JIM BASNIGHT Releases Second Single “Leave The Past Behind” From His ‘Early Years’ Digital Album
Jim Basnight is proud to release a second single from his “Early Years” digital album (released September 2022), “Leave the Past Behind” and “We’ll Always Be In Love.”
Both are hook-laced under three-minute boppers with grit, unique hooks and unusual song structure, which should stand out for listeners, stations, shows and podcast who demand no less.
“Leave The Past Behind” is the grittier of the two, with “We’ll Always Be in Love” clean and bright, but both are full of sweet guitar licks, catchy rhythms and vocal harmonies.
Additionally, “We’ll Always Be in Love” features the late Bill Rieflin, of King Crimson, REM and Ministry fame, working his magic on drums.
“Last Night” and “I Return,” the first single from his new album “Early Years,” his 6th album release on the Power Popaholic label (NYC) in the last three years, was a satisfying success:
- It comes off consistent success which his digital singles have enjoyed on the Radio Indie Alliance Top-75, The Underground Garage and many more excellent radio shows, charts and/or podcasts worldwide in the last three years.
- It was played consistently by numerous star DJ’s on the Underground Garage, including the legendary Rodney Bingenheimer, who has now played it for weeks in a row on his legendary Rodney on The Rock show, which traces back over 4 1/2 decades in LA, now syndicated worldwide on Sirius XM.
- It was also chosen as “Song That Should Be Huge” on the Speedie John show and played on “Bill Kelly’s Blackhole Bandstand” show on the Underground Garage.
Regarding the Radio Indie Alliance chart, since May 2020 he’s seen nine of his tracks chart in the top-5 and 19 charting in the Top-75 overall.
“Early Years” consists of his best early music, brought up to today by a wonderful 2022 re-mastering job by Grammy winner Garey Shelton.
The album captures a real rock and roll spirit, which is timeless and veritably fits right in with the best of today’s indie rock and roll and power pop.
Of its 20 tracks, only two songs exceed three minutes, none four minutes or longer and three less than two-minutes long, a purposeful nod to the golden era of AM-Pop.
“Blue Moon Heart” and “Houston Street,” the last single and his 4th single from “Pop Top,” his last album release on Power Popaholic label, wrapped up a string of successes from that album.
Since its July 2022 release, it was very well received, getting played by Genya Ravan on her Goldie’s Garage show on The Underground Garage, among many other notable new rock and roll tastemakers.
But, he’s very excited about this new album release, “Early Years,” as many of these tunes and I go way back and have been go-to live numbers at his shows, which are nearly back to pre-COVID frequency (thankfully) now.
The 3rd single from “Pop Top” (“Stop the Words” and “Evil Touch”) was as surprisingly successful, if not more so, than the album’s first two, two-sided intangible releases.
“Stop the Words” was chosen on April 26th as part of the “Coolest Song in the World” series, by The Underground Garage (Sirius XM and many syndicators).
“Evil Touch,” the flip side, a snarly rocker in the vein of “Opportunity Knocks” and “Hello Mary Jane” from the first two singles from “Pop Top.”
It also did startlingly well with folks who prioritize basic, rootsy rock and roll.
The “Pop Top” album was also all, newly available, intangible material (other than “Restless Night,” my first Big Stir Records single back in 2019 and “Opportunity Knocks,” “Hello Mary Jane” and “Stop The Words,” which were included before Shelton’s brilliant re-master on my 2008 career retrospective “We Rocked and Rolled” on the NYC based Disclosed Records label, for which it was their sole release and a limited edition as well).
“You Know I Know,” “Blow Your Life Away,” “Live in the Sun,” “Last Night” and “Sexteen” from “Early Years,” were included on “We Rocked and Rolled,” but like the selections on “Pop Top” the work that Shelton did to widen the scope of these tracks is stunning.
“Pop Top” is also available for downloads at Power Popaholic’s Bandcamp page here:
The first single from “Pop Top,” “Still a Part of Me” and “Opportunity Knocks,” debuted on the Radio Indie Alliance Top-75 chart on February 7th at the #1 spot.
It stayed in the top-5 for three weeks (five weeks in the chart overall) and got great spins outside of the indie rock radio stations, specialty shows and podcasts which report there.
Those included “Goldies Garage” and “Bill Kelly’s Blackhole Bandstand” on The Underground Garage and many other notables.
The 2nd single, “Hello Mary Jane” and “My Vision of You” debuted on the Radio Indie Alliance Top-75 on April 18th at #46.
It stayed on the chart for four weeks, peaking at #2 for the week of April 25th.
It was played on hundreds of stations, specialty shows and podcasts and got nice traction on The Underground Garage, including Rodney Bingenheimer’s “Rodney on the Rock,” “Bill Kelly’s Blackhole Bandstand” and more.
It may have hung on longer if “Stop the Words,” which debuted on the Radio Indie Alliance Top-75 on May 9th at #11, didn’t start getting widely played.
Most importantly it was given a major push off it being spun heavily on The Underground Garage, one of the top tastemakers in indie rock and roll over the last 20 years.
It moved to the #10 spot in the next week and #15 in the following week and it stayed in the chart until June 13th, when it last sat at #22.
