You were wearin' headphones, dancin' to some song

Whenever summer rolls around, it's time to pull out Josh Hoge's "Work That Body."

02 Work That Body by poppostergirl

Slinky, pervy funk, "Work That Body" makes excellent use of Josh's falsetto while still keeping a nod or two to the grit that his voice usually has. It was one of several fantastic tracks we were treated to in the run-up to Josh's eventually canceled major label debut Call It What You Want back in 2006. Lead single "360" was like an early version of Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around....Comes Around" or a Ne-Yo-penned ballad, made all the better by the slight rasp in Josh's voice, but it unfortunately never took off at the radio. "Take It Or Leave It" is stomping southern-fried pop-rock with a snappy, spitfire chorus. It would go on to make appearances on an EP and the independent album Josh eventually released, but neither version is as good as the one from the Call It What You Want era. Like many of Josh's songs, it was co-written with Ryan Tedder before he was in fashion. "Undone" is another such song, with Josh's original being much better than the version that appeared on the Backstreet Boys album of last year (I love the boys' voices, but they sound surprisingly characterless on "Undone").

I didn't love the album Josh was able to release in 2008 as much as I might have hoped based on that earlier material, but I'm still convinced he's a talent. No song on the album shows that better than my favorite, the semi-ballad "Stay Away." If I'd realized at the time that it was a single, it certainly would have made my "Favorite Singles of 2008" list--the melody is beautiful, taking an unexpected twist here or there while never coming off as try-hard. Josh's voice, as usual, elevates the song, preventing any risk of blandness while still not being left-of-field; he's like an R&B singer trapped in a southern rock singer's voice, a combination which adds up to a great pop voice.

The good news is that Josh is still writing songs. He released a Christmas album last year. His "Know My Name" appeared on Blake Lewis's first album, though I suspect that was a song originally meant for Josh (you can hear his demo on his MySpace; it's always sounded like a song that would match him to a T, and he proves it) and, more recently, several of his songs were recorded by American Idol contestant Anoop Desai. I'm glad of that, but, though I know it will never happen, I wish we'd have the chance to hear that unreleased 2006 album in its entirety. Josh has moved on, as he should, but from the sound of everything we heard (the aforementioned songs and "Damn Thing"), it wouldn't be just "Work That Body" I'd play every summer--it'd be the whole album.

Though Call It What You Want was never released, you can find it on a Biggest Loser soundtrack, available on US iTunes here. You can buy other work by Josh here (physical) and here (digital).

(I need to do a whole post about "Stay Away" at some point. It's excellent.)

Like you do when no one is around

I had full intentions of writing that post about demos today--in fact, the beginning of it is sitting in the drafts right now--but I realized that there are at least a few more tracks from said artist that I need to evaluate before that post; it may need to be reworked or expanded, or turned into a multi-day thing or something. For now, then, I'll just recommend that you go over to Darren Hayes's MySpace and download his cover of Madonna's "Dress You Up" (it's in a post on his blog). He's also posted a demo from the This Delicate Thing We've Made era on his MySpace which you can download as well.

Also, does anyone remember Josh Hoge?


Anyone? Raspy-voiced singer with some fantastic songs behind him, released the single "360" in 2006 but it never took off, I wrote about him multiple times a while back (and he's toured with Elliot Yamin since)...apparently he's actually got an album just out (U.S. iTunes link here)! Shame "Take It Or Leave It"'s been reworked--I would've loved to have a good quality version of the original of that. Apparently rumor has it that one of the songs I posted from his album sampler, "Undone," is going to be redone by the Backstreet Boys. I'll be definitely giving the album a listen and I may write something about it (as of right now, excluding the songs on that original sampler, I'm listening to "Stay Away" and LOVING it--yes, capital letters and italics-level love. Wow, I'm so tempted to start writing about it right now--I should really give it more time, but rest assured you'll be hearing about it again).

Anyway, I've never stopped loving all those sampler tracks from him--"Work That Body" remains fantastically slinky sleazy falsetto-based fun and the pictures I saw of him back then gave off that whole bad boy Southern frat boy vibe, which works pretty perfectly with a song like that.

