming album" when it plays tracks from SFY, the album has been out for over three years now.

One half of Tears For Fears, Curt Smith has recently released his latest solo offering titled "Halfway Pleased", ordering information at his website.

Rumour is that Green Gartside is currently working on a follow up to his Scritti Politti cd "White Bread Black Beer", no word if this involves former bandmates David Gamson and Fred Maher

Canadian 80's new wave rocker's Blue Peter are scheduled to play at The Blue Olive in Saint John New Brunswick at the "Pop Goes The City" festival on August 23 or 24, check their website for confirmation of the dates.

The new Antigone single "More Man Than Man" (produced by Justin Shave who produced Darren Hayes last cd) is a decent pop/dance song, not sure if it is worthy of all the blog hype it has been getting but enjoyable none the less.

Nick over at #1 Hits From Another Planet has a post with an interesting electro-pop song called "By The Way" by a Swedish band called "Kitty & The K" definitely worth downloading.
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VARIOUS BITS AND PIECES:













The Thompson Twins album 'Here's To Future Days' is getting the expanded 2 cd release treatment from Demon Music Group's Edsel label , due out in the U.K. on August 4th, 2008. From their website:

"Following the massive success of Edsel’s Deluxe 2CD Editions of “Quick Step & Side Kick” and “Into The Gap”, we now present the Deluxe 2CD Edition of the Thompson Twins’ 1985 chart-topping album “Here’s To Future Days”. This 2 CD release presents all the remixes from the bonus EP / cassette edition as well as the extended 12” mixes and the non-album b-sides, the majority of which appear on CD for the first time, and all mastered from the original mastertapes. All this adds up to 154 minutes of “Here’s To Future Days”! The attractive poster booklet features comprehensive annotation and all the 7” and 12” sleeves."

CD 1 Track Listing:

1                 Don't Mess With Doctor Dream
2                 Lay Your Hands On Me
3                 Future Days
4                 Roll Over
5                 Revolution
6                 King For A Day
7                 Love Is The Law
8                 Emperor's Clothes
9                 Tokyo
10               You Killed The Clown
11               Breakaway
12               Roll Over (Bonus Track)
The Cassette/EP Mixes

13               Shoot Out (Don't Mess With Doctor Dream)
14               Alice (Lay Your Hands On Me)
15               Heavens Above! (Future Days)
16               The Kiss (Tokyo)
17               Desert Dancers (Breakaway)

CD 2 Track Listing

1                 Lay You Hands On Me (Original Remix)
2                 The Lewis Carol (Adventures In Wonderland)
3                 Lay Your Hands On Me (US Remix)
4                 Lay Your Hands On Me (Extended Version)
5                 Roll Over Again
6                 Fools In Paradise
7                 Don't Mess With Doctor Dream (Smackattack!)
8                 Very Big Business (12")
9                 King For A Day (Extended Mix)
10               Rollunder
11               King For A Day (US Remix)
12               The Fourth Sunday
13               Revolution (12" Remix)


Came across a couple of Howard Jones related songs, first up from a recent 80's covers cd release is the band Saint Bernadette doing a song called "Owner Things" which melds "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" by Yes with Howard's "Things Can Only Get Better", MP3 available here.

Also a mashup of Howard's "Things Can Only Get Better" and Lily Allen's "Smile" available at this website for download.
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