It was just a kiss, but I could see you meant it

Talk about random--does anyone else remember Go:Audio (formerly the Vacancy, who I loved) and "Made Up Stories"? I was blown away by the song when I heard it at the end of 2006, but had kind of given up on it ever getting released and stopped paying attention to the group (it didn't help that though "Made Up Stories" was the best song the group had ever done I generally preferred their Vacancy songs to their Go:Audio songs).

Apparently, though, it's coming out as a single on May 26! That's fantastic--I never thought I'd have a good quality version of this song, which is complete top-class pop-rock. Well, "pop-rock"'s a bit of a deceptive term here--the group's got more of a fondness for synths than that would imply. "Made Up Stories" is what you'd get if you took the best of McFly, Busted, the Click Five, and Veto Silver and tossed it all into a blender to get one energy-packed pop song about realizing you're being cheated on. The synth-siren noises, the "ahh-ahh" backing vocals, the crunchy guitars, hooks everywhere--it's been FAR too long since I've had a brilliant bouncy pop-rock song that makes me want to jump up and down singing along to obsess over, and my revived love of "Made Up Stories" may be just the ticket.

I fear for what they may be styling themselves to look like now, though. And I imagine 95% of people online are going to hate them for seeming too pop-punk or too emo or something. In my eyes, though, "Made Up Stories" is an incredibly exciting pop song that I've been waiting for ages to have a copy of; suffice to say, I'm thrilled by this news.

Edit: oh wait, I guess I could always go look at their official website to see what they look like now. Wait--no way--can this really be the same group? This is what they look like now:



This is what they used to look like:



I have to say, I'd go with quirky and semi-preppy over moody and "we really want to be in Angels & Airwaves" any day (NOTE: this is not me necessary criticizing Angels & Airwaves, but now is not the time for any discussion about them), but if the music's good enough, I'm on board.

On the plus side, their site is actually playing a good audio quality version of "Made Up Stories."

There you were, and the floor was empty

An update on Go:Audio (who, along with the Click Five, seem to have undergone quite the restyling, though not in the same direction): you may remember them from how excited I was about their song "Made Up Stories"? Well, it's still brilliant and the band has been taking new songs on and off their MySpace. To be honest, nothing has reached the giddy highs of "Made Up Stories," so I'm hoping the songs they're letting us listen to aren't definitely on the album, but more works in progress. Don't get me wrong--they're not bad, and I generally like them, but if they want to have a smash debut album, they need more than a killer single. On the plus side, I've now heard seven separate songs by them under the name Go:Audio and eight by them under the name the Vacancy, so even if they never get around to putting out an album (and hopefully that doesn't happen), we've already heard more than an album's worth of material. On the downside, though what's probably their best song, the aforementioned "Made Up Stories," was made under the Go:Audio name, I'd say they had proportionately more hits than misses as the Vacancy than as Go:Audio. Still, I'm excited and hopeful!

(Incidentally, this picture is back from the days of The Vacancy--given the redesigns on their MySpace, I imagine they'll be "redesigned," too.)

It was just a kiss, but I could see you meant it

Why does this get its own post? Well, partly because I didn't want to worry about messing with something that had a YouTube video embedded in it, but mainly because I wanted to draw attention to it.

Sooo...long story short: post on Popjustice by a new band, listened to the song, excellent song, but all I could think of while listening to it was that the singer's voice sounded exactly like someone else's. I mean exactly. And then, about two-thirds in, it hit me: you know who this sounds exactly like? The Vacancy! You remember--I wrote about them awhile ago, posted some songs, and said that I was really disappointed that their MySpace site had disappeared, because they were so good. Well...I'm pretty sure they're back! Listen to this song (up only for a very limited time--it's brilliant, but I'm hoping they'll do well this time around, so I don't want to hurt their chances. It's low audio quality, though, so hopefully that will help) and tell me what you think...isn't the voice a dead ringer? Can anyone tell me? Does go:audio (the name of this band) = the Vacancy? Or maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part. Sigh.

Go:Audio - Made Up Stories (download link removed--visit their MySpace)

and, for comparison purposes:

The Vacancy - Bad Luck Boomerang (link removed)

The Vacancy - Catch Your Tear (link removed)

(Low audio quality for both, sorry!)

At any rate, how genius is that Go:Audio song? Very, very, very genius! I think I have a new song to put on practically constant repeat. If it is the former Vacancy, they're back and improved. Visit their MySpace here, and I really hope we hear more from them.

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?)