Next up: those demos really will be tomorrow or the day after that. There's a good chance "Stay Away" will be tomorrow.

Like you do when no one is around

You know how I once pretty much dedicated a whole post to "wow, look how different Simple Plan guy looks!"? Yeah, well, sorry, but here's another installment of the "wow, look at how different [singer] looks!" I know we've covered Ryan Cabrera in brief before, courtesy of his curly long black hair and black hat combo on So You Think You Can Dance. Well, look what Mr. Cabrera apparently looks like now:


(Taken from his MySpace)

I feel like my understanding of the universe is crumbling.

Edit: I typed this up yesterday, and then I actually check his MySpace again today, and it's been totally revamped with clips from his new album, Moon Under Water, due out this April, with the lead single "S'S'Say" out before then (and the verses of it are actually pretty good, though the chorus is totally underwhelming), though he doesn't have a major label deal. This was just meant to be snark, but I guess now it's actual news!

Anyway, I stumbled upon that image while checking up on Josh Hoge, the--oh, how do you even begin to describe Josh Hoge?



"I am a pop singer, but I kinda live like a rock ‘n’ roller. I definitely drink too much, and cuss too much, and chase girls around too much. I think I was like, at Nickelodeon doing an interview one time and they were just kinda like, 'This is never gonna work.'"

Source



Yeah, that probably about sums it up. Anyway, poor Josh had a great single out in 2006 called "360" that no one paid any attention to, and he released a great album sampler to promote it--seriously, not one bad song on it, and "Take It Or Leave It," posted on his MySpace for a while, was great as well. Single failed to take off, studio album thereby failed to materialize, dropped from record label, toured with Elliot Yamin and released a lo-fi ish EP instead. Apparently he's hoping to get an album out sometime in the first half of 2008.

Anyway, if you missed out on my earlier post on Josh (which was pretty near the beginning of this blog, so there's a good chance of that) and haven't heard his material, now's the time to run over to his MySpace because, as long as you've got your own MySpace account, you can download "360" and "Work Your Body" for free, and that's a pretty amazing thing, considering that both songs are fantastic. "360" is this great ballad that I mentioned just recently in reference to Justin's "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around;" both share the "you'll get what's coming to you for what you did to me" message and kind of a similar vibe. I was also really into "360" right around the time I was into Mario Vazquez's Ne-Yo-penned "Gallery," and they'd fit together on a playlist nicely as well, despite opposite lyrical sentiments.

"Work Your Body" is a complete change of pace, though, a pervey funk-filled falsetto-featuring song that deserves much more than being a free download on MySpace and a featured spot on a Biggest Loser soundtrack. Go download it already. Apparently Mark Ronson co-wrote it! And Amy Winehouse! Along with David Ryan Harris. Who knew?

While I'm writing about Josh Hoge, though I've said it before, I might as well throw in again that he co-wrote Blake Lewis's "Know My Name," which was originally intended for Josh, I think. Also, a bunch of Josh's songs (including "Take It Or Leave It") were co-written by Ryan Tedder. Josh also did a song with Cheyenne Kimball called "Wonderful" that was a bonus track on her album, available only at Target.

To finish off the randomness of this post:



Gareth Gates on ice! Love Gareth, but I hope he's doing this just for fun, because even if he wins, I feel like it'll be Matt Willis all over again in terms of helping his music career. I adore him, though, so I wish him loads of success in this and everything. Plus, congratulations--he and his longterm girlfriend just got engaged this New Year's Eve!

There's something about you I wanna get into

I'm not going to even pretend that there's some theme uniting this post--no particular singer, not just MySpace songs, nothing--just random thoughts and pieces of news.

The amazing Ben Adams is going to be giving away one of his songs as a free download, and he's letting fans choose which one. However, we haven't heard either of the songs, "Red Lady" or "I Messed Up," so choosing which to vote for is a little bit of a random guess. Still, definitely head over to his MySpace where you can read a brief description of the songs and vote for which you'd like to be able to download.

