Every Sunday, The San Francisco Chronicle has a “Pop Beat” feature in the Datebook (AKA “The Pink Section”), and this week I decided to spend an hour or so looking and listening to a few My Space pages of the bands featured. One was a local band called “You Said Saturday.” They have the distinction of being featured in KFOG’s Local Scene CD 2 (of which, there have been 3), and while I haven’t heard any of those CDs, I thought “What the hell, let’s see what some locals bands are doing since I’m currently making my way through a bunch of CDs from Portland-based bands.”
I listened to the four songs featured on their player, and while most were okay, I thought the standout track was one called “Seaside” which sounds very much like a song U2 could’ve written (and I mean that as a compliment!). As I was being fairly effusive with praise for the song to J, I started to read the band’s bio and ran across this paragraph:
“You Said Saturday features eight songs that will stick with you… Upon release of the EP, world-famous Bay Area radio station KFOG took notice of the album and placed opening track Seaside on their local scene compilation.”
I guess I’ve been working in radio long enough to hear musical elements in a song that people who listen to Adult Contemporary (AC) radio will find pleasing. AC radio is much more diverse than sterile lite rock. Nowadays, there are a number of niche formats that fall under the banner of AC, and you probably have some in your town. Here in the Bay Area, there are a number of stations that position themselves as AC stations. In addition to the stations I work for (KKIQ and KKDV), you’ve got Alice (Hot AC with an alternative rock edge), KFOG(Adult Album Alternative), Star 101.3 (Pop AC), KOIT (Popular, but boring lite rock), Max (AC with a pop/rock vibe on shuffle mode), and KFRC (a kind of 70s/80s oldies AC). I’m probably missing a station here or there, but my point is that in the SF Bay Area, radio is trying grab as much AC market share as they can, so if you’re a local band and want to get some airplay, there’s a kind of music that you’ll have better luck with than a kind of “Hey man, we do our own thing” musical style. You Said Saturday falls into the former category, and who knows, they may get some traction with the song “Seaside” if a major label comes along and signs them.
Listen to “Seaside” by going to the You Said Saturday My Space page. Just click HERE.
–PK