Here is the complete chart history of my music on the Radio Indie Alliance Top-75:
- May 18th, 2020 “Best Lover in the World” #4 (From “Not Changing”)
- May 25th, 2020 “Best Lover in the World”/”Making Love for a Living” #1 (From “Not Changing”)
- June 1st, 2020 “Best Lover in the World”/”Making Love for a Living” #3 (From “Not Changing”)
- June 22nd, 2020 “Code to Live By” #3 (From “Not Changing”)
- June 29th, 2020 “Code to Live By” #1 (From “Not Changing”)
- July 6th, 2020 “Code to Live By” (From “Not Changing”)/”Tonight” #3 (From “Seattle-NY-LA”)
- October 5th, 2020 “Living the Way I Want” #12 (From “Not Changing”)
- November 23rd, 2020 “Rock & Roll Cowboy” #17 (From “Jokers, Idols and Misfits”)
- December 7th, 2020 “Rebel Kind”/”New Guitar in Town” #33 (From “Jokers, Idols and Misfits”)
- April 19th, 2021 “Living the Way I Want” #55 (From “Not Changing”)
- May 10th, 2021 “Rebel Kind” #66 (From “Jokers, Idols and Misfits”)
- September 6th, 2021 “More Than One Way” #24 (From “Makin’ Bacon”)
- September 20th, 2021 “She Gives Me Everything I Want” #49 (From “Jokers, Idols and Misfits”)
- December 20th, 2021 “Genius of Love” #46 (From “Seattle-NY-LA”)
- February 7th, 2022 “Opportunity Knocks”/”Still a Part of Me” #1 (From “Pop Top”)
- February 14th, 2022 “Opportunity Knocks”/”Still a Part of Me” #4 (From “Pop Top”)
- February 21st, 2022 “Opportunity Knocks”/”Still a Part of Me” #3 (From “Pop Top”)
- February 24th, 2022 “Opportunity Knocks”/”Still a Part of Me” #24 (From “Pop Top”)
- March 7th, 2022 “Opportunity Knocks” #57 (From “Pop Top”)
- April 18th, 2022 “Hello Mary Jane” #46 (From “Pop Top”)
- April 25th, 2022 “Hello Mary Jane”/”My Vision of You” #2 (From “Pop Top”)
- May 2nd, 2022 “My Vision of You” #41 (From “Pop Top”)
- May 9th, 2022 “Stop the Words”/”My Vision of You” #11 (From “Pop Top”)
- May 16th, 2022 “Stop the Words” #10 (From “Pop Top”)
- May 30th, 2022 “Stop the Words” #15 (From “Pop Top”)
- June 6th, 2022 “My Vision of You” #22 (From “Pop Top”)
- June 13th, 2022 “Stop the Words” #22 (From “Pop Top”)
- August 1st, 2022 “Blue Moon Heart” #58 (From “Pop Top”)
- August 8th, 2022 “Blue Moon Heart” #63 (From “Pop Top”)
- October 24th, 2022 “Last Night” #5 (From “Early Years”)
- October 31st, 2022 “Last Night” #7 (From “Early Years”)
- November 7th, 2022 “I Return/Last Night” #6 (From “Early Years”)
“Early Years,“ “Pop Top,” “Not Changing” (June 2019 also on CD on his Precedent Records in the USA), “Jokers, Idols and Misfits” (CD on Precedent in November 2020, LP on July 2021 on the Dangerhouse Skylab Label in France), “Seattle-NY-LA” (with the Moberlys April 2021) and “Makin’ Bacon” (with the Rockinghams August 2021) are his six digital album releases on the Power Popaholic label.
He’s been very proud and humbled to have received warm receptions for numerous tracks from various folks who have enjoyed these efforts, including indie radio stations, shows, webzines, blogs and podcasts across the USA and Canada, in the UK and Ireland, around Europe and various outposts around the globe.
Distrokid has placed “Pop Top,” “Makin’ Bacon,” Seattle-NY-LA” and “Not Changing” in nearly every major online download and streaming site, but they’re all available along with “Jokers, Idols and Misfits” through Power Popaholic at Bandcamp to download at the best price.
“Early Years” is available through all of those platforms via Distrokid and it can be obtained for the best price to download at Power Popaholic’s Bandcamp site.
Some top-notch stations, shows and podcasts also played nearly all those tracks, including The Underground Garage.
“Jokers, Idols and Misfits” continues to garner more and more outstanding reviews and continued plays and adds from tracks like “Rebel Kind,” “This Is Where I Belong” (his 2nd Big Stir single), “Prince Jones Davies Suite” (his 3rd Big Stir single), “Rock and Roll Cowboy,” “I Can See For Miles,” “So Much In Love” (Bill Kelly on the Underground Garage and Rodney Bingenheimer both played it) and “New Guitar In Town” (Bingenheimer played it).
The previous physical album release “Not Changing” (CD on Precedent Records Label September 2019) is still getting consistent plays all over the globe as well.
Tunes from “Not Changing,” like “Code To Live By,” “Best Lover In The World” (his 3rd Big Stir single), “Living The Way I Want” (also played by “Speedie John” on the Underground Garage), “Big Bang” (his 2nd Big Stir single), “Never Get Lost” (his first Big Stir single) and “Making Love For A Living,” broke the ice, as he made my first move into the online radio world.
As of late 2021 all 138 of his compositions and co-written songs are administered by Wixen Music in Los Angeles, CA.
He is looking forward to doing dates in Europe and the US, outside of his home base in the Pacific NW.
You can follow where he’s performing at www.jimbasnightmusic.com or via Facebook and Twitter.