Speaking of amazing, Simon Curtis is planning to release his debut album as a digital download. Whenever and however Alter Boy gets released, it will be a must-purchase; I've said somewhere before that "Broken" is one of the best songs I've heard this year, and Alter Boy just might be the most exciting album I've heard this year (that wasn't released earlier). Go to Simon's MySpace or official site to hear some of his songs.

The video for Josh Hoge's debut single "360" premiered today; you can watch it on his official webite. It's nothing surprising--Josh's girlfriend cheats on him, Josh looks forlorn, band plays, Josh sings, Josh meets a new girl, old girl wants Josh back but he's with new girl--but the song holds up just as well as it did when I first heard it months ago; I can definitely picture it getting radioplay, too; I just hope it does.

On the topic of Australian Idol: Dean Geyer is very pretty. He certainly knows his way around a hair straightener (see below video). And he can do backflips (again, see said video). However, Australia, that does not mean he should necessarily win Idol. This message may be a bit late; also, I'm definitely not saying Dean should be the next to go. I can very well envision him releasing some music I would like--his voice is passable and he just needs to be hooked up with some decent songs (like Millsy and "Ms. Vanity")--but I don't know that he deserves to win. I think his career trajectory will be the same whether he wins or not, though.

However, one of his performances has given us what must be one of the greatest quotations to come out of an Idol show (please don't be offended, anyone):

Judge Kyle Sandilands, after Dean's performance of Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name": "That is a sexy song. You haven't had sex; we all know you're the God-loving virgin boy."

Genius, surely?

Anyhow, here's Dean's most recent performance on Idol ("Turn The Beat Around" for Disco Night), so you all have some clue what I'm talking about (and no, that handspring thing at the beginning, though impressive, isn't the backflip I'm talking about); you'll have to go back to the previous episode for that classy quotation, though.



If, for some reason, you'd like an mp3 of the performance, here you go (source, thanks!).

In the midst of all the boyband goodness over at The Zapping lately, there was one group that really surprised me: 365. Proving that I do not automatically like anything that comes wrapped in a boyband package, I had heard their song "That Thing" before and not been impressed. I still can't decide whether or not the original version of "One Touch" (their debut single, out November 6 as a download and November 13 in the physical version) is worthy of excitement (I think it might just barely come down on the right side of "good or not"). However, the Bimbo Jones remix (low audio quality) pushes it into definitely great territory. I'm not expert on remixes, but I always associate Bimbo Jones ones with that sort of steel drum sound. This mix, though, doesn't have that--it's faster and dancey, has electronic beats, but still keeps the original's horns. Go check out their MySpace if you have time.

A band I keep meaning to post about, the Vacancy (who some of you might remember from Popjustice's Singles Club), have taken down all the quirky fun songs from their MySpace and gotten rid of the PureVolume page which had all their older quirky songs. Is this a good sign (they are going to release them?) or a bad sign (they stopped caring? they're going in an entirely new direction?)? I'm not sure, though I really hope it's the former. Visit their MySpace page if you like--the one remaining song, "Catch Your Tear," is quite good, but it doesn't have the fun of their other songs and doesn't really reflect what their usual style is. Instead, you might want to try "Handheld," which you can still get as a free download from Popjustice. Expect a whole post about them at some point. If you like Busted or McFly (or just good music), check them out; they're definitely quite good.

And, finally, it's rather pointless, but I have to mention Anthony Callea again: his new single, "Live For Love," may hit radios this coming Monday. Of course, without listening to Australian radio 24/7, I probably won't end up hearing it until it ends up coming out November 4. Tomorrow (really, today for Australians) he's doing a photoshoot, which means the first official pictures of the new haircut will be appearing...the world (or just me) waits with breathless anticipation.

Next up: probably not Alistair Griffin, but he'll be in the next few days (I'm trying to decide whether or not it would be better to do two days about him; I guess I have more songs by him than I thought). Maybe the Vacancy, then?

(At this point, I haven't seen all of the Australian Idol contestants perform...out of the ones left, it is possible Dean is the best option--anyone have any vote one way or the other?)