Best you've ever had, it's more than I can take

Run run run over to Fizzy Pop, the latest blog from Paul of The Zapping, to read some exciting Simon Curtis news and a truly fantastic interview with Russian singer Sergey Lazarev.

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?)

I'm feelin' that this is my time

I was planning on writing about V today, but looking at the MySpace of one of its former band members has inspired me to do a MySpace check-in. Be prepared for some subpar audio quality, though.

Aaron "formerly of V" Buckingham has a new song up on his MySpace, as well as a blog entry. The new song is "Once In My Life" and, like "In My Head," it's a nice, sort of laid back pop song, although "Once In My Life" is a "moving on" and hopeful song (unlike the worry-filled "In My Head"). He hasn't lost his sense of humor, so his blog entry is worth a read, too. I'm really liking his new music; hopefully we'll hear more from him beyond MySpace in the future.

Simon Curtis has a very different style from Aaron, but his songs are great, too. His style of pop is darker and more electro-influenced. I'm currently loving his Broken (Show Mix) (beware if you're going to listen to it--it's addictive!)--it definitely has that dark electro-pop sound going on, but it has a really catchy melody and strays away from the minimalism so popular in electro now (which can work well, but it's nice to mix it up every now and then). It's going to sound even better in high quality--I cannot wait for the album, though I have no idea when it will be coming out. Check his MySpace regularly, though, because it will definitely be worth buying. (In addition to his MySpace, you can also check out this one for another of Simon's songs.)

I'm not going to post any Heinz Winckler songs, because I finally found a place to order his album (here, if you're interested and don't mind spending far more on it than you probably should) and I'm going to wait until I have them in high quality. However, his MySpace blog has a rather odd message up--maybe this isn't really his official MySpace? But it did have songs from his album up before the album was released and it's got a message from someone who I know really interviewed him... I'll review Moment Of Truth whenever it arrives (which could be in two weeks or three months, who knows).

I just found out about Gavin Mikhail recently, when he was featured on Zappin' It To Ya, but I'm already in love with "Brave" (I was reluctant to post this, because I really think higher quality audio will add a lot to it, but I'm not sure when the album will show up on iTunes). It's gorgeous piano-based pop that is worth checking out.

And, in the ongoing series of periodical Ben Adams updates...Ben has a new picture up on his MySpace (this is it). Thrilling news, yes? Still waiting for any actual news about, say, the album or something. I really am going to get around to posting about Ben soon--I'm thinking next week or early in the week after that; even though he's only ever released one single, it'll probably be a two-day event.

Next up: I really think Josh Hoge will be the next topic. Given my track record with predictions, though, that probably means he won't be.